2017 was a tremendous year for Conor Sweeney on the playing field and this was acknowledged last weekend when Conor picked up the senior football player of the year for 2017 at the South Tipperary GAA awards ceremony held in Clonal Sports Centre last Friday night.
No one could deny that Conor was a truly deserving winner of this award. The football he played throughout the year was breathtaking and earned him national recognition when in March he was voted GAA.ie footballer of the week.
Conor produced many fine performances over the year, racking up some very impressive score tallies along the way.
He loved the open spaces of Croke Park and gave an exhibition of score taking in the division 3 final against Louth when he notched up 2-5 and in everyone’s opinion he was the real man of the match.
Later that same year, again Conor was recognised for his talent when he was chosen to represent Ireland in the compromise rules series played in Australia. A truly fantastic achievement for the modest Ballyporeen man.
The club were very proud and honoured to see Conor go up on stage to collect his award. The MC on the night was Tipp FM’s Paddy Finucane who interviewed Conor after the presentation.
Conor has started 2018 in fine style again helping, Tipp secure their division 2 statues for next year.
Conor is this year’s club captain and his influence on the younger players cannot be overstated. He has galvanised the players as a unit and they pulled off a great win against Cahir in the first round of the county championship.
Conor can always be relied on when it comes to helping the juvenile club, presenting medals or signing autographs. It’s never a problem for Conor.
It was great to see such a good turn out from the club at the award ceremony and everyone enjoyed the night. It was of course another very proud occasion for Conor’s parents, Mike and Bernie, his family and his partner Shauna. On behalf of the club Conor – well done on this great honour!
We also congratulate Eddie Maher from our sister club Skeheenarinky on winning past hurler of the year.
This hall of fame award was well deserved as Eddie has given such dedication to hurling for Churls and Skeheenarinky over many years.
MINOR FOOTBALL
Our minor football team qualified for the South A semi-finals with a hard-fought draw against the might of Clonmel Commercials last Thursday evening.
Going into the game Clonmel needed to win to knock us out, but a draw was enough to see us through. It now looks as if we will be playing Cahir after the exams.
Cahir have already beaten us but if we can get back some of our injured players and regroup again, I’m sure the lads will be hard to beat. Final score 2-10 a piece
Our senior football team played their 2nd county league game last Sunday in Ballyporeen against Clonmel Commercials. We had to field a very understrength team due to injuries and absentees.
Although the lads battled hard they couldn’t get the better of the Strong Clonmel outfit. Final score – Clonmel Commercials 3-13, Ballyporeen 2-9.
LOTTO
Numbers drawn 3, 7, 10, 26. No winner, 2 match 3 Brendan Melody and John Hennessy. Next draw in Meaney’s Bar, Sat 26th jackpot €10,000.
SYMPATHY
We would like to send our sincere sympathy to the O’Brien family, Clogheen. It was with genuine sadness we learned of the passing of Frank O’Brien.
We all knew him as Frankie and he was a stalwart of our neighbouring club Fr Sheehy’s.
A great club man and referee, he will be sadly missed by all who knew him.
