Minor win great boost for our club

Post date: Nov 12, 2012 11:21:48 PM

While technically part of the adult competitions, Minor sits at the culmination of the youth and underage activity so it gives a great boost to all our underage managers to see success achieved after such a long time. While I am not sure whether all three or even any two of the management team have worked together before, Jimmy Red Donohue, Niall Malone and Tom McDermott have been involved at all levels of underage over the last 20 years.

Jimmy and Tom have had previous adventures at Minor level, including Minor City League success for both, but no doubt Minor success in 2012 is now the highlight. The three stalwarths are part of an underage structure that has continued to strenghten over that 20 years. Success does not come easily however as many other clubs are working equally as hard.

In recent years, I think everyone would acknowledge the contribution the all weather facility and the hurling wall has made in relation to campaigns that start early (U21) and those that extend well into winter as we are now. It had formerly been the case that once September had passed their was little more that could be done that complete whatever fixture was at the weekend. It is no coincidence a level of success has been achieved recently.

I have no doubt the Minor management would acknowledge the contribution made by the run to semifinal stage of our under 21s under Mattie Donohue, but with Niall and Jimmy in support. That brought players like Kevin O'Donovan, Conor Kyne and Andrew Hurney through to prominence and was excellent preparation for the Minor campaign. Equally so was the run the U16 team had to quarter final stage in the highly competitive B division. Tom was involved here of course and he and John Fox began a training program underway in January and they had plenty of support from Alan McDonagh, Colie Faherty and Tom Higgins. The U16 as well as having a good run in the championship have made good use of the Galway Development Squads at both U15 and U16.

Our teams are backed up by a number of people who support their activity. Maureen Bohan is responsible for sourcing a lot of kit and equipment. Enda O'Connor has been managing our hurleys this year under the watchful eye of Treasurer, Caoimhín Davoren, who has also been generous along with others in repairing many hurleys this year.

Anyone involved in GAA in Moycullen knows we have strong hurling, football and indeeed handball clubs, which can often make the fixture planning for teams especially complicated. With Minor players likely to be involved in several different panels this can be doubly so. Having a reasonable idea of when a game is likely to be fixed is important in organising player availability and often rest. We are lucky to have people as experienced as Brid Noone and our Secretary, Kathy Keady to be able advise on fixtures and indeed an increasingly complicated range of match regulations.

The real boost is to the players themselves. They are proof that while you don't always get what you deserve that you rarely get something you don't deserve. They are a group of lads from 15-18, that have been diligent all year from January/February to now. They have also been loyal followers of Galway hurling as our Facebook page will show.