Congratulations to our under 19 basketball team on overcoming a tough semi final against St Colman's Fermoy and getting to the county final.
Let me begin by acknowledging the huge amount of work Ms. Keating has done with this team since first year. Also, Steve Redmond, Pat Dwyer and Lorcan Carey have contributed enormously to their progress over the years in getting this team to the level they are at. Being county finalists, they have earned a place in the All Ireland series. They train at 7.30 while many of you are sleeping and deserve great credit for the effort they put in.
Prior to the final, news on the basketball airwaves was glowing from the teams who had played Youghal. They had beaten every team they played by huge margins and we knew we were up against it. Ger MacEoin and Steve Redmond offered a glimmer of hope in their assessment saying we had a chance but we would have to play our best basketball. Again, Steve compiled a detailed page of notes for us on the main threats posed by Youghal which we are grateful for. All we had to do was deliver!
On the day, our play fell very short of what was required. Our defence worked tirelessly to curtail the threat of a very talented Youghal team and to our credit we did this job well. Patryck Mallinowski was playing superbly keeping their Ballincollig star Killian to a minimum until he was struck with injury. His loss was huge and also meant we lost a potent shooter who could hurt Youghal in attack.
Youghal were dominating the board on both sides of the court and our shooting was poor. Worse was to befall us when Szymon picked up 4 fouls relatively early in the game. The introduction of Micheál Sheehy and Robbie Minihane had a dramatic positive effect on our rebounding as both boys can jump like gazelles and will give you everything in terms of sheer effort. However, we have to admit that our long and short shooting could only be described as poor and fell very short of the high standard we produce in training. There is no doubt in my mind that we can perform to a higher standard and our task in the weeks ahead is to push ourselves to do it.
In the words of Nelson Mandela, ' there is no passion to be found playing small and settling for a life that's less than the one you are capable of living'.
While we strove hard to curb the Youghal offensive threats and worked tirelessly, our attack was limited and time and time again our efforts were crushed by our physically stronger opponents. The only glimmer of hope in attack was the sharp shooting of Eividas who scored 11 of our 36 points. Jack Payne Murphy also stepped up to the challenge and contributed 6 points to the attack. The final score of 49 to 36 appears to be a respectable score but we know we did not perform to anything like we are capable of in this game.
Going forward to the play offs, we will have to improve dramatically in so many areas. If our ambition is to advance, many of our players will have to step up and be counted but i have full faith in these boys to do it.