Chairman’s note – October 2020

Posted October 30, 2020

Chairmans Note

October 2020

Now that the dust has settled somewhat on an extraordinary few months in the life of the club it is timely to provide Members with an update.

First and foremost, I wanted to congratulate the group, too many to name, who organise our nursery and camps. Since the original lockdown ended and through various iterations of restrictions the organisation, focus on safety and desire to provide a fun environment for the children has been really outstanding and more important than ever.

On the playing front considerable progress was made by all 4 adult codes. Camogie fielded 3 adult teams this year, Ladies Football were championship winners, our Adult Footballers who also fielded 3 teams, reached the semi- final of the Senior B Championship with some outstanding displays along the way and just 3 years after relegation to Junior Status our Adult Hurlers are Intermediate Champions. Soon we will be looking for a sponsor for silver polish!

Regrettably, the juvenile season was cut short and at this stage it looks doubtful that the competitions will finish but we did at least get a few months of competitive fixtures. It is also great that the juvenile teams can continue to train albeit under certain restrictions.

On facilities we have with the generous support of Bedford Consulting completed the netting work on Pitch 8, applied winter fertilizer to all our pitches and sanded Pitches 3, 6 and 8. This will stand to us next spring when matches restart. In the meantime we ask all teams to avoid overtraining in the same areas of the pitches and in particular the goal areas.

The list of remedial work in the clubhouse most of which we postponed to preserve our cash has not gone away and we will have decisions to make in the New Year as how we proceed.

Our financial situation remains stable despite the various headwinds this year. From my detailed explanation in April we have had a number of upsides, including increased subscription income strengthened by enforcement of the no pay no play policy by all sections, receipt of grant support from the DAA, profit from running of our summer camps, and sale of signage for Pitch 1. However, October to December is usually a time when our finances are stretched so we must remain focussed.  Our next task is to generate revenue from the sale of National draw tickets, to get the ball rolling we will be giving a free coffee with every ticket bought on Saturday mornings in the club between next week and Christmas. Remember the draw is fully funded by Croke Park so all ticket sales (€10 per ticket) stay in the club.

The remainder of the year obviously remains uncertain but we must keep up our record of compliance with the Covid restrictions and we again ask for full co-operation with the pitch co-ordinator and the wider exec on any decisions made.  We are 3 points up in injury time so lets not give away a soft goal at this late stage!

Our AGM is currently planned in for December 3^rd by video conference, this may obviously change and we will keep people informed.

Finally, we will hopefully be able to open the bar in a few weeks, a welcome addition when we do will be this stunning outdoor heater painted in the club colours and donated by Seamus Kiernan and Stephen Rafter of Heating Distributors Ltd.