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We have a bar in our rural club that has beaten all the odds and is still on the go after more than 20 years. It takes a mix of paid and voluntary staff to keep it going. It is not a big money spinner, but it provides a positive social aspect to our club.

The only down side at the moment would be a recent spat of anti social behaviour coming from our "own" people!! We are considering getting new doors installed.


With this in mind we are drawing up a set up bar rules and code of conduct! Do any of you out there have these already that you would be willing to show? Just to provide a template to start from?

Link here to last night's piece on off the ball with Moyles and Brennan

https://soundcloud.com/offtheball/the-movement-for-a-gaelic-club-players-association

Still can't find their facebook page!!

We have a Brian Cody for the serious side but would like a second speaker more for the craic. Wouldn't necessarily need to be Gaa personality, just sports personality !
Have had Joe Brolly before (club member) so maybe give him the nite off to let his hair down 😜

Well if Joe is a club member then he is the first to ask! Simonstown Gaels celebrated their 50 years in 2015 and held a legends night. Colm got a load of his Indo buddies in, including Joe. It was an excellent night. My favourite was Kimmage, but Joe was excellent. Colm being the local man was slightly reserved, but a well put together night and the MC was crucial, on that occasion it was another Simonstown man who writes for Independent news and media in the big shape of Colm Keyes. Basically, I'm saying, ask Joe about the Simonstown gig

Great player and a great man. Sorry to see it, but as mentioned plenty still to give in the Cross jersey

The Fog of War as linked above is a good watch.

I enjoyed *cough*cough* watching this one about the Major Fraud on Who Wants to be a Millionaire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeR4jS_IO7Y

Plenty of full episodes of the Nat Geo "Aircrash Investigations" full episodes on You Tube. The famous Gimli Glider is a good win with a happy ending!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRAQAzey4w

Delegates at the Fermanagh GAA County Convention have passed a resolution in support of Sean Quinn and his family.

Sean Quinn was sentenced to nine weeks in jail last November for contempt of court, while his son has also served a prison sentence for failing to comply with court orders to stop putting international assets out of the reach of IBRC, formerly known as Anglo Irish Bank.

The statement read: "Sean Quinn and the Quinn Group has been a very generous supporter of the Fermanagh GAA family for a long time and his exceptional innovative skills have brought great benefits to all Fermanagh people.

"Delegates also expressed concern regarding the future of employment under the direction of the current management who now control the Quinn Group.

"Fermanagh GAA wishes to express their best wishes to Sean and his family at this time and hope that 2013 will bring a favourable conclusion for the Quinn family in their present difficulties."

Well Done Fermanagh CB    Bringing more shame on the GAA

Good man Hughie, you're welcome aboard 

I am staying well clear of that can of worms!

Good Call!

Louth's current PRO is excellent, I think that the senior final programme in Louth won an award last year, don't know if it was best in Leinster, or best in the country

I was at a good few finals last year and am doing plenty this year too. Best I've seen by far are what Ronan produces in Louth.

He's a top class PRO overall, although somebody should tell the Louth Hearing's committe that they can't use his tweet's to overturn a refs report!

Louth's current PRO is excellent, I think that the senior final programme in Louth won an award last year, don't know if it was best in Leinster, or best in the country

Fair Play to you Joe

I've seen a couple of clubs now which are explicitly GFC, but most are still CLGs, which is why I was suprised all of these lads were from GFCs.

Look at the counties involved, I can't speak for Kildare or Kerry, but in Louth and Meath there are only a handful of hurling clubs. In Louth we only have a total of six hurling clubs as far as I'm aware and four of them are dual clubs. There would be a few more in Meath, but for size it would be a similar proportion. An example of the way it would work here is lads playing hurling for Kilmessan and playing football with Dunsany! So, bottom line, it's more the norm to be a CLP than a CLG in these parts.

As for the other sending off, a disgraceful decision. You are old enough Croi to remember a time when corner backs were real men and that if they got up to that kind of play acting they wouldn't need an opponent to lift them from the ground, as their own man would have already done it! Sad behaviour, that we would all be criticising the soccer crowd for if they got up to it and cowardly into the bargain. But ultimately a good referee would have given nothing more than a yellow.

LE, I hate play acting as much as the next man and while it may have looked innocuous his hand was in close proximity to his face and it only takes a graze around the eye to cause severe pain, remember the Gooch and McConnell in 05 (I think). That said the aul man beside me (a Westmeath man) said that Doran is always lying down at club games in the Park. It's not a trait I've noticed him at before in Westmeath games though, and I'd give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

I think a red for hauling someone up off the ground is justified though as there was an issue recently (think Monaghan were involved) where someone tried to haul an opposing player up when that player was actually injured. Not only does it look awful but it is usually an instigator for melees and there is the potential for inflicting serious injury on a player. It seems Louth are the first county to be caught out by this new directive (I presume there was a directive issued recently that hauling someone up is a straight red as I don't remember it getting that punishment before) and that is unfortunate for you. However I think it is a positive development.

I was impressed with the fight ye showed in the second half, especially Ray Finnegan, but I thought the physical bullying attitude ye came with was your undoing. If ye concentrated on the football ye probably would have sneaked it.

Anyways I'm sure we'll take up where we left off in the league again next year and hopefully ye (and us) are in a healthier state then.

I think that it's Clarke who should have got the benefit of the doubt here myself, I never had him down as a dirty player and can't remember him ever being one (ML would be more authorative about his former clubman). The bottom line here is Doran feigned injury and our man got gate!

I have seen plenty of physical and over physical Louth sides and maybe I wasn't paying attention but I didn't notice any excessive bullying from our lads on Saturday. There is so little between the two sides it was about time the balance tilted the other way

Both our counties league performances dramatically over exceeded our expectations this year, lets worry about doing it all over again in a few months, for now I'll enjoy the club and you can enjoy the visit of a half decent team 

For what its worth at this stage I'm going to put in my spake about the game!

Louth went into this on the back of five narrow wins in a row against Iarmhi, having lost 11 players to injury/emigration from their last outing, a crushing defeat and a manager in his sick bed (although some would argue this was a good thing), Westmeath eventually having home advantage in this tie, showing the last day that they were the better team, but beating themselves, Derek Fahy (Longford's finest since John Bannon!!) being appointed as ref. It was about time the Maroon and white got over the line and they ultimately deserved it on the night and I wish them well against the Kingdom, can they pull off a Longford or Sligo performance with the final punch?

The start to the game was awful, as low scoring as the earlier game in Ulster, except there was no blanket defences! The better of the football in this half was played by Louth but were guilty of kicking a few too many wides. I didn't see the incident with Brennan, but his act of taking the gloves of and walking to line showed that the bad judgement of his early days is still there! He basically gave the ref no option but to send him off. As for the other sending off, a disgraceful decision. You are old enough Croi to remember a time when corner backs were real men and that if they got up to that kind of play acting they wouldn't need an opponent to lift them from the ground, as their own man would have already done it! Sad behaviour, that we would all be criticising the soccer crowd for if they got up to it and cowardly into the bargain. But ultimately a good referee would have given nothing more than a yellow. For what it's worth, I thought he gave Louth a load of soft frees in the first quarter of the match, but is performance overall was terrible.

The Louth team deserve great credit for their courage and fight in the second half in the face of adversity. It took the home side no time to turn a two point deficit into a two point lead, but the only time that they effectively used the two man advantage was on the counterattack, when they broke at speed and in numbers that Louth simply couldn't cope with. It looked like Louth were going to pull it off until ironically Westmeath starting playing when they went down to 14! The move for the goal was clinical and a real killer, but the end scoreline is complete flattery.

With all the lads gone it was interesting to note that Cumiskey and his two All Ireland winning assistants plumbed for experience very much over youth! What does this say?

You might call Fitzer lucky, but like Banty he has an innate ability to self preserve! I do believe that both men have some sense (internally) of their own failings and compensate for this by putting in place what must be acknowledged as good back room teams. When you come under pressure you flip the team! Maybe I am giving more credit than is deserved, particularly if reports that Keenan was questioning him are true!

Best of Luck to Iarmhi against the Kingdom I hope we never see sight of Derek Fahy again, lets get on with the club football now.