Junior Football A Championship

Shannonbridge 1-4

Cappincur 0-7

Shannonbridge's Junior Footballers championship aspirations came to an end in Ferbane on Saturday evening last, when a draw was not enough to keep the Shannonsiders in contention for honors this season.

Shannonbridge started the game well and Shane Kelly bagged a goal midway through the first half to give the Bridge a lead of 1-2 to 0-4 at the interval.

Shannonbridge had some good performances on the day with Alan Gunning shinning in the back line while up front Mike Devine was effective at full forward and contributed a good point.

Ultimately it was to be lack of discipline and persistent fouling that was to allow Cappincur back into the game to level proceedings in the end.

Shannonbridge now face a relegation play off to see if they can retain their Junior A status.

Team: Martin Deeley, Billy Kenna,Alan Gunning, Kieran Norton, Paul Maloney,Vincent Darcy,Mark Maloney,Philip Egan, Kieran Coughlan, Chris Duffy, Peter Kelly, Mel Darcy, Declan kelly, Mike Devine, Shane Kelly, Subs Gordan McEvoy and Edward Egan

Senior Football championship put on Ice

Shannonbridge were due to play Clara on Thursday evening last but the game was cancelled due to Offaly Senior Footballers continued involvement in this years Championship.

Shannonbridge GAA club would like to congratulate Our County Men for reaching our first provincial final in nine years. We are all to well aware of the huge personal sacrifices these Men make in order to play for our County and wish them the best of luck in the qualifiers against Laois.

Other Footballers who are also making sacrifices are the Club Players in our County. Shannonbridge played their first round of this years championship along with a number of other Clubs in Mid April.

It now looks like it could be mid August before our club and others play another round, that's a period of Four Months between games. This is an extremely long period of time to wait for another Championship match to be played.

Clubs all over the County are experiencing difficulty maintaining moral in their camps. Some Clubs can not get more than Ten training, while others called off training for periods due to lack of interest.

There must be a compromise reached between the clubs and County management. Of course we want to give our County every possible chance to succeed but will the cost be to the standard of the club Championship in Offaly.

In other Counties such as Dublin, Cork, Tyrone, Kerry the Club championship goes ahead regardless of how the County is progressing in the All - Ireland series. It also gives County management an idea of how fringe players are performing and see if they are worthy of a call up to the Offaly team.

Cork's senior hurling championship is semi final stage, I think their success speaks for itself. After all is the club not the feeder for our County teams.

-Conor Killeen