Juvenile Academy
Ballyrickard was a hub of activity on Sunday morning last as we welcomed the John Mitchels’ club to Healy Park. The blue & white was proudly displayed by all the children and all age groups had plenty of fun playing some friendly games with our visiting neighbours. There was a big crowd of parents watching on and enjoying the local banter and gossip amongst club members. They all enjoyed a warm cup of tea or coffee and the home baking on offer was delicious.
Due to the Mitchels’ visit, only our U6s chose their players of the week and this week it’s a big congratulations to
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
U6 Boys – Ronan Hobbert
U6 Girls – Neasa Behan
The Academy will kick off again next Sunday at 11am in Ballyrickard.
U12 Boys
We started off Phase 2 of the country league on Sunday evening last with a game away to Dingle. We had a disappointing first half, the highlights of which were fine points from Ryan Onyekwere, Jamie McCarthy and Luke O’Brien. The opposition had a great first half, scoring 2 -11 and this left us in big trouble going into half time.
The second half saw a complete turnaround from the boys and they started to play much better football. Evan Daly put in a great second half display, pulling off some great saves and his kickouts were excellent. Cillian McGrath, Conor and Oisin Cronin and Daniel Aneke really stepped up a gear and worked tirelessly in defence, only allowing Dingle score seven points in the entire half. Brayden Pierce and Ruairí Kennedy pulled out all the stops and covered every inch of the field. The forwards had it all to do, but went on to put in an unbelievable effort. Brendán Meehan totally tormented the Dingle backs after the restart and William Higgins, Luke O’Brien and Daniel Mc Carthy linked very well and gave some great passes to set up some wonderful scores. With only a few minutes left and three points down it looked like it was all over, but Jamie Mc Carthy rattled the ball into the top corner of the net and all was level. All eyes were on the ref to blow the whistle which he eventually did and both teams were happy to come away with one point each.
It certainly was a game of two halves! We scored 5-06 in the second half. William Higgins got two lovely points, Brendán Meehan got a great point after a fine run from midfield and Jamie McCarthy ended up with 3-04 for his day’s work. However, Man of the Match has to go without doubt to Ryan Onyekwere who put in the brilliant display, especially in the second half when he was really needed. He got on every breaking ball and just seemed to turn up everywhere. He ended up scoring 2-01. The silent sideline was in effect and seemed to work ok, although towards the end admittedly, the excitement might have gotten the better of us in what was a thrilling finish.
Our next game is at home to Beale on Sunday evening next, the 2nd June at 6pm.
U14 and U16 Boys
The U14s & U16s have no games as yet this week & will train as normal.
