U16 footballers defeat Laois in Gerry Reilly Plate decider

Sun, 30th July 2017

DUBLIN 3-11 LAOIS 1-6

Two first half goals put Dublin's under-16 footballers on their way to victory in Saturday evening's Gerry Reilly U16 Plate final at Oldcastle, Meath.

Matt Grogan hit the Dubs first goal following good work by Conor Hennessy and Player of the Match Ciarán McManus added the second following a powerful surging run through the middle of the Laois defence.

Jason Sherlock's team also had goalkeeper Simon Murphy to thank for denying Laois' Seán Michael Corcoran as the Dubs pushed on to open up an eight-point interval advantage, 2-6 to 1-1.

Both of the O'Moore County's scores came late in the half with Cathal Bennett getting the goal in the 29th minute before Josh Lacey added a point before the break.

Laois opened the scoring in the second half but Dublin responded strongly with points from Ciarán McManus, Cillian Stynes (two) and Denis Smith.

Top-scorer Cillian Stynes, who finished with a fine personal tally of 1-5, then fired home Dublin's third goal to put the result to rest.

Dublin’s Ciarán McManus was presented with the RESPA ‘Man of the match’ award by Bobby Kellett (Kelletts Oldcastle Ltd) after the game.

DUBLIN: Simon Murphy; Noel Hatton, Conor O’Brien, Josh Bannon; Mark O’Leary, Karl Morgan, Fergal O’Byrne; Ciaran Hogan (0-1), Ciaran McManus (1-2); Cillian Stynes (1-5), Conor Hennessy, Simon Murphy (0-1,f); Conor Guilfoyle, Matt Grogan (1-0), Tomas O’Neill (0-1). Subs: Adam Fearon for Hogan, Denis Smith (0-1) for Murphy, Enda Cashman for O’Byrne, Conor Lowe for Guilfoyle, Lorcan O’Del for O’Neill, Evan Brooks for Morgan.

LAOIS: Oisin Keogh; Eoin Fitzpatrick, Sean O Neill, Mickey Bennett; William Reilly (0-1), Cathal Bennett (1-0), Adam Dunne; Sean Michael Corcoran, Ned Ryan; Seamus Farrelly, Josh Lacey (0-3, 2f), Ross Bolger, Mark O’Connell (0-1), Enda McWey. Subs: Seth Mooney for Farrelly, Robbie Collins for Ryan, Trevor Swayne (0-1) for Bolger, Cathal Doyle for Larkin.

REF: Joey Curley (Meath).