Trish looks for All-Ireland Title number seven

The August Bank Holiday weekend has come to mean one thing in the G.A.A. calendar, the staging of the M Donnelly All-Ireland Poc Fada competition in the picturesque Cooley Mountains in County Louth.

The competition first started in 1961 when Limerick’s Vincent Godfrey won the Competition with 52 pucks. The following year the winner was Kilkenny legend Ollie Walsh who completed the course in 67 pucks.

Since then some of the biggest names in the game have won the competition, including  Limerick’s Pat Hartigan a two time winner of the competition, former Cork goalkeeper and current Dublin manager Ger Cunningham won the competition seven times, former Clare goalkeeper and former Waterford manager and Current Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald has won the competition twice, while there is also wins for competitors from not so strong hurling holds like Colin Byrne from Wicklow who won the competition in 1997 and 2000, Paul Dunne from Louth who won in 2003, Gerry Fallon from Roscommon who won in 2009 and Down’s Graham Clarke who won the following year.

There has been two Waterford winners of the hurling competition, Tom Geary who shared the win with Kilkenny’s Ollie Walsh and Dinny Donnelly from Meath in 1963, while Knockanore man Billy Tobin won the competition in 1969.

The Knockanore man is in the record books as holding the title of Poc Fada Champion for the longest period.

The next winner after him was Limerick’s Pat Hartigan in 1981, but it should be pointed out that there was no competition from 1970 to 1980 inclusive.

The King of the Poc Fada is former Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins. The Ballybacon/Grange Club Man has won the competition eight times and will be searching for a ninth title this weekend.

His first success was in 2004. He would add three titles in a row in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and has won the competition again each year from 2011.

If a Tipperary man is the King of the Poc Fada, a Waterford woman is the Queen of the Puc Fada.

The Gailltir sharp shooter this weekend will face her toughest test to date and will have to be at her very best to beat Clare’s Aisling Corbett, Elaine Gallery for Dublin, Catriona Daly from Galway who has pushed the Gailltir lady hard in the recent past and Catherine McGourty from Down.

The Down lady made national headlines recently accusing the organisers of the Ulster Competition as “sexist”.

The captain of the Ulster Camogie team spoke out after the winner of the Ulster Hurling Poc Fada was presented with a trophy for winning the competition as well as a skiing holiday while she was presented with a medal.

While the Ulster representative in this years competition will receive her share of media coverage in the coming days and over the course of the competition itself, its fair to say that much of the attention will be on Waterford’s Trish Jackman.

The Gailltir player will be travelling to the County Louth for the tenth time to compete at the competition.

She first took part in 2006 finishing as runner up to Westmeath’s Mary Henry and in the two following years she again finished as runner up to Carlow’s Lyndsey Condell.

She made her big break through in 2009 finishing the course in 26 Poc’s. Lyndsey Connell would finish third in 2009, one place behind her sister.

She retained the title twelve months later, going round the course in 28 Poc’s and 27 metres, a Poc ahead of Down’s Finnuala Carr who finished second.

It was three in a row for Trish in 2011 again going round the course in 28 Poc’s putting the sliotar 40 metres past the line with her last stroke. Galway’s Rachel Monaghan finished second, completing the course three shots behind the winner.

The runner up in 2011 was relegated to third place in 2012, going round in 32 Poc’s but the winner was a familiar face as Trish Jackman completed the course in 29 Poc’s. Limerick’s Martina McMahon finished second, one Poc behind the four time winner.

History repeated itself in 2013 as the runner up from the previous year just like in 2011 finished third as Martina McMahon went around the course in 30 Poc’s.

Catriona Daly who could well prove to be the biggest challenger to the Gailltir lady this weekend finished second, finishing in 28 Poc’s, but Trish Jackman would again win this time going around the mountains in a record 27 Poc’s for the ladies competition.

The 2014 competition was delayed because of inclement weather on the day it was planned, but when it did go ahead, there was a familiar face being presented with the winner’s trophy at the end of the competition as Trish Jackman won her sixth title in a row.

Last years competition proved to be the most competitive in the competition’s history as the top two Trish Jackman and the runner up from the previous year Catriona Daly went around 29 Poc’s but the Gailltir lady won for the sixth title striking her final shot 62 metres past the finish line as opposed to 15 metres for the Galway lady.

 

Those taking part in this years Poc Fada final’s are

Senior Hurling

Aaron Murphy (Limerick)
Andrew Fahey (Clare)
Brendan Cummins (Tipperary)
Cillian Kiely (Offaly)
Eoin Reilly (Laois)
Gerard Smith (Louth)
Karol Keating (Down)
Keith Raymond (Sligo)
Noel Fallon (Roscommon)
Paddy McKillion (Tyrone)
Patrick Kelly (Clare)

U16 Hurling

Cormac Phillips (Mayo)
Barry O’Mahony (Kerry)
Padraig Delaney (Laois)
Reece McSorley (Derry)
Shaun Murray (Waterford)

Senior Camogie

Aisling Corbett (Clare)
Catherine McGourty (Down)
Catriona Daly (Galway)
Elaine Gallery (Dublin)
Patricia Jackman (Waterford)

U16 Camogie

Ann-Marie Smyth (Ulster)
Sarah Healy (Connacht)
Ciara O’Looney (Leinster)
Áine O’Loughlin (Munster)

 

Dan Fraher Puc Fada

The tenth Dan Fraher Puc Fada competition will take place on Monday evening next in Touraneena.

Teams of three cost €20 per team member for adults and €10 each for teams of three in the under 16 competition.

Those taking part should be registered at Kirwan Park, the home ground of the Sliabh gCua/Saint Mary’s G.A.A. Club (Just off the Dungarvan to Clonmel road) by 5pm from where they will be brought to the home of Dan Fraher (in Skeheens in the Comeragh Mountains) after whom Fraher Field in Dungarvan is named after and they will fight it out to see who can get back to Kirwan Park in the least amount of shots possible.

The competition is opened to all. One member of the winning team last year was local man and Waterford hurler Colin Dunford.