As I know there are a lot of people from the Ferbane area on the forum, I thought it might be a good place to start a topic with this heading. Over the last number of years I have noticed that Ferbane/Belmont underage club has really come to the fore. Now, I must say that a lot of this is just from seeing results of championship games and where the honours have went in recent seasons, rather than knowing what work has gone on within the club. So, I am curious to know, what people put this success down to - is it having good structures, a bunch of talented kids coming at once, great coaches, slip in standards in other clubs, just part of a cycle that comes around for most of the bigger clubs, performance enhancing drugs scheme , etc? I would have thought that with such dominance at a variety of levels that it must be more than just some talented kids coming together.
Anyway, it bodes well for the future of the club, as a little (and in this case, a lot of) success certainly does help and I would say that it is long overdue.
Thoughts, opinions from people within the club or other observers like myself??
Bearing in mind we've yet to win a minor football or hurling championship since the "turnaround" it's probably a bit early to say that it has been a hugely successful revolution, but certainly I'd agree that if the journey from kids to successful adults is a marathon, we've covered the first half of the journey in a good time. Still, there is a long way to go. We need to win the minor football championship this year for a start, and go from there.
In terms of factors?
(1) First and foremost, more than any other factor, there are some really great people at the heart of the minor club right now. I don't want to name names for fear of leaving anyone out, but there are two stalwart individuals in particular who have put their heart and soul into turning things around in the club and crucially, they've gone about it the right way - they encourage lads to get involved and stay involved, and they constantly give instruction and assistance with a view towards improving players, and that's how it's received. Every time one of these men talks about a player, it's a case of focussing on what he can do, what he needs to do to get better, and never a word of criticism or running a lad down. Above all, their own enthusiasm and work rate would put anyone else to shame - they simply cannot do enough for the club and along with many others around them, we are absolutely blessed to have them. The vibe around the club is invariably positive and anyone who trains teams is generally picked in that spirit - to focus on the good things that the players are doing. In general there are plenty of volunteers getting involved too and that's all part of the chicken and egg situation - as things are done the right way, more people want to get involved and fit in with the ethos, more kids get involved, more parents become part of it as a result, and so on....
(2) There was a lot of work put into underage in the Ladies Club as well, both at underage and senior, and that has fed through because it means that football in particular has become the focal point of the community again, not just for one half of the kids. The lads missed out on qualifying for Féile this year after a bad day against St Vincents, but the girls stepped up and they will be travelling to Cork flying the flag instead - at the recent Leinster Féile competition in Laois, both the lads and the girls won their division 1 titles, and the two squads were over and back supporting each other (albeit sometimes in the slagging way that kids do) but the crucial aspect was that both teams were feeding off each other, and driving each other on.
(3) I'm going to be controversial here, but I actually think that in a lot of cases, when the sports work together, rugby and Gaelic Football can co-exist very well. In the long run we may lose a one or key players to professional rugby, but I think that's a small price to play for the instruction that players get about physical confrontation, discipline, diet, preparation and all these things that rugby is so much better at than GAA, at least outside of Ulster. You'll always lose a couple of key players for various reasons, but the difference between losing a few to the bar culture is that it drags everything down. If you lose a guy to rugby, he'll still be in contact with his friends, they'll be talking about training etc, and sport will still be the focal point. In the meantime all the other guys who didn't go off playing professional rugby will be better for the training. People forget that rugby is a bottle neck - from age 15 up, only 20% of the guys that rugby wants to know about one year are still of interest a year later - by age 20, you're down to no more than 200-300 all across Ireland. That's an average of 4 guys from Offaly every year, never mind F/B. It's never going to be a hemorrhage, no matter how the doom-mongers paint it.
Again I stress that my view on this is not shared by everyone.
(4) The school has played a big part as well, and while I don't know everyone involved, if I was to name two I'd say that John Irwin as principal and Fran Mulhall, Gallen CS manager this year, have been vital in helping lads along and giving them every encouragement. They also train lads to play football the right way and to think about what they do on the field, which is something you don't always get at club level.
(5) Due to Shannonbridge's inability to field a team on their own, we've got help from one or two Shannonbridge players in a few teams and obviously they've played a significant part along the line. Whether that's a good thing for the GAA as a whole is another debate, but having a player like Darragh Corbett in this year's minor team will be a huge boost.
(6) Last but not least, it has to be said that of the young lads I've gotten to know, they are all very decent, enthusiastic young people with a desire to play the game and absolutely the right attitude. They've been blessed with talent certainly, but more so than this, they've generally realised that they need to keep improving and they are all eager to pick up insight wherever they can get it. Again, there is a collective effect here - if there was one bad apple in the group that might cause a few others to be led astray, but instead they all seem to be pulling in the same direction and that's a great help.
(7) No East-German style collective steroid use that I'm aware of.
Ultimately there's a long way to go before you'd say that things have completely borne fruit, but it's nice to be looking forward with a little optimism. I say all that but I'm still fully aware that of the six lads on this year's minor panel that would be eligible to play adult for Ferbane, the long term prognosis is still likely to be that two will end up emigrating, two more will drop off due to career, living too far away etc, so only perhaps two will go on to still be playing adult football for Ferbane at 24. I hope I'm wrong, but that's just the way of the world right now. But if we can keep getting in two good ones every year, then hopefully the senior side will start seeing the benefit sooner rather than later.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.
Just for information, the Ferbane/Doon/Shannonbridge girls féile team are flying the flag good and high so far this weekend - beat the two Cork host clubs comfortably and just won their group decider against Emyvale of Monaghan on a 4-4 to 2-1 scoreline.
Playing their semi final against Cahir this evening at half six, so best of luck to them!
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.
I know this is off the topic but its still kind of related, does any on how Vincents are gatting on, can't access the results on the webiste becuse of the way the tabs were layed out
No joy I'm afraid - beat the three Cork clubs in the group, but lost out to the Antrim champions, St Endas of Glengormley
Boys Division 2 - Group D
01/07/2011
St Endas Glengormley 1 - 8 vs 2 - 2 St Brogans Bandon 12:30
St Vincents-Offaly 7 - 9 vs 0 - 3 Inniscarra 12:30
Inniscarra 0 - 3 vs 1 - 6 St Endas Glengormley 11:00
St Brogans Bandon 0 - 2 vs 4 - 10 Valley Rovers 11:00
St Endas Glengormley 0 - 8 vs 0 - 3 St Vincents-Offaly 10:00
Valley Rovers 2 - 3 vs 3 - 3 Inniscarra 10:00
30/06/2011
Inniscarra 6 - 13 vs 0 - 2 St Brogans Bandon 14:00
St Vincents-Offaly 3 - 7 vs 2 - 4 Valley Rovers 14:00
St Brogans Bandon 0 - 2 vs 6 - 18 St Vincents-Offaly 12:30
Valley Rovers 0 - 3 vs 4 - 9 St Endas Glengormley 12:30
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.
DAMM! still if their beating three cork teams it can't be all bad and i'm of the belief that if they enjoyed the experience it will be worth it if they develop from this and go onto play for thier respective teams.
By the way LS any way you can convince those two lads you were talking about to get involved in the Offaly Set up at academy level, we need all the help we can get
Didn't go their way in the end but they did everyone proud.
Its good to see the likes of Vincents & Ferbane coming to the fore at underage in Offaly. Rhode, Tullamore & Clara have really being the dominant forces here for years. Added competition among the top teams can only help Offaly GAA
U14 A football won last Saturday, and in the U16 A final again this Saturday. It's a terrific run; often one team from a club might go from U12 up to minor winning every second year, but to have 2 consecutive age groups back to back winning each respective title year in, year out is remarkable. Any chance Shamrocks might be able to break this trend Saturday?!!!
Every chance, of course. The under 14 final between these two clubs last year was a great game, F/B ended up winning by three points after Shamrocks came back to level the game with a couple of minutes left. I remember thinking with a few minutes to go that I'd have been happy to get out with a draw in that one because Shamrocks had all the momentum, and this vintage of Shamrocks players includes Johnny O'Toole, who if I'm not mistaken was the only under 16 on the county minor panel this year.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.
good god that was some result.edenderry must have been very poor ,2 points in an entire game and a final.ferbane must be going very well at underage and deserve credit for this big win.fair play to all involved and hopefully they will offer offaly some new talent in the near future.
, etc? I would have thought that with such dominance at a variety of levels that it must be more than just some talented kids coming together. 
