St. Kieran's GAA:

County Minor 'A' Football Semi Final:

Following victory over Ballysteen in the West final the minor footballers have advanced to the county semi-final where east Limerick champions Oola will provide the opposition. Both sides met at the same stage of the U16 county championship in 2016 and after a hard-fought encounter we emerged victorious en route to county final success over Deel Rangers. The game is fixed for this Friday evening in Martinstown (Staker Wallace GAA) at 8pm

County Intermediate Hurling Championship:

St. Kieran's 0.10 Knockaderry 3.11

There was disappointment for the intermediate hurlers on Sunday afternoon when defeat to Knockaderry in the relegation play-off consigned us to the Junior 'A' ranks for the 2018 season. Since County Junior 'A' championship success in 2012 we have enjoyed five seasons in the intermediate ranks, unfortunately from our perspective we failed to emerge to the knockout stages during our intermediate experience. Despite this, during this period we contested three county cup finals against Monaleen, Knockaderry and Caherline, emerging victorious against Caherline in 2014. Sunday's game was a case of what could have been as we failed to take advantage of our scoring opportunities in the opening half as we hit eight wides as opposed to Knockaderry's eight and went in at the break trailing by a goal. To the back's credit they battled hard throughout the encounter but Knockaderry proved to be that more creative and efficient in front of goals and took their chances, in doing so securing a comprehensive ten-point win and more importantly securing their intermediate status for 2018. 2018 will see a return to the West Junior Championship on our part after what has been a difficult two years at intermediate level that has seen the team lose many influential members of the 2012 county championship winning side. We avoided the dreaded drop in 2016 with a hard-earned win over Feenagh/Kilmeedy and we should take some solace from the fact they have bounced back extremely well by qualifying for the west final and in doing so giving themselves an opportunity to return to intermediate level. There is no doubt that the team is undergoing a transitional period at present but it is important that this group of players stick together and assist some of the younger players coming into the panel to make the step up from the underage ranks to adult level as they will be the players to hopefully bring the team forward once again in the years to come.

Well done to the players and management team of Seanie Hayes, Cathal Breen and Pat Ryan for their efforts throughout the year, while it is disappointing to drop down to intermediate level many younger players have got their first experience of adult hurling and this can only stand to them in the future as we look to be competitive in Junior 'A' and try and return to intermediate level.

Tweet

Most Read Stories