Time to support our soccer lads in their new season ahead
LAST Sunday, September 10, both Castleisland AFC senior sides kicked off their seasons with games in the Denny Premier Leagues.
The first team played Mastergeeha at home in Castleisland at 11.30am. The B team travelled to Camp United in the Premier League B with a kick-off at 2pm. Both teams returned full points. The A team earned their points with a 1-0 win while the Bs opened their account with a 2-1 win in the west.
Looking forward to the long season ahead, newly elected club PRO, Neil O’Sullivan – who doubles as B team joint manager with martin ‘Mazza’ Moriarty – appealed for locals to drop up to the Limerick Road grounds for their home games.
“The first team will once again be competing in the top division of Kerry soccer, Denny Premier A. As always this is going to be a very competitive division with five or six teams in the running to be crowned champions,” said Neil.
Manager Dan Maunsell will be starting his first season in charge of the A team and has bolstered his squad by adding a number of players from last year’s successful B team.
Last year’s Premier B top scorer, Jonathan Downey, will be looking to continue his goal scoring form into Premier A. He will be joined by other members of the successful B squad, including Mike Cahill, Barry Lynch, Daniel Downey and Seán Óg Ó Ciardubháin.
They will be joining experienced players such as Aidan O’Callaghan, Timothy Walsh, Colin McCarthy and Dean Poolman. This will give Dan a strong squad to pick from with two to three players battling for every position.
Premier A this season will be very tough with some top teams battling it out for the title. The likes of Dingle have strengthened their squad bringing in players from all over Kerry, the two Killarney sides will once again be in the thick of things with last year’s champions, Killarney Athletic looking to retain their title.
Castleisland will be looking to get off to a strong start after a great turnout and effort during pre-season.
The B team will be competing in the second division of Kerry Soccer, Denny Premier B. After winning this division last season the team could not be promoted as we already had a team in Premier A.
New managers Martin ‘ Mazza’ Moriarty and Neil O’Sullivan will be looking to rebuild the squad after more than half the team have moved up to join the A panel. This provides the opportunity for a new batch of younger players to come through the ranks and nail down a starting spot on a senior team.
Some of last year’s title winning team have been retained and will form the spine of the team. Players like: Martin Hewitt, Ger Byrne, Shane O’Loughlin, Stephen McCarthy and Eamon McLoughlin will be joined by younger players such as Ethan Brosnan and Darren Maunsel as they look to retain the Premier B title and remain competitive in the division.
This will be an extremely difficult task with the quality of teams contesting Premier B this season. The favourites, Tralee Celtic have come up from Division 1A and added some very experienced players to their squad including a number of ex Tralee Dynamos players.
It’s sure to be another exciting and hopefully successful season for the senior sides this year.
“We hope to see new faces up at the field during the year for home games.
“Entry is free to all home games and fixtures will be posted on the Castleisland AFC Facebook page at the beginning of every week,” Neil concluded.