Frosties to get a cool reception
“We will be meeting Demons on the rebound all right,” Frosties PRO, John Folan, admitted. “But at this point our hopes of winning the league appear to be pretty slim.”
This year, however, they have a very young team. John Teahan, at 31, is the senior member of the squad. But, since the arrival of coach Rus Bradburd, they have been building for the future.
“Since Rus arrived in we have been working on the whole structure of the club. He has been doing a fantastic job and spending as much time with the under-12’s as with the national league side,” said Folan.
“We have a very young side at the moment and they are gaining a lot of experience - players like Alan Keane, Kevin O’Donoghue, Liam Culloty, who came to us via Moyderwell and Kieran Donaghy who scored 15 points on his debut last weekend.”
Unfortunately Teahan twisted his back on Wednesday night. He was in a lot of pain yesterday and could miss tonight’s game. His absence would be a big blow to the side. They are likely to be without Michael Leonard for the remainder of the season. He has had surgery on a cruciate ligament and Michael Quirke is involved with Kerins O’Rahilly’s in the Kerry SFC final.
Pat Price should have a full squad at his disposal tonight with Shane Coughlan recovering nicely from his ankle injury. It is not a coincidence that he was not available when they lost their two games this season.
Fresh from Wednesday night’s victory, Neptune travel to Dublin to play Notre Dame tomorrow night with an opportunity to consolidate their position on top of the table. Notre Dame went under to Frosties last weekend when losses for both UCC Marian and Sx3 star means that there is now no unbeaten team in the competition.
“It is a nice position to be in at this point,” said Neptune Coach Martin Aherne. “We have a lot of young players who have come up through our own nursery - lads who started with myself and were brought on by Tony O’Connell and Noel Allen and those players would die for the club.”
Of those, Michael McGinn and Emmet Neville are already making names for themselves. McGinn, an outstanding under age player, did not play at all last season when he was at College in Tralee but he has appeared in four national league games already this season - sharing time with Stephen McCarthy.
Dart Killester put an end to Star’s unbeaten run last season after their new American, Anthony Pieper, suffered a serious leg injury in the first quarter. He has returned to the US for treatment and Star have signed former Tyrone Towers player, Charles Mason, for tomorrow night’s visit to Waterford to play Waterford Crystal with Kevin Craig another absentee.
Crystal have woes of their own after going under 109-61 to Neptune last weekend. Patrick Fitzpatrick had returned to the US leaving unexpectedly leaving Michael Evans short for the season as the IBA regulations do not allow them to sign another Bosman after the October 2 deadline.
Chris Thomas has been released by the club and replaced by 6’7” forward, Luke Dean, who hit 22 points and on his debut. Tolka Rovers, meanwhile, will have a full squad this weekend when they play St Vincent’s.
