Hopefully everyone is settled into their September routine, with schools and colleges back.  Similarly we are into a different routine now in the club with adult teams finished for the year and respective status’s thankfully retained for 2026.  We still have lots of football to play, with our u15s, minors out this week and our u19s starting back soon and lots of stuff going on in the club, so stay involved.  

Our Community Committee recently organised a very successful Club Day consisting of a fantastic kids activity day and a social evening.  My repeated thanks to everyone who helped out and hopefully it is now a definite event in the club calendar going forward. The Committee is going to actively engage with the Club’s charity partner (Jigsaw) to see what works best for them and us and it is our intention to facilitate some talks by Jigsaw over the Autumn/Winter period to our members and more details will follow.  Our shop and bar remain a resource for our club members to avail of so reach out as required.  In terms of future events, more details will follow (when the time is right) about the Club’s Christmas night for coaches/members/volunteers. 

In Football, as above, our respective adult status’s were retained last weekend and well done to all. Battling in such games is not where we want to be and every effort needs to and will be made to avoid this situation next year.  It is incumbent on us all to look at where we can make improvements across all football teams, from academy to senior. We will continue to prioritise investment in football so as to position ourselves as best we can and I ask that all coaches/prospective coaches engage positively in off season workshops and reviews.  Our underage training and games continue and in addition we will be rolling out a Schools engagement programme and Mini Leagues in the next few weeks. 

As regards Infrastructure, and as advised previously, our upgrade of the Main Pitch lights is delayed, most likely until early 2026. Our current Main Pitch lights are in a diminished state and we have made the decision not to invest further monies into them given the pending upgrade. Our Front Pitch can be used, if required, for night time games. There are other infrastructure projects ongoing. 

In terms of Finance, we are in the process of negotiating and agreeing our tiered sponsorship for 2026 and onwards. The apex of this is our Main Club Sponsor and I can confirm that Glenveagh PLC are the club’s Main Sponsor for 2026 – 2028 inclusive.  In addition to being the Club’s Main Sponsor, Glenveagh will also be taking over as the Men’s Senior Team Jersey sponsor.  My thanks to Glenveagh for coming onboard.  My thanks also to Alan Meade and Landscaping Solutions for their Club and Men’s team sponsorship over the last four years and I happy to say that Landscaping Solutions will remain a key sponsor of the club going forward. The tier below our Main Sponsor is ‘Gold’ and we are engaging with local businesses on what works best for them and us.  If anyone is involved in a business or has a business contact that would like to be involved with us going forward, at any level, please make contact with either Alan Sweeney or Keith Madden. As regards Fundraising, we have two significant ongoing events.  Firstly our ‘Gaels on the Rails’ is still live  https://dashboard.clubzap.com/products/18756 for people who want to have their family/friends remembered with a lasting legacy on our front pitch fence.  Secondly, we are launching our 200 Club, which is our main fundraiser of the year, see https://dashboard.clubzap.com/products/30378 .   Please support and encourage where you can. As mentioned before, despite running the club as tightly as we can, it is a very very costly venture and every euro counts.  

Following the next Executive (Oct 7th) we will be in a position to advise you all on the new gear manufacturer to be rolled out across the club before Christmas and also the proposed membership rates for 2026 (which will be decided at the AGM). We will also give details of our AGM which will hopefully be held late November. 

As before, I ask everyone to keep involved, keep supporting and keep volunteering, its your club.