On Wednesday our seniors had a resounding win over Carey in The Feis Cup semi final to qualify for a final meeting with Dunloy. Its not often you see any team score 3-32 but that was Ruairi Og’s impressive tally against Carey. It remains to be seen how Dunloy and Cushendall will line up in the final given both sides have several players with county commitments. This shouldn’t detract too much for the final. The Feis is an important competition both in an historical sense and for many players and supporters in The Glens, second only too The County Championship. A Feis win is always a good launch pad for an assault on The Volunteer Cup.
Finally on Thursday the senior reserves faced up to Loughgiel in The Countess Of Antrim Cup. Again this was expected to be a close, tough encounter but a superb performance from Cushendall tore up the script and really the game was dead and buried with fifteen minutes to go. The final score was Ruairi Og 3-19 Loughgiel 0-13.
Ruairi Og teams are going well at the moment and you can see the type of hurling they are trying to play. The support play and running off the ball has been impressive and it has led to some excellent victories. However nothing is won yet, but there is a good feeling around the club at the moment and supporters are looking forward to the summer ahead.
After each match report I select my man of the match, this review of the past week is slightly different so rather than man of the match I’ll select a man of the week which goes to Sean Mc Afee. Sean was one of the shining lights in Cushendall’s 2010 Minor Championship winning team. In the 2011 minor final Sean suffered a career threatening injury to his knee. A long rehabilitation program, which also had setbacks and some time spent travelling in Australia have done the trick because he is now back playing the sort of hurling that he is capable of. His high fielding, strong running, support play and eye for a score were a feature in the under 21’s win and in The Countess Of Antrim Cup game against Loughgiel he was simply unplayable as several markers tried and failed to curb his influence.
It has been a good few days, lets continue to build and prepare as the season heats up. Ruairi Og ABU!!!
by Colum Thompson