KILDIMO/PALLASKENRY GAA CLUB NOTES
SENIOR HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW: The draw for the 2021 Senior Hurling Championship has been made and in our first year back, we have been drawn in a three-team group with our close neighbours, Adare, as well as Monaleen. Adare are just down from the Senior A groups, following a defeat to Ahane, but have serious pedigree, winning all five of their senior county titles since the turn of the century and featuring county stars such as Declan Hannon and Ronan Connolly. Monaleen have been senior since winning the Premier Intermediate title in 2016 and have All-Ireland winners such as Andrew La Touche Cosgrave and Lorcan Lyons among their ranks. It’s a tough draw but a challenge that we shall relish!
INTERMEDIATE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW: The draw for the 2021 Intermediate Football Championship also took place, and we have been drawn with Dromcollogher/Broadford and Crecora/Manister. Drom/Broadford have just come down from the senior ranks, following a period of unprecedented dominance in Limerick football. Previously more known for their hurling; they won seven senior county titles between 2001-2013, making another four finals between 2000-2016. They may have dropped down to Intermediate but are still a formidable opponent,t featuring the likes of Cillian Fahy and Garrett Noonan, and will be strong favourites to return to senior football at the first attempt. We are also joined by Crecora/Manister, who have just won promotion from Junior, as they defeated Monagea in last year’s county final. They are a side who we came across plenty of times when we were among the junior ranks, as they would have been regular City opponents. With former Limerick underage stars such as Cormac Flanagan and Karol Moloney among their ranks, they will be looking to make an impact at Intermediate level. This is another very tough group but after making the knockout stages last year, we are looking to go a step further in 2021.
CLUB DEVELOPMENT: Over the past number of weeks, a Development Plan brochure has been dropped to every house in the community, reaching out for assistance to help the club fund our development project and bring it to life. Our plans include a 25m Training Wall, complete with a 675m2 enclosed Astroturf Training Area, floodlighting and secure perimeter fencing. This will provide our club members with an all-year-round much-needed all-weather training facility which will help develop the skills in hurling, camogie and Gaelic football from our most junior to our adult teams as well as allowing our non-playing members an area to exercise.
In addition, we are launching a Go Fund Me page (link below), which will allow our club members, community and patrons far and wide to straight away support this project and our goals of getting it started in 2021. Within this you will also find a link to our Club Development Plan Brochure. Our Go Fund Me Page is only for persons who wish to avail of Option 4 on the brochure in way of support: https://www.gofundme.com/…/training-facilities…
LIMERICK SENIOR FOOTBALLERS: Best of luck to Peter Nash, Tony McCarthy and the Limerick senior football team as they take on Cork in the Munster semi-final this coming Saturday. It’s already been a relatively successful year, but to make a Munster final would be a huge achievement!
LIMERICK SENIOR HURLERS: Congratulations to Kyle Hayes, Darren O’Connell, Ruairí Maher and all involved with the Limerick senior hurling team on making a third
Munster final in a row, following an eight-point victory over Cork in Semple Stadium. It was yet another outstanding display from Kyle, as he rampaged forward from wing-back to rattle the back of the net just before half-time to give Limerick a six-point lead at the break, following a difficult first half. He was dominant throughout, both in defence and attack, and it earned him the man-of-the-match award. Well done to all involved and the very best of luck in the final in two weeks time!
LIMERICK U-15 FOOTBALLERS: Well done to Ross Allen, Sam Guerin and Cian O’Sullivan who played with the Limerick U-15 footballers in Martinstown at the weekend, in what was a very busy weekend of intercounty action. As always, it is a privilege for the club to have players represent them on the intercounty scene and it is a great reward for the hard work these players have put in. Well done to all players and to their families!
U-6/U-7 FOOTBALL: Well done to our U-6/U-7 footballers who hosted a football blitz in Kildimo on Saturday morning. Some great performances from all involved; and well done to our coaches for hosting the visiting teams.
U-8 CAMOGIE: Our Mervyn Kearney Agri-sponsored U-8 camogie team had their second outing of the season in Ahane at the weekend. Again, there was a huge display of skill, enthusiasm and determination. Well done to all the girls and many thanks to all the parents who supported them throughout. Many thanks to Ahane Camogie who provided the girls with goodies after the game.
U-9 HURLING: Our U-9s had 24 players togged out as they welcomed neighbours Ballybrown to Pallaskenry for an evening of hurling. We fielded three teams in three very competitive matches, and we’re already seeing the improvement and development in these players as they take to the field. Well done to all involved!
U-10 CAMOGIE: Our Mervy Kearney Agri-sponsored U-10 camogie team had their first home game of the season this week; they entertained Knockaderry in the glorious Kildimo sunshine. We had 18 players involved, with rolling subs for an 11-a-side game with everyone getting plenty of gametime. There is a lot of potential in this group, great hope for the future!
U-11 HURLING: Following last week’s visit by St. Patrick’s to Kildimo for U-11 football; we returned the favour this week as we sent two teams to Rhebogue for some hurling. Two great, competitive fixtures; well done to all involved! We return to the big ball next week as the boys travel to South Liberties.
U-17 FOOTBALL: Kildimo/Pallaskenry 1-5 Monaleen 4-15. A tough first outing of the season for our U-17 footballers, who were defeated by a very strong Monaleen side, but our lads fought until the bitter end. Hurling next week against Doon.
WEST SENIOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE: Kildimo/Pallaskenry 3-10 St. Senan’s 2-14. Our footballers played out a terrifically exciting encounter in Pallaskenry during the week. Leading for large periods, St. Senan’s drew ahead but although we had chances to level, time just ran out! This was a much-improved display as we pushed our opponents to the very limit with goals from Kieran Bourke, Dylan Corrigan and Conor Staff. St. Kieran’s are up in our final league encounter next week.
CITY SENIOR HURLING LEAGUE: Kildimo/Pallaskenry 2-13 Patrickswell 2-26. The final scoreline doesn’t reflect the match, as a very inexperienced Kildimo/Pallaskenry side travelled to play Patrickswell in their own backyard on Thursday night. A great first half display saw us take the lead early on, following a poacher’s goal from Luke Guinane, but Patrickswell edged ahead to take a narrow lead at the break. We suffered a couple of second half injuries and Patrickswell showed all their experience in the third quarter as they rattled in a goal of their own and scored a few unanswered points to pull clear. But we rallied again, inspired by a sublime goal from Barry O’Connell, and two fantastic points from play from Ciarán Barry. There were some great displays from some of the younger players as Ciarán and James Pomeroy.
Team: John Chawke; Luke O’Keeffe, Cían Hayes, James Pomeroy; Liam Griffin, Cathal Downes, Ciarán Barry; Darragh Walsh, Darren Whelan; Jack O’Keeffe, Barry O’Connell, Conor Staff; Luke Guinane, Martin Nunan, Paudi Hartigan
Subs: Keel Moloney for Cathal Downes; Aaron O’Donovan for Darragh Walsh; Evan Considine for Liam Griffin; Naoise McGarrigle for Darren Whelan; Dean O’Neill for Barry O’Connell
CITY SENIOR HURLING LEAGUE: Kildimo/Pallaskenry 0-13 Mungret/St. Paul’s 0-17. This was a really good, battling display from a very young side against a Mungret team who had gone toe-to-toe with the likes of Na Piarsaigh during this league campaign. There was nothing in this game throughout; a slight lead for Mungret at the first water break was pegged back by half-time and it remained level at the second water break. Mungret just tagged on a few late points, but we had opportunities for goals which could have levelled it. The game saw an impressive debut for Garry Sheehan at wing-forward, while Liam O’Sullivan also made a debut off the bench. We saw some excellent free-taking from Liam Griffin, teak-tough man marking from James Pomeroy, great reading of the game from Conor Staff and some unbelievable work rate from the likes of Dylan Corrigan and Martin Nunan. We have one more league game next weekend against Na Piarsaigh, who are four from four so far.
Team: James Mason; Luke O’Keeffe, Cían Hayes, James Pomeroy; Liam Griffin, Conor Staff, Keel Moloney; Jack O’Keeffe, Ciarán Barry; Martin Nunan, Darren O’Connell, Garry Sheehan; Luke Guinane, Paudi Hartigan, Dylan Corrigan
Subs: Aaron O’Donovan for Darren O’Connell; Jai Chaudri for Liam Griffin; Ryan Kelly for Jack O’Keeffe; Liam O’Sullivan for Martin Nunan
CLUB LIMERICK DRAW: Unfortunately, we had no winners in the June Club Limerick draws for the year but there are still plenty more opportunities to win! This is a great way to support both your club and county, so please join the Club Limerick draw for 2021! You can win up to €10,000 monthly with 30 cash prizes and an exclusive star prize given out each month! Join the Club Limerick draw by visiting www.limerickgaa.ie/club-limerick-draw “supporting the future success of our clubs & county teams”.
NATIONAL CLUB DRAW: National club draw tickets are also on sale from our club players; from underage all the way to our senior hurlers. All proceeds raised from this draw remain in the club and are re-invested in club amenities and facilities. The National club draw takes place on 4 June 2021; you can also buy tickets online at: https://games.smartlotto.ie/…
PITCH SIGNAGE: If you or business is interested in supporting your local GAA club, give us a message on social media for details of pitch signage options in both Kildimo and Pallaskenry GAA grounds.
CLUB LOTTO: The winning numbers in this week’s lotto draw were 21, 23, 26, 30. There was no winner of the overall draw. The €25 lucky dip winners were 1. Lorcan O’Leary; 2. Eithne Ralph; 3. Maggie Ryan; 4. Amanda Broderick. The jackpot rises to €10,400 for next week’s draw.
Our lotto has moved online and can be played at https://smartlotto.ie/kildimo-pallaskenry-gaa/lotto with options to play weekly, monthly or as often as you like! Six-month and annual lotto subscriptions are also now available. With ongoing restrictions our club lotto is the most vital fundraising and income source for the club, even more so now when all other fundraising activities remain suspended and not possible to run. We are continuing to reach out to members, supporters, friends of our club to please consider joining and playing the lotto online in order to support the ongoing costs of running our club. The best way to support the club right now is through the lotto!
Tickets are also available in Mace Kildimo, Gala Pallaskenry and from our weekly lotto sellers. Please continue to support your local club!
TWITTER: The club also have a new twitter account which can be found by searching Kildimo/Pallaskenry GAA or by the twitter handle @kildimopallas. Give the club a follow to keep up to date with all the latest club news.