GAA Report 2009
2009 was a busy year for Doon GAA club, both on and off the field. Firstly with our seniors, this year saw a new management take over the reigns, Clarecastle native Fergie O'Loughlin stepped in as manager and joining him in the management team was Tommy Murphy, John R Walsh and Jack O'Connell.
Early season losses to Murroe-Boher and Ahane in the East championship put an end to the teams hopes in that competition. The county league saw us win five games and draw one against Patrickswell before losing to Murroe Boher in the final group game to narrowly miss out in reaching the league county final.
The first round of the Senior Championship saw Doon beat Garryspillane with a 2-14 to 1-08 victory. In the second round a wet night in Bruff saw Doon fall behind to a determined and accurate Na Pairsaigh side. A late rally from Doon could not prevent us from loosing the tie 1-13 to 0-17.
The draw for the 3rd round saw Doon get paired with Kilmallock. The games started well for Doon however we only went in at half time one point up facing into a stiff breeze in the second half. The second half however proved to be an amazing thirty minutes of hurling with some fine scores by Michael Ryan and Michael Mckenna saw Doon win 1-16 to 2-11. The final whistle saw Doon supporter flood the field to congratulate the brave and valiant players on what was to be the highlight of the year for the seniors.
In the quarter final Doon managed to draw the three in a row chasing champions Adare who came prepared for Doon. The first twenty minutes saw Doon go ahead by four points however Adare soon changed their tactics and slowly but surely Adare clocked up the points and managed to go in at the break five up. The second half saw more of the same with Doon finding it hard to break down the Adare defence. The final score finished 2-13 to 2-17 with Doon managing to grab a couple of late goals.
This year proved eventful for the seniors and clearly saw us stake our claim as one of the top teams in the county. The hard training sessions and hard fought championship games against the top sides in the county will hopefully stand us in good stead next year.
Our Junior A season started well by capturing the East Junior A league against Kilteely-Drom. Their best performance was in the County League final when they played Drom-Broadford. The thrilling game ended in a great win of 2-12 to 1-10. Doon got their Championship campaign off to a very impressive start by winning all three group games. In the east semi final they maintained their form to beat the reigning champions Ahane. By the time Doon reached the East final however three of the team had gone senior. Doon met Kilteely-Drom in this game and things just did not seem to go right from the start. Kilteely had four points on the board before Doon got going, and at the end Kilteely ran out worthy winners on the day.
Doon regrouped to beat the city champions old Christians in the county quarter final. The team exited the county championship at the semi final stages in spirited fashion against a much stronger Blackrock team in Claughaun. Doon GAA would like to thank the players and management of Denis Barry, Brian Treacy, Denis Kennedy, Paddy Moloney, and Martin Hayes for the great work and effort put in throughout the year
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Not to be out done by their junior a counterparts the Junior B team also had a great start to the season by winning the east league final against Catherline. The then progressed to the county league final by beating Patrickswell in the semi final. They kept their best performance for the final by winning on a scoreline of 3-14 to 2-5 against Kileedy. The east championship started slowly with a defeat to Catherline. They regrouped to win the next three games and qualify for the east final. There they meet a highly spirited Cappamore won ran out strong winner to deny Doon the east final. The Junior B were not to end there and defeated the city champions Claughan to reach the county semi final. There they started well against St Marys but when Doon were reduced to 14 men the extra man made the difference for St Mary and they held out to win by 4 points. Great credit is due to the players and management of Mike Ryan B, Paddy Coleman, Patsy Ryan, and Con Barry for the great work during the year
Our U21 had to wait until late August before getting their first championship outing. This was worth waiting for with a thrilling away victory against Murroe-Boher on a scoreline of 4-18 to 1-22. They then received a walkover from Pallasgreen. They then progressed to the east final where on a wet day they were denied a sixth title in a row, and beaten by Ahane. They still progressed to the county quarter final on the 15th of November. Best of luck lads, and thanks to the players and management of Paddy Coleman, Mike Mckenna, Mike Ryan B, and Con Barry for the great work to-date.
The minors stepped up a grade this year after a very impressive performance in last years minor B competition. First up were Na Piarsaigh at home in Doon. Preparations had been going well and Doon were very confident going in against a fancied Na Piarsaigh side, but on the night Na Piarsaigh pipped Doon by two points. Our minors now had an awful lot to do to reach the knockout stages of the minor championship. Next they were beaten by four points in Adare. The boys played very well but two goals in either half by Adare was to seal Doons faith. Next up were Newcastlewest on Thursday of the same week. Doon had beaten Newcastlewest the previous year in the minor B final but this time Newcastle seemed that little bit too strong for a determined Doon team. Again four points were to be the difference between both teams. Later our minors were given a walkover by Claughaun but this was not enough to send them through to the knock out stages of the championship. That was to end the year for the minors and much credit must be given to the team and managenent of Sean Lysaght, Paddy Coleman, Mike Carew and James Fox for the amount of work they put in during the year.
Off the field:
To celebrate 125 years of the GAA, on the 10th of May ‘Lá na gClub’ was organised in each club in the country. In Doon we organised an exhibition of all Doon GAA memorabilia in the club house. Special thanks to must be given to the O’Brien family for donating the Tom O’Brien collection of articles, match programs, photographs, etc to Doon GAA Club. The day was a great success with the grounds being blessed by Fr Ryan and the large collection of memorabilia being viewed by all to take everyone back down memory lane.
This year saw the setup of the field development committee to maintain and develop the facilities. April saw some much needed drain works carried on the main pitch as well as re-sodding the goals. More drainage works were carried out on the training pitch later in the summer. New fencing was installed under the main nettings behind the goals. The main pitch was spiked and sanded. A lot of other work was carried out including CCTV installation, repainting of all goals, railings, and gates. Many thanks to all that helped but especially Denis Kennedy, Donal Anderson and Johnny Butler.
The committee have future plans to build a ball alley and further upgrades for the dressing rooms and pitches, so some much needed funding was planned. This started with the timber cutting and over 2,000 bags of timber filled and sold by volunteers and many thanks to all who helped. A Monster Sale of Work was organised for Sunday 25th of October and the day was a great day for all the family with an auction, stalls, wheel of fortune, face painting, bouncy castle and lots more. A sincere thanks to all who donated items for the day, the volunteers who helped during the build-up, on the day, and especially to all who supported the day.
2009 was the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Doon minor county winning team that won the first major title for Doon in the modern era, to help set the club on their way to the success is it today. A celebratory dinner dance honouring the team was organised for 21st November in BallyKisteen Hotel.
Runai
Bearnárd Mac Conchrá
Doon Underage Report 2009
Our U16 team were perhaps the unluckiest team in Doon this year .Our campaign started in April with the Championship being run on a league basis. We played seven games against Ahane,Adare, Ballybrown, Mungret, Patrickswell, NaPiarsaig and Deel Rangers as well as receiving a walk over from Kilmallock.A notable feature in many of these games was that we led for most of the match only to fade away in the last 10 minutes. The players kept working very hard under the excellent coaching of James O Donovan, ably assisted by James Fox and Gerdie McGrath. They qualified for the play offs where they were drawn away against an Adare team that had beaten us by 1 point in the earlier game .After a great performance from our lads emerged victorious on a score of 1.8 to 1.6 . In the Quarter final we met Mungret and again won by a score of 3.8 to 1.9 .This set us up for a semi final clash with Deel Rangers under lights in Martinstown. Deel had beaten us earlier in the year by 1.16 to 0.9 but this did not deter our boys from giving it a real lash .After a bad start when we were down 0.6 to no score , we began to settle and really took the game to Deel Rangers. After a titanic clash we were eventually beaten by 1 point on a scoreline of Doon 2.10 Deel Rangers 1.15 .Indeed with 2 minutes to go we had a goal disallowed when the referee pulled back the advantage and instead awarded us a free from 30 metres .Deel Rangers went on to win out the Championship afterwards
The performances of our u14 team were the highlight of the clubs year .We went unbeaten in all competitions in Limerick , winning the Feile Na nGael , the all county league and finally the Championship after an absence of over 30 years .Also we won our own Jo Maher tournament .This was a very long year playing our first game on 1st March in the feile and our last game –the Championship final –on 24th October .Great credit is due to manager Jim McGrath , his selectors Rodgie Maher , Ger McNamara, Fr Tony Ryan , Denis Moloney and George Allis , along with trainer James O Donovan for keeping the team focused and in top shape all year long.
In the Feile we beat Ahane, Newcastlewest, Patrickswell and Mungret to qualify for the final against Na Piarsaig in the Gaelic Grounds , a game we won on a scoreline of 3.6 to 0.7. This win set the wheels in motion for out trip to Offaly to represent Limerick in the National Feile na Gael. For the weekend 19-21 June our hosts in Offaly were the Shinrone club who left no stone unturned in preparation for our visit .On the field of play we were in Division 1 ,grouped with Birr, Shinrone and Thurles .We had 2 big wins over Birr and Shinrone which set us up for a clash with Thurles with the winners into the semi final .This game was played in Shinrone ,with hundreds of supporters travelling up on the day .Wearing the Limerick jerseys our lads certainly put up a massive performance against a physically much stronger Thurles side who had almost all their players up on the age .The game kept the supporters in full voice all through and eventually Thurles won through. There were scenes of huge disappointment afterwards but our lads can hold their heads very high after three very impressive performances .Again many thanks to our hosts Shinrone .
In the all county league we beat Pallasgreen , Kilmallock Na Piarsaig ,and Deel Rangers to win the competition outright .
The championship started with big wins over Ahane ,Claughaun and Bruff bringing us to a semi final clash with Na Piarsaig which we won on a score of 3.7 to 1.8 . This set us up for the final against Mungret which was played in Martinstown under lights at the end of October After a great team performance we emerged with victory on a scoreline of 3.11 to 2.6. The final whistle was greeted with wild celebrations.
Our u12 team came in under the new ‘Lifting the Treaty ‘structure this year which did away with the championship as we knew it and put the emphasis on participation on a non competitive basis. Under this format we played games against Pallasgreen, Claughaun ,Kileedy, Garryspillane, Croom, Ballybricken ans St Liberties.In the finals day at the Gaelic Grounds we played and beat Kileedy .We were disappointed with the new structure which resulted in many one sided games for us and we will be looking for changes to the overall structures and the grouping of teams for 2010 . We also played a number of challenge games against Murroe Boher and Na Piarsaig. Thanks to Br Dormer, Joanne Breen, Arthur Crowe and Tomas McLoughlin for all their work with this team during the year .
Our u10’s were coached by Liam Kennedy, Alan O Brien and Tom Crowe .Great work was put in this year in coaching this group, which became very evident from their matches and skill level as the year went on. Blitzes were organised and attended including our own blitz in May .During the year we played numerous times against Cappamore, Ballybricken, Bruff, Garryspillane, Cappawhite, Crecora, Ballyhea, St Liberies and Pallasgreen.
Our u8 and u6 teams trained every Saturday morning under the guidance of Mark Doyle, Anne McPartland, Declan Ryan and lately Jack Hayes, starting off indoor in the hall for the winter months. Again we competed in the blitzes organised under ‘Lifting the Treaty ‘.During the year our u8’s played blitzes against Cappamore, Pallasgreen, Bruff, Croom, Garryspillane, Murroe, Ahane, Claughaun while also playing challenge games against Newport, Sean Treacys, Murroe, Cappamore and Pallas. Our u6 team played challenge games against Newport, Cappamore, Sean Treacys, Pallas and Garryspillane.