As well as winning a crucial division game, the club won our first football tournament in five years on July 13th at the Timmy Cronin Senior Memorial Cup in Winston-Salem. Beer out of a Tournament Cup truly does taste better! We celebrated with a few well earned drinks in Winston-Salem, then back here in Raleigh at our sponsor the Hibernian.
We played out of our skins to beat Charlotte in the most important game we’ve played in five years. Some players excelled – like our captain on the day Eric Leonard – who has improved so much by barely missing a training session in months, or Jay Carter who ran hard all day, or newcomer to Raleigh GAA from Philadelphia GAA club Delco, Tyler Ranieri ,who bagged four goals in the second game against Winston-Salem. But it was a real team effort and everyone did themselves proud. While missing some key players our newer players really stepped up to the challenge. Our football managers, Mike McCarthy and Johnny Dawson deserve the accolades for seeing us through the intense training sessions to prepare for this day.
Well done to everyone who played, and thank you to those who supported and cheered us on, Finbar Daly, Monika Goncalves, the Foleys, and Paul’s wife Jenny, to name but a few of our great supporters on the day, not to mention the wives and girlfriends who’ve been minding the kids while we’ve been at training week in week out. Thanks also to Finbar Daly who traveled to Winston-Salem on Friday night, staying overnight there, to get referee certified by referee coordinator Hugh Duggan.
