Centers of excellance

[fearglasmor]

How much have Leitrim spent on Annaduff, anyone ?

[Itchy]

Here is the plan for Connacht Center of excellence...

Five full size Prunty pitches.
One 3G Pitch
Perimeter walking/running track (2.2 Klms)
Flood Lighting for five of the six pitches
Parking: 400 Cars
20 Buses
Main Building
The main building is comprised of:
Reception Area & Office
Six Dressing Rooms/Referees Rooms
Three Meeting Rooms
Lecture Theatre
Board Room
An Analysis Suite
Gymnasium
Functional Movement Room
Two Physio Rooms
Dining Hall and Kitchen
Six Administration Offices
Four Storage Rooms

You think the gaa money is best spent on building this white elephant in the arse hole of nowhere. When do Leitrim get to use it? Much more modest set ups are better value and spend money of coaching and club facilities. 6 admin offices ffs.

[trueblue1234]

I'd assume the building was built by people that know what is needed. I'd hazard a guess that they didn't put rooms in for the sake of it to burn a bit of money. I can't see what the issue is?

Pitches - Essential
Running track - Optional but hardly wasteful
Parking - Essential
reception area - essential
Dressing rooms - Essential 
Meeting rooms - Optional - But makes sense to have when your going to the hassle of building
Lecture Theatre - Optional - But I'd assume they use this for any training required so can see the logic
Board room - Fair enough I'd assume this could have been used as a meeting room
An Analysis suite - See no problem with this for a county set up.
Gym - Essential
Functional Movement suite - again for a county set up no issue
Physio Rooms - Essential
Dining hall/ Kitchen - Essential
Six administration Offices - Don't know how many are required TBH, but I'd say they're hardly a big cost and would be pretty essential is some shape
Four storage rooms - essential

There's not much there that was wasteful or illogical. And the couple of things that you could argue about (Meeting rooms/ board rooms) aren't exactly the big costs to build or upkeep.

[fearglasmor]

Is €2m on a "Centre of Excellence" value for money in Leitrim  ?

Leitrim GAA chief have made a renewed appeal to the county's fans to row in behind this year's Leitrim Supporters Club draw after they revealed that the county's teams will be using the new Centre of Excellence from September 2012.


by John Connolly


Leitrim GAA County Board Chairman Joe Flynn and Secretary Diarmuid Sweeney told the Leitrim Observer that the two all-weather pitches are ready for seeding and work is already swell underway on the extended dressing room complex at the new Leitrim GAA Centre of Excellence.

And both officials have asked the people of Leitrim to get behind the current Leitrim Supporters Club campaign after they revealed that the entire project in Annaduff has not yet cost the Board anything.

"The two full-sized and match capable pitches are ready for seeding and once we allow 15 to 16 months for the bedding in process, the new Centre of Excellence will be fully operational and available to all County teams, mens and ladies, and development squads," Joe Flynn revealed.

"The building of the extended dressing room complex is already under way, which will include four dressing rooms, a kitchen, an indoor handball alley and a wieghts room while the floodlights will be 350 lux, which is the requirement from Croke Park to stage matches.

"We considered the location very carefully as it is ideally located for our players travelling from Dublin, Galway, Sligo, Kinlough, etc."

However, Joe agreed that while the County Board have not had to levy clubs or dip into their own reserves, the success of the Leitrim Supporters Club draw is never more important.

"Thankfully we haven't had to dip into our own finances for the construction work to date but I particularly want to pay tribute to the clubs of Leitrim who agreed to put the €250,000 grant that we received thanks to the opening of Croke Park to other sports towards the cost of the Centre of Excellence.

"We are definitely hoping that we won't have to levy clubs for this development in the years to come if the Supporters Club draw is successful. We have been operating under a very tight budget for the last few years and I wish to acknowledge the help of the clubs of the county.

"We are hoping that a successful Supporters Club Draw will enable us to ease the financial burden on the County Board and enable us to push on and complete the project on time."

Secretary Diarmuid Sweeney revealed that, for once, the financial down-turn has helped Leitrim's cause - "The tendering process has been supervised in conjunction with Croke Park and the prices did come down over the lifetime of the project.

"We did re-tender the project twice and we have made major savings in that time. Croke Park helped up with the tendering process for the construction of the pitches and the dressing rooms complex.

"Croke Park also insisted that we install a spectator facility for 250 people and the Centre of Excellence will be available for schools games, which is a major burden for schools during the winter.

"We are also going to implement a time-management structure for the Centre as we want to ensure that the county football and hurling teams, ladies teams and development teams all have full access to the Centre. The two pitches will be well able to stand up to the proposed usage and we have also signed a six year maintenance contract for the grounds."

Appealing for the county's clubs to get behind this year's Supporters Club Draw, Joe Flynn said "We have changed the format this year in that we have allocated all clubs a specific amount to sell. We believe that it is a realistic amount and all clubs are required to sell their allocation and the Supporters Club Draw is so important to us as a County Board to be able to prepare out teams to the highest standards."

With €850,000 already spent on the purchase of the grounds and the development to date of the Centre of Excellence in Annaduff, which has been funded completely so far thanks to grants from Croke Park, Leitrim GAA County Board estimate that the entire cost of the project will come between €1.7 and €2 million.

Tickets are currently on sale in all the clubs of the county at a price of €40 with every ticket sold seeing the purchaser receive their Leitrim Supporters Club 2011 Car sticker and a specially commissioned Leitrim Supporters Club scarf to mark the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the club.

[Jinxy]

How is a 'functional movement room' going to help you kick a ball over the bar?
etc.

[trueblue1234]

By looking at sports-specific movements, analysing biomechanics and teaching people to put the laces behind it.   

[neilthemac]

How is a 'functional movement room' going to help you kick a ball over the bar?
etc.

Using video it looks at movement imbalances which can lead to injury and poor running/jumping technique

[Hardy]

Warning - includes sound
http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1641607

[Jinxy]

Ollie Murphy never needed a functional movement room.

[trueblue1234]

He wouldn't have went of injured in 2001 if he had had one! 

[Rossfan]

Ollie Murphy never needed a functional movement room.

And he walked 15 miles to school in his bare feet too I suppose 

[mylestheslasher]

Trueblue - this is the "connacht" center of excellence. While the rooms might be all great ideas who is going to use them. Only Roscommon and maybe south mayo probably. Sligo and Leitrim started working on their own centers of excellence so obviously don't think much of the idea of doing their gym work or physio in Ballyhaunis. I tend to agree that this is largely a waste of money.

[Jinxy]

Ollie Murphy never needed a functional movement room.

And he walked 15 miles to school in his bare feet too I suppose 

You take yourself, and others, way too seriously.

[fearglasmor]

If you give someone a degree in something they have to be able to make claims to justify their existence. Sports Science is a self serving self promoting industry following what every other profession does by taking simple common sense ideas and building a mystique and language around them to make people believe it is more complicated than it actually is.

Who benefits most from the sports science industry ? Sportsmen, the watching public or sports scientists ?

Its amazing how all the great teams and players down the years could function without centres of excellence.

[Syferus]

Trueblue - this is the "connacht" center of excellence. While the rooms might be all great ideas who is going to use them. Only Roscommon and maybe south mayo probably. Sligo and Leitrim started working on their own centers of excellence so obviously don't think much of the idea of doing their gym work or physio in Ballyhaunis. I tend to agree that this is largely a waste of money.

It's mainly for underage teams and day trips by county teams, not for going back and down every week. Strange that you didn't even mention Galway (Tuam is a 25 minute drive from Ballyhaunis) or East Mayo, where Ballyhaunis is. South Sligo is within easy driving distance of the centre and the Sligo senior team has made more than a few training trips to Bekan over the past two years or so.

The day of the second round of the Tedd Webb this year alone had eight U16 games in the morning and then an underage hurling blitz was coming in when the football had ended.

It's getting plenty of use. Costly, but the location is hard to argue with.