Patrick O Grady selected for Cork Minor Football team
July 23, 2021
Patrick O Grady from our club was selected to start and play on the Cork Minor Football team, which played Waterford last Wednesday evening, in Dungarvan. This is a fantastic achievement for Patrick personally, but from a club’s perspective, it gives a bounce to all club members, to see our club, listed behind the player’s name, on the official programme, even if they spelt Killavullen incorrectly in the team sheet.
That may in part be explained, in that no Killavullen player has played minor football or hurling for Cork, since Brian O Driscoll in 1984, a break of some 27 years. Brian went onto to play senior hurling with Cork, and achieved legendary status in our club, when he was a pivotal player in us winning three Avondhu Junior football titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000, Cork County Junior Football title in 2000, and very close to annexing Premier Intermediate County title in 2007.
Patrick’s back story is very interesting too, in that he missed all of 2020 with a shoulder injury, sustained in the very first game of that truncated sporting calendar year. It speaks volumes for the steely determination of Patrick that he worked privately and diligently on his rehabilitation, and came back strong.
Patrick is part of a golden group of young players from this parish that has represented Rebel Óg North in numerous blitzes and inter-county / inter-divisional tournaments as he has progressed up from the age of 14 within our club. Patrick started out playing with his siblings Darragh and Ciara at home in Killuragh, before migrating to the pitches in Killavullen from the age of six. Always a talented player, it is Patrick’s ability to listen and take on board the advice of his coaches, that would mark him apart. He is a great testament to the quality of his parents, Bill and Breda, and those coaches, that were instrumental in nurturing his innate talent from then to now, to catapult him to the attention of the Cork Minor selectors, and that self-steely determination too.
Cork Minor footballers will face sterner tests than what was experienced against Waterford, and next up, is a game against Kerry, on the 30th of this month. Whatever the outcome of that game, Patrick can rest assured that anyone connected with Killavullen GAA Club, is extremely proud of him, and wish him all the best for the bright future, that he has ahead of him, with Cork, and with Killavullen.
