A Message From Departed Wicklow Ladies Football Manager James Kelly And The Year In Review

The hunt for the next Wicklow Ladies Football Manager is underway after news broke that James Kelly was stepping down due to work and family commitments. The Laois native took the reigns of a newly promoted Wicklow and a very creditable campaign saw our Wicklow Ladies just miss out on the last promotion semi final spot in their first year in Division 3. 

LIDL Ladies NFL Division 3

Pos	Team	PLD	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	PTS	Form
1	Meath LGFA	7	6	0	1	150	88	62	18	W W W W L
2	Sligo LGFA	7	5	0	2	132	112	20	15	W W W W W
3	Roscommon LGFA	7	5	0	2	125	108	17	15	L W L W W
4	Longford LGFA	7	3	1	3	132	124	8	10	D L W L W
5	Wicklow LGFA	7	3	0	4	116	118	-2	9	W L W L L
6	Kildare LGFA	7	3	0	4	122	111	11	9	L L W W L
7	Down LGFA	7	2	0	5	110	120	-10	6	L L L L W
8	Offaly LGFA	7	0	1	6	88	194	-106	1	D L L L L

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Great wins over Kildare and Down and a big win over Offaly at home were major highlights and despite losses to Roscommon, Sligo and Meath the level of competitiveness in this games was hugely encouraging for a side fresh up from Division 4 with the Longford game the only performance that Wicklow could really feel was not up to scratch with injuries taking their toll towards the end of the league campaign.

Wicklow’s League Campaign

02/02/2019 4-10 - 2-06 Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 3 2019 2019 Kiltoom N/A Roscommon LGFA vs Wicklow LGFA
10/02/2019 1-16 - 3-04 Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 3 2019 2019 Aughrim N/A Wicklow vs Down
23/02/2019 3-08 - 0-12 Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 3 2019 2019 Dunlavin N/A Wicklow vs Kildare
03/03/2019 1-16 - 0-12 Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 3 2019 2019 Cloonacool Community Park N/A Sligo vs Wicklow
17/03/2019 5-16 - 1-05 Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 3 2019 2019 Roundwood N/A Wicklow vs Offaly
24/03/2019 1-18 - 3-06 Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 3 2019 2019 Pairc Tailteann N/A Meath v Wicklow
07/04/2019 1-20 - 1-07 Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 3 2019 2019 Glennon Brothers Pearse Park N/A Longford vs Wicklow

Top 10 League Scorers 2019

Rank	Player	Team	Goals Scored	Points Scored	Total Pts
1	Stacey Grimes	Meath LGFA	6	39	57
2	Rebecca Finan	Roscommon LGFA	5	37	52
3	Aisling Green	Longford LGFA	8	21	45
4	Michelle Farrell	Longford LGFA	4	28	40
5	Elaine O Reilly	Sligo LGFA	3	31	40
6	Laura Hogan	Wicklow LGFA	4	20	32
7	Kelsey Nesbitt	Meath LGFA	8	8	32
8	Mairead Daly	Offaly LGFA	3	22	31
9	Lauren Boles	Sligo LGFA	6	12	30
10	Laura Fleming	Roscommon LGFA	4	15	27

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The Leinster Championship saw Kelly’s charges out against the ladies of Offaly who had welcomed a lot of strong dual players back into their side for their quarter final clash in Aughrim. Offaly threatened to take victory but Wicklow rallied to secure a hard earned two point opening win to set up a semi final clash with Division 3 league champions Meath. Unfortunately for Wicklow an early Meath scoring blitz in the opening 10 minutes would prove to be our undoing as the royals proved a bridge too far. 

Leinster Championship

02/06/2019 2-11 - 2-09 TG4 Ladies Leinster Intermediate Football Championship 2019 2019 County Grounds Aughrim N/A TG4 Ladies Leinster Intermediate Football Championship Quarter Final - Wicklow vs Offaly
16/06/2019 5-14 - 0-06 TG4 Ladies Leinster Intermediate Football Championship 2019 2019 Pairc Tailteann N/A TG4 Ladies Leinster Intermediate Football Championship Semi Final - Meath v Wicklow

Leinster Championship Top 10 Scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals Scored	Points Scored	Total Pts
1	Emma Duggan	Meath LGFA	3	10	19
2	Stacey Grimes	Meath LGFA	2	6	12
3	Laura Hogan	Wicklow LGFA	0	11	11
4	Maria Byrne	Wexford LGFA	2	5	11
5	Neasa Dooley	Kildare LGFA	2	4	10
6	Lara Curran	Kildare LGFA	0	9	9
7	Marie Byrne	Offaly LGFA	1	5	8
8	Vikki Wall	Meath LGFA	0	7	7
9	Grace Clifford	Kildare LGFA	1	2	5
10	Aisling Green	Longford LGFA	1	2	5

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The TG4 All Ireland LGFA Intermediate Championship Series draw must have left Kelly and the Wicklow Ladies feeling as though they had shat in the LGFA gods cornflakes as Wicklow were drawn alongside the two eventual Intermediate All Ireland Finalists Tipperary and Meath as well as Wicklow’s long time bogey team Longford in what was by far the Group of Death. Despite such a miserable draw, Wicklow opened brightly away to Longford and in a ding dong battle Wicklow looked like taking victory only for a late Longford rally to see them share the spoils with an opening draw. Next up was another clash with Meath on the road again and an early Meath scoring blitz was again the undoing of Wicklow. The last and final match saw Championship Favourites Tipperary coming to town and ominously arriving after big wins over both Longford and Meath but Wicklow showed that they were not willing to go down without a fight and Tipperary managed to reel in our Wicklow ladies with only minutes remaining in the game. This left Wicklow in 3rd place ahead of Longford but based off a frankly very strange and questionable rule Wicklow were still the team heading to a relegation playoff with Leitrim based on Wicklow having scored “less scores over the bar” despite having a much better scoring differential than Longford. 

TG4 All Ireland Series Group 2 Table

Pos	Team	PLD	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	PTS	Form
1	Tipperary LGFA	3	3	0	0	100	48	52	6	W W W
2	Meath LGFA	3	2	0	1	67	53	14	4	L W W
3	Wicklow LGFA	3	0	1	2	53	82	-29	1	D L L
4	Longford LGFA	3	0	1	2	47	84	-37	1	D L L

TG4 All Ireland Series

14/07/2019 2-16 - 4-10 TG4 All Ireland Series Group 2 2019 2019 Glennon Brothers Pearse Park N/A Longford LGFA vs Wicklow LGFA
20/07/2019 4-19 - 0-10 TG4 All Ireland Series Group 2 2019 2019 Ashbourne N/A Meath LGFA vs Wicklow LGFA
28/07/2019 3-12 - 4-17 TG4 All Ireland Series Group 2 2019 2019 Dunlavin N/A Wicklow LGFA vs Tipperary LGFA

This left Wicklow in 3rd place ahead of Longford but based off a frankly very strange and questionable rule Wicklow were still the team heading to a relegation playoff with Leitrim based on Wicklow having scored “less scores over the bar” despite having a much better scoring differential than Longford. Leitrim proved to be a tough opponent and their early goals paved the way to securing their status despite a spirited Wicklow comeback that just ran out of time and our Wicklow Ladies found themselves heartbreakingly back in Junior Championship Football for 2020.

Relegation Playoff

11/08/2019 4-13 - 6-12 TG4 Ladies All Ireland Intermediate Football Championship 2019 Kinnegad N/A Relegation Playoff - Wicklow vs Leitrim

TG4 All Ireland Intermediate Football Championship Top 10 Scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals Scored	Points Scored	Total Pts
1	Aishling Moloney	Tipperary LGFA	10	62	92
2	Emma Duggan	Meath LGFA	8	37	61
3	Rebecca Finan	Roscommon LGFA	3	35	44
4	Aisling McCarthy	Tipperary LGFA	3	29	38
5	Elaine O Reilly	Sligo LGFA	2	31	37
6	Niamh O Dea	Clare LGFA	4	23	35
7	Vikki Wall	Meath LGFA	1	28	31
8	Neasa Dooley	Kildare LGFA	6	12	30
9	Angela McGuigan	Tipperary LGFA	8	3	27
10	Laura Hogan	Wicklow LGFA	1	23	26

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Due to work and personal commitments James Kelly was unable to commit to taking charge for 2020 and he wished to thank all the many people who assisted him in his time in charge here in the county which you can read in his letter below. From our on point of view we found him to be a very approachable gentleman who gave his all for the Wicklow cause and we can only thank him for his service to Wicklow LGFA and wish him well in his future endeavors both on and off the field. James expressed to us his willingness to perhaps return to the role in future years if his work commitments were more favorable to allow him the time to give fully to the role. The hunt is now well under way to find the successor who will inherit a very capable squad who should push the Junior Championship and Division 3 League very hard in 2020 and it will and should be a very coveted role for all potential candidates.

billhillwicklow

Bill Hill has been writing sports articles for years. Contact us at (087) 6009012 or billhillwicklow@gmail.com