Ballyboden St Endas U9 hurlers were invited to play at Croke Park on Thurs 4th April as part of the Play & Stay Leinster Council initiative. The 20 lucky boys who were drawn to represent our mighty panel met at the club by 7.30am and all were on time!

Having travelled by car to Croke Park, the lads got to visit the Cusack Stand dressing rooms and warm-up area before taking the field in front of a keen bunch of Boden supporters to play a ground hurling game against our friends and rivals from Cuala. We played 10 players in each half and the final score was Ballyboden St. Endas 4.0, Cuala 3.0. It was a very even contest with some excellent defending and tackling.

Each half featured a spectacular save from Boden keepers Tom McGrenery and Ciaran Kiely and every boy played superbly throughout. Scorers for the Blues were Shane Flood, Leon Kennedy, Charlie Redmond and Michael Murphy. The boys had been at the last National League double header in Croke Park a few weeks ago where the hurlers and footballers both lost their only game this season, so they were delighted to have better fortune on this visit.

After the game, we lined up to climb the steps of the Hogan stand where there was many a photo taken with the Cup to remember this special day, before the club welcomed them back to Firhouse Road for refreshments.

Thanks to Emmet Pullan for co-ordinating the trip and hope we’ll see many of our U9 hurlers and footballers back in Croker in the future with Club, schools and county teams.