U10 All Ireland Blitz

U10 FOOTBALL BLITZ IN CELBRIDGE

Edenderry Under 10 footballers and management team headed off early last Saturday morning to take part in the biggest football blitz held in Ireland this year, in Celbridge Co. Kildare. Edenderry travelled with big numbers; even in the height of holiday season, we had two teams of 13 players with another 9 away on the day. This group have had two teams for all blitzes and one off games all year, which is a great sign for the club.

All of these players started out with the CÚL REDZ a number of years ago and the skills learned were all put on show on Saturday. Edenderry were paired off into two evenly matched teams in the spirit of Go Games (Edenderry EAST & WEST). The games were 10 a side and each game was 15 mins in duration.

Edenderry East was in a group with Mullingar Shamrocks, Crossmaglen and Leixlip. Edenderry were slow to get going in the first game and fell behind in the first half but they were much better in the second half but left just a little too much to do and lost out by 2 points. The lads gathered themselves up and came out all guns against the power houses of football Crossmaglen Rangers, they played some great football and worked hard for each other and came out winners by 6 points. In their last game Edenderry came up against Leixlip and the lads took off in the same manner to win the game easily. Edenderry moved onto the next section of the blitz and came up against a strong home team in Celbridge. The lads legs were started to feel tired and the early start and lost out by 6 points but they battled right to the end and never gave in.

Edenderry East panel was Mark Whelan, Josh Reilly, Bobby and Jake Mooney, Cain and Aaron Murphy, Stephen Davy, Cathal Tyrell, Daniel O Connell, Jake Connelly, Leon Mc Grath, Cathal Nolan and Tom Bergin.

Edenderry West was in a group with Celbridge, Sallins and Kilmurray Ibricklane, Edenderry played Kilmurray first, for the first few mins of the match the lads were a bit nervous but when they got going they never looked back and were always in control of this game they led from the 3rd min and in the end ran out winners by 16pts. Next up for the lads was a the home team Celbridge, the lads were slow to get going but in the same manner took off and won out comfortably in the end. Then on to the last game in the group and it was Sallins who had won their first two games as well. Edenderry started well, the game was very even with some outstanding football from both sides, all level at half time but Sallins came out the stronger in the second half and went 3 points up on Edenderry but the Reds boys were far from finished and battled back to win the game by 3 points.

Next up for Edenderry east was Leixlip, this was a great game of football it was point for point the whole game, however some strange refereeing decisions went against the young reds in this game and in the end they lost out by a single point. The lads again worked hard and never gave in till the final second. On the Edenderry west panel was Aaron Kennedy, Mark Forde, Mark Mc Carty, Ben Whelan, Killian Lowry, Mark Byrne, Tieran Mc Glynn, Micheal Brady, Sean Larkin, Danny Brereton, Sean Lawless and Paudie Farrell.

Edenderry players can be very proud of how they fared out in this blitz,they were well able to hold their own up against some top class opposition. When the of the coaches of Kilmacud Crokes, Crossmaglen Rangers, Ballymun Kickims and Crossmolina come up to the Edenderry management and ask how have you got them working so hard for the ball on and off it and praising their skill levels - we are surely heading in the right direction. These lads are the first bunch to come up from CÚL REDZ and it has been from that it has all progressed for these lads, they all train very hard and are at it since the first week in April. The parents of these kids should be proud of the way they behaved themselves as Edenderry GAA Club are.

With all the football played it was off to get some food in McDonalds, the kids had a great bit of fun here for an hour then off home with the lads in full voice the whole way home.

The lads will be back in training Tue night as they have 3 more blitzes and then Edenderry will be holding an end of season blitz with teams from surrounding areas. Edenderry GAA would like to thank Willie Forde for the sponsorship for McDonald’s.