Well done to our U-14 hurlers who advanced to the Mid Final last night following a great battle with neighbours Drom/Inch at the Ragg. The home side were out of the traps very quickly and dominated the opening eight minutes after which they led by two to nil. Jamie Ormond settled the Brackens nerves when he scored a nice point on the run to open our account. Conor Gleeson landed his second from play for Drom before Jamie (free) amd Ciaran O'Shea levelled it at the water break. Drom got a great boost with a well worked Oliver Barry goal on the restart. Jamie landed another from play before Drom landed a second major through Cormac Fitzpatrick to lead by six. Brackens had the last score of the half through a Ciaran O'Shea point from play to leave it 2-4 to 0-5 at the break. Brackens certainly needed to up their game and driven on from the back by Tom Corcoran and Dylan Quinlan they came out all guns blazing after the break. Five points in the opening ten minutes from Jamie (4,2f) and Cian Sheedy to a lone point from Drom reduced arrears to the minimum before Gleeson landed a big blow to Brackens hopes with their third goal just before the water break. To their credit Brackens didn't panic and showed great calm, on and off the field. They were hurling well and despite the concession of the goal they stuck to the task. Kyle Whelan broke a lovely ball to Ciaran O'Shea for a point before Jamie Ormond converted two frees to close the gap to one. Back came Drom with two in a row from Cormac Fitzpatrick before Sean Purcell set up Ciaran O'Shea who fired to the top corner to level it up with three minutes to play. Again Drom responded with a great point from play from Barry and he should have had another but hit a bad wide to let us off the hook. A superb catch and drive from Jamie Ormond resulted in a 60 metre free which he duly converted to level again. And just before the heavens opened a cracking point from the tightest of angles by Cian Sheedy proved to be the winner. (3-8 to 1-15). It was a great team effort overall and we now go forward to face Durlas Og in the final as we look for our first title at this grade since 2008. Best of luck. Brackens Abu.
Team and Scorers: Cormac Bourke Billy Collier Robert Crampton Dayle Hogan Robert Lee Dylan Quinlan Tom Corcoran Josh Quinlan Jack Marnell Jamie Ormond (0-10, 6f) Kyle Whelan Sean Purcell Aodhna Barrett Ciaran O'Shea (1-3) Sean Walsh. Subs Used: Cian Sheedy (0-2) Padraig O'Shea.