KILDIMO/PALLASKENRY GAA CLUB NOTES
CLUB ANNUAL: We are now taking orders for our Club Annual 2019! Orders must be in by 1 December. Please e-mail pro.kildimopallaskenry.limerick@gaa.ie or contact Éanna McGarrigle at 085 2832478 to order your copy!
The perfect Christmas present for any Kildimo/Pallaskenry GAA fan at home or abroad and will include features such as reviews & photos of all teams from our U-14 Feile Shield-winning footballers to our Premier Intermediate hurlers to our U-21 City title-winning footballers! It will also include interviews with players and club figures, profiles of all our U-14 players, spotlight on some of our intercounty stars and much, much more! All proceeds from the Annual will go towards future development projects within the club!
CLUB ANNUAL ADVERTISING: We are also still looking for sponsorship & advertising for our club annual. If interested, please contact Éanna McGarrigle at pro.kildimopallaskenry.limerick@gaa.ie or at 085 2832478. Your support is welcomed as always.
ELECTRO QUIZ: Next Saturday night, 30 November in the Seven Sisters at 9pm, the club will again host an Electro Quiz. Start putting your team together! This is always a very entertaining evening and promises to be a great night once again. Hope to see you all there!
U-21 CITY FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS! Kildimo/Pallaskenry 2-8 St. Patrick’s 0-7. For the second year in a row, our Corner House-sponsored U-21 footballers travelled to Rhebogue on a cold November evening under lights, and came away with the City title! 2-1 from poacher supreme Evin Kelly helped us on our way to victory but how many times did the likes of James Pomeroy, Liam O’Sullivan and Lorcan O’Leary come out on top in 50/50s? Not to mention the amount of times the likes of Cathal Downes and Dylan Corrigan cut through the opposition defence with their direct running!
Although we led from the early stages all the way through, this was a very hard-fought victory and needed work rate all over the park, as racking up big scores under lights in November is never easy! Credit must go to St. Patrick’s, the pitch was in great condition and on the field, they fought until the bitter end but we delivered a fine, mature display and had enough in the tank to see us over the line.
St. Patrick’s hit the front with an early point but once Evin Kelly drew us level with a point from play, having been set up by Paudi Hartigan, we would never fall behind again! Indeed, we hit a goal early on; an excellent run from captain Dylan Corrigan saw him leave a number of defenders in his wake, his shot was half-blocked but Evin was there to apply the finish from close range! It was a great start and Evin and Paudi Hartigan were causing bother with their movement inside, while the likes of Cathal Downes and Shaun Barry were getting on huge amounts of ball in the middle third. St. Pat’s reduced the deficit with a free and then had a goal chance, but some good defending from the likes of Evan Carroll and Tadhg O’Shaughnessy saw us escape.
When Paudi Hartigan had a shot blocked, the ball deflected behind and Cathal Downes struck the ’45 sweetly, with the ball sailing right between the posts with plenty to spare! Shortly after, a quick free from Conor Staff looked to find the excellent run of Luke O’Keeffe but it went over his head and was collected by Matthew Lucey, who scored a nice point off his
right foot! The next score was an individual effort and probably the score of the half! Cathal Downes, who was everywhere, took on his marker but was pushed onto his weaker, left foot a long way out from goal. This did not faze Cathal, who launched a monster effort off his left foot which landed right over the bar.
Cathal was also doing his bit defensively and won a number of turnovers in the first half, as did Shaun Barry, who was doing an excellent job as the linkman. As would be expected, the likes of Luke O’Keeffe, Liam O’Sullivan and James Pomeroy were also hitting everything that moved and ensuring that we were winning those turnovers in the middle third. We did possibly waste some chances in the first half also, and the St. Pat’s goalkeeper did well in a couple of dangerous situations but Evin and Paudi were continuing to link up inside, sometimes soccer-style! St. Pat’s kicked the last point of the half with a second free, but we had a late goal chance. James Pomeroy and Paudi Hartigan did very well to drive through the St. Pat’s defence, before feeding Conor Staff but as he stepped inside his man, his shot was blocked, deflected off him and spun out wide. We still held a healthy half-time lead on a scoreline of Kildimo/Pallaskenry 1-4 St. Patrick’s 0-3.
Just like the first half, St. Pat’s kicked the first score of the half, a decent effort after some good interplay. They almost had a sniff of another goal chance, but Tadhg O’Shaughnessy’s superb tackle prevented the attacker to go through on goal! We would then get on the board when another brilliant run from Dylan Corrigan saw him drive right through the heart of the St. Pat’s defence before feeding Matthew Lucey, who was able to kick his second point of the game! St. Pat’s would hit back with the next point and again, there was only a goal between the teams! During this period, we were doing brilliantly defensively, winning lots of turnovers and opposition players were being tracked everywhere they went, although we were perhaps a little careless in possession. But Liam O’Sullivan and Dylan Corrigan both won brilliant 50/50 battles in the space of a couple of minutes, while our entire defence were putting their bodies on the line when they had to, making crucial interceptions and blocks. James Pomeroy, Luke O’Keeffe and Lorcan O’Leary went through the wars but were taking the pressure off our full-back line.
We were repelling a lot of pressure and needed to actually kick a score having missed a couple of chances. Substitute Liam Wilson showed a lot of pace and energy as he took on the defence and he won a free, which was coolly slotted over the bar! A few minutes later, it looked like Liam may have taken too much out of the ball after a great run, but again, he drew the free close to goal! Once more, Dylan kicked the point and a three-point lead had been stretched out to five points; and things seemed a little more comfortable!
The next score would secure the victory, and a fine score it was too! There was some brilliant interplay, led by Shaun Barry, who was the linkman and eventually the pass was played inside to Evin Kelly. Evin was out in front of his man, held the ball up before popping outside to find the run of Conor Staff. Conor stepped inside and out before returning the pass to Evin in space inside, and Evin slipped the ball under the goalkeeper and into the back of the net! This gave us an eight-point lead, and although Pat’s would hit the next score via a free, we were now firmly in the driving seat!
We would round off our scoring with an absolutely brilliant team move. James Pomeroy started things in defence, driving out past a couple of players, despite being fouled and he popped to Luke O’Keeffe. Luke was able to pick out Cathal Downes who set out on a typically powerful lung-bursting run. Cathal left defenders trailing in his wake, before
popping a pass to Paudi Hartigan, who flicked it back instantly to Cathal who had continued his run. This flick brilliantly took out two defenders and Cathal raced through before firing the ball over the crossbar for what was a superb team score! St. Pat’s would get another score the end, but our defence, organised by Jamie Hickey, did absolutely brilliantly to prevent any goal been scored as St. Pat’s threw the kitchen sink at us in the final moments.
This was an excellent performance, a really good victory which means we are back in a County Semi-Final for the second year in a row, where we will face Shannon Gaels! This was a very physical contest, with plenty of hard rights but a lot of good football. I don’t think it can be overstated how well the team did to stand up and be counted when this game was in the melting pot, and have lifted some more silverware. Huge congratulations must go to the management team of John Barry, Brian Butler, Liam Hayes and Alan Fitzgerald for their efforts in leading the team to this victory!
Team: Jamie Hickey; Tadhg O’Shaughnessy, Evan Carroll, Jack Mullane; James Pomeroy, Lorcan O’Leary, Luke O’Keeffe; Dylan Corrigan (0-2, frees), Liam O’Sullivan, Shaun Barry; Matthew Lucey (0-2), Conor Staff, Cathal Downes (0-3, 0-1 ’45); Paudi Hartigan, Evin Kelly (2-1)
Subs: Liam Wilson for Matthew Lucey (42 mins); Cathal O’Shaughnessy for Lorcan O’Leary (58 mins, black card); Naoise McGarrigle for Evin Kelly (60 mins); Aaron O’Donovan for Jack Mullane (64 mins)
CLUB LOTTO: There was no winner of this week’s club lotto held in De Bucket. The numbers drawn were 2, 7, 28 and 30. Congratulations to our lucky dip winners, who won €25 each: 1. Pat Culloo; 2. Bernadette O’Donoghue; 3. Liam O’Connor and 4. Heather Keane. The jackpot rises to €3,300 ahead of next week’s draw in the Seven Sisters. Please continue to support the club lotto as it is the main source of funds for our teams!
CLUB LIMERICK DRAW: Disappointingly, we had no winners in the Club Limerick draw for October, after having a winner earlier in the year! However, there is no better way to support our club and show our players that you are supporting them all the way! Kildimo Pallaskenry GAA is very fortunate to have a number of players involved with county teams in both hurling and football across a number of grades. Join the CLUB Limerick Draw online or with any club committee member. Support your club and county teams!
