Great News

[bracknaghboy]

Well worth a read folks. Funding 80% complete. Final push now so the facility will be debt free when complete. Super work by all involved in this. Things are genuinely looking up in our county.

http://offaly.gaa.ie/2016/06/27/faithful-fields-fundraising-launched-dublin/

[Toxicity234]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvr2ZrbEXY

Good visual walk around the new facility.

It's great work. It's not the solution to all the problem but it a good start.

[ryot]

Had a look at it back in March and the pitches were starting to look the part........ Will they be in use by summer 2018 ?

Just saw on the Fields website that the funding has hit 89% and the New York round still to come.... Hopefully that will push it close......

Looking forward to it being ready and if you have not contributed yet, shure why not shove in a few bob !!!!!!

[Keyser Soze]

Well worth a read folks. Funding 80% complete. Final push now so the facility will be debt free when complete. Super work by all involved in this. Things are genuinely looking up in our county.

http://offaly.gaa.ie/2016/06/27/faithful-fields-fundraising-launched-dublin/

That is some achievement!!

[Hurlingtothebackbone]

Fields suppose to be in play from June this year I HEAR. At last something the board got right great vision by Padraig Boland and some legacy for him.

[pigeon house biffo]

Does anyone know if there will be an astro turf installed at the facility? Surely to have a facility like this is a wasted opportunity if we cannot provide guaranteed training surfaces for squads year round, independant of weather conditions? It seems to me that this may have been overlooked and if so is a great shame as we all know that weather conditions are far from ideal between November - March and to have invested so much in a facility only for it to be unusable or certainly no better than facilities already available within a 15km proximity would be a great pity?

[SearingDrive]

Fields suppose to be in play from June this year I HEAR. At last something the board got right great vision by Padraig Boland and some legacy for him.

Excellent facility, and a tribute to the former chairman for his foresight. I wonder if his critics will be prepared to acknowledge this achievement?.

[greenairfield]

Boland me hole fair play to the sub committee more like

[Bord na Mona man]

Does anyone know if there will be an astro turf installed at the facility? Surely to have a facility like this is a wasted opportunity if we cannot provide guaranteed training surfaces for squads year round, independant of weather conditions? It seems to me that this may have been overlooked and if so is a great shame as we all know that weather conditions are far from ideal between November - March and to have invested so much in a facility only for it to be unusable or certainly no better than facilities already available within a 15km proximity would be a great pity?

I'm not sure about warm up areas and the like, but there won't be an astro pitch. It would have added significantly to the overall cost of the project.

[Lone Shark]

Does anyone know if there will be an astro turf installed at the facility? Surely to have a facility like this is a wasted opportunity if we cannot provide guaranteed training surfaces for squads year round, independant of weather conditions? It seems to me that this may have been overlooked and if so is a great shame as we all know that weather conditions are far from ideal between November - March and to have invested so much in a facility only for it to be unusable or certainly no better than facilities already available within a 15km proximity would be a great pity?

I'm not sure about warm up areas and the like, but there won't be an astro pitch. It would have added significantly to the overall cost of the project.

The cost was a factor, but there is also the fact that there are very high rates of injury on those surfaces - the jury is very much out as to whether or not they are suitable for Gaelic Games. Anecdotal evidence from both the St. Loman's facility in Mullingar and the one at Bray Emmets is that there are far higher rates of cruciate, knee dislocation and other twisting/turning injuries on that surface.

Also, and I can testify to this as I've been involved with teams that have used the Connacht COE at Bekan in the dead of winter, if you put in the proper, modern grass pitches with good drainage, they will be playable pretty much all year round. I've never known that facility to be unable to host a game - and while I accept that they are on a height to a certain degree so there is a huge amount of natural drainage, there are other similar facilities where the pitch is essentially playable all year round.

[pigeon house biffo]

Does anyone know if there will be an astro turf installed at the facility? Surely to have a facility like this is a wasted opportunity if we cannot provide guaranteed training surfaces for squads year round, independant of weather conditions? It seems to me that this may have been overlooked and if so is a great shame as we all know that weather conditions are far from ideal between November - March and to have invested so much in a facility only for it to be unusable or certainly no better than facilities already available within a 15km proximity would be a great pity?

I'm not sure about warm up areas and the like, but there won't be an astro pitch. It would have added significantly to the overall cost of the project.

The cost was a factor, but there is also the fact that there are very high rates of injury on those surfaces - the jury is very much out as to whether or not they are suitable for Gaelic Games. Anecdotal evidence from both the St. Loman's facility in Mullingar and the one at Bray Emmets is that there are far higher rates of cruciate, knee dislocation and other twisting/turning injuries on that surface.

Also, and I can testify to this as I've been involved with teams that have used the Connacht COE at Bekan in the dead of winter, if you put in the proper, modern grass pitches with good drainage, they will be playable pretty much all year round. I've never known that facility to be unable to host a game - and while I accept that they are on a height to a certain degree so there is a huge amount of natural drainage, there are other similar facilities where the pitch is essentially playable all year round.

I can attest from my own experience, having played both soccer and gaelic football on astro turf, that it can be very unforgiving on joints, particularly the knee and ankles. Not sure if this is due to footwear but I would think that if players were to use appropriate boots that they would be able to strike the right balance between traction and stress on the joints. Just my two cents on the matter. The burns that you get from falling on these surfaces is unholy and seem to take a lot longer to heal. From my own experience playing football in Dublin, we use the field where possible and in lieu of this would train in an indoor gym/basketball court type facility. I think the one night we played on astro turf there was any amount of ball flying off course, something which I think the Sligo manager spoke about before the recent game in New York.

It just appeared that it was a missed oppurtunity for an installation but I suppose any talk about astro recently has been negative, I think the sligo manager said he couldnt get challenge games before New York and said himself if he was asked for a game on such a surface he would have replied no. Thanks for the feedback.

[SearingDrive]

Boland me hole fair play to the sub committee more like

Knew you'd say that. Pavlovian response.

[greenairfield]

What state did he leave Offaly hurling in?

[shannonbanks14]

Fair play to all involved in this it looks fantastic. God help us when the co board take it over though!

[sam88885a]

Excellent facility credit to the all involved including P Boland ,he got his teeth into this project and now we have a top facility ,maybe his work on this project was the reason why he left hurling in ruins .
We needed a home for our county teams now we need someone to put to same work into making Offaly hurling great again.