Admin Login

Stags Voice – December 24

By scoilpro Sat 21st Dec

Stags Voice – December 24
Stags Voice – December 24

Santa visited Scoil

On Saturday 7th December, the big man himself visited the club with a huge turnout of girls and boys to have a chat with Santa. Our Feile teams had a hugely successful cake sale with some fantastic cakes on the day.

 

 

Aussie Rules Games

An Aussie rules touring group from Western Australia played our Under 15 and Minor teams on the 7th December at very cold Alfie Byrne road!

A unique experience for our lads with the games mixed between round ball and Aussie rules oval ball!

In fairness our lads adopted well to the oval ball with a few pointers from the Western Australian coaches put into play during the games.

After the games, the club hosted the teams back in the clubhouse and provided pizzas to all the players.

There are rumor’s of away rematch!

 

Annual General Meeting

A great turnout for our Annual General Meeting in the clubhouse.

The 2025 Executive

 

Scoil Dubs

Congrats to Catarina Almeida and Andrea Chapman who have selected for the Dublin Minor Ladies Football panel for 2025.

Congrats to Sarah Harnett who has been selected on the Dublin Under 14 Football panel.

Congrats to Alex Chapman who is Manager of the Dublin Under 14 team in 2025 and to Daria Chapman who is part of the Management team.

Congrats to Jack Kennedy, Oisin Benham and Fionn Daly who are training with the Dublin Under 20 Hurlers.

 

Team Reviews 2024

Under 8 Boys (2016)

Team Mentors: Colin Boyle, John Nix, Pat Braham, Dave Greaney, Ciaran O Brien, Hugh Donovan

Go Games have progressed well in 2024. In the first half of the season the team participated in a 3-team league often playing against teams from bigger clubs – there is no streaming at this level. For the second half the girls and boys split, and the boys were in a 2-team league where the teams were more evenly matched.

 

Under 9 Boys (2015)

Team Mentors:  Simon O’Callaghan, Ronan Ellard, Dee Casey, Niamh O Connell, Paddy Maloney, Davy Naylor, Ray Rafferty

The U9 boys have had a fantastic year. Every player has developed well through the year in both Hurling and Football.  All the lads were dedicated through the year and the team played through the summer to meet their enthusiasm.  The boys are starting to understand teamwork and are forming into an excellent group with fun and development.  The mentors are looking forward 2024 and continuing to work with a great group.

 

Under 10 Boys

Team Mentors: Cormac Moran, Ross McNally, Conor O’Donovan, Ciaran O’ Murchú

We have a panel of twenty-two player but lost a few key players during the year, which was disappointing, but we hope to get them back involved with us in time. Ciaran O’Murchu has spent the last few months coaching boys in the local schools, and this has encouraged three new kids to join, and they will be a big addition to us if we can retain them.  This was our third full season of Go Games for the boys. We had approximately twenty-five games in total and the boys steadily improved throughout the year. While we had some difficult days in both codes, we also had some excellent performances and skill levels, and game sense are improving.

Under 12 Boys

Team Mentors: Scott McMullen, Niall Butler, Shane Cotter, Ruairí Colbert

Training consists of improving the players overall fitness level, perfecting existing skills, passing and support play and ending with a match to get them used to and to demonstrate the skills learnt and applying those skills under pressure in a game type situation. The grading games were a mixed bag results wise with some good wins a few defeats and a few close games. We made a priority of working on the players fitness levels after the break. This work paid dividends with noticeably improved performances. After a few narrow losses, including two one-point defeats, the team finished the season with wins in both football and hurling.

 

Under 14 Boys

Team Mentors: Tony De Burca, Shane Connolly, Brendan Allen, Aideen Lawlor & Alan Darcy

2024 was a challenging year for our U14 boys.  The team participated in grading leagues and then played in Division 3 in hurling and Division 6 in football. The team played their home matches in St Annes and were more comfortable with the bigger pitch this year.  The boys were unlucky to be beaten in the quarter-final of the Hurling Cup and semi-final of the Football Shield. They all worked hard during the year on their skills and fitness and continued to improve all elements of hurling and football.

They took part in the 2024 U14 Dublin Hurling Development squad blitz in January and one player was selected and was with the Dublin development squad throughout the year.  In October, the team took part in the Football development squad blitz and 2 players were selected for the next phase.  Some 2011 boys will take part in Trials for the 2025 U14 Hurling Development squad over the coming weeks.

 

Under 15 Boys – Combined team with Craobh Chiarain (2009)

Team Mentors: Cormac Moran, John Kelly

We have a panel of approx. 20 team members with 12 from Scoil. 1 play football only. While it is difficult to tell how invested the lads are at this age and with competing sports for some, we’ve managed to retain all of our Scoil players this year and have had reasonable attendance at training and games from the Scoil lads. We had a strong first half of the season making a Div 6 Feile final and being promoted in football. The lads are in the gym once a week with Conrad over winter and seem to really enjoy this. It is also good to keep them engaged with the team at this time of year and we’re grateful to the club for supporting this.

 

Under 8/9 Girls

Mentors :   Niall Cafferty, John Graham, Gabriel McGovern, Deirdre Murphy

At the start of this season, the U8 and U9 teams combined. Between the two teams, we had 23 regular attendees, a number that has now grown to 26 players with new additions and returning players. This has resulted in more players arriving more regularly to training, and to matches. This year, members of the team took part in the trip to Passage West in Cork, which, despite small numbers on the team, was a remarkable success for the girls, and we’re confident that anymore similar trips will result in increased numbers participating. On the pitch, we refocused on building core skills in both codes. With Niall Cafferty and John Graham leading the coaching, there has been a marked improvement in core skill levels, with players now more confident in their skills, and understanding of the games.

 

Under 10 Girls

Mentors :  Sandra Curtin, Colleen Connolly, David Duggan, Aoibheann Minogue, Sinead Seery, John Graham, Shane McCabe

The girls have shown a significant improvement in their skill levels throughout the year, most particularly in football their catch-and-kick game, and passing in play, and they have turned around their ‘shy’ attitudes towards taking their goals and points. We can certainly see the competitive edge emerging in their play. There is also an improvement in their on-pitch communication, and across the board we have seen all the girls enhance their understanding of the rules of play, and their self-awareness of their pitch positioning and the needs of their team. In Camogie we have a wider spread of skills, with some girls still working on their lifting while others are lifting and carrying the ball easily. It is notable that girls who are comfortable and confident lifting in drills during training and in training games are not showcasing that during games, and we coaches have been asking the girls not to focus on the results of the games (a challenge due to their newly emerging competitive streak) so that they can build their capabilities during match-play.

 

Under 12 Girls

Team Mentors:  Tracey Daly, Alan Darcy, Conor O’Donovan, Jason Ryan

We have a panel of 24 players, of which 23 play football and 22 play camogie. Our numbers remained stable over the year with a couple of departures and three new joiners. Attendance at both training and matches has been exceedingly high all through the year and as a result, the standard of our performances in both camogie and football has risen steadily over the year. In football, the girls participated in grading leagues and performed excellently before the summer resulting in a promotion to a higher league for the autumn. We have continued to compete well in the second half of the season and won all but two of our matches. In camogie, we have improved steadily over the season and performed very well in all our games.

 

Under 15 Girls

Team Mentors:   Aidan Curtin, Sean Leahy, Paul Harnett, Sinead McDonnell and Jackie Geraghty.

Football: The first part of the year was in Division 8 league. After a great win away to a tough St James Gaels, the girls continue to play great football all through the league and enjoyed good wins against the likes of Ballymun and Beann Eadair. The team continued unbeaten until the final game of the season when after a lot of rescheduling we travelled to St. Annes in a League decider. In a battling performance with a lot of players away for the summer holidays, the girls lost their first league game but finished the league as runners up and earned promotion to Division 7.

Camogie : We took our place in our first league with this team playing in Division 6 after a friendly against Whitehall, we played our first league game against Clontarf in a windy day for camogie the girls battled to the end and recorded their first league win against our local rivals.   This gave the girls great confidence and the girls continued to show this against the likes of Lucan, Kilmacud and Ballinteer. The girl played their final League game at home to Skerries and the girls continued their winning streak and earned a comprehensive win to finish the league unbeaten and win only the third  juvenile camogie league title for Scoil.

 

Under 16 Camogie & Ladies Football

Team Mentors: Mairead O’Sullivan, Tom Murphy & Aidan Curtin, Dave Daly, Sean Leahy, Sinead McDonnell.

The year highlight for the Scoil U16 Camogie team was a run to the division 4 championship final. Along the way the girls had a commanding home win against Erin’s Isle and an excellent away win against Skerries. For the semi-final the girls were away to Ballyboden St. Enda’s B. In very difficult conditions the girls showed great skill and commitment to run out deserved winners. In the final Scoil met a very strong  Kevin’s team, a camogie only club. Scoil were winning at half time and the match was close right up until the last 5 minutes. Aided by a strengthening wind, Kevin’s pulled away as the game approached the final whistle. The Scoil girls give it their all on the day and did the Club proud.  There was some consolation for the Scoil full back, Abbey Harnett, who was awarded Player of the Final for her exceptional performance on the day.

A tough year for the football panel as they were retained in the same division (4) for League and Championships. The U16’s depended heavily on the u15’s to field a team from week to week. The sole focus for the Coaches from January 2024 this year was retention of players at this crucial dropout age. This was the Junior Cert year for this team also. Our aim was a return of enjoyment of the game & varied fun training sessions, team building and skill base enhancement. Most of the girls gave good commitment despite great challenges this year and we managed to get a player to return to the Panel.

 

Minor Lads

Mentors (Hurling) Jp Courtney & Tommy Naughton. Football – Ronan Murphy, Paul Maher, Cathal O’Connell & Eoin Murphy.

Hurling

Minor Hurlers had quite the season this year. Following on from last year’s 2nd place league finish & narrow Championship quarter final exit to Castleknock, Management & Panel were determined to go one further. Once again, we proved our consistency with another 2n place finish in Division 5 Hurling League losing only to Skerries (eventual winners of FB & Hurling Leagues 2024) & Olafs. The lads then went unbeaten in championship, winning the Minor C title in O’Toole Park.

The Final v Jude’s B was held in O’Toole Park with the place pack out with Jude’s supporters given they were in the A Championship straight after. However, Scoil didn’t travel light and the level of support on the day was incredible. We started brightly with some final individual scores coming from Liam Carr, Jack Kennedy, Alex Courtney, Tiarnan Brown, Fionn Daly & Oran Rowley which put us into a 1-2 v 1-8 lead at half time. Several players shone in 1st half but none more than Cillian Farrell, Flann Taylor, Sean Morgan & Daniel Flynn, as they battled to break up Jude’s attack time and time again.  With the wind with Jude’s in the 2nd half, they came out all guns blazing & became even more emboldened when we conceded a very unfortunate goal courtesy of the upright straight to the hand of their FF.  Late scores from Tiarnan & Jack managed to stem the tide but the real heroes of the day were our defensive back lines and Keeper Rory O’Donnell. The Lads had done it…. History made…. First Minors Hurling Championship in the Bag (2-8 v 1-12)

Football

The team were entered into Division 4 out of a total of 10 divisions in Dublin. The team finished second in the league to a very strong Skerries team containing three Dublin Minors. The team were a little unfortunate throughout the season picking up some injuries to several players with 7 lads out at the one time for a period. The panel didn’t let this affect them though and really dug deep to produce some excellent football and win some close fought games with 9 wins and 2 defeats.

In the championship, the team was placed at B level, a highly competitive championship but one of the goals that the lads set at the start of the season. Our first trip away to St Peters, a football only combination of three clubs. The lads played extremely well and but for two black cards in the last ten minutes we probably would have won the game. St Peters again had three Dublin Minors. Our next game was against Templeogue/Synge Street, another football only club. The first was very tight and the lads worked hard to compete taking the few chances and keeping opposition to 5 points. Templeogue made three substitutions at half time which had a big impact and a few injuries in the second period didn’t help as we were well beaten. Our last game was away to Beann Eadair, the highest ranked team in the competition finishing midtable in Division 2. Once again, the lads competed well throughout but just came up short against a well organised team. Special shout out to our brilliant captain, Cillian Farrell who led the lads throughout the year. Best of luck to Cillian, Jack, Sean, Flann and Rory as they enter adult games!

 

Senior Mens Football 2024.

Team Mentors: Colin McMahon, Charley O’Connell, Peter Morley, Declan Conroy and Sinead Conroy.

The season started on the 19th.February with a home fixture against St. Brigid’s.  Results over the first five games were disappointing. While the margins in these games were narrow, the four week turnaround from the completion of the 2023 season and the start of the 2024 season cannot be discounted as a contributing factor. Good home wins against Parnell’s, Round Towers Clondalkin and Kilmacud Crokes secured 6 points as once again the panel finished the league strongly with home wins against Raheny,  Erins Isle and a well-earned draw away to St. Vincent’s.

Overall, despite the poor start to our league campaign and indifferent form away from home the panel showed great determination and character to achieve the results which secured Division 2 status for another season.

The Senior Football Championship began in August and the panel continued their league form with a very good performance and win at home to St. Pat’s Donabate. While the next group game ended in defeat away to Naomh Barrog, a very good performance away to Fingal Ravens in our final group game set up a quarter final meeting with Whitehall Colmcille. Despite a competitive first half the concession of two goals in the second half saw the game get away from us. Subsequently Whitehall went on to win the championship outright.

In summary, while falling short of our ambitions it was a successful first outing in this competition and the panel have gained valuable experience which will stand to them in 2025.

The panel’s fitness and skill levels were managed to great effect by team coach    Declan Conroy. There were regular team meetings including post-match video analysis which was another key factor in the team’s preparations. Declan was assisted in this role by Charley O’Connell who made a significant contribution to the management team throughout the season.

Peter Morley kept us updated on the status and availability of the pitch. He was also responsible for our match day logistics and his knowledge of the players was extremely helpful to the management team throughout the season. Sinead Conroy was responsible for our match day video and nutritional needs. Sinead sourced alternative training venues when Clontarf was not available, She also organised a number of fun days throughout the season including an adventurous trip to Ireland’s Eye.

Finally, great credit is due to the panel of players for their commitment,  application and performance throughout the year. Hopefully more rewards await in 2025.

 

Adult B Mens Football

Mentors: Neil Bowden, Shane McCabe

A difficult year ended up with the team being close to relegation. As with previous years we struggled to get a consistent squad. In the Championship we had a reasonable showing, we lost a tight game to Whitehall and Kilmacud leaving us in 3rd position, we will stay in the same championship in 2025.

 

Adult C Mens Football

Mentors: Eoin Kidd, Joe Kirwan, Killian O’Connell

The 3rd football team played league (Div 11N) & Championship this year and were competitive in majority of the games. Performances this year on the pitch were positive and we achieved our best league position of recent years.  We had over 30 players who played at some point during the year – a combination of longstanding players, returned former juvenile players and a number of last year’s minor panel who made a strong impact which was particularly positive.   Overall, a good 2024 and a positive outlook for 2025.

 

Senior Hurling Team

Team Mentors: Darren Benham, Matt Cushen, Cormac Hickey, Dave Walley.

It was a season of mixed fortunes. After avoiding relegation from Division 2 for the past two years, our luck finally ran out, and we were relegated. Challenges such as injuries, the Leaving Cert, and holidays often left us short-handed, making it difficult to perform at our best and adding significant pressure throughout the season. The Intermediate Championship offered a more promising story. Finishing second in our group secured us a home advantage for the quarter-final against Kilmacud. This game was arguably one of our standout performances of the year. Although we fell short in the semi-final against the eventual champions, it was a spirited campaign. Looking ahead, the future of our hurling teams looks bright. With talent emerging from our second team and minors, we have a strong foundation to aim for a swift return to Division 2 and to once again challenge for championship honours.

 

Junior Hurling  2024

Mentors:  Richie Egan, Fred Quinn, Paul Maher

The Junior hurling team played a total of 14 games in league and championship in 2024 finishing in 3rd place in the league and exiting the championship at the quarter final stage after good campaigns in both competitions. After failing to field a team in the Junior 9 league last year the team were relegated to division 10 for the 2024 season. An injection of younger players from the previous year’s minor team boosted the numbers available and ensured that the team was able to field a full team in all games, something that had not happened for the past few years at this level.

After winning the first 4 league games the early season progress was halted by home defeats to both Fingallians and O’Dwyer’s, the top two teams who gained promotion at the end of the league. Unfortunately, walkovers were received in four fixtures where competitive games would have been far more beneficial to the team. However, a 3rd place finish in the league was still a credible performance all things considered. In the championship home wins against Commercials and Wild Geese in our group were enough to earn a quarter final place. An away tie against an experienced Ballyboden St Enda’s outfit proved to be a tough ask and we exited the championship after defeat in terrible weather conditions out in Ballyboden in late September. With more younger players coming out of the minor ranks next year there is an opportunity for the incoming management to build a distinct panel for Junior hurling next year separate to the 1st team intermediate panel. This will be required to retain these players and build on the improvements achieved this year.

 

Adult Ladies A

Team Mentors: Aidan Mulligan, Liam O’Connell, Alex Chapman

The seasons goal was to get promotion to div 2 and stay in Intermediate championship.

Going into the year we looked stronger on paper with a few new additions coming into the squad but unfortunately injuries took its toll on us and we struggled to find a settled goalkeeper and used 4 different players there over the season which is a key issue looking forward for the group.

In the league we started well with a few wins and had ourselves in a good position but injuries and holidays kicked in and we struggled to get a settled team and some days to have even a few subs to tog for us which went against us in tight matches but credit to the team that they still finished in 5th and gave themselves a platform to go into the Championship with. The step up to Intermediate was a tough task for a squad that is very young group with 12 players aged 18 or under but they bar 1 matched gave a great account of themselves most notably again Clann Mhuire at home when they came out with the caliber of players as Oonagh White and county captain Carla Rowe who are multi all Ireland winners and all stars and we went down to the last few mins but their experience counted especially when we had a yellow and went down to 14 for last 10 mins. We eventually had a play off against Clann Na Gael in Ringsend to stay up in a winner takes all match and this time we were without many of our key leaders and with sickness also we needed to call on some of the second team to enable us to field a team for the match and in what was a brilliant match for a neutral we ended up winning in extra time and held onto Inter status for 2025. Our challenge now is to build on this season and hopefully get back our injured players and drive on to establish Scoil as a team to be feared in the league and looking to reach semifinal at least of championship and if we can find a few players in the off season there is no reason why not.

 

Adult Ladies B Team

Mentors: Paul Keane, John Farrelly, Tom Murphy

Thanks to some very committed minors and with the help of some under 16s we managed to play our games. In the Cup we won against Sylvester’s and Finian’s conceded. However we came to grief in the league playing such strong teams as Kilmacud and Thomas Davis. At the end of the year we were delighted to make the shield final but unfortunately went down to Brendan’s. This has not dampened the spirit of our girls who are now busily planning their Christmas party. As Paul managed our minor team to championship victory this year we hope that coupled with the support from their new manager they will play with present B’s and we will field a very strong team next season.

 

Minor Ladies

Team Mentors:  Ciara Galvin, Christine McDonnell, Paul Keane & Alex Chapman.

 

League:  Division 3 league winners. Championship: Division 2 .

This year the girls were in League Division 3 where they finished off the league as winners with a 100% record. There were some really tough games along the way, but the girls showed great resilience to win some nail biting games. Winning the league gained us promotion to Division 2 for the championship. The games were much tougher, but the girls showed the same spirit and reliance in all their matches. Unfortunately we lost out in the shield semi-finals to a very strong St. Vincent’s team.

Apart from the league the biggest success for the Minor team of 2024 was that every single player went and played adult football during the year with either the A or B teams. The Under 18 age group has the biggest drop off point of any in all sports and for Scoil Ui Chonaill to have a 100% retention rate of players moving into adult football is a massive achievement. A huge thanks has to go to both adult teams for making this possible and overall making the girls welcome.

As the majority of this team were 1st year minors in 2024, we are Looking forward to 2025 and joining up with the next years group of 1st year minors. Seeing the girls having fun and enjoying themselves out on the pitch is what us coaches and parents like to see most.

 

Awards Night 2025 – Date for the Diary

Saturday 1st February, Clontarf Castle. Tickets on sale in January.

 

 

75th Anniversary

Only 10 days to our 75th Anniversary, exciting year ahead!

 

By scoilpro Sat 21st Dec

Related News

Main Sponsor

Proud to be part of