Monastery NS V St Mary's NS Drogheda
Four in a row U13 McArdle Cup titles for Monastery NS Ardee
Monastery National School continued their rich vein of success in the Corn Mhic Ardail, with a hard fought victory over St. Mary’s Parish Primary School in Darver on the 24th of October 2019. The game was played under lights in Louth GAA’s Centre of Excellence, a location where many of the players on show will surely hone their talents for various Louth county teams in the years to come. For Monastery National School, the occasion was made extra special, as this was their 4th time capturing the Corn Mhic Ardail in a row. They are now unbeaten in the competition since September 2016.
From the throw in, Monastery began to exert their dominance, with strong performances from their midfield pairing of Fionn Coyle and Darragh Murphy and their centre forward Cian Lane. The Monastery School scored their first point of the night with a brilliantly hit ’45 from Darragh Murphy. This settled their nerves and allowed the Monastery boys to grow into the game. Monastery’s attacks became more frequent, but some excellent defending from St. Mary’s kept them at bay. St. Mary’s began to gain a foothold in the game and scored their opening point from a free after some last ditch defending from the Monastery boys.
Monastery’s defense was well marshalled by full back Flynn Markey who along with his fellow defenders managed to quell the St.Mary’s attacks. As the half progressed, the Monastery forwards began to find their range with Darragh Murphy, Cian Lane, Luke Woods and Calum Caffrey all adding scores before the half time whistle.
The 2nd half was a tight affair until Monastery hit 2 quick fire goals from Darragh Murphy and Adam Keenan. Further scores were added by Evan McGuirk, Calum Caffrey, Fionn Coyle and Tómas Devlin which put the game out of St. Mary’s reach. Both teams made substitutions in the last 15 minutes, with St. Mary’s coming forward in waves seeking a way back into the game. They scored 5 more brilliant points but the Monastery defense and goalkeeper, Tadhg Rooney, managed to keep their goal intact.
The Monastery team celebrated their 4 in a row victory with their friends and family at the final whistle. Captain, Fionn Coyle accepted the Corn Mhic Ardail on behalf of his teammates from Fiachra Bell, Cathaoirleach of Louth Cumann na mBunscol.
The team was excellently managed by Masters Philip McAdam and Roddy McCoy.
Team:
Tadhg Rooney,
Shane McMahon, Flynn Markey, Seán McNiece,
Tómas Devlin, Jayden Clarke, Luke McCartney,
Fionn Coyle, Darragh Murphy,
Pauric Maguire, Cian Lane, Luke Woods,
Evan McGuirk, Adam Keenan, Calum Caffrey,
Matthew Commins, Daniel Traynor, Cian McCoy,
Eoghan McEnaney, Senan Scanlon, Adam Finnegan,
Niall McNiece, James Skelly, Liam McGahon.
