Connacht GAA Coaching and Games Quarterly Report April

The following is an update on the work that has taken place across Connacht in Coaching and Games for the 2^nd Quarter of 2019. It will also involve some of the events taking place in the coming months. To read our quarter 1 report please click on the following link https://connachtgaa.ie/news/connacht-gaa-coaching-and-games-quarterly-report-january-march/

Coaching and Games is broken up into 6 key areas (Outlined below) which feed into the National & Provincial Coaching and Games plan. Each county then has a county coaching plan which is tailored to suit the individual county’s needs. This is implemented by the County Games Manager, County Coaching Officer, and Games Development staff in each of the counties on a day to day basis. Governance for the plan is overseen by the County Steering which consists of the County Chairperson, Secretary, Coaching Officer, Games Manager, Treasurer & PRO who meet 6-8 times per year to review how the plan is going.

6 Key Areas

Area 1 – Child Games Opportunities (0-12 year)

Area 2 – Youth Games Opportunities (12-18years)

Area 3 – School Initiatives

Area 4 – Camps

Area 5 – Talent Academies

Area 6 – Learning & Development.

Child

Our Connacht GAA 2019 Go Games Days in Croke Park took place on April 16^th and 17^th. This year 882 children across 48 teams in hurling and football participated from Connacht. The Connacht GAA Go Games days provide the selected clubs from all over Connacht the incredible experience of Croke Park. The players involved got to play a number of games in Croke Park and a trip to the Croke Park Museum. This initiative, which was spearheaded by former Connacht GAA Games Manager, John Tobin, first took place eleven years ago and has been an outstanding success and so far. Over the eleven years, all the clubs in the province have had the opportunity of experiencing Croke Park. Clubs are selected on a rota basis and clubs get to participate every 4/5 years.

The club Go Games program has now commenced in each of the counties. The programmes for each county are outlined below and these happen in numerous venues across the counties on these dates. Please contact your club coaching officer to get more information about your clubs’ blitz programme.

Roscommon 2019 Go Games Blitz Dates

Hurling blitz dates – May 11^th, June 1^st, June 22^nd, July 13^th, August 3^rd & August 24^th.

Football U- 8 blitz dates – May 18^th, June 8^th, June 29^th, July 20^th & August 10^th.

Football U- 10 blitz dates -May 25^th, June 15^th, July 6^th, July 27^th, August 17^th.

County Football large Go Games Blitz day on August 31^st.

County Hurling large Go games Blitz day on September 7th

Galway 2019 Go Games Blitz Dates

All blitz`s start on April 28^th and every second weekend thereafter for hurling and football

Hurling Dates – April 28^th,May 11^th, May 25^th, June 8^th, June 22^nd, July 6^th, July 20^th and August 3^rd.

Football Dates May 4^th. May 18^th June 1^st, June 15^th June 29^th, July 13^th and July 27^th.

Leitrim 2019 Go Games Blitz Dates

Football Under 9s blitz dates – April 13^th, April 27^th May 11^th, June 1^st, July 13^th, July 27^th, August 10^th, September 14^th, September 28th & October 12^th.

Football Under 11s blitz dates – April 20^th, May 4^th, May 25^th, June 8^th, July 20^th, August 3^rd, September 7^th, September 21^st, October 5^th & October 19^th

Sligo 2019 Go Games Blitz Dates

Football U8 & 10s Divisional blitz’s take place on April 10^th, June 5^th & September 22^nd

Football U8 & 10s Round 1 ,2, 3, 4,5, & 6 in league format take place on April 24^th, May 8^th, May 15^th, June 12^th, June 26th & September 4^th.

Football U8 Scarden blitz day July 10^th

Football U10 Scarden blitz day July 17th

U8 & 10s urban leagues take place on August 28^th, September 11^th, September 18^th & September 25^th

Hurling Dates

U8 & 10s Round 1 ,2, 3 & 4 in league format take place on May 22nd June 19th July 24th August 28th

Scarden blitz day take place on May 29^th & August 14^th

Divisional Blitz days take place on May 1^st & July 3^rd

Mayo 2019 Blitz Dates

Under 8s blitz dates – May 11^th, May 25^th, June 6^th, June 22^nd and July 13^th.

Under 9s blitz dates – August 17^th, August 24^th, August 31^st, September 7^th, September 14^th & September 21^st.

Under 10s blitz dates – May 4^th, May 18^th, June 1^st, June 15^th, July 6^th July 20^th and July 27^th.

Under 11s blitz dates – August 17^th, August 24^th, August 31^st, September 7^th, September 14^th & September 21^st.

Youth

Connacht GAA hosted this year’s National Football Féile na nÓg on June 28^th,29^th & 30^th. This was the biggest Féile ever staged in the competitions history and has been a huge undertaking by the province. There were 851 games, with 179 connacht teams and 358 teams having taken part over the weekend. The following link will bring you to all results from the weekend.

https://connachtgaa.ie/news/feile-na-nog-2019-draws-huge-crowds-across-connacht/

DCIM100MEDIADJI_0006.JPG

The National Hurling Féile took taking place in Cork on June 7^th, 8^th and 9^th. There was 13 Connacht teams having taken part over the weekend. Well done to all that participated. The following are the clubs who took part from across the province Turloughmore, Liam Mellows, Cois Farraige, Michael Breathnach`s, Four Roads, St Dominic`s, Padraig Pearse’s, Westport, Claremorris, Castlebar, Coolera Strandhill, Benbulben Gaels and Leitrim Carrick Hurling Club. On the weekend Turloughmore won the Division 1 Final with Michael Breathnach`s winning the Division 10 Final. Four Roads were beaten in the Dicision 5 Final, with St Dominic’s winning the Shield Final in Division 10. Liam Mellows and Cois Farraige were beaten semi-finalists. Full list of winners can be viewed in the link.

https://connachtgaa.ie/news/full-list-of-cup-and-shield-winners-from-hurling-feile-2019/

Provincial Club Hurling Feile is scheduled for July 6^th. The full fixture list for this weekend can be viewed in this link:

https://connachtgaa.ie/news/connacht-hurling-feile-takes-place-this-weekend-full-fixture-list/

Schools Initiative

September 2018 saw the launch of the GAA`s new 5-star centres in our primary schools around the country. Across the province there were 70 national schools that started this initiative with 44 schools meeting the criteria to receive their 5 Star centre flag. In these schools there were 5,595 pupils involved. These pupils throughout the year accumulated a total of 141,746 hours of physical activity through the Have a Ball Programme, Fun and Run, Hurl It/Catch and Kick, Go Games & Go Games Skills Challenges programmes. These flags have been raised in every county over the past few weeks bringing great excitement to the schools involved. For the most part the schools have really embraced the initiative and it is working well. This as a very important project for the Association going forward and it would be hugely beneficial for clubs to harness the positive energy this project has generated in their local national schools and help them where necessary. The application process for September 2019 is now open and more details can be found on www.learning.gaa.ie/5star

In order to be presented with a 5 Star Flag, schools must participate in all of the 5 initiatives for a minimum of 1 hour per week and over a period of 26 weeks.

In 2019 through Connacht GAA`s Primary Schools Coaching Programmes across the 5 Connacht counties, 5,844 Coaching Sessions were conducted in total across 437 Primary Schools, with 29,083 pupils (15,823 boys & 12,080 girls) participating. This equates to 46% of all Primary School children in Connacht participating in these programmes. 227 Primary Schools participated in 8 or more coaching sessions.

In the past two months the Connacht GAA Centre has hosted a number of National Schools Activity Days for over 500 primary school children from across the province. These days have been a huge success over the last 5 years and have grown in popularity amongst both teachers and students. On the day the children get to take part in a variety of activities including Football and Hurling mini games, skills challenges, obstacle courses & orienteering. These days offer us the chance to promote our games to our youngest players and also forge strong links with our primary schools across the province.

The introduction of the Future Leaders Programme has been a very positive development in the secondary school sector for the association. This initiative was well documented in the previous newsletter. The 47 secondary schools across the province taking part in the initiative have now completed all their activities and the number of schools taking part in the initiative will increase for next year. We would encourage clubs who have students who have just completed this initiative to link in with the students and ensure they are included in the local club in some capacity given the skills they are after developing in areas such as Coaching of Hurling/Football, Refereeing, Administration, Sports Journalism, Analysis, Nutrition, Wellbeing and Event Management. In Connacht there were approximately 2,300 transition year students involved across the 47 schools. These students organised Super Games Events for 3,100 other students to play in. They also ran Go Games Blitzes with 1,880 children involved & Fun and Run events with 60 participants.

Cúl Camps

On publication of this newsletter our Cúl Camps programme is starting across the country on Monday July 1^st. There are already 13,270 kids booked online in Connacht in 180 camps representing a 23.9% increase from the same date last year. In 2018 Connacht hosted 171 Cúl Camps across the 5 counties with a record of 22,859 boys and girls participating in Camps during the months of July and August. All camps around the province are now capped so online booking is recommended to guarantee a place. One of the ongoing strengths of the camp is the outstanding value compared to similar sporting camps it represents given the activities & gear provided for participants, which for €60 represents outstanding value.

Planning for this year’s camps have been in full flow over the past few months including camp mentor training, coach recruitment, coach education, gear allocation, venue co-ordination, web development and website training.

The camps provide employment for many people across the summer months with there being 472 coaches employed across Connacht for the duration of the camps. These coaches also receive coach education, garda vetting clearance and child safeguarding upskilling to participate in the camp.

For more detailed information please visit the Cúl camp website at www.kelloggsculcamps.gaa.ie

Academies/Development Squads

Our County academy/development squads are in the middle of their seasons across the province with counties at various stages depending on the age grade.

The U17 Hurling Celtic Challenge squads have just completed their games with the final’s day taking place on Saturday 29th June in BNM O’Connor Park, Tullamore. The results of the finals are listed below:

11.30 Longford 1-5 Leitrim 3-21

13.10 Dublin Clarke 3-15 v Kerry 5-16

14.40 Derry 2-13 Galway Tribesmen 2-11

16.20 Galway Maroon 4-24 v North Cork 2-12

18.00 Antrim 1-15 v Kildare Cadets 0-14

19.30 Limerick Sarsfields: 2-8 Roscommon: 1-14

All competition fixtures, results, group standings and best and fairest awards can be found on the following link. https://www.gaa.ie/celticchallenge/

All Football U17 squads have completed the round robin stages of the U-17 competition with results below:

Round 1 – Mayo 1-20 Leitrim 0-6, Roscommon 1-17 Galway 1-15

Round 2 – Mayo 4-14 Roscommon 0-5, Galway 0-15 Sligo 1-10

Round 3 – Roscommon 5-15 Leitrim 0-8, Sligo 0-16 Mayo 0-12

Round 4 – Leitrim 1-9 Sligo 1-21, Mayo 0-11 Galway 2-12

Round 5 – Sligo 2-15 v Roscommon 4-7, Galway 5-25 v Leitrim 1-04

Semi Final: Sligo 1-10 vs Mayo 5-7

Final – Galway vs Mayo on July 5^th in Tuam Stadium at 7:30pm

There have been 5 dates set nationally for both football and hurling at U14, 15 & 16 level.

The National Academy Hurling Dates are taking place on May 11^th, June 22^nd, July 20^th, August 10^th, and August 31^st. The Connacht Academy Féile, Niall McInerney, Connolly/Cunniffe (U 13) and National U15 Hibernia Cup will take place within these national dates. Please follow the county coaching twitter pages for updates of individually academy hurling fixtures (Please see last page).

National Academy Football Dates are taking place on April 24^th, May 25^th, June 6^th, July 27^th, and August 17^th. Sean Purcell U-14 blitz days are on May 25^th & August 17^th. The Dermot Earley U15 blitz days take place on May 18^th and August 10^th while the Ted Webb Cup U16 takes place on August 15^th, 24^th and 30^th. Please follow the county coaching twitter pages for updates of individually academy hurling fixtures.

The Connacht GAA Dermot Earley U-15 Academy Blitz Day 1 involved a total of 10 teams representing the 5 provincial Counties while the Connacht GAA Sean Purcell Academy Blitz Day 1 took place on May 25^th which involved a total of 12 teams representing the 5 provincial Counties. Both days seen some great football on view and we are looking forward to the next events on August 10^th and 17^th.

Learning and Development

The majority of Learning and Development courses take place in the first quarter of the year with the number of courses delivered been explained in great detail in 2019 Quarter 1 report which can be viewed on the following link https://connachtgaa.ie/news/connacht-gaa-coaching-and-games-quarterly-report-january-march/

The Provincial Club Support Programme which was also explained in great detail in the quarter 1 report has now finished with 34 of the original 36 clubs having completed the initiative. Each Club that is accepted on the programme may avail of a grant to the value of €1,000.

Below are the clubs who participated in the program in 2019

Sligo	Leitrim	Mayo	Roscommon	Galway Football	Galway Hurling
Owenmore Gaels	Leitrim Gaels	Bohola Moy Davitts	St Croans	Annaghdown	Annaghdown
Tubbercurry	Dromahair	Swinford	St Ciarans	Caltra	Cappattage
Drumcliffe/Rosses Point	Drumkeerin	Eastern Gales	Four Roads	St Gabriels	Portumna
Calry/St Josephs	Glenfarne Kiltyclogher	Shrule Glencorrib		Cortoon Shamrocks	Tommy Larkins
Enniscrone/Kilglass	St Josephs	Burrishoole		Milltown	Rahoon
		Islaneady		Carna Cashel	Ballindereen
		Kilmeena		An Fhairce
		Castlebar Mitchels HC

Contact Information and Social Media Accounts

Each county has their own unique coaching and games Twitter accounts, and following these accounts is an excellent way of keeping abreast of all the latest news and information about what’s going on in your county. These are the handles to follow:

Galway – @CoachingGalway

Leitrim – @LeitrimG

Sligo – SligoGAACandG

Mayo – MayoGAACoaching

Roscommon – RosCoachingGAA

Connacht – ConnachtGAA

Provincial Games Manager: Cathal Cregg

Email: cathal.cregg.connacht@gaa.ie

Contact Number: (094) 9630335

Connacht GAA Hurling Director Damien Coleman

Email: Damien.coleman.connacht@gaa.ie

Galway Games Manager: Tom McManus