The Kerry Ladies Minor Management are to hold a series of trials;
Rory Kilgallen of John Mitchels has been appointed to the newly created role of Coaching and Academy Coordinator for the Kerry LGFA.
In the role Kilgallen will be responsible for the the development and structuring of all Kerry LGFA academies, and one of his major briefs will be the upskilling of coaches involved in the academy process. It is believed that Rory is the ideal person to raise the bar and improve standards of coaching in the county, and to ensure that all players are developed to the level necessary for intercounty football.
Kilgallen brings a vast amount of experience to the role. As a player he distinguished himself as a goalkeeper with his club John Mitchels for many years, winning an U21 County Championship medal in the process. Rory also represented Kerry at the U21 grade, and he played with the Kerry senior team during the 1984 National League campaign.
His coaching pedigree is even more impressive. Kilgallen’s record with Kerry underage teams reads as follows ;
Kilgallen has been involved with underage Development squads since 2011 and has been Chairman of the North Kerry Ladies Board since 2013. He is also currently the club secretary with John Mitchels GAA ,and is also a member of the Austin Stack Park Development Committee.
Munster Intermediate champions Na Gaeil travel to Edinburgh this weekend where they will take on All Britain Intermediate champions Dunedin Connollys in the All Ireland quarter final on Saturday 3rd November with a 1.30 throw in.
Na Gaeil recently won the Munster Intermediate Championship with a 1-11 to 0-5 victory over Aghada in the final. Meanwhile Dunedin Connolly’s captured the All Britain Intermediate title following a 1-10 to 1-6 victory over Kingdom Kerry Gaels.
Na Gaeil will travel at full strength and have no major injury concerns.
The Kerry LGFA held their October County meeting on Tuesday night and the intercounty managements at all age groups were ratified.
The big news is that Donal O’Doherty of the Spa club Killarney will be the ne Kerry senior ladies manager.
O’Doherty played senior football for a number of years with the Spa club and also won an All Ireland vocational schools medal with Kerry in 1990 when they defeated Cavan in the final. Incidentally, the manager of that Kerry vocational team was Pat O’Shea , the current manager senior mens county champions of Dr Crokes.
Donal O’Doherty was the manager of the Killarney team that won the senior ladies county championship this year, and he was also in charge of the Spa ladies team that were successful in the Junior grade. He has extensive experience as a coach with Spa at all age levels and is the former manager of the Killarney Celtic senior men’s soccer team.
He is currently the Kerry LGFA Development officer but will now vacate this role to concentrate on his Kerry management duties. He has named Spa clubmate Tim O’Connor as a selector and Donal O’Sullivan of Killorglin will look after the strength and conditioning work. 2 further selectors will be named over the coming weeks.
Meanwhile Darragh Long of Austin Stacks and Declan Quill of Kerins O’Rahillys were ratified as joint Kerry minor ladies managers. Long is a former Kerry minor and u/21 star and is in the top 5 for championship appearances for his club. Long won a senior county championship medal when Austin Stacks defeated Mid Kerry in the 2014 County Championship final.
Declan Quill of Kerins O’Rahillys is the holder of 2 All Ireland senior medals with Kerry and also starred at minor and U21 level for his county. He played senior football for Kerry from 2001 to 2005 and in total made 14 championship appearances scoring 0-9. He was a regular starter for Kerry in their National League campaigns and amassed 4 goals and 99 points in his 34 games.
Former Kerry great Geraldine O’Shea of the Corca Dhuibhne and Ann Marie O’Donoghue of Beaufort will act as selectors on the team.
The U/16 management were also ratified and John Doona of Legion will make the step up from the U/14’s to manage the team. John will be joined by Nora O’Connor of Rathmore, Eamon Kissane of Beaufort, and Colin O’Leary of Rathmore as selectors with Gillian Healy Austin Stacks acting as administrator while Padraig O’Sullivan of Southern Gaels is the strength and conditioning coach.
The U/14 management will see Charlie McCarthy of Rathmore take the management reigns where he will be joined by Alan Foley of Beaufort and Hannah Devlin of Killarney Legion as selectors. There will be 2 further names added to the ticket over the next couple of weeks.
The Kerry LGFA Annual Awards night will take place at the Rose Hotel on November 17th at 8pm. On the night the victorious U/14 and U/16 teams will be presented with their Munster Championship medals, as well as all of the clubs that have won county leagues and championships at underage and senior level. There will also be player of the match awards presented for the Junior A, Intermediate and Senior County Championship finals.
Tickets are going fast and can be got by contacting club officers who have been assigned the following clubs;
It has just been announced that Kerry Ladies U16 star Siofra O Shea has received the Munster Young Player of The Year from the Ladies Football Association.
The Caherdaniel native starred for the Kerry U16 team on the way to their Munster final championship victory over Tipperary, and she was Kerry’s top performer in the All Ireland semi final victory over Kildare and the subsequent extra time loss to Galway in the All Ireland final.
The award comes on the back of what has been an exceptional few months for the Southern Gaels girl. Siofra was picked for the Irish basketball team earlier in the summer, and she was rated as one of Ireland’s top performers in the European competition which took place in Montenegro.
Siofra will receive her honour at the All Star banquet on December 1st at the City West Hotel where she will be joined by Aislinn Desmond and Sarah Houlihan who have been nominated for All Star Awards.
The October meeting of the Kerry LGFA will take place on Thursday evening at Kerins O Rahilly’s clubhouse with an 8.30 start.
Three Kerry clubs are in Munster Championship action this weekend. Full details are below;
Randles Bros Junior A final
Spa 3-15 Miltown/Listry 2-3
Spa were comprehensive 15 point winners over Miltown/Listry in the Randles Bros Junior A county championship final at Castleisland last Sunday.
Miltown/Listry had no answer to the winners movement and support play throughout the game, and although they tried hard throughout, there was always going to be only one winner in the finish.
The Killarney side played with a strong wind in the first half and raced into an early 2 points to nil lead after 2 minutes with Meghan Cronin and Mairead Finnegan from a free, slotting over.
Miltown/Listry soon came storming right back into the game and Lorna Hickey scored a goal after her shot for a point ended up in the back of the Spa net. Miltown/Listry were dealt a body blow soon afterwards when they lost Ella Teahan to what appeared to be an ankle injury.
Miltown/Listry were enjoying some good passages of play but the resolute Spa defence were dealing well with everything that they threw at them. At the other end the Spa forwards were in top gear and they soon added 6 points without reply with Finnegan contributing 4 and Ciara Moynihan and Lynn Jones also finding the posts.
The central axis of Finnegan and Jones were instrumental in everything good that Spa were producing. Ciara Moynihan was also putting in an excellent shift at wing forward, whilst Cassandra Buckley, Kate Maher and Gina Crowley were well in control at the back.
It looked like it would be a cake walk for Spa, but credit to Miltown/Listry who kept plugging away and an excellent attack involving Clodagh Evans and Meabh Rochford saw wing back Niamh Broderick hit an unstoppable shot past Linda Bruggener for a superb goal.
Spa took firm control once more however, and 3 unanswered points from Finnegan, Kearney, who was now in the full forward line, and Jones saw them take a 0-11 to 2 goals lead in at the break.
Miltown/Listry needed a good start to the second half but unfortunately for them Spa corner forward Meghan Cronin was first to strike with a goal after just 30 seconds. Spa then enjoyed a 15 minute period of dominance thereafter, and added further points from Kearney, Ciara Moynihan, Finnegan and Jones, with goals sandwiched in between from Moynihan and Finnegan, to put them firmly out of sight.
In fairness to Miltown/Listry they mounted a comeback of sorts for the remaining last quarter of the game and they forced Spa goalkeeper Bruggener into two great saves. They also added points from Louise O’Dowd, Lorna Hickey and 2 from Maeve Rochford, but it was too little too late as Spa were deserving winners.
Spa had top notch performances throughout the field and as well as those already mentioned, Sinead Cronin, Loretta Maher,, Mairead Bennett,Mags Cronin and Claire Moynihan can look back with satisfaction on their performances. Equally so Eilish O’Leary who put in a massive amount of work for her side.
For Miltown/Listry Lorna Hickey,Niamh Broderick, Mairead Lehane, Ciara Murphy and Caoimhe Evans and Clodagh Evans did best.
Spa;Linda Bruggener, Gina Crowley, Kate Maher, Mairead Bennett, Sinead Cronin, Cassandra Buckley, Ciara Moynihan(1-1),Niamh Kearney(0-2),Lynn Jones(0-4),Mags Cronin,Mairead Finnegan(1-6,2f),Eilish O’Leary,Meghan Cronin(1-1).Subs; Elizabeth Stack(S Cronin 47),Alma O’Mahony(M Cronin 52),Liath Tobin(L Maher 55),Joanne Lynch(M Cronin 57).
Miltown/Listry; Tanya Joy,Christine Carroll,Helena Hayes,Emma Tangney,Niamh Broderick (1 goal),Ciara Tangney, Mairead Lehane,Lorna Hickey(1-1),Ciara Murphy,Ella Teahan,Caoimhe Evans,Ailis Murphy, Clodagh Evans, Lorraine Kennedy, Meadhb Rochford(0-2,1f). Subs; Louise O’Dowd(E Teahan 4),Lorraine O’Sullivan(A Murphy 52),Zeta Ashe.
Referee; Tom McCarthy (Castleisland Desmonds).
County League Division 1 Final
Na Gaeil 4-8 Rathmore 1-13
Na Gaeil added the Division 1 County league title to the Intermediate championship that they claimed a few weeks ago with an impressive victory over Rathmore in Scartaglin last Sunday.
The foundation for the Tralee side’s victory lay in an impressive first half performance when they took a wind assisted 2-7 to 0-4 lead in a the break. Na Gaeil scored goals from Jadyn Lucey and Ayesha Roche in that first half while Meagan Sheehy (2),Meabh Barry (2),Megan O’Connor, Clodagh McHugh and Nora O’Connell added points. Rathmore’s 4 scores came from the boot of the very accurate Noreen Murphy.
Rathmore came back strongly in the second half with Murphy, Aislinn Desmond and Aoife O’Callaghan especially prominent. An early Norma O’Mahony goal gave them some hope. but in spite of a plethora of scores from Murphy, Na Gaeil had too many aces in their pack and added further goals from Roche and Sheehy sealed their victory. Na Gaeil had fine performances from goalkeeper Laura Fitzgerald, Deirdre Kearney, Eilis and Brid O Connor, Sarah Barrett and Susan Fernane.
Na Gaeil scorers;
Meaghan Sheehy 1-2, Ayesha Roche 2 goals, Jadyn Lucey 1 goal, Megan O’Connor 0-2, Meabh Barry 0-2, Clodagh McHugh (0-1),Nora O’Connell(0-1).
Rathmore scorers; Noreen Murphy (0-10), Norma O’Mahony (1-2), Aoife O’Callaghan(0-1).