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Juvenile News
2016 Coiste na nÓg Secretary’s Report
Partial Extract of Report issued to Clubs.
The full report available at https://dublingaa.ie/juvenile/other-downloads
The following people served on committees in 2016
Bord na nÓg (County Youth Management Committee)
CCC1 (County Youth Competitions Control Committee One)
CCC2(County Youth Competitions Control Committee Two)
Coiste Eisteachta na nÓg (County Youth Hearings Committee)
Tuarascáil An Rúnaí
INTRODUCTION
Our short term goal continues to be to maximise participation levels in the playing of hurling and football. Our long term goal is to retain as many players staying and playing with their GAA Club as they move to Minor and Adult level. We hope to achieve this through participation for our young players which is enjoyable and fulfilling for them. The principle of competition according to ability is built in-to our games programme from the initial Go Games format to our older age grade divisional leagues. A look at the 2016 Juvenile Roll of Honour later in this report demonstrates another core aim of sport, for players and teams to strive to fulfil their potential and be the best they can.
The bedrock of our juvenile games programme is the regular, meaningful games programme reflected in our Juvenile Master Fixtures Calendar. I’m also happy to say we as a County don’t prioritise one code over the other.
“If you worked it out per head of population, there’s not a massive difference between what Dublin get and what other counties get. The critical thing that’s missed in terms of Dublin is that there’s a huge input from the clubs into the coaching schemes in Dublin. They cover 50 per cent of the costs." The words of Leinster GAA chairman John Horan , a member of Na Fianna , who is running for the GAA presidency early next year and hoping to be the first Dublin representative in over 60 years on Dublin’s allocation of development funds from Croke Park.
Dublin GAA has worked hard to create a competitive culture for our clubs in the promotion of Gaelic Games in a very competitive environment with so much choice of other outdoor activities available to our young children within the County.
“The intelligent thing that Dublin GAA did is invest in people. And that’s what they are doing. There is very little capital investment going on in Dublin clubs at the moment. The county board, with that funding, matches it on parity – there’s a 50:50 split. The bedrock of the association is volunteerism. I was out with my young fella, the under-eights and the games promotion officer was there." Jim Gavin giving an interview earlier this year. “He was co-ordinating five coaches with the 20 kids that were there. Myself and the other guys were all volunteering our time – you need someone to co-ordinate it"
There is strong sense of togetherness, of everyone being in it for the right reasons.
CCC1 Go Games Programme (U8 to U12)
OurUnder 8 to Under 12 activity is a good measure of activity levels over a period of time as all games are played on a Saturday morning. While Football has seen a very favourable increase of +3.9% versus last year,Hurling has seen a +8.1% growth in 2016.So for every 100 children who play Football , 86 played Hurling in 2016 ( equivalent past ratio’s82% in 2013, 67% in 2010 , 64.5% in 2008).
The U11 & U12 Football age groups commenced on Saturday February 6th with the U8, U9 & U10s starting on Saturday February 13th.The Hurling season began for all age groups on Saturday February 20th. CCC1 has issued over 10,000 Go Games fixtures this year.
Cathaoirleach CCC1, Anne O Dea, has more information on the CCC1 season later in this report.
CCC2 Programme (U13 to U16)
In 2016 the season commenced weekending January 31st for U15 & U16 Football and one week later for U13 & U14 Football. The full program of Hurling started on Saturday February 27th. CCC2 has run 114 competitions and issuedover 3,600 fixtures this year.
All our competitions have been completed. Once again this year we lost no weekend to the weather. We even managed with scheduling assistance from CCC1 to play our games on the Saturday of the All Ireland Senior Football Replay.
Congratulations to Castleknock on continuing the recent Dublin trend of not only winning our Féile Peil Division One title but subsequently going on to win the All Ireland Final in Kerry.
I would like to thank John Larkin, the Chairperson of CCC2, for the huge amount of work he does on a daily basis for this committee. Also you can’t underestimate the time put in by Derek Doran replacing Referees for weekend games from Thursday afternoon onwards. With so many competitions and fixtures I have to say it is very satisfying to have had such positive feedback to how CCC2 is run and organized based on the feedback in the recent CCC2 survey.
Please make sure you read, Cathaoirleach CCC2, John Larkin’s, very detailed review of the season later in this report.
What makes aGoodCoach
More importantly for our juvenile coaches, what concepts / approaches can help you as you start out on the road and which you can build on over the years.
Please make sure you check out the Dublin Coaching and Games Development website at www.dublingaagamesdevelopment.iewhich is full of training drills and other resources. Also the GAA Learning & Development Community Portal has been developed to provide better access to development resources to those actively promoting Gaelic Games. @GAAlearninglearning.gaa.ie. Check out @andygrantfcfor the above excellent tips.
CCC2 Survey Feedback
We are lucky in Dublin to have Juvenile Committees who take the view “ If it ain’t broke , fix it and make it better “.We are constantly looking for the need for change, have we the right structures in place and are always willing to organise things differently.
In October 2015, Bord na nÓg / CCC2 indicated they would initiate a full review of the CCC2 games programme in 2016. This full review has been put on hold due to the Minor Games Review committee set up by County Management to review the implications of moving the Inter-County Minor grade to U17 from the 2018 season. Notwithstanding this, CCC2 felt there was a need on a more selective basis for feedback from Clubs on the CCC2 games programme and a survey was issued.
While there has been a significant increase in participation over the last seven years at Go Games the challenge is maintaining these figures into CCC2.I would like to thank County Games Manager, Ger O’Connor, who collated the data and produced a final report.
Below are the Recommendations some of which have been factored in the recent circulated Draft Master Fixture Schedule Calendar for the 2017 Season.
Amend CCC2 League Regulations covering the playing of scheduled games in the months of June / July/ August to read “All fixtures must be played on or in advance of the scheduled date.However, scheduled games for the months of June, July and August, with agreement of BOTH teams, may be played on any date in advance or within TEN DAYS AFTER the scheduled fixture date. Eg (i) Fixture scheduled for Tuesday June 27th may be played any time prior to June 27th but must be played byFriday July 7th.. (ii) Game scheduled for Saturday August 26th may be played any time prior to this date but must be played by Tuesday September 5th at the latest
A list of Players must be submitted to the Referee for each CCC2 Fixture. The list must contain the GAA Registration Number for each player. Failure to supply the Referee which this information will at the discretion of CCC2 result in the forfeiture of the league points by the club failing to supply this information.
A League title will be awarded to highest placed team and therefore League Finals will be removed from the Calendar. CCC2 will retain to right to have League Finals in certain Leagues in order to maximise the number of games provided for by the Master Fixture Calendar. The removal of Finals will ease the need to schedule summer fixtures and will prolong the playing of league games for all teams. n.b. “Head to Head” results and “Score Difference” under Rule can’t apply to under 16 or younger age grade competitions.
All U15 Championships will commence post the Junior Certificate examinations. The feedback from Clubs was that the initiative this year ( to commence Championships prior to exams in order to lengthen the U15 leagues season) was not supported by 67% of Clubs and will be removed.
In order to prolong the “Féile experience” the rest period between Saturday morning group games to be increased.All Féile semi-finals to be completed on the Saturday afternoon.
"Oh, I don't do that". A Message for (some) of our Parents
We all want parents involved but in the right capacity.
Please read the below from a child's perspective:
The best adviceis simply to say to your child "I Love Watching You Play "
Referee Training
Through the years we have developed our “Referee Pathway” and each year we seek to improve and develop it.
This year Entrance Exams have been carried out online giving the tutors more time to concentrate on giving the participants as much time and knowledge as possible.We have also introduced payment on line via Paypal which is proving to be extremely efficient.
Another new development is that the practical session is now carried out on a Saturday to give the newly qualified referees experience of official fixtures.
Another important aspect we have introduced is that anyone taking part in the courses who is aged 16 or over should apply for EVetting when registering for the course.Those who have not yet reached 16 should do so on or immediately after their 16th Birthday.
The “Referee Pathway” is proving to be very fruitful and it is great to see one of our Referees come through from starting off with the U8s in his club to being on the current Leinster Council referee panel.
During 2016 the numbers of referees qualified at each level are:
Level 1 courses will start again in January with 276 participants registered.Level 2 and 3 will recommence in September 2017.
Thanks go to Ger O’Connor for developing the “Referee Pathway” and to all our tutors, Danny Harrington, Derek Doran, Philip Carr and Kevin Donohoe. This whole programme continues to develop and be run under the guidance and administration of Kathleen McPoland from start to finish.
A huge thank you also to all the clubs Referee Co-Ordinators who give so freely of their time, whilst probably mentoring club teams also.It is a time consuming job but well worth it to see the positive results we get.
To the clubs who act as hosts every year – thank you – without your venues we would not be able to hold so many courses.
Discipline
This year almost 14,000 fixtures have been set by CCC1 & CCC2. All U12 to U16 games are competitive and over 175 such competitions existed this year. However, it’s disappointing to report disciplinary issues around our U8 to U11 non-competitive fixtures.
As I write this report 5 Referee Reports still not fully processed. Nearly 250 disciplinary notices issued this year. Another 16 warnings issued to clubs including requests for club officers to try and "sort out" underlining tensions. While rivalry can be / is good, Clubs have to realise some of their mentors / supporters groups are likely to meet the opposition on a regular basis in the coming years.
The game statistics at the start of this section of my report gives you some context. Yes, our Juvenile players do get sent off, 85% receive the automatic one match suspension, only a small number commit more serious infractions. Most of my work in this area revolves around working with CCC1 & CCC2 and the relevant Clubs in dealing with Adult misbehaviour (Mentors & Supporters).
Everybody is entitled to due process. CCC1 & CCC2 follow the established disciplinary procedures in a fair manner. When proposing disciplinary actions both CCCs when called upon at any hearing are not interested in " winning " or " losing" but at all times trying to get the right answer to what happened at the original incident.
This year we had one appeal which went to the Leinster Council and one DRA case. In both cases the initial position taken by CCC2 was upheld by the County Hearings Committee and by the subsequent appeal bodies.
To conclude and in order to avoid any confusion I ask you to make sure your mentors know that if a player receives a Straight Red Card in a match for a playing infraction , he is , as a minimum, automatically suspended for the next game in that competition. If in doubt always contact me for clarification. I do believe we have some mentors who think " ah sure the Referee mightn't report it " . This year we had two players who played while under suspension. While CCC2 fully accept in both instances the mentors simply thought they would be notified, awaited word of the suspension and played the players. CCC2 had no choice but to suspend the players.
A total of 158 Red Cards issued ( +42 v’s C’15) of which 4 are for CCC1 Football , 2 CCC1 Hurling, 88 CCC2 Football and 64 CCC2 Hurling.
While the Black Card only applies to Football, it was again decided the Black Card would not be used for Go Games fixtures, so the 112 Black Cards issued ( +41 v’s C’15) relate to CCC2 Football. In addition a total of 65 ( +14 v C'15)Double Yellow carded players leading to a Red Card were issued.
45 Disciplinary Notices ( -38 v’s C’15 & -4 v C'14 ) have been issued to Clubs, Mentors and Supportersconcerning inappropriate conduct by Team Officials and Partisans' ( 4 of the 44 relate to CCC1). A further 16 warningshave been issued to clubs drawing attention to inappropriate behaviourasCCC1 & CCC2 felt going down the disciplinary route was not the best way to deal with the matters brought to its attention.
Out of the 228 Disciplinary Notices issued, Clubs requested 11 Hearings.
Fines of €1,750 have been issued with a further € 2,950 placed in Bond of which €250 called in. Clubs who have not paid will be contacted and all outstanding monies must be paid before the start of the 2017 season
Conclusion
I continue to be amazed by the time and effort put in by so many individual club members throughout the County on juvenile affairs.
It continues to be a pleasure to deal with the officers of Bord na nÓg, CCC1, CCC2, Juvenile Hearings committee and the County Hearings committee. We are very fortunate to have both Anne O’Dea and John Larkin as the respective Cathaoirligh of both CCC1 and CCC2.
I wish to thank Mike Hanley (Lucan Sarsfields) outgoing Leas Cathaoirleach CCC2 who will not be going forward next year as a CCC2 Officer. Mike’s behind the scenes contribution in recent years to CCC2 affairs has been immense. I also wish to thank Ken O’Sullivan (Cuala) who this year will complete his five years as Cathaoirleach Coiste na nÓg. Ken has given many years service to juvenile affairs for both Club and County. For my part Ken has always been available when needed to give wise and practical advice. I’m sure and hope both Mike and Ken’s break from Dublin GAA matters is very short indeed.
I would like to thank all my work colleagues in Parnell Park, in particular County Secretary, John Costello. To Patsy Kieran, Noel Brady and all the ground stewardswho assist with our juvenile days in Parnell Park. To our County Chairman, Sean Shanley , for his support of juvenile games. A special thanks to Kathleen McPoland for her continued help, guidance and assistance throughout the year.
Finally thanks to all club official, delegates, mentors, referees and parents for their support in 2016 and I look forward to all of us collectively making sure all our young players, regardless of their level of ability, are provided with the opportunity to play Hurling and Football.
Damian Ó Murchú
Rúnaí
Coiste na nÓg
