Gary Kenny All-Ireland Under-10s Blitz ...
To represent your Club is a proud achievement, to represent your Club outside the County perimeter is an extremely proud achievement and one that lasts in the memory. These young giants from Mullingar Shamrocks donned the green jersey in Celbridge and from that minute until the final whistle of their fourth game they were a mark of distinction. On behalf of Mullingar Shamrock, we would like to express our gratitude to them and their parents for the way they conducted themselves today.
We started with a tough encounter with the renowned Crossmaglen Rangers. After a slow start we quickly stood up and matched them play for play. Some fine point scores in this game from Dillon and two great goals from Oisín and Hugo. Following this we took on Leixlip and it was clear to see that our lads were now comfortable with the surroundings as they excelled in the middle of the pitch with Liam, Declan and James Ryan in command of possession and were backed up by a strong defensive display from Rian and Zak. Our final group game was against Lucan Sarsfields. Again nothing but admiration felt when we saw the tenacious tackling and endless teamwork in particular from Sean and James Davitt and again great points from Paddy.
After the tournament organizers calculated the scores etc from the groups it was deemed that we finished second in the group, a great achievement; even with 32 teams involved in this tournament it was probably inevitable that we would end up drawing our old foes St. Loman's in the next round. Friendships, family connections etc were temporarily put aside as both sides proudly showed County Kildare the football talent from Mullingar. It was a keenly tested affair and the effort was great with some unlucky shots - Conor hitting the post with a huge kick. But in the end a fourth game seemed a stretch too far for the tired legs of the green and whites and St. Loman's used their strength and scoring power to get the win and progress. For our lads it was a great day of football and an enjoyable day in general. Most importantly the lads were smiling all day and with the food and drink supplied by Celbridge there was nobody going hungry. Many thanks to the parents for travelling and supporting, to the coaches for their work and of course to Celbridge GAA and the family of Gary Kenny for inviting us to a tremendously organised tournament. Well done all
Our players on duty were: Hugo Corroon, Liam Heffernan, Dillon Burke, Declan Newman, Seán Haughey, Rian Sheeran, Zak Coyne, James Davitt, Oisín Gavin, Conor Walsh, Paddy Colleary and James Ryan.
