Aghada Gaa
Main Sponsor – Irving Oil
U21 A football Championship – Aghada 2-9 v Glanmire – 2-5
Aghada travelled to Sallybrook last Friday night last for a must win game in the 2nd round robin game of this years East Cork championship. After a below par performance against Glenville the 1st night out, big improvements would be needed, and from the get go, Aghada seemed more ready for the battle on this occasion. Aaron Berry and John Looney fired us two points up early on, but then despite plenty of possession thanks to Marcus Leahy and Paul Daly at midfield, Aghada missed a number of point scoring opportunities. Glanmire opened their scoring with a free on 12 minutes and this prompted a scoring burst from the home team. After giving up a soft turnover in attack, Glanmire broke up the field and blasted home a good goal to take the lead. 3 minutes later, Glanmire again broke through the Aghada rearguard and again fired home an unstopable shot for their 2nd goal. It was all Glanmire at this point and two minutes later they pointed to go 2 goals clear on the scoreboard with 10 minutes to go to the short whistle. Aghada needed a response and nearly gave the ultimate response only to see both Kevin O’Hanlon and Alan Hogan denied with an outstanding double save from the Glanmire ‘keeper. Danny Creedon did steady the ship somewhat when he pointed a free after the impressive Aaron Berry was fouled. 2 minutes later, Berry converted from play after taking a pass for O’Hanlon and when O’Hanlon set up Looney on 30 minutes for another point Aghada were well back in the game and back on top of their opponents. The Glanmire ‘keeper was the standout performer on the night and next he pulled off another super save when he denied Alan Hogan for the second time. From the resulting ’45 Charlie Terry, who got through a trojan amount of work in the game, kicked a fine score to leave just 2 points in it at the break.
On resumption the sides exchanged points in the opening 10. Next up Alan Hogan made a great run in on the Glanmire goals and on the 3rd time of asking , finally beat the Glanmire custodian with an unstopable left legged finish to the top corner of the net. The next score saw Hogan again get in on goal. This time his excellent effort was again saved by the keeper, but O’Hanlon was on hand to pick up the rebound and finish calmly for Aghada’s second goal. Aghada were now 4 clear. It could have been more after spurning a few scorable frees. Glanmire now however started to get on top. Aghada’s six backs were all playing well on the night, with Aaron Butler, Tommy O’Donoghue and Jordan Tynan particularly impressive, which meant Glanmire found scores hard to come by. They kicked a good free on 21 minutes and converted a ’45 on 24 minutes after Ciaran O’Shea had saved smartly at his near post. It was a nervous finish with only 2 points in it entering injury time. Luke O’Connell made a great block down to set up another Aghada goal chance. Again the ‘keeper was up to it, this time deflecting Berry’s goal bound effort over the bar. A minute later on 33 minutes Berry pointed a free after Hogan was fouled and that was the game for Aghada.
Its all to play for in this competition now as we face Fr. O’Neills in our last round robin game. 3 teams still have a chance of making the final and all will be decided next weekend. Aghada Team and scorers – Ciaran O’Shea, Kyle O’Shea, Kalen O’Donoghue, Aaron Butler, Darragh Murphy, Jordan Tynan, Cal Bawden, Paul Daly, Marcus Leahy, Charlie Terry (0-1), John Looney (0-2), Daniel Creedon (0-1 free), Aaron Berry (0-4, 1f), Kevin O’Hanlon (1-0), Alan Hogan (1-1). Sub Used Luke O’Connell.
Highlights in Link Below -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66DNwaLyJ2c
Premier Intermediate Hurling league – Aghada 1-11 v Meelin 0-16
A game of firsts on the new forest pitch in Rostellan on Bank Holiday Monday last. Our 1st competitive game of adult hurling on the new pitch and our 1st competitive game of hurling since our return to the ranks of Premier Intermediate after our County success last year. Unfortunatley we’ll have to wait a bit longer for our 1st win in the league after going down narrowly to Meelin by 2 points. Aghada started the game well and led 4 points to one after the opening 10 minutes. Cian Fleming had 2 and Charlie Terry, Aghada’s standout player on the day, also had two after breaking through the middle of the Meelin defense. Slowly however Meelin got to grips with the Aghada forwards and had the game tied at 6 points a piece with 5 minutes to go to the break. The Aghada points had come from a fine effort from Aaron Stafford and the other from the stick of the returning Brian Morrissey which got the biggest clap of the day from the Aghada supporters who were glad to see him back in the Aghada jersey again. Aghada were also garteful in this period for a fine save from Trigger in the goals. On 27 minutes Meelin hit the front, however it was short lived as another Charlie point and a Fleming free put us 1 up going in at half time.
While the second half was again an even affair, Aghada proved to be very wasteful in front of goals, dropping a lot of efforts either wide or short in to the Meelin goalie. At the other end the Meelin forwards were much more efficent with their attempts at goal. They rattled off 5 points in the opening 10 minutes. Aghada’s only response was a super Charlie Terry goal, which Aghada had being threatening to score on a few occassions. The sides were level 2 minutes later when John Looney pointed a free. It was still all square with 5 minutes to play after a Looney free (earned by Charlie’s run) cancelled out a Meelin ’65. Next up Meelin hit two fine scores from play, before Stevie Keeffe pulled one back as we headed into injury time. Meelin pointed again on 32 minutes and despite Aghada going in search of the winning goal, the visitors held on for the 2 league points on offer.
Aghada Team and scorers– Trevor O’Keeffe, Tim Hartnett, Jake O’Donoghue, Aiden O’Connell, Billy Hennessy, Jack McDonald, Jordan Tynan, Stephen O’Keeffe (0-1), Aaron Stafford (0-1), Brian Morrissey (0-1), Charlie Terry (1-3), John Looney (0-2, 2f), Daniel Creedon, Cian Fleming (0-3, 1f), Kevin O’Hanlon.
Fixtures
Our U21 footballers play Fr O’Neills in the 3rd round robin game of this year’s championship in Ballinacurra at 3pm this Saturday the 24th of March. Check locally in case this changes.
Best of luck to reigning champions Imokilly as they start the defence of their senior hurling crown on Thursday the 22nd at 7:45pm in Riverstown v Muskerry.
Lotto
The current Lotto jackpot is €7,250 and will take place in The Schooner on Mar 22nd. Congrats to Eoin O’Neill, Desmond O’Shea, B. Leahy, Colin Remy, and Eddie & Mary C, who won €30 in last weeks draw.
