Offaly U-15 footballers to play Galway for Adam Mangan Shield

OFFALY U-15 footballers have a big game this Saturday when they take on Galway in the Adam Mangan Shield final.

The annual Adam Mangan memorial tournament will conclude in Kilclonfert on Saturday with Offaly and Galway meeting in the Shield final at 10.30am and Cavan and Kerry clashing in the Cup decider at 12 noon.

The tournament commemorates Kilclonfert man, the late Adam Mangan, a very talented footballer who played underage with Offaly. The tournament finals forms a central part of a gala day of celebration for Kilclonfert GAA Club, who are celebrating their 100^th anniversary and have a gala social evening planned later on.

Offaly U-15 footballers have been working hard all year and have an exciting young team, who are well worth a look at.

Captained by Max Kruger of Gracefield, they were unlucky not to qualify for the main event, the cup final. A narrow 3-10 to 2-10 defeat by Cavan in the group cost them that while they had good wins over their shield final opponents, Galway, 1-9 to 0-9 and Kildare, 3-8 to 3-5.

The team are managed by Ballycommon senior footballer, Matthew Dempsey. The head coach is Daingean's Stephen Burns, the forwards coach is Ferbane senior footballer, Ronan McGuire; Ballycommon's Paul Scally is the goalkeeping coach while the selectors are former Tullamore and Erin Rovers stalwarts, Sean Keane and Paul Carroll.