Auckland (blue) take on Christchurch in last Sunday's historic first ever New Zealand GAA national league game at Fowlds Park, Auckland. (Photo courtesy of Carmel Ryan Auckland GAA PRO).
History was made last Sunday, October 21 in the city of Auckland as three clubs from throughout New Zealand came together at Fowlds Park for the start of the first ever national GAA competition.
The new Gaelic Football and Hurling League is part of a three round series of blitzes involving Auckland GAA, Hutt Valley/Wellington GAA, and Christchurch GAA, in a bid to develop and promote Gaelic football and hurling in the country.
At present football is more advanced than hurling in the country with last weekend seeing six teams in competition – three men’s and ladies’ teams – from a panel of twenty five players as well as three coaching staff.
The hurling part of this historic day saw a Seven-aside Hurling Tournament take place which also turned out to be a tremendous success.
Mother nature wasn’t too kind however with heavy rain, along with thunder and lightening later restricting competition.
Auckland Ladies celebrate victory in winning the Jimmy Connolly Perpetual Cup and Round 1 of the new NZ League. (Photo courtesy of Auckland GAA PRO Carmel Ryan).
The first game of the day saw a good win for Auckland Ladies by 2.04 (10) to 0.1 (1) over Wellington. In the following game Auckland Men’s Team fended off the challenge from Wellington on a scoreline 3.14 (23) to 1.10 (13). Then Christchurch Ladies suffered a disappointment against Auckland on a scoreline of 3.4 (13) to 0.5 (5) while the highly anticipated game in the men’s football between Auckland v Christchurch didn’t disappoint with Christchurch claiming a narrow three point win.
Even though Christchurch Ladies defeated Wellington in their last game, Auckland had done enough to take overall victory in round 1 of the league. The final game of the day had to be called off due to the weather conditions and so round 1 of the men’s league will not be awarded until a later date when Christchurch take on Wellington.
Round 2 takes place in Wellington on Jan 19, 2013 and this year’s competition will conclude in Christchurch on March 2.
An exciting time for GAA in New Zealand then with the first ever national league up and running.
(Article from report by Carmel Ryan Auckland GAA PRO).
