Lotto

Our club lotto remains suspended due to Covid-19. While this is a regrettable decision it is necessary to safeguard the health of our club officer’s lotto players and our many promoters. We will gradually be restarting activities over the next month in line with Government and GAA advice.

We thank all our promoters and supporters of the St. Pats Club Lotto and we look forward to your support again hopefully in the not too distant future.

Juveniles

U6/8: Our U6 and 8’s returned to training for the second Sunday since the ease of restrictions despite the dull weather conditions last Sunday morning. They all had great fun  learning their skills and they showed determination throughout the session.

U10: The under 10’s were still shaking off the rustiness from the long break at their second session last Friday evening. While the attendance was small there was nothing little about the effort that these young players put in. We were back to refreshing the basic skills of the pickup, hand pass and kicking. All of these skills were put into practice in a very energetic and competitive game to finish the session. By the time Cúl Camp comes around this bunch of players will be well tuned in. It was great to see Dee back at training again having put in some great indoor sessions before the break. Our training is on Friday evenings to reduce the numbers at the Sunday morning sessions allowing plenty of space for the younger under 6 and under 8 age groups. This current arrangement is to try to ensure that the Club is providing as safe a playing environment as possible in line with the GAA Covid-19 guidelines.

U12: Training continues Friday and Wednesday evenings on our main pitch at the usual time of 6pm to 7pm. We are in Group K of the U12 County League with fixtures as follows:

Rd 1 Sun 19th July at 6pm away to Austin Stacks (B)

Rd 2 Sun 26th July at 6pm home to Dingle

Rd 3 Sun August 2nd at 6pm away to Castlegregory

Best of luck to all involved.

U14: There was a good turnout on both training days for our U14 boys who continue to fine-tune their skills ahead of their County League competition commencing on Wednesday, the 29th of July.

U16: Our U16 boys also enjoyed 2 training sessions under Liam and Luke in preparation for the County league commencing on the 20th of July. Training continues this Tuesday and Thursday.

GAA Health Questionnaire

The GAA has provided a simple Health Questionnaire to be completed once prior to returning to GAA activities by adult players, parents/guardians of underage players and team personnel. While there has been a relatively good completion of the initial questionnaire it is also very important that adult players, parents/guardians of underage players and team personnel logon to the same system before each training session/game and resubmit that their health status has not changed. It takes about a minute to do this and doing so is in the interest of each individual and their team members. The Health Questionnaire is available on a mobile responsive webpage at https://returntoplay.gaa.ie and it is worth bookmarking this page on your browser.

Minors

Best of luck to our minors who travel to Moyvane to take on Moyvane/Tarbert in a round 1 fixture of the MFL, Group J this Friday at 7pm.

Seniors

Seniors are in full training in preparation for their Group 1 Junior Premier Club Championship against Gneevguilla the weekend of the 25th of July at a neutral venue. More details TBC.

New GAA Rules

The GAA has updated match regulations ahead of the up coming club fixtures with the current pandemic in mind. The main points include:

Only 24 players can partake in the matchday and enter the pitch enclosure but there is no limit on the size of a club matchday panel.
A maximum of five (football) & seven (hurling) team officials shall be allowed within the pitch enclosure.
These should include a manager, maor foirne, two medics, one administrator and two maor caman (hurling only).
Subs and team officials will be positioned on opposite sides of the pitch to allow for Government guidelines.
There should be no use of dugouts, but they may be used provided social distancing procedures are followed.
No water carriers will be permitted in either code.
One water break will take place between the 15th and 20th minute in each half, at the referee’s discretion.
The referee has the authority during the game to send any person in breach of the regulations to the stand/outside the pitch enclosure and such a person cannot be replaced.
Ground regulations shall apply to all venues considered suitable for club championships. They shall include procedures for entry to each ground, designated areas for substitutes and team officials and shall be communicated to teams in advance.
GAA officials have also advised that the role of the maor foirne is to deliver messages to players on their team and any disruption to the playing of the game, challenging the authority of the match officials, interference with opposing players, entry onto the field of play not at a time as listed above or breach of match regulations shall result in their removal from the pitch enclosure and they cannot be replaced for the remainder of the game, including extra time.
The maor foirne must not be a listed member of the team panel.
Meanwhile, selectors must be positioned outside the pitch enclosure.
There will be no handshakes before or after games, no spitting or nose-clearing and team huddles should only take place where social distancing is observed.
Use hand sanitisers before and after every match. Players must use their own clearly marked water bottles and interaction with opponents & match officials should be kept to a minimum after the match.