Club Strategic Plan: The second group session of the Club Development Plan took place last Friday night in Our Lady’s Concert Hall. Again we had another large and energised session with Ger O’Connor at which all the different sub committees presented their feedback to the wider group. The next steps will be the circulation of that feedback and review before we have the final meeting on April 29th. A time and a venue for this session will be communicated later in the week. Well done to everyone for staying fully engaged in the process, it’s great to see so many ideas on how to improve the club in the future.
Registration Day: With Monaghan Under 21s playing this Saturday April 16th in the All Ireland Semi-final against Cork in Tullamore at 4.30pm it has been decided to postpone the Castleblayney Faughs club registration day by a week. The event will now take place on Saturday 23rd of April in St Marys Park from 9am to 1pm. We urge every member to make sure their membership is renewed for the coming year. This is a wonderful opportunity to join the Castleblayney Faughs community and avail of the state-of-the-art facilities and coaching the Faughs club provides. We look forward to seeing you all on the day. Membership fee: Family (2adults&2kids)-€50, Adult-€30, Child (U18)-€20
Senior Men’s: Saturday evening saw the Senior Team travel to Magheracloone for their opening league match of the new season. The Faughs won the toss and elected to play against the breeze in the first half which proved to be a good decision. The lads kept the game tight and managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over through points from Ciaran Hanratty and Paddy Finnegan before a Patrick Tavey goal on the 19th minute followed by a second from full forward John Beattie left the Faughs in front at half time on score line of Magheracloone 0-8 Faughs 2-5. The second half started brightly with Martin McElroy adding a score before centre forward Ronan McNamara found the net to open up a seven point lead which the boys were able to keep with further points from Mark Treanor, Michael Gurn, Ciaran Hanratty and Martin McElroy. Magheracloone responded with a goal of their own in injury time to leave the final score Magheracloone 1-13 Faughs 3-13. With all mid-week games been postponed for the Monaghan Under 21 All Ireland Semi Final the next game will be an away trip to Ballybay next Sunday the 17th of April at 2.30pm.
Senior Ladies: Our Senior Ladies have a few weeks off until their next competitive fixture which is scheduled for late June 2016.
Juvenile Training: Training continues this week on the Astro Turf and Rath na Nog at the normal times, we will send out a text to all parents during the week, Under 6 Boys & Girls are in Rath Na Nog from 6-6.50pm on Thursday, the Boys Under 8’s are back on the Astro Turf from 6-pm on Thursday, while the Under 10 Boys are back on Thursday again on the Astro Turf from 7-8pm. Girls football is on Monday, with Under 8’s there from 6-7pm, followed by Under 12/14 from 7-8pm.
Boys Under 12: The lads are scheduled to play Monaghan Harps on Saturday 16th of April, the Senior Game has a throw in time of 11am while the Development team also play the Harps at 12.15pm both games are in Gavan Duffy Park (please note change of times due to U21 Semi).
Boys Under 14’s: Our Under 14 Senior team exited the Championship at the Semi Final Stage last Saturday when they were defeated by Clan Na Gael (Oram & Toome) in an entertaining match in St.Marys Park on score line of Faughs 1-11 Clan Na Gael 3-11. The Boys put in a great performance against a bigger and stronger team but can hold their heads high as they showed great Faughs championship spirit and battled hard throughout the game. Best on the day for the Faughs were Paudie Heavin, Odhran McArdle, Caleb McArdle and Fionnan Kelly. The development team took to the field for their second league game last Saturday against Emyvale in St Mary’s Park. Having been unlucky not to get a result in their first game the boys made no mistake this time around. They played free flowing attacking football from the off and to a man preformed to
a high level. Zach McArdle captained the team from full back and was the rock a good defensive performance stemmed from. Ethan Smyth was superb in the middle of the field and never stopped running all day scoring 4 points in the process. Up front we had two hat trick Heroes in Ciaran McEneaney and Martin Joyce their direct running and cool finishing caused Emyvale untold problems. Final score Faughs 6-11 Emyvale 6-07. Next game up for the Senior Team is an away fixture against Clan Na Gael in Toome on May 7th with a throw in time of 12pm while the development teams’ next outing will be a home game against Donaghmoyne on Saturday 23rd of April with a throw in time of 4.45pm.
Under 14 Girls: The U14 Girls travel to Inniskeen this Saturday to take part in the Feile Blitz for 2016. We wish the girls and their management the very best of luck and hope that they make it through to the Finals on Sunday. The next Division 1 League Game for the U14 Girls is an away game to O’Neills on Monday the 18th April 2016 with a throw in time of 6.45pm.
Under 16 Boys: The Boys opened their return to Division 1 with a well-earned victory over Monaghan Harps last Thursday evening winning on a score line of Faughs 4-9 Monaghan Harps 0-8. They now travel to Inniskeen this Thursday night to play the Grattans, throw in time 7pm.
Under 16 Girls: The league fixtures for this year have now been published and we will play in the Division alongside, Killeevan, Magheracloone GFC, Latton, Killanny, Tyholland and Carrickmacross Emmets. The Girls will play their first league match away to Killanny on Tuesday 12th of April with a throw in time of 7pm.
Minor Boys: The lads opened their league campaign with a disappointing defeat away to Killanny last Tuesday evening; they never got going and were punished by a good Killanny team. The next game is against Clan Na Gael (Oram/Toome) in Toome on Tuesday night at 6.30pm.
50/50 Draw: The concept works as follows: Buy a weekly ticket for €2 for one ticket or €5 for three tickets, all tickets sold in the week are entered into the draw with 50% of all the takings going into the Jackpot and 50% going into the Club Development Fund ~ ultimately it means we have a winner each week. Tickets are available to purchases in McMahons Supervalu at the weekend and off a Club Seller on Saturday night around the town. This week’s winner was Damien McArdle c/o Sean Bar, Congrats Damien. As the slogan goes” if you’re not in you can’t win”
Well Done: This week we have a number of Well Dones; firstly, well done to all the boys and girls who made their confirmation last Sunday in St. Marys Church. Also, well done to everyone who took part in the Club Development night which was a very engaging evening. Finally, well done to our Under 16 team on their winning return to Division 1 after a number of years playing in the lower divisions.
By Majella Boyd Wed 13th Apr
