A bitterly cold and wet Sunday morning made it ideal conditions for indoor hurling and for the 4^th year in a row Raheny were represented strongly with three excellent under 7 teams.   In the first game Raheny A peppered the St Maurs goal with attempt after attempt before finally going 1 – 0 up after about 10 minutes.  Raheny dominance continued but against the run of play (honestly) St Maurs two attacks bore fruit and they nicked the game 2-1.  In the second game Raheny B were neck and neck with an excellent Ratoath side who deserved their 3-1 win.  Last game Raheny C versus a  fancied Kiltale team.  This time there was no stopping the Raheny boys with goals popping in from all angles, winning  5 – 0 .   Fantastic displays and goals from John Broderick, Cormac and Johnny Baldwin, James Pitts, Ben McCarthy, Conor Watters, Dan O Grady, Mathew Grant, Finn Brazil, Liam Savage Ultan Fitzpatrick, Sean Quinn Liam Ormsby and Ryan Kent.

Last Wednesday (27th June) the Raheny minor hurlers travelled out to Tymon North and played a great game to overcome St. Judes. Numbers were low and thanks to the U15s and U16s we were lucky to field fifteen. In the first half we had an injury which meant we were down to fourteen with no substitutes available.  We started the second half one point down, battled hard and won by nine points. The minor hurlers are a great bunch of lads with huge potential. Unfortunately we were unable to field a full team for the Craobh Chiarain game on Monday 2nd July and had to give the walkover. Our next and last match of the league is at home on Sunday 15th July at 11.00am. The ten lads will have returned from their collective holidays and we will aim to finish our league campaign with a win. We are currently in joint third position along with Kevins, Lucan Sarsfields and St. Maurs, Craobh Chiarain in second and an unbeaten Setanta side in poll position. 

Raheny played the league leaders today, Setanta. Pitch one was soft and Setanta  arrived unassuming. Our lads were ready and started well going four points ahead early in the first half. A superb goal spurred Setanta into action and following skillful hurling they ended the half three points ahead. Raheny started the second half with vigour and a goal scored from the ground by Shane Bell, Raheny were back in the game. 

Raheny 1.10 Naomh Fionnbarra 0.6

With the ground conditions very heavy underfoot on Pitch 9 Raheny Senior Hurlers opened their  2012 AHL 2 League campaign against  last year’s Senior B championship winners Naomh Fionnbarra.

With newly appointed team captain Dave Heffernan winning the toss and deciding to play into the soccer pitch end- Raheny went to an early lead from Greg Bennett free from approximately 50m out which was followed up moments later with a beautifully struck point from Luke Dillon out on the wing.

Naomh Fionnbarra came back with a free from their danger man Inter County Senior Player Eamon “Trollier” Dillon. Trollier was finding it difficult to get into the game because of the close marking of Senior debutant Eamon Fitzgerald who continued to be a thorn in his side for the whole game and was tremendous throughout , keeping him scoreless from play over the entire hour

Raheny were feeding quick ball into the full forward line and were rewarded with a great goal from Sean Dempsey who broke through a number of robust tackles and with a powerful shot struck the sliothar into the top right hand corner of the net.

Both teams then exchanged scores -  Dillon  of  Naomh Fionnbarra scoring 3 more hard won frees which Raheny replied  with 2 great scores from play – Conor Henry from a near impossible angle and a sweetly struck point from Eoghan Smyth – our County Minor panellist –who was also making his Senior debut .

A notable element of the game at this stage was the great defensive play from the entire Raheny defence with exceptional leadership being shown by Derek Browne and Conor  Gillen – with their tackling of the top order plus the great support play  and distribution from both midfielders Greg Bennett and Ger Coady.

Half Time Score

Raheny 1.4 Naomh Fionnbarra 0.5

The 2^nd Half began with some great team play from the entire Raheny team increasing the pressure on the Naomh Fionnbarra defence. This pressure resulting in them spilling over the ball and after some great passing movements  involving Paddy O Gara ,  Eoghan Smyth, Luke Dillon  all of the moves ended  up with Dave Henry  taking 3 beautiful points.

Naomh Fionnbarra tried in vain to break down the Raheny rearguard but with some fine corner back play from both Richard Judge and Kevin O Gara they just could not do so.

Raheny kept the momentum going and with some intelligent and accurate puck outs from Paddy Bradshaw in the Raheny goal into the midfield and half forward areas resulted in Naomh Fionnbarra defence conceding frees which were duly converted by Greg Bennett.

25 Minutes into the 2^nd half Naomh Fionnbarra got their first score of the 2^nd half converting a 65 but Raheny replied with another fine point form Conor Henry.

Raheny introduced 3 subs in the last 15 minutes of the game Eoin Gillen , Richie Peavoy and Michael Grenham and with their fresh legs and very skilful play continued the great  work rate shown by the team throughout the game and  inspired their team mates in preventing  Naomh Fionnbarra from scoring again.

 

Final Score Raheny 1.10 Naomh Fionnbarra 0.6

With a number of players injured or sick on the day  Ed Mullane, Ger Sheehy, Sean Collins, Simon Deignan and Eoin Keogh unavailable due to his inter county under 21 football commitments there will be great competition for places on the team for future games and hopefully this display will be a good starting point but will only be  a starting point  for a successful 2012.

The team got off to a great – no doubt to the very well organised and dynamic warm up organised by John Coughlan , Ger Sheehy and  new (very welcome)member to the management team Eamon Bryce.

The team would also like to thank the preparation of the pitch by Pearse Donegan, Gene Henry and Andrew Dowling- many hands make light work.

It was great to see such a large contingent of  Raheny supporters on the line shouting on the team – your support was very much appreciated 

The next competitive game is away in 3 weeks against Clann na Gael in Round 2 of the league

Pitch 10 hosted the AHL5's opening league game of the season v Scoil Ui Chonaill. Both teams provided a big crowd of spectators with a very exciting and high scoring game considering the heavy conditions underfoot, Scoil started the better going ahead by 3 points in the early stages but Raheny answered well with 2 points from collie donegan, the 1st half saw both teams exchanging pionts ontill the last 5 minutes of the half when Scoil registered 2 goals giving them a 7 point lead at the break. The second half started as the 1st with Scoil raising the 1st White flag but it was Raheny that dominated from there on with dogged determination and some excellent defending and some fine scores. A goal from S.Carr mid way through the half gave Raheny a huge lift and a 2nd from G.Manley near the end put 2 points between the sides but the goal proved to be the last score and Scoil claimed the win.