By Luke O' Halloran

Note: Anyone interested in covering games on behalf of the club please get in contact with administrator@sixmilebridgegaa.com

Well done to Luke on his first report and look forward to many more before he goes on to take over from Magow in the Champion in years to come. Remember anyone looking to decorate their CV with work experience or transition years doing projects this is a great platform to get started.

U14A Match Report- Sixmilebridge vs Smith O’Brien’s

SMB 3-14 Smith O'Briens 0-12

The 2019 U14A Hurling Championship kicked off last Friday night in O’Garney Park with a match against the newly promoted Smith O’Brien’s. The game was refereed by Andy McMahon on an ideal evening for hurling, with only a light breeze blowing down the field. The opening score of the game came from the stick of full-forward Jack Holloway. The two sides then exchanged a couple of points each to leave the score 0-3 to 0-2 in the ‘Bridge’s favour. The ‘Bridge boys then went on a scoring spree of 1-3 in 5 minutes, before Smith O’ Brien’s responded with a point to stem the flow.

Fionn Hayes spearheaded this scoring flurry, scoring 1-2 of the total. Hayes then added 3 more before half-time, two from placed balls. Killaloe, to their credit, responded well adding two well-taken points to leave the score at the interval 1-9 to 0-5 in the hosts favour.

The opening ten minutes of the second half mirrored the opening ten of the first half with Sixmilebridge outscoring Smith O’Brien’s 0-3 to 0-2. The game was put to the bed in the 41 st minute when centre-back Dara Fitzpatrick sent a long ball in over the Killaloe’s keeper’s head into the back of the net, to leave the score at 2-12 to 0-7. Smith O’Brien’s then hit a purple patch scoring five points to the ‘Bridge’s two. Jack Holloway finished the game off in style, rifling the ball from short range past the powerless keeper. The goal left the final score at 3-14 to 0-12, which was an accurate representation of how the match went.

A feature of the game for the ‘Bridge boys was some excellent catching of the ball with Jack Phelan, Brendan Carey and Dara Fitzgerald displaying some Aussie Rules style leaps into the air and gathering the ball at the highest point of their jump. Well done boys and we look forward to more of these as the Championship progresses week by week. The ‘Bridge are back out in action this Friday night away to Eire Og at 6.30 in the U14A Championship.

Meanwhile our 2nd team at this age group open their campaign in what is now termed the Bord na nOg U14A Academy competition, away to Clooney Quin on Sunday at 12 noon.

All support welcome for our U14 Hurlers

Sixmilebridge: Mark Sheedy, Jack O’Halloran, Fiachra O’Braoin, Paddy O’Reilly, Eamonn Breen, Dara Fitzgerald, Jack Phelan, Matthew O’Halloran, Brendan Carey, Jayden Scullion, Fionn Hayes, Darren Hurley, Michael Morey, Jack Holloway, Daniel Chaplin.

Subs used: Joshua Dillon, Noah Sheehan, JJ O’Reilly, Evan Neenan, Finn Murphy

Smith O’Briens: Tom Seymour, Dylan Howard, Cormac Quinn, Conor Cusack, Julian Heaney, Luke Dillon, Tony Foley, Sean McMahon, Cathal Howard, Diarmuid Coleman, Oisin Minogue, Conor Geraghty, Brendan Minogue, Eoin Heffron, Rian McArthur.