A New Decade Begins

A New Decade – A New Chapter.

The Benburb Cup was resting in the MacGinty Rooms at Eoghan Ruadh Hurling Club once again.

It could have had another trophy sitting alongside it and for long periods of the Ulster Club Hurling Final on the 17th of November 2019 it looked like that was going to be the case.

It just wasn’t to be.

Something else was lurking in the background, something we didn’t have any control off and which was going to affect everyone globally.

Ireland like most countries throughout the world were given strict lockdown rules as the COVID virus spread.

The National Hurling and Football leagues had commenced as normal in January but by the time the Taoiseach made his speech to the Country on the 12th of March, the sad reality was that a big change of events was coming soon.

The Feile na Gael and U17 Celtic Challenge Development games were cancelled on the 18th of March.

The All Ireland Hurling Championship was postponed until further notice on the 14th of April.

A GAA Covid Advisory Group was set up and detailed a four phase return to play roadmap with a Covid Supervisor being installed in each club.

Youth Training by zoom.

Weekly zoom sessions were organised by our Youth Coaching officer, with special formats for different age groups.

Quite entertaining to say the least and it did really break the monotony of this lockdown period.

It’s amazing the fun you can have under such dire circumstances.

It was great to see so many Parents joining the sessions to ensure their children’s training and skills could still progress.

Thankfully this did not have to last too long.

Return to Play

In June 2020, the GAA introduced a phased return to play for Clubs throughout Ireland which would begin in July.

Protocols were exhaustive but thankfully they are a distant memory now.

Ensuring parents completed the weekly return to play forms on the GAA portal seemed a laborious but necessary task.

The point to note was This Will Pass.

The GAA is the heart of the Community.

Unprecedented global events like this can have severe detrimental effects on our Community.

Dungannon town has always had residents who are kindly good neighbours.

A large team of volunteers were gathered to help those in the community who needed it most, the elderly, the lonely, the housebound, the homeless and the worried to name a few.

Groceries and important medicine were delivered direct to doors, items that were needed most such as masks and gloves were sourced.

It was a proud moment for the town with our Club playing its part.

Back to Hurling.

There was very little competitive action during the Spring and early Summer Months.

The U13 Championship was won again.

U13 Tyrone Champions 2020.

The Senior Championship Final was again a two horse race between ourselves and Carrickmore which took place on September 20th.

Unfortunately after a tight enough start, Carrickmore scored 3 goals before half time to give them a 10 point lead as the second half began.

The lads didn’t lie down though and fought to the final whistle bringing the deficit back to 5 points as the game ended.

You can watch the 2020 Senior Championship Final By Clicking here.

The Rusty Ruadh’s

Social Hurling was becoming very popular in areas throughout Ireland over the previous few years.

Aimed at providing retired players and everyone else willing to try regular recreational hurling.

With no referee, teams, clubs or league, it was played in a non-competitive environment and was as much about camaraderie, social interaction and fun as it is about a passion for the sport.

Lockdown had kept us all socially distancing with little interaction.

As humans we are not programmed for such isolation.

The Rusty’s were formed to bring everyone willing to play once weekly on a Thursday night.

This give us the chance to interact, exercise and have a bit of craic for an hour or so each week.

It proved very popular.

The first night even had a big attendance cheering the players on.

Unfortunately, another lockdown prior to Christmas 2020, put the Rusty’s on ice over the Winter months.

2021

Lockdown was fortunately lifted again as we entered 2021.

Although there seemed no end in sight from the plague of Coronavirus that had taken hold throughout the world.

Indoor Youth training had restarted again, in the Dungannon Youth Resource Centre on a Monday night for age groups U9 and under and at DUY for U11 and U13 age groups.

There was plenty of games to come throughout the year for these age groups including the return of our own Rotary Cup and Billy Ritchie Tournaments.