HOCKEY- Kate Russell All Irelands 2026!
Last week, our Senior 1 hockey team travelled to Armagh to take part in the Kate Russell All Ireland schools hockey tournament. After winning the Leinster senior premier league for the first time in the schools history, we earned the right to go and compete with the best schools teams from all over the country.
We were drawn in Pool A alongside hosts Royal School of Armagh, Crescent College from Limerick and Loreto Kilkenny who the representatives of the South East. The girls set off on Wednesday morning after a fantastic reception from the whole school at assembly. We arrived in Armagh at 2pm and checked into our hotel and got set to go to the pitch to train at 4pm. After training, that evening we had a team bonding session and had our team meeting for the first game on Thursday morning against Royal School Armagh. A tough start against the tournament favourites but a challenge we were ready for!
We were up early on Thursday morning for breakfast as we played our first match at 9.30am. We started well and went 1-0 up with a goal from Sienna MacCarthy. Armagh drew level and just after half time Hazel Lavery put us 2-1 up. Unfortunately Armagh scored an equaliser and pushed for a winner but we held on and secured a draw in game 1. Game 2 saw us face a familiar opponent in Loreto Kilkenny, we came away with a 2-0 win in very warm conditions with goals from Evie O'Neill and Emma Kilbride, a result that put us joint top of the table going into the final pool game on Friday morning. On Thursday evening we attended the tournament dinner in Royal School Armagh where we got to spend time together and mix with the teams from all of the competing schools.
On Friday morning we played Crescent college and we needed to win with a positive goal difference to have a chance of claiming a spot in the Kate Russell final. Unfortunately we couldn’t break the deadlock and despite controlling most of the play, we conceded early in the second quarter and lost the game 1-0. The result wasn’t what we wanted but due to our positive day on Thursday, we had done enough to secure a place in the Daphne Hall final game where we would play Scoil Mhuire, the Munster league and cup winners.
The game started well and we created chances but Scoil Mhuire held out and we couldn’t break the deadlock. Scoil Mhuire scored first and we pressed on to try and equalise but a contentious decision saw us go down to 10 players and during this time Scoil Mhuire scored two quick goals to go 3-0 up. We continued to press on to try to get back into the game and pulled a goal back through Sienna MacCarthy. We took of our goalkeeper to get a numerical advantage, and just as time ran out, Maggie Long got our second goal to narrow the deficit. The girls gave it their all and pushed the game right to the end and unfortunately it just wasn’t our day. A silver medal for the Daphne Hall trophy and overall 4th place in Ireland for our girls- we are incredible proud of them for their efforts all season!
With this comes the end of the school careers of our 6th year students. Julie Potter Cogan (captain), Clara Michelle Howard (V Capt), Aisling Meehan, Sophie MacCarthy, Laoise McKenna, Millie Blake and Hazel Lavery. They have worn the Killiney shirt with pride and leave it in a better place as they move on to college next September. We would like to wish them the best of luck in their exams in June and we look forward to welcoming them back in years to come as coaches, supporters and opponents in the traditional past pupils game!!.
