ALL IRELAND CHAMPIONS
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Saturday 18th August 2018 will be etched in the history books of our club for many a year to come.The Prunty pitches in Templeogue, Dublin was the scene where we competed in the St Judes All Ireland Junior sevens competition. A gallant band of players ,mentors and supporters left Knocknacarry just after 5.30a.m led by manager Chris Dornan. We travelled more in hope than expectation to reach the venue in good time for our first game.
The quick fire nature of the competition meant we had to get into our stride early doors and that we did! A win and a draw in the round robin stage placed us in the shield competition .
London outfit, Thomas Mc Cartans provided stiff quarter final oponents before we faced Skehana in the semi finals. This was a nail biting contest in which we narrowly held on to a one point lead during some tense injury time, before the ref blew for full time to indicate that we would be playing in the final against Newry Shamrocks.
After a short break ,which was well deserved and required to carry out some running repairs to the players we took to the field against a big and physical Newry team.Despite an early onslaught from Newry we managed to go in at the break leading by a point. On the restart Newry quickly equalized but then failed to register another score leaving us to run out winners by five points.
Mark Scally accepted the shield on behalf of his team and Conor Nc Hugh narrowly missed out on being named player of the tournament. It would be unfair to single out any player for their performance as this was most definitely a fantastic team performance.
A small celebration ensued in the clubhouse before the victorious team travelled home in buoyant mood.
"This has set the team up beautifully for the upcoming Junior Championship and was a great experience for the players to mix it with players from all over the country ,we look forward to defending this title next year " said Dorny afterwards.
Team
Mark Scally,Eoin Mc Quillan, Pierce Bannon,Connor Bannon, Conor Mc Hugh,Jack Mc Kay,James Morgan, Harry Kilgore,Michael Dunne, Conleth Mc Neill, Eoin Magee,Tom Scally.
Management
Chris Dornan, Liam Mulholland,John oHara,Aidan MC Hugh( arrived in time for the photo!)
Goalkeeping coach and communications : Dominic Magee