Last Saturday (14th June), while the Monaghan Senior Team where putting their final preparations in place for their crunch encounter with Tyrone, the Monaghan U14 Football Development Squad traveled to Glengormley Co. Antrim for a blitz which was organised by Ulster GAA. Down and the hosts Antrim where the opposition on the day.

Like all blitzes at this level, and with counties carrying big squad numbers, all 3 counties fielded 2 evenly balanced teams to take to the field. Both Monaghan squads faced Down in their first games and both squads gave a good account of themselves showing a high skill level in all the basic skills of the game throughout the matches. You could really see the improvement in each and every player since this squad first got together a couple of months ago. Recently the squad have completed a number of sessions throughout the months of May and June under the guidance of the full time coaching staff in Monaghan. The commitment and dedication of all the players has to be complemented as they have applied themselves superbly over the past month or two. There is no doubt that if all the players in the squad continue to apply themselves and show a willingness to further develop their skills they can develop as a group into a very good team in the future.

In our second game both teams took on the hosts Antrim. The workrate and committment of both teams was excellent showing a never say die attitude throughout in very sunny weather. You could really see they where putting into practice what they have learnt on the training fields both from their clubs and from the county.

Please see below details on the squad members and picture of the squad that took to the field in Glengormley on Saturday.

Cian O’Connor, Niall Markey, Eoghan Treanor, Aaron Sherry, Charlie Counihan, Christopher Hanratty, Conor McKeown, Craig Callan, Dnaiel Tomany, Stephen Beattie, Kieran Duffy, James Murphy, Padraig Hughes, Tiernan McCourt, Pauric O’Brien, Kieran Marron, Ryan Gleeson, Tiernan McSkeane, Donal McKenna, Aaron McGee, Sean Treanor, Shane Forde, Corey McArdle, Dermot Kelly, David Martin, Jack Carragher, Jack O’Hanlon, Tiernan Duffy, Ronan O’Reilly, Oisin Cassidy, Shane Duffy, Conor Monaghan, Dylan Finnegan, Cillian Woods, Francis McGeough, Aaron Murray, Andrew Woods, Cillian Gartland, Caolain Byrne & Sean Conway