September 2017 saw St. Killian's of New Inn field a Ladies Gaelic Football team for the first time ever to compete in the D division of the Connacht Post-Primary Senior Ladies Football Championship.
The girls were placed in a group with St. Cuans, Coláiste Chiarán from Athlone and Clarin College from Athenry. Having never competed in the competition before, St Killian's were seen as an experimental side and it was expected that St Cúins would progress comfortably having come down from Division C last year and would be closely followed by either Coláiste Chiarán or Clarin College.
Both sides were neck and neck at half time with St Cuan's seeming quite shocked not to have the match wrapped up at that point. Both teams came out very forceful again in the second half and put a brilliant display of football and determination. In spite of a wonderfully taken penalty by 1st year student Shannon Corcoran, the little extra bit of experience and an unfortunate injury to playmaker Siobhán Mc Grath, Ballygar came out on top with a score of 5-10 to 5-04.
In the next match the girls were facing off against local rivals Clarin College from Athenry. The starting fifteen girls garnered a strong lead in the first half and the fifteen girls that came on at various stages throughout the game did an excellent job of maintaining that lead. Players that came on such as Abbie Curley and Aisling Dillon helped to see them hold out for a 6-08 to 3-04 victory while Amy Hawkins did a fantastic job of minding the net.
The final game of the round ended up being a decider for second place in the group between St. Killian's and newly amalgamated Coláiste Chiaráin from Athlone as both teams had beaten Clarin College and had both lost narrowly to St. Cuan's. On a freezing cold day in December the girls fought very hard and played some wonderful football in spite of the conditions. They were up against a really excellent team from Coláiste Chiaran but every player put in a great performance including some of the younger girls who came in from the bench such as Nessa Tarpey and Elanna Malone. Ciara Griffin put in a player of the match performance at wing forward and helped see the team to a 7-09 to 6-08 victory.
This win saw St. Killian's progress from Group 4 in second place behind winners St. Cúins and set-up a preliminary quarter-final with Castlerea Community School in January, who had won Group 3 quite convincingly. Unfortunately, the Roscommon side proved too strong on the day in spite of some great play by all of the St. Killian's girls, such as Amy Hawkins who played in goal in the first half and came out to play in the forward line for the final thirty minutes. Although the visitors lead for most of the match the game itself was much tighter with players such as Aoibhe Deeley (captain on the day), Therese Garvey, Avril Lohan and many other refusing to give in until the final whistle.
This defeat saw the end to St. Killian's debut run in the Connacht Senior Championship at the quarter final stage which is a credit to all the girls who trained and played throughout the year.
Later on in the year when the competitive action had ended, the 1st and 2nd year girls were lucky enough to be able to play two home and away friendlies against Seamount College in Kinvara, who had also fielded their first ever Gaelic football team and provided a really beneficial opponent for the New Inn team. New Inn came out on top with a three-point lead in what was a very high scoring and competitive game.
St Killian's LGFA Senior Connacht Championship Team 2017 - 2018
Melissa Mc Donnell, Nessa Tarpey, Megan Lohan, Elanna Malone, Niamh Gilligan, Reitseal Kelly, Emma Fahy, Shannon Corcoran, Abbie Curley, Aisling Dillon, Laura Kenny, Amy Hawkins, Áine Hall, Michelle Callanan, Andrea Coen, Kate Creaven, Aoibhe Deeley, Caoimhe Donohue, Therese Garvey, Ailbhe Gill, Ciara Griffin, Cora Kenny, Alisha Williams, Jasmine Scully, Emma Mc Keogh, Aisling Donnelan, Alanna Duhan, Aoibheann Duhan, Maura Melody, Ciara Lenihan, Avril Lohan, Siobhan Mc Grath, Rachel Murray.