Club Fixtures Programme & Adult Competitions Formats for 2014

Discussion_Consultation_Document[1]

Discussion_Consultation_Document_Response_Form_Final[2]

What separates the Gaelic footballer from the footballers in other codes is their total dedication to their local team and to the ideal of doing something special for their own community.

We know…

• Our adult club fixtures programme is not what we would want it to be – regular games for the greatest number within a defined time frame of a playing season.
• The current lock out – lock down impact of county football on league activity in February, March & April.

• We know that senior club activity in April past could have been limited to one starred game….and putting those two periods together …there might have been just one competitive round of SFL football played by May 1st 2013.
• We know that we cannot justify a full month (June and perhaps some part of July) with no football for club players in our 20 senior squads.
• We know the difficulties with the months of November and December.
• And we have the ever increasing pressure on the club fixtures programme due to
  • the changes in recent years to inter-county competition fixture lists (NFLs &  Qualifiers )
  • the new intensity levels of county squad preparation and the additional  demands on our club players who are county players

We need a BIG CONVERSATION and an inclusive conversation with all of our stakeholders:

Senior players

Reserve players

Referees

Management(s)    –   County senior

–   Club senior

–   Reserve

–   Club committee

–   County committee

–   CCC

–   Finance committee

–   The 4/5/6/7 day a week volunteer support team at club and County

level

Young & old put heart and soul into our clubs. We are looking to improve things, especially for the club player. So, a bit of reading is involved.

The Discussion / Consultation document content is divided into two sections:

1)      With a discussion points section to help us share viewpoints, to consider questions & statements which challenge our thinking…and perhaps to add some additional points.

2)      The proposals section where very dedicated individuals have offered ideas for our consideration.

No specific brief had been given by CCC, so, the proposals are different in their scope and intent.

The consultation arrangements:

1)      Hard copies of the documentation has been provided to the following in each club at the June County Committee meeting:

• the club co-ordinator  i.e. the person who will lead and co-ordinate the consultation exercise within the club
• county player
• senior club player
• reserve team player
• committee member /4,5,6,7 day a week volunteer  

In addition – volunteer members of our different county committees are invited to pick up or download the document, if they want to contribute (the best way of doing this to avoid leaving someone out), and of course, County Senior Management.

2)      Clubs shall have the summer months to have their internal consultation & discussions.

Each club will be asked to make a make a response to the discussion points set out in the first half of the document. A response form has been prepared and circulated to clubs at the August County Committee meeting.  Clubs will return the completed response form no later than the 31^st August 2013 either by e-mail to secretary.ccc.fermanagh@gaa.ie, or by hard copy to Hugh Kelly, Fermanagh CCC Secretary, Crawfords Hill, Springfield, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh BT74 8EF, to allow us collate data for the September County Committee meeting.

3)      A report on the content of the responses returned by the club co-ordinators shall be compiled.

4)      In mid September there will be a meeting for club groups, as set out in the table below to share responses and to take the process forward. The club people in Point (1) above will represent their clubs.

The engagement with our players is hugely relevant.