Club Update – August 2022

Please find below an update on some things that are going on within our club at present that you might be interested in.

Due to personal reasons, Zoe Leonard has taken the decision to step down from the role of Club Secretary. On behalf of all club members, I want to take this opportunity to thank Zoe for taking on this role and we wish her all the best and hope to see her back on board in the future. Our Assistant Secretary Niall McElroy has been appointed to the position of Secretary and our former Chairman & Secretary Sean Murphy will fill the Assistant Secretary position. We have not had a Healthy Club Officer since the Annual General Meeting – Mary Murphy has agreed to take on this position.

Darren Foy was tasked with improving the linkage between the changing rooms with the training pitch, extending the existing car park, widening the back lane and improving the access arrangements to the gym and our grounds. Repairs were also made to potholes and defects on the entrance to the training pitch. Thanks to Darren Foy and John McElroy for undertaking this work and completing it to a very high standard.

Work is needed to close off access to the top pitch via the back lane and control access to the gym. We have been looking at this for some time and it was previously agreed to widen the lane to see what way that left things. Now that has been done, we have agreed to put the gates up below the turnstiles and build a wall from the end of those gates to meet up with the existing wall near the scoreboard. This wall will be just under 60m long and will range in height to tie in with the bank. We will then put a fence on top of the wall to finish that off. We will also build additional walls and fencing around the gym to close off the gym area to allow people to access it through a single pedestrian gate without getting into the rest of our grounds as well as providing access to the gym from inside our grounds. We are looking for a few builders to give their time to help get some of this work done. If you are in a position to help out, please let me know.

Work has progressed well to kit out the gym and the equipment has been installed to a very high standard. There are a few very minor pieces of work to be carried out over the coming days and an open evening will be held in the near future to allow club members to view the most recent addition to our expanding and ever improving facilities. Access will be available for inductions and for supervised sessions for teams in the very near future. We will be in touch with coaches directly about this to co-ordinate activity for teams. For our players, the gym will offer considerable opportunities for improving strength and conditioning as well as flexibility, injury prevention and building core strength and is becoming an increasingly important aspect of player development. We have been assessing potential pricing structures for the gym and have agreed that all members of the Cairde Tempo scheme (and their co-habiting spouse or partner) will have access to the gym. For those people who are not members of the Cairde Tempo scheme, the monthly cost will be £25 per month for individuals and £40 per couple. However, we do not have the correct access control arrangements in place yet to allow gym members to come and go as they please and until such times as the gates and door measures mentioned above are in place, access will be restricted only to teams. We do intend to make use of the coming period to offer inductions and introductory sessions for people and will look at offering a small number of slots on a weekly basis where gym members who have completed an induction will be able to access the gym. If you want to become a member of the gym or avail of membership as a new or existing Cairde Tempo member, please let me know and we will get everything arranged. All players who are registered with the club can attend the gym only as part of an officially organised and supervised training session. Everyone will pay the full price for any classes/circuit training/etc regardless of membership status. There will be slots set aside to reserve the gym for classes & teams during which times there will be restrictions on access. Work on this is continuing and this will be communicated when agreed.

The new storage unit for the lower field will be sheeted in the coming weeks to provide additional storage for teams using the training pitch.

The floodlights for the training pitch arrived this week. Our thanks to Campbell Contracts for looking after the offloading of the poles and lights, which was a time consuming job. We are finalising quotes for this work and hope to be in a position to move ahead with this over the next few weeks, depending on the availability of contractors.

Our Development Fund loan application for £100,000 was approved by the Financial Management Committee. A formal loan agreement has been issued to the club for signing. Money can be drawn down when invoices are submitted.

We currently have 96 members. We still have more people to bring on board and the finance committee will take this forward to increase this number further. If you want to join this scheme and contribute either £20/month of £240/year to help fund our development works, please get in touch.

Congratulations to the winners of the £100 monthly draws Frank & Mary Howe (June) and Aidan Breen (July).

The first few signs have arrived and have been erected but progress has been slow in gathering sponsors and this needs some additional work. We should be able to get at least another 30 businesses on board with a bit of effort. If any member can help out with recruiting sponsors, please let me know. Anyone who would like to sponsor a sign can find out more and make payment at https://www.klubfunder.com/Clubs/Tempo%20Maguires%20GFC/ShopItems#Pitchside_Sponsorship_at_Tempo_Maguires

We have entered a formal 3-year sponsorship agreement with O’Neills All Playing Gear, Leisurewear, Accessories and Sports Equipment shall be purchased from O’Neills through the Club Secretary. We shall receive £200 for per year for 2 pitchside signs and 10% rebate on all net sales at the end of each year based on annual spend over £5,000. We will also be starting the annual order of club gear in time for Christmas in the next few weeks and the deadline is for placing orders is mid-September. Further details on this will be shared in due course.

Fermanagh took on Antrim in the All-Ireland Ladies Final on Sunday. A large delegation of Tempo supporters headed off to Croke Park early in the morning by bus and by car. As a club, we are immensely proud of the sizable contingent of Tempo girls on the panel. Gracing the pitch of Croke Park on All Ireland Final Day is a huge honour and is a clear manifestation of their hard work, commitment and ability as well as the help, support and development they have received from their families and from club coaches. The game ended in a draw and the reply will be held in the Athletic Grounds, Armagh on Saturday 13th August at 5pm. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.universe.com/events/tg4-all-ireland-junior-final-replay-antrim-v-fermanagh-tickets-2ZJM6V Tickets are priced at €15 for adults, €10 for students and OAPs, and €5 for U18s.

This year’s Irish News All-Stars were launched this week and there are two Tempo players in the running for inclusion on teams. We are encouraging people to vote for Blaíthín Bogue in the half forward line on the Ladies Football team and for Ryan Bogue in the half back line on the Hurling team. You can cast your vote for free at https://allstars.irishnews.com/

Our new website is being very well used by people to keep up to date with what is happening in the club and in particular the latest fixtures, results and league tables. You can visit the new site at www.tempomaguires.gaa.ie

During the last week of July, over 100 children took part in Cúl Camp. This would not have been possible without the help of a large number of club members and coaches, who made themselves available to help out over the course of the week. We are blessed to have such a good group of people willing to step forward and help our club with such things.

We are finalising arrangements for a programme of work to help upskill our club coaches through a training programme. Details will be shared on this with club coaches in the near future.

The P7 children from St Mary’s Primary School, Tempo will head off to Croke Park on Friday 12th August and they will get the opportunity to play on the pitch for 90 minutes. This will be an experience that those children will not forget and we all hope they have an enjoyable day.