UCD Marian News

Division 1 Team 

Coach: Michael Clancy 

Squad: 

#4 Sean Ingle

#5 Glenn Caulfield

#6 Tomasz Figiel

#7 Donal O’Sullivan

#8 Kevin Meany

#9 Jody O’Neil

#10 Mark Byrne (Captain)

#11 Matt Kelly

#12 Ciaran Dunne

#13 Mate Baneghyi

#20 Mike Moore

#23 Neil Baynes

Teillo Kishida – injured 

Background:

The 2008/2009 Division 1 squad looks very different to the National Cup winning team of the previous season with only five players returning from that squad.  David Harrison left to travel the world, Luke Mcrone to play Superleague, Teillo Kishida was lost to a season ending Achilles injury in preseason, while Ronan Holohan moved to D2 with Lucan Lions and Shane McGuckin when home to Longford to play National league Division 1. 

The new squad while missing a little bit of that battle hardened experience is nonetheless a very strong team with a good mix of experience from the returning players, with some of Division one’s best guards, Kevin Meany and Mark Byrne at the point guard position and Glenn Caulfield and Mate Baneghyi at the two guard. Matt Kelly also returns to provide defence and rebounding inside.  

The team received a big infusion of talent and youth in the form of some home grown players in the shape of Neil Baynes, Donal O’Sullivan and Ciaran Dunne.  All three had starred for the under 20s recently and Neil and Ciaran had spent a season picking up valuable experience in Superleague last year.  In addition to that the newcomers to the team and club came in the form of Jody O’Neill a very promising young player and Mike Moore a Canadian swing man in Ireland for the year.  The group was rounded out with Tomas Figiel who played two years ago with the team and Sean Ingle making his debut. 

The story so far has been a combination of highs and lows.  Injuries had played a major role with Sean Ingle missing the first half of the season and Tomas Figiel missing the second half.  Teillo Kishida has been out all season while Matt Kelly and Neil Baynes both missed a lot of games and training due to knee and back injuries respectively.   

The season started well with a great performance in the Portlaoise preseason tournament with a very small squad – 7 players once Sean Ingle retired with injury making it all the way to the final.  UCD Marian finally came up short purely as a result of playing so many games with such a small squad.  First game of the season saw a narrow home loss to Rathmines by a single point, a game that UCD Marian had at one point been leading by 12.  This was followed by a big win against Declans in the Cup, an easy win away to Tolka and a great overtime win away to Eanna in the Arena.  Easy wins followed against Trinity and and Templeogue before a tough loss to a physical St. Vincents team away before Christmas.  The loss of Neil Baynes through injury was a key factor here.  Last game before Christmas saw a comfortable win against Malahide in the league.   After a slow start in the first half the new year got off to a good start with a great second half and win at home to Killester.  This was followed by a very tough loss to an impressive Rathmines away.  Despite holding the big man to only 12 points it wasn’t enough as the Rathmines shooters hit a purple patch lasting the whole game and in a valiant effort UCD Marian came up just short.  Three loses means another league title is a tall order but silverware is still a potential with a quarter final against Eanna in UCD on Jan 28^th to set up a semi final against Eanna D2 and a potential final against Rathmines or UCD Marian D2.