Mullingar Shamrocks GAA Notes
Congratulations Anna
Great news for Mullingar Shamrocks finest footballer. Anna Jones has been named at midfield on the TG4 Intermediate Team of the Year, a well deserved recognition for her outstanding displays for the Westmeath team during the year. Anna's performance in the All-Ireland semi-final against Roscommon was phenomenal.
This is Anna's second time to be rewarded with a Team of the Year selection.
Anna was also named The Croke Park Hotel/LGFA Player of the Month for May. Anna produced a player-of-the-match performance against Wexford in the TG4 Leinster Intermediate final on May 16 as Westmeath retained the provincial crown.
Congratulations also to two other wonderful footballers, Lucy McCartan and Sarah Dillon who were also selected on the Team of the Year.
LGF Under-16 Div.1, semi-final: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-11 Garrycastle 1-5.
Mullingar Shamrocks qualified for the Under-16 Division 1 County Final by defeating Garrycastle in Springfield on Tuesday evening. This is a sentence that we haven’t written before as its quite some time since we have progressed to this stage at this level of football.
This was a great team victory with all players and replacements contributing to what was a comfortable victory in the end in a match that was finely balanced for long stages.
Points by Abbey Matthews and Moya Kilmartin gave Shamrocks an early lead but two pointed frees by Erin McHugh levelled matters. Garrycastle probably enjoyed the majority of possession in the first half but great defending limited the scoring opportunities and good pressurized defending forced Garrycastle attackers to kick wide of the posts. The defending was heroic during spells with Alice Geelon and Ellie O’Donnell, the defenders in chief, supported by Layla Dowd, and the half-back trio of Sarah Cosgrave, Keela Doran and Ava Sheahan. Emily Forde had a fine game in goal.
Moya Kilmartin showed her kicking skills by pointing a free, kicking from the ground in the manner of Anna Jones or a Gaelic footballer from the distant past. Suzi Corroon kicked a fine point from play after a big run by Orla Nohilly created the opportunity before Moya again pointed a free this one just inside the two-point arc – a great effort. Moya then pointed from play after a fine piece of fielding by Alannah Burke who combined with Orla Nohilly to create the opportunity. Alannah and Sara Hannify formed a hard-working midfield partnership throughout. Orla McHugh added her third point to the Garrycastle total, before, after 27 minutes, Garrycastle finally got the better of the Shamrocks defence and Wiktoria Wziatek got through for a goal to tie the match at 1-3 to 0-6 at the interval.
Shamrocks dominated the second half scoring. Moya Kilmartin kicked three points in the third quarter to give Shamrocks an 0-9 to 1-3 lead before Laoise Glennon pointed for Garrycastle after 45 minutes. Garrycastle had their moments during this half but poor shooting proved very costly. A great run by Alex Gavigan who combined with Alannah Buke was finished in fine style by Florence Geelon to restore the 3 point lead.
Alexa then used her knowledge of the tap and go rule to engineer a free closer to goal which was converted by Moya. This proved to be the crucial moment of the game as Moya collected the Garrycastle restart, clear on goal, and dispatched the ball to the back of the net to give Shamrocks a winning lead. Alexa Gavigan made a welcome return to active service at half-time and after a long absence due to injury showed that she has lost none of her ball playing and carrying ability. Shamrocks scoring was complete but what was virtually the last kick of the evening Erin McHugh finished as she started by pointing a Garrycastle free.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Emily Forde; Alice Geelon, Ellie O’Donnell, Layla Dowd (Eilis Nohilly); Sarah Cosgrave (Ece Ozdemir), Keela Doran, Ava Sheahan; Alannah Burke, Sarah Hannify; Florence Geelon (0-1), Oral Nohilly, Abi Matthews (0-1) [Alexa Gavigan]; Emily Maguire, Suzi Corroon (0-1) [Clodagh Keane], Moya Kilmartin (1-8).
Under-6 and Under-10 LGF Blitz
What a morning of football in Springfield on Saturday for our U8 and U10 girls blitz where we welcomed teams from Shandonagh, CFCW, Killucan and Ballynacargy.
It was fantastic to see so many girls playing lots of brilliant football.
Mullingar Shamrocks had three U8 teams and four U10 teams. Thanks to the parents and girls for coming down. It was great to see the girls enjoying themselves, with some great skill and teamwork on display. We are very proud of the improvements the girls have been making throughout the year.
Big thank you to our refs and helpers Abi, Aida, Aya, Ellie, Florence and Moya who once played U8 themselves.
Also thanks to Carole and Lisa who were on hand with the hooter.
Thanks as always to all the coaches Fiona, David, Laura, Deirdre, Emma, Declan, Linda, Sophie and Karen who give so much time and effort to the teams.
And finally special mention to Pat and Ross who have the jerseys washed, dried and folded for us ready to go again for the next blitz
Shay Murtagh Precast Senior Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-10 Coralstown-Kinnegad 1-17
The final stage of our farewell tour of the 2026 Senior Championship took place in Rochfortbridge amidst fears of a possible carnage with nothing at stake for Shamrocks because of the championship permutations.
The match reports in the local newspapers on the Garrycastle game made for uncomfortable reading but all the fears proved to be unfounded as the players played with great spirit and determination and finished the season with a battling performance.
Shamrocks enjoyed the benefit of the strong breeze and hill in the first half. The 2-pointer drought ended almost immediately when Ryan Kelly pointed from long range. Brian Guerin added a second one minutes later before Coralstown-Kinnegad had their first point courtesy of Ken Gunning. A breach gifted Shane Fleming a second pointed free before a brilliant turnover by Efe released Dillon Matthews for one of his damaging runs. Dillon set up Alex Sheerin for our fifth point (0-5 to 0-2). Minutes later Alan Cashman’s delivery was fielded by Criostóir Ormsby who was hauled down but the resultant penalty kick by Alex was saved by the Coralstown-Kinnegad goalkeeper.
A yellow card issued to a team official presented Shane Fleming with another handy point that was followed by another pointed free by Darren Giles that cut the gap to the minimum (0-6 to 0-5). The response was good: Criostóir Ormsby pointed and Dean Moore kicked our third two-pointer of the half and our fourth of the championship from play. From the restart Ryan Kelly collected and goaled to extend the Shamrocks lead to six points (1-8 to 0-5). It wasn’t to last: Darren Giles pointed and Adam Buckley’s restart was collected in midfield by Josh Gahan who moved forward, took a return pass and blasted to the net to bring the half-time score to 1-8 to 1-6 in Shamrocks favour.
Playing with wind and hill Coralstown-Kinnegad dominated the second half and we were outscored 0-10 to 0-2, our two points coming from free-kicks converted by Adam Buckley to bring his championship total to 0-15 for the season and Dean Moore who finished the championship season with 1-17 to his credit. Adam also had the satisfaction of saving Dan Leech’s penalty effort. The sides were level within minutes of the restart and a pair of two-pointers by Brian Cooney and one by Dan Leech as well as a single point by Cooney secured the championship semi-final place for Coralstown-Kinnegad.
For Dylan Franzoni, today was a special day as he made his first Senior championship start.
Two pointer watch = 3.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Adam Buckley (0-1); Marc Eivers, Dillon Matthews, Efe Siode; Brendan O’Reilly, Ty Masterson, Dylan Franzoni (Adam Glynn); David Gavin, Criostóir Ormsby (0-1); Alan Cashman (Paul Keating), Denis Corroon, Brian Guerin (0-2); Ryan Kelly (1-2) [Donal Lane], Dean Moore (0-3) [Killian Mooney], Alex Sheerin (0-1).
