FOLLOWING ON from the Kennedy Cup last week, the girls’ Gaynor Cup takes centre stage at the University of Limerick this weekend. Both Limerick County and Limerick Desmond are taking part at U-14 and U-16 level at the event which hosts 34 teams and runs from Thursday to Sunday.
Pat Keane, coach of Limerick County’s U-14 team explained the process to Post Sport: “Essentially, the winners of each group go into the semi finals and we will be hoping to win the group.If you finish in second place, you are playing for fifth and eighth. We don’t want that and are pushing for the semi final and then the final.”
Pat, Fergal O’Neill, Jimmy Morrissey and Rose Benson have put in a huge effort in getting a squad assembled with months of preparation and work put in.“This whole process started around mid-October last year so we are into our eighth month now,” explained team manager Fergal O’Neill. “We had four weeks of trials and I think we had 52 girls from around the county. We broke that down to 28 to 20 and that’s how many are there at the moment.”
The Gaynor Cup is a huge opportunity for some of the Limerick players to get noticed with Irish international Stephanie Roche just one of the players to come through the system and represent the national team at senior level.
“It’s a fantastic platform for these girls,” said Pat. There will be FAI coaches out there watching, Colin Bell (Irish Senior Women’s Manager), Dave Connell (Irish U-19 Manager) watching these kids and hoping that they can push on to Munster teams and Connacht teams and eventually Irish teams going forward.
“We have a few 12 and 13 year olds at the U-14 level so they are still developing and are by no means the finished product,” added Fergal. “Absolutely any of the 20 could go on and play for Munster and Ireland.”
Limerick County’s group fixtures are as follows: Dublin – Pitch 1 at 10:30am on Thursday, Mid-Western – Pitch 2 at 5pm on Thursday, Midlands – Pitch 2 at 1:30pm on Friday.
Limerick County U-14 Squad:
Emma Morrissey (Charleville), Jodie Keane (Regional Utd), Jenna Slattery (Fairview), Ciara Ryan (Holycross), Kaitlin Hayes (Regional Utd), Libby Costelloe (Regional Utd), Aoife Cronin (Kilmallock), Chloe O’Neill (Regional Utd), Aine Walsh (Regional Utd), Emma Kett (Murroe), Grace Fitzgerald (Ballylanders), Laoise Browne (Ballylanders), Michaela Cumes (Holycross), Emily O’Halloran (Annacotty), Abbey May Galvin (Limerick Belles), Ciara O’Riordan (Charleville), Charlotte Horan (Regional Utd), Ellen Costelloe (Regional Utd), Aobheann Collins (Regional Utd), Aoife Mulkern (Regional Utd).
