Oisins back on tour in Offaly and West Meath

We have come to the end of a very successful season for our underage at the club. We started the season travelling to Ireland playing matches in Offaly and Westmeath. It was our first trip away since the rebirth of our underage and a fantastic time was had by all. Anne Smyth and Mary Mulhern worked very hard to organise the trip with the help of Pat Scally, Kevin McCormack and Steve Neary. We would also like to thank Tom Hillis from Hillis Solicitors who kindly sponsored some training tops for the boys. Over 80 people travelled on the trip. We played 7 matches in total at under 10's, 12's and 14's, winning 6.

Oisin GAA would like to thank both St Vincent's and St Michael's for there kind hospitality over the weekend. Both clubs have been invited over to Lancashire to play in the near future.

Scotland Trip This Year

Tir Connaill Harps came down to play us from Glasgow during last season. They have kindly invited us up to Glasgow this year. During the weekend we are hoping we will be able to make a match at Celtic Park to watch Celtic play.

The County Scene

We fielded teams at under 10's, 12's and 14's in the County this year. All age groups have improved immensely, we are now challenging at all age groups and the years of hard work, pulling the teams together is starting to pay dividends.

Under 10's

Our under 10's went the full season unbeaten and won our first County competitions for the club since we restarted our underage. The lads completed the double winning the League and Championship. The team played some fantastic football throughout the year and were just too good for the rest of the County. It was great to see them win our first Championship against St Brendan's 5-12 to 3-3 last October and see the smile on Paddy Johnson's face as he handed over the trophy first won by our under 10's back in 1981, when this competition first started. This team has a very bright future and is the jewel in the crown at present.

Squad as follows:	Harvey Andrew	Elliot Melody	Niall Doherty
	Sean Neary (capt)	Michael Dolan	Rory McCormack
	Connor Kilcullen	Sean Scally	Kory Rafferty
	Michael Rodden	James McKenna	Conor Neary
	Collette Mitchell	Declan Mallon	Niall Broderick
	Jack Melody	Milo Andrew	Sean Penny
	Joe Breen	Ryan Evans	Sean Aggett
	Jude Aggett	Liam Loftus	James Daly
	Chloe Stockley	Faye Mullan	Niall Purcell
	Holly Mullan	Cian Kilcullen	Niall Dolan
	Eamonn Dolan	Finlay Purcell	George and Stephen

Under 12's

The under 12's played some tremendous football this year. They were very unfortunate as all clubs in the County have built excellent teams also. I can see a lot of this team playing for our County in the near future and our senior team after that. We travelled to Birmingham again this year to play in the 7-a-side All Britain Championship. The team played some great football on the day and looked like they were going to qualify for the later stages of the competition when the heavens opened and the day was called off. Most of the team will be available again next year for the competition so I am hoping we can put on another good show.

Squad as follows:	John Mitchell	Daniel Watters	Caelin Mallon
	Jamie Mullan	Daniel McKenna	Peter McKenna
	Joe Watters (capt)	Owen Breen	Daniel Moran
	Aidan Duffy	Joe O'Brien

Under 14's

The under 14's, didn't get much football this year. It has been a credit to the lads who have continued to turn out for training all year without games. Hard work was carried out by Nicholas Rafferty and Stephen McCrory who both went into St Bedes School to coach Gaelic Football for Oisin GAA. This increased our numbers especially at our under 14's level and helped promote the club. two members of our under 14's squad, Donal Scally and Jonathan Moran represented Lancashire this year. They travelled down to Birmingham and won the All Britain Championship for the County. The team later travelled to Ireland and excelled at feile, winning their group with ease.

Squad as follows:	Dominic Lavin	Liam Carberry	James Lambe
	Sean Campbell	Patrick Santos	Joe Hogan
	John Keaveney	Pierce O'Brien	Sean Dwyer
	Jonathan Moran	Fergal Brady	Michael Osbourne
	Donal Scally (capt)	Joseph McCormack	Patrick Mulhern
	Thomas Smyth	Liam Evans	Ian Furey
	Pat Hayes	James Kiernan	Rory Harrison
	Sam Mather

Presentation Evening

We held our presentation evening in Old Bedians in November of last year and an excellent evening was had by all. After careful consideration from all the coaches, players of the year for each age group were chosen and presented with trophies. They were as follows:

The Development Of Gaelic Football

As Ireland develops and the Celtic Tiger continues to roar young Irish people are staying at home to make there living, rather than try their luck over here. We need to continue to promote Gaelic Football to children in our schools or try to find any other outlets where we think we can link the game. We need to produce our own home grown talent if the game is to survive and prosper in Lancashire.

In 1994 Oisin GAA was a major force in British Gaelic football. The senior team won the All Britain Championship for the club. A large proportion of that team were home grown players. Last year our senior team did very well in reaching the final of the same competition. Unfortunately they didn't manage to win it. I looked at the team that played in the final and noticed not one player was a home grown player. I think if we can nurture our kids and progress them into the senior squad we can go on and win many All Britain's. We need to support our already excellent senior squad and take it back to being the best in the country.

Coaches, Pat Scally, Steve Neary, and Kevin McCormack have worked very hard during the year, they require more help as the club grows. Anyone interested in coaching our new up and coming stars please contact the club. We have also approached a number of schools and managed to promote Gaelic Football and in some cases incorporate training sessions. We hope to develop in this field further next season.

Oisin GAA underage is now growing into 1 of the best clubs in the County. It prides it self on having the best facilities around and making sure the kids have a great time playing Gaelic Football, one of Ireland's finest jewels.

Finally Pat Scally, Kevin McCormack and Steve Neary would like thank all the kids and parents who have played, trained and supported the club throughout the year. Special thanks again goes to Terry Watters, Joe Dolan, Tom Hanvey and John Hogan who have all assisted in training during the year. Also thank you to Gary Osborne who provided the club with some much need equipment to help the kids train during the year. We will be restarting our training Tuesday 04th March 2008, at 6:00pm. If you have not already signed up get yourself down, we are always looking for new players and coaches.