🟥🟩Senior Report 🟩🟥

Senior Ladies Cup Division 11
St Finian's 2-11 Lucan Sarsfields 0-6
Wednesday March 30th 2022. Aylmer Road


Our 2021 county champion ladies' squad got their 2022 season underway in recent weeks and have more or less picked up where they left off from last year.


The ladies' first match of the year, in the Cup, was a replay of August's Championship final against Lucan Sarsfields. And the result was a familiar one too - an 11-point win for St finian's after a keenly fought contest.


Gemma Kilduff did the bulk of the damage early on, eventually signing for a goal and five points before her day's work was complete. 


In goal, our swiss army knife, Norah Harney kept a clean sheet as a miserly defence led by Tara Roche, Therese Guthrie and Katie Harney managed to hold a tidy Lucan side at bay.


Add in a goal and a point from the tireless Kelly Rossiter, a hat-trick of scores from Jean Brennan and the usual assured performance from this year's captain, Sarah Mulhere, and there was plenty to be pleased about for the first outing of the campaign.


Our squad has ballooned in size this season and the promotion of four young guns from the juvenile section has transformed our team.


We're confident you'll be reading about Kacey Galvin, Carrie Begley, Louisa Fallon and Sienna Flynn on these pages for many years to come.


St Finian's: Norah Harney, Katie Harney, Tara Roche, Therése Guthrie; Hazel McGarry, Sarah Mulhere, Kacey Galvin; Sara Phelan, Aoife Cafferty; Saoirse O'Neill 0-1, Jean Brennan 0-3, 1f, Gemma Kilduff 1-5; Kelly Rossiter 1-1, Carrie Begley 0-1, Sienna Flynn.
Subs: Chloe Flanagan for Guthrie 40; Steph Moonan for Begley 40; Ciara Fitzgerald for Cafferty 40; Samantha O'Keeffe for McGarry 45.


***

Senior Ladies League Division 11B
St Kevin's/Killian's 4-8 St Finian's 3-11
Wednesday April 6, 2022. Away


After that Cup encounter, our first League game of the season proved a wet n wild affair in Kilnamanagh on Wednesday last.


Despite the mini-tornado wafting through the Tallaght venue, both teams put on a show. A tough game with no quarter asked, given or expected. Just how we like our football.


We sent Norah Harney down the other end of the pitch this time and she was just as effective as the week before, pocketing five points - including the crucial late equaliser when it looked like we may have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.


Mairead Murphy stepped in between the posts and acquitted herself well. We also welcomed Abbie Nulty-Haughan back from injury - and she would help herself to a five second-half point.


Around midfield, the partnership of Sara Phelan and Leitrim's own Aoife Cafferty looks better every week while Sienna Flynn buried two goals for her day's work.


Added to that, the left-footed Gemma Kilduff - a half-time substitute having raced straight from the canteen in Pfizer - got her second goal in a week.


Elsewhere, Steph Moonan put in a shift in the full-forward line while Hazel McGarry and Saoirse O'Neill kept the treadmill turned up high from the wingback positions.


Next week, all roads lead to Aylmer Road for our next League game against Na Fianna. Throw in is 7.30pm. 


St Finian's: Mairead Murphy; Therése Guthrie, Katie Harney, Kacey Galvin; Saoirse O'Neill, Sarah Mulhere, Hazel McGarry; Sara Phelan, Aoife Cafferty; Carrie Begley 0-1, Abbie Nulty-Haughan 0-1, Norah Harney 0-5, 1f; Kelly Rossiter, Steph Moonan, Sienna Flynn 2-0.
Subs: Gemma Kilduff 1-3 for Rossiter; Grace Lanigan 0-1 for Moonan; Tara Roche for Guthrie; Chloe Flanagan for K Harney; Louisa Fallon for Nulty-Haughan; K Harney for Galvin.

***

Junior AFL10
St Finian’s ~v~Thomas Davies
Sun 03.04.2022 @15:00
Aylmer Road
 
Improvement game on game is important to this group of players and during training we spoke about our slow start and lack of real engagement in the St. Marks game. This issue was taken on board by the guys and truly rectified in this game. We got off to a great start and when we worked the ball through the lines we ended up with great scores from Cillian Boden, Mark Bennett and Michael Hanly.
 
We also addressed our percentage in relation to winning breaking ball and this was exemplified by William Hanly on more than one occasion.
 
We were five points up when Ken Nagle latched on to a good pass, turned and rifled the ball to the net leaving us well in control and the game over as a contest at this point.
 
Noel Foley was back between the posts for the first time in two years and his diving save to his bottom right hand side was probably the moment of the game.
 
The full back like of Oran Murphy, Philip Byrne and Ciaran Murphy were solid and conceded no goals in the game which is a target in each and every game.
 
The half back line was most impressive and involved in everything good that we done in the first half with Carl Fox playing a man of the match role up until he got injured and was replaced ably by Will Robinson who was also impressive for the rest of the game. The stalwart Aran Byrne at number six marshalled the game from start to finish and was ably assisted by our captain Geoff Tracey.
 
The half time score was 1-08 to 0-01
 
Changes were made at half time with Feargal Murray coming in for Mick Kavanagh who had a solid game and was involved more than once in our link up play which resulted in scores. Mick’s dedication to training is certainly paying dividends
 
Barry McInerney’s switch to midfield in the second half had the same result as the same move in the Mark’s game which was that we were able to control the game out to a inevitable conclusion with Barry’s experience playing no small role in this objective.
 
Everyone was delighted to see Ciaran Burke (Uncle) coming out of retirement at the request of the team management and he replaced his son Aidan who stepped up and put a truly work man like performance in throughout the game.
 
Aaran Kelly replaced Mark Bennett and Dylan Boggins replaced Ken Nagle in the full forward line and both players contributed to the win.
 
The final score was 1-15 to 0-05
 
Scorers: Mark Bennett~ 0-7. Ken Nagle~1-0. Cillian Boden~0-3. Michael Hanly~0-2. Geoff Tracey~0-2. Ciaran Burke~0-1

***

Senior Men AFL3
St. Finians ~v~ St. Peregrine's
Saturday 2nd April 2022. Aylmer Rd

It was a disappointing result for the team who were looking to put in a strong performance after a number of weeks of quality training. On the day it proved not to be and goals were the difference as Peregrine's ran out 3 point winners.
Final score St.Peregrine's 2-9 to St.Finians 0-11