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DOWDALLSHILL
hen reflecting on their fortunes in 2013 there is little doubt that the Dowdallshill club have plenty to be happy with. By Eunan Whyte. Although the adult teams is very much in a transition period at present, have had plenty to cheer about with success on the Ladies football front and continued development of their underage structures. According to Gerard Roe, who is playing a leading role with the youth development, the club can look back on the past season with a great deal of satisfaction. “We all know that we are going through a rebuilding stage in terms of the adult team, but this year under Darren Kirwan we have certainly seen an improvement. There are a number of young players establishing themselves on the team and that was evident towards the end of the year when we picked up some good results. “It may take a bit of time to get back up challenging for honours but we have some good prospects coming
through from the underage ranks,” he explained. “It is great for us to be able to field an U-16 on our own and there are some very committed lads on that team. We have Colin O’Connor and Jack McGailey who were part of the Louth Development Squads so that shows the progress we have made.” Gerard also points to a thriving Ogsport section which gives real hope of brining through talented players, but he is in no doubt that the real success story for the club this year was the Ladies team who created history by winning the Intermediate Championship for the first time. The Dundalk girls celebrated their tenth anniversary in style by securing a place in the senior ranks with a 3-8 to 0-10 victory over St Brides at The Grove on Sunday September 8. The victory – aided by goals from Sonia Hoey, Aine Lynch and Emily Norton – was even more satisfying given the fact that 12 months earlier they had suffered the disappointment of losing the decider to St Kevins. It capped a memorable year for the
team who also consolidated their position in Division 1 with a string of impressive displays. After struggling in the league in their first year up in 2012, this year the Hill ladies had a very different focus, with the team maturing and having gained experience from 2012 the ladies pushed on and won four out of their seven league games beating St. Pats, Roche Emmets, St.Mochtas and St. Kevins. As a result, they secured third spot in the league and made it through to the semi-final where they were due to face Senior Champions, Cooley Kickhams. As a result of their success this year, Dowdallshill will go into the 2013 season with plenty of optimism and will be determined to challenge for the senior title in the not too distant future. Dowdallshill have youth on their side and a very bright future, the average age of the team is only 21 and in the starting team there are seven girls aged 18 or under. Manager Thomas O’Connor’s hard work with this team over the last five years is coming good with good results not only in the
IT’S ALL GO IN DOWDALLSHILL
Dowdallshill ladies celebrate with the Louth IFC Cup
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