Update to Coaches, Admins, Teams and Club Members

As we embark on another exciting season of Games, I would like to share an update on Club matters. Most importantly I want to extend a major thank you to all our coaches and administrators for their tireless dedication and hard work. Our club simply couldn't function without your invaluable contributions. 

I'd also like to express my appreciation to the new committee for 2024 whose leadership and vision will be instrumental in guiding our Club forward. The members and roles of the committee are available at www.geraldinesgaa.ie and together, we have a detailed plan for the year with over 30 initiatives that we are fully committed to achieving. We have a number of new members to the committee which is great to see as it brings more members into the running of the club and shares the tasks. In this brief I will highlight the focus areas for a number of new committee members.  

Dec Flood as Coaching Officer will ensure that the voice of our coaches is central to all our meetings. Dec alongside Finbarr Holland and Eoin MacMaoilir have already delivered and planned numerous actions to support our coaches. Stay tuned as we roll out more initiatives in the coming months. Dec has prepared an exciting charter for the year which we will also share with you in the coming days.  

Mary McNamara who is a coach of our U9 Boys will be the voice of parents and especially new parents at our committee meetings, and you will hear more on this topic in the coming weeks. Mary is also playing a key role in a number of strategic planning exercises which we are undertaking and which we will be seeking your inputs on over the remainder of the year. 

Anna Martin, who is a coach of our U9 Boys, is taking the lead on Diversity in the club. A very warm welcome to our newest team, The Gers All Stars, dedicated to children aged 5 to 12 with additional needs. A special thanks to Anna for leading this initiative, with strong support from Johnny and our Academy coaches and also to St. Brigid’s BNS for the use of the school premises as required. 

Susan Donnelly, a juvenile coach and player from our Senior Ladies, as the voice of the players has a key role as Players’ Representative, in ensuring that we have good two- way communications between our players and the Executive Committee. 

David Lavelle, as well as playing for our Senior Men, has taken on the key role of Club Treasurer with support from our outgoing Treasurer Anne Moffatt, who we thank for all her hard work during her time in the role. Our club is expanding all the time and a key task is to raise the funds to support this growth and manage both the Revenue and Expenditure budgets. David, working with our fund-raising lead, Paul O Connor, will jointly champion this critical area for 2024. 

Facilities is a critical area for us and Ted McEnery has a detailed set of targets for the year. An external company has been engaged to provide maintenance support in Cornelscourt primarily with grass cutting and maintenance of hedges. However, more volunteers are needed in this area for activities such as lining pitches and general upkeep of our grounds. Ted has contacted all coaches on this, the ask is for volunteers to provide 3 or 4 hours a month and it may be a task that retired members of our community could help out with. Please contact Ted with any nominees. 

Club PRO and U14 Boys coach, Sean Hussey alongside Fiona Boland, our Marketing lead and the U9 Boys administrator, is doing a great job in updating us on club activities and on promoting our club and brand in the community. Did you know that our Club video has been watched over 40,000 times? Please do pass on your team news to Sean for publication, the more the merrier and it keeps us all informed on your team’s progress and any achievements of our members. 

Please do follow us on our various social media channels. At present the club has approx. 970 followers on X and it would be great to break the 1,000 barrier in the coming weeks. Also if you are on LinkedIn please do connect with our page.  

Our recent participation in the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Stepaside was a great success with plenty of smiling faces. Many thanks to Cathal Clarke for organising such a fun event and for helping to promote our club in the locality.  

Special mention to Emma O’Callaghan who is starring for the Dublin Under 14’s in a Leinster Festival of Football at the moment. We are all very proud of Emma and a big well done goes to her club coaches, a great achievement for her and for the development of ladies football in the Gers.    

Our U15 Girls have their LGFA Féile coming up on April 20th and have been fundraising on a monumental level for their team. We wish them the best of luck in the tournament and are proud of the great ambassadors they are for the Club. 

Continued best wishes and congratulations to Jack Dolan and Cian O’Brien from our 2008 Boys who are also members of the Juvenile Dublin panels with Jack playing on the U16 football squad and Cian lining out for the U16 hurling squad.  

Our Senior Intermediate Men’s team have got off to a strong start winning their first two league games in Division 4 while our Junior footballers got their first win of the season over St. Marks on March 24th. Our Senior Hurlers beat Civil Service on Sunday and are really improving each game, the team have added a number of new recruits to their panel.  

Our Senior Ladies’ start to the season was delayed when their cup game against neighbours Kilmacud Crokes was cancelled due to an unplayable pitch. We wish them and all our adult teams the very best of luck for the season ahead. All our Adult Teams’ fixtures are on our website, so make sure to get down to support the various sides over the course of the season.  

Club fixtures can be viewed here: https://www.geraldinesgaa.ie/fixtures  

A quick shout out to our newest sponsors of football jerseys, all which are hot off the printers. Thanks to you all.    

New sponsors: 

U8 Boys - AG GRID: www.ag-grid.com
U8 Girls - OPEL/Bill Sheehan: www.billsheehanopel.ie  

U9 Boys - TJ O'Mahony: www.tjomahony.ie  

U12 Girls - TJ O'Mahony: www.tjomahony.ie 

U12 Adult Ladies – Eirgrid: www.eirgrid.ie  

Finally, while the season has kicked off to a wet start, better weather must be in the offing and I want to wish all our teams, both Juvenile and Senior, the very best of luck and I look forward to cheering you on from the sidelines. Remember, respect our junior referees, it could be your son and daughter with the whistle in the future and if there are no referees, there can be no games.  

Thanks again for all your great work.  

Ger Moffatt, 

Club Chairperson. 

April 2024