Glenville unlucky to lose Minor Final

Our U18C3 team travelled to Macroom on Sunday evening to play a league final vs. the host team in the Castle Grounds.  After having suffered a comprehensive defeat to the same opposition less than two months ago it was always going to be a difficult task, but the boys in black and amber were confident in themselves.  We were quick out of the blocks when regular corner back Zach, operating at wing forward, kicked a fine point from the left to open the scoring.  It was pretty tight for the first fifteen minutes before we conceded an unfortunate goal when a ball in behind the defence was touched to the net by the Macroom full-forward.  We came back into it with a nicely taken goal from Jayden but a few poor decisions and turnovers left us seven points by half time on a scoreline of 2-7 to 1-4.  On the resumption Macroom turned the screw, stretching into a nine point lead at one point but the boys reacted brilliantly, a goal from Dave bringing it back to six, and then a point from Mike bringing it to five before Macroom again opened the lead to nine points after a defensive mix-up led to an unfortunate goal.  The lads showed tremendous heart to keep going, dominating the last ten minutes of the game where two shots on goal were blocked off the line, and a late shot from Louie was unfortunate to creep over rather than under the bar.  We finished on the wrong side of a four-point defeat, 3-10 to 2-9, and really felt like it was a game we could have won.  The lads put in a tremendous performance from number 1 to 15 and all of the six subs came on to contribute, you couldn’t fault anyone’s effort.  We had travelled to Cullen, Clonakilty and Macroom (twice) to get to this final and it was disappointing to lose on the night, but there were plenty lessons learned along the way which will stand this group of young men in good stead in the future.

Team and scorers: H.Wain; C.Buckley, S.Callinan, R.Horgan; C.McHugh, S.O’Leary, M.O’Riordan (0-2); E.Forde, S.Curtin (0-3); A.Casey, D.Barry (1-1), J.Hennebry (1-0); Z.Curtin (0-1), A.Hennessy, E.Hartnett; L.Guichard (0-1), F.Duffy, J.Long, D.McCarthy, D.O’Connor, J.Counihan (0-1).

Grange win the Frank Halbert Tournament

Grange 0-9

Glenville 0-7

In a hotly contested final of the Frank Halbert Tournament, Grange emerged victorious with a two point margin on a scoreline of 0-9 to 0-7.

Both teams attacked and defended with vigour from the throw-in and the game was an end to end game with attack and counter attack. The half-time whistle saw Glenville ahead by the minimum on a scoreline of 0-4 to 0-3.

The second half was again an intensely competitive affair with both sides trying to assert their superiority with resultant rebuffs. It remained a tit for tat game throughout played with intensity. Grange got ahead in the final eight minutes and the remaining of the time will be remembered for the passion and intensity shown by both teams. Despite Glenville’s best effort, Grange held out for the win and the Frank Halbert Cup found a new home in Grange for the coming year.

John Halbert, son of the legendary Frank Halbert, congratulated all teams that took part, remarked on the competitive spirit shown by both teams on the evening but on the great spirit in which the final was played. He said that in the past, there were many tournaments and cups played for at festivals and these types of competitions had gone by the wayside, but it was great to see the interest in the Frank Halbert Cup which brought people together to play football in a competitive but not too serious way. He complimented Glenville for their performance and congratulated Grange on their win, recalling some great challenges between Glenville and Grange over the years.

Squad: Stephen Ryan, Will Sheedy, Pearse Moloney, Noel Cahill, Denis Buttimer, Donnacha Forde, Conor O’Mahony, Ciaran Linehan, Darragh O’Bric, Fionn Fitzgerald, Conor Gowen, Eddie Delahunt, Colin O’Keeffe, Aaron Collins, Callum O’Mahony, Andrew Desmond, Michael Murphy, Shane Clarke, Tom Dinan, Eoin Fitzgerald, Paddy O’Sullivan, John O’Connor, Shane Forde, Kieran Coakley, JJ Kearney, Alan Busteed, Cian O’Callaghan,