Monaleen Juvenile GAA Club

For the first time in the history of Monaleen GAA our Under 10 Football team qualified for the All Ireland Finals when we beat Douglas from Cork in the Munster Final on Saturday July 12th. Douglas have a proud record in community games having won four of the five past Munster titles and they are the current All Ireland Champions therefore to come out on top in this years final was a great achievement for Monaleen.

We started our Munster campaign with a great win over a gallant team from Tipperary. In the next round of the competition our Under 10 footballers took to the field to play the Waterford champions. Monaleen played with great intensity from the start and when we found our shooting boots Gerard Clancy , Eoin O' Shea, Conor Nicholas ,Cathal Carew, Mark O Dwyer and Darragh O' Leary all notched up good scores to put us in a very strong finishing position .

Our defence grew in confidence with Sam Burns and David Moloney controlling all close in ball. The half backs worked non stop driving forward to supply our front men with the ball needed to notch up the scores and we won the game with some comfort. The final score was 2-9 to 0-2.

This victory put us through to the final to play the Cork champions, Douglas.
Douglas were a bigger team with much more football than the Waterford team but this did not deter us. In the opening minutes Monaleen were almost under siege as Douglas missed two scoreable chances when finally Monaleen cleared a good ball from David Moloney to Cathal Carew and from there to Mark O Dwyer who showed his heels to the defence to score the opening score with style.

Shane Donegan played well under pressure from Douglas in goals but he continued to keep his lines clear for the second game of the day. Sarah Shortt made a good start but had to be replaced due to injury early on in the game by Alex O Donoghue. The game was hard fought and our defence of Christopher Murphy, David Moloney, Sam Burns, Shane Carmody , James Halas and Brian Cunningham did not giving an inch to any forward from Douglas. Gradually we created more opportunity and began to more possession from the mid field as Cathal Carew and Daniel Hession worked tirelessly to get the ball forward.
As half time approached Darragh O' Leary combined really well with his attacking partners to notch up some fine scores along with Mark O' Dwyer and Conor Nicholas.

As the second half began Duoglas came at us with intent and our backs soaked up the pressure. They continued to clear their lines and finally our hard working forwards got their rewards with well taken goals from Ger Clancy and Eoin O' Shea and points from Cathal Carew , Conor Nicholas, Mark O' Dwyer and Darragh O' Leary .In the later stages of the game all three forwards Oisin Cross, Thomas O' Flaherty and Sean Mulkerin were introduced with good effect. The game finished 2-7 to 0-2 in favour of Monaleen.

Monaleen will represent Limerick and Munster in the All Ireland finals in Mosney on August 15th and 16th.

The team now progress to the All Ireland Semi Final against Kildare champions Naas West, which is to be played at 9:30AM on Saturday August 16th in Mosney. All going well, the team could be in the All Ireland Final which is to be played on Sunday at 11:00AM

Here's some of the action from the match. Click on a picture for its full size image.