St. Kieran’s GAA

County Senior Football Championship Semi Final:

Limerick GAA Headquarters, the Gaelic Grounds, Ennis Road, Limerick provide the venue this Friday evening for the eagerly anticipated 2019 County Senior Football Championship semi-final. Our first appearance at the penultimate stage of the county championship in six years when we experienced a six point defeat at the hands of Drom/Broadford, this Friday evening’s encounter with Oola promises to be a very evenly contested game between two sides who have build up a strong rivalry since Oola’s return to the senior football ranks in 2015 following their county intermediate championship success. Both sides will undoubtedly go into the game brimming with confidence and self-belief that they advance to the 2019 decider against 2015 County Champions Newcastlewest who ended the two year County Championship reign of Adare this past Sunday evening.

We go into the game with four wins from our six championship encounters to date and fresh off an excellent seven-point victory over Fr. Casey’s at the quarter final stage three weeks ago. Oola for their part come into the game having qualified directly for the semi final having topped group 2 with a 100% record, five wins from their five championship encounters, amassing wins over Na Piarsaigh, Galbally, Drom/Broadford and Newcastlewest. Of course, when we faced off against Oola in round 4 it was the east Limerick men who emerged victorious with a two-point win on a night when they proved particularly potent in front of goal picking off three excellent goals.

Despite their lack of competitive football activity since the culmination of the group phase, match-sharpness should not be an issue for many of the Oola contingent who will have been busy in County Senior Hurling Championship with their sister club Doon who have been busy the past two weekends in quarter and semi final action of the county senior hurling championship.

Historically, games between both clubs have always been hard-hitting and hotly contested encounters. Both sides have met in each championship season since Oola’s return to the senior ranks, there has been one draw, two St. Kieran’s wins while Oola took the spoils in our most recent encounter. Interestingly in our four previous championship encounters we have failed to score a goal against Oola, who have found the back of our net on six occasions including three times in our most recent encounter. Both defensively and offensively we will be hoping to reverse this trend on Friday, if we can do so it will go a long way in helping us to advance to the county final.

Both sides are well endowed with talent. Oola are spearheaded by their Limerick senior hurling contingent Darragh O’ Donovan, Pat Ryan, Michael O’ Brien and the ever-impressive Richie English as well as Limerick footballers Jack Downey and Josh Ryan. For our part we will be looking for big performances from our experienced players such as the McCarthy’s, Anthony Molyneaux, Darragh Treacy and Sean McSweeney while our younger players Liam Kennedy, Noel Callanan, Diarmuid Mulcahy and John Hayes will be looking to continue their impressive championship form to date.

Friday evening’s game promises to be a mouth-watering encounter, it is fourteen years since our last county final appearance in 2005 and only our fourth county semi-final appearance in twenty-nine years so hopefully we can put in our strongest performance of the 2019 championship to date and advance to the county final which would be a massive achievement for this group of players. Friday’s game throws in at 7.30. We hope to see you all in the Gaelic Grounds lending your vociferous support to the players and management

 

Previous Championship Meetings:

2016: St. Kieran’s 0.11 Oola 1.8

2017: St. Kieran’s 0.11 Oola 0.8

2018: St. Kieran’s 0.17 Oola 2.7

2019: St. Kieran’s 0.15 Oola 3.8

 

 

 

 

Path’s to the Semi Final:

 

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Quarter final

St. Kieran’s

St. Kieran’s 2.16 Na Piarsaigh 0.10

St. Kieran’s 1.6 Newcastlewest 2.15

St. Kieran’s 2.14 Drom/Broadford 1.16

St. Kieran’s 0.15 Oola 3.8

St. Kieran’s 4.15 Galbally 1.6

St. Kieran’s 1.11 Fr. Casey’s 0.7

Oola

5.7 Galbally 0.12

Oola 3.15 Drom/Broadford 0.12

Oola 2.11 Na Piarsaigh 1.9

Oola 3.8 St. Kieran’s 0.15

Oola 1.10 Newcastlewest 1.9

Bye

 

 

 

County Premier Minor Football Championship Semi Final

St. Kieran’s

Galbally

There was disappointment for the minor footballers this past Wednesday evening when they made the long journey to Martinstown, south Limerick to take on Galbally in the County Premier Minor Football Championship semi-final. Coming into the game off the back of a good group campaign and an excellent quarter final victory over Ballysteen morale was high that we could advance to the County Final and set up a rematch of the 2016 U16 County final against defending champions Fr. Casey’s who saw off the challenge of Newcastlewest in the evening other semi final in Mick Neville Park. We began the game the better of the two sides taking a three-point lead inside the opening fifteen minutes. While our shooting prowess up front was very pleasing one of the most encouraging aspects of our early play was the speed and efficiency at which we worked the ball out of defence and our level of support play off the ball. Alas Galbally soon grew into the game and adopted an excellent hard-running game plan which we found very difficult to cope with. The game was soon all-square at four points each before Galbally took the lead. The major turning point of the game came as we turned over possession up front, Galbally caught us on the counterattack and broke down the dressing room side of the field and found the back of the net with a powerful left-legged effort, beating goalkeeper Dan Duggan at his near post. Trailing by five points at the break was a massive blow considering we had put together some excellent passages of play in the opening fifteen minutes of the game kicking some excellent points. As the second half progressed, we tried in vain to break down the Galbally defence and search for an elusive goal which was going to be essential to get back into the game. Thing’s may well have been a lot different had Aaron O’ Connors excellent effort dipped a fraction underneath the crossbar following a wonderful overhead catch from a long ball into the square. To Galbally’s credit they had their homework done and in typical Galbally fashion once they got ahead, they battened down the hatches and made life very difficult for us as they fought tooth and nail to preserve their lead. Physically Galbally were a far bigger side than us and used this to their advantage, bottling up some of our stronger, more experienced players as we moved forward and tried to condense the play into the middle of the tight Martinstown pitch. As the game drew to a conclusion we pushed forward, still in search of the elusive goal to reduce our deficit only to be caught with two late sucker punches which derailed our 2019 championship ambitions. At the final whistle there was huge disappointment for the players and management, many thanks to Donal McEnery and Jimmy Duggan who put huge time and effort into this team throughout the year. while the result didn’t go our way we still had a number of strong performances on the night, with some of our younger players, in particular Cormac Mann, Cathal McEnery and Aaron Heffernan performing well while some of our more experienced players such as John Hayes, Eoin McEnery, Daniel Geraghty and Michael Shanahan worked hard throughout in the middle third of the field. Although it is always nice to win silverware, another barometer of success is player progression through the ranks to adult level. At present many of the older members of this panel are integral members of the junior team who contest the west semi final this coming weekend while John Hayes and Michael Shanahan have made huge progressed onto the senior football panel this year.

Team vs Galbally:

Dan Duggan, Aidan Brouder, Aaron Heffernan, Cormac Mann, Daniel Geraghty, John Hayes, Shane Fitzgerald, Mike Shanahan, Eoin McEnery, Kevin Guina, Michael Conlan, Dylan Moloney, William Clifford, Aaron O’ Connor, Cathal McEnery, Conor Woulfe, Tomas Murphy, Conor Power, Jamie O’ Brien, Patrick Ambrose, Declan Kennedy, Shane Murphy, Sean Ryan

Junior Football:

The junior footballers are in west championship semi-final action this coming weekend following their fruitful group campaign in which we topped the group and advanced directly to the west semi-final. With two victories over Athea and St. Senan’s and a final round draw against Adare we go into this weekends game full of confidence having played some excellent football in our three outings to date. As of going to print we are still none the wiser as to who our opponents will be. Granagh/Ballingarry, like ourselves also advanced directly to the west semi final stage having topped their group while Knockaderry had a six point win over Adare this past weekend in the first quarter-final. The second quarter final between Ballysteen and St. Senan’s was due to take place yesterday evening, following which we should know our weekend opponents. Once we have confirmation of the fixture it will be posted on our social media accounts and a text message will be circulated.

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