Shamrocks GAA Club Christmas Draw 2012

The Draw took place  in The Shamrock Bar last Sunday night. The following are the results -

Members of the underage were given a tour of the Naval Base in Inis Sionnach (Halbowline) on Wednesday afternoon last. After a long season, it was a nice way to round out the year with over 30 members, between players and coaches, being well looked after the Navy staff.  After being served a meal, the group went around Cork harbour on one of Navy boats before being shown the various training procedures for recruits and the Naval Diving section. Our thanks to the Navy for accommodating the lads.

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The Underage, in conjunction with the Ladies Football club held an enjoyable Bingo night in The FBI, Ringaskiddy last Friday night. With over 30 players, it was most definetly a success. Our thanks to the staff of the FBI (Sarah and Sharon O’Grady and to Nicola O’Sullivan) and to Geraldine Twomey for organising the event. Also thanks to all who organised spot prizes.

St Marys 5-7, Shamrocks 1-4

Shamrocks made the long trip Ballineen on Sunday afternoon last and came away after being well beaten by the home side. Shamrocks, after starting well in this tournament, have gradually let the bar slip over the last two weekends.

The discipline was much better here and the application by the players was way better than the game against Glanmire last week. St Marys were deserving winners, no doubt about that; but Shamrocks for their own part can be disappointed by the amount of clear cut chances that went abegging over the course of the hour. The obvious difference was the ability of the home side to get goals at crucial stages.

The game was played as 13 a side as Shamrocks were a little short on the day. The best Shamrocks players on view were young Sean O’Brien who was simply outstanding at corner back. Cathal Kidney at centre back and captain Cannice Caffrey, who must have covered every blade of grass on the entire pitch were the other outstanding performers.

Overall the mentors in charge for this tournament (Pat McCarthy and John Twomey (Shanbally)) are happy enough with events so far. At the end of the day the purpose of the tournament is to give the 4 participants sufficient preperation for next years U21 Football Championship, which starts in February (in Carrigdhoun anyway).

These games can only bring on the lads and the fact that Shamrocks didnt even have an U21 team for the last few years can only be a good thing. Shamrocks will play the Plate Final sometime in January, which will be perfect preperation for February.

Glanmire 5-11, Shamrocks 0-10

Glanmire ran out comfortable winners in this the second game of the St Nicks under 21 football tournament, in a game played in Glanmire’s top pitch last Sunday morning.

Glanmire led 2-5 to 0-6 at half time but a poor second half performance let the greens down. The management and players were disappointed with the display afterwards. That shows the high standards that they have set themselves which can only be a good thing.

Panel on duty;  J. Wilson, A. Hickey, S. Hurley, C. Walters, J. Tuohy, C. Kidney, S.O’Brien, A. McCarthy, C. Caffrey, B. Cusack, T. O’Mahony, S. Horgan, R. Twomey, J. Brady, J. Raleigh, S. Downey, J. O’Driscoll, P. Brady

The club held its Annual General Meeting on Monday night last in the Grace McCarthy Rooms in the Clubhouse. There was a decent sized crowd present.

The meeting started with a prayer and a minutes silence for our clubmate and friend Kieran Hegarty who went to his eternal reward earlier in the year doing what he loved best – playing and training for Shamrocks. This was followed by the excellent and comprehensive reports of the outgoing Rúnaí and Cisteoir – Finbarr O’ Flaherty and John Twomey (Shanbally) respectively.

Liam Shanahan in his last Chairpersons address reviewed his three years in charge and outlined all the projects the club had invested in in that time. He finished by thanking everyone for their cooperation and help.

The election of officers for the 2012 Executive resulted in the following -

Chairperson – Pat McCarthy

Vice Chairperson – Kieran Lynam

Secretary – Finbarr O’Flaherty

Treasurer – John Towmey (Shanbally)

PRO and School Liason Officer – Patrick Andrews (jnr)

Assistant PRO – Liam Shanahan

Registrar – Tony O’Sullivan

Cork GAA Clubs Draw Coordinator and Insurance Officer – Lorcan Aherne

SE Board Delegate – Dave O’Flaherty

Co. Board Delegate – Patrick Andrews (hurling)

Players Representative – Dave O’Neill

Drugs and Alcohol Officer - to be filled

Oifeagach Gaeilge agus Cultúrtha – Pádraig Mag Aindriú

Helen Prout was also elected as a Vice President. We wish the new committee well for the coming year.

There followed a discussion on playing matters, both a review and looking forward. Pat McCarthy has agreed to stay on as Junior Football Manager. The club have decided to enter a Junior B Football team next year and Peter Prout, Patrick Andrews and Stephen Jordan will look after them.

There was no appointement made to hurling teams. Pat McCarthy as Chairman stressed to the meeting the importance of getting current Junior players to take care of both Under 21 teams in 2012 and he said he was hopeful that players would come forward over the next 2 months or so and make themselves available for this important task.

There was a good honest debate about the state of hurling in the club before John Twomey (Shanbally) distributed some of the Christmas Draw tickets, which are now available.

To finish, Pat McCarthy thanked everyone for their contribution and wished everyone well for the year ahead.

St Nicks 4-9, Shamrocks 3-7

The Club are delighted to announce that The Shamrock Bar in Shanbally are the new sponsors of  www.shamrocksgaa.com

The official launch took place on Friday night last in The Shamrock Bar with many club members present. Liam Shanahan, club chairman spoke first and congratulated everyone involved in the project. Patrick Andrews, website coordinator, was next up and gave a 15 minute presentation of the site for all present. Finally, Mark Hickey of The Shamrock Bar said a few words and said he was proud, as a Shamrocks man himself, to be associated with the website.

We here at www.shamrocksgaa.com would like to acknowledge the work of Seán Nation, Carrigaline Computer Services, who liaised with Patrick Andrews for the last 7 months and produced the site as it is today.

Western Gaels 6-8, Shamrocks 2-4

A long year finally came to an end on Monday afternoon last in Dripseys field as Shamrocks u15s were knocked out of the East Region C Championship by Western Gaels who go on now to meet Clondrohid in the final. It being a month since Shamrocks beat Grenagh in the Quarter Final was a disadvantage as we’d been waiting around for Western Gaels to be available to play the game.

Western Gaels, a combination of Kilmichael and Úibh Laoire (Inchigeela) were simply able to score goals at regular times, 3 in each half while Shamrocks, despite having as much possession, found it way to hard to burst the net and the game was over as a contest long beore the finish. Shamrocks scored an early point through centre forward Alex O’Sullivan before some sloppy play in the forwards let Western Gaels in for a quick fire 3 goals. 2 of the goals came as a direct result of the Shamrocks forwards messing around in the forwards and the Gaels worked the ball up the pitch at speed to slice through the Shamrocks overstretched defence. Three times they did this and it really was the defining moments of the game as it hepled them open up a 3-4 to 0-3 halftime lead and also knocked the stuffing out of Shamrocks. The Shamrocks lads started to go for goals from a long way out which was inadvisable – they actually tried to walk the ball into the Western Gaels net but found a combination of last gasp defending, some excellent goalkeeping and downright poor finishing and option taking against them.

Shamrocks needed a good start to the second half but after a chance of scoring a goal within 30 seconds was completely wasted, and Western Gaels went down the field to show the Shamrocks lads how its done by sticking the ball into the top corner of the Shamrocks net, it was game set and match. The heads hit the floor for 10 minutes and Western Gaels added another 2 piledrivers to their tally. Shamrocke to be fair were suffering from attack after attack brwaking down at the 21 yard line and despite David Andrews and Alex O’Sullivan scoring 2nd half goals, were a beaten team well before the finish.

The season started way back in February and its been a long road. The break will hopefully do some of the players and mentors good. The mentors Patrick Andrews and John Twomey (Ringaskiddy) would like to thank the players and to the parents for their committment, featuring longer road trips due to the restructuring of the underage sector. We hope to see them all again next year.

Panel on duty – D. Raleigh, S. Kidney, S. Kelleher, B. Crowley, B. Coffin, C. O’Grady, R. Horgan, D. Scriven, A. O’Sullivan, A. Boland, P. Murphy, T. Murphy, C. Scriven, N. Hayes, M. Hitchmough, A. O’Grady, E. Horgan, C. Hayes.