Season finale in sight.
Saturday afternoon in Templetuohy will bring the curtain down on another fantastic year for the JK Brackens club. Flicking through the various AGM reports, browsing the different Newsletters or scrolling back through Clubzap one forgets the amount of activity that happens in a GAA club over the course of twelve months. County final victories, fundraising, committee meetings, funerals, defeats, sandwich making, births, injuries, sending off’s, suspensions, appeals, marriages, rows, resignations, celebrations, homecomings, emigration - all part of the daily life of our club, all bringing different emotions, all keeping us together, our community, our club. Where would we be without it. Well for 2019 we’re down to our last date with Loughmore providing the opposition in the Mid Senior Football Final. It’s been a long season for a lot of our players and come Saturday evening they will be well entitled to rest their legs and relax for the festive period. Enjoy the turkey and plum pudding lads—can’t wait for 2020.
Under 21 Hurling
Last Sunday lunch time brought our hurling season to an end as the Sars two point victory saw them advance to the divisional decider against Holycross. Defeat to the Abbey men the previous week put the highest tariff on this game and the good start required materialised with Andy Ormond and Paddy Cadell giving us an early advantage. A well prepared sars were in no mood to lie down however and were three up by half-time. Five unanswered points in the opening eleven minutes of the second half pushed us two ahead but an Eoin Purcell goal ultimately proved the difference with the Blues advancing to the final on a 1-14 to 0-15 scoreline. Ultimately goals win games and interestingly Sunday was only the second blank we drew across all adult hurling teams in 2019 with Knock in the Junior B campaign the only other team to keep the major flag down.
Team and Scorers: Nick Keane Paddy Moloney Lorcan Roche Michael Egan Neil Quinlan (0-1) Tom Murphy Radek Natkaneic Paddy Cadell (0-1) Eanna McBride Lyndon Fairbrother (0-8f) Andrew Ormond (0-4,1f) Conor Cadell Shane Doyle (0-1) David O’Shea James Corcoran. Sub Used: Conor Sheedy for Quinlan ( injured ). Best wishes to Neil who received a nasty shoulder injury before half-time.
AGM
Last Saturday night saw the Senior Club hold their AGM in Clonmore. The top-table remains unchanged for 2020 while we welcome Phonsie Deegan and Tadhg Sheedy to the fold. Taking a break from the boardroom are Mervyn Bradish and Garret Kelleher and the club would like to thank them for their contributions over the past few seasons. The club is an excellent financial position with the investment in the newly revamped clubhouse a welcome addition. Both secretary Aoife Percy and treasurer Tony Sheedy provided excellent, detailed reports of the years happenings and a copy of these are available to any of our members. In his Chairman’s address Eamonn Corcoran thanked everybody associated with the club in a hugely successful year.
First Aid
Joe Keating will run a practical first aid course at Pairc Shileain towards the end of January which will take place over two Saturday mornings. This is often something overlooked by many people so this time the club would really like to encourage as many people as possible to take up this opportunity. Joe would like to stress that the main focus will be on the practical side of First Aid - a weak area for a lot of us. And it’s not just for use on the playing field. You will learn vital skills that can be used in any place at any time. So have a think about it and if you decide to go for it please contact Aoife Percy on 087-7734300.
Stepping down
The club would like to express their gratitude to Paidi Bourke, Paraic Keely, Peter Maher and Kevin Mulryan for all their time and effort over the last three years as they have decided to step down. Taking over the U-21 football team in 2017 they were desperately unlucky to lose a County semi-final to Moyle Rovers in extra-time but made no mistake twelve months later when defeating the same opposition to land our first ever title at the grade. This year saw them move up to take charge of both Senior teams and as you all know by now the rest is history. Work and family commitments have forced their hand for the time being and we wish them well for the future. Another integral part of their backroom team was our strength and conditioning coach Stephen Butler and the club are glad to announce that Stephen will be staying on board with the new management team. Their last game at the helm will be the Mid Tipperary Senior Football final against Loughmore which takes place in Templetuohy on Saturday at 3pm. Let’s hope they can go out as they came in. With silverware. Best of luck lads and thanks for everything.
