David Coleman, Evan McCarthy, Jason O’Keeffe and Fionan O’Riordan, members of Grenagh GAA Club U14 and U16 teams, after they were announced as the winners of the Rebel Og monthly award for January, at the Clayton Hotel, Silver Springs. Also included are Kevin Cummins, Cummins Sports, award sponsor;  Grainne Murnane, RedFM, media partner; Nicola Cullinane, The Echo, media partner and Tracy Newman, GM Clayton Hotel, main sponsor; along with Rebel Óg and County Board officials, judging panel members, Grenagh GAA Club members and Cllr Gearoid Murphy, deputising for the Mayor of the County of Cork.
Picture: David Keane

 

GRENAGH GAA Club U14 and U16 county winning teams are the worthy winners of the January Rebel Óg Monthly Award.
These monthly awards are sponsored by the Clayton Hotel Silver Springs, main sponsors, and Cummins Sports (award sponsors) in association with The Echo and RedFM (media partners).
The club was founded in 1934 and is based in the village of Grenagh in the Muskerry division of Mid Cork. It draws its players from the Grenagh village, Rathduff and the surrounding areas. 2013 was a wonderful year for the club, winning the County Intermediate Football title along with the County Junior A hurling title. Since then it boasts a magnificent extra new pitch, astro pitches and hopes to see a ball alley in the not too distant future
Last year was a wonderful year for the juvenile section of the club. The U14s ended up being crowned County Division Two hurling champions and the U16s won the County Division Three hurling championship along with the County Division Two football championship.
There is great work going on in the club at the moment with huge commitment and dedication shown by the club officers and mentors across all ages.
Playing in the North region the U14 hurlers had a remarkable championship beating Buttevant 0-17 to 1-1, Ballyhea 5-12 to 2-2, Kilavullen 2-13 to 2-5 and then a narrow one point win over Ballygiblin in the semi-final 0-12 to 1-8. They met Kilavullen again in the final coming out on top 2-13 to 2-5 to win the North Championship.
In the county semi-final they got the better of Cloughduv 2-15 to 2-9 which set them up for a county final against Fr O’Neill’s at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Great defensive play and some opportune scores at the right time gave Grenagh a foothold and they withstood a great fightback from Fr O’Neill’s to take the title.
The U16 hurlers had wins against Raonaithe na nGael 1-17 to 1-11, Diarmaid Ó Murchús 4-13 to 3-4, winning the final against Mayfield 2-17 to 0-2, before beating Kilshannig in the county semi-final 3-21 to 5-7.
The county final was against Ballyhea and in a great game they took the title by 2-16 to 3-7.
In the Division Two football championship, Grenagh had wins against Raonaithe na n Gael 3-13 to 2-10, Donoughmore 1-11 to 1-3 and Whitechurch in the final 4-12 to 1-8.
In the county championship semi-final a win against St Colum’s, 4-9 to 1-10, set up a final against Killeagh/Ita’s.
Grenagh started well to lead at the break 0-10 to 1-4, but survived an injury time scare when Killleagh/Ita’s came close to a fourth goal to take it to extra-time but Grenagh held firm and were deserving winners on a scoreline of 1-15 to 3-7, making it a great year for the club.

The Cork team who beat Kildare in the John Kerins Cup final. Photo: Alf Harvey

By Ger McCarthy

Cork 2-14
KIldare 1-12
CORK are in good shape to defend their U20 All-Ireland title.
They beat a good Kildare side in the final of the John Kerins Cup, in the John Lockes club, in Callan, Kilkenny, on Saturday afternoon.
Two of the heroes of last year’s team, Blake Murphy and Mark Cronin, tormented Kildare, who had come through a group containing Dublin, Meath, and Laois.
The early stages were tightly contested and the score was 0-4 each after 12 minutes, following two well-taken scores by Cronin, for Cork.
Conor Russell, Brian Hayes, and Cronin had put Cork 0-7 to 0-4 ahead by the 21st minute.
Kildare came back into the game in the last minutes of the half and the impressive Shane O’Sullivan scored twice in a row to leave the minimum between the teams.
Just as they were building momentum, a fine Cork move, in the last attack of the half, ended with Cronin setting up Murphy, who scored a goal. That put Cork 1-7 to 0-6 ahead at the break.
Cork really got on top around the middle of the pitch in the second-half and scored five points in a row between the 39th and 45th minutes. They led 1-13 to 0-8.
To give Kildare, the 2018 U20 All-Ireland winners, their credit, they didn’t buckle under that pressure and answered back with three points to come back into the game.
Any thoughts of repeating the sort of late comeback that had earned them a draw against Dublin, and a win against Meath, were banished when Blake Murphy raced away to score his second goal.
Shane O’Sullivan pulled back a late consolation goal for Kildare, but Cork were full value for their win.
Keith Ricken’s side showed good heart for the battle, as well as the talents of the likes of Murphy, Cronin, and also Daniel O’Connell, in midfield. You wouldn’t rule out these two sides meeting again, once the Championship gets into full swing.
Scorers: Cork – B Murphy 2-2 (1f), M Cronin 0-6 (1f), B Hayes 0-2, D O’Connell 0-1, F Herlihy 0-1, K Twomey 0-1, C Russell 0-1 (mark).
Kildare – S O’Sullivan 1-7 (5fs), D Kirwan 0-3, L Griffin 0-1, P McDermott 0-1.
CORK: Josh O’Keeffe; Colm O’Shea, Daniel O’Mahoney, Diarmuid Phelan; Ciaran O’Sullivan, Sean Desmond, Brian Lynch; Brian Hayes, Jack Lawton; Daniel O’Connell, Mark Cronin, Fionn Herlihy; Kieran Twomey, Blake Murphy cpt., Conor Russell. Subs: Eoghan Lehane for Desmond, 26; Aodhá Ó Luasa for Russell, h/t; Darragh Hayes for Twomey, h/t; Gerry O’Sullivan for Herlihy, 40; Ciaran Nyhan for Lawton, 52.
KILDARE: Kyle Costello; Jack Hamill, John Lawler, Sean Moore, DJ Earley, Jack Collins, Adam Conneely; Darren McDermott, Tony O’Connor; Alex Beirne, Darragh Kirwan, Findlay Nairn; Luke Griffin, Shane O’Sullivan, Paudi Behan. Subs: Aaron Browne for Beirne, h/t; Paddy McDermott for Earley, h/t; Jack Sargent for Hamill, h/t; Mark Cully for Griffin, 49; Aaron Browne for Adam Conneely, 49.
REFEREE: Chris Dwyer, Offaly.

Rebel Óg North are organising an information night on the new GAA football rules introduced this year as there are a lot of different interpretations and questions.

Kevin Walsh and Muiris O’Sullivan, Munster referee tutors, will be the speakers. It will take around one-and-half hours. with a question and answer session afterwards.

They strongly urge anybody involved with teams to attend as training and matches will be starting shortly. It is open to all to attend.

The meeting will be at the Mallow GAA complex at 7.30pm  on this Monday coming, January  27.

Secretaries are asked to please inform all your coaches and members to avoid any problems down the line.

ON SATURDAY night more than 400 people attended the annual Rebel Óg awards banquet at the Clayton Hotel Silver Springs.
The awards are sponsored by the hotel, along with Cummins Sports, RedFM and The Echo.
It is held to acknowledge the monthly winners, 16 last year, and an opportunity to showcase all that is good about underage GAA affairs in Cork.
The 16 winners came about because in June there were five winners, with Cork enjoying significant success at the Feile camogie and hurling All-Ireland competitions held in Cork and Kerry.
Winners that month included Bandon and Killeagh/Ita’s hurlers and camogie sides from Clonakilty, Eire Og and Ballyhea/Milford with a number of winners in shield competitions as well.
Other monthly winners included All-Ireland winning ladies football sides (U14 and minor), minor camogie side and Patrician Academy.
Add in Dr Harty Cup winners and the Cork minor footballers, also All-Ireland winners, and you get some idea of the calibre of winners last year.
Ahead of Saturday night the independent judging panel had the extremely difficult task of picking an overall winner from this lot.
After a long discussion, they picked the Cork minor footballers, who won the All-Ireland title for the first time in 19 years. The manner in which they won was one of the factors the judges took into consideration.
Deep into injury-time Cork fell behind to a Galway goal and had just 70 seconds to try and equalise to take it to extra-time.
The quick thinking of keeper, Cian O’Leary, to get the ball back in play was key and his re-start, after one more pass, ended up in the hands of captain Conor Corbett, who found the back of the net to take it to extra-time.
In that Cork dominated to see the cup head to Leeside in what turned out to be a great year for manager, Bobbie O’Dwyer, his fellow selectors and squad, after not the greatest of starts.
Also honoured was Eddie Moloney who received the Hall of Fame award. Eddie has been involved with Rebel Og in the west for many years and has served in a number of offices at club and regional level.
He has also been involved in Sciath na Scol and many other aspects of GAA and is still actively involved at present. This was the last function for a number of Rebel Og officers who were all thanked for their service over many years.