Treble success at Leinster u12 Blitz

Treble success at Leinster u12 Blitz

 

Leinster organises two Blitzes for the young U-12
stars in June and September each year. Dublin brought down two teams
to Carlow in June and the first team got an early taste for how
challenging Division 1 football can be at County Level while the
second team won their Division 3 competition. This early Blitz proved
to be a great learning experience and the girls and mentors continued
to train through the summer months to improve their game in preparation
for the September event. 

That hard work and effort paid off today when all 3 traveling
teams were successful and Dublin won the Div 1, Div 2 and Div
4 competitions. Needless to say the 65 participating girls were
on cloud 9 with their Leinster success and Manager Fintan O’Curry
and his team of mentors (Tina Adams, Karen MacKenna, Chris Smith,
Tom O’Neill and Seamus MacKenna) were thrilled by the young Dubs
performance.

A second strong Blitz campaign by the Div 2 team secured their
winners medals at a higher Division that they won in June while
victory did not come easy for the other two teams. The Div 4 title
required extra time to yield a winner and the Div 1 team survived
a late injury time goal that cut their lead to a single point
and forced a determined defence for a very long ‘last minute’
before the final whistle allowed team, mentors and parents to
breathe again.

All three teams were heroes on the day and their joy in their
own performance and success was infectious among the tremendous
support that had followed them to the Carlow venue. Lets just
say the bus journey back was fun and our hearing will probably
return to normal in a day or so!

The U-12 Academy has 70 members drawn from 23 Dublin clubs and
was formed as part of the Strategic Plan to encourage, support
and develop juvenile football to prepare the girls for future
opportunities at Inter-County level. A number of these girls have
been together since last years U-11 Academy and today’s result
proves that this is a sound initiative. Next year, 30 or so girls
from the U-12 Academy will progress into the U-13 Academy, where
their skills and match play will continue to develop and hopefully
prepare the basis for a strong and successful u14 team in the
years ahead.