UNDER 16 HURLING

 

What a bunch of hurlers??????? Under 16 Hurlers after their win against Shamrocks up in Newry in April

O Rahilly's amalgamation just too strong for the Point

On Sunday 9th March Warrenpoint U16 hurlers hosted O’Rahilly’s in the 1st league fixture of 2008 for either team. On a typically unpredictable March day the full force of Irish weather was on offer for both teams to endure given that the game started with clear blue skies and yet ended with hailstones. Bitterly cold throughout both team adapted well to the weather and served up an exciting match for those that braved the weather to come out to support their respective sides.
It was the O’Rahilly fans who would have been pleased with their teams start as they raced into a 0.4 – 0.0 lead inside the opening 15 minutes. At this stage O’Rahilly’s were showing too much midfield dominance for the home managements liking so switches were made that brought J Grey out to centre field and M Caldwell into half forward, a move that brought both players more into the game, with each registering a goal from their ‘new’ positions. This along with an increase of work rate from our half back line, led by captain Daniel Taylor and the Murphy brothers, saw Warrenpoint fight their way back into the game to bring the scores level. The 1st half continued virtually score for score with O’Rahilly’s leading by the minimum at the break.

The second saw Warrenpoint up the pace at midfield with James Delahunt putting in a great performance against an accomplished midfield pairing for O’Rahilly’s, this laid the platform for Warrenpoint to enjoy more possession than we did in the 1st half. But anytime O’Rahilly’s ventured forward a score seemed to be the end result. Warrenpoint were never far away though with scores form Grey, Caldwell and Taylor piling the pressure on O’Rahilly’s. Entering the final 15 mins the game was finely poised with 1 point in it to the visitors, the introduction of Conway and the sudden emergence of Grant seemed to turn the game in our favor but O’Rahilly’s held strong to run out victors by the minimum margin of 1 point.

The game was played out at a frantic pace with both sides having periods of dominance; the difference being that O’Rahilly’s made their dominance count on the score board when they were on top. In fact if it wasn’t for some good defending by D O’Neill and B Baxter in our full back line then the visitors would surely have landed more than the 2.8 they finished with.

Despite the defeat Warrenpoint left the field in a positive mood as the players understand that    O’Rahilly’s were strong opponents for us to face in our 1st league match. Given the performances mentioned above coupled with the promise shown by our other players during the match we know that a successful campaign may be had by the team if the players want it enough to put the effort into training and build on an encouraging display. The management were particularly pleased with the attitude in the team as we continually fought our way back into the game and refused to let Liatroim pull away form us.

Team V O’Rahilly’s

Daryll Freer
Jo Devlin
Brian Og Murphy
James Delahunt    
Malachy Caldwell (1.0)
Thomas O’Hare     
Jason Grey (1.1)  
Dec O’Neill
Michael Rodgers
Conleath Conway
Brendan Baxter
Blain Murphy
Dan Taylor (0.5)
Colin O’Hare
Gary McShane      
Jamie Grant                   
Padraig Magill