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U21 Report - 2002
Glen Rovers : 1 -
20
Blackrock : 0 -
1
As can probably be understood - the downside sometimes of
having a successful year in the Senior Grade is that other grades can suffer - I
think this logic applies somewhat to the under 21 grade of 2002.
With quite a number of players involved either on the team or extended panel of
the Senior team it was hard to get time to either train or play challenge games
as a squad and as a result the under 21 team preparations took a back seat until
after the Senior County final - in fact myself and Noel Keane were not appointed
as selectors until nearing the end of the Senior program and the first time we
could get together as a unit was the Tuesday evening after the Senior Final.
Because myself and Noel did not know a lot of the lads on the panel Ger
Coughlan, Paddy Barry & Derek Gosnell helped us out with the notification of
the panel and the training sessions and we would like to thank them for this and
especially Ger & Paddy for their "rousing" team talk before we
left the dressing room in Ballinlough the morning of the game.
The preparations for the match itself were hampered even further due to the fact
that four of the players were away on holidays for the two weeks leading up to
the game and only returned back to the country the night before the game and on
top of this two of our stars from the Senior County final were unavailable for
the game - Colin O'Reilly as he had gone to the States on a Scholarship and
David Cashman as he had received a nasty injury during the Senior game.
The game itself was always going to be a huge test for the team as in Glen
Rovers they were facing the reigning Under 21 County Champions and a team that
had prepared as a unit for a number of months leading up the game - the fact
that this was due to the failure of their Senior team was little consolation on
the morning of the game.
In fairness to our lads they gave a fantastic performance in the first half and
only a point or two separated the teams with a few minutes to go to half time
when we conceded a fairly soft goal which gave the impetus over to the Glen for
the second half. With the Glen now
playing like a team that had been together for a while they ran out deserved
winners in the end but not before we had given them a good fright which I doubt
they or even ourselves expected.
One of the positive aspects of the game was that three of the best players on
view that morning in Ballinlough - Sean Murphy, Paul Tierney &
"Shaggy" Coakley - were on our side which hopefully augers well for
the future.
We would like to thank the whole panel for their effort leading up to the game
and even though we did not have much time for preparation we found the lads
fantastic to work with and really interested in learning and it was a pity that
some of them did not get more hurling time during the year because if it was
genuine interest and commitment that won championships we would be under 21
champions now! Due to the wealth of
talent available to us in this grade we were able to field a second under 21
team, who were beaten by Bishopstown in the Championship 1 - 3 to 2 - 20.
Aidan Ryan
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