Glenville Notes (11th Feb)

• Feb 11,2025

U21s win opening Championship game

Glenville U21s made the journey to Aghada to play their opening game of the U2 East Cork Championship. This was a particularly difficult opening draw for Glenville given Aghada were the reigning East Cork U21 Champions and with both teams acutely aware that only a win would extend their U21 Championship beyond the second week of the year.

The memory of losing the 2024 East Cork U21 Championship Final to Aghada by two points very late in the game late August and adding the mix of the new football rules was always going to add spice to this fixture.

Aghada played the first half with the benefit of a strong wind and the game opened with a point from outside the arc giving them a two-point advantage in the first minute.  Glenville settled quickly into a very strong defence mode rebuffing many attacks by Aghada and using the turnovers to launch counter attacks. Glenville were rewarded with a great Billy Ryan point on the seventh minute, followed up with a free by Ciaran O’Leary to level the game on the ninth minute. Aghada restored their lead by a point from a free on the 12thminute, before Ciaran Linehan and Ciaran O’Leary put Glenville back in the lead by the minimum in the next seven minute.  Aghada again levelled the game on the 26th minute with a free before Glenville finished the first half strongly with two points from play from Liam Foley and Joe O’Riordan, to see Glenville lead at half time on a scoreline of 0-6 to 0-4.

Aghada opened the second half with increased intensity and were rewarded with a point from a free on the 32nd minute, before Eanna Fitzgerald restored the two-point advantage for Glenville on the 34th minute. A key moment in the game was the issuing of a Black Card to an Aghada player on the 36th minute, reducing Aghada to 14 men for 10 minutes. Things got worse for Aghada when one of their men got a straight red on the 45th minute. The extra man advantage, coupled with extremely strong defensive work by Glenville meant that Aghada didn’t score in the fourth quarter, while Glenville added to their scores with Liam Foley scoring the first two-point free outside the arc for any Glenville team, followed up with a second Eanna Fitzgerald point. 

The Glenville defence can be credited with winning the game for their team, through watertight defence, strong discipline and minimising the number of scorable frees conceded, while successfully turning over their opponents and launch effective counterattacks.

The win means Glenville advance to the quarter final of the East Cork U21 Championship where they will meet Castlemartyr this Sunday in Castlemartyr at 2.00 pm.

Glenville: Cathal Sheehan, Conor O’Mahony, Donal Sheehan, Sean O’Leary, Conor McHugh, Colm O’Regan, Donnacha Forde, Billy Ryan (0-1), Ciaran Linehan (0-1), Joe O’Riordan (0-1), Eanna Fitzgerald (0-2), Darragh Ó Bric, Callum O’Mahony,  Ciaran O’Leary (0-3), Liam Foley (0-3), Ross Hennessy, David Barry, Ciaran O’Riordan, Mike O’Riordan, Darragh O’Neill, Jayden Hennebry, Rio Horgan. Fionn Fitzgerald, Adam Hennessy.

Management: Pat McHugh, Dave Cooke, Joe Carver, Paddy O’Sullivan, Dermot O’Mahony and Dan Linehan.