Junior II Championship: Coralstown- Kinnegad too strong.

Our Junior II team completed the league section of the championship on Saturday against Coralstown-Kinnegad and have qualified for the knockout stages of the competition where Caulry await for the quarter final clash.

This was a game that had bits of everything including a heavy defeat for Shamrocks against a very strong Kinnegad side. We had a two-time All-Ireland final referee, James McGrath in charge of the whistle; David McNamee made a return to active service after a long absence – the last time David lined out the mark had yet to be introduced; Ejiro Siode, the third member of the family, lined out and Daniel Chukwuemeka was also on a comeback; the Boyle father and son point scoring trick was repeated – it was left late as Robbie’s point proved to be the last score of the evening (Could it be his last score in championship football?); Mark Shaw hit a few nice points; it was a tough evening to be a goalkeeper (Mark Travers would empathise) but Adam Smyth pulled off three really brilliant saves (Has the club every been as well served by goalkeepers? When Philly retires in about 10 years’ time the scrummage to succeed him will be interesting); a brilliant Ritche Daly block down proved that some of the core skills of the game still survive – certainly amongst the older generation of players; for Coralstown-Kinnegad, Dan Leech was flying on a comeback from injury; Nigel Boardman wasn’t happy with the length of the grass, but it didn’t stop the big midfielder, whose sister stars in Fair City, from banging in a few goals; And not to forget, Cooper, the dog made a cameo appearance in the red and white colours although he was Mullingar Shamrocks minded.

It was that kind of a Saturday evening. For Mullingar Shamrocks the achievement was in competing in all the league games without giving a walkover and without including any players who had already played in the Junior I championship.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Adam Smyth, Enda Keating, Ben Egan, Stephen Hassett, Ruairi Hickey, Conor Fitzpatrick, Daniel Chukwuemeka, Ciaran Kiernan, David Culkin, Ciaran Looby (0-1), Adam Boyle (0-1), Mark Shaw (0-3), Robbie Boyle (0-1), Kevin Reid, Richie Daly, Ejiro Siode, Niall Kevin, David McNamee.