1. Message from the Executive

2. Dubs come to Scoil

3. Féile Champions

4. Keys to Success

5. Team News

6. Try-a-Tri

7. Other News

Message from the Executive

The executive committee would like to extend a huge thank you to each and every club member who was involved in any capacity over the past weekend. It was a monumental weekend for the club, with significant events that will last club members a lifetime. It is weekends such as that gone by that showcases how special Scoil Uí Chonaill truly is. From the support at our fantastic Féile win, the Dubs visiting the club, our fundraisers and matches, it is obvious that the club means so much to so many.

Some particular gratitude needs to be shown to a select number of club members for their continued dedication in improving the club. Jackie Geraghty has worked tirelessly at getting positivity and togetherness (which she exudes in abundance) throughout the club, typified by the Féile Keys to Success evening and the visit of the Dublin team. A huge thank you to Jackie for all of her continued hard work. If you see her around the club, please ensure you say thank you!

A mention must go to Neil McDermott for taking photographs over the weekend. He was at the three major events over the weekend and supplied most of the pictures you’ll see below in the gallery! Thank you Neil.

Please click into ‘Scoil in Pictures’ under the ‘About us’ subheading on the website for full pictures from the weekend.

Scoil Abú,

Executive Committee.

Dubs Come to Scoil

On what was a truly remarkable occasion in Scoil Uí Chonaill, Saturday morning saw the full Dublin Senior Football panel and selectors come to the club. Rarely has such an event taken place in the history of the club.

On a sunny Saturday morning, our juvenile players arrived thinking it was going to be a regular training session in the club. The Dubs arrived shortly after 11:15 and, after a few short greetings, they made their way onto the pitch to conduct training sessions with each team. Both players and parents alike were shocked! The likelihood of such an event taking place any time soon in the club is slim, so those who were there made sure to enjoy the occasion. Few times have there been so many smiles on faces in the grounds of Scoil Uí Chonaill. Players and mentors learned so much from the players while they were coaching the teams.

The club cannot thank the Dublin team and staff enough for the opportunity. The manner in which players encouraged our juveniles was commendable. A special thank you must go to Shane O’Hanlon and Jason Sherlock for their help in organising the event. The Dubs are more than welcome back to Scoil at any time! Up Scoil and COYBIB.

Féile Champions

In what was the club’s first ever camogie féile tournament, the club pulled off the remarkable achievement of winning it on the first go! A weekend of phenomenal performances from the team that are being dubbed the ‘Scoilettes’ saw the girls lift the Division 5 Féile Camogie title.

It is a testament to all of the hard work put in over the past number of years in the club with the rejuvenation of camogie. Having historically won a Senior Camogie championship in 1989, the club’s successes in camogie have been limited over the past number of years. This victory is huge for the club.

To single out one individual or player would be an injustice to every person who has been involved over the past few years. On behalf of the club, I would like to personally congratulate each and every member of the panel, management team, training staff, parents and supporters. It was a truly amazing achievement, and an experience which will live long in the memory for any and all who were a part of it. Up Scoil!!

Mark Candon put together what can only be described as a colossal piece of work on the story of the Féile journey which can be found here: http://www.scoilgaa.com/our-feile-journey

Rd 1. Scoil 3-2 1-0 Craobh Chiaráin

Rd 2. Scoil 2-3 1-5 Naomh Peregrine

Semi-final Scoil 2-3 2-2 Round Towers (C)

Final Scoil 0-2 0-0 Commercials

‘Keys to Success’

The Féile team must have been inspired by the words of wisdom they received on Friday night in the club. A panel of Joan Cushen, Andy Bunyan, Thomas Gleeson, Michael Darragh MacAuley, Hannah Leahy, Áine Fanning and Tommy Naughton spoke to all of our Féile hopefuls in the club on some of the keys to success in sport. The panel answered questions from Richie Egan. The speakers were extremely knowledgeable and offered the players some fantastic advice on how to improve in their sport. The audience listened attentively and the panel received a rapturous applause once they finished. One parent remarked that they have never seen a group of kids stay so silent for so long!

A massive thank you to our panel and all of the people who helped out at the event, it was a fantastic evening!

Team News

Senior Footballers: Senior Footballers were beaten by Sylvester’s on Sunday morning in AFL2. After a slow start to the game, Scoil gained some momentum with a goal from Neil O’Flynn, but the Sylvester’s forwards were extremely accurate and only had one wide in the first half. A closely fought contest in the second half saw Scoil lose by 6 points. Onwards and upwards.

Junior Footballers: Junior footballers were beaten by St. Vincent’s in AFL7 on Sunday morning. An extremely tight panel fought very well in both the first and second halves but came out on the losing side by a goal. Vincent’s implemented the sweeper system very well which kept Scoil to only a handful of scores in the second half.

U12s: Na Fianna (1-4) v Scoil (5-14)

Under 12’s were away to Na Fianna for 9.30am throw in. We had a slow start and conceded early point. Not sure if it was nerves or lack of sleep but the lads soon regrouped and showed their mettle to take full control of the game and came away worthy winners.

Alan Murphy (Captain) had literally 5 star performance with 5 goals to his credit.
Lovely well worked scores/points started to flow from both starters and subs.
Our defence stood firm with Fahad and Diarmuid proving a very effective combination.
Alex Cahill Culligan and Nathan had some very important interceptions and great point scored with last kick of game by Jack.
All in all a good mornings work from our U12’s.

After the game we made our way back to the club and met a few “Aul Dub Footballers” also ‘UP SCOIL’

Roll on the “Official League” now football grading games done – 100%

 U9/10/11 Girls:

Scoil Girls under 9s, 10s and 11s had their usual 3 games last weekend, with games against Round Towers Lusk, Skerries Harps, Beann Eadair and Trinity Gaels over the weekend. Throw in a training session by the dubs and it was a busy weekend.

U10 Camogie

This group was first up on Saturday at 2pm against Round Towers in Lusk. There was a little bit of a hangover from the morning training session with the Dublin Players but thankfully it didn’t last too long. The biggest issue was the length of the grass which ruined any chance of any ground hurling as well as the bitter cold weather. Thankfully the teams were able to overcame these challenges

Team Blue (Sean and Aidan C)
The team played very well  with some great lifting and striking, It is certainly great to see the girls take the opportunities to lift as they arose. The practice at home and at training is paying off. and The hardest thing with this team was injuries with 4/5 of the 8 players getting injuries during the game. With 4 sets of sisters ( Harnetts, Curtins, McCanns and Leahys) this really was a family show. Abbey,  Ashling and Aibhilín were excellent on the day.

Team Red (Dave and Aidan R)

The girls performed very well. On this evidence the girls skills are definitely improving with excellent striking from hand. Lauren and Emily scored off their less dominant side. Abigail scored a great point from distance. Nessa was in great form working some good scores. Millie and Afric are also striking the sliothar well.

U9 Camogie

These was the first camogie matches for this new team and they didn’t disappoint and showed all the benefits of playing with the older girls over the last year. Despite some difficulties in gaining access to Ellen field Park at the start, some Scoil ingenuity saw the team warming up before the rest. When the gates to the park were finally opened and the matches were able to start, Scoil took control from the start and never stopped. From Sorcha at the back to Emily and Sarah at midfield we were on top everywhere.  Ruth and Aoibhinn were excellent with some great blocking and striking especially when leading the attack. Orla, Aisling and Blathin got stuck in everywhere and never left the opposition settle. Thanks to her hard working teammates, Roisin didn’t have too much to do but still pulled off 2 great saves.

U11 Camogie

Team Green (Dave and Sean)

The U11’s picked up where the U10’s left off striking the ball very well. Abigail played her best game to date and was ultra competitive against the older girls. Aoibhinn and Caoimhe worked well together in midfield getting some fine scores. Danu is catching up quickly with her skills development. It was great to see Millie gaining confidence in her skills, lifting the ball when she got the opportunity. 

Team Orange (Sinead)

This team put in three very strong performances. Sadbh was striking well with lovely long clearances on the ground and from the hand. Orlaith despite injury put in a solid performance with great put outs. Nessa  was on form and Ciara battled for every ball not giving her players any space.  Abby impressed using her left to get out of trouble. 

All players  upped their performances from game to game using all they are learning and showing real progress.  

Up next weekend is football, with the following matches taking place.

Under 10s away to Fingallian’s at 2pm  on Saturday the 6th

Under 9s away to St. Anne’s at 10am  on Sunday the 7th

Under 11s home to O’Dwyer’s at 12pm  on Sunday the 7th

U10 Football

St Margaret’s did us a big favour by switching the fixture to play at Alfie Byrne, allowing the team to get up to see the Dublin squad in the club later. Seeing and getting some 1:1 tips from the Dubs was a really special treat for the lads and even the smallest of them were ten feet high with words of praise from Con O’Callaghan ringing in their ears. They could also be very proud of their performances earlier in the day.

Team John delivered another super performance by working hard and doing their best all day. The tone for the game was set by Darragh in the opening minutes who got to the ball ahead of his opponent and ran forward to kick a fine, long range point.  

As well as hard work, a notable feature of the game was that most players took four steps after receiving the ball to burst through tackles and accurately pass to team mates. Early in the game, Darragh gained possession of the ball and took four steps before accurately passing to Dennis. Dennis in turn took four steps before passing to Finn who burst forward and scored a point. Joseph had one of his best games of the year driving through from midfield to score or set up team mates. Denis did a number of excellent high catches in the middle of the field and took four steps to get into a better position to score four lovely points!

Playing in defense in the first half, Paddy tackled strongly and on one occasion, cleared the ball by kicking it with his other foot. He moved into the forward line in the second period and scored three lovely points. Playing in his first football match, Finn had a super game linking up well with his team mates and kicked a number of marvelous scores.

For team Cormac there was a really good team performance, but the display of text book tackling from Jamie has to get special mention. Time and again he shadowed his opponents like a leech and slapped his hand in with perfect timing on the bounce or solo. As his confidence grew he began to run the ball out of defence more calmly and look up for the right pass too. 

The rest of the team all played their parts and there were some really good patches of give and go football. As the scores started to mount for us, kids started to get a little greedy and go for “hail Mary” shots and some players began to abandon their positions a little too. We spoke afterwards about the need to continue to do the right things right to the end of the match. 

2 other little highlights to mention. There was one beautifully measured football pass from Sam that split the defence and led to a score from Shay (whose soloing and kicking technique is growing every week). The other was one of the best saves that will be seen on any GAA pitch this year from Matthew, who dived spectacularly to turn a ball that looked destined for the top corner around the post.

Practice for this week is hitting from the hands in hurling (on the run for the more advanced kids) and in football bounce and solo with 2 footballs.

We play in St Maurs, Rush this weekend. Meeting there at 9.30.

Nursery and U7s:
We had a great turnout at nursery training at Alfie Byrne road. We had over 25 academy kids who worked on their football and hurling skill with extra emphasis put on kicking and tackling.

We had 20 green and yellows kids. They were spilt into two groups and worked on their football and hurling skills concentrating on dribbling, hand passing, kicking and striking. 
Note to all parents that training starts at 0930 sharp so please arrive early.

Players of the week. Feidhlim, Fionnuala and Ben.

Try-a-Tri

Triathlon Ireland have sanctioned an event for this coming Sunday 7th of April for anyone interested in triathlons. The event begins at 9.30am and finished at 12.00pm. Over 18’ only. Admission is free.

Full event details can be found below.

Other News

• Club members are asked to come and show their support to our Senior Hurlers who take on Raheny in the first round of the Senior Hurling Championship this coming Saturday. The club bar will be open from 5.30 p.m. and all are welcome. It would be great to see a huge support down for our lads in the clubs first Senior Hurling match in 20 years!

• The Scoil Junior trad session takes place in the clubhouse this Friday from 7.00 until 8.00 sharp. All are welcome. See you all there!

• U15’s in action. They are playing 1st round of the U15 Football championship on Sunday morning at 11:30am in Scoil vs St. Judes. All support welcome

• Scoil to celebrate five minor championship titles and an under 21 title in a seven years period in the glorious 60’s.

  Not many members of the Club will be aware of the Scoil glory days when the Club  contested six Minor Championship Finals in eight years and won FIVE Dublin Minor Championship titles!

  The Scoil also contested and won an U21 title in that period.

  To revive and relive some of the memories , some of the stars of that era are having a reunion on  Friday 7th June at 7.30pm in the Clubhouse.

  So get out the photos, put on the memory caps and  spread the word (50 years plus is a long time)

  Main contact points are :

  Robbie Kelleher(086 2583796)

  Barry Kenna (087 4196789)

  Bernie O Sullivan (086 0688101)

  Gerry Rowley  (087 6287395)