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U7 Boys and Girls
The Under 7’s played their first away match of the season last Friday away to Abbeydorney. A few great games of hurling were played and great fun was had by all. From our youngest players right up to the older players it is fantastic to see how far all of these players have come since we returned to training. The coaches were delighted with the performance and are very proud of their group. Congratulations to our newest players of the week: Iarlaith Clifford and Kyle Lucid.
U8 Girls
The Under 8 team
On a glorious Wednesday evening our U8s Camogie players played their first match of the season in the fantastic venue of Crotta GAA pitch. The girls were ready and in fighting spirit. Everyone got into the swing of things quickly and with a great team performance throughout the game. There was great defending and scoring from our players. The coaches were very proud of the girls and everyone had a lot of fun.
U9 Boys
Our U9s hosted a challenge match in Ballyrickard against Lixnaw on Tuesday evening of last week. There was a fantastic turnout with a squad of 36 amazing young boys. All of them display great potential as hurlers, skills are improving all the time, and everyone of them showed great bravery on the field. Well done boys.
U10 Girls
A hugely successful and entertaining evening by a victorious Parnells U10 Camogie squad of twenty girls against challenging and competitive Abbeykilix teams. All players played multiple positions which demonstrated their vast skill set and ability to adapt between offensive and defensive positions allowing all girls to gain valuable match experience. Each girl gave it 110%, fought hard and got stuck in. Each girl did themselves and their coaches proud, they represented the Parnells club with pride and gave the spectators highly entertaining games. Well done girls.
U13 Boys
The U13 boys played the final round of the North Kerry Under 13 Championship on Tuesday evening away to Ballyheighue. Parnells had by far the lions share of possession in the first half and had many scoring opportunities. More efficient scoring resulted in the home team leading by one point at half time on a score of 1-3 to 1-2. After the break the home team had a dominant ten minute spell during which they score 3-4 without reply. Parnells came back into the game in the last quarter and reasserted dominance in possession and territory. The two goals scored in the this period were just not enough to bridge the gap. The Final score was Ballyheighue 4-7 Tralee Parnells 3-2. After the game the boys (and some of the management team !) finished the evening off with a very enjoyable cool-down swim in the sea.
U15 Boys
Our U15s suffered a very tough defeat away to Crotta on Friday evening in the 2nd round of Feile. A wet evening was not conducive to free flowing hurling, but having been level at the 1st water break, the Parnells boys upped their game before half time and scored 3 cracking goals before half time courtesy of Will Somers, Eoghan Costello and Odhran Kerins. HT Parnells 3-4 Crotta 1-3
Unfortunately the second half was a different story. Crotta got an early breakthrough of a goal, and by an early water break due to a serious injury to our Goalie Cian, who had earlier saved a penalty, they had levelled matters. Things got worse straight after the break as Crotta got another goal and added 2 points. However the Parnells boys started a fight back and having been unlucky with a few attempts, Parnells finally hit back when Eoghan Costello waltzed through the defence to hit a cracking goal. Crotta were now feeling the pressure and 2 points down and time almost up, our captain Andrew Kerins was brought down and a penalty was awarded. Andrew felt confident to take the penalty himself, but unfortunately it was saved, as was the follow up. With the last play of the game, Crotta broke away and added a 5th goal to rub salt in the wounds. A 5 point loss was probably an unfair reflection on a close game but Parnells will know this was one that got away. Final score: Parnells 4-4 Crotta 5-6. Next up is a home match vs St Brendans on Friday.
Senior Schools Summer Camogie League
Congratulations to Mounthawk on winning the inaugural Tralee Parnells Camogie perpetual Senior Schools Trophy in Caherslee last Saturday evening. The competition was run off over the Saturdays in June, with the final matches played on Saturday last. Well done to all the teams and players from the Gaelcholáiste, Presentation and Mercy Mounthawk schools. When a sponsorship donation made the organisation of this tournament possible it was initially envisaged for 2020. However, like many other plans, it had to be deferred due to the unforeseen restrictions last year. So it was fantastic to see the dream finally become a reality.
Congratulations to our players who won a number of awards. Róise O’Donnell, was voted by the players as winner of the Player’s Player of the Tournament award. In the voting the players gave examples of the qualities and attributes Róise displayed throughout the weeks of the Tralee Parnells Camogie Senior Schools summer league. It was clear from these citations that the players had selected a very worthy winner.
Katie Dwyer won the overall Top Scorer of the Tournament perpetual trophy.
Saoirse Maloney won the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament award. Saoirse gained the highest skill marks over the course of the games. In a very competitive category, marks were awarded for a range of skills demonstrated during the games, including hooking, blocking, fielding, and strong support play. The adjudicators were very impressed by how many players scored strong marks across the different skills categories, during all of the league games.
Thank you to Tommy Guerin for refereeing all the league matches. A special thank you to Fexco for sponsorship of all of the trophies awarded.
A massive thank you to Carmel O’Shea Maloney for organising this very successful inaugural league. It was a hugely worthwhile competition which proved to be an excellent opportunity for all our players to get valuable match practice, in the lead into the upcoming County Leagues where our Junior and Minor teams will once again play against other Kerry clubs. We saw very deserving first ever winners of the team and individual trophies. All this silverware will be up for grabs again in the summer of 2022 when we continue this annual competition. The players all seemed to really enjoy having so many league matches over recent weeks and it was a joy to see the displays of skills and teamwork across the group as the tournament progressed. It is great to be able to look forward to enjoying this competition now and every summer in Tralee.
B Hurling
On a beautiful evening our B team travelled to Fossa on Wednesday evening to take on the home side in good spirits following the home win over Dr. Crokes in the previous round.
The 1st quarter both teams were very evenly matched and at the water break the scores were level at four points each. Ours coming from Stephen Morrissey (1 play, 1 free) and Gilly (2 from play).
The 2nd quarter was unfortunately a different story as St. Pats took control around the middle 3rd of the pitch and continued to win frees which were superbly struck over from their talisman John Skehan. Stephen Morrissey added another free and Tadhg Reen a point from play.
Half Time score: St. Pats 0-10 to 0-06 Tralee Parnells B
In the 3rd quarter following a few moves from management and a massive change in attitude from the players we finally got motoring and we took over for this period. Unfortunately, this didn’t materialise on the scoreboard following some wasteful shooting from play and from placed balls. We had however narrowed the gap to 2 points by the water break. Gilly (1 play, 1 free) and Stephen Morrissey (1 free) following a St. Pats converted free, leaving the game at 11 points to 9 in favour of St. Pats going into the final quarter.
Tadhg Reen started us off superbly with a great point from play and this was followed by a point from a free for Gilly after Niall Cassidy had caused havoc inside for the St. Pats defenders. The sides were now level with only three minutes left, however when St. Pats won a free 30 yards out to the left of our goals and with everyone expecting John Skehan to pop it over the bar, he caught us all by surprise by drilling it to the far bottom corner.
We rallied to the end and put massive pressure on the St. Pats defence but they stood firm and held us out to win by 3 points.
Overall, this was a massive learning experience for the squad and management and although we were missing our three chief scorers from round 1, we were right in the match up until the final whistle. Again, we had 16 players on the day who were very proud to be representing the club at adult level and it was great to have supporters there to cheer us on too.
Well done to St. Pats on their victory and having their pitch in such good conditions.
Parnell’s Summer camp
With less than two weeks to go, a few spaces are still available for our four day summer camp from Monday the 19th to Thursday the 22nd of July, 10 to 1pm. The camp is open to boys and girls age 6 to 14. Bookings can be made through Clubforce. Contact David on 085 1355566 for further details.
CPR Training
The club is running CPR training for Managers, Coaches and Executive members on Thursday 8th July at 6pm in Gaelscoil Mhic Easmainn. There are still a few spaces available so if anyone else is interested, please contact Stephen or Natalie.
The Waterbreak
Checkout Kerry GAAs new weekly podcast entitled “The Waterbreak” which reviews all of the action from the previous week. Details can be found on Kerry GAA Social Media Pages.
Best of Luck
Bets to luck the Kerry hurlers in next weekend’s match against Meath in the Joe McDonagh Cup. A win will put Kerry into the final.
