Dublin Lacrosse

Up Coming Events

Irish Lacrosse League

This coming October 10th, the ILL will kick off with gameday #1 hosted by the newly formed Galway Lacrosse.

The Dublin men’s team will open with a showdown against their rivals, UCD Lacrosse, before they play Galway Lacrosse later in the afternoon.

The women’s tournament will host Dublin, UCD and Galway so each team will play  each other on each gameday. First up for Dublin is UCD, followed by a game against Galway.

To get more information on the ILL, please contact the men’s captain (paddylax@gmail.com) or women’s captain (pamelasmithwick@gmail.com).

Day Two and Day Three

Ireland vs. Scotland (5-14)

Ireland took on the hosts and from the onset the Irish played hard throughout. After initially falling a goal behind the Irish immediately tied the game up. The first quarter was a see-saw battle with Ireland and Scotland having equal possession and good looks. The Scot’s however were clinical in their finishing while the Irish missing a number of chances to keep pace. The second quarter the Scottish team scored 4-5 unanswered goals to take a hold of the game and any chance of a comeback looked unlikely. The Irish fought hard and showed great pride in the second half scoring 4 goals to Scotland’s 6.

The final ended up 14-5 to Scotland in a hard contested match. Ireland misses and Scotland’s foot speed proved to be the main differences in the game.

Paddy O’Leary was named game captain against Scotland

Ireland’s Scorers: Gibson (2), O’Leary (1), Kennedy (1), and Caulfield (1)

Ireland vs. France (14-2)

The third day of the trip proved to be more fruitful as Ireland took to the French with poise and precision. Ireland got out to a commanding first half lead of 9-1. The Irish rotated through personnel and all 23 members of the 23 man roster seeing plenty of field time. The Irish had 8 different scorers with Lubsy and Gibson leading the way with 3 a piece. Lusby earned his first international hattrick and was clinical in his finishing.

Conor Walsh was named the game Captain against France.

Scorers: Lusby (3), Gibson (3), O’Leary (2), Bodie (2), Caulfield (1), Jordan (1), Edwards (1), Devine (1)

Training Camp and Day One in Edinburgh

For the next few days I am going to continue the trend set by Matt Corry (Ireland 2008) who was at the European Championships last year. Matt picked a player at random to write on his blog each day during the Euros. So this year I will take the honours and start off with our training camp and trip to Scotland.
Well all I can say about the last few days up at Naomh Olaf is wow! It has been a dramatic turn around and amazing to see the skills the younger players have developing coming full circle over the last few years. In a lot of ways I have a lot of pride and admiration for the work of everyone to develop into lacrosse players. Our camp was fast, high tempo, and everyone picked up all the sets, plays, packages very quickly.
We had four days with the last two being full out sessions of 5.5 hours of training each day. Our coaches drilling home our offense and defensive sets and plays. Though training camp wasn’t all business as we had opportunity to enjoy a team meal on Saturday night at Kiely’s of Donnybrook.
So after a few days of hard labour at our training camp we embarked out at 4am to head for the airport in Dublin. After meeting up with the rest of the team we checked and headed to the gate at Dublin Airport. After a quick 45 minute flight we arrived in Edinburgh and boarded our coach to head to our accommodation at Fettes College or ‘Hogwarts’ as we have affectionately started calling it.
Most of us have spent today in relaxation mode and getting acclimated with our surroundings. We are sharing our accommodation with the Welsh team and for me personally it was good to catch up with some old friends and team mates.
We had a team run and stretch at 4pm led by John Cavanagh. We cleaned up and headed to the meal hall for our first team meal. By this point the Scots and Welsh teams have almost completely arrived and were also eating meals. After dinner Paddy O’Leary was named by the coaches as our game day captain for tomorrow’s opener. Once we finished our meal we headed to the steps of the world famous Fettes College for a team photo.
We have a relaxed night and are left to our own devices and it would seem most are relaxing and preparing for tomorrow’s opening game against Scotland who seem to have a good squad and will be a good test of where we stand.
Eireann Abu !

National Women’s Development Team loses in Exhibition Play against AIST

After a successful tour of the UK the AIST Women’s team travelled to the Emerald Isle to play our Women’s Developmental Team. The game was competitive early on as the Irish were resolute in defence. It took about 10 minutes of play, going both ways, before the game had its first goal. AIST scored and took over the contest scoring a series of unanswered goals usually in transition. Kim Jones scored the lone marker as the Irish Development Ladies fell to the AIST women.

All in all though it was a good first outing for our Irish Women’s Development Team who had several newcomers and were also missing several key players.

National Women’s Development Team squares off against AIST

The Ireland National Women’s Development Team vs. AIST (USA). This game is taking place tomorrow (Wednesday, 22 July) from 5-6.30pm (draw promptly at 5.30pm) on the artificial rugby field at UCD.

This is the first time our women will be competing as the Ireland National Women’s Development Team. All current women’s national team players are strongly encouraged to play in this game, as are any women players who are interested now, or may be in future, in participating with Team Ireland.

There is also a social event being planned for after the match – this will most likely involve drinks in the Forum Bar on campus at UCD (if it’s open!) followed by more drinks in Messer Maguires in town.

All are strongly encouraged to come out and support the girls!

Dublin Men’s team finishes 3rd and Women’s team finishes 5th in Amsterdam Lowlands 2009

MENS REPORT – After two days in the scorching Dutch sun, the defending champion Dublin Lacrosse men’s team finished in style by claiming a hard fought 3^rd place in this year’s Amsterdam Lowlands Tournament. Drawn in Group B amongst the Vienna Cherokees, Bremen Lacrosse and a Dutch All Stars team, it seemed a tough task for the mere 12-man side to undertake. Despite this, and even in the harsh pitch and weather conditions, they managed to gel together quickly as a unit and produce some fine lacrosse.

They got off to a rocky start by losing their opening game to Vienna, but from then on put together good performances to brush aside Bremen and the Dutch All Stars sides. This put them into the semi-finals, mirroring last year’s Lowlands final against Spencer Lacrosse of England. Spencer were to gain revenge for last year’s game by taking their chances well and earning a deserved victory – setting themselves up for the final against a very strong and talented Amsterdam Lions team who were tournament hosts.

Dublin then took on the Vienna Cherokees once more to battle it out for 3^rd place. With the score tied  took full advantage of. With an assist from Ireland attacker Sean Bodie, Dublin captain and Ireland midfielder Mike Kennedy came up with the winning goal and gave Dublin the finish they thoroughly deserved.

The final was likewise a tight affair between Spencer and the Amsterdam Lions, with the hosts winning in overtime.

Big thanks must go to all the players who played on behalf of Dublin at the tournament and we once again look forward to returning next year to try and win back the coveted Lowlands trophy.

WOMENS REPORT – Arriving in Lowlands with eight players, 4 from U.C.D. and 4 from the Irish National team, the Dublin Girls team had a challenging weekend ahead. After adopting 3 Bristol Lacrosse players the team began the tournament one woman down! Despite having never played as a team before the three factions gelled mere minutes into their first match against Karlsruhe. While the line of Karlsruhe subs was daunting and envying to the Dublin side, especially in such epic heat, the Dublin girls emerged victorious after a hard fought game of lacrosse.  The next match saw the team take on the all-star American team Gin and Juice.  With one of Dublin’s players struck mid match by an old knee injury, the team continued on two players down. While they fought hard, they were playing a team from a completely different league, and lost. The next day saw the addition of an American player MK who stepped in to help after Maeve’s knee injury forced her to stop playing. The Dutch national team proved a formidable side also, giving the girls from the Irish team a preview of the team they will be facing later this month in the World Cup. Two victories over the Dutch all star team and in the fifth place playoff against Karlsruhe left the team coming in fifth place in the tournament.

That afternoon, UCD goalie Rachel Blake was invited to play for the Gin and Juice team in the championship match, while Maria Sheehy and Amy Clarkin also agreed to help fill in the spaces of players who had had to leave. Rachel displayed skills that would be impressive for any goalie, let alone one who had been playing only two months, while both Maria and Amy learned a lot from playing with the team. It was a great weekend of lacrosse, and a big thank you must be made to all of Dublin’s adopted players.