Fixture: Sunday, October 14: MFC Division One Final v Castleblayney in Clones at 2pm

 

Minors: The minors play Castleblayney in the championship final in Clones this Sunday at 2pm before the senior final. Best of luck to the players and their management team of Maurice Galligan, Pádraig Reilly, Paddy Kelly and Declan McArdle as they bid for our first MFC title since 2006. We encourage everyone who can make it to Clones to come along and get behind the team. A limited amount of car flags and Harps colours are available from the club – contact Liadhan Treanor at 086 7837204.

 

Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 18, 19, 21 and 25. Jackpot of €8,500 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Séamus Quinn c/o Mick Farrell; €40 Rita McNally c/o Paddy Donnelly; €40 Maureen Reilly c/o Philomena Hughes; €40 Margaret Graham c/o Paddy Donnelly. Jackpot for Sunday, October 14 is €8,650 and Owen and Gráinne Connell are on duty. Lotto draw takes place in the clubhouse every Sunday night. All welcome. Please continue to support our club lotto. We are selling lotto tickets in the shopping centre tomorrow (Friday). €2 each or three for €5!

 

Meetings: The club’s monthly meetings for October take place this Thursday, with the juvenile meeting at 7pm, followed by the senior meeting at 8.

 

Poker Classic: The club’s annual poker classic takes place in the clubhouse on Friday week, October 19, with an estimated prize fund of €2,000. Tickets are on sale from senior players and club members, costing €30. Please support.

 

Sponsored walk/Fun day: We celebrated the final day of our juvenile footballing year with a very enjoyable sports day at Gavan Duffy Park last Saturday. There was a great turnout on the day and we were very lucky with the weather, which aided the fun and games, finishing with an entertaining match featuring boys and girls. This brings an end to our Saturday-morning coaching for 2012 after 30 training sessions with an average of 50 children per day. Thanks to everyone involved, particularly Saturday morning co-ordinator Una Forde.

 

SFL: The senior footballers’ season finished with a low-key 1-14 to 2-10 defeat away to Carrickmacross last Saturday. Points by Nicholas Treanor and Peter Coyle were scant reward for our dominance in the first ten minutes, but Nicholas Scott scored the opening goal at the end of the opening quarter, before Donal Hahessy and Shane Smyth added a point each. Carrick kicked the next three points, but David and Nicholas Scott made it 1-6 to 0-6 at half-time. David Loughran kicked the first point of the second half and even after Carrick got a couple of points back, Dean Fanning fired home our second goal, before Dean and David kicked a point apiece to leave our lads seemingly in control. Carrick took over in the final quarter, however, to turn the game around, with a late Nicholas Scott point our only reply. Thanks to the players, manager Mick McCormack, trainer Ciarán Mulligan and selector Colin Harvey for their efforts all year.

Team and scorers: Mark Hughes; Niall Greenan, Stephen Driver, Niall Hahessy; Shane Coyle, Conor Galligan, Gareth Treanor; Neil McAdam (Capt.), Peter Coyle (0-1); Shane Smyth (0-1), Dean Fanning (1-1), Nicholas Scott (1-2); David Loughran (0-3), Nicholas Treanor (0-1), Donal Hahessy (0-1f).

Sub: Paddy Kelly for P Coyle (inj., 20 mins).

 

U-13 blitz: We entered two teams into the Under-13 football blitz at Cloghan last Thursday night. Between the two teams, they won five of the seven games on the night and showed plenty of promise in difficult conditions. Well done to all involved.

 

Lotto direct debit: A direct-debit scheme for the Harps Lotto has been developed and forms are available at present. Contact Owen Connell or any committee member for more details.

 

Clubhouse: There are a number of upcoming events in the Monaghan Harps clubhouse, with the Poker Classic on October 19 to be followed by ‘Mr. and Mrs. Part Two’ on November 3 and a table quiz in early December. More details to follow.

 

Children’s Club Coaching: The aim of this session on Wednesday, October 10 at 7.30pm in Cloghan is to help coaches plan programmes for children under five involving the innovative Gaelic Start programme, under eight using the FUNdamentals and U-10s and 12s using the Learn To Train phase.  This will be an information session on what to coach children at these various age groups.