The magic of the GAA continued as we look back to June where a 64 year old full forward lined out while a 72 year old referee covered 6 games in one day.
The GAA produces so many classic stories every year that it is very hard to accurately tell them all.
But Tuesday saw a collection of them that simply had to be reported on.
The Cumann na mBunscol hurling and camogie finals are ongoing this week and one referee was very busy.
On Tuesday, Graiguecullen’s Pat Moran officiated at four of these finals in O’Moore Park.
He then headed to Ballyroan where he was in the middle as Ballyroan defeated Sarsfields in Division 3 of the Ladies League.
Moran’s day didn’t end there as he then headed for Stradbally and whistled as Annanough defeated the hosts, 7-6 to 1-11, in in Division 7 league game.
There were a couple of elder statesmen on either team as Greg Ramsbottom (Stradbally), Cyril Darcy, Colin Miller, Darran Hennessy and John Deegan – who scored 1-1 at 54 – were all present. Deegan made his adult debut for Annanough way back in 1984 while Darcy lined out with his son Jake in the last couple of games.
But none come close in age to Pat Moran who, at the age of 72, must have set some sort of record for refereeing that many matches in the one day.
That wasn’t the only Junior C match where there was something worth writing about – as the meeting between The Heath and Kilcavan also caught the eye.
The Heath won and they did it with a full forward line who had a combined age of 170.
Seamus McGrath (64), John Booth (62) and John Kelly, a mere chap in comparison to the others at 44.
McGrath won an intermediate championship with The Heath in 1986 while Booth was on the club’s senior team that claimed glory in 1993.
Kilcavan had a few veterans in their midst too with club stalwarts like Rory and Derek O’Connell, John McEvoy, Liam Dunne, Ned O’Brien and Damien Mangan all seeing action.
SEE ALSO – Check out all our Cumann na mBunscol coverage here
