With a win Saturday on July 6th over St. Michaels in their final group game in the JM Foods Services League Division 2 the Dunshaughlin’s Men’s Senior team finished joint top with Senchalstown in the league table resulting in a semi-final at a neutral venue. 

Dunshaughlin will now take on Trim in the semi-final this Wednesday July 17th @ 7:30pm in Dunsany. We would urge supporters to make the short journey to Dunsany and turn out in large numbers to support the Black and Amber. 

Dunshaughlin lost three of their first five games in the league but then went on to win the last six games in a row, going from 12th place (last) after round one to finally reaching the summit and climbing into joint 1st place after the final round of games. Although Dunshaughlin finished in 1st place on score difference, as per league rules (head to head) Senchalstown would be the only team to get home advantage in the semi-finals.

Off the pitch there was great sadness among Dunshaughlin’s Men’s Adult players and the wider Dunshaughlin & Royal Gaels community with the loss of three young Men under 60 who battled illnesses bravely and who died during the first three months of the league,  Noel Larkin (father of current adult player Joe) who had served on committees in the club, Fergus Clancy who was the Men’s Senior team selector and was on the Club Executive at the time of his passing and Paul Costello (father of current adult player Mathew). The popularity and respect for all three of those wonderful young men within the club was evident by the very large numbers of people from the club who attended all three funerals.

On the pitch it was rare for the Dunshaughlin Senior team to have anywhere near their full panel available for games in the league albeit for good reason, as the club had the honour of having three players tied to Meath Seniors and two with the Meath Under 20’s. There were also others missing due to injuries, studying and some away on their travels. 

The opening rounds of the league were dogged with bad weather and cancellations. Dunshaughlin’s first game was a refixed game away to Senchalstown on March 22nd. Dunshaughlin were heavily defeated losing by 11 points. Ryan Robinson made his Senior league debut for Dunshaughlin.

The Black & Amber dusted themselves down and beat Syddan by seven points on a dry but very windy and blustery Saturday afternoon in Dunshaughlin in Game 2. The highlight being some beautiful long-range points from Luke Mitchell scoring 0-8 in total including two wonderful sideline kicks. Unfortunately, John McDonagh picked up a serious knee injury during the game ruling him out for the remainder of the league. 

Dunshaughlin made the long journey to Oldcastle for Game 3 and were devasted at the finish, losing by conceding an injury time goal. However, Dunshaughlin did manage to score the first two goals of their own in the 2024 league campaign scored by Drumree neighbours Ciaran McCarrick & Fursey Blake. 

For Game 4 Dunshaughlin had to make another long journey into north Meath, but this time they were rewarded for their efforts with a well-earned, hard fought victory over Meath Hill. The goal scoring continued with two more goals, from Ryan Robinson & Aaron Murphy. Ruairi Kinsella was released from Meath to play this game and made quite an impact before going off. Unfortunately, Daryl McKenna picked up a serious ankle injury ruling him out for the rest of the league. 

Game 5 at home to Curraha was defined by a poor start by Dunshaughlin, conceding three goals in the first half and even though they rallied to get it back to a one-point game at half time, Curraha still went on to win by six points. Aaron Murphy was top scorer on 0-6 from play. Jack Smith coming on as a sub made his Dunshaughlin Senior debut. Dunshaughlin at that stage had lost the first two of the three games against other senior teams in the league Division 2. 

Game 6 away to Walterstown was the start of a consistent change in fortunes for Dunshaughlin with the first win of what was to be a six-game winning streak and scoring an impressive 2-15 against the black’s, the goals coming from Jack Hetherington & Tadgh Ó Dushláine (1-3).  Aaron Murphy was the other joint top scorer with 0-6, all coming from play. 

After having the heartbreak of losing by conceding an injury time goal earlier in the league, Dunshaughlin got to inflict the same heartache on Moynalvey with a grab and steal Luke Mitchell injury time goal for the win in Game 7. Conor Duke and Charlie O’ Connor lined out for the first time this year returning having played with Meath Under 20’s in a very tight All-Ireland semi-final defeat against Kerry. Both lads settled back in well to wearing the Black & Amber, with Duke making an immediate impact scoring 2-2 (2f) in the first 20 minutes and O’ Connor also scoring a goal on his return. 

On the June Bank Holiday weekend which fell between Round 7 and Round 8 of the league, thirteen of our adult players travelled to Kerry to participate in the Killarney Club 7’s tournament (7 a side) and they came away champions, defeating fellow Meath club Simonstown Gaels in the final. 

No one would have thought at half time, after a very tightly contested first half hour in Game 8 away to Trim, that Dunshaughlin would turn on the style and outscore the Boynesiders 3-5 to 0-3 in the 2nd half giving them their biggest winning margin to date and an important win as Trim were the only team of the other three senior clubs that Dunshaughlin defeated in the league group stages. Ruairi Kinsella was released from Meath to play this game and played for 50 minutes while Conor Gray also got clearance to play and was introduced for the 2nd half after having played for five minutes of the 1st half as a blood sub. Both Meath players scored a goal each as did Ruairi’s brother Tommy Kinsella, as the goal count scored in the last three games reached nine. Luke Mitchell was top scorer with 0-6. 

As Dunshaughlin supporters walked away in jovial form after the game, the viewpoint among many was, that in this era of artificial intelligence (AI), you cannot believe everything you see on social media, because based on Dunshaughlin’s very strong 2nd half performance against Trim, the bank holiday weekend 7’s victory celebrations in Kerry a few days earlier must have been very tame and reserved as all the lads were very much focused and on top of their game against Trim.  

In Game 9 at home Dunshaughlin came out on top against St. Pats in a dour affair which was reflected on the scoreboard in a game, played during a thunderstorm with the fork lightning display beyond the school end, about the only bit of excitement. The Black and Amber started well with two early points from Luke Mitchell but failed to score again till the final minute of the half trailing 0-6 to 0-3 at halftime. The Dunshaughlin victory was due in no small part to Man of the Match Niall (Burnsey) Byrne who scored three points in a row in the 2nd half. The referee didn’t use up much lead in his pencil writing the scores into his book for this game, because the scores were so few and far between, with the final score showing a win for the boys in the Black and Amber, by a one point-margin 0-8 to 0-7, the winning point scored by Tadgh Ó Dushláine. The remaining 2nd half Dunshaughlin point from a tight angle was from Fursey Blake. The positive from this game for Dunshaughlin was that they worked hard, coming from behind to grind out a win without playing well and making it four wins from the last four and staying in 3rd position in the table with two rounds of games to go. 

In Game 10 Dunshaughlin secured a semi-final spot (moving into second place) with a nine-point win away on a very cold, wet and windy, winter like night against an understrength Duleek-Bellewstown. A poor first half from Dunshaughlin playing with the strong wind included the concession of two goals, meant Dunshaughlin were leading by just 2 points at half time. However, two outstanding displays from Ruairi Kinsella (2-2) and Mathew Costello (making his 2024 Dunshaughlin debut) helped greatly in eventually making it comfortable for Dunshaughlin and giving them their second biggest winning margin of the league.  Luke Mitchell scored 0-6 from placed balls. Adam Kealy returned from injury to start and with the Leaving Cert over it also meant we got to see Fiach Hartigan & Ryan Robinson back in action. With one round to go, there are signs of Dunshaughlin’s continuous improvement as the league progressed and include for example, in the first five games Dunshaughlin only scored a total of four goals and in the last five games they scored eleven goals, in the first five games Dunshaughlin never scored more than a total of 15 points per game, in four of the last five games they scored a total of 20 points or more per game.  

Going into the last game in the group, Game 11 against St. Michaels, Dunshaughlin knew whether they won, lost, or drew they were going to be in a semifinal. If St. Michaels had won, they would have clinched the fourth semi-final spot. It turned out the most one-sided game Dunshaughlin seniors played in a longtime, winning by 33 points with Tommy Kinsella scoring a hattrick of goals. Goals also coming from Neil Byrne, Luke Mitchell & Charlie O’ Connor. That win against an understrength St. Michaels (with five players away) meant Dunshaughlin topped the Division 2 on score difference and thought as per the post-match Meath GAA announcements on Meath GAA social media detailing the semi- finals fixtures, they had home advantage in the semi-final against Curraha. However, Meath GAA issued revised fixtures on Monday which scheduled Dunshaughlin to play Trim in the first semi-final in Dunsany on Wednesday July 17th @ 7:30pm. 

Two players Luke Mitchell and Jared Rushe started and finished all eleven Division 2 league games for Dunshaughlin. Danny Quinn also played in all eleven games starting ten. Naill Byrne (10 starts) and long serving Alastar Doyle (9 starts) played in ten games. A total of 34 different players donned the Black and Amber jersey for the Men’s senior team in the group stages of Division 2 of the league.

In relation to goal scoring, Greenane’s dominance of the Dunshaughlin GAA Juvenile Street Leagues over a decade ago is beginning to manifest itself into the Senior team with almost half of all the Dunshaughlin goals in the League scored by Greenane residents (top 3 scorers) with the two Kinsella brothers Tommy (4) and Ruairi (3) the leading goal scorers for the Black and Amber. Between them, Adam McDermott and Tim O’ Sullivan have kept five clean sheets during the league.

Along with injuries to John McDonagh & Daryl McKenna early in the league, other players like Niall Murphy (injured last year), Aaron Murphy, Fergus Toolan, Oisin Foley, Bill Jennings, Adam Hanley and Cian Gallogly will all be hoping their injuries will be cleared up very soon and will be available for selection for the remainder of the league and the championship. 

With the conclusion of the group stages of the league the Dunshaughlin Senior team management should be relatively happy with the steady improvement during the league and as a result, that Dunshaughlin are in the position (which would probably would have been an aim at the start of the league) of contesting a league semi-final and where a win would mean promotion to Division 1 and a place in the League final. Dunshaughlin will not be getting carried away with the margin of victory in the last two games as they were against understrength teams missing quite a few key players.

In the immediate term Dunshaughlin will be hoping to secure that Division 1 status for 2025 by overcoming Trim in the semi-final. Trim beat Dunshaughlin in the final of the same grade in 2022. If Dunshaughlin do manage to come out on the right side in that semi-final, they will know to have any hope of winning the silverware, will require a much-improved performance in a final against either Curraha or Senchalstown, who both defeated Dunshaughlin very convincingly (by six & eleven points respectively) earlier in the league.

In the more medium term, it will not have escaped Dunshaughlin’s attention that the other three teams (Summerhill, Donaghmore/Ashbourne & Ballinabrackey) they play in Group A of the Senior championship, all made the Division 1 league semi-finals, showing that undoubtedly Dunshaughlin are in the toughest championship Group. Come August Dunshaughlin will have to be at their very best in every game to make it out of the Senior Championship Group containing three top Division 1 teams including the current Senior Champions.

But for now, Dunshaughlin will be taking it one game at a time and their focus will be solely on overcoming Trim in the Division 2 semi-final on Wednesday evening with the reward of going back up to Division 1 and a place in the final.

The Dunshaughlin senior management for 2024 are manager Richie Kealy, Coaches Paul Curran & David Gallagher and selector Tom Clarke.

All four senior clubs competing in Division 2 qualified for the semi-finals. 

Our Men’s 2nd team face a battle of a different kind when they travel to Sean Newman Park in Bohermeen to play St. Ultans in a Division 4 Relegation play-off on Saturday July 20th at 6pm.

A big thanks to all who kept our pitches in such wonderful order during the league (sometimes in terrible weather conditions), especially as two of these men suffered health setbacks this year, thankfully both Jim Smyth and Andy Byrne are well on the road to recovery. Thanks to the lads who had to take on the extra workload as a result, Paddy Moloney, Cyril Creavin, Jim Gilligan & Christy Purcell and thanks to the many others who stewarded the home league games.

Meath GAA should be commended on the way the leagues were run and for the way the fixture schedule with dates for the whole league was published in advance.

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