Club Notes: 5th March 2017
Club Lotto.
Last Saturday’s winning lotto numbers were 5-15-19-24, and there was no winner. €20 winners were Richard Hurley, Tom O’ Donovan, Brian Harnedy, and Oliver Flanagan, who won on the double. Well deserved Ollie! Next week’s jackpot will be €2,550, and will take place on Sunday night next 12th March.
Get well soon!
The club sends our best wishes to club stalwart and former Mayor of the county James Tobin who was hospitalised recently. I’ve no doubt a little pneumonia won’t keep a good man down! Get well soon James, from all at the club.
Congratulations Sean!
We send our congratulations to club legend, referee, and all round good egg Sean Murphy who celebrates the big four-oh this weekend. It’s a kind of double celebration for Sean and Monica (of Monere fame), as they announced they are expecting twins in the Autumn! It’s all happening Sean….
Deise win in Croker.
Played as the curtain raiser to the mighty Dub’s all-conquering football machine, Waterford hung in for a deserved win over a spirited Dublin to secure their second win of the League. It was good to see Stephen Bennett back to his goal poaching best with two well taken goals, and Aussie Gleeson looked comfortable at number 6, with the occasional upfield foray to pop over a couple of points. Under Derek McGrath, Waterford are proving a consistent and tough side to beat, and thankfully we seem to have options on the bench. League one status is surely all but assured, and a good result against the old enemy Cork in Walsh Park on Sunday week could get us to a quarter final. We have reason to be optimistic. ‘Hon the Deise!
G.A.A. Congress and ‘Super 8’ musings.
Call me old fashioned (certainly), and stuck in my ways (surely), but I can’t help but be a bit disheartened by some of the goings on at Croke Park these days. First of all they seem to be giving increased game time coverage to Sky TV which only means that a greater number of ordinary people who can’t afford / don’t want to subscribe to the British TV giant won’t be able to view some of our native games live on TV. Now they’ve introduced a ‘super 8’ round robin series of football matches which only means to me that they are pandering to the top teams in the country, and ignoring the rest. So instead of decreasing the number of games for the club players who happen to be intercounty players as well, they get more. So clubs with intercounty panelists will have even longer periods of inactivity during the summer. Now this is only football for now, but hurling will surely follow. Significantly, both player’s associations, the GPA, and the newly-formed CPA’s opposition to the plans were ignored. What we seem to have is a clear division between players and administrators i.e. county boards. How many clubs were consulted or debated these new ideas? I read a disturbing statistic recently that despite the fact that 55% of the entire population of the country lives in the Leinster area, there were 144 fewer teams registered last year, and 20 fewer clubs than there were in 2010. So the population is increasing, but the G.A.A. population is decreasing. Player drop out from juvenile to adult level is reaching epidemic levels. We see more and more clubs amalgamating, especially at juvenile level. The simple fact is the clubs are struggling, yet the top brass in Croke Park can only see the TV money (translation the Dubs), and ignoring the grassroots. Meanwhile the rugby and soccer clubs, with no such fixtures chaos continue to thrive….. Maybe I’m just a pessimist, but am I wrong? Answers on a postcard to Padraig Duffy, Croke Park.