Killarney RFC AGM 01 June 2023: Age Grade Review

Killarney RFC AGM 01 June 2023: Age Grade Review

U14 girls – Fiona Landers

A fine season for the U14 girls. Training started in August last year. We were delighted to welcome 6 girls from Iveragh RFC and 1 girl from Killorglin RFC. The girls were unlucky not to get to the quarter final in the Munster League but did win the Munster Development Bowl in April beating Fethard 28-19. They finished on a high at the Good Friday Tournament in Shannon getting to the final against Fermoy which ended in a draw in extra time.

At the Good Friday Tournament, we presented the awards for the season with Nessa O’Donoghue Player of the Year, Brooke Sullivan Most Improved, Harriet O’Sullivan Most Committed and Ellen O’Leary, The Coaches Award.

This year’s Give It A Try programme has been a great success with 19 girls participating. Many thanks to coaches TJ Brosnan, Liam Murphy and Jenna Moynihan for taking time out to do this programme. The parents and kids are enjoying it enormously and are full of praise for the coaches. The last session will be held on the 10th June.

U16s girls – Patrick O’Reilly

Training started for the U16 girls in September. We had a good turn out across the season for both training and matches.

The team welcomed a number of girls from Iveragh RFC and Killorglin RFC into the panel. Always great to welcome new players to the club, we also had 4 new girls playing in their debut season. The girls did enough to finish third place in their league group and progressed to the Munster league quarter-final where we met a very strong Shannon side who ended our run. We met UL Bohs / Garryowen in the Munster cup where we were beaten 46-26 at home in Killarney.

A number of the U16 girls took part in the West Munster development squad in MTU. Involvement in MTU brings an added dimension to the U16 season and helps open their minds to the potential opportunities available to them as they progress in their rugby career.

Congratulations to U16 Overall Player of the Year Melissa McCarthy, Most Committed Player of the Year Ella Guerin-Crowley and Most Improved Player of the Year Nell Crowley. Further congratulations to Eliza O’Sullivan who represented our club wearing a Munster jersey for the U16 7’s inter-provincial competition.

A big thanks to all the players, parents and coaches for an enjoyable 2022/23 season.

U18s girls – Diarmuid O’Malley

The girls went through the conference section of the league unbeaten putting up some big scores all against Cork opponents. They played some good rugby in the process but the feeling was very much that bigger tests were approaching.

The girls got a home league semi-final and unfortunately lost the game by a single score to a very good Carrick on Suit/Thurles team, we ended up also drawing the same team away in the cup semi-final and played much better in that game but in fairness to Carrick/Thurles they won and we had absolutely no complaints, they ended up winning the league. Bowing out at the semi-final stage of both competitions, was a fair reflection of our ability and the standard of rugby we played this season, which was good as we had so many new girls playing rugby this season.

During the season we lost 6/7 of the 2005 girls, main reason was less time to commit to rugby/sport in the leaving cert year. Fortunately, we also managed to grow the player base by 6/7 players, which was crucial otherwise fielding a team could have been very tight. Most/all of these new players will continue to play next season. We have recruited Elaine Clifford (Ali’s mother) as team manager for next season and hope to go back preseason training in August.

In the February U18 interprovincials we had three girls represent Munster, Lily Morris, Fia Whelan and Ava O Malley, Clodagh Foley(injured). In the May interprovincials 7s series, we had the following players represent Munster: Ava O’Malley, Niamh Dorian, Fia Whelan, Clodagh Foley, Katie O Donoghue (injured).

Our Player of the Year was Bronagh Dorrian with Most Improved Player being Emer O’Keeffe. The Most Committed Player went to Keelyn O’Leary

We had the huge honour of Lily Morris playing for Ireland in the U18 Six Nations during Easter time and Lily had the distinction of being one of four girls from Ireland selected to the team of championship at tight head.

Thanks finally to our coaches Diarmuid O’Malley, Josh Whelan and Liam Murphy and Team Manager Jenna Moynihan for all the hard work.

U14 boys – Gerard Sugrue

Season 2022-23 was a long season in which – following two pre-season friendlies in September against Bantry and Kanturk – we played 16 matches across the West Munster League, the West Munster Cup, and the inaugural Bank of Ireland U14 Munster Cup. Unlike previous seasons, we opted to enter a single panel. While this presented a problem in ensuring everyone got adequate game time to ensure development, it meant that most matchdays we fielded a strong panel with plenty of reinforcements.

The league structure of home and away meant plenty of away days, and the Munster Cup pitched us against 3 East Munster teams and involved trips to Kilfeacle and Fermoy. This team won the West Munster league undefeated in 10 games, and also won out – undefeated – in our Munster cup qualifying group qualifying for a home semi-final.

We met our first disappointment when we lost in the Munster Cup semi final. This game was played over the Easter weekend and missing one-third of our starters due to injury and vacations was too much for us when facing UL Bohs. We also reached the West Munster cup final but lost out to a Rugbaí Chorca Dhuibhne team determined to revenge their only two league defeats. However, the season ended on another high when we took part in a blitz in Cashel and defeated Kanturk, Midleton and Dungarvan as well as a Barbarians selection.

We wish the U14s well as they step up to U16 – and look forward to seeing how they develop. Thanks to all the boys who turned out for Killarney RFC this season – and of course thanks to all the parents for their support in travelling up and down the province.

Player of the Year – Mikey Moroney ; Most Committed – Luke O’Malley; Most Improved – James O’Brien

Finally, thanks to Ger Moynihan, Paul O’Sullivan, Ed Stack, Niall Thompson, and Jenna Moyhihan for coaching, reffing, and organising trips and buses.

U16 boys – Feargal Courtney

2022-23 was a successful season for this group of boys winning both the West Munster League and West Munster Cup.

The qualifying group for the Munster Cup doubled up as the West Munster League and in winning 3 out of 4 games we qualified for the Munster Cup. Pre-Christmas freeze meant we played no games in December – and then began a slog through January and February. Early and unsatisfactory defeats on the road led to Feargal writing to complain to MAR of the lack of referees and the inherent unfairness of home coaches refereeing matches. We had an MAR at every other game of the season (bar one) . We did not lose any game for the rest of the season.

These were followed by wins away to Clonmel and home to Middleton that placed us in a playoff for the Munster Cup quarter-finals. A narrow win over (again Middleton) sent us to Corca Dhuibhne for the Munster Cup quarter final. There a 13-13 all draw meant we failed to progress as RCD got the opening try and advanced under the competition rules which did not allow extra time.

Reaching the top 8 in Munster is no mean feat. The eventual winners Bandon RFC drew at semi-final stage with RCD who we had a 2-1-0 record against this season – so the gap between Kerry clubs and Cork/Limerick clubs – if it exists at all – is not large.

Turning our attention to the cup – we went the long way around – beating Castleisland in the quarter final, and Killorglin in the semi final before extracting some measure of revenge by a comprehensive win over RCD in the final at Tralee RFC.

Jack and Arthur Gabbett were selected for the U16 Munster Development squad – and along with Mark Brosnan were also chosen to take part in a development camp at Thomond Park in August.

We played 21 games over the season and over 30 different lads saw game time.

U18.5 boys – Stephen O’Brien

A season of near-misses. We were second – on head-to-head – in the U18 Cup qualifying group which also served as the West Munster League – albeit with Mallow featuring. An early loss away to Abbeyfeale / Listowel was followed by home wins over Corca Dhuibhne and Killorglin. Then a hard fought win against Mallow (see below). A controversial draw with Tralee wrapped up the qualifying process.

In the Munster Cup we were pitched in with eventual finalists Carrigaline -Dolphin plus Kinsale, Cobh and Bruff. Highlight was the away win over Cobh Pirates with a tight panel of only 17.

Qualifying for the Development Cup, we defeated Young Munster at home in the quarter final but suffered a narrow loss to Sundays Well in the semifinal.

In the West Munster cup, we went down to Corca Dhuibhne and overcame the slope in a convincing 29-13 victory. Then we lost in the semi-final.

Four of our lads took part in a U17 county blitz at Bruff as part of a Kerry team