Report by Philip Cody
On Saturday 1st August the GBC U11’s travelled to Blackrock in Cork for the Ger Dineen Tournament, having being invited by Joe Young. This was a two team tournament with the winners decided on combination of all results.
First up for the boys were the hosts Blackrock. Team Blue started brightly with Jeff Neary opening the scoring with a point, Eoin Egan followed this up with two goals. The boys lead at half time 2-2 to 0-1. Team Blue continued to dominate the second half and gave a great team performance scoring freely and ran out easy winners.
In the corresponding fixture, Team White opened up a 1 point lead at half time with Aaron McEvoy scoring twice. Billy Egan extended the lead to three points early in the second half and the boys dominated possession throughout the field but didn’t convert their scoring chances. In the final couple of minutes Blackrock scoring 1-1 to win by a point.
Lucan provided the opposition for the second round of fixtures. Team White started strong with a goal coming from Aaron and points from Billy O’Neill, Billy Egan, Jake O’Brien and Aaron. They led 1-4 to 1-0 at half time. On the restart, Team White extended their lead following good goals from Jake and Billy Egan. They led 3-4 to 1-2 with 5 minutes remaining. To their credit Lucan responded and drew level. Final score 3-6 to 4-3.
Team Blue’s game against Lucan was a close encounter with both teams playing to their best ability. The boys lead by a goal at halftime. Team Blue went on to win by 4 points in a very close match with a great all round performance from the 12 man panel.
In the final round of games we faced the unbeaten Monaleen from Limerick. Team Blue’s match was a hard fought battle which saw GBC take an early lead but Monaleen stayed with us all the time. Down by a point at half time the boys came out fighting and took the lead for most of the second half. However, luck went against us and with two late goals Monaleen went on to win by 4 points. It was another great performance with a great team spirit shown by all.
Team White saved their best performance for their last game against Monaleen. The boys hurled solid from start to finish and led at half time 2-3 to 0-2. The boys dominated the second half and with goals from Billy Egan, Aaron and Finn O’Byrne they ran out winners 6-3 to 0-3.
Monaleen won the tournament with GBC finishing a close second. To their credit all the boys hurled with great determination throughout all the matches and they all should be proud of their individual efforts.
Team White: Billy O’Neill, Aidan Cahill, Billy Dowling, Dylan Teehan, Dean O’Brien, Jake O’Brien, Billy Egan, Ryan Cody, Aaron McEvoy, Finn O’Byrne, Ben Young.
Team Blue: Elliot Teehan, Ryan Corcoran, Sean Dillon, Pat Purcell, Patrick Foley, Conor Walton, Eoin Egan, James Casey, Jeff Neary, Michael Harrison, Jack Guiry, Martin Brennan.