In the year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing our U-12 Boys amassed nearly 50 meetings throughout the 2019 season.
We started with a panel of 13 on 25th January & this expanded to 17 as the year progressed. Between training sessions, challenge games, 2 rounds of County League and 1 East Kerry League we met on a total of 41 occasions with 17 of those being matches.
3 Challenge games during the month of March got the ball rolling for the year ahead, a three point loss to Legion at home followed by two comfortable wins at home to Fr Casey’s Abbeyfeale and Dr Crokes.
Our first competition of the year saw us placed in Division 7 of the County League. Despite pleading our case with the County Board that due to the boy’s enhanced capabilities and skill set that it would be more appropriate to enter this team at a much higher division, we were advised that this was the highest division that we could be placed in due to the fact that we could only field 1 team.
The Division 7 County League commenced 07th April & finished 03rd May and saw our boys worthy winners with 5 wins from 5. Away to Castleisland Desmonds & Renard and at home to Kerins O Rahilly’s, Gneeveguilla & Cromane.
Phase 2 of the County League saw us placed in Division 1 which was only made possible by our U-10 Boys entering a team into this competition to allow our U-12 Team to be placed in a higher division.
This was a fantastic competition to be involved in & our sincere gratitude is owed to those U-10 Boys, their parents and their Management Team of Tom Moynihan & John O Donoghue for their assistance here and the manner in which they contested the competition.
We commenced the Division 1 County League with a good 10 point win away to Laune Rangers. This was followed by another win this time at home to An Ghaeltacht by the slenderest of margins. Our first loss in this competition was a 5 point loss away to Rathmore in monsoon like conditions followed by a 3 point loss at home to eventual winners Ballymac and finally a 1 point loss at Connolly Park to Austin Stacks.
So 2 wins and 3 losses was the summation of our results in this competition but all games were a joy to be involved, some fantastic scoring and defending on display, tight matches with only a kick of the ball separating winning and losing. In hindsight there were no losers in this competition and the overriding winner was football as it was a joy to watch.
Our last competition of the year was the East Kerry League Division 1 which commenced 13th July and finished earlier this week 29th July.
A 1 point win at home to Rathmore was followed by a 3 point loss away to eventual winners Cordal. A 7 point win at home to Legion and 8 point win away to Kenmare saw us finish up as runners up in the competition.
Our U-11’s under the guidance of Tom Moynihan and John O Donoghue contested the Dylan Crowley Memorial Tournament, it was a great event as always in Gneeveguilla & our boys keenly contested all games so well done to all involved.
Well done also to Joey, Caoilann, Maurice, Luke, Shane and Alex who won County Medal’s with Spa/Muckross in the Community Games U-12 Soccer Tournament.
A Special mention to Casey Mulry & Muireann Spillane who joined up with the squad before we commenced county league campaign, well done girls ye contributed a lot in training and in matches and it was not an easy task being the only too girls in this group.
As always, many many thanks to all the parents who supported the boys & helped out during the year, without your help and support none of this would be possible & it is a testament to your dedication and support that the boys & girls are maturing into the fabulous players that they are today.
We the Management Team are very proud of this group & look forward to U-13 competition in due course.
Mike & Denis Doolan and Adrian McCarthy
