Kilkenny’s Gaynor Cup winning U14 side collected their David Buggy Motors Kilkenny Sport Star Award on Monday.
Coach Maeve Egan, father and manager Fran Egan and Ellen Molloy, herself a previous award winner, were among those in attendance.
Speaking about their Gaynor Cup-winning achievement, Maeve says it’s fantastic for the team.
“It’s amazing. Personally, as a Gaynor girl myself, I was on one of the first teams to ever play in the Gaynor Cup for Kilkenny. It was lovely for me to get the chance to win the Gaynor Cup with such a lovely bunch of girls.”
“It was myself, my father Fran Egan, Davy Doyle from Freeboots and Maddie Lawson, another Freebooters girl. Between all of us we took control of these ladies and won the Gaynor Cup.
In making their way to the final in June they had to see off some tough opposition, including their final opponents in Midlands.
“Yeah, we were unlucky that we kind of got a hard group, but it worked out in the end”, says Maeve.
“We had to play Galway in our first game, so they would have been the top seed in our group. We went 1-0 down only after five minutes, I think. The girls came in at half time, we had a big chat and they just went out – I think that’s what made us win altogether. That game really summed us up for the rest of the weekend. ”
Having been there as a player and now as a coach, how does Egan think the competition compares today?
“When I was playing, it was a shadow of what it is now”, she says.
“The girls get such great achievements and such great opportunities out of Gaynor Cup now. Last year we got one international player out of it, I think this year we could have at least six.”
“We’re the first team now to win either the Gaynor or Kennedy Cup, so I think the girls are beating a lot of the boys records at the minute.”
As for the future?
“Hopefully, we’ll be getting the few emails about trials in their future so these girls will be stepping onto the Leinster Schools squads, then hopefully on to the Irish squads. We’ll be getting back together in September for trials, so it’s a busy few months ahead.”
Nominate for July
Nominations are currently open for the July round of voting, closing at 12pm on Friday 27 July.
You can submit your club, team or individual sport star from any sporting discipline across Kilkenny (or Kilkenny sport star participating internationally) by following this link.
