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What are peoples experiences and opinions on this?
I am one of the coaches of an U-8 team and would be happy for them to only start being somewhat concerned about winning by the time they are U-16. Until then, primary focus is on enjoyment and life's lessons and ensuring the kids are playing at a grade suitable to their level (i.e.: they are not getting hammered). I know my other mentors will not agree by the time we come to U-10.
The counter argument to my position is that for far too many things that kids do, its all about 'everyones the best' and 'lets all have fun'. The real world is of course different and there is a lot to be said for say Irish dancing where it is ultra competitive (under the main governing body at least) and you learn quickly that if you want something you have to bloody well work hard for it.

Do any of your clubs have policies on this ?!

I have been asked to help out with putting a bit of structure on the clubs pitch scheduling (i.e.: scheduling when the various teams train and play and on which pitches).... put a bit of structure on it and communication to all parties, etc, etc.

So, i'm writing to get a feel of how other clubs manage this and what 'tooling' they use ? I have a few ideas from other clubs experiences but just trying to get as broad a picture as possible before making some recommendations.

Interestingly, i haven't been able to find an app that would suit this .... e.g.: contains a calendar type schedule that can be viewed per day, week, etc, that can be filtered for a particular team, that can be administered & edited by a select number of people (say the secretaries of the various parts of the clubs - juvenile, ladies, senior, etc) but can be used with read-only rights by all club mentors who download it.

Cheers

As we all know, further debate on who will win the football All-Ireland is pointless. So its time to raise a glass to Donegal and highlight some amazing Donegal facts.....
- Daniel and Majella O'Donnell have confirmed they will have cups of tea on the stage in Letterkenny for the Donegal team when they bring Sam home (or should that be Donegal town, or is it Ballyshannon, or Bundoran ......... ?)
- Shay Given resigned from the Irish soccer team to ensure he would be available in the hope that Jim McGuinness would call him up as 3rd choice keeper
- Packie Bonner has offered to serve as kit man.
- A delegation of Killybegs fishermen have offered the Donegal county board a million euro if the players will come out fishing on a fleet of boats for a day between now and Christmas. All the fish in the sea will automatically jump into the ships nets cos they will know that resistance is futile and that the result is a foregone conclusion.
- A bunch of Bundoran surfers are to start a charity surf on the Friday before the game leaving Bundoran at 3pm and arriving in Dublin the following evening just in time for a Rory Gallagher tribute concert in college green that kicks off the celebrations the night before the game.
- Donegal county council will commence a large scale reclamation project whenever the celebrations have died down where they will reclaim Lough Swilly from the Sea and create 300 All-weather pitches to host Donegals 1st of 10 GAA centres of excellence. This will ensure domination for decades to come
- Pearse Doherty has confirmed he will start giving the proportion of his salary above the standard industrial wage to the Donegal team holiday fund rather than to the SF party. It is hoped that the €4 million fund required for a space trip for the panel can be raised within 30 minutes of the launch of the fund at the college green tribute concert.
Any others ?

Hi,
I need an idiots guide to creating a blu-ray dics.

To start with I obviously need to purchase a blu-ray burner - any recommendations ? I know i could use a DVD burner but the videos they would fit would not be long enough (plus no DVD burner on my laptop !).
I also need a software package to give the video a professional look.
Any recommendations on either front ?

Re laptop spec to run the software .... any minimal spec ? I have video file sizes of up to 3 GB.
My file formats are "VLC media file (.mts)" with corresponding CPI files, VPL and MPL file. These corresponding files are just a few Kb in size. Not sure if this is a factor in determining the type of burner or software bundle.

Cheers.

Feeling ill after reading this....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15255357

Anyone know whether i can get all free to air channels on a Sky box if i cancel my entire subscription ? and would Sky+ work ?

Anyone know how young kids would have to be to be let into Croke Park without a ticket ? I have a 2 year old that i will probably have to bring on Sunday - will she need a ticket (she wouldn't need a seat) ? And is it the same for box tickets ?

I see Sky Sports are broadcasting the Ireland v Italy match in HD next Saturday.
From what i can recall, this is the first match to ever be broadcast in HD from Croke Park.
BBC have yet to cover a rugby game from there in HD while i can't recall Sky ever covering a soccer (or Leinster v Munster last year) game in HD from there yet either.... am i right in this ?!?

I find it fierce frustrating that the fixtures committe can not sit down in advance of the draws to be made and cover al possibilities. For example, how difficult would it have been to come up with this schedule:

Kerry v Limerick - Sat Thurles 7pm
Kerry v Antrim - Sat Parnell Park 7pm
Kerry v Galway - Sat Limerick 7pm
Kerry v Kildare - Sat Thurles 7pm

Ros/Meath v Limerick - Sat 1st Ennis or Portlaoise 7pm
Ros/Meath v Antrim - Sat 1st Clones 7pm
Ros/Meath v Galway - Sat 1st Castlebar or Roscommon 7pm
Ros/Meath v Kildare - Sat 1st Portloaise 7pm

and so on for the rest of the possible scenarios.
Then as soon as the fixtuers are made the date/venue/time etc could be announced (as for example the FA cup on BBC)


Also, and a much bigger quibble for me at the moment .... why can they not announce now which provencial finalists will be playing on which days:
e.g.: Connact and Munster winners on Sat, Ulster on Sunday and Leinster on Monday  .... and whoever delayed qualifier is drawn against is moved to the following weekend.

If they are interested in maximising attendances from Mayo then we need to be playing on the Sat ..... all Dublin based Mayo folk would hang around for the match if it was on the Sat and then head west Sat evening for festivals etc on the bank holiday weekend (i know where i am from it is the busiest weekend of the year with everyone home). If we are on the Sunday, then a lot of the part time supporters will give the match a miss and head west instead for the full weekend.

Well Mayo lads, who is heading for New York for the game ?
Am heading out on the Friday morning from Dublin with Aer Lingus and coming back Tusday evening New York time. Staying in red Roof Inn on 6th Avenue. Whats the interest like ? many heading over from where you are from ? A lot more than i was expecting heading over from my corner of the county

I recently got the HD package from Sky and was disappointed to see that their broadcast of the game from Croker yesterday was not carried in HD.
So, was wondering if any sports event has been broadcast in HD from Croker. Ireland soccer matches on Sky have not been carried in HD as far as i am aware (next Wednesday game isn't anyway). Perhaps some of last years rugby games although i doubt it given that England were not playing in Croker last year and that they did not cover yesterdays game. The previous year - or did BBC do HD then ?
Anyway, if none have been broadcast in HD before now, then i presume the England match in a few weeks certainly will ?
And when can we loook forward to a GAA match in HD from Croker ?
Trying to make the most out of my new 46" Sony !!

A quote from Kevin Myers in the Indo a while back:

"I hate to criticise a multinational, because generally speaking I am a great fan of multinationals (they being the basis of our present prosperity) but I have to say that Shell has been scandalously remiss in not employing someone to bump off a few of these fellows."

He nearly got his wish today:

http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/aug2008/img_0345.jpg

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the protestors, this is crazy stuff - even more so when you consider that the machine in question is part of a huge excavation boat that is digging a trench to bury the pipe with the sand being placed into the boat and stored further out at sea until the pipe is laid.
I visited the area for the first time about 2 weeks ago - both sides of the Bay. I dare anyone who is happy to see Shell proceed to visit the area and not ask themselves a few question as to what the hell is going on there.
Shell to Sea website always an interesting read .... http://www.corribsos.com/

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/05/13/11014_gold-coast-news.html

The guy in question is Colm Kenny from Ballycastle - played with the Mayo minors in 1996. Terrible news. He had a brain clot removed and is being left in induced coma for around a week after which they will try to revive him. A man has been arrested by local police after being brought to the police by his father

Any updates on how the new batch of Irish lads are getting on in Aus ?
From trying to find out about Pearce Hanley, it seems he was selected as a reserve player (sub) for a pre-season friendly at the end of February. He hasn't played anything competitive yet but is out with a hamstring problem at the moment, albeit nearly ready to return. Is considered to be a good bit ahead of where Colm Begley was at similar stages into their careers .. impressive stuff
Any Carlow or Armagh men want to suss out re their lads ?

Edit: Re Dyas, found this comment:

"Some news on Dyas...

http://bigpondvideo.com/afl/43123 (remove spaces if required)

The official line from the Pies is he is ahead of Marty at the same time last year. As in his skills are better.

I would agree (from my limited viewing last v this year--training) with that, although i would say Marty read the game better at the same stage.

Having said that he looks pretty good close in & could be the inside mid we are looking for. More physically developed than Marty was & looks a real prospect."

Looking for advice...
Am thinking of buying this ... http://www.ibood.com/site/eu/ibood.php and sticking it in a kitchen cupboard in an kitchen island to where i have 4 ceiling speakers wired back to
I need another 'gadget' to get this working as obviously can't plug it in and there is AC to DC power to worry about or something like that so was thinking of something along the lines of http://www.powerstream.com/12-volt.htm

Any know if this power supply when plugged in will drive the car stereo ? If not, then what do i need ?
Need to act fast as the Ibood offer only lasts for the day

So where is Bertie going to sit in Croke Park this summer - surely the Hill .... or are all back benchers entitled to free seats in the Ard Comhairle section when their county are playing in Croke Park 

[when all benefits weighted out in comparison to the private sector then 70K the average salary in the public sector]

This line is in todays Sunday Indo re the size and rate of increase of the public sector:

the public pay bill next year will be €18bn, and the numbers of people working in the public sector will be 308,000, up from 260,000 this year.

I am completely flabbergasted at this. An increase of 48,000 in 52 weeks - how the f**k is this possible (rhetorical question) ? Are we as an electorate the most gullable shower of idjiots in the democratic world in that we believed all this crap about FF and the economy and particularly re how the economy was doing so well right up to the election when it is clear now that it was the staff numbers being added to the public sector that were keeping the economy ticking along - the spike in numbers providing a short term spike to the economy but providing a painful legacy that we in the private sector will be expected to service.
Everyone of those f**kers in government at the moment should be given 40 lashes. A Taoiseach who now is only concerned about ensuring his legacy is not destroyed at the Mahon tribunal, a tanaiste and finance minister who is ultimately responsible for the expansion of the public sector and a health minister who takes ultimate responsibility for nothing albeit that being because all FF back benchers and cabinet insist she is doing a great job (and have created the HSE as a smoke screen) cos they don't want to face the scenario where one of them would have to take it.

Rant almost over ...

If the next round of benchmarking gives the public sector even close to the rate of inflation then i would gladly take part in any protest march anywhere in the country. The average income in the public sector being 48K which when the benefits of early retirement and state pension are taken into account really comes in close to a figure of 70K (not my figures)  .......    when all benefits weighted out in comparison to the private sector then 70K the average salary in the public sector

Whats the opinion folks of the whole Irish health system ? I ask in the light of the ongoing tragic saga in Portlaoise. Who is taking responsibility for this ? Was the HSE just formed to cover the governments ass when issues like this arise ? You'd know from the tone of dear aul Bertie that he realises that the whole thing is a shambles that has taken place under his watch.
Does the idea of having 8 national centres of excellence for cancer care a good idea, reducing from the total figure of 35 ? It sounds good in theory to me albeit that it will cause a llot of extra difficulty in terms of extra commutes for some families. The real problem with it is that if you draw a line from Dublin to Galway, then there will be no centre of excellence north of this line .....

Well it looks like the big decision re Iran is going to have to happen in the next 6-12 months according to most media outlets. Very crudely seems to boil down to either Israel suffers a nuclear holocaust or else Irans nuclear facilities are destroyed with 101 implications on either side of course.
What do people think ?

Good intro article in todays Times for the unitiated:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2753953.ece

My own take - haven't really made up my mind to be honest. I can't see Iran under Ahmadinejad backing down and yet can't see Israel allowing Iran to develop a weapon, which they are 1 year away from according to IAEA. Scenario in the atricle above seems scarily probable.

Right folks, am always interested in major road contruction projects, particularly their opening dates as get extremely browned off getting stuck in tail backs going into towns that are due to be by-passed are getting stuck in 50km per hour traffic convoys when a new bigger road is due to be open.

So, anyone know when M50/M4 and M50/M7 junctions are due for completion ?
The Athlone to Kilbeggan motorway ?

When they will start on the Ballaghdereen by-pass ?

Also, i see the Charlestown by-pass is due to open next Thursday (18.5km) and the Bohola to Ballina road has finally been given the full go-ahead - as a dual carriageway no less !!

I know you can get scheduled completion times from the nra website but those dates are always way off