Kilmeena LGFA – Adult League, Shield Final Kilmeena vs Belmullet

Kilmeena: 3 - 07     Belmullet: 2 – 09

By the narrowest of margins, Kilmeena do just enough to make it back-to-back Sheild titles (2025 and 2026).

The venue was the GAA Centre of Excellence at Bekan and the date was Sunday 24^th May 2026. The sun shone asBelmullet and Kilmeena got stuck in just after 2pm on Pitch No.3

This was a rematch of the game played seven days earlier and in similar fashion each team dominated the scoreboard for one half of the contest. With the aid of a stiff breeze at their backs, Kilmeena made the most of the first thirty minutes, scoring 2 – 07 to 0 -04 for Belmullet. During this spell (first half) the ladies in black and white played a nice blend of kick-passing and efficient ball carrying, delivering the ball into theBelmullet end of the field and the scores followed.

Eabha Carney (Player of the Match) was given the role of man-marking Belmullet’s No.14 and ably supported by the other Kilmeena defenders and Ellie Mai Keane in goals, they all combined to restrict Belmullet to four points, whilst getting restarts away in an effective manner throughout the opening thirty minutes of this contest.

Facing into a strong breeze for the second half, Kilmeena would need to protect their lead whilst picking off a few scores to keep Belmullet at bay.

The Kilmeena ladies started with intent and pressed forward at every opportunity, but scores were proving impossible to land. The breeze was a factor but so too was the wayward shooting by the ladies in black and white. Meanwhile Belmullet were beginning to make inroads at the other end,notching up some minors with the aid of the breeze.

As the game approached the mid-point of the second period, some quick thinking and a soccer style reactionary kick by Lisa Hastings to a rebounded/loose ball, yielded a goal whichbroke the Kilmeena scoring stalemate. Kilmeena had chances to kick on from here but again failed to convert opportunities created.

Belmullet landed their second goal of this half and suddenlythe gap was down to just a few points. Further Belmullet runs into the Kilmeena area yielded points and with two minutes left on the clock, Kilmeena needed to steady the ship. This they did by holding onto the ball for the remainder of theclosing stages of the second half, which denied Belmullet any further opportunity to level or perhaps win the contest at the death.

This may not have been the prettiest of second half football to watch and neither could the final few minutes be classed as entertaining football for the Kilmeena supporters, but the strategic approach taken by the Kilmeena team to play ‘keep-ball’ in the closing minutes of the contest translated what could otherwise have been a very late loss to Belmullet into one of victory and retention of the Division 4 Shield by Kilmeena.

It should not be lost on all involved that qualifying for and retaining the Division 4 Shield was derived from a position of limited player availability both today and over these past few weeks during qualifying games. However, this was more than compensated for by the resilience of the squad, theopportunities grasped by players, the will to win shown and to the support given to each other during challenging games.This puts this achievement into perspective.

Well done to all – plenty to build on now.

Team; Ellie Mai Keane, Mags Ryder, Katie Moran (Snr),Laura O'Grady, Emily Irwin, Eabha Carney, Sarah Mulchrone, Julia Sztejner, Lisa Hastings, Ruby Lane, Aoife Gannon, Leah Walsh, Sheila Bohan, Kate McNicholas

Subs; Megan O’Malley for Katie Moran (Snr), Rachel Keane for Eva Mulchrone, Kaylin Hunter for Kate McNicholas, Lucy O’Malley.