Westmeath LGF Minor Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 8-11 Loughnavalley 4-10

Another superb game of Ladies Gaelic Football played in Springfield on Saturday morning that produced an avalanche of scores, great football played by two excellent teams and some brilliant individual displays that added extra enjoyment to the occasion. And it ended with a super victory for Mullingar Shamrocks.

Mullingar Shamrocks started slowly and in the early stages it seemed that Loughnavalley were going to deliver a football lesson. They were first to score with a point from play and only a great save from Isabelle Clinton prevented a goal but Loughnavalley secured a second point. And then the magnificent Anna Jones began to make her presence felt and with the help of Alison, Sarah, Katie, Sadhbh and Chloe and the mid-field work of Laura and Susanna the business of dismantling the Loughnavalley defence began.

Anna Jones pointed and Allison Bane finished a great move initiated  by Anna by shooting to the net.  A second goal was scored by Katie Kelly who finished a superb move that began with Isabelle Clinton's long kick-out to Carla Gibney who passed to Sarah Geoghegan. Sarah released Anna for another  run through the Loughnavalley defence. Anna's cross was superbly finished by Katie, a player whose first instinct when she gains possession is to look for a better placed colleague. Chloe Smullen pointed after a typical solo run before Laura Culkin delivered a great pass to Katie Kelly who this time provided the pass for Anna Jones to score her first goal.

Sarah Geoghegan gained possession from the restart and pointed to send Shamrocks into a ten point lead (3-3 to 0-2). Loughnavalley responded and Jess Hennessy first-timed a shot past Isabelle and added a point to narrow the margin. Shamrocks responded in style: Chloe Smullen turned sharply and pointed with the left foot; Anna Jones goaled from a free and pointed another free; Susanna Buckley added one more point before Mick Gordon called for the interval break with Shamrocks leading by twelve points (4-6 to 1-3).

Loughnavalley's business was far from finished and Jess Hennessy showed her quality and added 2-1 to reduce the deficit to five points. Anna Jones responded by racing through but her shot was well saved but Chloe Smullen was on hand to goal from the rebound (5-6 to 3-3). Anna Jones scored her third goal and a great Isabelle save prevented a fourth Loughnavalley goal. Anna Jones pointed and Sarah Geoghegan goaled.

Another great Isabelle save began a move that involved Allison and Katie ended with Chloe Smullen scoring her second goal (8-7 to 3-4) after Katie delivered the final pass. Jess Hennessy added a fourth goal and a couple of points for Loughnavalley before Allison, Chloe, Anna and Holly McCormack added four more points to bring the Shamrocks total to 8-11. Westmeath senior player Caoimhe Clarke McMahon added a point to Loughnavalley's total before the final whistle.

 A great win for Shamrocks against a very good Loughnavalley side who have now qualified for the semi-final of the LGF minor championship.    

Mullingar Shamrocks: Isabelle Clinton; Ellen Sleator (Holly McCormack 0-1), Chloe Flood, Jenna Kelly (Eve Hynes); Máiread Newman, Carla Gibney, Catherine Tubridy (Nicola Groenewald) ; Susanna Buckley (0-1) & Laura Culkin; Allison Bane (1-1), Anna Jones (3-4), Sarah Geoghegan (Zara Gilligan) [1-1]; Sadhbh O'Brien, Katie Kelly (Ellen Corroon), Chloe Smullen (2-3).

Under-20 Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-6 Rosemount-Castledaly 4-20

Our last men standing in the Westmeath championships, our Under-20 team created a bit of history today in Rosemount as the eighteen players were members of the first Under-20 team  to represent the club.

This was as good as it got as the combined team were far too powerful for a very young Shamrocks team most of whom represented the club in this year's minor championship. Despite the heavy defeat there were still a lot of positives to be taken from the trip to Rosemount. The players on duty stuck with the task to the bitter end and there were a number of fine individual performances with goalkeeper Killian White making a number of great saves as well as moving smartly from his line on a number of occasions to avert danger.

Adam McCormack fielded spectacularly on a number of occasions; Ross Corroon, Marc Eivers, Jack Kelly and John O'Reilly impressed, Trevor Keena was always dangerous with a limited supply and our fullback line did as well as could be expected against a powerful opposition full-forward line that was led in spectacular fashion by the excellent Seán Petit. Petit, Aaron Nugent and Ben Cox formed a full-forward line capable of gracing any senior team and were responsible for the bulk of the Rosemount scores with Petit helping himself to a hat-trick as well as landing a number of points also

Mullingar Shamrocks trailed by 2-11 to 1-3 at the interval with Ross Corroon (0-2), Trevor Keena (1-0) and Pádraic McKenna (0-1) responsible for our scores. Rosemount-Castledaly added 2-9 in the second period with Trevor Keena, Ross Corroon and John O'Reilly adding a point each to Shamrocks total.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Killian White; Peter Bane, Cormac Murphy, Cian Fox; Jack Kelly, Marc Eivers, John O'Reilly (0-1); Ross Corroon (0-3) and Jack Gillen; Pádraic McKenna (0-1), Dillon Matthews, Zac Aherne (Brendan McNamee); Cormac Hynes (Christy Fox), Adam McCormack, Trevor Keena (1-1)[Gavin Flanagan]

Postscript: Thirty four years ago Mullingar Shamrocks were Westmeath Under-21 champions and  the panel consisted of Kevin Daly, Brendan Conlon, Paddy Monaghan, Ciarán Walsh, Tommy Frayne, Davy Gavin, Stephen Fagan, Tom Ormsby, Ritchie McKenna, Glen Gilhooley, Enda Finnerty, Ken Daly, Larry Keena, J.P. Crowley, Michael O'Reilly, Neil Devine, Seanie Murphy, Peter Smith, Finian Coghlan, Mark Kelly, Seán Hynes and Pearse Corroon.

 At the Under-20 match in Rosemount, Ken Daly was the ref, Finian Coghlan was the match correspondent, Seanie Hynes and Barney McKenna provided a son each, whilst Pearse Corroon provided an Executive presence as well as a son Ross to the occasion.

eir Sport Book of the Year 2018

It's good to see Tom Hunt's Little Book of Irish Athletics included in the long list for the eir Sport Book of the Year 2018 award.

AGM Time

That time of the year again and Mullingar Shamrocks AGM has been scheduled for Saturday, 24 November 2018; The Clubhouse is the venue and written notification to all members is on the way.

Messages of Sympathy

It has been a bad week for some members of our club and we extend our deepest sympathy to Ray Twomey on the death of his brother Seán, to Kevin McCormack on the death of his father Michael

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