Hello All,

As the season reaches its finale, I thought it was an opportune moment to communicate how we are doing as a club, and for me to highlight some things that the club needs your help with. As ever there are positives and negatives and while it’s great to focus on the positives, if we ALL don’t address the negatives we are going to come unstuck very fast.

On the Pitch

Positives

Thanks to all the captains for their support and efforts this season, once again a sterling job.
⁻    1sts secure Premier division football again
⁻    2nds have bled the majority of St Joe’s intake from last year, thrown them in at the deep end and they have certainly held their own this season, with a very respectable league finish on the cards
⁻    3rds reach a cup final to be played this Saturday (16/4/16) and a league/cup double is on. Good luck to Gerry, Chris and the lads. Let’s bring it home. Would be great to see a crowd back in Doolans, hopefully with the Pot.
⁻    4ths won their cup final and like the 3rds a potential double is on 
⁻    5ths, after a tricky start, have held their own in a very competitive division
⁻    6ths had a great cup run and have done an admirable job in supporting the playing side of the club, offering up players with absolute minimum of fuss
⁻    And last but not least, the Vets had a frustrating season; key personnel missing and the rub of the green not going their way this year in a couple of close games. Thanks to Eamonn and Jim for their efforts again this year. Hopefully, we can continue to keep the trophy cabinet busy next season

On the whole, the discipline side of things has greatly improved and I thank you for your efforts. We still have some way to go, but I think next year we will be in a much healthier position

Negatives

Captains/match day support/KIT
⁻    Please don’t leave it all to your captain, help him out. In most cases, he wants a game of footy just like you and he has to work too bloody hard to earn it once he has called/text/whats app-ed you to let him to know your availability. On a match day, he then has to pick up the kit, probably drive 3 or 4 of you to a game, pay  the ref, fill out the team sheet, collect your subs after, ensure the kit is all in one piece, drop said kit off to be washed, check everyone is available for the following week.

⁻    Kit: we are losing too much of it at considerable expense, balls in particular. Match balls are not kick-about balls, it is becoming farcical. They should not be taken for away games. There were 6 small match ball bags containing 2 match balls at the start of the season, there are 2 now. You do the maths, these match balls cost around £50 a pop. Please have some respect and look after them. It is becoming a joke. 

Player availability/selection

Transparency of player availability has not worked as well as we would have liked. We have very much become, in some aspects, individual teams within one club. Whether the current process doesn’t work or individuals don’t understand it, I don’t know but we can do better.

If a higher eleven comes calling, they should be supported even though an individual/captain may not like it. Yes, we would all like to play with our mates, yet it should not be a hardship to help out another side once in a while. It may happen only rarely, potentially 2/3 times in a season, but when it has this season it has caused more aggro than it’s worth

Any player who has supported a higher eleven should not feel that their place is under threat in the previous eleven by doing so. In fact, he should be the first name on the sheet the next week, when he returns to the lower side. 

It really should be the objective of every player to play for the highest eleven they possibly can. We should not have teams going with 14 players knowing full well another side is going with the bare 11. Hopefully we can improve on this process next season.
This, by the way, does not reflect on the Easter period, which was just one of those weeks.  And fair play to all the captains for pulling together on that particular occasion.

I believe this team within a club mentality has had an effect of club cohesion and togetherness. Probably explaining part of the problem in terms of “getting the craic back”.

While I can appreciate, times change and people have other things are going on in people’s lives etc., we should aim to try have a beer as a club as often as we can. I don’t have a magic solution and it would be really good if we could explore ways of making this work. 

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. The 4ths final evening was a great example of a good day out. Hopefully we can experience that with the 3rds as well this Saturday. 

Off the Pitch

Positives 

⁻    Zero Admin fines, our outgoing secretary Micky Ivers has done an absolutely amazing job keeping this down. This is some achievement, and speaking to those who have held the role in the past, that takes some doing (more on Mick later)
⁻    Match Subs a much improved effort from last season, however it is starting to creep up again from a couple of sides, hard with away games etc, but let’s get this sorted out quickly please, well done all, this makes Martin’s job so much easier

⁻    Club Marks- although have dipped slightly, when you look at overall marks we are doing excellently and in particular our SOF scores. Great work everyone
⁻    Joe Young and Peter Snell, for their help with the sponsorship this year, we still have a fair bit of work to do on this
⁻    Also a massive thanks to our sponsors, so very generous and a real boost for the club
⁻    I would also like to thank Eddy Dempsey for his sterling work on the website; surely we must have enough cool kids, who can help Ed out to make the website work harder for us 
⁻    Mr Jordan for the post match admin being inputted on the system no mean feat.
All these roles and tasks really help keep the club’s wheels turning.

Unfortunately, what comes next is really what I want us all to focus on and for you all too seriously think about what you can do as an individual.

Negatives

⁻    We have had to cancel the club dinner, due to lack of numbers/interest, thanks to the very small number of you who bothered their backsides to reply yes or no, we will look to hold a smaller presentation event later – watch this space
Details of the AGM will be announced soon.  Please take a moment to digest below please.

New Blood

The committee needs help, new blood, volunteers to offer to get more involved in the support the running of YOUR club.
The biggest role we need to fill urgently is of club secretary; this is the heartbeat of the club, the job that keeps the club ticking over and links all the facets of the club together.

About a month ago, I posted on the club page that we were looking to fill this role; to say I have been inundated with replies would be a tad of an understatement. Absolutely zero in fact.

We have been incredibly lucky, with the individuals who have held this post in the past, notably Peter Snell.  Micky Ivers has been absolutely immense in handling the role over the last 2 years and the amount of effort and time Mick has given can’t be understated. He is has been invaluable in ensuring we have functioned as a club incredibly efficiently and with superb organisation. Mick has helped play a massive role in showing the AFA and AFC, what a great club we are. I mentioned before zero admin fines for the club he has not cost the club a penny this season and I am pretty sure apart from one oversight last season we had an admin fine of just £30. 

The job is big I am not going to lie to you.  Hence why I am open to splitting the role up so two individuals can work together on it. Without it we will become a shambles. We are all busy, believe it or not the committee members, like the captains do have day jobs as well, much the same as you.

I can’t thank Mick enough for the time, effort and support he has given the club. We owe him a great debt of gratitude
We are very lucky to have the people we have working behind the scenes to give you a game of football on a Saturday. But we need help. If we don’t get help we are going to find our club infrastructure struggle.
Jim, Martin, Liam and your captains put a whole chunk of time to give you a game of football. I think it’s time for a lot of others to give something back.

Don’t think ah someone else will do it, they won’t, the same faces are becoming old faces now and work, family commitments are becoming more challenging. We also like you have day jobs.

We need you to step up, we need your new ideas, and we need your support to help run your club.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to seeing you all back in Doolans this Saturday 16th April to help the 3rds celebrate in style.

Cheers 

Paul.