Mullingar Shamrocks GAA Notes

ASK not what your club can do for you but what you can do for your club 

Now might be a good time to purchase a ticket in the Development Draw even if you have purchased some already. To be in with a chance of winning the fabulous KIA EV2 AIR visit mullingarshamrocksgaa.com and click on Development Draw on the home page. Choose 1 ticket for €20, 3 tickets for €50 or 7 for €100. 

Once again we have to commend the extraordinary dedication of a small number of volunteers who sacrificed their time to staff our two selling points in Tyrrellspass and Tullamore on Tuesday , Wednesday and Thursday to give those attending the National Ploughing Championships an opportunity to purchase tickets in our Development Draw. 

For some this involved taking position at the selling point at 6.30am, selling for two or three hours and then checking in to their place of employment. Incredible dedication to the cause. 

So a special word of thanks to Pearse, Maeve and Amy Corroon, Ollie Keating, Margaret Donohoe, Trevor Keena, David Nohilly, Murty Hanly, Joan Ormsby, Padraic Murtagh, Roisin Masterson, Lisa Corcoran, Garrett Doyle, Tom Hunt and the organiser in chief Debbie Noonan. 

Thanks to those who purchased tickets over the three days and to the executive of Tullamore Town FC for giving us permission to pitch our tent on their premises and to Jamie, the proprietor of Daybreak Inver Tyrrellspass for providing a similar facility on the Forecourt. 

Thanks also to Ollie Sleator of Sleator Kia for arranging to display a KIA on the Daybreak forecourt. 

With 100 days to the draw just 5,000 tickets remain to be sold to make the venture worthwhile and to raise sufficient funds to have a meaningful impact on the development project.

Under-14 Div. 1 Football semi-final: Mullingar Shamrocks 4-9 Moate All-Whites 2-6.

Congratulations to our Under-14 Division 1 team who qualified for the County Final with a well-deserved 4-9 to 2-6 victory over Moate All-Whites in a winterish Springfield on Wednesday evening. Playing against the wind, Shamrocks trailed by the minimum margin at the interval (1-6 to 2-2). Tom Frayne and Seaghan Óg Collins were the Shamrocks goalscorers and Josh Burke and Jamie Byrne kicked the points. 

However, it was the man at the other end who was responsible for confining the Moate attackers to the single goal. Kaedon Govender pulled off at least three brilliant saves before he was finally beaten from close range by Thomas Quinn. Kaedon did manage to get a finger-tip to the shot but the power was too much on this occasion. Kaedon’s restarts are also of the highest quality and on a par with his shot stopping ability. 

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Aaron Smith scored the crucial goal ten minutes into the second half. Rogan Moore, displaying all the characteristics of his full-back line ancestors, brilliantly won possession deep in defence and close to the sideline. Rogan burst clear and delivered what old-style commentators referred to as ‘a long relieving clearance’ (Sometimes traditional is best0. The ball travelled in the wind and broke to Tom Frayne. Tom’s approach was more subtle and with a few shimmies and some neat footwork sent Aaron Smith clear on goal. Aaron made no mistake with the finish.

Kaedon saved well again before points from Gavin Mooney (0-2), Harry Gavin and Dylan Conlon extend the Shamrocks lead to six points (3-6 to 1-6). 

Matthew Leavy had just entered the pitch when he was fouled and Tom Frayne slotted the resultant penalty before Gavin Mooney pointed a free and then kicked the only two-pointer of the evening. On the stroke of time, Moate All-Whites secured their only score of the half when Oisin McMahon’s shot floated to the net. 

Too little, too late. Mullingar Shamrocks were county final bound where Tubberclair will supply the opposition. 

Two-pointer watch = 1

Mullingar Shamrocks: Kaedon Govender; Evan Palmer (Dylan O’Reilly), Rogan Moore, Donnacha Doyle; Jamie Byrne (0-1), Dylan Conlon (0-1), Harry Gavin (0-1); Gavin Mooney (0-5), Jesse Mbiachare; Óisin Thornton, Paul Donlon (Cian Gavin), Josh Burke (0-1) [Matthew Leavy]; Seaghan Óg Collins (1-0) [James Casey], Aaron Smith (Caolan Murphy), Tom Frayne (2-0).

Under-14, Div. 5 Football Championship semi-final: Mullingar Shamrocks 3-6 St Mary’s Rochfortbridge 1-8

Our Division 5 Under-14 footballers (all Under-13) joined their Division 1 counterparts in the County Final after defeating St Mary’s Rochfortbridge after a great battle in Springfield on Thursday evening. The strong wind and cold made it a difficult evening for football. Shamrocks enjoyed the benefit of the wind in the first half and held an interval lead of 2-3 to 0-3. It hardly seemed enough given the conditions. 

Scores were hard earned as both teams were strong in defence. After 10 minutes, Matthew Leavy scored a great individual goal after soloing from midfield. He also added a point from play as did Tom Frayne to give Shamrocks a five point lead. The impressive Ryan Kelly pointed from a Rochfortbridge free before Tom Frayne crashed a shot off the crossbar; he then combined with Matthew Leavy to score Shamrocks second goal to send Shamrocks into a seven point lead after 20 minutes (2-2 to 0-1). Before the break Ryan Kelly pointed twice from frees and in between Adam O’Donoghue had Shamrocks final score of the half. 

Shamrocks introduced Rogan Moore and Seaghan Óg Collins at the interval and moved Harry Gavin outfield. Harry had played a very solid game between the posts in the first half and centre-back Liam Redden took Harry’s place. 

St Mary’s controlled the third quarter and Dylan O’Reilly began the comeback with an early point. In the 42nd minute, Ryan Kelly again pointed a free; the sixty seconds that followed appeared to be crucial as from the restart Tadhg Connolly, another very impressive player pointed. The restart from this score was gathered by Oisín Thornton who also pointed and again from the restart Óisin collected and this time shot to the net to give St Mary’s the lead for the first time (2-3 to 1-7).

At this stage, Shamrocks revealed their battling qualities and eventually lifted the siege and a second Matthew Leavy goal regained the lead in the 54th minute. A Ryan Kelly free reduced the lead to the minimum. A great bit of combined play between Tadhg Connolly and Seaghan Óg Collins ended with the latter kicking a neat point. Crucially Rogan Moore who had joined the attack won the restart and kicked a valuable point. Shamrocks again won the restart and Seaghan Óg Collins cut in along the end line and scored one of the points of the evening (A touch of class but then his grandfather’s football repertoire included pointing a 45 with his bare foot when playing for St Mary’s back in the day when the football was a ton weight!). St Mary’s mounted a few late attacks but the Shamrocks tackling was excellent and when St Mary’s engineered a shot on goal, Liam Redden produced an excellent save.

Mullingar Shamrocks now meet St Loman’s in the Division 5 County final. 

The finals will be special occasions for the Moore family as Rogan follows in the footsteps of his grandad Ned and father Keith who also played with Mullingar Shamrocks in Under-14 County finals. 

And of course all played in the full back line. A nice bit of family tradition.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Harry Gavin; Ryan Kelly (Conor Hogan), Cian Gavin, Daniel Conaty; Dylan O’Reilly, Liam Redden, Ethan Nally; Nathan Naughton, Oisín Thornton: Tadhg Connolly, Matthew Leavy (2-1), Adam O’Donoghue (0-1); Ainle Smith (Rogan Moore, 0-1), Tom Frayne (1-1), Cillian Keegan (Seaghan Óg Collins, 0-2).

Congratulations Conor 

Congratulations to Conor Matthews who won two silver medals at the World Handball Wallball Championships in New York. 

Conor and his partner Tito Patrizi won silver medals for the Boys’ Under-15 Big Ball championship and for the Boys’ Under-17 Small Ball championship. 

The championships were a great triumph for members of the Mullingar Handball Club who return from New York with 2 gold, 7 silver and 1 bronze medal in their luggage. Congratulations to all involved. 

This group of players worked incredibly hard in the build-up to the championships, putting in countless hours of training, dedication, commitment and hard work to prepare for the New York challenge.

Conor is a member of Mullingar Shamrocks Under-16 team and it was his great save in last year’s Under-16 county football final that made the after extra-time victory possible.