Juvenile Medal Presentation

Juvenile Medal Presentation

29 – 01 – 2010

Last Friday evening coming up to 7.30pm the Thomas MacDonagh complex in Cloughjordan was a hive of activity and buzzing with anticipation on the arrival of the guest of honour Tipperary All Star Padraig Maher. Padraig duly arrived and the presentation proceeded without delay.

The complex was in all its glory on Friday evening and really showed its versatility in holding the large crowd comfortably for the night’s events. At the top table the club banner hung proudly with the North Feile trophy, the North Under 12 ‘A’ and the Dan O’Meara Perpetual Trophy. Flanked either side were the Community games County Final Trophy, the Kilruane Under 10 shield, the Roscrea Under 10 shield, and the Under 10 Toomevara cup. On the other side were the North Schools Championship shields for both hurling and football on this occasion brought home to the parish by Kilruane N.S.

Gilbert Williams was M.C. for the evening and opened proceedings by welcoming everyone to Cloughjordan for this wonderful occasion. He welcomed and thanked our guest of honour Padraig Maher for accepting the juvenile clubs invitation, and proceeded to list out Padraigs long line of achievements both at juvenile and adult grade for both club and county. The large gathering showed their appreciation to give Padraig Maher a warm and loud Kilruane MacDonaghs welcome. Gilbert introduced the speakers in turn first to speak was Juvenile Chairman Sean Ward.

Sean thanked and welcomed the crowd and Padraig Maher in turn, and then wished our new Senior Club Chairman George O’Leary the very best to him and his senior officers and committee for 2010. He also thanked the Senior Club for their unconditional support to the juvenile club year after year.

Other’s singled out for special mention were the North board and Community games officials in attendance, our parish schools and the principals and teachers and all associated in the promotion of our games at school level, the juvenile club officers who work extremely hard behind the scenes for the benefit and success of the club and to efforts that make sure of the coverage we get through the local press and on our own club website. Pat Williams was also singled out for special mention as to the reason why operations in MacDonagh Park run so smoothly.

Sean extended a big thanks to the parents of every hurler within the juvenile club. He said the strength of the juvenile club was founded on the backing and support of the parents whenever and wherever they can. He called for their continued support for the coming year. He thanked the parents who contributed to the fine assortment of food that was on display and to the mothers who were involved in the making and serving of tea and refreshments.

The Juvenile selectors came in for special mention as to the reason for the clubs success in 2009, and for their continued success. He said that the club has 22 official selectors and are organised at 6 different grades. We have dozens of coaches within the club at both juvenile and senior who help out with the Saturday coaching and individual team training sessions. Dozens more helpers and parents behind the scenes at each grade, help out and assist wherever they can. The coaches have attended a foundation coaching course in 2009, while most of the coaches have attended different coaching courses and seminars over the last number of years. This year all coaches will have attended the Child Welfare and protection in Sport training. Sean went on to say that the club had played 140 games in 2009, 34 of which were organised by the North and County boards. The remaining 106 games were organised by the different coaches and selectors within the juvenile club in the form of tournaments, parish leagues and challenge games. This statistic means that the club now organises over 75% of its own games which can only be good for the years ahead and that this was testament to the work and commitment of all of our juvenile selectors.

Finally Sean thanked our juvenile hurlers for their dedication to the cause both on the training field and during the game of play. Hail, rain or shine when they pull on the famous black and white Kilruane MacDonagh jersey they always give their best effort. Sean thanked them for the enjoyment they brought to their parents and families, to the club and the parish for their efforts in 2009. When Martin Grace lifted the Community Games County Trophy in Semple Stadium, or when Willie Ryan lifted the Under 12 ‘A’ trophy in Nenagh and when Aidan Boyle accepted the North Feile Trophy in Dolla, the joy and excitement that they brought to everyone within the club and to everyone in the parish was amazing. He concluded by wishing them well for the coming year.

Senior club Chairman George O’Leary was next to speak and thanked Gilbert for his introduction and concurred with what Sean Ward had previously said. George went on to give praise to the work being done at national school level within the parish and to the support enjoyed by the club given by the parents of all of our juvenile hurlers. He also thanked Padraig Maher and pointed out that it was not too long ago when Padraig would have been hurling juvenile, and that our own juvenile hurlers could draw great inspiration from Padraigs achievements over the last number of years.

Guest of Honour Padraig Maher was the final speaker and he thanked Kilruane MacDonagh Juvenile club for the invitation and went on to say how impressed he was with the collection of silverware on display from the previous year’s efforts. He praised the young hurlers for their dedication and told them the importance of training and to include hurling whenever they could as often as possible. He mentioned the large number of games played by the club last year would also go a long way to improving the hurlers as individuals and as a team. He finished off by wishing the young hurlers continued success for the coming year and everyone associated with the club.

The real event as far as the hurlers were concerned could now take place as the presentation got underway. First up were the Under 10 panel to receive their Community Games County Final medal from the man himself. They also received winner’s medals from the Roscrea and Toomevara tournaments. Next up were the Under 12 panel to receive their North ‘A’ Hurling medals, and last but not least the Under 14 panel to collect their North Feile medals. There were smiles all round as handshakes were exchanged for the coveted medal and the photo taken with Padraig as a memento to look back on.

Gilbert then announced there were a couple of presentations left as the 12 selectors that were involved with the 3 panels, Pat Shanahan, Ger O’Meara, Liam Grace, DJ Hayes, Christy Morgan, John Cahill, Ned Darcy, Paddy Williams, Jimmy Cahill, Brian England, Colin England and John Mulcahy each received a token of appreciation from Padraig Maher on behalf of the club.

Chairman Sean Ward then presented Ann McGrath with a presentation on behalf of the juvenile club in honour of Ann’s work and dedication to juvenile hurling as North Board Secretary for the last 10 years, and to her help and courtesy she afforded Kilruane MacDonaghs during that time.

The Final presentation was made to our Guest of Honour Padraig by Sean Ward on behalf of the club in appreciation of his acceptance to come to our presentation evening and to his commitment both on and off the field in 2009 as he showed through his displays what a great role model he is to our young hurlers of the future who hopefully someday will wear the black and white senior jersey of our club, and to others who hopefully will go on to wear the blue and gold of Tipperary.

Bridget Delaney was on hand to take the photographs of each panel with their respective selectors and Padraig Maher and thanks to Bridget for obliging as always.

All that remained was for all in attendance to tuck in to the fine display of food that was on offer and it was great to see everyone in fine form chatting with each other on the evening’s proceedings, planning for the year ahead and looking forward to the clash of the ash on hopefully some long and warm summer evenings.