Duhallow season under review at Convention
A rewarding season for clubs will be recapped at the Duhallow Junior GAA Board Convention in the Millstreet GAA Community Hall on this Thursday night at 8pm.
2018 marked a productive year where the fortunes of Duhallow clubs enjoyed a roller coaster of emotion and breakthroughs. Divisional Secretary Tony McAulliffe will relate to delegates that a number of clubs fulfilled significant ambitions on landing divisional and county honours.
With Boherbue maintaining their domestic dominance in football, the winds of change blew in hurling with Dromtariffe landing a first time triumph and the divisional Senior footballers progressed to a County final.
“2018 was another very successful year for Duhallow with a good spread of divisional titles among the clubs, however very poor weather conditions during the early part of the year contributed to a huge amount of disruption in our fixtures programme. At the time of writing two competitions remain to be completed with this due mainly to progress by Duhallow teams in both county and provincial competitions.,” says the Report.
“One of the highlight of the year was the capturing of All Ireland titles by both Kanturk and Knocknagree and a county by Dromtariffe in Junior Football. It was also a successful year for our divisional Scor representatives who captured both county and provincial honours, the highlight of the Duhallow Scor season surface in Sligo here Maggie Moynihan of Cullen beat off stiff opposition to win the All Ireland Scor Na nOg solo singing competition,” said An Runai.,
Coiste Duiche Ealla consists of twenty adult clubs affiliated again in 2018, the Secretary highlighting difficulties of falling population and movement of natives to larger urban centres.
“It became necessary for the board to run a twelve a side competition in football to ensure the survival of a number of clubs who are struggling with numbers. This is a situation that needs to be addressed urgently by the national and county committees to ensure that many rural clubs countrywide do not face extinction,” he says.
Five U-21 amalgamations were also necessary as some club have insufficient numbers to field an Under-21 team.
“I would like to thank everybody who contributed to the success of our divisional teams throughout the year especially management teams and backroom staff. Also a word of thanks to all the players who made themselves available to represent the division as I am fully aware of the many demands made on players in the current environment,” said An Runaí.
“I would ask all clubs to actively encourage their players to make themselves available for the various divisional teams in the coming year as participation at a higher level improves the player therefore benefitting the club,” he said.
Jerry Doody is stepping down as an officer of the board for personal reasons at the convention having spent five years as cultural officer and three years as development officer.
The outgoing Duhallow Junior Board comprises of President, Tom Dennehy (Kiskeam); Chairman: Joe Kerins (Kanturk); Vice-Chairman: Steven Lynch (Boherbue); Secretary Tony McAulliffe (Lismire); PRO, Seán McAuliffe (Kilbrin); Development Officer: Jerry Doody (Millstreet), Cultural Officer: Liam Buckley (Kilbrin).