29th March 2010

There was a large attendance at the 2009 Underage player of the year awards last Saturday night in the Folk Park. The winners on the night were U10 Boys - Ben Tuohy, U10 Girls - Sarah Walsh, U12 "The Shamrocks" - Boys - Enda O'Connell, Girls - Ailish Benson, U12 "The Gaels" Boys - Stephen Keegan, Girls - Rachel Hennessy, U14 Boys - Eoin Carroll, U14 Girls - Aoife Brennan, U16 Boys - Shane Barry, U16 - Girls -Catherine Tuohy, Minor - Sean Kilfeather. The Leo & Phil Kearns Memorial Cup was presented to Overall Player of the year, Aoife Brennan. Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all who attended on the night. Thanks also to the Kearns family for their continued sponsorship of the boys awards and the overall player of the year award. A special word of thanks to the Folk Park for the use of their impressive facilities and to those who helped on the night in the kitchen and to Hilda Shaw, Mary Quinn and Carmel Quinn who provided
excellent food for all in attendance.

The Senior Team lost out to Castleconnor by the narrowest of margins last Saturday in the second round of the league. Joe Quinn opened the scoring with a point from a free in the first minute. We did not score again until the tenth minute when Philip Murphy pointed after a good
sweeping move from defence. The Gaels hit a barren spell and did not score again until the twenty eight minute when Joe Quinn scored a point while in the meantime Castleconnor notched up three points to take the lead. Glen McDermott leveled the game on the stroke of half time with a fisted point from a high ball into the goalmouth, however Castleconnor scored in injury time to go a point up at half time, 0-5 to 0-4. Indeed it could have been worse for the Gales as Castleconnor missed two goal chances.

Castleconnor immediately went ahead on the re-start while Joe Quinn added two frees to level the game again after four minutes. The Gaels were behind on six minutes when Castleconnor scored a goal, however they responded well with two points from Peter Henry and Joe Quinn.
Castleconnor edged ahead again with a point mid-way through the half asthe Gaels struggled to reign them in. Both sides exchanged points in the following minutes, the Gales score coming from Derek Davey from a tight angle, but yet again Castleconnor pulled away with two more
points to go into a three point lead with five minutes remaining. The Gaels looked to have done enough to earn a draw when Peter Henry scored a goal on the stroke of full time after a goal mouth scramble, however from the kick out, Castleconnor scored a point to end up winning on a
scoreline of 1-10 to 1-9.

The team was: Mark Tuohy, Liam O'Connell, James Lyons, Niall Craig, Paul Brennan, Damien Lyons, Johnny Burke, Eoin McDermott, Philip Murphy (0-1), Joe Quinn (0-5), Jarlath Lyons, Keith McMorrow, Brian McDermott, Kevin Barry, Derrick Davey (0-1), Subs: Glen McDermott (0-1) for Kevin Barry, Peter Henry (1-1) for Brian McDermott, Kevin Barry for Glen McDermott.

The Senior team are at home to Tubbercurry next Sunday at 2.30PM in round 3 of the league.

The Gaels Minor team were beaten by 4 points by Tourlestrane in the League on Sunday morning last. Tourlestrane who got off to a dream start with a goal within 30 seconds. The Gaels were under huge pressure but managed to withstand it until Tourlestrane scored a point after
nine minutes. David Quinn got the Gaels off the mark with pointed free on twelve minutes. Tourlestrane scored two more points before Jonathan Quinn scored Gaels second point. The visitors added two points before half time to leave the score 1 -5 to 0 - 2.

It looked as if the second half would be more of the same with Tourlestrane firing over a point within 33 seconds but the Gaels came back with points from David Quinn and Kevin Coleman. Tourlestrane scored another pint before the Gaels came back with points from Jonathan Quinn and Donal Carroll. The final score was 1 -7 to 0-6.

The team was: Rickie Johnston, Shane Barry, Gavin McMorrow, Gearoid McTiernan, Declan Willis, Robbie Johnston, Eoin O'Connell, Paul O'Grady, Kevin Coleman (0-1), Jonathan Quinn (0-2), Ciaran O'Connor, Donal Carroll (0-1), David Quinn (0-2), sub Adrian McCann for Robbie Johnston.
The minor team's next game is not until the 22nd April when they are away to Owenmore Gaels.

The U16 team are away to Ballymote/Bunninadden on Monday 29th while they are at home to Tubbercurry on Easter Monday at 7.00PM.

The U14 team lost to Geevagh last Friday night in the first round of the league. The team was: Sean O' Grady, Paul Higgins, Enda O' Connell, Caolan McCann, Caolan Morrisroe, Ryan McKenna, Michael Kilkenny, Daniel Willis, Mark Kearns (0-1), Ciaran Kilfeather, Mark Walsh, Conor
Carroll (0-1), Subs: Darragh Hailstones for Declan Benson, Connor Heffernan for Mark Kearns.

The U14's are at home to Drumcliffe/Rosses Point this Friday at 6.00PM.

Training for U-12 Girls will start this Saturday morning at 11.00AM in Shamrock Gaels Park - training continues for the U12 boys at the same time.

The coaching for U8 and U10 - boys and Girls - has commenced and will continue each Saturday morning from 11.00-12.00AM in Shamrock Gaels Park - all are welcome - especially new members.

Thanks to the local Red Cross branch for their attendance at our recent home game with St Mary's and we look forward to having this great local service available to us in the year ahead.