The team headed off from BRA at 12.30 on Saturday 18 May 2019 with the expected 8 of our 10 player squad to play our first two qualifying games at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.
While most of team had played a number of times together and indeed travelled to Galway in January for the Corrib development tournament we also had Sally along on Saturday for her first games outside of Ulster.
We were hopeful of a good showing based on our second place result in Galway but also wary as we didn’t have a number of those players traveling with us this time and had only 1 substitute for the Saturday games. This proved very useful when Daniel Cunningham advised that he had hurt his wrist during the week and we weren’t sure how it would hold up.
All of our group games were scheduled to be played in the smaller of the two pools and having two games going at the same time in an adjacent pool was a first for many of our players.
Our first group game at 16.00 was against St Vincents Whales and we won this comfortably 17-1. We then had a two hour wait until our next game at 18.00 against Clonard B we won again 11-4. As a result everyone was in good form heading back up the road to Belfast and looking forward to more of the same on Sunday.
On Sunday morning we were a bit more subdued when we met at 6.00am to hit the road back to Dublin for our 8.30 game. We were delighted that Sally, having enjoyed Saturdays games so much, asked if she could go on Sunday as well as she. We were met in Dublin by Luca Straten and Finn Black who were also first timers on a national stage and that meant that we had 3 substitutes.
Our third qualifying game against Sandycove went well and we won 13-2 with Luca Straten scoring his first goal in a national competition. We then went for a leisurely breakfast in IKEA followed by a stroll around the Phoenix Park visitor centre.
Next it was back to the NAC for final group game at 13.30 against North Dublin, this proved to be the most difficult game of the qualifying stage but we managed a satisfactory win 8-3. We had done it, won our group with a goal difference of 36 goals! We quickly worked out that our quarter final opponents were Corrib A who we had lost out to in January but were hopeful of an upset, especially as they had come second in their qualifying group.
Our quarter final took place at 15.00 and Corrib took an early lead which they held onto despite a late rally by our players, who narrowed the gap to 2 goals in the last quarter, only to lose out in dying seconds 9-6.
We then went into the playoffs against Bangor Barracudas at 16.00 and won that game 17-8 with Luca Straten adding to his goal tally and Finn Black scoring his first national competition goal. This meant we had one more game against Newry, a playoff for 5/6 places, and after a short wait we started at 17.45. The team put up a very spirited performance but in the end the early start and number of games told and we lost 9-6.
The team were very disappointed but we did point out that they had come 6 out of 20 teams which took part. It was only later that we found out that Corrib A, who had put us out at the quarter final stage, had won the competition in a close final game with St Vincent’s Sharks 6-4.
I would like to congratulate all of the players Daniel and Cormac for the leadership they showed, Bobby Lee and Luca Hughes who got better with every game they played, Daniel Cunningham who asked to play despite his wrist injury, Luke for his first ever time playing in nets, and to Stephen, Sally, Luca and Finn who despite being the younger players showed great willingness and determination throughout.
Thanks also go to the parents who gave their time and cars for transport to and from Dublin, Mia for her help on the pool bank encouraging and looking after the players, Tracey for organising it all and Jacob for coaching the team. I went along to help out as needed and was delighted to see the improvement in all of the players over the weekend, there really is nothing like match practice to develop a team. I have the usual memento a sore throat from shouting but hope I didn’t deafen anyone too badly!
Coach: Jacob Duffin
Assistant Coach: Michael McKendry
Manager: Tracey Duffin
Assistant Manager/Watergirl: Mia McHugh
Team:
Daniel Duffin
Cormac Creagh
Luca Hughes
Daniel Cunningham
Stephen Moore
Luke Philips
Bobbi-Leigh Joyce
Sally Alissa
Luca Straten
Finn Black