Weston III 4 (Enda Tucker 2, Jon Long 2) Mullingar II 2 (Peter Collins 2)
A four-goal, first half blitz handed Weston III their second Leinster Junior Cup as they got the better of Mullingar II at Serpentine Avenue last Sunday, over-turning two league defeats at the hands of the same opponents this term. It handed coach Ivan Walpole his first cup medal after three final setbacks in recent years.
The ‘gar started in decent fashion, earning an early couple of corners only for Barry Gilmartin to race off his line quickest to block any impending shots.
And, after that early scare, the Lucan side began to dominate proceedings with Jon Long, Enda Tucker and Neil O’Donnell controlling proceedings in midfield.
Long earned a corner in the 12th minute which Tucker duly dragged home and he bagged his second with a similarly spectacular corner effort, rising the ball into the netting.
The former Glenanne man turned provider for the third goal, still inside the first 25 minutes when he drove an excellent ball into the circle for Long to deflect home.
Mullingar fought back manfully in the second half, inspired by Derek Mulligan’s interval words, with Jim Bob Baker getting plenty of ball down the right. Colin Watters was sin-binned in the 47th minute but, in his absence, Peter Collins netted from the Westmeath side’s first shot on target.
And with five minutes left, Collins got his second following a goal-mouth scramble.
* Words with thanks to Derek Tucker and Fergus Walls; Pictures thanks to Carl Froese, for more pics, click here
8 comments:
Intresting that Enda Tucker who has been a regular player and has scored so many important goals this season for Westons 1st XI including one on Sat v Suttonians has popped up playing for Westons 3rd XI in the Cup final last Sun?? How is this allowed?
Simple, because the Cup meant so much to them. There's a huge difference bewteen Division 2 and Division 7 hockey. Yet another blot on Leinster Hockey this season. Well done to Mullingar for sticking with their second team and NOT picking any of their first team players. Apparently that's the fifth time Mullingar have come up against packed sides in Cup Finals and lost the lot.
Agree with previous comment, bad form allowing a player who will be playing div 1 hockey next season play in a div7/8 cup final even if he is registered on there 3rd team.
Weston have been on the receiving end of other clubs working the registrations to allow players to drop down the ranks. As a Weston player I agree that its hard on Mullingar and maybe its not fair but its within the rules and until the branch changes the rules the majority of clubs will play the players that they are eligible to play.
Maybe a rule should be put in place that players who play in a cup competition for a more senior team are ineligible to drop down. Obvious problem with this is if a player is asked to play up a division or two because of shortages.
Final point is that Weston played two other club sides to reach the final, having played against the same teams in the league one of the teams was virtually unrecognisable.
Why cant the whole system be computerised by the branch, Im sure their could be a simple system installed where player regs,scores,fixtures,scorers,red and yellow cards,player suspensions ect could be regulated by a computer to eliminate this sort of thing in the future,this reg system should be clear for all to see also,so that any club can check the status of another clubs registrations prior to playing them. It would also help greatly with player suspensions if yellow and red cards were entered after matches it could automatically issue suspensions to players who step over the line ( I have seen a couple of players pick up plenty of yellows during last season but didnt serve any branch suspensions!)
The Cup rules go on League Division Registrations.
So for example If there is a Div 4/5 Cup, you cannot have any Div 1/2 Registered players. I think You may possibly be allowed have 2-3 Div 3 players, depending on the cup , the rest must be Div 4/5 and below (ignore the divisions I have selected, just using examples).
That aside, it seems bad form that A player who is a starting player on their firsts is registered as a 3rd. Whatever about registering as a 2nd (some cases its inevitable) and thats where team loading comes into it. This happens all the time.
1sts player to 3rds is a bit much and to be honest, not really in the interest of fair play. It would be a different story if they played 3rds week in week out but thats unlikley to be the case.
Unfortunately for Mullingar, Weston did not break any rules if he was indeed registered as a 3rd.
Maybe the mens branch could adopt a similar approach to the ladies registrations whereby if you play something like 8 games for a team you must be registered for that team.
Not sure of exact circumstances here but in Munster there is a rule where a player must play at least two league matches for a team before being eligible to play in a cup match for that team (exceptions for genuine reasons if playing at correct level - return from injury, recent joiner). So if the said Enda played a few league matches for 3rds he would be OK but if he was parachuted in just for the cup final then he would not be.
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