On Tuesday last in Tullaroan, GBC Under 16s played St. Lachtain’s in the first round of the championship. GBC were very impressive in the first half, first to the ball and moving it cleverly all over the pitch. Jamie Lawlor was on fire at full forward, scoring 2-3 in thirty minutes. Aaron Brennan bagged another two goals, while Killian Egan and Dylan Lanigan added a point each.
Sean Ryan scored two trademark points, before Tommy Ronan broke through from wing back and cooly pointed. The GBC defence was solid throughout this first half, conceding a miserly two points. They hurled as a unit with no nonsense combination play and intelligent delivery to the forwards. The half time score read GBC 4-8 to St Lachtain’s 0-2.
St. Lachtains were slow to emerge from the dressing room after the half time break, but when they did they looked a more determined outfit. The GBC boys appeared to completely loose their way in the second half and St. Lachtain’s were allowed to dominate the half and walk in three easy goals. Graigue could only manage a goal from Sean Ryan and a long range point from Jesse Roberts in the entire half. The match finished GBC 5-9, St Lachtain’s 3-6 and GBC were lucky to progress to the second round.
The first half performance was indicative of what this team is capable of when they put their minds to it, but the second half collapse was shocking and could have cost them the game. Hopefully the team will take a valuable lesson from this game, namely that a high intensity and work rate must be maintained for a full sixty minutes, anything less is risky business and won’t be good enough to achieve the end result, that they are certainly capable of.
GBC: Bill Cuddihy, Tom Dunphy, Evan Walsh, Ger Doheny, Jesse Roberts (0-1), Conor Flynn, Tommy Ronan (0-1), Killian Egan (0-1), David Maher, Sean Ryan (1-2), Dylan Lanigan (0-1), Ciaran Hogan, Jamie Lawlor (2-3), Aaron Brennan (2-0), James Everard.
Subs: Geordan Davis, Luke O’Brien, Daniel Young, Adam O’Brien.