Ballymacnab Win County Feile!
28 Apr 2008

Ballymacnab are county feile champions

The gallant under 14’s from St Brenda’s overcame a strong and determined Keady side at the second time of asking on Sunday evening past. The last meeting between the two teams was a thrilling encounter that could have gone either way. On Sunday past the Nab girls were not to be denied and came out tops on a scoreline of 2-5 to 1-2.

It was the Keady cailini that got our of the blocks fastest and had two points up before the Nab’s first score. This came from the excellent Amy McBirney from a free. This relieved the Nab girls who had come through the first seven minutes of the game with Keady decamped in the Nab’s defence. Sturdy defending and some outstanding goalkeeping from Edel O’Hare kept the Nnab girls in the match during this period of the game. Jayne Lavery score a fine point from play to draw the teams level and as they approached the half time mark it was McBirney again on the scoresheet with a beautiful point from play.

With the wind on their backs the Nab girls came out for the second half in uncompromising fashion. From the throw-in their intentions were stated as Amy McBirney collected the ball, went on a solo and supplied the ball to the irrepressible Jayne Lavery who repeated her skills from the previous week and sent the ball to the back of the net. This was just what the doctor had ordered and the Nab girls maintained the pressure on their opponents to be rewarded with an excellent Jayne Lavery point and a brilliant individual goal from Danielle McKee. Amy McBirney had started the Nab’s tally and she also finished it with a good pointed free. The young girls of Keady, as befitting their club tradition, were not going to throw in the towel and fought to the very end, resulting in a great goal to leave six between the sides but their tremendous efforts in the final minutes were not to be rewarded as the Nab’s defence stood firm.

This was an excellent display of camogie from both these young teams who were a credit to their clubs and management teams. The game was fast and skillful and played in the most sporting of ways. The large crowd were entertained from start to finish.

Hard luck to the Keady girls who were naturally disappointed at the final whistle. You have been great ambassadors for Armagh camogie over the past three years and you wore your jerseys with pride on Sunday. Both sets of girls will play together as the High School camogie team takes to the field and whilst opponents on Sunday past they will be comrades during the school season and hopefully in future years for the county. Yvonne Morgan, Chairperson of Armagh County Camogie highlighted this fact in her eloquent speech after presenting the Feile trophy to St Brenda’s captain Grainne Murphy.

Well done to the Nab girls and management team of Jerome Corvan, Paula Vallely and Edel McParland. Good luck in your forthcoming trip to All Ireland Feile weekend in June to Laois.

Well done to match referee Julie O’Neill who had an excellent game and thanks to the Granemore club for providing their pitch for the rescheduled venue at short notice.

The Nab’s victorious team were: Edel O’Hare who was simply outstanding in the number 1 jersey. In  front of Edel, Aoife Cosgrove showed all her experience when after a few shaky puckouts at the start of the game got to grips with match nerves and lorded both the square and provided great puckouts beyond the midfield mark for the remainder of the match. A lesser player might have crumbled under the pressure but Aoife stood up when it was needed and was certainly counted! Caoimhe McParland had another outstanding game in defence as she did in the drawn game, keeping the game simple but effective with great ground camogie. Aoife Crilly who missed the drawn final through injury made up for this miss with a great game of determination and solid defending. Captain Grainne Murphy led by example and never drew back from a single tackle, coming out with the ball on many occasions. Laura Smyth belittled her stature with an outstanding game of tackling and driving the ball forward and never shied away from anything. Elanna Loughran, the other little lady of the half back line also stole the show on many occasions with great work and her never give up attitude. Amy McBirney was again a constant thorn in the Keady side with her strong running and great stroke. She took her scores very well and really played her part to the full- an outstanding player. Alongside Amy was one of the many stars of the show in Michelle McParland. Michelle gave every ounce of energy she had in her constant tackling and outstanding workrate and had one of her finest games in the Nab jersey. Michelle epitomized the Nab girls’ attitude, this was going to be her year and she was willing to play till she’d drop to be crowned county champion. Jayne Lavery was again one of St Brenda’s dangerwomen up front and finished on a personal tally of 1-2 a great return from a very talented player. Danielle McKee had another great day’s outing, making many darting runs at the Keady defence and scored a brilliant individual goal to seal the game in the second half. Hannah Gray worked like a trojan. Having played through the pain barrier the previous week Hannah returned to full action in fine style. Aoibhin O’Hare was involved in many of the Armagh attacks and often played the ball through using her great ground stroke, contributing in no small way to this success. Donna Vallely was again in action at the edge of the square and was involved in many of Ballymacnab’s attacks. Caoife Dougan moved from defence the previous week to the full forward line and did a great job of keeping the ball within the heart of the Keady defence. The first fifteen girls called on duty on Sunday past were simply outstanding and the remainder of the panel, whilst ready for action, were not called for duty as every girl played to par. Those ready for action and fully behind their team were Lauren Keegan, Aoife Grugan, Olivia Keenan, Ashling o’Hanlon, Shuana McCarthy, Shauna Livingstone, Colleen McParland, Michelle McCone and Meabh Smyth. Well done to each and every girl.