It proved to be the biggest haul in a single year for the school, raising thoughts that they may step up to ‘A’ level hockey in the coming years.
The concerns remain, though, that the lack of a club side in the near vicinity to help provide the extra coaching and competition, more prevailent inside the M50 ring in Dublin, needed to raise the strength in depth to step up to the next level could be a hindrance.
Nonetheless, the school continues to produce strong teams and they retained the senior crown in style.
They came from behind to deny High School in a second final this season, eventually recording a 3-2 final win, powered forward by Irish U-18 talent Andrew Shekleton.
David de Loughrey opened the scoring before Shane O’Donoghue was on hand to help switch the lead in favour of the Rathgar side.
Rob Carr, though, tied the fixture up at 2-2 and Philip Rowntree proved the hero as he netted three minutes from time to snatch the title.
Carr was also on target in the Junior final as the Louth men once again prevailed on a 3-2 scoreline, this time getting the better of a St Killians, for whom captain David Kane and goalkeeper Shane Bourke were recently included in a Leinster selection to play a touring South African side.
He grabbed the first goal of the tie and, while the German school got back on level terms, Niall Curran and Josh Arrowsmith built up a commanding 3-1 lead before a late penalty stroke made for a tight finish.In the minor final played at Griffeen Valley Park, goals from Brendan McDonnell and Norman Ogunde led the school to their third title of the week on Friday, getting the best of Mount Temple 2-1.
Temple, though, had reason to celebrate as they won the U-13 B crown with a 2-1 win over St Andrew’s B.
5 comments:
congrats to DGS on the treble.
Just to point out steve DGS has proven to be a feeder club to navan throughout the years with alot of the current squad having gone to school there, from the senior team that won the B league on saturday four currently represent navan at different levels and all have represented the first team in either a cup competition or the league this season.
hear hear, The Badgers are always willing to welcome more dgs lads to the ranks. Less chance of them getting swallowed up by bigger dublin clubs and ending up languishing in 2nd or 3rd teams. Navan prides itself on a vibrant underage setup and youthful senior squads.
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The point about there not being a local club in Dundalk still stands up and that's not a slight on Navan; they're welcoming players but those who respond tend to fit a profile ie. Meath boarding students and these are scarce on the ground in the younger years. Day students haven't shown themselves ready to travel to Newry, instead some recently have switched sports to ice hockey, helped by the local ice dome. The rugby club in Dundalk sends coaches to any school that asks and the crossover in players from DGS to the club is established. Seeing five past-pupils on a recent Navan firsts, alongside a current player on both of the school's winning Junior and Senior sides, is encouraging but unfortunately there aren't the players coming up the school to continue this. Anyway, good luck to Navan's 2nd's tomorrow.
congrats to DGS on the treble.
always a hard place to travel and get a result.
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