U10's travel to Portumna

A full bus of U10 boys, mentors and parents travelled to Portumna on Sunday morning for a game against the locals and an opportunity to meet and learn some of the tricks of the trade from the All Ireland Club champion’s inter-county stars.

The trip had generated a terrific amount of excitement amongst the boys (and some of the mentors/parents), especially at the thought of getting to meet Joe Canning, and they were barely off the bus and on the pitch when the great man himself appeared, whistle in hand, to act as referee for their match. The game itself was a close and competitive affair throughout with the Portumna boys prevailing at the final whistle by a couple of scores.

After the game, the travelling party were treated to food and refreshments by a very warm and welcoming host club and everybody then took up a spot on the sideline to watch the Portumna senior team play against Drom-Inch from Tipperary in what proved to be a very competitive challenge match.

Once the senior match was over and the warm downs completed, the Portumna inter-county players remained behind and immediately set about talking to the boys, advising them on various aspects of the game and demonstrating some of the finer skills. There were loud gasps from the boys as Joe gave an exhibition of his famous side-line cuts over the bar. On the other side of the pitch one of the boys could be politely heard enquiring from Kevin “Chunky” Hayes as to what sort of name Chunky was and where he had got it from. At the 45 meter line Damien Hayes was passionately explaining the value of using the hurling wall and closely inspecting his group of boy’s hurleys to establish how much work they had been doing at the “ball alley”! By the half-way line, Eugene McEntee was running the boys through their paces, advising and demonstrating the value of the first touch. Once the skills session finished up, the players obligingly signed autographs and posed for photographs with the boys.

This was a great day out for the travelling party from Kilmacud and we would like to sincerely express our thanks to Portumna GAA - especially Davy Canning and Dan Lynch for facilitating the trip, the parents and children of Portumna for the wonderful hospitality and to the four Portumna players who really epitomised the meaning of the word “sport stars”. On the Crokes side, a special word of thanks to Portumna man, Peter Kenny, who put a great amount of work into organising the trip and making it happen and to Joan as always for the “number-crunching”.

To see photos of the trip, click HERE or on the image below