St. Martin’s U13s show great hurling qualities

St Martins U13s performed exceptionally well at the Lisdowney 7s last Saturday. In an evenly contested 1st round against Danesfort the lads played to the final whistle and ran out winners by 2-11 to 3-4. Two opportunist goals from Jack Murphy and some good teamwork from Ronan Shore, Daragh Quinlan and Dan Doyle opened up the Danesfort on a number of occasions to score some good points. With Adam Agar and Justin Manning clearing a lot of ball the lads stayed on top to the end.

Our next match was against Graigue Ballycallan. The warm conditions ensured that the full ten man panel were needed and Tristan Roche, Paul Murphy, Tommy Butler and Harry Kealy all contributed to a great team effort. St Martins started strongly and went into a two goal lead after goals from Daragh Quinlan and Dan Doyle. Unfortunately, we missed some other chances when we were on top which was to prove costly in the end. A highlight again in this match was the point scoring and two wonderful sideline cuts for points by Dan Doyle. As the 2nd half wore on, Graigue fought hard and a penalty and a goal in the last minute of the match saw them run out winners on a scoreline if 4-3 to 2-7.

While the lads ( and selectors ! ) were devastated with the defeat, the quality of their hurling and effort in both matches augurs well for the future. In what has been a difficult year for them at U14 grade, the future looks bright for this group of players if they keep training and hurling.