The season gone by has been one of the most successful ever by the club. From U10 right through to U16, either a final was won, contested or a semi-final reached. Such was the number of girls in the club that two teams were entered at all underage league matches from U11, U12, U13, U14 and U15.

Of course, were it not for the girls showing an interest there would be no club in the first place. The numbers turning up across the underage grades confirm a huge hunger for the game in Dunboyne.

The club has a great relationship with the national school and the Gael Scoil where the girls are introduced to the game. This hand in glove approach is to be admired and the club is grateful to all the teachers and indeed sixth classes who coach in the school.
It is hoped that the burgeoning under age success will now translate into minor and senior success. The club enjoyed a long period of success at senior level. With many of that era having moved away either voluntary or in search of work or to education it creates a new opportunity to rebuild again and aim at a bright future.

The club is grateful, indeed would not exist were it not for the work put in by all the volunteers. The club is also grateful for the support from the business fraternity in Dunboyne for investing in its youth. Hopefully the good work of this season will continue in the years ahead.
The nursery continues to grow and expand. All this is due to the magnificent work done on a voluntary basis by the managers, coaches and mentors who turn up to provide the girls with a platform to work with. Each Saturday morning from10am - 11am, up to 35 girls practice the skills of kicking, catching, hand passing, lifting and soloing and engage in mini games. This year we also held a blitz organised by Paul Sweeny with teams from Ratoath and Navan taking part. A great day was held by all. Parents also attended two games organised from within the group where the girls displayed their newly learned skills. Best of luck to some of the girls who will be graduating to the u10s in the spring. The coaches who gave of their time and energy were Paul Sweeney, Joe Travers, Martin Laffoy, David Kane and John Cuffe

This year's Cul Camp was an outstanding success. Over 55 girls took part ranging in age from 6 to 13. The camp started on August 15th and completed on the 19th. The girls were broken into three groups for instruction. Group one was 6-7, group 2 was those aged 8-9 and the final group was 10-13.

The two co-ordinators assisted by six mentors put the girls through their paces paying particular attention to the level each child was at. The feed back was positive with the girls and parents very happy with the standard of coaching.
The week was wrapped up with a skills display and the presentation of prizes. The future looks bright for Dunboyne Ladies football with such a turn out. Special thanks to Paul Sweeney and Fiona O Neill who put sterling work into this project.

U10 win county title
Ten was the magic number for this team. They won the Meath U10 championship culminating with a final victory over Navan O'Mahony's. The final win was the girl's tenth championship match.
This group of girls under the managerial eye of Paul Sweeney and assisted by John Cuffe were a perfect example of how a club, community and school should interact. The selfless hours of coaching by various volunteers in Dunboyne ladies football augmented by sterling work in the national school bore fruit in June when the Under 10s annexed the title.

At the start of the season 32 girls turned up for training. The team comprised 11 a side. The managerial team sought to and succeeded in giving every girl game time, not an easy task. The efforts of the other two Pauls and Trevor were invaluable in this area.
The girls won every match. They were an exceptional bunch that had a hunger to excel. Despite topping the league the quarter final was away to Clann Na Gael. Royal Gaels were worthy semi final opponents, once more away from home, but Dunboyne won a thrilling game.
The final was played in Bective and Navan O Mahoney's were defeated in a match where the team work of the Dunboyne girls was a sight to behold. Leaders emerged on every line. All the girls were excellent but the leadership shown by Emma Duggan, Laura Furlong, Aoife Fitzmaurice, Roisin Lineen, Aideen Jones, Aoife Boylan and Roisin Gorey was inspirational.

The final team was captained from mid field by Sarah Wall. Those girls performed at such a level due to the fact that the rest of the panel drove them to those heights. It should be noted that 15 of the 32 girls will have the chance to excel at U10 next year.
Every single girl played their part and Dunboyne the parish and its people should be proud of them. The work done by Paul Sweeney along with the managerial team including Marie Jones, who was at every match lending her expertise, is to be commended. Maria and Helen had their washing machines at the ready whenever there was a dirty jersey. Isn't this what club football should be all about?

The team final team and panel was: Amy Birmingham, Roisin's Linneen, Roisin Gorey, Ciara Wood, Emma Duggan, Sarah Wall, Katie Birmingham, Aoife Fitzmaurice, Laura Furlong, Ciara Byrne, Aideen Jones, Kate Reynolds, Isobel O Connell, Tara Sweeney, Orlagh Kelly, Laura McInerney, Judith Wugk, Amy Broughton, Aoife Boylan, Keeley Thoma, Rachel Farrell, Ellen Smith, Honor Hickey, Jenny Kavanagh, Laura McConnell, Grainne McGuinness, Katie Cagney, Louise Brennan, Bonnie McFeat, Leah Sheerin, Rachel Kavanagh and Jane O Sullivan.

U 11 Division 4
With over 43 girls playing at U11, the club decided we should enter a second team into the U11 county Leagues. The main reason behind this is to keep the girls playing football and so enable their development for later age groups in the years to come. The squad was split into 18 for the First Team playing in Division 1 while the Second Team played at Division 4 with 25 girls making up the panel, a panel that other clubs would be thankful to have for their entire U11squad

While this may have been the reason for the club, the girls had another reason. These girls were out to win and gave as good as they got. Out of a squad of 25 girls, there was constant turnout of over 22 girls for each training session.
While there were two other second teams in the league, it was always going to be a battle to get through to the semi-finals. However with the pure dedication of the players, we were third in the table before at the knockouts. This left us to play the second placed Na Fianna who had their first team in this division.

Dunboyne were started the first half slowly and before long were behind after some excellent scores from the Na Fianna girls. Somehow Dunboyne with some excellent work from the midfield and forward players in the shape of Emma Duggan, Katie Birmingham, Sarah and Laura McInerney, managed to hold onto a deficit of only four points.
After a brilliant second half display Dunboyne came out victorious and made it through to a Division 4 showdown with Ballivor.
Ballivor started off extremely well but by half time the score was 0-4 to 0-2 in favour of Dunboyne. However, the score line had taken its toll on the Dunboyne girls and we lost three girls out to injury. In the second half Ballivor took advantage of and won out by 0-5 to 0-4.

The players and mentors, Billy Jones, Trevor Birmingham and Paul Gorey along with manager Frank O'Byrne deserve great praise.
Panel - Keeley Thoma, Roisin Gorey, Amy Birmingham, Aoife Fitzmaurice, Roisin Lineen, Emma Duggan, Katie Birmingham, Rebecca Campbell, Ciara Byrne, Aideen Jones, Sarah McInerney, Amy Boughton, Michaela Farrell, Alex Hayes, Zoe McConnell, Ciara Wood, Olivia O'Donohue, Laura McInerney, Karolina Piolunkowska, Judith Wugk, Orlagh Kelly, Isabel O'Connell, Sophie Doherty, Kate Reynolds, Nisha Gilbert, Aoife Colohan, Holly Lynch, Ellen Lynch, Sarah Bacon and Amy McCormack

U11 A side
Assembling in August, we matched a proven team with new managers. The season started with an away game to Simonstown, which was a tight game with Simonstown squeezing by on a score of 0-8 to 2-5. Another away defeat followed at the hands of Ratoath, 1-7 to 0-5. An away trip to Navan O'Mahony's on a beautiful sunny day with a cross-wind across the pitch, delivered the first win, 0-9 to 1-4.
Our next game was back at home against Donaghmore Ashbourne. This turned out to be our tightest game with Dunboyne losing by the narrowest of margins - 3-7 to 4-7.

Pressure was now on to get into the Top 4 in the division and a series of wins were needed. We defeated Boardsmill 1-10 to 4-4 at their place, which was a solid win against a good side. Our last game was home to Royal Gaels, and we needed this to secure the fourth berth in the table. We duly delivered with our most comprehensive victory 1-10 to 1-0.
We arrived into the semi-finals completely under the radar.

Ashbourne defeated Simonstown to secure top spot in the Division 1 league and we were drawn against them in the semi-final.
At half time we went in at half-time 0-4 to 0-3 in front. Keeping the passing going and with fine off the ball running and tracking after the opposition, we moved further ahead and won 0-8 to 0-4.
Simonstown came through their semi, and we were to finish the season as we started - against Simonstown in the Division 1 final. The scene was set for Ashbourne's ground again, on the same pitch as the semi-final. Unfortunately the final didn't go the same way as the semi. We had a good lead at half-time - 1-4 to 0-2. After the break, the momentum moved to Simonstown who slowly ate into our lead. Simonstown won out on a score of 0-7 to 1-5 in the end.

It was a good season - the girls played well throughout, even in the lost games. There's a great standard in the division, and every team are competitive. The managers, John Eager and Paul Flanagan, want to thank the panel for their commitment throughout: Niamh Farrell, Alison McKeon, Grainne Eager, Sarah Atling, Dearbhla Curran, Laura Furlong, Grace Connolly, Leah Keogh, Sarah Wall, Niamh Lineen, Aisling Flynn, Ciara Rooney, Orla Flanagan, Laura Daly, Sadhbh Travers and Beibhinn Hickey.

U12
Dunboyne Under 12 team started on the road in March with high hopes, but their first match was going to be against one of their main competitors Donaghmore-Ashbourne who had beaten them well in the U-11 League literally a few months before. In what was an exciting away match Dunboyne just fell short to a score line of 4-9 4-6. The next match was at home against old rivals Boardsmill, where the team won 2-6 0-7. The next two games against Senschalstown and Royal Gaels proved to be cannon fodder for the team who in the course of beating both teams, built up good score in the process. Our fifth game was against the odds on favourites Simonstown, and in what proved to be a baptism of fire, in miserable wet conditions, Dunboyne suffered their second defeat of the campaign. Having already qualified for the semi-final at this stage, our last game against Ratoath was to decide who would finish third in the group and have the luxury of playing Ashbourne in the semi-final away. In what was a tense and close encounter throughout nothing could split up the teams at the full time whistle where the final score was 2-5 each.

After the necessary consultations it was decided to toss a coin for third place finish, this went in Dunboyne's favour and the prize was an away semi final against Ashbourne in early June.
Dunboyne ran out worthy winners dominating most of the game and were never to too much difficulty.

And so it came to the final against Simonstown. The Dunboyne team went into the game knowing that they were playing against top class opposition with five County players as opposed to two for Dunboyne. While Dunboyne were outclassed on the pitch, they actually managed to keep the scoreline relatively close, with the final result of Simonstown 3-9 Dunboyne 3-3
A final word of thank you to John Kavanagh who assisted, to Frank O'Byrne who always kept training interesting, and most of all to all the parents and kids who made the journey a very memorable one.

Panel: Niamh Farrell, Aoife Farrell, Anna O'Dwyer, Niamh Williams, Teia Connaughton, Rachel McDermott, Robin Whittaker, Sarah Wall, Niamh McDermott, Margaret Leonard, Dearbhla Curran, Ashling Flynn, Niamh Lineen, Laura Furlong, Amy Kavanagh, Orlaith Doran, Clodagh McCarthy

U13 Division 1
With a core panel of 20 players our U13 team set out with high hopes of glory in Division 1 of the championship. We trained twice weekly - on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings.

We got off to a shaky start in our first match, despite leading at half time against Simonstown we eventually fell to defeat. The pressure was now on to qualify for the knock-out stages. However, our girls rose to the challenge in style with five wins on the trot against Boardsmill, Donaghmore-Ashbourne, Ratoath, O'Mahony's and Royal Gaels. By the time we played Senechalstown in our last League match we had qualified for the semi-finals so defeat was not the end of the world.

Our Cup semi-final was versus our nemesis from round 1 in the League - Simonstown. On what surely were the worst conditions to play football the whole year long with torrential rain bucketing from the sky, we had to again taste defeat to the eventual Cup champions. However, we put up a fighting display with our girls playing their hearts out right to the final whistle. Both teams deserve tremendous credit for playing outstanding football in such awful conditions.

We then had the Shield final to look forward to and we were determined to end our year on a high. Our opponents were Seneschalstown and we had revenge on our minds. With a full squad and training still going well we were confident of victory. The final was played on the main pitch in the excellent facilities in Donaghmore-Ashbourne. We played against the very stiff breeze in the first half and despite being one point in arrears at half time we were happy with our position. In the second half we really started to get our act together and we notched up several excellent scores to run out comprehensive winners on a scoreline of 7-8 to 2-2. After the match our captain, Vicky Wall was presented with the Shield and the victorious team then made their way back to Dunboyne for a victory parade through the village.

Our full panel was as follows: Manager Kevin McKeon, Mentors Brendan Quinn and Frank O'Byrne, players: Vicky Wall, Keara Glynn, Roisin Barrett, Roisin O'Doherty, Lauren McKeon, Patricia Farrell, Emma Chamberlain, Emma O'Byrne, Alison Jones, Jane Higgins, Aoife Ryan, Roisin McGoldrick, Laura Farrell, Derbhla Monaghan, Robyn Whittaker, Niamh Williams, Margaret Leonard, Caoimhe Quinn, Niamh Taylor, Teia Connaughton

U13B Division 4
The 13B side had a rollercoaster ride in reaching this year's Division 4 shield final. Coming off the back of three consecutive league wins over Ballivor, Ratoath and St. Colmcilles, racking up 7-26 conceding 2-3. Confidence was sky high and the games could not come quick enough. In our next game we came up against the eventual cup winners Bective. We were given a harsh lesson on a very wet and windy day in Bective suffering a heavy defeat 3-14 to 1-2. Slane were our next opponents and in a close game we lost by two points. Our second last league game was against Rathkenny. Thankfully our team tactics worked on the day and we won the game comfortably recording a 3-7 to 1-2. We were back on track.

If we won our last remaining game we would finish runners up in the league and a home semi final. St Pats made the trip to Dunboyne knowing only a victory would get them to the semi. Dunboyne, on the other hand, knew a win would give us a home semi against Slane which we felt we could win but, if we lost, we would have to make the painful trip to Bective. In a very close game St. Pats, under tremendous pressure, held out for a 2 points victory. We were heading to Bective.

The pressure was on to try and get the girls to believe they could pull off an upset. The league results were not encouraging as Bective had played seven and won them all.
Towards the end Dunboyne trailed by two points. It was backs to the wall for the Bective girls. As hard as we tried we just could not get that goal to secure the victory. The supporters from the home team congratulated us on a terrific performance. If this was the final no one would have left feeling disappointed.

So, we had a date with Slane in the shield final in Ashbourne on Sunday 6th November. This is a game we knew we could win if we had all our players available. I had to poach a couple of the 11A side as standbys just in case we ran into difficulties. Unfortunately this was not to be our day even though we hit the ground running by scoring two quick points. Towards the end of the first half we conceded four points. We eventually lost by 2-7 to 0-7. While the girls were understandably disappointed I was very proud in the way they handled it.

I have no doubt that this team will achieve success in the future. They are an excellent group of girls and it was my absolute pleasure to have worked with them all.
I must thank Padraig Mc Dermott for his help and advice throughout and Frank O'Byrne for his encouragement.
The Team; Manager John Kavanagh, Mentor Padraig McDermot, Players - Catherine Burke, Eva O'Sullivan, Eimear Gorey, Anna O'Dwyer, Clodagh Mc Carty, Orlaith Doran, Aoife Farrell, Alannah Eager, Robyn Harper, Niamh Mc Dermott, Rachel Mc Dermott, Cliodhna Scully, Katie Tobin, Deirbhile Travers, Amy Kavanagh, Ali Monahan, Kellie Flanagan, Niamh Farrell, Aisling Flynn, Sarah Wall, Leah Keogh, Niamh Lineen

U14 Division 1
The season kicked off in February with large numbers of girls turning up for training. The games started in late March with our first outing away to Ratoath. This proved to be a very tough and entertaining game which Dunboyne just about shaded with a superb second half performance. Next up was Boardsmill at home. After a very close game throughout, Dunboyne lost this game to a great display of football from Boardsmill. This very committed bunch of girls trained extremely hard over the next few weeks and learned from the defeat to Boardsmill to go on and record very impressive victories over Royal Gaels, Seneschalstown and Simonstown. Having lost just the one game, Dunboyne qualified for a home semi-final against Simonstown

Dunboyne produced their best performance to-date to run out very convincing winners over Simonstown on a score line of 6-7 to 2-2. It was all set for a meeting with Boardsmill in the Div 1 County Final. Unfortunately the final didn't get played in June as planned but that didn't deter this group of girls from producing a magnificent display when the final was eventually played in September. Trailing at half time after playing up the hill and into the wind the girls knew the game there for the taking in the second half. After the restart Dunboyne got straight into action and rattled off a couple of great scores to take the lead. This was a lead they were never going to lose. The final whistle brought a fitting reward for an extremely talented and committed group of girls who were crowned County Champions.

The U14A squad on that day were: Sarah Higgins, Méabh O'Doherty, Caoimhe Quinn, Maeve Clince, Cliona Murphy, Emma O'Byrne, Victoria Wall, Niamh Taylor, Amy Coyne, Michelle Melia, Louise Grant, Aisling Garvey , Alison Jones, Kate Darcy, Katie Hyland, Emma Chamberlain, Tegan Sommers, Roisin Barrett, Róisín O'Doherty, Erica Duggan, Deirbhle Monaghan, Lauren McKeon"

Sweet Sixteen
Dunboyne U 16s reached the semi final of the Division One semi final this season. It is a credit to the manager that the numbers at this crucial age group actually increased the season gone by.
Each season gone by has seen a big drop of at this age group. The trend has been reversed and that augurs well for the club. A successful core group at U16 should ensure a feeder system for minor. Successful minors ensure a conveyor belt for seniors.
The key to the latter two is the retention of as many girls at the U16 group. This is a challenge because so much happens at this stage of the girl's life. The commitment they and their parents have given to the club since the nursery stage should not be allowed to be lost.

With the club having a very successful season from nursery, through U10, 12, 14 it was heartening to see the effort put in by the U16 girls. The manager Phelim Glynn deserves credit for his efforts. The assistance of Ronan O Doherty was appreciated. It is hoped that the work done this season will be built on in the coming season.

Dunboyne Senior Squad
Despite emigration taking a huge toll on the senior team with a number of girls studying and working abroad, the show was kept on the road by the younger generation.
This group of youngsters narrowly missed out on a Feis Cup semi final place. The experience gained will stand them in good stead next season.

With the departure of a large core group of senior girls it was inevitable that the team has lost their senior and division one status. However in winning the Plate in the Barry Hanlon seven a side in Trim in October the future is bright.
This change in status will now give the younger girls a chance to develop at a pace and level more suitable to their ability at this time. The journey back will be swift bearing in mind the calibre of player coming through the club and the sterling work done by all involved with Dunboyne Ladies football team. Tweet

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