The last week in April seems a strange time of the year to kick start your league campaign but weather conditions in the preceding months meant just that for the O’Dwyers U15 Boys football team. The first game of the season was away to Lucan Sarsfields on Thursday 25th April and showed early signs of potential league success. O’Dwyers started strong and always appeared to be dominating procession but two quick goals from Lucan before the half left O’Dwyers trailing by 1 point. O’Dwyers play lacked team involvement and while there were moments of individual brilliance it wasn’t enough to stage a convincing comeback. The second half saw some strange decisions resulting in successive quick scores against the run of play to Lucan. Verbal abuse from the opposition side-line clearly upset one of O’Dwyers key players and as a result discipline broke down as did the result. Lack of team play, match practice and team discipline paid its toll in the end. Final Score: Lucan Sarsfields 6-05 O’Dwyers 4-02.
Sunday morning 28th April, with a renewed sense of focus on team performance and a hunger to get a result, the team travelled away to Castleknock who to date had played two and won two. Armed with a new insight from some solid performances on Thursday night, the team was restructured and refocused on securing the half back and full back line to prevent conceding scores. Seanin Keenan was brought into right full to support Darragh Mathews and Paul McNally. Davy Creamer slotted into half right back to help strengthen this line. The midfield duo of Daniel Hughes and Matthew Leonard provided considerable strength and height to win and gain possession and as a result Daniel took a very quick goal from the initial throw in. This was quickly followed up with a beautifully taken point from Tom Downes playing in a centre half forward role. Tom secured a further 2 points in the first half along with a goal from David Creamer and a nicely taken point by Conor O’Sullivan. Unfortunately we have not yet found a goalkeeper to replace Chris and as a result we conceded some soft goals despite Darragh Mathews fantastic performance in full back. Darragh commanded the area, winning and securing at least 90% of the play and delivering the ball accurately to the half backs and midfield. Half Time Score: Castleknock 3-02 O’Dwyers 2-05.
O’Dwyers never looked under threat from Castleknock and for the first we sensed that the lads were enjoying the game. This was very much a team performance rather than individual. The full forward line were brought into play and some great scores were taken early in the second half. Two quick goals, one from Cian O’Maonaigh and one from Matthew Leonard certainly helped build confidence. New club member Luke Rae found a home at Right Half back and helped secure and deliver some excellent ball to the midfield and forwards. Eoghan (Richy) Richardson got his name on the score board and was credited with a super goal delivered to the bottom left hand corner. This was followed up later with a point. Daniel Hughes added 2 more goals to his tally. Final Score: Castleknock 5-06 O’Dwyers 6-07.
Team: Dairmuid Tuckey,Seanin Keanan, Darragh Mathews , Paul McNally, David Creamer, Cormac O’Byrne, Fiach Keenan, Daniel Hughes, Matthew Leonard, Eoghan Richardson, Tom Downes, Cian O’Maoinaigh, Eoin Richardson, Conor O’Sullivan, Oisin McDonald.
Subs: Luke Rae for Eoin Richardson and swapped position with Fiach Keenan.
Peter Lawless replaced Diarmuid Tuckey in goal who later slotted in full forward for Oisin McDonald.
