Monaghan under 17s made the long journey down to Wexford on Monday last to play in the Matty Ford five team tournament. In what was a very windy day Monaghan coped with conditions extremely well recording three wins and a defeat to a strong Dublin team in the final.
In the first game against the hosts Monaghan started very well and lead at the break. In the second half against the elements the players held possession well and created some excellent scores. They ran out convincing winners 2-11 to 1-03. The two majors coming from Fergal Hanratty and Tyler O’Hanlon. However the score of the game came from Ryan Mohan’s who came up from defence and kicked a great score.
In the next game against Wicklow Monaghan were quick out of the blocks. The boys scored three first half goals coming from Conor Leonard, Tyler O’ Hanlon and Dillon Duffy who was causing all sorts of trouble on the edge of the square. Much like the first game the lads held possession to record a comfortable win on a score line of 3-06 to 0-05.
In the third game Monaghan faced Ulster rivals Tyrone. In what was a very cagey affair Monaghan started the better of the two and Aaron Courtney punished a mistake in the Tyrone defence with a well taken goal. Monaghan defended well in the second half to close out the game winning on the score line of 1-07 to 0-06. This now meant Monaghan qualified for the final against Dublin.
In the final Monaghan started well and were leading when Dublin struck for two goals on the counter. Monaghan steadied the ship with points from Shane McMahon and Pauric Finnan. However just before half time Dublin struck for a third goal which meant the players faced an uphill battle in the second half. The players tried hard to breach the Dublin rear guard in the second half but couldn’t with Dublin playing with a packed defence. They ran out winners 4-8 to 0-05.
The management team of Seamus Mulholland, Marty Corey and Garrett Coyle were pleased with the effort of the players involved in the tournament. The squad will meet up over the next three weeks to finalise preparations for the Jim McGuigan cup semi-final.
The players involved were Jack Kirk, Ryan Connolly, Killan Hand, Ben Mckenna, Oisin Campbell, Shane Kelly, Calvin Carsyle, Frank Connolly, Paudie McMahon, Pauric Finnan, Ryan O’Connor, Fabien Beggan, Fergal Hanratty, Conor Leonard, Sean Grant, Aaron Courtney, Shane McMahon, Tyler O’Hanlon, Dillon Duffy, Ryan Mohen, Leonard McDermott, Dean McDonald, and Stephen McGee
