Silver Semi-Finals
Sunday 28th April
Antrim v Monaghan @2.00pm
Venue: Naomh Eanna GAC
Derry v Donegal @5.00pm
Venue: Faughanvale GAC
The Silver & Bronze Finals will be on Sunday 5th May.
The two beaten Semi-Finalists will contest the Bronze Final.
Silver Semi-Finals
Saturday 27th April
Armagh v Derry @12 noon
Venue: McKeever Park
Down v Antrim @2.00pm
Venue: Mayobridge GAC
The Silver & Bronze Finals will be on Saturday 4th May.
The two beaten Semi-Finalists will contest the Bronze Final.
A chara,
Ulster Ladies Council are aware of recent social media posts regarding the venues of this weekends Minor Championship Finals.
Ulster Ladies Council strives to get appropriate venues for all our games in the best interests of all involved in our sport and we will continue to try do this. We wish all our counties out this weekend every success.
Is mise le meas,
Ulster Ladies Council
Well done to Antrim and Tyrone who recorded wins today over Westmeath and Wicklow in the TG4 Intermediate championship.
Derry 4-9
Tipperary 2-6
By Aisling Clery
Derry, after victory in the Bronze final in 2022, were crowned U14 All-Ireland Gold champions at the expense of a talented Tipperary side at Clan na Gael, Dundalk.
Derry led by eight at the break, but two goals within sixty seconds from Tipperary closed the gap in the second-half and Derry had to dig deep to ensure victory.
Derry got off to a brilliant start with two Ava Hurl frees sandwiching a terrific point from Rionach McNally. Tipperary responded well and Lily Flannery reduced the deficit to two with a fine long distance free.
Hurl added a third free before a surging run straight through the Tipperary defence found McNally hitting the net for Derry’s first goal on sixteen minutes. Tipperary responded well, moving the ball at pace but they couldn’t find their scoring range.
Kerri Lee Mullan added a point for Derry and a resurgent Tipp side got back into contention with two frees inside a minute from the boot of Abbie Horgan. Derry however were to have the last say of the half as Brianna Donaghy found herself one-on-one with the keeper and she finished to the net with aplomb.
Elena Cody opened the scoring for Tipperary in the second-half but Derry upped the gears and Brianna Donaghy hit 2-2 unanswered, almost putting the game out of reach of Tipperary.
The second goal was very much a team effort with the ball won deep in the Derry defence by Emma McVey and swiftly transferred downfield to Donaghy’s waiting arms and she tapped home.
Tipperary though carried on and while their first attempt at goal was ruled out for a square ball, their diligence was rewarded as they found the net not once but twice!
Substitutes Chloe O’Neill and Aoibhinn Casey each netted to breathe life into the Tipp attack.
However, Derry were not to be denied and they ran down the clock, maintaining possession, with centre back Aoibh Shivers adding Derry’s final point to ensure victory.
Scorers: Derry: B Donaghy 3-3, R McNally 1-1, A Hurl 0-3f, KL Mullan 0-1, A Shivers 0-1.
Tipperary: C O’Neill 1-0, A Casey 1-0, A Horgan 0-2f, L Flannery 0-2 (1f), E Cody 0-2.
DERRY: A Rogers; E McVey, E McGarvey, K Birt; L Armstrong, A Shivers, AR Sargent; A Young (c), E Forbes; KL Mullan, S Quinn, R McNally; R Conlan, B Donaghy, A Hurl. Subs used: K Loughrey, M Bhavsar, A McNally, N McKenna, C Conway, C King, E Mallet, E Rafferty, E Grant, E Mullan, I Regan, R Scullin, S McErlean, C Quinn, D Murphy.
TIPPERARY: S Carr; S Hannafin, E Gleeson, C Butler; N Buckley, S Ferris, B Delaney; H Kiely, A O’Connor; A Gleeson, L Flannery, A Horgan; A Butler, N Dwan (c), C Fitzgerald. Subs used: L Moloney, C O’Neill, A Casey, E Cullinan, K Carey, M Callum, B Woodlock, R O’Brien, E Cody, R Hewitt, A Purcell, A Quirke, SR Meehan, S Moynihan, J Carey.
Ref: Philip Conway (Armagh)
Ulster champions Antrim have just won their first game on the All Ireland Intermediate stage.. and here’s how they did it..
The cream of Ulster schools football gathered in Kelly’s Inn on Friday night for the presentation of the 2023 MFC Ulster PPS All Star presentation. MC Ronan Mc Carthy asked Ulster President Gerry Doherty to welcome everyone and after Gerry’s address our Honary president and All Star founder Mary Keegan took to the podium. Mary reminded the girls that there are 2000 U20 players in the province and after 200 attended trials they were the elite 30 that were selected. Mary thanks their families, schools and club coaches and congratulated each and everyone of them.
The presentations were carried out by Colleen Heaney (from sponsor MFC), Mary Keegan and Gerry Doherty.
ULGFA AGM ROUND UP
On Sunday it was back to Kelly’s Inn after a two year absence for the Ulster LGFA Convention 2023.
The first item on the agenda was the adoption of the 2022 minutes. After that Colm Murray delivered a comprehensive secretaries report. The highlight of Colm’s report was the registration figures which now stand at over 33, 000, a 14% increase on 2021. This was followed by Paul Swift’s PRO report which mentioned a number of new initiatives on the Public Relations front. Paul also noted a facebook following increase of 3,000 since the last AGM.
The CODA report outlined details of two disciplinary matters and four appeals. Cultural and Language Officer Caroline Brady deliver her report as Gaelige.
Aidan Mc Laughlin took us through a very detailed Development report. Aidan, Ciaran and Carlie have been very busy. The report reviewed the teams involvement in PR and Marketing, Volunteer Development, Coach Development, The PPS All Stars, Player Development and Referee Development.
Registration figures were excellent. Registrar Antionette Mc Cusker reported that we now 33, 876 members which is over double the 15, 403 we had in 2013. All counties bar Fermanagh increased their membership by over 10%. Tyrone and Down have both over 5000 registered members.
New Treasurer Paul Kelly and the experienced Annette Boyle did an excellent job taking care of our finances. Our gates had improved greatly thanks to the return to competitions. The bank balance is healthy going into 2023.
Niall Treanor delivered a very detailed and comprehensive fixtures report. 118 games were played compared to 81 last season.
Gerry Doherty then delivered his President’s Address. He had a special word of thanks for former President Eileen Jones who had 2 very difficult covid years. Gerry then went of to thank the officers, volunteers, full time officials and sub committee members who help keep the ULGFA show on the road.
National president Michael Naughton was also in attendance and before the election of officers said a few words of thanks to the many Ulster personnel who contribute to the running of Ladies Gaelic in the country.
The election of Officers then took place and the following executive was elected.
President – Gerry Doherty
Vice president – Hugh Devenney
Secretary – Colm Murray
Assistant Secretary – Martina Dillon
Treasurer – Paul Kelly
Assistant Treasurer – Annette Boyle
Registrar – Antoinette Mc Cusker
PRO – Paul Swift
Development Officer – to be elected at the next meeting
Culture and Language Officer – Caroline Brady
The various Ulster sub committees and Ulster delegates to National committees were ratified.
The meeting concluded with the various draws for the 2023 competitions which get underway on 25th February.
This year’s Senior, Intermediate and junior championships will have three teams in each grade. Each team will play each other once and the top 2 will meet in the final. These competitions get underway on 30th April when Cavan host Donegal, Tyrone meet Monaghan and Fermanagh take on Down.
Donaghmoyne 1-11 Moneyglass 1-7
Donaghmoyne had to dig deep to lift their 14th Ulster senior title against a gallant Moneyglass side.
Playing against a stiff breeze the reigning champions rushed into an early lead with points from Cathriona McConnell and Rosemary Courtney, before Orlaith Prenter then hit three in a row to edge Moneyglass ahead.
In the 13th minute Donaghmoyne suffered a major blow when wing back Hazel Kingham was red carded.
Eileen McElroy and Prenter then traded points before Donaghmoyne hit three consecutive overs. On the stroke of half-time Prenter sent over her fifth point as her side trailed by the bare minimum.
Donaghmoyne were quickly out of the blocks in the second half, extending their lead with points from Lauren Garland and Eimear Traynor. The Monaghan champs were then reduced to 13 when Rosemary Courtney was sin-binned.
McConnell and Aine Devlin then exchanged points before Moneyglass were thrown a lifeline with seven minutes left. Maria O’Neill was fouled in the box and sharpshooter Prenter buried the resulting penalty to level matters for the fifth time.
Donaghmoyne responded with points from McConnell and Amy Garland, but Moneyglass would not lie down and Prenter again pointed to close the gap to a single point.
The game was effectively won in injury-time when following good work by Eimear Traynor, substitute Grace Cumiskey netted to help her side to a four-point win.
Donaghmoyne: L Martin, J Geoghegan, N Callan, F Courtney, H Kingham, S Courtney, E Traynor, S McConnell, E McElroy (0-01), A Garland (0-02), C Courtney (0-01), R Courtney (0-02), C McConnell (0-03) (0-2f, 0-1), L Garland (0-02) (0-02f), A Burns
Subs: G Cumiskey (1-0) for S McConnell
Moneyglass: A McCann, S McErlain, E McAreavey, N Neeson, N McIntosh, R Bradley, S O’Neill, A Kelly, A Boyd, C Griffin, C Carey, M O’Neill, A Devlin (0-1), 0 Prenter (1-6) (1p, 0-04f, 0-02), B Devlin
Subs: E Mallon for S McErlain, D Duffin for A Devlin and O Rooney for E Mallon
Referee: B Rice (Down)
