Twenty five club mentors recently completed the new level 1 coaching course which comprised of eight modules covering all aspects of gaelic games coaching. This is a remarkable achievement for the club and should pay rich dividends in the future development of our young players as long term player development and retention was the central theme of the course. Gordon delivered six of the modules himself which again is a great achievement and we had guest slots from Paraic Mcdonald ( k crokes ) and a refereeing workshop from Danny Harrington.

Val Andrews was our guest speaker at the presentation and he gave us a remarkable insight into the life of a Senior Inter County manager the day after a bad defeat and shared his thoughts and philosophies on coaching with us. He congratulated all the coaches and asked them to drive on now with all their new knowledge and implement it on the training ground and not to revert to old ways. Niall Cooper ( regional development officer ) was also present and he commended the club on their forward thinking attitude to coaching and on the high number of coaches who completed the course and wished them all well in the future.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the participants for their fantastic commitment to the course and their participation in the different modules both theory and practical. We would ask all mentors to continue to up skill themselves going forward and we will provide regular new material to them as it comes on stream. Finally a huge thank you to Gordon for his delivery of the course which was as always of the highest standard.

John Lowndes