Secretary's Address to Club AGM - 26 November 2023
2023 was a year where things were as busy as ever, across all codes, at all levels, throughout the season, both on and off the field.
I would like to start by thanking all our managers, coaches and all who help out with teams. It goes without saying that,without the dedication and commitment from all our coaches and mentors, across all codes, that we would not be able to facilitate the high number of players we have coming through the gates on a daily basis. The constant eagerness of all our coaches to develop themselves allows them to be the best possible coach and in turn, develop all our players in football and hurling. The development of our players and enabling them to play up the age grades and eventually get to tog for our senior teams is something that is very important in my opinion and thank you to our coaching officers for ensuring that courses are put in place to allow our managers to help with this development.
Thanks must go to all sponsors who so generously give sponsorship throughout the year. This is very much appreciated by the club, team managements and the players.
The lotto continues to be a much-needed weekly source of income and thank you to those who cover slots at Centra every Saturday and also to the lotto committee of Catherine Mc Kee, Gerard Ferguson and John Magee who oversee the draw every Sunday evening. I urge all members to support the Aodh Ruadh lotto where possible.
2023 seen the re-opening of Fr Tierney Park and a huge thank you must go to Tom, David and Michael for all their work in making this happen. Thank you to the park workers for the hours they also gave over the last number of years, to ensure the park opening remained as close to schedule as possible. The Park Committee continue to develop our grounds and we will see the official opening of Fr Tierney Park in 2024. We are lucky enough to have teams at all levels in all codes, however this leads to a lot of managers looking for training slots and needing games facilitated. I urge all codes to work together on this and to communicate with the park committee as early as possible to ensure that all codes get fair access and avoid any clashes.
Thank you to Peter and Johnny for their continued work in getting grounds and pitches match ready. And thanks to everyone who helps out on match days from operating the gate, covering the shop and helping out with the refreshments, it is very much appreciated.
A huge thank you must go to John Hughes for the volume of unseen work he continues to do on a weekly basis. We are more active on social media than ever before and thank you to Anna and others who have come on board to help John out with Instagram and other social media platforms. Many thanks also to Brian Drummond who is always on hand at games for those all-important team shots.
Thank you to all who represented Aodh Ruadh at Scor this year and congratulations to both the Instrumental group the quiz team on qualifying for the All-Ireland Finals. Huge credit to all the work that both groups put in. Thank you to Eamonn Martin Maguire for all his work with Scor.
Bord nanOg - Once again 2023 seen huge numbers at all the lower age groups of Bord nanOg. It was great to see another season start off with the SandC programme being rolled out to the older age grades and thank you to the volunteers who gave their time to this programme.Congratulations to all teams who were successful in their respective finals, especially to the U15 team who also represented the Club at Ulster Feile. As someone who had been involved in Bord nan Og for 8 years, I fully support the motion sent into County Board in relation to the scheduling of football / hurling fixtures. Being the SRB secretary for the last 2 years, I know only too well the heartache creating fixtures is, however, as a club, our main priority is the player welfare of our own players, an issue, that I feel will only get worse given it has now gone back to even ages. I want to thank Brian for all his work with Bord nanOg over the last number of years and wish him well with his new venture and I wish Darren Mc Guinness the very best of luck as the incoming Bord nanOg secretary.
Juvenile Hurling - Congratulations on another successful year across a number of age groups, with a special mention to the U15 team that represented the club at Feile this year. As with Bord nanOg, player welfare for dual players is our priority and I thank both the hurling managers and football managers for managing this throughout the year and it goes without saying that communication between both is vital to both codes.
Senior Hurling - The senior hurlers had a good league campaign, however it was disappointing for them as a group of players to only get to play one game in the Senior Championship. It is mentioned in the senior hurling report that a policy needs to be in place for dual players - this is a policy that already is in place, i.e. Wednesday and Friday nights are for senior hurling only and football will train on a Tuesday and Thursday night. Unfortunately, due to the All-Ireland and depending on the progression of our County team, we do not have set fixtures for all league games, meaning until the week of, it is unknown if the football fixture will be a Saturday or Sunday, so therefore, unless in original fixtures plan, we do not know which day the fixture will be on. Given we are dual club, Sunday's are our default day for football, but that is not always a given as some can be played on a Saturday evening. However, as with underage, communication between both managers is vital for dual players to be able to play both codes.
Ladies - Again 2023 seen Aodh Ruadh be able to field 2 senior teams and with underage numbers constantly on the rise, the ladies code of the club is going from strength to strength. This is down to not only the hard work of Sarah, Louise Larkin and most recently Anna Rafferty who came on board mid-season and did a fantastic job in the secretary role, but the huge number of managers and coaches that help out with each age grade. As with every year, LGFA fees / membership was not without headaches. The ladies do have some motions in on this so it can be discussed then. After 3 years as Chairperson, Sarah is taking some well-deserved time out and we wish her, Darren and Danny the very best wishes with their imminent new arrival.
Senior Development Football -2 years ago when myself, William and Sabrina had the conversation that we needed to change the structures around reserve football, we did not envision that it would get to the strengths it did in 2023. Over my 8 years as club secretary, I think it is the biggest panel of reserve players I have worked with, and this is a testament to not only the management but also to the dedication of the players involved. Sunday 22nd October seen us head to Mac Cumhaill Park with a panel of 35 players and given that we were unable to field at reserve level 2 years ago, this is a massive achievement, and I can only hope that going forward that these numbers can be retained and continue to grow and strengthen not only the senior development panel but also our senior panel. A massive congratulations to the management and players on winning the Reserve County Final!
Senior Football - Thank you to John, Conor, Damien and all who helped out with senior management in 2023. It was a disappointing end to another great season and as was my hope last year, I can only hope that 2024 will be an even better year.
Health and Wellbeing - Another busy year and a lot of work done by Maura. The club hosted another STOP Sunrise walk and where numbers may not have been as big as the previous year, it is still very important, that as a club, we continue to get importance of STOP out to people. Due to the hard work put in by Maura, the club was awarded the Silver Healthy Club Award and with the guidance of Maura we hope to be able to continue promoting a culture that promotes health and well-being among all our club members.
Children's Officer - Josephine came on board for 2023 and was thrown right in at the deep end as we had a Safeguarding Audit do complete by May. Thank you to Josephine for the hours of work she put into this Audit. Frustrations arose this year with regards to Safeguarding and Garda Vetting, and where 90% of people are compliant, there is still a number of people, throughout all codes, that are not, and this is an issue for us as a club. It has been suggested that we host an evening here to allow people to come up and sort their GV and this will be organised for January. I ask that all sub-committee chairpersons, please make sure that ALL coaches are both Garda Vetted and have Safeguarding completed and both are done prior to attending any training sessions this season.
Lastly, but my no means least, a massive thank you to William and Sabrina. It has been an absolute honour to work with you both over the last 5 years and thank you for all the support you gave me in my role as secretary.
Le meas,
Lisa Nic Thiarnán
Runaí
Last modified: Monday, 27 November 2023 at 6:40pm