It was an extremely busy week for St Marys and things
got off to the best possible start when our U14 girls led by captain Tara
Breheny were victorious in their league Shield Final against Curry. The final was played in the IT and the girls
and their management team had full support for the match, and as usual played
their hearts out to earn a deserved victory, and no doubt many more will
follow. They have no time to rest as
the Feile is upon us, and in addition to participating, we are hosting
Cornafean from Cavan. Kent Park is a
centre for the Feile and 12 matches are scheduled for the Club over the 3 days
including quarter final and semi-final play-off matches in both the boys and
girls competitions and the Division 9 final of the girls’ competition. Thanks to everyone who has joined the
stewarding schedule, which will assist the weekend to run smoothly.
At the younger age groups, Saturday morning coaching
was limited to the U6 and U8 ages, as the older boys and girls were involved in
blitzes. We still had an impressive
turnout and of these Cochran and Luke were the standout kids recognised for
skills improvement. Thanks to Patrick
Brady and Michael Munnelly (Jnr) for stepping it to help out with the
coaching. St Marys held a blitz for U8
and U10 girls on the new pitch also last Saturday morning. Visiting clubs were Shamrock Gaels, St
Farnons and St Molaise. It was a highly
enjoyable morning’s football and thanks to all helping on the day as we still
had to run the normal coaching for the younger kids in addition to hosting our
visitors.
Last Saturday, we had 2 squads of our U11 footballers
playing in the St Molaise, Aidan McGowan tournament. After a strongly contested league section,
we emerged from our group to play St Marys Carrick-on-Shannon in the semi
finals and eased into the final on a 10 to 4 scoreline. It was a different story in the final as we
faced hosts St Molaise Gaels. The
outcome of a low scoring game is impossible to predict as one moment can determine
the result and this final was such a game.
Both sides played their hearts out and our lads just had that little bit
more and won by the minimum by 4 scores to 3.
Congratulations to all involved.
This week it is the turn of the U14 lads to take
centre stage as they compete in the U14 A county league final. Their opponents on Monday night are
Drumcliffe Rosses Point, and like St Marys they have been impressive in the
league to date. The final is at 7pm on
Monday 24th in the Centre of Excellance in Scarden, and please
support the lads. The next evening
(Tuesday) our U12 squads visit the same opposition for their latest league
ties. Like the girls, the U14 boys are
back in action at the weekend, when the Feile comes to town, and they have the
honour of representing the Club in this prestigious national competition. We host Clonguish from Longford, and our
group will be a challenge as the other teams are Breaffy and
Killdimo/Palliskenry, so good competitive football is assured. Our matches at the group stage are in Kent
Park which hopefully will be an advantage. A warm welcome to all visiting teams
and best wishes to everyone for the weekend.
The Junior mens squad had their latest league match
last Friday when they visited St Farnons.
Our lads have had impressive victories in the league so far, and it
looked like more of the same, when they opened the match strongly to ease to a
2-02 to 0-01 lead. However, St Farnons
were more than up for the game and came back at us, and at the end of an
entertaining high scoring encounter we edged it by 4-09 to 2-12.
At County level, congratulations to the hurlers
winning the Nicky Rackard Cup in a nail-biter against Armagh. Tremendous to see the contribution of our
own lads and an especial word of mention to Gerard O’Kelly Lynch on the
importance of his goals, particularly the late one to tie the scores and set up
the win for Sligo. It was a pity, he
and his fellow footballers the next day were unable to get a positive result
against Offaly in the qualifiers, and we can only hope for better outings as
the period of rebuilding after key retirements particularly in the backline
completes. On a brighter note the Sligo
ladies had a great win and the Minor footballers came through another stern
test in the Connaught semi-final against Roscommon and we wish them every
success in the final.
All in St Marys send sympathies to Peter Farrell and
his family on the death of Peter’s brother Danny after a period of illness, and
may he rest in peace.