Camogie 2016 Chairperson address
Chairperson’s Address 20th November 2015
As a member of the Camogie, and its chairperson, I am so proud of all we have achieved in all sections during the season. We commenced the season with a well attended and enthusiastic AGM. We are making history by facilitating two AGMs in one year, however this is to finally bring this meeting and all its affairs into line with the County Board AGM calendar.
Key Highlights in 2015
· We recruited over twenty young new players in our joint Camogie / Football recruitment drive by visiting all the schools in the parish
· As a club we achieved full Croke Park Child Protection certification in 2015
· Some of our coaches made it their business attending a coaching fundamentals course facilitated by the ladies football club. Huge success and I would encourage that we promote sharing of such initiatives organised in the future.
· Successful partnership with the ladies football fundraiser initiative ( Golden Goal). I think we can appreciate a lot of work and effort was put in by a lot of members, however there is more work and effort required as our ticket sales achieved an 85% sell through in comparison to a 99% sell through in year one.
· Great year for under age, such as
· Under 10s winning the Tony Jeffers Shield, and also playing plenty of games to keep their skills in tact..
· U12s runners up in the county final. We played tough but diverse teams. We put away, Ballinhassig, Bishopstown, Rock Ban, Banteer, Carrigaline and in our last game of the first round, we were beaten by the other only unbeaten team in our group Castlemartyr. We beat Newcestown in the qtr final. We beat Aghabullogue in the semi final, and lost out narrowly to Eire Og in the County Final. Congratulations to Eire Og.
· U11s topped the South East league, and will play Tracton in the final in Tracton on December 4th.
· Under 16s Runners Up in their County Final who lost out to Bride Rovers, after a pretty successful run in the championship winning all up to the final. Congratulations to Bride Rovers.
· Senior B team qualifying for the Munster Semi final.
· We took a bus of young players to this year’s All Ireland. Highly recommended again.
· Congratulations to Lisa Lynch who represented us on the Cork Senior panel where she won Senior All Ireland medal. Lisa also won a minor football Munster Final medal for Cork-where she was also player of the Match. She is currently tonight attending a medal presentation.
· Earlier in the year we agreed to produce a code of Behaviour for the club. I would like to thank Mark Ronan who co-authored it with me. His great insight as a member of the Bandon Rugby club was very helpful.
· I would like to acknowledge all successes in the Ladies Football, the Adult club, and the Juvenile club. We along with the Footballers are interested in a medal presentation night, as we know this is good for promoting the game and succession planning. Paul Hoey will confirm their intentions next week.
Acknowledgements for 2015
· Thank all those who attended the meetings during the year. To all committee members who work behind the scenes. There is a lot of time and effort put in solving issues, arranging matches, agreeing over lapping calendar details with our Ladies football colleagues. Thank You.
· A huge thank you to all our Coaches within the club. WOW have we got some enthusiastic and dedicated coaches, this is why our young players are achieving what they are. We have achieved so much in 2015 in the various age groups and we have so much more to contribute.
· I would like to thank Sean Michael our outgoing Secretary for all his time and effort and support during the year.
· Thank you to Alice O Sullivan for her dedication and time in her role as treasurer. I couldn’t do it for the world.
· I would like to thank all who helped to organise our non starter fun run. A lot of work goes in to planning an event, and it’s hard when we cannot see it through. We plan to reschedule it in February 2016. We would love to see more people come on board and get involved with events like this.
· On behalf of the club we would like to thank John Murphy and his team for the great companionship during our combined golden goal fundraiser. It is important that clubs such as ours pull together, and work together for the welfare of all our common players in both clubs.
· I want to Thank Con for his help and true dedication to the up keep of Brinny. I don’t know if there are anyone else out there who could or would do his job. It’s a multi task in itself. Con you cannot keep everyone happy, and I include myself in there, but you are a good friend to the Camogie club. I would ask whoever is selected as the executive delegate to please bring that word for word to their AGM meeting next Tuesday.
· Another great friend is our own Executive PRO John Lynch. No job is to big, no time is inconvenient, I have often chatted to John via email, on the 9th hour before publishing, or as late as 11pm some evenings. Thank you John for helping us promote Camogie. Social Media can play such an important role in our game.
· I would like to thank all the parents, for their dedication in seeing it through, getting their young fine players out to training and games. We hope you can help us going forward to keep talking and promoting the great positive attitude of the game to all concerned.
· I like to thank all who has helped with the Brinny Car Parking, at various camogie games.
· Challenges 2015.
Strengths
· We have a great club
· We have a great coaching team.
· We have great numbers coming up from under age, and we need to ensure that we support them, and grow and nurture this seed, working within our club, and at divisional level.
Opportunities
· I think we should all take a little more responsibility to ensure match reports are published for all matches, with picture. I also think that each section should invest more time in promoting the newsletter with the parents of players, so in return players can progress by being aware of the successes and the various details published. This becomes more relevant as they move up.
· I would like to see our own PRO office utilised more in the coming year to promote Camogie, and help to enhance our website.
· The Ladies football have agreed to link up with the Camogie for the second time, in its recruitment drive to all the schools in the parish. This worked very well last year for both clubs.
· I raised a question at the football AGM in relation to Child Welfare, which initiated a debate. There is a hunger for both clubs to work together and we will. Firstly we will write a joint motion/ letter in relation to the incident we experienced recently where seven U16s girls played two County Finals within six hours. Some ideas were discussed on how we can raise this to higher platforms. Key learning’s from other experiences using public figures, should be used, while at the same time keeping it alive on the agenda at both divisional boards and County Board. Raising it at division level may help resurrect support from the affiliated clubs. The letter will be sent to County Board level, Munster, and Croke Park.
· I would encourage all parents when convenient to attend other home underage games with their players. This I believe is paramount for club succession planning.
· There is also an opportunity for our more senior players, for example transition year students to spend an hour every now and again at underage training. Young players will always relate to those players.
· The footballers have selected a panel of delegates who will represent them at Divisional and County level rather than one delegate. This is great for individual topics such as maybe grading, match fixtures, or committee or age specific related items. It gives those people the opportunity to learn about the workings of those organisations, and how they can help us as a club. It can also prepare people to become officers in their own club if they so wish.
· As a club we strive for great things in all sections. We do recognise that there are some challenges with attitude to training and games & fitness in our senior side of the house. I outlined at the football AGM, our plan to try to bring these challenges to a point of resolution. Our proposal is to invite all players to meet with themselves and discuss and agree their objectives, targets, and how they plan to achieve all in 2016. Sean Michael will engage in the conclusion part of the meeting to broker all their actions with the club’s actions points. We have reached a cross roads, where the signage is directing us to an immediate resolution. This direction is important for the current players, the club itself, and more importantly the strong numbers of players coming up the line, to have the right systems, attitude, policies in place. This means everyone is singing of the same page. Our footballer colleagues have nominated two new coaches for the intermediates, Gerry Reilly & Chris O Sullivan. At the same time we are on a recruitment drive for some extra coaching help for our senior team. I do acknowledge the success we had last year in the Munster B. I do also acknowledge the hard work and effort put in by Mary Crowley & David Lynch, & Mary Buglar and any other person who has contributed in any way. But they can’t take the whole responsibility, it’s also got to rest on the players shoulders. We owe it to ourselves, our players, and in particular our younger players. It must be a two way plan between players and Club. For some of those players parents have a role to play here. We have the potential given our skills to match any team. We were disappointed at the lack of engagement and attitude on the concept we rolled out at the start of the season, providing a fitness platform for everyone. We will not give up on this. Players need to understand that they have a lot of responsibility to co author the plan for the successors. Currently it’s the players responsibility to determine if we have a senior team for 2016, or we don’t. So to the senior team I wish you all every success in 2016, in your plans, training game participation, and to all who will coach you, and I hope you will understand what it is we are trying to achieve and that we can’t achieve it without you. We all should look at this as a big opportunity, and we look forward to your engagement with us, and to winning times as I know you can. We have pledged whatever help is required that it will be given.
· Conclusion
I have enjoyed my busy life as a club member, this was a busy year, but satisfying. So a sincere final thank you to all who helped in anyway. Voluntarism is a great gift for the receiver, and as we all know we do make a difference. I wish everyone a nice well earned break, and maybe an early enough return to the new season age relevant.