Annual Report of the Club for 2022

Introduction 

This Report gives an overview of club activity in 2022.

It is difficult to capture the huge range of activity that went into another great year for the club, but it does provide an opportunity to review what went well and also highlight the challenges that lie ahead to be addressed in 2023 and beyond. 

It was a great year to be involved in the club; Never have we had more teams, never have we had more people involved, never have we had more young boys and girls from the community wearing club colours. 
We now have a very resilient club, with young people as its foundation, and we can look forward to many bright days ahead.

Review of 2022 on the field of play

We have to begin with our adult ladies football team! What a year; winning three competitions, including the Junior League and the Junior Championship. Winning the Junior Championship out in Newcastle on the 19th August against our great rivals St Kevins Killians was an historic night for the club and was fitting reward for the dedication and efforts put in by the team and its mentors.

In terms of teams, we had 27 teams lining out in competitions from go-games to adult men and women. 

Table 1 Teams in the club

Group
No of teams

Adult Male
1 Intermediate Football
1 Junior Football
1 Junior Hurling
1 Under 19 Football

Adult Female
1 Junior Football

 
Juvenile Boys
9 Football teams from Under 8 to Under 16
7 Hurling teams from Under 8 to Under 14

Juvenile Girls
7 Football teams from Under 8 to Under 14

Academy
Catering for 120 kids (4- to 7-year-olds).
 

In addition to this, we also have the G4MOs and the Dad & Lads, so in total there were 29 active teams in the club in 2022.

The club wants in particular to note the success of our Under 12 Boys team who were presented with their Runners Up medals in their Football League in December. It is important also to record that many of our CCC2 boys and girls teams were very competitive and silverware or promotion narrowly eluded us. There is always next year!

It is often the case that successful years can be followed by a more challenging time as teams are playing at a higher level and, for example, retaining our intermediate status was an important milestone for the club in 2022.

The growth in our Academy is a sure sign of club health. To see the level of activity on Saturday mornings with the Academy and all the helpers from the Juvenile and Adult teams is something that we value and treasure and huge thanks is due to all.

Finally, providing the opportunity for girls to participate in sports is now something that is ingrained in the club and we are well on our way to being a club with a 50/50 split between male and female participation in our games. On that note, it is important to highlight that 2023 will hopefully see our 8s & 9s playing Camogie – another step forward!

Club Finances

A detailed note will be circulated at the AGM on club finances: However as a growing club, it is getting more costly to run our activities and while we have a positive bank balance, our accounts for 2022 showed that we had an operating deficit of €6,500 for the year. As will be outlined later, we do need to broaden our funding base which remains skewed towards registrations which makes up more that 80% of our income base. On a more positive note, our finances indicate a growing club and this year our annual turnover exceeded €100,000. 

Club Facilities

In 2022 the Club had access to pitches in Cornelscourt, Ballyogan and Meadowvale to play home matches. In addition we had winter (floodlit) training facilities in Stepaside, Blue Pool (Monkstown), Loreto, Newpark and at Seapoint RC. The club would like to express their thanks to Loreto College, Foxrock without whose facilities the majority of juvenile teams would not have facilities to train on through winter and who are always open to assisting the club where possible with facilities.

In September, the club made a detailed submission to the Parish Council of Foxrock on upgrading the facilities at Cornelscourt. We have received some initial positive feedback from the parish on this and it will be a key work area for the club to progress this issue in 2023. The bottom line is that we need modern facilities in Cornelscourt and we also want a hurling wall.

Our pitch in Ballyogan, which has an excellent surface and is getting fantastic use, is also limited by the fact that there are not toilet and changing facilities at the venue. It will be difficult to use public facilities especially for girls games in the absence of basic toilet facilities and we will have to progress this with the DLRCOCO in 2023.

A problem that is highlighted annually by the Dublin County Board and which is particularly acute in South Dublin is the lack of playing pitches. We know from our conversations with other clubs in the locality that it is an ongoing challenge. As the population of areas like Cherrywood grow in the years ahead, the challenge facing our club will only get bigger. The loss of the pitch at Clonkeen College, which we had used previously, is one that will impede participation in sports in the locality in the years ahead and will go down as huge loss should the grounds of the college be developed. We did put in an objection to An Bord Pleanála and we are working with Friends of Clonkeen in opposing this development by the Christian Brothers at the school.

Working with local schools

The sustainability of the club is down to the work we do, through our GDO, in the local schools. It is a partnership that works and the club want to thank the staff of St. Brigid’s, Guardian Angles, and Monkstown Educate Together for the work they do in promoting the GAA in their schools. As new schools come on stream in areas like Cherrywood, we need to review how we partner with them in order to ensure a steady stream of children are available to play with the club.
We hope to introduce the 'Caman Together' programme into these schools during 2023.

Social Events

We had a great night in November in Killiney Castle  when 160 club members gathered to celebrate 2022. A huge thanks to the organisers of that event and we look forward to another great outing in 2023. We do need to focus more on getting together in places other than on the pitch or on the sideline of the pitch and it will be an issue that the incoming executive will get a handle on in 2023.

Challenges

The pace of growth that the club has experienced over the last five years in particular brings its challenges, even if they are welcome ones. We do have challenges but, with the support of active members, these become opportunities not challenges.

We need to:-

1.    Get better facilities

2.    Get much better at fundraising and get more from current sources such as the Club Lotto and the Club Golf Outing and get new sources of income especially from sponsorship.

3.    Address the fall-off in participation in sport for teenagers. There is a huge drop-off when children leave national school, which often means that teams can no longer function at their own age level. What is of particular concern is the teenagers who give up all sports, which, in the long term, is not good for  the health and well-being of our younger population.

4.    Develop a broader club with a greater range of activities which will enhance the club brand.

5.    Involve more members in the running and volunteering roles within the club – many hands make light work.

A word of thanks

All our players, from the 4 year-old in our academy to the elder-statesmen playing Dads & Lads, can only participate in games and sport if there are volunteers who mentor and train and arrange games etc. We are building a great army of volunteers and to each and all, we say thanks. We want in particular to  mention those mentors who are running teams with small panels. That challenge is a hard one and many of our mentors show great fortitude in going the extra mile to ensure that the team takes the field.

To those who work behind the scenes in roles within the committee and executive and to those who arrange the pitch schedules and training rotations and also who get pitches cut and lined, well done.

To the organisers who go the extra mile, such as our Mini-All Ireland and the social night.

To those who made an extra contribution such as to golf outing and sponsorship of teams.

To the boys, girls, men and women who played for the club this year: You are our ambassadors and  make the club proud everytime you wear the black and amber.

To our Referees across all levels, thank you for your availability, flexibility with assisting neighbouring clubs and management of games. We are all aware of the shortage of referees across many clubs and we are very appreciative of the group of Referees in the club and wish those undertaking this training in the coming year the best of luck. 

Finally, a thanks to our Games Development Officer: without Johnny, it would not have been possible to get to where we are!

Conclusion

This is a great club and we have a lot to be proud of. It gives us great satisfaction to present this annual report on behalf of the club committee.

_____________       __________  ­­­­­­­­­                        __________             ____________

Chairperson              Secretary                   Juv. Chairperson     Juv. Secretary
Ted McEnery            John McCabe             Tom Purcell              Mary Browne