Fixtures & Results 2013 - Gary Faulkner Memorial Tournament

On Sunday 24 February 2013, our Minor football squad made the journey up to St Malachy’s College, Belfast to take part in the annual Gary Faulkner Memorial Tournament hosted and organised superbly by the Pearses club.

Also taking part were St Teresa’s, Caherlistrane ( Galway) and the host club Pearses. Rasharkin travelled with a panel of 16 and thanks are due to the two under 16 players, Andrew Hasson and Pearce Kelly who joined the panel for the day. Initially, each club played the other in a 9-a-side match and we used the opportunity to give all our players plenty of game time. After the round-robin games Rasharkin qualified for the Shield final against the host club, Pearses. The boys played some brilliant football in the final displaying great camaraderie putting some great moves together. The most pleasing thing about the display was the hard work of the defence and the closing down by our forwards as Pearses tried to work their way out from defence.

Enda McFerran opened the scoring with a long range point and shortly after his brother Conor scored a neat goal after a sweeping team move from the back. Pearses looked dangerous going forward but strong defensive play by Aidan McKeever, Emmett McFerran and debutant, Karlis Bergis restricted Pearses to 3 points in the first half. Rasharkin continued to look dangerous going forward with Aaron Henderson and Fergus Quigg more than holding their own at midfield. Further scores followed with the pick of them being a goal finished superbly by Kristin Scott. Half-time score, Pearses 0-03, Rasharkin 4-04.

Pearses rallied well in the early part of the second half and although they did add 2-03 to their tally, they were denied by a couple of superb saves by Andrew Hasson and good tackling by Christopher McFerran. Then Michael McGahon, Adrian Walls and William Donaghy began to impose themselves in the forward line and with Pearce Kelly coming on in defence, Rasharkin began to dominate again with Enda McFerran adding a couple more goals along with one by Kristin Scott. The last score came from a sweeping move started by Dylan O’Doherty and ending with Eoghan Kennedy coming forward from defence to finish to the net after a great team move.

Following the final, our captain for the day, Christopher McFerran received the Gary Faulkner Memorial Shield and thanked the Pearses club for their invite to the tournament. The panel realise there is plenty of work to do but this was a very encouraging display so early in the season.

Panel; Christopher McFerran, Andrew Hasson, Karlis Bergis, Aidan McKeever, Emmett McFerran, Fergus Quigg, Aaron Henderson, Eoghan Kennedy (1-00), Michael McGahon, Enda McFerran (3-03), Kristin Scott (2-00), Conor McFerran (2-02), Adrian Walls, Dylan O’Doherty, William Donaghy and Pearce Kelly