Mungret CC win 2019/2020 Munster Under 15 E Football Final

Mungret Community College victorious in 2019/2020 Munster Under 15 E Football Championship

Build up to the Munster Final

Our Munster Championship kicked off when we faced Kilmhill in the first round of the competition. This was a tough game which went right to the very end, with us winning by 4 points. Our next opponent came Kilkee, we knew we had to play the same as the first game and to play until the very end if we wanted to win.  In this game we were very comfortable winners but we didn’t underestimate our opposition.

Munster Semi-Final and County Final

The next round of our Munster championship led us to Clonmel to face a very strong Waterford side of Waterford Park. Waterford Park were a very tough and physical opposition. They had many strong players but they were overshadowed by the weather and our will power to never give up. At half time we were up about 5 points but we didn’t want to lose concentration because they could have still came back. We had to face an obstacle with one of our key players John Wright having to go off injured. Usually an injury would put the team’s morale down but it didn’t for us, if anything it gave us more desire to win it for John and the rest of us. We knew the game still wasn’t out of reach for the opposition until a goal that sealed the win for us.

A couple of weeks later we heard we were playing Desmond College in the County Final who had lost to Colaiste Dabhéid in the other Munster semi-final by only one point. We then knew we had two very tough games still left. It was the day of the County Final and it wasn’t looking very well for us we were down seven points at half time due to a very slow start.  We never gave up and kept our heads. We scored a pivotal goal in the second half by Luke Walsh with a free in front of the goals and our coach said after the match he had put down a point on the scorecard thinking he wouldn’t go for goal and we won the match at the end by only two points. It was a great day for the school but we knew we were going to be in a tough battle in the Munster Final with Colaiste Dabhéid.

Munster Final day

December 3^rd was the day of the Munster Final and there was great excitement in our school. We had lots of supporters from second and third year. We left Limerick at 10:10am in the morning and we were heading to Páirc Uí Chaoimh. When we got into the dressing rooms, we were all amazed by the class and modern dressing rooms they had. We all had a separate section to ourselves. When we left our dressing room after our very motivational team speech from our coaches, we all ran out of the dressing room and all our supporters were chanting and getting us hyped up for the match ahead. We did our warm up and you could see everybody was tuned in. Just before throw in our coaches and captain John Wright said their final words before game time.

The ball was thrown in and we got the upper hand straight away getting a point by Diaramid Hynes the corner forward. Fifteen minutes in and Mark O’Brien added a goal which had a slight bit of luck but we knew that we would need a bit of luck. This lifted the team and pushed us to get more scores which were mainly frees because we weren’t very clinical from play. It was lucky we had a very good free taker Luke Walsh who could convert all the frees he got. Our forwards were all on form with lots of movement and our backs very tight not leaving a forward out of their sight. Jake Foley our goalie was kept busy during the game pulling off some super saves and producing great kickouts. At half time we were up by 4 points and we knew that there was still life inside this Cork side.

At half time we made the first substitution of the match with Daragh Hogan, who missed most of our championship, replacing Isacc O’Connell. We got some early scores in the second half. Then suddenly, after Colaiste Daibhéid had been doing a lot of attacking we got a penalty with Conor Crowley getting foot blocked with his attempted effort on goal. When this was awarded, there was a debate about who was going to take it. Our Manager let Luke Walsh take it, our free taker who scored a goal already this year from the spot. Luke Walsh stepped up and had the nerves to take it and put it into the top left corner. This was when we really knew it was our chance to bring back the first ever Munster GAA title back to our school.

As we knew we had to see out the win a few forwards dropped back to help our defence. Then the moment we all had been waiting for occurred. The final whistle went and all our friends in school came storming onto the pitch to celebrate this cherished moment with us, lifting us up and celebrating. No one thought we were going to win the County and the Munster Final in one year.

Result: Mungret Community College 2-8  Colaiste Daibheid Cork 0-6.

We all got ready for our Cup Presentation which was going to be lifted by our Captain of every game of the Championship John Wright. Our own Coach Declan Fitzgerald, who is the Secretary of the Munster Post Primary Schools presented the Cup to the Captain. We were all overjoyed and celebrated together in a huddle chanting. We were all getting photos with the cup and each other with smiles on all our faces. We all went back into the dressing room and we went into a huddle and our coaches were in the middle giving emotional speeches.

Best Player and Top scorer
Throughout our Munster Championship, everyone put their heart into it and we had many great players. But we have to single out one best player because of their consistency throughout the championship. That is our Captain John Wright.

Our top scorer was a brilliant free taker and centre forward who was scoring from every angle and scored some beautiful goals and that was Luke Walsh.

By a group of players from Mungret Community College