A Great End to a Great Year for our Under-11s.

The weather dial might have showed 2 degrees but it didn't take long for the heat to rise once the games got going and once the hot chocolate came out. It is great to get to December 5th with this group and we finished the year with a mini blitz. Teams were chosen to represent Westmeath, Kerry, Tyrone and Mayo. Mayo with Shay Leavy leading the charge went unbeaten in the group games to qualify for the cup final. Westmeath won two games with Darragh Daly, Manus and Tom McCaul to the fore. Tyrone managed by Vinnie Timoney played very Tyrone football with all behind the ball and only for Conor Mattews pin point clearances would have struggled. Kerry with MJ Burke and Scott Farrerly driving it on left their shooting boots behind in the group games and succumbed to three losses.

Westmeath and Mayo contested the Cup final, and the final curse came back to haunt the up to then unbeaten Mayo. It was great to see Westmeath lifting the silverware. Darragh, Manus, Sam, Sean, Noah and Eddie were very respectful in victory as Pat Collins presented the cup.

In the Shield final Kerry avenged their All Ireland final defeat to take the crown against Tyrone. It was Kerry’s first win of the day when they finally found their shooting boots. MJ, Scott, Cian, Killian, Alfie and Josh accepted the Shield from Pat Collins.

Darragh Daly then won a football for being last man standing in a penalty competition and Theo, Shay, Josh and Sean Dooley won a ball each for catch, tackle, block and score of the day.

The day finished up with hot chocolate, a picture momen to of the year and a bag of goodies.

It was an enjoyable year and as mentioned to the lads the cups and shields were nice to win but what was more important was the numbers we had every week, the progression in skills and the behaviour of all the lads and they are a great group.

A big thank you to all the coaches who helped throughout the year Micheál, Anthony, Murty, Eddie, Emerson, Tom, Gerry, Vinnie and Niall. Also to Pat Collins whose work organising gear pitches, refs etc makes it all possible.

Finally, to the players and their parents for making the commitment and coming training every week, stay practising and see you all next year.