We added another championship to our bow. The U.14 footballers brought home the third county championship in 12 months to the Club when defeating Ballinteer St Johns in the final at Newcastle last month.

At the beginning of the year it looked like we could not enter a team at this age level as we were struggling to get a mentor for them. But up stepped Gary Prior and did the unselfish thing and committed his spare time to take this team out.

Gary trained them weekly over the past 6 months and a whole range of youngsters from Ringsend, Pearse St and Sandymount were moulded into a fine outfit. I watched them in the semi-final against Lucan Sarsfields in Ringsend and was hugely impressed at the skill levels on display.

In the final the lads were always on top against a much-fancied Ballinteer outfit and ran out winners by 8 points. The squad that captured honours were: Lee Smith, Sean Keating, John Maguire, Darren Behan, Stephen Murphy, Paul Òg Larkin, Warren Behan, Gavin Hogan, Lee Harrison, Kenneth Glennon, Keith Buckley, Sean Gannon, Joe McDonagh, Shane Joyce, Mark Roche, Gareth Tucker, Des Soon, Michael Power, Jordan Barnes, and Peadair Healy.

No doubt Manager Gary Prior relied on all the experience he gained round the foothills of Ballyconnell and Gowna in his younger days.

Darren McGee is the new Club coach. Darren, known for his magnificent high fielding at midfield for the Dubs throughout the last number of years, is here for the minimum of three years.

Darren has been around all the schools in the area planning the year ahead and all school kids will see him in their schools when they arrive back in September. (Will he have Sam with him?). Darren also played minor hurling for the Dubs so his knowledge of both codes is excellent. We are delighted to have him on board and we wish him every success with his three-year plan.

Ladies’ football is thriving here at the club and last April saw one of the finest achievements recorded by this section when the U14s captured the Dublin Fèile title. We played hosts for this prestigious competition and it was completed over one day. We had some fine wins in the morning but fell short to a strong Kilmacud side by 8 points. However, we finished runners up and qualified for the semi final.

After a close battle we defeated Ballinteer St Johns by 4 points and qualified to meet Kilmacud again in the final. And what a final it was! There was meticulous planning by managers Alan Foley and Tom A. Ryan to avenge the earlier round defeat and a number of telling switches in the line out carved out an epic victory.

There were jubilant scenes around Seán Moore Park as the might of Kilmacud had been slain by the sheer will and determination of the Clann’s youngsters. It is hard to single out any one individual as this was surely one massive team effort.

The team that captured honours were: Aisling Ryan, Serena Hannon, Emir O’Neill, Elaine Woods, Niamh Foley, Rachael Byrne, Michelle Crowe, Grace Joyce, Laura Rimmer, Ciara Joyce, Nikita Hutch, Jessica Hogan, Nichole Rush, Jessica Dent, Chelsea Spain, Michelle O’Brien, Leanne Heavey and Shauna McDonald.

Staying with the ladies section we now have teams at U12, U14, U16, U18 and Adult. All teams are going extremely well and all are in contention for league honours with the U16’s having won their league already.

Five local girls have represented Dublin this year. They were Kim Flood, Orla Bolton, Serena Hannon, Aisling Ryan and Kathleen Murphy. Serena Hannon played in the All-Ireland final last week only to be defeated by Cork and Kim Flood produced a Woman of the Match performance when scoring 2-3 in the Minor all-Ireland semi- final against Cork.

The girls were beaten in extra time and Cork went on to win the All-Ireland. So this Club and the local area are highly represented at the highest level of Ladies’ Gaelic Football in the country and that is no mean achievement.

The Annual Tracy Staunton Memorial Competition is being held on the 19th August. Our girls have been beaten at the semi-final and final stages in the last two years and are confident of going all the way this year. All support welcome.

Camogie girls are in a high position in their league and eagerly await the Championship starting next week.

Our Juvenile section is going strong with many youngsters drafted into the county squads at present. They are Jordan Barnes, Kenneth Lyons, Aidan Bolton, Fiachra Maher, Ciaran Diviney, Michael Gilroy and Sean Bolton.

Dave Walsh, Bernard Bannon and Co are taking hurling each Wednesday night at 7.00 for the underage boys 6-9 years and these sessions start back in September. Just come on down and we will slot you in. John Dodd and David Trolan’s team are going really well and the conveyor belt system is well oiled at these age groups.

Some excellent news on the adult playing front. Inter footballers are now under the excellent tutelage of Tom Smith and have gone 7 matches out of 7 unbeaten in their league campaign. Three of those victories were achieved by caretaker manager Des Markey and the club would like to thank Des for his excellent service at the beginning of the season.

Tom is ably assisted by Ronan Smith and their recent win away to high-flying Round Towers in Clondalkin after being two points down in the last couple of minutes suggest a bit of mental steel might now be with them.

Inter hurlers are in the semi final of the championship. What a turn around from last year. Under the new management team of Wexford man Ray Murphy and club veteran Mick Fitzgerald the hurlers have shown a vast improvement on last year and 4 wins on the trot in the championship sees them contest the semi-finals. With a strong Minor team coming through, hurling looks as bright as it has done for many a year at the club.

Junior hurlers are through to the quarter final of the Championship. Run on a league system the boys recorded 8 wins from 11 to reach this stage. Backboned by 11 minors they bring an excellent quality of hurling to the side.

The minor hurling team after another excellent season have one match to play against St Brigids of Blanchardstown and a win will see them capture league honours to add to their U16 title won two years ago.

So the next couple of months are crucial for the club and its future. Without a shadow of a doubt there are a lot of things taking shape on the playing front. The important thing is to keep the conveyor belt feeding into the adult section. We have hundreds of youngsters in this area who have played with this club from a very young age up until Minor. But that is when the conveyor belt slows down.

But we believe we now have the structure to counteract that. This present minor team will feed into both 1st and 2nd adult teams in both football and hurling next year. Colm Reynolds and Ciaran Murphy’s Minor team of next year should keep that going the following year and so on.

The Dubs journey this year is reaching fever point. As I write, three more matches and Sam could be on Liffey side for the first time in 11 years. Happy days around the corner? We will just have to wait and see and with all the players that we have on county squads at present it surely won’t be long until this club is represented at senior level.

Top: Children and parents enjoying the Football Summer Season. Middle: Activity at Clanna Gael’s Summer Camp.

Bottom page: More action from Clanna Gael’s Summer Camp as Dub’s Captain Brian Cullen signs Aaron Doyle’s jersey.