Cobh Gaa Notes 29th August

U12 Hurling Championship – Cobh 5-5 Watergrasshill 3-8

Our U12 team is becoming experienced in the differences between winning and losing games, and all of this experience was brought into their play on Monday night in Watergrasshill. The home team had been unbeaten in their league outings this year and they showed fine form when they opened up a significant lead in the first 15 minutes of this closely fought encounter. With the assistance of a strong wind they built several attacks, and put our back line under great pressure. Within 10 minutes they had scored 2-3 and looked like they could pull away. However our backs dug in and began to win possession. The strong wind was a challenge, and we struggled to get the ball out of our half. Cobh moved our full forward to midfield, and our three man midfield began to hold their own, and crowded out the space which was proving such an advantage to Watergrasshill. A hard fought Cobh point from Niall Spriggs seemed to settle the team, followed shortly by an Adam O’Donovan goal which gave us ambition and hope. With limited possession up front our forwards took some great scores and by half time we had levelled the score (Cobh 3-3, W’hill 2-6).

The large crowd were treated to a close and very exciting second half. The wind had reduced and was not the advantage we could have hoped for. The excitement for the Cobh crowd was added to by several decisions by the referee. During the second half Cobh twice hit the net, but had the scores ruled out, and several other decisions denied what seemed certain Cobh scores. Watergrasshill had one man yellow carded, during what was a very close, and hard fought contest. Whilst the crowd may have been troubled by some of the decisions, to their great credit, our lads remained focused on the game. Watergrasshill took the lead twice, only for Cobh to twice take the advantage back. When Dylan Higgins netted with a few minutes to go we went two points ahead. Pádi Kearney added a long distance free to widen the gap. At the final whistle we were a goal to the good, one of only a few moments during the game when we were actually ahead. Overall a great team performance, but in particular goalkeeper (Christian Field) and full back line (Gearóid Lynch, Odhran Kidney-Power and Conor Hogan) displayed great determination, concentration and skill. 7 players scored for Cobh (Dylan Higgins 2-0, Neil Harte 1-1, Niall Spriggs 0-2, Max Kahn 0-1, Adam O’Donovan 1-0, Pádi Kearney 0-1, and David Coffey 0-1).  Our East Cork Semi final v Sars will be played on Monday 30^th, with a potential final v Castlelyons the following Friday 3^rd Sept.

Kiltha Óg Hurling Blitz: Cobh sent two U9 teams and an U10 team to a hurling blitz hosted by Castlemartyr on Saturday last. Each team got to play three matches on the day and it proved to be a very worthwhile trip as the lads got plenty of match time experience under the Go-Game format against teams from Kiltha Óg, Erin’s Own and Aghada.

Results: U12 BHC W’hill 3-08 Cobh 5-05. U16BHC St. Catherine’s 3-07 Cobh 2-06 MFC Cobh 2-17 Cloyne 1-03  IHL Barryroe 0-14 Cobh 0-14.

Fixtures: (In Cobh unless stated otherwise)

Mon 30^th :U12 BHC semi-final v Sars at 6:30pm

C’ship game in Cobh: Tues 31^st Aug: U21 Hurling c’ship Sars v C’2hill at 6:45pm.

Sat 4^th Sept: MHC final v C’navar in Killeagh at 4:15pm.

Sun 5^th : Intermediate Hurling (Ó Murchú Cup) v Blackrock at 11:30am.