Ballymac Win Under 12 Division 4 Shield-Final

Billy Kissane Meats Under 12 Division 4 Shield – Final

On Wednesday 22nd Sept the U12 North Kerry League Division 4 Shield final was played in Ballymacelligott.
Opposition on the night came in the form of Duagh who finished in third place in the league behind Ballymacelligott.
The game was played in glorious sunshine and refereed by John Ross.

Ballymac turned up to the game with three absentees from the squad
Our Reliable goalkeeper Grace and popular Mentor Fintan Kelly were both absent due to the sad passing of the Late Donal Kelliher Castleisland.
(Grandfather of Grace and Father in law of Fintan) May Donal Rest in Peace.
A minute’s silence was observed at the beginning of the game as a mark of respect to Donal’s memory.
Also absent due to injury was Cait Griffin Kirby and we wish her a speedy recovery.
With the experience of having found Duagh difficult to break down from our previous encounter “Take your points” was the instruction from the sideline to the players.
In the first quarter Ballymac duly obliged and scored 7 unanswered points from four different scorers.
Michelle O’Connor opened the scoring with a point from play followed by a long rage free off the boot of Molly O’Connor,
Two further points from play again from Michelle O’Connor before Emily Heffernan opened her account with a well worked point,
Molly O’Connor obliged with another free before Olivia Sweeney finished out the quarter with a well taken point from play.
This trend continued into the second quarter with four further points from play for Ballymac to a solitary Duagh goal.
Ballymac’s Scores in this quarter came from Fiona McCarthy 0-02 (Fiona’s fielding on the night has to be mentioned as it was flawless)
and two further points from Emily Heffernan who was proving a real menace to the Duagh rearguard as were fellow players Tara Slatery and Aideen Healy.

Making her debut in goals was Kate O’Neill who stepped in for missing Grace Kelly.
Kate did not disappoint; her kickouts alone gave Ballymac a great platform to launch attacks and she made some great saves along the way.
The Ballymac Defence was very alert throughout only allowing Duagh in for one goal in the opening Half.
Backs Alice Savage, Sorcha Healy, Sinead Scanlon, Abigail Geary and Aoibheen Sheehan were rock solid.

Half Time Score Ballymac 0-11 Duagh 1-00

At half time the shape of the Ballymac team was completely changed to allow players try new positions and give the bench a run.
The third quarter was a much closer affair with Duagh Scoring 1.01 but Ballymac edged it with 1-02.
Scoring in this quarter for Ballymac Abigail Geary 0-01 and Molly o connor 1-1
Molly found a wat to finally breach the Duagh rearguard with a rocket of a goal.
The post had denied three earlier efforts from three different players and the duagh Goalie made some terrific catches and saves..

Into the final quarter the original shape of the team was restored to help see the game out.
Katie Turner put in a great shift all night and although she was unlucky with a couple of scoring efforts she did a wonderful job marking one of Duagh’s best players in midfield.
Ballymac added to their score with three points, Two from the boot of Michelle o Connor and one from Aideen Healy,
Duagh scored two points in this quarter and to their credit never gave up regardless of the score.

Final Score Ballymac 1-16 to Duagh 2-03

The Trophy was presented by Ballymac’s Own Linda Daly who is always to the fore in promoting Ladies football,
Joint Captains on the night Molly & Michelle O’Connor gave a great speech ending with three cheers to their opponents.