Weekly News April 21st 2013

Post date: Apr 21, 2013 9:35:12 PM

U12 Football Update

The sun shone brightly last Friday night for the U12 footballers and for once the gods looked favourably on us as well, with two wins on the night! First of all, the Blue team travelled to face a Templederry side with some very fine players who used the ball well. Ballina were competitive but Templederry, who were wind-assisted, were scoring points with ease. We had conceded 5 points before a speculative shot from captain Sam Loughran beat the Templederry keeper. The tireless efforts of Daniel O'Meara and the leadership of David Grace were bearing fruit if not scores as the hosts tacked on yet another point. Kian Donnelly was a tower of strength in goals and was not fazed by the relentless attacks. Just before half-time, a rare Ballina attack saw the ball rebound to Sam Loughran who despatched the ball to the corner of the net. Incredibly, at the half-time whistle the scores were level which did scant justice to the hosts dominant play. The second half was dominated by Ballina and Conor Rowley who had moved to the inside forward line together with the powerful Ivor Larkin, proceeded to make and convert chances from play, with both boys finding the Templederry net. The final scre which flattered Ballina a little was 5-02 to 0-08. Jack McEvoy played his part too and Michael McMahon played a clever game at corner back. Evan Coleman, Cian Commins and Patrick McCormack worked incredibly hard all night and subs Louis Storan and Conor Meagher both had an impact on the game when they came in. Well done to all members of the squad !

The Red team travelled to Silvermines determined to get their 1st win of the season. Silvermines started off well by winning a lot of ball in the midfield area, they managed to work the ball in towards the visitors goal a number of times but the Ballina defence led by tireless Josh Egan and Tadhg Maguire were not going to let them get anything easy on the night. Goalkeeper, Neil Webster started working the ball out to the very hard working half back pairing of Leon Kerin and Cian Neil who managed to bring the Ballina midfield and forwards into play. Eventually Joseph McEvoy got to grips in Midfield and he and the hard working Matthew Power got a lot of ball into the attack. Corey Ryan - playing for the very first time in the forwards showed that he was well able to win the high ball and troubled the mines defence all night. Cameron McCauley showed great skill midway through the first half to find the net. A few mins later Corey Ryan rounded his man and blasted a goal just before halftime to leave Ballina up 2:2 to 0:2 at halftime. It was in the second half however that Ballina really got going. Sub Goalkeeper Luke kennedy was very intelligent with his kickouts and made sure he found his man. The entire team showed great skill during this half with some skillfull passing and teamwork to work the ball out of defence all the way up to the forwards. Conor Power tied in with Ben Wallace and Mathew Power to score a brilliant point and then followed it up with the 3rd Ballina Goal on the night. Robbie Breen showed his great leadership qualities covering every blade of grass to drive on his team. However, The Mines were determined not to let the game slip away and fought back hard finding the net twice in the second half before Ballina sealed Victory with a 2nd well taken goal by Corey Ryan. This team deserve great credit as each and every player worked extremely hard all game, especially pleasing was the level of skill and teamwork that they showed. Well done to all!!

U12 Camogie

The u12 girls had two camogie matches on Saturday. The first match was in Newport against Newport. The team put in a huge effort to challenge what was a very strong home team. The girls fought for every ball and eventually won out in the end. Team work was again the winner on the day. The line up was as follows: In goals was Leah O Brien who showed true determination and grit all during the match. The backs of Aoife Graham, Aoibheann Ward, Lucy McEvoy were supreme throughout the match. They worked hard to clear their lines all day. Mid field pairing of Katie Dunne and Eimear O’Brien tackled with perseverance. Eimear was masterful at free taking - which saw the score line improve by four points. Our forwards of Hannah Finnerty, Aisling O Meara, Maeve Gilmartin and Isabel Farnan created great goal chances which proved to be very fruitful with Meave, Hannah and Isabel all scoring from play. Hazel McMahon stepped up to take a 21 metre free which hit the crossbar and with quick reflexes she swung hard and it ended up in the back of the net. Leah Hunt created many chances when she came on for Meave in the second half.

The second match was in Moneygall today. The home side was very strong but the girls were determined and stay on task all during the match. The team line up was as follows: the forwards of Amy McKeogh, Noreen Kennedy, Roisin Houlihan and Sarah Gilmore fought hard but the elusive scores evaded them today. In midfield we had Emily Clarke and Leah O Donovan who dug deep and tried hard to move the ball up for the forwards to take possession, while all the time helping out in the backs. The backs comprised of Grannie O Brien, Hannah Keating, Jessica McCarthy-Gilligan and Sarah Mckeogh. These girls were the essence of what good backs should do. They fought tirelessly to clear the ball from the danger area many times. The goalie on this team was Siobhan Prentice and there was no doubt on the day of her commitment in not letting any balls pass over the line, the opposition only got one goal and they were lucky to get that. We had fantastic subs on the day - Emma Duggan, Kate Clarke, Michelle Sage, Becky Sage and Caitlin McEvoy. They contributed to the whole team performance from the moment they stepped onto the field.

The coaches would like to thank all the parents for their support and congratulate both teams for what was a very good days display of camogie.