Éire Óg Greystones
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Weekly Notes - 14th June 2006

Last Thursday our hopes were rudely dashed. We had had our fingers crossed in the expectation that we would be getting another "few bob" from the latest Lotto shareout. Sadly, our lot was to be disappointment. We congratulate our neighbouring clubs on their allocations. With luck – a factor which should not enter the equation; the merit of our case can hardly be disputed – we will be joining their ranks next time round.

In our original application to the Lotto we had presented our development as being a single-step process. Officials of the Sports Dept. advised us, that for the purpose of funding, it was desirable that the construction be divided into two phases. In our naiveté we had assumed that with the approval for phase one, the funding for phase two would more or less follow immediately on the completion of phase one. Where would be the logic in leaving the building in a state which would preclude its use by players? Phase one for which we have received funding has been completed and its fruits are there to be seen by all. Phase two, the installation of player facilities (showers, dressing rooms etc.) for both males and females and the bringing the building as a whole to the level required for community use, has not ,to date, received funding and the expected smooth transition between the phases has been disrupted. As a result, much of the inside of the building still constitutes a building site and conditions for players are far from satisfactory. However hope springs eternal in the Éire Óg breast.

A few facts and figures to be chewing over. The expected overall cost is 1.3 million euro. To date the club has spent 600K euro on the building, including 400K euro of the clubs own money raised mainly through borrowing. From the lotto we have received 250K euro of which 50K must be used for floodlighting of the field.. Vat constitutes 13.5% of building costs and the Lotto 200K euro represents 15.4% of the 1.3 million – which implies that the net input so far by the state to the project is less than 2% of the total cost. Lotto allocations for approved projects are generally in the range 50-70% so it is hardly surprising that the members are expecting that Éire Óg will be among the beneficiaries of the next round of Lotto funding.

The u-14 footballers travel this evening to play Rathnew in a game which will determine the outcome of the NE League. Go raibh an t-ádh libh – good luck lads!

Our u-14 hurlers – 20 players travelled – made the long journey to Carnew to play the locals in the championship at 11.00am Sunday morning. Carnew, after a good win over Glenealy, had been installed as short-odds favourites. But our lads are nothing if not determined and are stimulated by the role of underdogs. Showing no signs of travel fatigue they set about their task from the word go and soon had Carnew on the backfoot. The intensity of the Éire Óg onslaught was such that Carnew were unable to recover the lost ground and we ran out victors 2-8 to 1-6 after an exciting game replete with skilful hurling – did the person who coined the phrase "the beautiful game" ever see a good game of hurling? Ryan Horan gave a "man of the match" performance, James Nolan was outstanding at full-back and Kevin Byrne gave an exhibition of stickwork. Others to shine were Dan O’Neill, John Deeney, Shane Nolan, Owen Kinsella and Adam Howard.