Ryano Injury Casts Shadow

I'm not sure will we ever experience days like the ones in Summer 2010 when we were able to have a four team intra-club league. Maybe just as well considering how emotional that got at times!! Our numbers are not what they were but on Saturday we still managed a full game, played over four fifteen minute periods in the VUB.

It is important to set these games up in the proper manner and make sure that the players don't just treat them as a casual kick about. To facilitate that, Willie gave up his afternoon to referee and umpires were supplied by Kevin in the form of girlfriend Anay and dad, Michael. Giller was on hand to keep some basic stats and provide comment where necessary.

Actually, we ended up playing 11 v 10. Collie B spat the dummy about me picking all the Cork lads on the same team during a training game last week so I had to pick myself on the team with 10 to appease him. We rotated our keeper in each period and suffered accordingly! I think we were lobbed three times for goals and managed to lose around 80% of our kick-outs!

As I mentioned, Giller was the stat man but we actually only focused on one - turnovers, broken into those in the defending and attacking halves. This will be our focus in the coming weeks and we will work relentlessly on improving that area. The most pleasing stat was the one which said our team didn't conceed the ball once in our own half in the third quarter. However, in the quarter either side, we coughed up possession 8-10 times. The main thing for guys to take from that is we can do it when we are concentrated.

On the scoreboard we were struggling to stay within touch. Our attacking options were limited as Johnny and Dan were forced to track the spare men. Timmy was a lonely figure up front and had plenty of attention from the likes of Ross, Keary and Karl. As mentioned after The Hague, we're working the ball up the pitch too slowly so on Saturday we kicked more long balls into Tim, even though the risk factor was much higher. He fought well to feed off the scraps and felt afterwards he got a great workout because of that.

The returning Conor Aylward was the star of the show kicking five points from play for his team. Overall, they looked the more settled of the two and were very well organised. Their 4-12 to 3-7 win couldn't really be argued with.

I had a fairly brutal outing, covering a lot of ground in a fairly aimless manner, bar a five minute spell in the fourth quarter. I've no concern at the moment though. Relative to previous years, my back is in much better shape and I haven't missed a session because of it yet. The downside is that it takes the legs a good three days to feel fresh after a session!! I'd take that though and will manage my training to be fresh when it matters.

The only downside, besides losing (!), was a bigger loss in the form of Shane Ryan. He also suffers issues with his back but was regaining full fitness this year. He went for a high ball on Saturday and landed hard. The diagnosis is a herniated disk. We have no image of how long he will be out but wish him a speedy recovery.

Considering Saturday's success and the positive feedback from the lads, we've shelved the plans for a team building activity on the 24th and will now play another in-house game, in preparation for the first Benelux tournament at the end of the month. As Lynchy said afterwards, team building is hardly something we need more of so an afteroon playing football will be of much more benefit.