Féile
Following months of preparation last weekend was held in Kerry, North Cork and West Limerick. Ballymac hosted Dunshauglin (Meath), Boston (USA) and Fethard (Tipperary). Players from these Clubs stayed in houses in the Parish and many thanks to families for keeping these childrens. Many new friends were made over the weekend and hopefully all our visitors will have happy memories from their time spent in their Parish. Great credit is also due to our Club Feile Committee who left no stone unturned to ensure all activities held in the Club over the weekend ran smoothly. Many thanks to all Club members who volunteered their time to ensure GAA people from US, England, Belfast, Carlow, Westmeath, Clare and Limerick whose teams played games in Ballymac had an enjoyable experience. Probably the highlight of the weekend was the visit to our Club by Uachtarain CLG Aogan O Fearghail who spent time meeting Club members and posing for photographs with them.
Photographs of the weekend can be viewed on our website www.ballymacgaa.com
FEILE U14 BOYS
Our Feile experience commenced on Friday 24th June in Castleisland. We were in a group with Castleisland Desmonds Castlebar Mitchels and Dunshauglin.
First up a game against our nearest neighbours Desmonds.
Weather was fair on the evening and we started in flying fashion although it was a noticeably light Desmonds side.
The boys maintained a half hour of pressure and completed the game out with a healthy margin on the score board.
Next up Castlebar Mitchels
The club from Mayo arrived in Kerry with a purpose and a panel to compete. Their physicality and strength was greater than ours and we found it difficult to score against a well drilled team. A second half improvement by us was not enough to reduce the deficit and Mitchels won out .
That completed our Friday night games and we looked forward to a game against our host club Dunshauglin on Saturdaymorn.
This game was was an evenly balanced affair
Ballymac had the better opening half and lead 1-2 to 0-1 early on however Dunshauglin kept working away and slowly game back into the game Ballymac 2 pts up at half time
Dunshauglin had a breeze at their back in the second half.
A high ball into the square was punched to the net game on !
Level in the closing minutes it was Dunshauglin who got the breaks and tacked on 2 pts without reply to win this tight battle. Our quarter final was held in Mitchels grounds Tralee , Fossa our opponents.
We had played this team earlier in the year and won comfortably. It may have lead to some complacency with our boys that whilst on top early on they did not take more of their chances
A pretty level game but Fossa began to impose themselves as we went into the second half. They went ahead with some well taken points and we were chasing the game we tried very hard and went inches close to getting a winning goal at the death but it was not to be Fossa progressed and Ballymac disappointedly had finished their Feile experience.
Great credit to all the panel who played and to the way our players conducted themselves on and off the field
A special mention to Darragh Sweeney who was injured on Friday night and had his Feile curtailed despite this Darragh was in the dugout willing the boys on !
Also to Dunshaughlin GAA Club our visiting Club a special word of thanks. You made our Feile experience very memorable.
Panel : Eoghan Kenny James Bailey Brian Cassidy Ciaran Brosnan Darragh Sweeney Adam Kelly Adam Joy Cian Godley Dylan Dunne Moriarty Darragh Broderick Johnathan Lowe Darragh Leen Aidan O Brien Tim Polman Daamen Sean Polman Daamen Sean Horan Cathal Culloty Thomas O Connor Denis Brosnan
FEILE U14 BOYS B
Our under 14 B team participated in Feile at the weekend . We were joined in our group by Boston Warickshire and Athea. Our lads got of to a great start with a comfortable win over Athea. However Warickshire proved a step too far , and had too many aces in the pack against a young but skillfull Ballymac outfit. Against Boston we played quiet well in the first half , we were unlucky to be down by 5 pts . However Boston pushed on in the second half and ran out winners.We travelled to Kanturk for our quarter final against Whitescross, however the cork side were too strong for our boys. Well done to all the parents, mentors and volunteers for helping to make this weekend an occasion the boys will hopefully remember for the rest of their lives. They did the club proud.
SYMPATHY
The Club extends its sympathy to U14 Girls mentor John McKeown on the death of his brother in Armagh.