In the Zone

St Patrick’s Day means one thing in the GAA calendar: a celebration of the club jersey and all who play in it. And if some of the media coverage is to be believed the finals could be shifted leaving a major hole in the traditional national Saint’s Day celebrations. Of course the finals weren’t always played on the 17^th March, but they’ve been there for long enough to be considered a GAA institution, sacred cow and immoveable feast but could become a Shibboleth as the season is subject to serious restructuring anytime soon. This year the county jerseys represented by their club champions are Galway, Kilkenny and Kerry. Not many surprises there.

 

And as one of the show pieces of the Club scene we all crave good games. After a few years of fairly one-sided matches in the football, bar Dr Croke’s two point win against Slaughtneil a couple of years back, supporters will be hoping for a decent competitive game in the football final.

For International Women’s Day we caught up with Mayo and Collingwood star Sarah Rowe who’s living the life of a professional athlete in Australia.  Exclusively for O’Neills Sarah talks 20x20, women’s sport on the rise and the absence of Coppers in Oz!

 

You coping with the lifestyle there ok?

The lifestyle is great, I’m not working over here, so I’m in the club every day, well five or six times a week anyway, using all the resources so it’s great.

We train Monday evenings, Wednesday evenings, Friday and Sunday and the other two days you’ve to get a gym session in. So quite similar here to home.

I go in to training about half three and don’t get home to about half ten at night. It’s a bit longer than at home, I suppose people work part-time and then train too, but the lifestyle is great.

It comes with its pressures.

All roads lead to Waterford this summer for the Renault GAA World Games. Around 1,300 Gaelic footballers, hurlers and camogie players from 10 regions worldwide are coming home to Ireland for the 2019 Renault GAA World Games in Waterford. And as part of the games O’Neills are delighted to be official kit partners, supplying the jerseys to participating teams as well as the official World GAA Games jersey and associated GAA clothing.

 

The GAA are expecting 100 teams from over 20 countries to rock up to Waterford Institute of Technology’s's Sports Campus for a week-long festival of Gaelic Games activity between July 28th and 31^st. After the groups stages at WIT, the finals are penciled for Croke Park on August 2nd.

 

The decision was made to host the last edition of the games in Ireland, where they were hosted at UCD after having been inaugurated in Abu Dhabi the previous year.  It was subsequently agreed to hold the tournament 

Lidl National Football League wrap

 

Compiled by Declan Rooney

 

Galway and Donegal continue to light up the Lidl National Football League as the top flight’s runaway leaders both maintained their perfect starts to the season.

 

Sarah Conneally’s goal helped Galway to a convincing Connacht derby victory against Mayo at MacHale Park, while Karen Guthrie, Róisín Friel and Geraldine McLaughlin all found the net for Donegal in their two-point win over Tipperary in Convoy.

 

Victories over Mayo in last year’s Connacht final and the All-Ireland quarter-final meant Galway entered this league clash high on confidence, and once again Tim Rabbitte’s side didn’t disappoint.

Playing into a strong wing Galway still led by two at the break, while Conneally’s goal ensured there would be no Mayo comeback.

 

Warrington Wolves Physical Disability Rugby League (PDRL) team travelled to Australia in August 2018, to take on Russell Crowes’ South Sydney Rabbitohs PDRL team in the inaugural PDRL World Club Challenge where they were crowned world champions.  

For 200 local coaches eager to learn, Cookstown was the place to be in November as the 15th O’Neill’s Ulster GAA Coaching and Games Development Conference took place in the Glenavon Hotel.

 

The theme of the 2018 conference will focus on the Player Development Pathway. The latest event from the Ulster GAA coaching team highlighted once again the need for continuing coaching to keep our amateur club coaches up to speed on the latest thinking and ideas in preparing players to be the best they can be. Ulster GAA’s coaching director Dr Eugene Young said:

 

“We were delighted with the attendance of 230 coaches at the conference. It shows there is still an appetite for learning and it bodes well for the future development of our young players and the next generation of GAA players. Coaches want to learn so that they know how to do the right work with players at the right age group.

 

“I want to thank

The Plus500 Brumbies are delighted to announce a new partnership with kit manufacturer O’Neills which will see the firm become the Official Apparel Supplier of the club.
 
Under the partnership O’Neills and the Brumbies will launch a new range of match apparel including home and away jersey’s with O’Neills also providing all elements of Brumbies staff and player’s official teamwear. They will, of course, also cater for fans with official club merchandise.

O’Neills is a brand rich in heritage, renowned for being the largest sportswear manufacturing company in Ireland since being founded in 1918 and launched in Australia in 2015.
 
O’Neill’s has an international reputation for providing the highest quality clothing and manufacture from their own fabrics allowing them to specially design garments to meet the short delivery dates dictated by the market. They will customise garments in their embroidery

The GAA says the club is the most important unit of the Association. It’s where we start and where we end. The highlight of the Club year is the championship and if you’re lucky enough to be involved at the business end it can be a truly special time for players, supporters, mentors and the wider community. But why?

 

The Club Jersey
You’ve lived with that jersey since you were a youngster, the older players you looked up to wore the same club jersey as you did. Seeing it now on the big day, brings a lump to the throat.

 

The Buzz in the Local Paper
Seeing the lads in the paper, the slagging, the made up profiles... First medal won? Men’s Wimbledon Singles. Biggest Influence On Your Career? Tony Hawk. We get to know who has the biggest collection of cosmetics in the kitbag, who snores, who is a torture

In September 2018 the All Ireland Ladies Football final attracted a record attendance to Croke Park of 50,141 people to watch the players of Dublin, Cork, Meath, Tyrone, Limerick and Louth contest the Senior, Intermediate and Junior All Ireland Finals. It was a festival of football, full of colour, noise and spectacle. It was also packed with skill; athleticism and passion from six highly motivated and dedicated teams of ladies footballers.

Attendances for the ladies football final have been rising incrementally over recent years but to put the most recent final in perspective, the attendance is greater than the 23,771 full house that watched the recent headline grabbing Naomi Osaka / Serena Williams US tennis open final, and for women’s sport, the event comes close to the 53,341 who were at the women’s soccer World Cup Final in 2015. Mayo ladies footballers along with Ulster LGFA teams like Antrim, Armagh, Derry and Donegal ladies have played their

We spoke to our O’Neills ambassador Lee Chin who’s getting himself into Championship mode with Wexford. In his first conversation with O’Neills, Lee shares his memories of growing up in Wexford, starting out in his hurling career with his hurling club Faythe Harriers and his thoughts on trying to balance hurling and football in the modern game.

 

Wolfetone Villas
I played all sports growing up. It wasn’t any different to any other childhood that any person had I suppose. I grew up in Wolfetone Villas in Wexford, it was a very family oriented estate, and pretty much everyone that lived there when I was grown up was born there. You could head away for a holiday for a weekend and leave your front door open it was that kind of place. My mother grew up in the estate. Growing up there we got up to everything out on the street hurling, football, soccer, tennis basketball, my childhood memory is that you would be out on the street with your friends organising games.