Éire Óg players Leah Hayes, Sophie O’Connell, Orlaith Cahalane, Niamh O’Shea, Edel Sheehan, Megan Sheehan and team captain Sadbh McGoldrick at the presentation of the Rebel Og Award for August.
Éire Óg U14 ladies footballers are the August winners of the Rebel Óg monthly awards, sponsored by the Clayton Hotel Silver Springs and Cummins Sports, (award sponsors), in association with the Evening Echo and RedFM, (media partners), following their All-Ireland victory in the National Féile competition.
Teams from 11 different counties and also from Britain took part in the competition, hosted by Louth, Meath and Down. However, it was Éire Óg who claimed the Division 1 Cup in their first ever final. First up for the Cork team were Navan O’Mahonys from whom Éire Óg were expecting strong opposition as finalists in the U14 Meath county final. The Cork team emerged victorious on a scoreline of 0-9 to 0-1. Next on Friday evening was a game against Kilkenny City.
Kilkenny City showed some individual displays of pure speed and talent but on balance, Éire Óg had the upper hand with strength in depth across a panel of 23 girls won win by 0-8 to On Saturday, the hosts were the opposition as Éire Óg overcame a dogged Seneschalstown 2-8 to 2-3 to put them into the quarter-final. So it was on to Navan O’Mahonys’ grounds to play a very highly tipped Claregalway who had narrowly beaten another experienced and highly tipped Kerry Southern Gales.
Éire Óg were victorious with exhibitions of cohesive teamwork throughout the panel in defence and attack. This performance was the cornerstone to the momentum that was gathering. Next up was a trip to St Mary’s grounds in Burren for the semi-final against Dublin’s Ballyboden/St Endas. This was probably the most physical test for Éire Óg with an aggressive display from St Endas/Ballyboden.
The ethos of teamwork and work ethic got the scores on the board in the second half the final score was no reflection on the intensity of this match, 2-5 to 0-2. Éire Óg were through to the final against a highly tipped Westport. The Cork team got off to a great start with two fine early goals and shut out the Westport attack with a series of blocks to lead 2-1 to 0-1 at half-time.</p> <p>Westport came back at them in the second-half. However, Éire Óg’s defence stood strong to win by 2-2 to 0-5. When the final whistle sounded there were great scenes of unbridled joy. Indeed, the celebrations continued late into the night after the squad arrived back to the Éire Óg club well after.
