The Feile kicked off at 10:15 with a welcome by Michael Dowling the National GAA Rounders President followed by National Anthem. The boys’ first two pool games were against The Heath (Laois, the eventual 2019 Feile Cup winners) and Breaffy (Mayo); both are experienced teams that have played in various local and national competitions. The Na Fianna boys shook off the nerves after a tough first match against The Heath, and refreshed on key skills and teamwork between matches. This effort resulted in an improved performance in the second game against Breaffy and smiles all around. Na Fianna were drawn against Breaffy in the plate knockout first round and despite improving our defensive game and chasing hard against a big hitting team, the boys were unable to get past them into the quarterfinals.
Our two games against Breaffy included a three run home-run, several more nice hits and a few excellent catches in the field. Each player improved play by play, making the throws and linking plays needed to get outs and running the bases to score runs. The future is bright for this group. Rounders is an emerging code within the GAA and competitions are organised according to the established year ranges. This presents the opportunity for brothers, sisters, friends, and neighbours to play together in Na Fianna colours for these competitions. This year’s Feile team spanned ‘05-‘08 Boys, had two sets of brothers playing together and at least one youngster is in the pipeline to join his brother in next year’s Feile team. We would also like to develop juvenile teams in Girls and Mixed competitions up to Senior level. Coaching is based on the GAA athletic skills training including the GAA 15 injury prevention framework. Rounders is a fun game played by running hard on each play, and it requires fast feet, hands, and decision making. New juvenile players are welcome to join training this summer in Albert College Park and we have the opportunity to enter the following competitions in August at the University of Limerick:
Sat 24 Aug: U15 Boys; U15 Girls
Sun 25 Aug U14 Mixed; U16 Mixed
Contact: rounders@clgnafianna.ie or Mike Lang: michaellang593@gmail.com to be added to the WhatsApp group for training and match times this summer (up to twice a week).
