{"id":912,"date":"2021-10-08T21:42:28","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T21:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aflireland.ie\/?p=912"},"modified":"2021-10-08T21:42:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T21:42:30","slug":"afl-ireland-premiership-round-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/2021\/10\/08\/afl-ireland-premiership-round-6\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Ireland Premiership- Round 6"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The final games\nof the home and away season culminated on Saturday September 25th<\/sup>. The\nLeeside Lions hosted the Galway Magpies in Cork, while in Belfast the South Dublin\nSwans took on the Ulster Kookaburras in the Women\u2019s comp while the men did battle\nwith the Belfast Redbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ulster\nKookaburras v South Dublin Swans <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Swans continued\ntheir development with a trip north to take on the impressive Ulster Kookaburras.\nBoasting a wealth of talent and great on ballers, the home side were overwhelming\nfavourites. For the Swans, a chance to get another game against quality opposition\nunder their belt was another step in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a hard fought game, in which the scoreline wasn\u2019t fully reflective of the competitive nature around the ball, the Ulster women came out on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ulster Kookaburras<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Siobhan Sherrin\nwas once again at her best in a tough contest against the Swans. She dominated possession\naround the ground, allowing the sharp shooting of Eva Cafolla (7 goals) and Niamh\nO’Neill (4 goals) to do the damage on the scoreboard. Gr\u00e1inne (3 goals)m and Shannon\nMcLaughlin, Leah Casey and Sherrin herself chipped in with 2 goals a piece in an\nimpressive victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although they may have not impacted the scoreboard, notable mentions to Swans players, Grace Quinlan, Sorcha Nolan and R\u00f3is\u00edn McWhey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
South Dublin Swans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A tough day\nat the office for the Swannies against tough opposition, the Kookaburras march on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Score<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ulster Kookaburras\n23 \u2013 17 \u2013 155<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Dublin Swans 0 \u2013 0 \u2013 0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Final Ladder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Belfast Redbacks\nv South Dublin Swans <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Swans came\ninto this game assured of a home Preliminary Final at the minimum. Victory combined\nwith a Magpies win in Cork would see the Dublin side take the minor Premiership.\nThe Redbacks had other ideas however. Buoyed from their Festival of Football victory\nand impressive games v the Magpies and Lions in recent weeks will have given the\nUlster men confidence going into the latter weeks of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mix of youth and experience was a welcome combination for the home side and on the day they were determined to set down a marker for the Preliminary final. Liam O’Hara top scored for the Redbacks with 3 goals whole Ultan Clancy claimed 2 of his own. The experienced Davy McElhone, Tom McKenna, Gerard Walls and Conor Mallon each claimed a major a piece, added to 1 from John McManus in what was a positive scoring display throughout the squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Belfast Redbacks <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With limited squad numbers from both sides on the day, maybe\nboth holding back for the Preliminary Final , the Swans showed they had strength\nthroughout their ranks, keeping pace somewhat with their rivals. Omar claimed his\nfirst  goal of the season while a spectacular\ndribble from Levi Kalms was arguably the pick of the day. Keith Whelan added a goal\nto go with another impressive display for the Swans midfielder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In truth the Redbacks had just too much on the day for the Dublin\nmen, meaning that they would each face off in the Preliminary Final a week later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Score<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belfast Redbacks 10 \u2013 9 \u2013 69<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Dublin Swans 4 \u2013 4 \u2013 28<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leeside Lions v Galway Magpies <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Lions knew the task at hand, win and the minor Premiership\nwas theirs and more importantly a straight path to the AFL Ireland Premiership Grand\nFinal for 2021. The Magpies in their final league fixture for the season were eager\nto gain more experience in their development as they had their new recruits some\nvaluable game time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lions started brightly and, in truth, never looked back. Kevin Jones was instrumental, pulling the strings in the midfield for the home side and helped himself to 5 majors as he broke into forward 50 time and time again. Not to be outdone, the Lions talisman, Darren O\u2019Dwyer had another fruitful day up forward. 6 gold his hail for the day for the ruthless Leesiders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Leeside Lions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The experience of Shaun \u201cSmurf” Murphy has been invaluable\nfor the Galway side this year and has no doubt played a part in developing the less\nexperienced players added in the off season. Yet again, Smurf was the focal point\nof everything the Maggies did on the day and their hard work around the ground yielded\na decent score of 8 goals 9, 57.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lions were to be crowned minor premiers however, with goals\nand intelligent ball use throughout their ranks. Padraic O’Connell and James O’Shea\nwere at their best, kicking 4 goals a piece while David Horgan helped himself to\n3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Score<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leeside Lions 28 \u2013 15 \u2013 183<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galway Magpies 8 \u2013 9 – 57<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Final Ladder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So the Leeside Lions take the Minor Premiership while the Belfast Redbacks travel to the capital on October 2nd to take on the South Dublin Swans in the Preliminary Final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile in the Womens comp, the Ulster Kookaburras and Cork Vikings will face off on the Grand final on October 9th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final games of the home and away season culminated on Saturday September 25th. The Leeside Lions hosted the Galway Magpies in Cork, while in Belfast the South Dublin Swans… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,8,9],"tags":[49,100,27,44,36,33,23],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leagues","category-main-stories","category-mens","category-womens","tag-aflireland","tag-round6","tag-afl","tag-afl-ireland-womens","tag-aussie-rules","tag-footy","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":920,"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions\/920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aflireland.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}