LGFA - Scoop Cup continues to grow year on year

Dublin LGFA would like to acknowledge the tremendous work being carried out by Stuart Banks and his colleagues in relation to setting up and the organisation of what has now become the annual ‘Scoop Cup’ tournament.

The ‘Scoop Cup’ is a post primary schools’ tournament organised across a series of four one day blitzes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and TY/ 5th year students. The tournament takes place in April just after the Easter break.

Stuart Banks is also a coach with Ranelagh Gaels. He recently told Dublin LGFA why he decided to set up the ‘Scoop Cup” –

“We had to work very hard to retain numbers in our club down through the years. When girls left primary school a lot of them went to schools which didn’t traditionally play Gaelic football so we were concerned they may drift away from the sport”.

“After speaking to a number of parents we agreed to form a group to ask local secondary schools to set up a Gaelic football team and to enter a local competition which we would help run in April of each year”.

“Our club (Ranelagh Gaels) saw first-hand the value of the school tournament. We had thirty-eight players in 2023 when we started the competition. Not only did we retain most of these players (only two dropped out) but we got fourteen new players from girls playing in the ‘Scoop Cup’ with their school. These were girls who hadn’t previously played football. From playing with their school, they then joined our club”.

Stuart gave us some background on the event. The ‘Scoop Cup’ tournament was first organised in 2023 with five schools taking part each entering one team comprising of first year students only. A total of one hundred students played in the inaugural tournament.

Since its inception the competition has flourished. In 2026 twelve schools competed with over thirty teams playing across the four days. This year’s event witnessed over seven hundred girls competing - an extraordinary growth in participation in just three short years.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th year blitzes took place in UCD. Due to the growth and scale of the 1st year competition it was ran off in two venues, at Sean Moore and Ringsend Parks.

Stuart Banks along with his band of helpers has created and grown a tournament which has now become a sporting highlight on the school calendar, well done one and all!