The continuing development and maturing of this essentially young Dunderry team was well tested by a very promising Boardsmill team at a well appointed Drumree on a pleasant Sunday afternoon weatherise (but not experience wise for me personally ).
After the disappointment of missing out on the knockout stages of the Intermediate Championship ,a factor which the management exploited as a motivator for this game,the young ladies were well up for the challenge.
They were not playing from a full deck as the Misses Blaithnid Keyes and Emily Bray were unavailable due to injury.They were definitive losses as it transpired ,but one girls loss is another girl's opportunity and their replacements were well up to the mark.
The team ,under the care of long time and dedicated managers,Tracey Fitzsimons and Evelyn Griffin ,assisted by Drumree man and trainer G.V.Troy, lined out as follows :-
Rebecca Scanlon
MIchelle Smyh Grainne Dowd Michelle Daly
Aisling Mac Donagh Danielle Clarke Emer O Shea
Tara Scanlon Labaoise Martyn
Aoife MInogue Aoife Mac Cormack Anna Stenson
Aoife O Shea Jane Martyn Emer Daly.
Subs,Megan Doherty,Laura O malley,Freda O Leary,and Niamh Martyn.
Like ourselves Boardsmill draw from a relatively few houses and are properly a family dominated club,a sense of unity and respect being fundamental to fielding successful and progressive teams.This policy has been for generations a basic principle of the wider GAA movement,which includes this team ,in Dunderry.
As an example of what I am talking about you will see that we have three sets of sisters on the team .It is worth noting that the dedication of Tracey and Evelyn is such that they have stuck to the job despite the fact that their own daughters were not available for selection on the day .
.In a nutshell we cannot afford divisive influences if we are to progress.
Referee for the day was Martin Ennis a good Longwood Gael,who I last encountered at the under 21 B Hurling Final,where we pipped them at the final post.I had seen him refeering football and hurling matches before now ,but I understand he is new to the Camogie scene.
Overall he has vast experience in the general refeering scene but has not ,as far as I know ,reached inter county status,but then very few do.Like us all he makes the odd wrong call.
I was a tad late for the game but Seanie Duffy and Caroline and Mark Stenson were of great help in getting me close to the pitch and placing my stool close to the sideline ,where I sat and had a mainly good view of the game.
We have one outstanding adult inter county forward in the shape of Aoife Minogue who is our scorer in chief.But as man does not live by bread alone neither dies one player make up a team.And we do have a good team.
The older,well tried and tested and more experienced girls very properly formed the spine of our team and the emerging future stars were at midfield and on the wings.
Jane Martin ,who played at midfield thus far,has been tried at full forward during the year and ,I am told ,to good advantage.Today I could judge for myself.
AS I thought these teams are fairly evenly matched.There was committed end to end play ,some of it not too pretty stuff ,as both teams strove for dominance.Minogue was watched like a mouse under the gaze of an attentive cat.Despite this she opened our scoring when a well taken free fooled the goalkeeper and skipped into the net .It transpired that she scored a total of 1-3 of our overall total of 2-3 over the seventy minutes played,the remaining goal falling to Martyn after an impressive dummy sold to the full back.
For the remainder of the half our back line were under the most severe of unrelenting pressure as our goal line was under siege and how they held out is still a mystery to me .Rebbecca made at least three incredible saves in this half ,all the backs played out of their skins,with Aisling wommaning the trenches without regard to personal safety and with considerable skill.The midfielders had to channel back to help out their rearguard and did so with considerable skill and full effect and the forwards were dependant on the quick break when the rare ball did reach them.
When Minogue got a sniff panic broke out in the Boardsmill rearguard and she scored another few points before the half time whistle.(I didn't keep a written account ,much to my discredit ,but we went in two points to the good ,if I remember correctly.)
Martyn had the beating of her immediate opponent and when she got her hands on the ball laid it off to a better placed colleague ,mostly Minogue ,to effect.but in general the opposing backs were well versed in defending their territory and conceded few opportunistic scoring chances to us.Mostly we shot under pressure. But then again so did they.
There was good Dundrry support at the game ,so much so that all it took was for one person to intrude onto the pitch to follow the play and create a mass reactive intrusion that limited the view of those standing behind and this happened so often that I had to change my pitch a number of times to follow the platy with comfort ,but such if s life without a wife.
I was reasonably happy at the half time score but apprehensive
The second half repeated the pattern of the first but we were more involved in the play ,which was more end to end.It was dogged tough stuff in which all gave all that could to the cause.Martyn took a goal which raised Dunderry hopes momentarily and O Shea kicked against the upright ,but a dogged and skillful Boardsmill team clawed their way back into contention and the final whistle blew with us on the score of 2-3 and them equalling that .
Before the start of the extra time I went to the far sideline which was more sparsely populated to have a better view of the proceedings ,well assisted by Ciaran O Shea who carried my stool across and on which were located the parents of many Dunderry players and the subs and mentors.
The first period of extra time was a repeat of earlier proceedings with both teams struggling for supremacy and nether succeeding.The referee made some conrtroversial decisions which induced a n initial muttering amongst the Dunderry support,which soon ascended to a more voluble level clearly and undisguisedly directed at the man in the middle.
Whatever you think about referees you can't manage without them and my life experience says that you would be wise to keep your thoughts during action to yourself less you turn then totally against your team.
I advised this to trainer Troy ,whose response that he didn't give a about me,that he wasn't afraid of me and that he would say whatever he wanted no matter what I said ,took me totally by surprise .
In my fifty years involvement with the GAA in Dublin and Meath I have never experienced such an ignorant attitude from a trainer towards a former Chairman and existing President of the same club.
Not a only am I a former Chairman and existing president of the camogie Club but I am also hold similar positions in the GAA club and am also a member of the Executive there.
He has by his remarks debased not only me and mine personally but also debased and insulted the offices of Presidents of both Clubs and all offices I hold.
The fact that he did it so volubly and in front of so many supporters adds to the insulting behaviour and displays a complete ignorance of what membership and responsible behaviour of any GAA Club incorporates.
One only hopes that this attitude towards me is not being encouraged by any persons in authority within the Club and if it is I will get to the root of it.
Back to the game itself after that diversion.
Neither team scored in the first period of extra time and the final ten minutes commenced.
End to end stuff again but by degrees they crept more into dominance and our ladies ,in my view adversely affected by the voluble and spreading criticism of the referee.finally cracked and in the final ten minutes the defensive dam broke and and Boards mil register a combined goals and points total of 13 points to nada for us.
A heartbreaking result for us after a huge effort.
But better and more rewarding days beckon.
A brighter aspect to the day out was the performance of our Camogie tots ,under the tutelidge of the dedicated and well respected Stella Keyes who did beat a similarly aged Boardsmill as part of the half time entrertainment.
All in all an interesting and informative outing.
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