Fifteen teams from seven clubs around Dublin converged on the Monastery Road in Clondalkin on Sunday November 2nd for a “Get in the Game” Under 8 Club fun football blitz. View Niall Connaughton pictures here. Tommy Keogh’s pictures of the event can be viewed here. Thanks for the coverage lads and to Maria Shannon for this report.
The future of Ladies Gaelic Football in Dublin looks very, very bright as Round Towers Clondalkin hosted 165 girls in a blitz.
Teams representing Round Towers, Kilmacud Crokes, Na Fianna, St. Marys Saggart, Clanna Gael, St. Finians Swords and Stars of Erin took to 3 pitches on a sunny but breezy Sunday morning (November 2nd).
The first games commenced at 10am and the mentors ,supporters and sponsors witnessed good attacking and defensive skills on display between the teams; hand passing, punt kicking, marking of opponents whether they were in defence, midfield or up front with plenty of points and goals scored. It was great to witness the near hand tackle being used by the Girls and it was also pleasing to see good use of the side step. Mentors availed of the time between their games to coach their teams on the above skills. The usual cry from Round Towers’ players is “ all you need is a ball and a wall” to train, but on this occasion with so many children engaged there was no need for the wall.
Each game lasted 10 minutes with the final games commencing at 1.00 PM
It was wonderful to see young children, aged 7 and 8 years of age at the start of their Gaelic Footballing careers but the skill levels on show were those of much more advanced players.
The blitz was organised by the Round Towers Girls Under 8 team mentors: Ken Byrne, Michelle Byrne, Kitty O’Brien, Alice Dowdalll , Karen Hargan from Na Fianna and Marie Crotty, Chair of Towers Ladies section.
There were plenty of volunteers on site for the day; from taking club registrations to organising teams to play on the three pitches simultaneously, to selling tea and coffee and organising the goody bags for the Girls.
Round Towers would like to thank all attendees on the day and look forward to many more successful meetings with the other clubs that attended.
