Officially now the record, heretofore, will show that our first hurling game of the year, and indeed the decade, did not take place until high summer and that we lost the game. This statistical anomaly is, however, the only drawback from a game that provided everything the coaching team would have wanted from a challenge game of such stature. It was competitive throughout, all 22 players togged out each had a full game as it was structured in three 25 minute intervals, there was some positional experimentation and as the scoreline shows, there is plenty to work on. The important games are a few weeks away and like all teams we have only a short window to get the preparation right hence it is important to identify the flaws quickly in order to find solutions.

There was, of course, plenty of positives from the game also. In our first attack a ball from Gearóid Fleming into the forwards was gathered by Cormac Dervan who in turn passed the ball across the square where it was doubled first time to the net by Seamus Reid for a cracking goal. Such goals are almost a rarity in hurling in the modern era so it was delightful aspect of the game. Despite this goal, it is fair to say that the Glen, who were fielding a mix of their junior and intermediate sides, started the better of the sides and dominated the early exchanges. This was reflected in the fact the they scored next 1-03 without reply before the strong performing wing-back Breandán Murnane got our next score; a superb individual point from distance. Conor Buckley got White’s Cross’ next two scores with a point from play and from a free but these were matched by two minors from our opponents. A soft second goal seemed to deflate the side momentarily at the end of the first period as the Glen scored 1-02 without reply. This left the score 2-07 to 1-03 at the end of the first ‘third’.

As was the nature of the game, a whole host of changes were made at the first interval. A few of the older brigade, Derek O’Connor, John O’Connell and Richie Sherlock came on in the back line to join the equally long-serving Padraig Murnane who was performing very solidly at corner back. In the forward line, last year’s minor graduates David Hyde and Cathal O’Flynn entered the fray and looked very lively. This second period did not see the same level of scoring as the first but it did see us lead in that department by four points to two with the ever dependable Conor Buckley accounting for all with two each from play and frees. At end of the second period the score was now Glen Rover 2-09 White’s Cross 1-07.

Again, before the restart, a whole series of changes were made to the side. Like at the very beginning of the game, we scored another early goal this time it came from newcomer Seán O’Neill (son of selector Christy) to leave only two points between the sides. Unfortunately we were not able to reduce the gap further and the next three points were registered to the Glen. Conor Buckley, our freetaker, had departed at this point and this was costly as number of scoreable frees were missed that would probably otherwise have been scored. The points we did get in the final ten minutes were probably the best scores of the game from a team work perspective. Cormac Dervan, who was very impressive throughout, and Ross Murphy will be credited with the scores but it was the workrate and movement from the likes of Gearoid

Fleming and Breandan Murnane that were the features of the scores. Ross Murphy’s score was the final one in a very worthwhile exercise and enjoyable evening. Their next outing will come on Friday evening (10th July) with another challenge game at home to Erins Own.