Eoghan Rua aim for more progress next year as season draws to a close

It was a season of mixed fortunes with the undoubted highlight provided by their senior camogs who retained the Derry senior championship title beating Slaughtneil in the final.

They then went on to an Ulster final against Antrim champions Loughgiel in defence of their provincial title.

Unfortunately they lost out to the Antrim side by a single point after their top scorer and captain Grainne McGoldrick was injured just six minutes into the game and was stretchered off with a leg injury.

Unfortunately the injury turned out to be serious with McGoldrick likely to be out of action for much of next season. Any return late next year would be a bonus for the player and Eoghan Rua.

At the start of this year , in February, the Eoghan Rua camogs lost in the All-Ireland senior semi-final to reigning champions Milford from Cork.

On the football front, once again Eoghan Rua were right in the in the mix at the latter stages of both league and championship. They got to the semi-final where they lost out to the then reigning champions Ballinderry who were beaten in the final by Slaughtneil.

Meanwhile a solid league campaign seen Eoghan Rua just miss out on a play-off place late on. The Eoghan Rua senior hurlers made their own piece of history by competing in the Derry senior hurling championship for the first time.

They came very close to providing a real shock in their first round tie against Ballinascreen where they were within a couple of points of an upset first time out.

A fantastic run to the Ulster Intermediate final followed for the Eoghan Rua hurlers was ended by a very strong Rossa side in the final at Owenbeg. While both the hurlers and camogs both lost their respective Ulster finals it was still a memorable ‘double’ of provincial finals for the Eoghan Rua club at Owenbeg on the same afternoon.

Meanwhile the club reported on the wide range of youth activity across football, hurling, camogie and the emerging ladies football code. Over 20 teams participated in competitions from primary school grade through to Under-18s. Ladies football was only introduced to the club a couple of years ago and has really taken off with teams now operating at Under-12, Under-14 and Under-16.

The members heard that the club is moving forward with the aim of introducing an adult team for next season. One of the highlights of the ‘off-field’ activities was the launch its book ‘And Some Fell On Stony Ground’ a history of the first fifty years of the club, an excellent publication with some great stories across all five decades of the club’s history to date.

A busy season has just ended but the planning for next year is well under way with the club hoping to continue the progressive developments over the last few years into and beyond 2015.