No word of thanks can ever convey the amount of effort that goes in to planning, organising, managing and successfully executing an event of this magnitude (more teams taking part than the Rugby World Cup, by the way). Our most sincere thanks goes to Peter Mooney whose passion, commitment and dedication made this happen and to his Committee of absolute legends Noel Lennon, Declan Nolan and Brendan Brophy. Huge thanks also goes to Adrian Donoghue for all of his hard work and for organising a fantastic Youth Tournament. Thank you Ling Teo, Isaac Newton and Jack Meng for the huge amount of time dedicated and work put in, behind the scenes, to ensure that the weekend was such a success. Thanks also to all those of you who volunteered your help and support in the lead-up to the tournament and on the day itself.
It was thanks to our two coaches, Jussara Bierman and Peter Mooney that Shanghai had such a huge turnout and played such high-level football at all levels of the competition. Thank you Jussara and Peter for your leadership and coaching throughout the year. Thanks also to all of the Team Captains for all your hard work and leadership.
Congratulations to Singapore Men for claiming the Men’s Senior Cup and to Abu Dhabi for winning the ‘Lisa Orla’ Senior Ladies Cup. The Shanghai Men’s ‘A’ Team, lead by Ciaran Mannion and coached by Peter, achieved a place in the Semi-Final of the ‘A’ Comp before being beaten by Seoul. Aine Deasy captained the Ladies ‘A’ Team who, coached by Jussara, beat the eventual finalists, Seoul, before winning the Silver Plate in the ‘A’ comp. Well done to the Men’s ‘B’ Team, captained by Garry Gallagher and the Ladies ‘B’ Team, captained by Sandra Egger and Roisin Kelleher and coached by Adrian Donoghue, for a superb performance in tough competitions.
‘Shanghai Lady Legends’ captained by Ling Teo were bumped up to a higher division as a result of being unbeaten on Saturday and came runners up to Taipei in the Woman’s Junior Cup Final. Shanghai Dad’s Army, lead by Isaac Newton, lost the Junior Silver Plate by a whisper to Singapore. Shang-Nilla, captained by ‘the one and only’ Sean Moran, were beaten in the Final of the Intermediate Plate by Japan. Last but by no means least, Shanghai Dragons, captained by returning Shanghai GAA Legend Brian Murray, were ON FIRE throughout the tournament before eventually being doused in the Junior Men’s Cup Final by a Dalian team to whom they were conceding 20 years a man!
For them and for all the Shanghai teams, the fire was reignited on Sunday night and was still flaming at 6am in the Beaver… And THAT’S what it’s all about folks!
Let’s not forget a truly UNforgettable Youth tournament which saw 4 Shanghai teams play host to 2 teams travelling from Seoul. Well done to our dedicated Youth Coach Adrian Donoghue and also special thanks to Jing Huang and Yilie Shen for all of their help with our terrific youth programme.
What. A. Weekend. Shang WHO? SHANGHAI!
Shanghai Gaelic Football Club 