Club Notes: 5th November 2019

History has a habit of repeating itself, and with 66 years of history behind them, when you look up the records of games played, you will always find coincidences and Shamrocks are intrinsically linked. 35 years ago almost to the day, Shamrocks reached the Junior Football county final, their opponents were Ballyduff Lower, and the Eastern men held out for a one point win. Last Saturday our journey also came to an end, again losing to Ballyduff, in Fraher Field on a miserable night that made flowing football difficult. Illness once again robbed us of Padraig Roche from the starting lineout, his place taken once again by his brother Tom. Ballyduff opened the scoring, equalised by Joe Leahy, they struck again, up stepped Billy Hynes with a free to level again, and a free saw the Easterners go in front again. Then came Shamrocks’ best period of the game where we scored four points on the trot from Billy, Edward Lonergan with two from play sandwiching one from Chris Murphy to take a 3 point lead 6-3. Ballyduff pulled another back before Adam Crawford, who had a fine game, closed the scoring with a nice point to leave the half time score 0-7 to 0-4. With the benefit of hindsight, we probably should have been a couple more ahead, given the possesion we had, but Shamrocks supporters would have been reasonably happy at the break, though we would be facing the breeze in the second half. Whatever Ballyduff had in their tea at half time obviously worked, because they blitzed us for 1-4 to no reply after barely ten minutes of the second half to turn a three point deficit into a four point lead. With the conditions steadily getting worse, this was always going to be a very difficult task, and I do think that finally our missing first choice players took it’s toll on our brave squad. To their credit, Shamrocks clawed it back to two points with scores from brothers Billy and Edward Hynes and Shane Roche, but Ballyduff were able to close out the game for a deserved win. To win the West and get to the final was a tremendous achievement given how we had to plan without Colm Roche, Bernie Kelleher, Cathal Herlihy, Padraig Roche, and Stevie Lucey who had departed to Australia, but it’s a tough ask for any club to lose that many first choice players. Great credit must go to Declan Butler, Dan Casey, Seamus Tobin, and coach Noel Crowley who did everything in their power to bring badly needed success to the club. However, we congratulate Ballyduff on their win, they were sporting in game and afterwards, and were deserving winners. Our Day Will Come…Panel; Richie Murphy, Tom Roche, Tommy O’ Donovan, Brian Harnedy, Jason Ahearne, Shane Roche (0-1), Adam Crawford (0-1), Joe Leahy (0-1), John Paul Lucey, Chris Murphy (0-1), Billy Hynes (0-3), Edward Lonergan (0-2), Edward Hynes (0-1), Padraig Ahearne, Kieran Crawford, Liam Motherway, Ivan O’ Neill, Tim Lenehan, Alan Kelly, Shane Harnedy, Ciaran O’ Keeffe, Sean Murphy, Liam Dalton, Michael Lucey, John O’ Donovan, Padraig Tobin, Tom Goulding, Martin Delaney, Cathal Herlihy, Bernie Kelleher, Com Roche, Stevie Lucey, Padraig Roche.

 

To round off a bad weekend for the clubs, our sister club lost their minor county final on Sunday morning, again to Ballyduff (Upper this time!) by a bare two points following a fantastic comeback having been three goals down at half time. There was high drama in Lismore as this great bunch of girls just wouldn’t give up and slowly but surely worked their way into the game, and I’ve no doubt that had the game gone on any longer, they would have caught up to their opponents. But, by golly, it was a brave attempt. Considering quite a lot of this team have two more years at this age, they can be mighty proud. Well done also to mentors Brendan Ormonde, Paddy Smith, Ciaran O’ Keeffe, and Declan Butler (a very busy man) for their efforts. This club is going from strength to strength, and it’s brilliant to see. 

 

Congratulations to Ballysaggart and Ballygunner who won their respective Munster ties last Sunday against Causeway and Sixmilebridge. They are doing their county proud, and we wish them both well in their semi-finals next Sunday, ‘Saggart in Fraher Field versus Sean Treaceys of Tipp,  and the Gunners in Walsh Park against Patrickswell.