St Johns Seniors opened their 2014 ACFL Division 2 campaign with a tough away fixture to 2013 Division 1 side An Riocht on Friday night. The home side’s three first half goals gave them a 3-4 to 0-8 half time lead. The home side added on a number of minor scores early in the second half and Conor Morgan’s penalty proved to be nothing more than a consolation score in the end. The final score was An Riocht 4-13 St John’s 1-11 writes Eugene O’Boyle.
Scorers: Conor Morgan 1-4 (1-0p) (0-4f), Marty Keenan 0-3, Chris McKay 0-2, Danny McKay 0-1 and Hugh Flanagan 0-1.
Hopefully the Johnnies can get their first points on the board when they hosted Drumgath at Pairc Naomh Eoin on Monday night. Score details in next weeks notes. After that they travel to Teconnaught on Saturday 19 April with a 4.00pm throw in.
The Reserves first fixture at home to Kilcoo on Sunday evening was postponed. They travel to Saul on Sunday 27 April followed by a home tie against Dundrum a week later.
Our Minors opening fixture was on Tuesday 15 April when they hosted Drumgath. Score details in next weeks notes.
The Under 16’s hosted Saval last Thursday night in their opening fixture with the South Down side emerging as winners.
The Under 14’s travelled to Dromara last Monday night in their opening league fixture. Both teams played really well with the Johnnies going in at half time 2 points up.  Greg Hurley pulled off some great saves and his kickouts were superb. Conor Moag and Rory McMullan worked really hard around the defence with Andrew Gilmore and Caolan Burns working really hard up front scoring some great scores. It was a great team effort with everyone playing really well for their first game of the season. The final score was Dromara 8-17 St Johns 11-6. They played Kilclief at home on Monday 14 April. Score details in next weeks notes.
The Under 12’s fixture at home to Bryansford on Sunday was postponed and will now be played on Wednesday 23 April at 6.45pm.
The Under 10’s travelled to Dundrum on Saturday to start their 2014 season. They played  Bredagh first who proved to be a very skilful and hardworking team. The Johnnies managed to contain the scoring threat of the accurate and nippy Bredagh forwards with superb defending by Adam Walsh and Daire Cahill. Next up were Dundrum who were very strong.
The Johnnies steadied themselves and Donal Rogan in goal and Sam O’Connor and Christopher Cope in defence starred and they gave the Dundrum boys and girls a good game.  The final game was against Aughlisnafin and again it looks like Ryan Morgan and Aaron Kelly are going to have another great year with long range scoring and pinpoint passing helping Oisin Hastings, Lile Branniff and Katie McCann to get into the games.
Oran Branniff and Peter Walsh and covered a lot of ground and Eoin McMullan was strong and steady. Â This was a great team effort and we look forward to an enjoyable season ahead.
Check out the fixtures section of the club website at www.stjohnsgaa.com for up to date details of upcoming fixtures.
Training for the Under 6’s and Under 8’s is on Tuesday evenings at 6.30pm (note change of day for Under 6’s).
The Under 10’s & Under 12’s training continues on Wednesday evenings at 6.30pm. The Under 14’s & Under 16’s training is on Sundays at 12.30pm.
If there are any young girls in the club interested in playing camogie or just attending training this year can they contact Noelle Noade (07871280674). Hopefully we can attract sufficient numbers to make this possible and try and develop camogie in the club once again.
The latest edition of the club’s newsletter, Naomh Eoin News, is now available to download from the Downloads link at www.stjohnsgaa.com.
There was a great turnout by our own members and other clubs and organisations in the Clubrooms last Thursday night for CPR and Defibrillator training
DVD’s of the recent play put on by the St Johns Drama Group, Separate Beds, are available to purchase at £10 each. Contact Imelda Murray or Una Savage to get your copy.
Lotto numbers were 8, 13, 22 and 26. Noel Doherty was a £10 winner. The jackpot next week is £2,800.
Keep up to date with everything relating to St Johns via the club website at:
Twitter at www.twitter.com/stjohnsgaa   (@StJohnsGAA)
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