U10 GIRLS
On Saturday 21st we have The Carmel O’ Connor annual memorial blitz to look forward to girls. This blitz remembers Carmel who died at a very young age. Carmel’s work colleagues organise this every year and it’s a lovely day out. This will be held in Na Gaeil Pitch. More details to follow.
U12 GIRLS
On Tuesday, September 10th we are home to Mitchels in round 1 of The Town League. Throw in will be at 6.30p.m. in Ballyrickard. Best of luck to the girls and their coaches.
U14 GIRLS
We were home to Ballymac last Friday evening in The North Kerry League, division 1. Ballymac got off to a good start scoring a goal and a point in the opening few minutes. We started to get into the game then with a half time score of 1-09 ( Ballymac) to 1-02. The girls fought hard with a difference of only two points between the teams at one stage. Ballymac were the better, fitter and more physical team on the night with a final score of Ballymac 3-16 to Strand Road 3-05. Well done to the girls who tried hard and never gave up. For our next game we are away to Austin Stacks.
U16 GIRLS
We played Castlegregory in the first round of the North Kerry League in Ballyrickard on Wednesday last .The evening was a difficult one on which to play football in that there was a strong breeze blowing down the pitch throughout the game .
We felt really confident going into the game having won the U15 county championship a few weeks ago and half of that panel were involved in this game. We also felt we had a good game plan in terms of how we wanted to play this game in the conditions. The early exchanges were dictated by the strong breeze that Castlegregory had to their backs and they took advantage of that by scoring a number of early points.We responded with points from both Liana Williams our Captain for this campaign and Katie Nix. Our back line was under a lot of pressure throughout the first half with Kelly Fitzgerald having to be on her toes quite a few times to keep Castlegregory out. However a small mistake gifted them the ball and they broke through for an easy goal to bring the score to 1-05 to 0-3 at the end of the first quarter.
We fought back and in the second quarter. Both Liana and Katie Nix got two great goals and another point to get us seriously back in the game against a very strong breeze. The opposition tagged on another 4 points which brought the half time score to 1-10 to 2-03 leaving us four points down and very confident with the breeze behind us in the second half. We felt once we executed the fast ball plan and be out in front in all corners of the field we were very confident of outscoring the opposition in the second half.
We started the second half well with Liana Williams and Katie Nix picking up early points. Kelly was still doing well in goals, ably assisted by Katie Dwyer, Isobel O’ Connor, Hollie Leane, Lilly O’ Brien and Maedhbh Hanafin in the backs. Éabha Murphy in particular had worked hard in the first half carrying a lot of ball into the breeze and played in all our scores and particularly our two goals and she fought right to the end.
This opposition have great belief in themselves though and took us on in every corner of the field effectively playing our game against us and unfortunately we left them do it for large parts of the second half.and they struck for two fast goals and four points into the breeze!
We fought hard to get through but they also flooded players back into their back line so getting through proved difficult but Liana Williams was playing well and picked off another goal and two points. Aoibhín O’ Connor MacCarthy tried valiantly all through and Katie Nix particularly never stopped trying throughout the game but we could not get the breakthrough goals we needed. What was disappointing for us is that we know we are so much better than how we played and this will be a game we feel we let slip particularly in the second half . Final score 4-14 to 3-05. We have a bye this week so it’s training both Tuesday and Thursday and players can expect the sessions to be livelier in the weeks ahead. We are away to Finuge/St Senans on the 20th and the U17 championship will also be coming up soon.
SENIOR LADIES
Training continues on Tuesday and Thursday. For our next match we are away to Clounmacon. More details to follow.
