NEWCASTLE WEST
GAA CLUB
MINOR HURLING WEST A
CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
Hardworking Minors capture back-to-back West A titles!
Newcastle West ..........3-6
Deel Rangers ............1-10
Mick Neville Park was the venue last Wednesday for this under-lights game. Conditions were excellent, the surface ideal for hurling, though the frequency with which players lost their footing suggests one area of difficulty, and the lights pose some problems for the players too. Maybe natural light is best for hurling. The game itself wasn't a classic. Fouls and frees were frequent and this led to an unfluent, stop- start contest. Despite this there was no doubting the commitment of the players with all in action giving 100%.
We had the rub of the green in the first half, 2 of the 3 goals we scored gifted to us. Brian Hurley was responsible for the strikes that deceived the keeper at 11 and 15. Shane Stack's major at 26 softish also. These were body blows that would deflate the most composed hurler but, of course, were manna from Heaven for us. Without them we would have been in serious trouble, our forwards held scoreless, midfielder Brian Hurley the scorer of the solitary point that was included in our 3-1 half time total. County minor Seamus Flanagan, the player we most feared, accounted for all of Deel's first half total of 0-6, 0-5 of the 0-6 coming from frees. The talented younger son of former county star Johnny was well marked by our lads who worked hard to deny him primary possession. We were 3-1 to 0-6 ahead at half time.
The second half had far more quality than the first and from when Deel goaled at 48 to make it a 2 point game - 3-4 to 1-8 - to the end there was real bite in the game. It was in this period especially that goalkeeper Conor O'Sullivan and the backs earned their pay cheques, solid and courageous under severe pressure, limiting Deel to 0-2 in that difficult 13 minutes. The forwards played their part also, Diarmuid Kelly's and Liam McCartan's 0-1 each from play, complementing Brian Hurley's well struck 0-3 from frees. And, of course, we must emphasise that our midfielders showed their mettle in countering the skill, physicality and pace of the dangerous Seamus who would demolish you on his own if given the opportunity. That required focus, and concentration to a high level. All in all, therefore, with a little help from Lady Luck, but with major work ethic, commitment, hard work by all involved, we are West Minor A Hurling Champions 2014 and now move on to challenge for county honours.
Team: Conor O'Sullivan, Killian McMahon, Conor Barry, Darragh McMahon, Seamus Hurley, William Hurley, Darren O'Doherty, Shane Stack 1-0, Brian Hurley 2-4, Caleb O'Shea, Liam McCartan 0-1, Shane Lee, Declan O'Connor, Adam Harrington, Jack Fanning. Subs: Diarmuid Moran-Kelly 0-1, Seán Murphy, Darragh Quilligan, Andy Brouder, Jack Downey, Lee Woulfe, Roman Creedon.
In the semi final we play Murroe-Boher. It's likely to be at the weekend, but there is no information re arrangements as we go to press. Training continues.

INTERMEDIATE HURLING COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTER FINAL
Newcastle West ........0-11
Monaleen ..................2-27
The scoreline doesn't lie though it doesn't tell the full story. Monaleen were the better team at Mick Neville Park and deserved to advance to the semi final. A mere 0-2 ahead, 0-4 to 0-6, at the end of the first quarter, they outscored us 0-1 to 1-9 from 15 to 30, finding a quality we could not match. They had superior fitness, touch, composure, teamwork, pace, movement etc., and though we battled away, we struggled and were on course for a bit of a walloping. That walloping duly materialised and  in the second half we were outscored 0-4 to 1-12.

It didn't help that sendings off reduced us to 13 before the final whistle. At the end of a difficult 60 minutes, plus time added (tao) no excuses were being offered. We acknowledged that we had been beaten by an excellent team who will battle it out with Glenroe, Pallasgreen, Mungret (who we drew with in the prelim rounds) for promotion to the 2015 Premier Championship. As for ourselves, we must take the defeat on the chin, reflect on the whys and the hows, where we go from here. Maybe we'll conclude that 0-11 to 2-27 is the best we can do, that there's no more in the tank, or maybe we'll decide that we didn't do ourselves justice. Time will tell. For now it's the end of the road for 2014.
Team: Seán Neville, Tommy Kelleher, Maurice Murphy, Michael Dowling, Niall Enright, Paul Hannon, Seán Browne, Stephen Nix, Thomas Quilligan, Jamie Lee 0-1, Mike McMahon 0-7, Michael Martin 0-3, Mark Linehan, Shane Kelly, Brian Hurley. Subs: Eoin Hurley, Aaron McCarthy, Conor Relihan, Darragh McMahon.
The management of Joe McMahon, manager, Tim Nix Snr, Mike Quilligan Snr, Pa Keane and Seán Roche, first aid, gave generously of their time and talents. They gave it their best shot over a long and difficult season. As Shakespeare's Othello declared in the hours before his death "I have done the state some service," well done lads.

UNDER 21 FOOTBALL PREMIER COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
This is in the door - a well run competition, compact, games on successive weekends, 4 or 5 games before exit or progress to the knockout stage. Leading the way for us are seniors Cian Sheehan, Joey Healy, Gavin Riedy, Martin Madden, Eoin Hurley, Eoin Murphy, Peter Shanahan, Eoin Normoyle, James O'Sullivan, Martin Mullane, all talented peileadoirí. However, talent alone won't win a Premier U21 Football Championship and that's why training in ongoing.

FOOTBALL COUNTY FINALS
Senior: Ballylanders...2-8
St. Patrick's ................1-7
Minor:  Fr. Casey's...2-13
Tory Gaels ................1-12
On Sunday last 2,500 spectators journeyed to the Field and, in excellent weather conditions, enjoyed two well contested games. The club had everything in order for the big games and there were many pats on the back for hardworking groundsman Paddy McCoy and the Fields committee. Our seniors were not far off Bally in the quarter final, while our minors threw it away against Tory in the semi, so some regrets as we watched Bally and Fr. Casey's capture silverware. All in all a great effort by the club and well done to all.

UNDER 16 FOOTBALL DIVISION 1
CHAMPIONSHIP SHIELD FINAL
Newcastle West ..........3-9
Mungret ...................2-11
Last Saturday's Shield Final at Mick Neville Park had quality football with two excellent teams giving their all in pursuit of the competition's consolation prize. Conditions were excellent, the sunshine creating an extra challenge for the players. We missed 2 goals in the early exchanges, after which Mungret took over. They had us on the rack in the 20 minutes before the break, but failed to reflect their superiority on the scoreboard. They hit some very bad wides, and were denied also by excellent goalie Ronan St. John and solid fullback Seamus Hurley. They had pace, physicality, skill, teamwork, incisiveness and a 0-3 to 0-5 half time lead must have disappointed their mentors. Our mentors weren't too happy with our lads either, and insisted that they get 'stuck in' more, battle harder, contest the ball. The advice fell on deaf ears initially and it wasn't until we fell further behind and seemed en route to a walloping that we got our act together. This renaissance happened around the 40th minute and from 40 to the full time whistle we played excellent Péil, tackling like demons, battling for every ball, winning many of them, taking on the city team with pace, incisiveness, fearlessness, skill. As a result at 49 we had closed the considerable gap to 0-2 and would certainly have gone ahead but for Mungret's superb goalie and a bit of hard luck! Diarmuid Kelly led the revival but the team as a whole upped the ante. At the end they rescued the self respect and pride that had taken a battering in the lacklustre first half display and nearly won the day. Mungret took home the Shield but we left with heads high, having found our mojo. If we can retain it we'll have good minors and U16s in 2015.
Panel: Ronan St. John, Lee Woulfe, Seamus Hurley, Joseph Nash, Cillian McMahon, Jack Downey, Colm Foley, Darragh Enright, Diarmuid Moran-Kelly, Dylan Whelan, Mykola Blaskev, Brian Curtin, Niall McAuliffe, Ben Finnegan, Mikey Carroll, Roman Creedon, Padraig Guiney, Thomas Griffin, Michael Begley, Dylan O'Connell, Jack Nash, Cian Magner Flynn, Liam Dowling, Micheál Collins, Cormac Nash, Oisin Brennan, Richard Stack, Josh Griffin, Darragh Fox, John Hurley, David Hurley, Pa Keane, Seán McAuliffe were the mentors who gave generously of their time to the team and are deserving of many pats on the back for their efforts - while Seán McAuliffe looked after physio. Overall a season when we were there or thereabouts in Football Premier and Division One Hurling at U16 and J15, barely missing out on silverware. Well done to all!

UNDER 13
Training is ongoing.

UNDER 10
Training is ongoing.


UNDER 8
Hurling Challenge - Newcastle West v Newtownshandrum
This Saturday the U8s will definitely be out of their comfort zone when they clash ash with their counterparts from Ben and Gerry O'Connor country - known to some as the 'Home of Hurling'.

BEGINNERS
Training this Wednesday at 6pm at the Allweather. End of season inclub Hurling Blitz next Saturday at 10am at the Allweather.

LOTTERY
Last Monday's draw took place at the Bridge Bar. The numbers drawn were 11, 15, 23 and 24. The jackpot of €20,000 was not won. The €100 special bonus prize was won by Brenda O'Connor, 135, Templegreen. The five €40 lucky dip winners were Caroline Lynch c/o Kay McCoy, Cathy Hunt c/o Denis Noonan, Margaret Fenton c/o Declan O'Connor, Dean O'Sullivan c/o Ed Lynch, Joanne O'Connor c/o the GAA club. This week's jackpot is €20,000. The draw takes place at Joe Lee's bar on Monday next October 20th at 11pm. The club thanks all who are supporting, promoting and hosting the lottery.


U10 FOOTBALL
On Saturday last we travelled to Listowel to play the Listowel U10s in a football match. We travelled with small numbers due to a number of players being unavailable. We played 11 a side using 4 x10 minute quarters. All boys played the complete game and the game was hugely beneficial. Listowel had some fine footballers but the Newcastle west boys battled all the way through and came out winners in each of the quarters with the boys becoming better and better as the game wore on. Well done to all who travelled.
Team: Ethan Kirwan, Oisin Collins, Sean Geraghty, Emmet Righter, James Lyons, Dylan Scanlon, Aaron Neville, Harry Edwards, Fionn Ahern, Jack Kelly, John Whelan

U13 FOOTBALL
NCW U13 Football Group Match V Mungret
Our U13 Football team played Mungret last Thursday in our first football game for this age group this year. Our starting team included 11 players from our U12 team. We were ball watching for the start of the game with Mungret racing into a commanding lead inside the first ten minutes. Mungret had scored 3 goals and 2 points before our boys realised they were in a game. Slowly we got on top in our back line with Jody Woulfe moving to corner back. In midfield also got to grips and we began to claw our way back with goals coming from Brian Foley and Bryan Nix along with some great points from Dylan Singh. At half-time we were ahead on a scoreline of 3-6 to 3-2.
In the second half we continued to dominate with some great displays from Conor Walker and Luke Gleeson in the backs along with Daniel Normoyle in midfield. Morgan Sheahan (2 points) and Killian Collins both played their part when introduced. We finished the game in style winning on a scoreline of 5-10 to 3-2. We play Fr. Casey's and Ballybrown in the remaining games this week.

Lottery Online
The Newcastle West GAA Club lottery is now online. The online lottery can be accessed through the Newcastle West GAA Website: www.ncwgaa.com. It could never be easier to support your local GAA Club.

Website
For all the latest news please visit our website www.ncwgaa.com

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