The U12 team of both hurling and football created history on Sunday morning in Kildorrery when they completed the Double in hurling and football North Cork Championship by beating Mitchelstown by a staggering 14 points, 5-10 to 1-8. To say the first half was the perfect performance would be just slight of the mark, ‘only just’ because it was a staggering display of support play and devastating finishing that had the travelling supporters looking almost bemused at the talent they were seeing before their very eyes, with every attack of a huge high standard. The midfield of Michael O’Neill and Paddy Behan were immense throughout, but it was the first 10 minutes that was their best period, with O’Neill scoring the 1st point of the game followed by some good interchanging of passes between Hanlon and Behan which set up Kyle Bowles for the first goal which he took with aplomb, it was to ensure that the Mitchelstown lads were chasing the game from then on. The defence was so solid it looked like only gelignite would be the only way through for the town men with Niall O’Riordan and Michael Walsh mopping up everything that was thrown at them along with Mark O’Connell who looked so composed under pressure, ably assisted by Captain Fantastic David Keane, it was a pleasure to watch them in action. The goalie’s place was an issue for this team for a while, until up stepped Conrad Cremin and in doing so has excelled week after week and held his best performance of the year for the final, never putting a foot wrong all day, delivering quality ball to his defenders time and again. “Goals win matches” as they say, and Patrick Holmes and the energetic Gavin Carey produced a brace each to set this final alight with 4 well taken goals to seal the deal. The age of this team is made so much younger by the U10 players and in Conor Hanlon and Kyle Bowles we have two treasures to embrace as they produced two very mature displays to blow their age out of the water. The game is now an 18 man game and the introduction of all our replacements were a joy to behold when Diarmuid Doody scored a sublime point to cap a wonderful return after injury and Kyle Trimm who showed great skill, also U10, always willing to show for the ball. Paul O’Keeffe ‘Mr. Versatile’ when introduced, played in the forwards and defence, both expertly, in Nathan McAuliffe we have a hugely improved player and he was a great addition to the half back line, then we had the towering JC Guiney who caused even more terror on the Mitchelstown defence along with Cian Denton who ran himself to the ground for the cause, another U10 was Donal Ryan who has turned out to be a very skilful forward and has a great understanding of the game. The final hurray was held for our 8 year old David Hanlon who defies his age and has played a big part all year in our success, he scored 1-2 in the Kerry tournament earlier this year. The final whistle blew to great excitement and the double was secure never to be taken away from this talented bunch of players. With the plaque presented to Captain David Keane we set sail for the hall in Buttevant to partake in some refreshments arranged by the parents, a huge thanks to all who helped out. My sincere thanks to Gerry Ryan, Colin Cremin and Martin Bowles for their help throughout the year, without them this could not have happened. To Gerry in particular who coached the hurlers to success and has been that little extra that was needed in our footballers along with showing there is no divide between both codes, thank you Gerry. To the players from all just mentioned we would like to say you are a credit to your family, your parish and yourselves, it has been our pleasure to coach you all in both codes and we have for certain great years ahead, so keep practising, well done.
Team: Conrad Cremin, Niall O’Riordan, Michael Walsh, Mark O’Connell (capt) David Keane, Michael O’Neill, Paddy Behan, Conor Hanlon, Gavin Carey, Patrick Holmes, Kyle Bowles, Diarmuid Doody, Cian Denton, Kyle Trimm, Paul O’Keeffe, Nathan McAuliffe, Donal Ryan, David Hanlon, JC Guiney.