Juveniles

U12’s Championship Winner Lacken/Kilbride – Two in a row

Two championships in two years for our Under 12’s, this team is probably a far more balanced team that the 2008 champions.  An extremely talented crop of players, technically very good and determined to work hard.  The fruits of which were evident for all to see in Aughrim on the 31^st of October, the county final against St. Patricks.  It was the day of Halloween and coincidentally the lads got off to a nightmare start conceding two early goals.  No need to panic, calmness, talent and drive was to get the lads back on level terms before half time and eventually take a one point lead at half time, 2-2 to 2-3.  The second half with the wind the bhoys took command and finished off the game winning on a score line of 5-5 to 2-2 – the backs keeping Naomh Padraig scoreless in the second half.  The team lined up as: GOALIE: Jason Mullen Fullbacks: Eoin Gallagher, Zach Dennison (1-0) (Man of the Match), Ciaran Haytor Halfbacks: Evan Feeley Simon Creighton (1-0) , Coilin Phelan Midfield: Matthew Creighton (0-2) and Gareth Hegarty (1-0) Half forwards: Callum Ashmore (0-1), Conor Ryan (0-1), Aaron Curran Full forwards : Peter Flannagan, Fiachra Dillon (0-1), Ben Harrington (2-0) Subs: Mark Renaghan, Charlie Clark, Traolach McKnight, Conrad Daly, John Connolly – Coached by Diarmuid Haughian and aided by Liam Creighton.

U10’s, U8’s and under

The 2009 season saw further advances in the development of Lacken Kilbride Juvenile football.  We competed well in the monthly blitz held across the County for Under 8 and Under 10 teams.  The improvement was marked and bodes well for the future.  Skill improvement and player enjoyment are our two objectives.  Monday nights from March to September down in the pitch is a hive of activity with up to 60 players from 5 years old to 12 taking part.

We would like to say a heartfelt thanks to all of our coaches. Our future is in their hands.  Girls under 10 coaches LIz Byrne, Siobhan Ward and Suzanne Hegarty. Under 6 Coaches Pamela Balfe, Martin Mc Ginn and Elaine Craul. Under 8 Coaches Tom Grace, Ken Balfe, Ray Curran and Eric Van Alphen Under 10 Coaches Brian Clarke Eddie Maguire and Lar Collins.  Special thanks to our School coach Andrew O Brien.

Intermediates

Lorcan Clarke was awarded the managers position vacated by Feargal Donoghue for 2009 along with selectors Declan Bealin and Pat Donohoe.  2009 marked the turning of the old guard as a number of ‘mature’ players retired from the game, Kevin Craul, Paul Keogh, Colm Phibbs, Austin Tisdall, Justin Donoghue, David Keirns, Vinny O’Donoghue, Ciaran Clarke along with absentees like Cormac Haughian and others.  It was always going to be a difficult season for a small rural village to take a withdrawal hit of up to and over 9 first team players.  The goal at the beginning of the season was to stay in Division Two and keep our Intermediate status.  Maybe on reflection this objective was an inhibitor, an excuse perhaps.  The season began with great numbers at training and two good wins in the league against Newcastle and An Tochar, after this early season bravado it was down hill, and down hill fast.  In fact, from mid March till mid November we won just two competitive matches in 8 months.  First up in the championship was Valleymount in Baltinglass, it turned out to be an awful game of football, we conceded three very avoidable goals and lost by three points.  You could have gotten more pleasure in watching grass grow for 60 minutes!  A good win against Ashford followed, but this only masked over our short comings, Eire Og Greystones steamrolled us in Ashford (a team that beat us by a point only 12 months ago).  We then played Avondale in Laragh which was a must win game, we only managed to score 5 point in 60 minutes of play, needless to say we were beaten on a score line of 10 point to 5.  Effectively this rendered our final match against Aughrim meaningless.  We avoided a relegation match with Bray as Kiltegan voluntarily agreed to drop down a grade to Junior.  Our championship results were: Kilbride 1-10 3-7 Valleymount, Kilbride 1-14 0-10 Ashford, Kilbride 0-8 3-11 Eire Og, Kilbride 0-16 1-18 Aughrim.  On an optimistic note, Eoin Cripps, Niall Keogh, Larry O’Connor, Allister Rooney and Tom Walsh made great progress in their development.

Our league status was assured when we picked up two points to condemn Valleymount to Division three.  The only way is upwards for 2010, otherwise we will see relegation in 2010.

Captain for the year was Shane Kelly and Vice Captain was Ciaran Jones.

Junior C’s

Paul Tisdall managed the team in 2009, aided by Lorcan Clarke and Mick Bealin, great credit to the team for completing their league programme of 16 games, they avoided the wooden spoon with some good form and results towards the end of the campaign.  The first outings in the championship was against Bray’s Fergal Og’s in Laragh, a great performance resulted in a fine 4-7 to 2-6 victory.  The Quarter Final was a step up that the lads couldn’t grasp, Blessington gave the bhoys a lesson, winning on a scoreline of 4-17 to 1-4.  James Cahill and Ger Cruise were badly missed due to holiday commitments.  Championship debuts were made by Martin O’Shea, David Cummins, Cathal Clarke, Tom Walsh, Niall Murphy.  Captain for the year was Ger Cruise.

Kilbride Ladies GAA 2009

This year Eddie Craul agreed to the role of manager.  Numbers looked good at the start of the year with 19 girls attending the first training session, however as the year went on, the numbers decreased significantly.  Unfortunately due to other commitments Eddie had to step down during the year.

We had a hard task in the first round of the championship drawing the very on form Arklow.  It was an evening venue in Baltinglass and although the final score didn’t reflect the effort of the girls we were beaten 6-18 to 3-4.  We drew Blessington in the Senior ‘B’ championship and this game was played in Hollywood on the 28^th June.  We lost this game and Blessington went onto play Valleymount in the final.

We managed to play only 5 league games this year. Winning one game against Eire Og  and losing the other four.  We found it difficult to field a full team in the later half of the year.

We have been regraded to Junior for the 2010 league and championship.  Hopefully the number of players will increase next year and we will manage to give the junior teams some great games.  Thank you to the players who put in a great effort this year and who trained every week despite the low numbers.

Finally congratulations to Grainne O Riordan who won the John Ward Player of the year trophy 2008.

County Players

Catriona McKeon captained the Wicklow Ladies team and Ciaran Jones made his Senior Championship Debut against Westmeath in extra time.  With luck Ciaran will get some game time before May in 2010.

Eddie Craul – Referee

Eddie Craul got his big day out in Croke Park officiating over the Junior Club Final on St. Valentines Day.  Well done to Eddie who also rounded off a resounding season by refereeing the Senior County Final and the Leinster U21 Leinster Final between Dublin and Laois.  Great year and recognition for a true Gael and not a bad a bad ref either!!

Off the field

The club would like to thank all our sponsors and mentors, without them the clubs future would be uncertain.  To safeguard our members a difibulator is now permanently resident in our dressing room, almost 10 members are trained to use it.

On the social and fundraising side of the club, Diarmuid Haughian organised a great Race Night early in the year in Mooney’s pub.  Eileen Craul and Diarmuid co-ordinated a great field day that the community fully appreciated.  Input from the entire committee on that day was first class.  The 125^th celebration in May was a great success, the BBQ and weather was near perfection.  The lotto throughout the year was up and down but all in all an improvement on years past.  The pre paid lotto now has over 150 members, a massive figure for a small community.  Well done to the entire committee who donated their time and effort, especially Chairman Feargal Donoghue and Treasurer Andrew O’Brien who worked selflessly throughout the year.