The club's decision to invest significant funds into our brand new gym facility has already proven a huge success. 

Under the expert supervision of S&C coaches Tony Duggan, Pádraig Kelly and Pádraig Griffin our teams began their winter training program on the 7th November 2024. This Athletic Development Program ran for six weeks and introduced the boys to a range of new movements and strength exercises. The sessions were expertly ran by the three qualified coaches and great help was provided by club coaches and many parents. 

Education was the aim of the program and the lads learned everything from, the language surrounding strength and conditioning, to a wide range of new exercises, to the ability to be able to read a S&C session from a screen and carry out the different movements. In fact, one of the most pleasing aspects of the whole program was the amount the players learned from the whole experience. After a few weeks, each player was able to read the screen with the program on it and carry out the exercises with very little direction from the coaches. The pre-Christmas sessions lasted 6 weeks in total. The sessions were very well attended by all the age groups and coaches were delighted with the progress of the players over the 6weeks.

The success of the first block of training gave the coaches and players a massive appetite to begin block 2 after the Christmas break. Block two began on Thursday the 16th of January and it was immediately noticeable how confident the players now were in the gym, compared to the first block. The improvement in the flexibility, movement range and strength of the players was evident and block two pushed the boys to new heights. The S&C program challenged the players in many different ways. For many, it was their first taste of what a gym program contains and after the initial learning period, players became more and more confident and by the end of the second block each team had made massive progress.

It has been great to see so many of the boys and girls underage teams using the gym over the winter period in preparation for the upcoming Gaelic football season. Long may this continue.

The new club gym would not have been possible without the huge commitment to fundraising in our club. With each euro we raise we endeavour to put it back into the club and most importantly into developing our players. Each time you support a fundraiser in our club you are supporting the grass roots of our club. The future of our club is being laid on solid foundations. We have outstanding facilities, which will be improving all the time, we have dedicated, top class coaches involved in all our teams and we have a fantastic group of volunteers which look after every aspect of the club. As always, we would like to extend an invitation to anyone who wants to get involved in any aspect of our club to contact the club chairman, myself or any members of the committee. You won't regret it.

Ní neart go cur le chéile.

Declan Quill

Coaching Officer.