Friday 1.10 pm.
People are becoming aware that we have now set up a facebook page. Mark O’D. is at the forefront of this, with me fein in a learning role. So short/late club messages will be posted there with the main body of material going to the blog here Sunday night/Monday morning. They will be linked of course. I hope that is ok. Hopefully it will become interactive and a decent service especially for the growing ‘Diaspora’. Actually I got a nice note from a former Boyle GAA person now abroad who thanked the Blog and realboyle for re-connecting him with Boyle and Boyle GAA after a good few years being disconnected. That is the positive objective.
Good luck to Roscommon on Sunday. It's a make or break game now after the disappointing second half performance in Longford.
Has the O'Gara Cup/Intermediate League Fixture list become available? I am not an investigative journalist as such!
I am aware that a number of young people are laving for Oz shortly so good luck to them and keep safe. I am aware of a good response to the Blood Transfusion request. The bit of late publicity helps. Tomorrow night, Sat., the John B. Keane play ‘The Field’ is being staged in St. Joseph’s Hall. I am on LOTTO duty as a sub. So have sympathy and understanding for the team if you bump into them on tour. There are great prizes for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Overall €500; runner-up €300; in 3rd place €200; 4th place traditional and heritage €200; 5th prize junior (under 16) €200; 6th place runner-up €100; 7th prize best shop window €150. So that is a total of €1650 which is a very respectable sum.
Oh yeah, I’m unavailable for callers whose number is ‘unavailable’.

10.00 pm.
Boyle GAA now on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/BoyleGAAClub#!/BoyleGAAClub?sk=wall

*** See Ladies Club note below.

I have had a request for a programme from a good while ago……1973 in fact. Boyle lost out to St. Dominick’s in that year’s Intermediate Final. I have one from 1974 v Oran. I remember Freddie Daly having someone collecting material of his so if someone lets Freddie know maybe he’d have one. The 1974 team listed on that programme was: Gerry O’Dowd; Pat Clarke; Anthony Keenehan; Freddie Daly; John McDermott, Christy Dolan (Capt.); Gerry Carty; Sean Young; Seamie O’Dowd; Leo Doherty; Timmy O’Dowd; Jnr. Dooley; John Joe Carty; John Martin. Also on the panel were: Rory Ahern; John Keenehan; Sean Daly; James Dodd; Noel sheerin; Harry Casserly. That list is as per 1974 prog.
What I assume is the pic. of the 1973 team also has S. Purcell; Billy Hanmore, Noel McCole, National Irish Bank; Joe Tormey; Jimmy Dwyer, P.J. Henry, J.P.Hever. there were also two forestry workers Joe Lynch and ?Roche.
So if there is a programme surviving from 1973 I’d be very interested in hearing of it.
Boyle lost three County Finals in a row then. In 1972 v St. Patrick’s, Knockcroghery in Junior. In 1973 v St. Dominick’s (a combination of St. Patrick’s and Rahara), Intermediate despite being beaten in Junior in ’72! and also v Oran in 1974 Intermediate

*****Training for Boyle Ladies panel continues as usual on Wednesday and Friday evenings at 7pm. There was a very entertaining “A versus B challenge on Sunday at which in excess of thirty players participated. This bodes well for the upcoming season. The U16 girls get their season underway on Sunday when they play Western Gaels in Frenchpark at 3.30pm. All panel members are asked to assemble at the Abbey Park at 2.15 to travel to Frenchpark. Parents are asked to make themselves available to provide transport and support as usual****

12.30 am
The following were €20 winners at the most recent Club Lotto draw which was held in the Abbey Bar recently;- Gerry McCormack, Gerry McLoughlin, Sandra McCrann, Kevin and Maria Lavin, Sharon Conroy, Oliver O'Reilly, Sinead Cummins, Paula Kearns, Sean Kearns,and Anne Marie McHugh. The house prize was won by Jonathan Lyons. The jackpot wasn't won and it will be at €5,500 for this week's draw which will be held in the Patrick's Well. Team A- Aidan Lavin's team will be in charge.
All Club activity was postponed at the weekend, including our O'Gara Cup and U16 League games versus St Dominics, as a mark of respect to the Smith Family, on the death of Mrs Rita Smith, Carrick Road. The sympathy of the Club is extended to the family on Rita's passing.
Those postponed games will be re-scheduled. All Club members are asked to attend an important meeting of the Club on this Wednesday night in the Clubroom at 8.30pm. The meeting will discuss proposals for this year's fundraising projects.
Details of the Minor Club's presentation night [for 2011] will be announced shortly. The National Automation Limited minors will commence the defence of the Division 1 Minor League title when they take on Roscommon Gaels in Lisnamult on Friday night at 8pm.
The Cooney Motors/Cooney Centra Junior team will play St Joseph's in the Tansey Cup on Sunday next in The Abbey Park at 11.30am.[Is the schedule for the Intermediate O’Gara Cup available? T.C.]
[Roscommon put in a very poor second half performance to go down to a disappointing loss to Longford on Sunday. If it were not for the cushion of two early ‘caught them cold’ goals it could have been a bad finishing score- line. I don’t get the idea of holding play up to put in substitutes in the last two minutes or so of a game when the side is behind. While Roscommon got a four point (or was it five point lead?) there were only a handful of good performances from Roscommon and lot of erratic/untidy/ragged performances. Might I suggest that the height of the crossbar in Gaelic football is 2.5 m and the need to kick balls, for points, in such a fashion that they are a hazard to low flying aircraft just ‘does my head in’.

Tomorrow I hope to meet a former Boyle star who is paying a flying visit to Boyle i.e. Paddy Conlon.
I did meet Christine O’Callaghan in Boyle recently and she follows us here and I send my regards to her son John Tierney who is making waves in Sydney.
It was good to meet another former Boyle and Galway star, Joe Tormey, out and about in Boyle. Joe has been ill recently.
Well done to all involved in a major fundraiser in Kilronan Castle on Saturday night last. It was great night with a tremendous response.
I haven’t heard anything regarding a GAA entry for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade as yet.
Fair play to Rory McIlroy for becoming golf’s world number one on Sunday. His Danish girl friend, Caroline Wozniacki, was the number one tennis player until recently. So two number ones come together and they say opposites attract!
I will wind up here as I am getting, ‘ink needed’ alerts and it is too late to ring Aengus. T.C.]
The Club is putting the final touches to the establishment of facebook link, thanks to the efforts of Mark O'Donohoe. [While I (T.C.) am very weak at all these modern communications systems perhaps if you click on this link: link http://en-gb.facebook.com/BoyleGAAClub this should do the trick.
Go raibh maith agaibh
Martin Dolan/T.C./F.M.
P.R. Dept., Boyle GAA Club
086 2413529

1.30 am.

All in Boyle GAA Club sympathise with Michael (Jnr.) Smith and the Smith family on the death of Rita Smith, Carrick Road, Junior’s mother.

The Boyle GAA games, scheduled for this week end, Intermediate and U 16, both against St. Dominick’s, have been postponed

Thurs. 12.25 am. I had hoped, from the beginning, that this 'Blog' would have a good deal of other input i.e. from the broad Boyle GAA community. I've been told that this is because it is 'difficult' because of the 'blog' methodology. I heard at a seminar recently the equation; 'I didn't have time = it wasn't important enough'. Anway it is hoped to have a facebook link here shortly so perhaps that will be more input friendly.

Today I did get a considered input from a former distinguished Boyle player and I give it its due airing here.

I do not know if the treadmill can be adapted in an overall GAA context but I believe that it and other issues pose significant challenges for the organisation's future wellbeing. These include the money issues, competition from other games, the rise in popularity of disperate- almost individual- sports, the decline in supporter interest as we witness at say League games this season et al.

The GAA has faced challenges before but are today's more viral and intractable? Time of course will tell.

Here is today's post.

"Well T hope all is well,

I saw you made a comment recently about the increased frequency of training that GAA teams have being participating in, in recent years, and I came across the quote [at the bottom] below by Dr Niall Moyna, [now of D.C.U.], who has always leaned on the side of ‘less is more’ philosophy. Personally this is something I wholly agree with (for what that's worth!!). The difference with Moyna is that he is basing his methods on science as opposed to the hearsay comment of “well the Dubs won an All- Ireland from training at 6am twice a week so lads that's what we will do.....” It’s never the games that really injure players but the training . Lads may break down on the match day but it’s the final culmination of training overload (an opinion).

I remember word filtered through after Clare won the hurling in ’95 (I think) that Ger Loughnane had the squad running up a mountain..... and [other counties followed the rumoured tactics]. From there every club in the country latched onto the legend and so a cycle begins.

And it is a cycle that hasn’t being broken and I don’t think it will. The only thing that gets broken is the desire and hunger of players to play. I always compare player participation to a triangle. The base at U-12 is wide deep and long and the manager can hardly keep up with the numbers but as it moves towards the tip and passes narrowly along the way through U-16 and minor the numbers drop sharply off to a situation where it’s a struggle to field teams regularly during the season. The situation is never helped by league games beginning in Feb/March and the classic end of season game in December with the usual block drought in June/July because the county manager doesn’t want to get one of his lads injured.

So a shorter season plus a time table of club games organised by the county board with the direct emphasis placed on the welfare of the club player would be a massive step in the right direction.

Finally.....in Tyrone Mickey Harte allows county players to play a club championship game up to 1 week before major inter-county games and he also allows lads to train in small groups, close to where they live, in order to reduce travel times!!! Simple measures but hugely effective and look at how long most of those lads have stuck playing.

That really is far too much of a rant but maybe there is something in being able to vent thoughts and emotions through the keyboard!!!!!

Anyway chat soon".

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0227/1224312438602.html

Monday 5.00 pm. The minor game of this evening v Clann na Gael, away, has been postponed.

Monday 1.40 am. Boyle U16s get their Division 1 League campaign under way on Saturday next when they take on St Dominic’s in the Abbey Park at 4pm.
The National Automation Limited minors are in action under lights on Monday night Feb. 27th in Johnstown against Clan na Gael in their opening Division 1 League game of the season.
The U14s have commenced training and this will continue on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7pm to 8pm. New players are welcome.
The McGovern Directional Drilling Intermediate team will commence their O'Gara Cup campaign against St Dominic’s on Saturday next in Knockcroghery at 3.30pm.
There will be an important Club meeting on this Wednesday at 8.30pm.
All Club members are encouraged to go along and donate blood at the Mobile Blood Transfusion Service when they visit St Joseph's Hall on the 7th of March.
Club jackets may be ordered from Chairperson Aidan Lavin at 087 2677865.
The Club needs volunteers to fill vacancies on some of the Club Lotto teams. It only involves a once in every ten weeks committment. Names should be given to Aidan Lavin. Members should remember that the Lotto is the lifeblood of the club so it is vital that it is maximised.
Congratulations to DCU and especially the Roscommon contingent of Neil Collins, David Keenan, Cathal Cregg and our own Donal Smith on winning the Sigerson Cup at the weekend. Congrats also to Paddy Nangle who was a member of the great 1962 Sigerson Cup winning U.C.G. team which provided the backbone of the famous Galway three-in-a-row team of the sixties. Paddy and the 1962 team were guests at a Sigerson dinner on Friday night. I wonder how many Sigerson winners played with and have been associated with Boyle. Donal Smith is the latest obviously. Tom Ryan, John Kelly are the other two who spring to mind. I seem to remember Niall O’Donohoe playing with Sligo I.T. but I don’t think he won a Sigerson medal. I ask these questions here to fill out the record base but the responses are sparse.
Good luck to Seanie and the Roscommon seniors in next Sunday's League game versus Longford.
The sympathy of the Club is extended to the Garvin family on the death of their aunt Beatrice Toolan.
Regards to the Diaspora. I see two Canadian provinces recruiting actively in Dublin this week for workers especially from the construction sector.
Boyle Ladies Club;
Registration for U10s, U12s and U14s will be held in the Clubroom on this Wednesday from 6pm to 8pm. It is essential that all players are fully registered as otherwise they cannot be allowed to play. Registration fee is €40 per person and €70 where there are two members from the same family.The Ladies Club extends its congratulations to playing member Catriona Leonard and to Neil on the birth of their baby daughter.
Go raibh maith agaibh,
Martin Dolan/T.C./F.M.
P.R.O. Dept. Boyle GAA Club
086 2413529

Sat. 11 pm. I am now told that Fermanagh are not 'travelling' and that Ros. U 21 will be an 'A' v 'B' game. Apologies to all who had reschudeled their Sunday.

SAt. 9 pm.Roscommon will play Fermanagh in the Abbey Park at 1 pm on tomorrow Sunday the 26th in a U 21 challenge.
BOYLE GAA CLUB - UNDER 8’S REGISTRATION EVENING.
Registration Evening for all boys under 8 years who wish to play football for Boyle will take place in the Sports Complex on: Monday evening, 05th March 2012 at 6.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. Each child must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. First time Registrations must present: Original Birth Certificate (Long Version).
Registration is continuing for all players Under 12, 14, 16 and Minors prior to training.
Well done to Donal Smith the winner of a Sigerson medal today Saturday, as a member of the D.C.U. panel, who were convincing winners, in the final, over Maynooth in Pearse Stadium, Galway on Sat. Well done, also, to fellow Roscommon members, David Keenan, Neil Collins, Cathal Cregg, Ciaran Cafferky and Colin Compton also of D.C.U. Collins and Keenan, as the two who were starters on both days, were very impressive on a very strong team. It is obvious that the strong Roscommon representation will continue in the coming years at D.C.U. Congratulations also to Paddy Nangle who was part of the winning U.C.G.1962 team who were honoured at a very enjoyable function in the Radisson Hotel, Galway, on Friday night. Sigerson is a special tournament.