Castlelyons GAA Notes.
- Dec 05,2023
Munster Glory in the Limerick Fog
We witnessed a historic victory last Saturday evening in the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick as Castlelyons overcame the Clare Intermediate champions, Corofin to win our very first Munster Intermediate hurling title on a scoreline of 3-16 to 0-19. A huge Castlelyons contingent made their way to Limerick on a bitterly cold evening. The game started at a 100mph with Corofin having a goal chance after 20 seconds but their forward blasted the ball over the bar. Colm Spillane collected the resulting puckout and he found David Morrison with a nice 50 yard ball into the corner forward. David took on his man and squared the ball across the face of goal to the waiting Anthony Spillane who fired the ball into the back of the net. 1-0 to 0-1 after 1 minute. Corofin had another chance to get a score from their next attack but were deemed to have overcarried the ball. Jack Barry’s long free bounced to Anto again who snuck behind the Corofin defence to fire the ball again into the Clare men’s net. 2-0 to 0-1 after 3 mins. Castlelyons continued with their dominance and there was some brilliant scores from James Kearney, Alan Fenton and Keith O’Leary to extend our lead to 2-5 to 0-3 after 9 minutes. Castlelyons were playing with supreme confidence in this half with the best hurling that the lads have produced all year. Dara, Colm Barry and Jamie O’Leary were all first to the ball and not giving the Corofin charges an inch to spare. Our half back line of Niall O’Leary, Leo Sexton and the outstanding Colm Spillane gave an attacking base from our defence which were the genesis of many of the match’s scores. Anthony finished his hat-trick on 17 mins. Leon Doocey made a fantastic diving block down and fired the ball to Anthony who ran 20 yards, beating his man and firing low to beat the Corofin keeper. Anthony scored another fine point when Colm found him with a long ball. Anto plucked the ball from the sky over his man and quickly pivoted and drove the ball between the posts. Leon Doocey had a chance of another goal before half time but the Clare keeper made a fine save. Keith O’Leary rounded off our scoring for the half with another long range score to leave us 3-11 to 0-08 at the break.
In what was an extraordinary turn of events in the 2nd half, a dense fog fell upon the grounds and limited visibility greatly. Both goal mouths were nigh on impossible to see so the referee made the decision to stop the game 3 minutes into the 2nd half. We were told the game would be postponed by 10 minutes and in the end it was delayed nearly 30 mins. Our Clare opponents went into the dressing room and threatened not to come out but when it became clear the fog had lifted and the referee was happy to continue they had no choice but to take the field. The 2nd half was a tighter affair. The Clare champions showed their mettle and fought continuously to the bitter end. Corofin reduced the deficit to 9 points after 37 minutes and we traded points with Alan Fenton and Keith O’Leary again scoring really tidy points. Corofin needed goals to get back into the game realistically and Castlelyons used a bit of experience here and there to give away a few soft frees to snuff out any chance of them raising a green flag. It was fitting that the man from Dubai Anthony Spillane rounded off our scoring with his final point of the game to with his 2nd point. Corofin scored a free after but they couldn’t close the gap enough. When the finals whistle was blown scenes of jubilation ensued with Castlelyons winning a Munster title on a scoreline of 3-16 to 0-19. Captain Colm Spillane graciously accepted the trophy on behalf of the team and raised it aloft to rapturous applause from the Castlelyons faithful. Noel Furlong’s men now take on Mayo champions Tooreen in the All-Ireland semi-final on the weekend on the 16/17th December. Time and venue TBC.
Scorers for Castlelyons: A Spillane 3-2, A Fenton 0-8 (0-5 f), K O’Leary 0-4, J Kearney, B Murphy 0-1 each.
CASTLELYONS: J Barry; J O’Leary, C Barry, D Spillane; N O’Leary, C Spillane (capt), L Sexton; K O’Leary, A Fenton; B Murphy, J Kearney, O Hallihan; D Morrison, L Doocey, A Spillane.
Subs: S Moroney for J O’Leary (36), C McCarthy for B Murphy (48), P Roche for K O’Leary (60), B O’Donovan for D Morrison (62), R Feeney for L Doocey (63).
Memorable & Historic Victory Speech by Captain Fantastic - Colm Spillane.
AGM Friday 8th December
2023 has been a phenomenal year for Castlelyons GAA club both on and off the pitch. County and Munster Intermediate glory have given us all such great memories and has lifted the spirits of many people in the parish. We were also delighted to open the public walkway around our new development and play the very first game on our new pitch. The GAA club is also proud to be involved with the Friends of Dean and Padraig with all the brilliant work that is done with the kids. None of these achievements could be done without a massive amount of work from volunteers in the club. The running of a GAA club is no mean feat and there is a huge amount of work that goes in behind the scenes to make sure teams have clean jerseys, water, physios, sliothars and every facility needed to create a winning atmosphere. It is important to acknowledge all those people in the back-ground who do the less glamourous jobs and how important they are. And now this Friday the 8th December we are having our Annual General Meeting at 8.00pm in the community centre. New members and old friends are always welcome to attend. We have a very positive picture to paint this year I believe so you will hear updates from the development committee on the work being carried out on the pitch and future planned works. Team reports from the various managers and election of officers for 2024. Please come down if you have an hour to attend this important meeting.
Lotto
Numbers drawn on 4th December were 5, 7, 10 and 20. There was no winner of the Jackpot. Lucky Dip winners were Sophie O’Leary, David Hegarty, Michael Condon, Mark O’Leary, Will & Conor, Joanne Lee, Jim Delea, and Phil Shanahan. Next week’s Jackpot is €16,200. Make sure to buy your ticket to be in with a chance to win. Next draw will take place on Monday 11th December at 8.00pm in the Community Centre.
Sponsors
Our main sponsor is Zeus Packaging. We would like to thank them for their continued support.
