A crowd of several thou-

sand ecstatic fans from Crokes welcomed the newly crowned All Ireland Champions on a memorable

night at the Club Fri 23rd Sept.

O u r C h a i r m a n handed over to Dub-lin Manager Pat Gilroy who intro-duced all the players.

The excitement was pal-

pable and each and every

player was greeted with

rousing cheers. Rumour has it that a few of the players suffered from writers cramp after auto-graphing everything from

scraps of paper, to All Ireland tickets, balls,

shirts, you name it. For further pictures of the evening visit our website Gallery or click on the photo!

Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise

Daoibh!

www.crokes4kidz.com / www.kilmacudcrokes-football.com/juvenile

Dubs Visit to Crokes

Inside this issue:

Notice Board 2

U6—U12 Reports 3-6

Coaching Report 6-7

U13—U16 Awards 8-9

U13—U18 Reports 10-15

Backpage 16

The Scoop@Crokes Juvenile Football News Christmas 2011

Santa at Crokes - 2011

On Saturday morning December 17th, Santa arrived at Kilmacud Crokes at 9am in

his now customary Tractor! As many as 300 boys along with their brothers and sis-

ters got to meet Santa in the Paddock, and also in his skilfully assembled and classy Grotto beside the Function Room! Santa had plenty of party bags to go around on the morning and the remainder were kindly donated to local charities and other wor-thy causes.

It was a great end to what has been a very enjoyable year for our Nursery Football-ers & Hurlers.

At the recent Kilmacud Crokes Coiste AGM, concerns were voiced about the safety of children in the car park during the Nursery on Saturday mornings. Each week over 300 boys and 200 girls age 5,

6 and 7 are participating in Nursery programmes and their safety is our top priority.

"Traffic Calming" measures have been implemented and we would ask all parents to cooperate. There will be clearly desig-nated Safe Zones adjacent to the all weather Paddock and the Hurling Arena entrance to the main pitch. There will be restrictions

to traffic flow at 10.00 and at 12.00 to allow for the safe change-

over of the players between the pitches.

To assist with this safety program we request that all members and parents abide by the guidelines below:

1. Park well away from Safe Zones and in marked parking bays only . Be especially careful when re-versing into/out of spaces.

2. Reduce your speed.

3. Cooperate with traffic calming measures.

4. Teams meeting to travel to away games on Saturday mornings should designate an alternative venue as their meeting point other than the main club car park to reduce congestion in the car park.

Through the website you can now quickly find out if a fellow member has a service or product you have a need for and how to contact them.

Some have special offers for Kil-macud Crokes members so why not

consider giving your fellow mem-bers some business – it is a win/win situation!

Check it out now!

Make sure to use our Club Shop for you sporting gear and gifts.

Shop opening hours as follows:

THURSDAYS 8.30pm—10.30pm

SATURDAYS 10am — 1pm

Keep an eye out for our next

Play the Whistle fundraiser.

We would encourage mentors/parents that work in an office to get

your colleagues to join up for it also.

Great fun and banter to be had, as well as the opportunity to WIN BIG!

Page 2

Club Shop Services Directory Play the Whistle

The Scoop@Crokes

Mind Our Kids!

2011 was another great year for the U6 – U12 age groups. The re-cent Coiste AGM reported a high win rate across all Go Game groups and the nursery as always is a suc-

cess in its own right. With the Go Games philosophy being – „non competitive‟ these group should not be measured on their success on the pitch. Much credit must be given to the hard working manag-ers and mentors. All these guys

have stepped up to the mark with regard to their own personal devel-

opment within the club by complet-ing the foundation, code of best practice, first aid and award 1 child courses. We have also welcomed a

number of new members to the club, all willing to share their own individual expertise – for the bet-terment of the club. Looking up from the lower age groups, we ex-p e c t t h i s b e c o n t i n u e d .

Facilities are a major challenge fac-ing our age group and this issue

has been raised with the executive. Moving on to more positive areas - we have to say that great credit

must also be apportioned to club coaching. Paraic has done a great

job from our starting U5s up to en-suring that our U12s are ready for the U13 fray. He has also worked to ensure there is a common philoso-phy across all age groups which

leads to continuity of expectation & mentoring. The juvenile football committee do a massive amount of work, under guidance, and we thank the lads for their efforts in their social, mentor registration, child protection, gear/facilities,

nursery and club liaison roles.

We would like to acknowledge the effort and time put in by the age group coordinators. These guys have considerable influence on the

future of this club. They

mould the players and the mentors who will produce all Ireland, Leinster, County, Senior, Interme-diate, Junior, Minor, Juve-nile and Feile winning teams – sometimes their

work is taken for granted – it is an honourable job

and noble responsibility on those who take it on. It should be respected in such a manner for those

future coordinators who have yet to join the club! As stated above, we again acknowledge the major effort that our mentors make on a day to day basis. They make massive sacrifices to ensure that our kids

get the best atten-tion across all as-pects of the sporting

experience in Kil-macud Crokes.

We would like to

make special refer-ence to the consider-able input over the past 24 months of outgoing Senior Football Chairman,

Pat Lamb. It was a time of restructure at our level and we now see a thriv-

ing section in place. There is a „Yes We Can‟ attitude visible because Pat was able to help in getting things done. We hope that this level

of input would be visible over the

coming years and with the chang-ing of the guard.

Thanks all the parents who have yet to join the fray - from a driving,

social and supporting point of view – there is always a place on the team, however so don‟t put away the boots just yet! We also say thank you to the many contributors to www.crokes4kidz.com - our kids love to see their pictures and re-

ports on the site. Again it is an area

we need to grow.

Finally, many thanks to Des Moly-neaux for presenting this newslet-ter. These publications do not hap-pen by chance and a lot of hard work & time is sitting on your lap/

desk now as you read this. Des is looking to recruit budding journal-ists and enthusiastic paparazzi in 2012 so let us know if you are in-terested in helping out.

Happy Christmas to all, thanks again for your support and we look forward to a spectacular 2012 in Kilmacud Crokes!

U6-U12 Football Committee

U6-U12 Football Section Overview

Page 3

The 2006 Football Nursery started in earnest on 15th October 2011 with numbers increasing week on week with over 70 players regis-tered by the start of November

alone. Players coming from a vari-ety schools (14 in total), St. Laur-ence‟s approx. 25% Hollypark 16%. St. Marys Booterstown 7%, Scoil Treasa 5%. Others include schools in Ballyroan, Bray, Ranelagh, Black-rock, Foxrock and Goatstown.

Up to 20 guardians are interested

in coaching next year. Some

coached before, others are also coaching hurling, others are com-pletely new to sports. We intend to

convert this interest into doing the Founda-tion Course.

It has been useful to start this group in its own right at this time, so that preparation

and training can be done in advance of January when the group gets a slot on the paddock. It allows time for the mentors/

coaches to get to

know the group, and set up proper structures for the year ahead.

For boys born in 2006 and wishing to join, parents should contact Paul Quinn.

mum of 85 players attending every

week.

We have a core of approximately 2 0 m e n t o r s /coaches now well

established.

W e r e c e n t l y started to set up 5 Player Panels for Go-games starting in 2012. Mentors are allocated and

additional recruit-ment of mentors is

ongoing.

During the year we had the following challenge games with other Clubs:

At U7 we have 102 registered play-

ers; approximately 15 more have joined since September with a mini-

1. Lucan Sarsfields (A) – May‟11

2. Foxrock/Cabinteely (H)– June‟11

3. Bray Emmets (A) – June‟11

4. Foxrock/Cabinteely (A) – Sept‟11

5. Cuala (A) – Sept‟11

The Games have been extremely popular with Boys and Parents alike, and the overall quality of football from our players has been very good. Pitch availability is an ongoing issue – as we have a mini-

mum of 85 boys training in the

Paddock on Saturday mornings.

Denis McSweeney, Coordinator

087 2043267

Page 4

U7 PHOTOS PHOTOS 2

The Scoop@Crokes

2006 Start Up

running and working well.

We are currently operating in the Paddock with 8 designated pitches and an intended allocation of 12 kids per pitch, allowing a maximum

of 96 kids. Anything above that and we will have difficulty.

Getting mentors/coaches to im-prove their coaching knowledge is a priority.

Overall we have had a good year, with the children getting huge en-

joyment from it.

Donagh McGowan (086 6019341) is the co-ordinator for this group for boys born in 2005

Approximately 130 players regis-tered inclusive of a surge of 40 in September, possibly due to the Dublin Senior Football All Ireland win.

We have a core of probably about 20 mentors/coaches with about another 10 who assist occasionally.

Since the October surge, we have had to re-organize the running of sessions so as to make things run smoothly even with 30+ extra kids.

The re-organization is now up and

U6

“130 players registered

inclusive of a surge of 40 in

September, possibly due to the

Dublin Senior Football All

Ireland win.”

It was a good year for the 2003 boys‟ Football Section with numbers rising to a high of 115 boys by the end of September mainly due to the success of both the Kilmacud

Crokes Senior football team in 2010 and also the All Ireland Foot-ball win for Dublin in 2011. Some of the key events / facts of the year include: 115 boys registered at

1.11.2011, 5 teams entered in Go-Games, 28 participat-

ing coaches at training and matches, trip to Croke Park museum and National League match in February, tournament in May with 16

teams participating, training through the Summer months with a number of away dates with a club away day in Clane in August, won the plate competition in the Gorey

blitz in October, 4 away blitzes or-

ganized for the months of Novem-ber and December to fill the gap from the finish of Go Games to the end of the year.

Unfortunately John O Donovan had to step down as coordinator in June and will be missed after three sea-sons of focused and dedicated input into the organisation of the 2003 Boys Football. We would like to take this opportunity to thank John

for all his efforts and to wish him the best of luck and look forward to

seeing him in the nursery with the 2007 new entrants. Peter Ward, Coordinator 086 8116960

and leaders on the pitch of play. Also we cannot forget our Parents who move our panels from match to match

despite the odd “I am lost” inci-dent here and there. We pay special thanks to Coiste and the Juvenile

Football Com-mittee for guidance and financial support during the year; all our outings and home/away blitz‟s held during the year were a great suc-

cess. We would also like to compli-ment the standard of refereeing

during the past year, certainly a step up in performance from

our home referees. Playing facilities pre-sented a big chal-lenge and will con-tinue to do so. The Club has been gen-

erous in its allocation of pitches in Silverpark / Paddock. Martin Byrne, Coordinator 087 2606805

The U9 footballers had a fantastic year during 2011 winning almost 100% of their Go Games fixtures. The standard of football has grown considerably and we have main-

tained, if not bettered, our chal-lenge to our opposition clubs from our U8 playing days. We have 120 players with 40 active managers, with 5 two team panels play in the South Dublin Go Games.

We would like to thank Maurice Roche, Niall O‟Leary, James Cogh-lan and Adrian Sullivan for their constant drive and commitment to making our U9s better footballers

a lack of matches and we were not helped by several cancellations due to the severe weather conditions

that we have ex-perienced over

the past 12 months. We have been hosted in c h a l l e n g e matches by sev-eral clubs over

the past 12

months. We have had some oppor-tunity to recipro-cate over the past year with

The U10 Group consists of 99 active registered members. We are cur-rently fielding 8 Teams, 4 groups of 2 Teams per group. Each group has approx. 25 players. All teams are

roughly of equal ability and there is no strict streaming at present, how-ever the process of fully streaming the group will start in 2011. Most players have shown a good

improvement in skill levels this

year. However training and skill development is still hampered by the excessive numbers and lack of appropriate training facilities. Dur-ing the year we have suffered from

limited availability of pitches. We have competed successfully in a number of tournaments during the year, most notably in Aughrim and more recently in Ratoath. Our U10

festival of football was held on Sun-day 22nd May and was a great suc-cess. Unfortunately Clanna Gael Fontenoy won the tournament and the perpetual trophy that goes with it. Hopefully Martin Byrnes group

can re-claim the trophy for the Club

next year. Philip O‟Dwyer, Coordinator 087 2576764

U10

U8 PHOTOS

U9 PHOTOS PHOTOS 2

Page 5

“We have

competed

successfully

in a number

of

tournaments

during the

year”

Overall it has been a very success-ful year where the boys are enjoy-ing their football. This would not be possible without the dedication of the U11 Mentors and Parents. We

have 66 registered Players with 7 new players in the last few months. We get a good turnout for our training sessions (50+) and matches (55+).

The Players are divided into 5 Teams in 3 Panels (2 by

Two Team Panels & a One Team panel). The teams were streamed and we put two A teams into the Divi-sion 1 South League. All 5

teams were very competitive in each of their leagues where 3 of the teams finished 1st or 2nd in their

leagues including Division 1 win-ners. We completed two skills tests in April and November and our train-ing plan was built around these

tests with emphasis on use of the weaker side. We also continued our Athletic Development program. We Hosted an 8 Team tournament in

Páirc de Burca with fantastic sup-port from all the boys families. We brought the boys to two of the Dublin League Games /Jedward etc in the spring series and our end of

year “Away Day” with our U11 hurl-ers is to an Adventure Centre in Co. Meath. The U11 mentors would like to thank the Coiste & Juvenile Football Committees for all their support

this year. The work of the commit-tee is very noticeable and appreci-

ated. Overall it has been a very success-ful year where the boys are enjoy-ing their football. This would not be possible without the dedication of

the U11 mentors and parents. Eamonn O‟Flynn, Coordinator 086 8145165

Coach Education –

Last January we ran the first Award 1 course from the new GAA Coaching Structure in the club. We had 21

coaches who attended the 7 modules of the “Child” strand over the course of 2 full weekends. It is hope that we

run 2 more Award 1 courses over the coming January & February. We will repeat the Award 1 Child course

(coaches up to U12) and will also pilot an Award 1 Youth (13-18) & Adult. At Award 1 level the Youth & Adult

course are run together. The following are the numbers of coaches who attended coaching courses this year:

Award 1 Child Football Course – 21 coaches

Foundation Award Football Course : January - 14, March - 20, November – 19

Code of Best Practice/Child Protection: October/November – 34 coaches in total

Transition Year/Introductory Coaching Course – 30 coaches

Page 6

Coaching Report 2011

The Scoop@Crokes

U11

KC3 topped Division 4 after a great win over Wanderers in a tight final game of the season. League fix-tures were augmented by challenge games with amongst others, White-

hall Colmcilles, Na Fianna, Naas and Greystones. Our Home Invita-tional Day involved teams from Dublin, Wexford and Meath and despite inclement weather it was a great success. The 2011 U12s look forward to competing with teams

from the Northside next year.

Finally, all mentors and players de-rived immense enjoyment from

Dublin's All Ireland Football Final win and we send their congratula-tions to all our Kilmacud Crokes

Players on that and the other Dublin squads.

Gerry Kelly, Coordinator

087 2465846

The Under 12 Football Section pro-gressed really well during the year with approximately 70 fully partici-pating Players who, in turn made up 3 squads of 23 players each.

These teams played in Southside Divisions 1, 2 and 4. Enjoyment of the sport and good team spirit was evident throughout all teams.

KC1 U12, the „A - Team‟ won all of their 9 Division 1 Games and

topped their Division. KC2 won the majority of their Division 2 Games

in what was a very tough „A‟ stan-dard Division.

U12

“The Under

12 Football

Section

progressed

really well

during the

year“

Workshop on Athletic Development (Dan Tobin) – >100 coaches

Club Workshop on U8 & U9 Athletic Development – 18 coaches

Presentations made to various groups including Nursery & Féile Parents.

Primary Schools – PHOTOS

The highlight of the Primary School year was the visits by the Sam Maguire and the Kilmacud Crokes players on

the Dublin Senior Football team in October and November. In total over the course of 3 days we managed to visit

10 Primary Schools, 6 Secondary Schools, the Children‟s Sunshine Home, a number of houses in the area and the

Club Nursery. Many thank‟s to Cian, Kevin, Ross, Rory, Craig, Paul and Paddy. They were brilliant with the Princi-

pals, Teachers & Children.

The coaching programme in the Schools continued as normal with all children in Senior Infants & 1st class getting

an introduction to Gaelic Football and Kilmacud Crokes. It is hoped that following this introduction the children

are then interested in coming up and joining our Nurseries. The main Primary Schools currently in the pro-

gramme are St.Laurences, Hollypark Boys, St.Mary‟s Booterstown, Scoil San Treasa, Carysfort, Oatland‟s Primary

and Our Lady‟s Grove. All the named Schools bar Scoil San Treasa enter Senior & Junior teams in Cumann na

mBunscoil. St.Laurences and Our Lady‟s Grove narrowly missed out in getting to a final, but Hollypark were due

to be in action at Croke Park on December 14th.

I would like to acknowledge all the help and support that the club gets from all the Principals, GAA Contacts and

Teachers in all the local Schools in helping promote Gaelic Football.

Special Events, Camps, Blitzes & Mini All Irelands –

2011 proved to be another successful year with all the camps and events that are run during the various holi-

days. The numbers that attended are as follows:

Easter Camp (Campa na nÓg) – 92

VHI Summer Camp/Gaelic Football – 143

Summer Coaching in Silverpark: On average 30-40 attended each 2 hr Football session for the 4 weeks.

Glenalbyn Summer Camp: 540 participants over 6 weeks.

U13/U14 Summer Skills in Silverpark: we had approx 35 players from the 2 age groups who attended in July

with the following winners U13 – Patrick O‟Flaherty / U14 – Oisin Doherty

Mini All Irelands – Football: The Mini All Irelands again proved to be a huge success both from the numbers

taking part and the financial end of it. For the 2nd year running we had to cap numbers at 600. The feedback

from the players, families and mentors involved was nothing but positive and again it is the highlight of the year

for many. The numbers attending were: U6 – 58, U7 – 88, U8 – 109, U9 – 111, U10 – 98, U11 – 70, U12 - 63

Summer Camp Coaches: One of the main benefits of having a busy Summer programme is that we are in posi-

tion to offer work to so many of our younger players. Once they have turned 16 and have completed a Coaching

Course in the club and are a member of the club they are able to apply for a Coaching job on one of our camps.

This year we were able to give jobs to 87 coaches, everybody from 4th Transition Year students to 3rd level stu-

dents. Indeed we were lucky to have Kevin Nolan as one of our Camp Directors on the Glenalbyn Summer Camp

this year.

My sincere thanks to Michael McNicholas, Tommy Lyons and Pat Lamb for all

their support and assistance this year, in matters relating to Football Coach-

ing in the club. I am looking forward to working with the incoming commit-

tee in the year ahead.

Paraic McDonald

Director of Football Coaching

Coaching Report 2011 cont’d...

Page 7

The end of season event on Sunday December 11th proved

a great success with a large turnout. Pat Horgan the new

Chairman of the juvenile committee was MC and amongst

the many speakers we had the Chairman of the overall club

Tom Murphy, John Shovlin the new Football Chairman and

our very own Paul Mannion and Dublin Minor star. For all

pictures from the evening, including teams and the various

awards winners visit our website or CLICK HERE. Photos courtesy of "Mullin Photography" (a.k.a. Micheal and

Frances!). Many thanks as always.

Merit award winners announced for 2011:

13A Jack Keating, Michael Mullen & Peter O‟Reilly

13B Eoin Donnelly, Dara Kennedy & Michael O‟Connor

13C David Dagg, Jack Byrne & Dermot English

14A Harry Kelly & Eoin Sheehy

14B Stiofan O‟Casaide & Eoin O‟Shea

15A Peter Herlihy & Cillian O‟Shea

15B Sean Ryan & Barney Sultan

16A Aidan Jones & Eoin Lally

16B David Murphy & Ronan Costello

(16B who were winners of Division 4 this year also pre-

sented special awards for attendance over the last four

years to David Murphy, Barry O‟Sullivan, Niall Kelly &

Conor Casey. As well as for Captain and Outstanding Com-

mitment to Conor Lyndon)

Match Reporter of the Year: Matt Cahill

Page 8 The Scoop@Crokes

2011 U13—U16 End of Season Awards

Page 9

2011 U13—U16 End of Season Awards

This section covers 12 teams with total of 250 players from under 13 to minor.

We had a joint registration effort with Coiste again this year, for ages U13-15, and a joint effort with the Hurling Section for U16 registra-

tion. This proved to be a great suc-cess and over 90% of U13-15 foot-

ball registrations were collected over the two designated registra-tion days. A very sincere thank you to Margaret Keane of Coiste and the U13-18 team management for

all their hard work in organising the registration events and tabulating the registration data.

There was a 5% increase in regis-tered players across U13-18 group compared to 2010. This increase in

overall numbers was solely due a

38% increase at U13 which facili-tated creation of a third team at this age group compared to last year. However there has been a reduction in numbers of registra-

tions from U14 to U16 due to play-ers opting for other sports and this has led to some teams operating at

the minimum number o f

players re-quired to sus-tain two teams at each of t he s e age groups.

Despite the

best efforts of all concerned, it proved very difficult to sus-tain three Mi-no r teams

throughout the year, primarily due to insufficient numbers of committed players.

CCC2 again set „summer fixtures‟ during the months of July and Au-

gust with +/- one-week‟s leeway to fulfil the fixture. It proved difficult

to fulfil these fixtures due to the „holiday season‟ and mixed aged teams were typically used to play these matches with mixed results.

Insufficient training slots for the 12 teams, particularly dur i ng „w inte r months‟, continue to be a problem.

The Juvenile football website continues to attract a great deal of interest, particu-

l a r l y

among the younger players (U13-16) fol-lowing up on match reports and match photos etc. The web-site has over 400 dif-ferent users and at

least 2,500 „hits‟ on a

monthly basis. Con-tinued support from Team Mentors and Parents is necessary to ensure a consistent

input of material, incl. match re-ports, across all teams in the sec-tion.

Many thanks to Michael Kelly who

represents us admirably at regular CCC2 meetings, to Pat Horgan our „Equipment Officer‟ and to Des Mo-lyneaux, our „Communications Offi-cer‟ for the time and effort into keeping the Website up to date and producing yearly publications.

As a section, we very much appre-

ciate the advice and support we get on a regular basis from Paraic McDonald, Football Coaching Direc-tor and from Pat Lamb and mem-bers of the Senior Football Commit-tee.

Finally we would like to thank all U13-18 Team Managers/ Mentors for their participation and input to U13-18 meetings over the past four years and we wish the new Chair-

man (Pat Horgan) & Secretary

(Eamon Keating) of U13-18 football section every success over the coming years.

Michael McNicholas

& Brendan Linehan

Page 10 The Scoop@Crokes

U13-U18 Football Section Overview

U13 started 2011 with a panel of 68 registered players. These were streamed across three teams in the U13 Football panel; being A, B and C based on team strength. These

three teams were graded based on results from the Grading Division of Jan/Feb 2011 and subsequent dis-cussions at a CCC2 Delegate meet-ing on Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 in Parnell Park. The three teams were placed in the CCC2 Div

1, 4 and 7 respectively.

The U13A team is managed by Declan Donnelly with training being led by Robbie Behan. Despite two

draws and some defeats by a low margin, the A Team was disap-pointed not to register a win in Div 1 this season. More positive results in recent challenge matches in the

close season have been encourag-ing. The U13B team had some disrup-tion during the season with a change in Manager and Selectors at the mid way point; from Bart

O‟Conner/Mick McKeever to Bren-dan Toolan/Paul Murphy.

The latter part of the sea-son was a period of steady recovery with the final game of the season re-turning a convincing win

against St Peregrines – being the single win regis-tered in the 2011 season. A friendly tie in November against a strong Cuala B Team registered a defeat by just three points so the

improvement in match form continues.

Training arrangements were good during early spring period, with the

allocation of the Wesley School all-weather facility in Ballinteer. Train-ing reverted to Deerpark and Silverpark during the longer eve-nings and we concluded 2011 with

slots in the Paddock. Training ses-sions have been consistently well attended by all teams. U13 would like to thank Michael McNicholas, Brendan Linehan and Tommy Lyons for their continued

support throughout the year, and extend our congratulations to the

Dublin senior footballers on their All Ireland Senior Football success!

Team Management:

U13A: Declan Donnelly, Robbie

Beehan & Donal Gallagher

U13B: Brendan Toolan & Paul Mur-phy

more about the team and the ar-eas that we needed to focus on in training in

addition to skill,

speed and fitness drills.

The ongoing sup-port and encour-agement from

parents and sib-lings was also evident and we are all proud of the progress made this year. We look forward to the coming season and hopefully to

a more appropriate division for the team.

A final word of thanks to the other under 13 panels and mentors who helped us out at various stages in

At the start of the year we com-peted in the grading league and then we were placed in Division 7, which included both A and B teams from northside and southside clubs.

The standard and quality of teams

was very different as is indicated by the final league table. We ended up in 6th position in a division of 9, having achieved 13 points (16 games, W6, D1, and L9).

Our „stand out‟ performance was against Lucan where we came back from a four goal deficit. With a “never say die” attitude and the willingness to keep going on a hot and humid July day, saw us level the match with the last kick of the

ball. As good as a win!

In addition to almost full atten-dance for all league and practice games, our training sessions were well attended. Each match told us

the year and to the club coaches

and officers for facilities and ar-

rangements made for games, pitches and training.

Team Management: Aidan Horan & Rory O‟Farrell

U13 C PHOTOS PHOTOS 2

U13 A & B PHOTOS

Page 11

“U13 would like to thank

Michael McNicholas, Brendan

Linehan and Tommy Lyons for

their continued support”

Having finished 3rd in last years U13 league we moved in to U14 league and the Feile year with a good degree of confidence that the team had the ability to do well. Our

pre season started soon after the New Year and we were delighted with the news that Paraic Mc Don-ald would be working closely with us this year. Poor weather delayed the start of

competitive league matches and it was 19th February 2011 before the

first match, a tough start against U13 league winners and ultimate 2011 All Ireland Feile winners Bally-mun Kickhams. With the added drawback of conceding home ad-

vantage the league started with a defeat. The level of performance in the league fluctuated considerably with a number of brilliant and then not so brilliant outings. On our day however we were a match for the very best. The summer break saw

us in joint 3rd place, our hot and cold form continued into the au-

tumn phase finishing in mid table with very little separating 3rd to 6th placed teams. Having lost a

number of key players to soccer since 2010 and increasing numbers of lads involved in schools rugby the year proved a tough one in terms of being able to select from a

full panel of players on any given match day. While we are disap-pointed with our league finish it has been a year of progression for the team and with a full squad compli-ment available we can really chal-lenge for the honours.

With club coach Paraic working very

closely with the team we benefitted hugely from his professional coach-ing and mentoring approach. We now see a more mature and focus-sed group of skilful young football-

ers emerging with a real team bond

firmly established. The intensity of our training and preparations moved up a number of notches as

we approached the Feile competi-tion over the May bank holiday weekend. It is no understatement to say that the team were brilliantly prepared by Paraic both mentally

and physically and this shone through in the performances over the weekend. We ultimately went out by the narrowest of margins in a pulsating semi final against Na Fianna. A memorable weekend was had by all concerned who will look

back on the occasion with great memories be they players, man-

agement, parents, other relatives or just the great supporters from Crokes and further afield who came to Silverpark over the weekend.

A special thanks to the fundraising committee for their work and the coveted Feile gear, and also to the Crokes U15 crew for the military like organisation in Silverpark. Team Management: Finian Daly,

Enda Kelly & John Shovlin

and St. Brigid‟s A‟s and it really brought home how difficult it is for a B team to compete with A

teams, especially

from some of the larger clubs. We then played St. Margaret‟s and beat them by one point which gave the boys

a real boost. Two more matches fol-lowed v Round Tow-ers and while we lost both matches,

we were competitive.

Feile was held at the end of April

and while we failed to get out of our group, we played very well and beat O‟Toole‟s (from Div 3) and only lost (unluckily) to Erin‟s Isle by 2 points, who won Feile Division 4. Things were looking up but we lost

This was the boys‟ second season in Division 4 and it was a very difficult

season. Having lost 3 players from

last year‟s U13B team to the A Panel, and with another 5 quitting during the season, this was always going to be a challenging year. We were beaten in our first two matches versus Craobh Chiarain A‟s

a lot of players to the Gaeltacht and lost our next few matches. Several of the matches after the summer break were disappointing.

However, we won our final match

well against Fingal Ravens, which meant the season finished on a bit of a high, despite the fact that we finished 7th and will most likely be relegated.

What‟s really encouraging is how many of the boys have improved and how they are now looking to get on the ball, support each other, and play exciting football. It is im-portant that the boys enjoy their football. Next year in Division 5, if

we keep up the level of perform-

ance like we did in Feile, we can be challenging for a top spot . Team Management: Conor O‟Shea, Paul Cooke, TJ Maher & Des Moly-neaux

Page 12

U14 B PHOTOS PHOTOS 2

The Scoop@Crokes

U14 A PHOTOS

“We ultimately went out of Feile

by the narrowest of margins in a

pulsating semi final against Na

Fianna. A memorable weekend

was had by all concerned.”

The U15A Gaelic Footballers had a successful league campaign finish-ing 3rd in the order of merit. As a

management team we faced many challenges throughout the season

with many players opting for other sports and others picking up inju-ries. We never fielded a full strength team in any game all sea-son. Management and players alike never threw in the towel and to finish so high in the league there is

huge credit due to the lads them-selves. They were a credit to the

club, their parents and most of all themselves the way they behaved on and off the pitch.

One area of our game we put huge emphasis on this season was our defence as we had a habit of leak-

ing goals, this proved to be mas-sively successful with Crokes hav-ing the record of the least amount

of goals conceded this sea-son as against the worst

t he p rev ious year . We had a disappointing championship making an early exit to Clontarf in September. What was most frustrating about this

performance was so many of our players just didn't

perform on the day. Many valuable lessons were learned none the less. Huge

credit to the lads for the way they rebounded after this defeat. We still

had three league matches remain-ing and we won them all. A special mention to Eoin Ryan and Luke Hanrahan who gave Gaelic their first pref-

erence for the season. A remarkable commit-

ment considering both the i r dads a re their soccer team m a n a g e r s .

We currently have six players on the devel-

opment squad and we wish them every success in the New Year with their trials to make the panel proper as both North and South will b e c o m b i n e d i n t o o n e .

Congratulat ions to Andrew McGowan, Cillian O'Shea, Kevin Creasey and Graham Fallon on win-ning a County League Medal with t h e u n d e r 1 6 B t e a m .

My thanks to Arthur McMahon, Don O'Shea and Francis Hanrahan for

their continued commitment to training this squad.

Team Management: Eamon Keating, Arthur McMahon, Don

O'Shea & Francis Hanrahan

one-way or another. At the end of the year two players were elevated

to the A panel bringing to about a dozen who have been promoted in the last three years. There

are other players with A poten-tial coming along nicely. At the end of the year we finished with a panel of 27 the same as we started with. The large number was challenging as the empha-sis was on giving them all a

chance - it cost us a few results but better to keep them all playing!

League Division 5:- Solid upper mid-table position. Competitive in every game particularly

against the teams above us.

Another enjoyable year. No silver-ware but the team has progressed

and all players have improved in

Championship - A slow start against Clontarf in the first round cost us; a

great fight-back just came up short.

Shield - unlucky in the extreme to lose the semi-final to the eventual winners Sylvester‟s. But overall great heart shown to come back and almost snatch the spoils. There is definitely a lot of heart and

skill in this team, which gives grounds for optimism that we will deliver some good adult players to

t he c l ub i n t he f u t u r e .

Team Management: Matt Cahill, Carl Farrelly, Michael Culligan &

Vinny Wade.

U15 B PHOTOS

U15 A

Page 13

In the Championship we saw the under 16‟s reach the semi-final with wins against St. Sylvester‟s and Thomas Davis. However, eventual winners Ballyboden proved too

strong.

A fine start to the season in the league saw them close to the top of the table at the half way point. The lead in to the summer break with a much depleted side saw them lose touch slightly with the fore run-

ners. However, some sterling per-formances in the final few games

saw them achieve a top 4 posi- tion. Reaching the final proved to

be a step too far, again los-ing to the eventual winners, Cuala.

Many thanks to mentors

Fionnan Kennedy, John O‟Callaghan, Ruari Kelleher and also to Garrett Robin-son for all their help during the year.

Team Management: Jim

Fitzgerald, Fionnan Kennedy, John

O‟Callaghan & Ruairi Kelleher.

Most of you will be aware that Kilmacud Crokes has 3 co-ordinated sites for Senior, Juvenile and All Ireland Sev-ens Football. You can access the sites from the main club website or directly via these links:

www.kilmacudcrokes-football.com

www.kilmacudcrokes-football.com/juvenile (www.crokes4kidz.com)

www.sportsmanager.ie/cake/gaa2/kilmacudsevens

They are now a vital part of the information sharing and communication processes within our large club. Please

check out our sites regularly for news items, notices, automated fixtures/results/tables (filtered for Kilmacud Crokes), juvenile match reports, photo galleries and much more.

Page 14

Our Football Websites

The Scoop@Crokes

U16 A PHOTOS

In the first match, we played Ra-heny in Silverpark and beat them by six points in an entertaining game. The final was against St Patrick‟s Palmerstown who had

dominated the Division during the year. The match was in Palmers-town and we travelled as definite

underdogs but our squad were de-termined to have their day and put in a strong performance all over the pitch. St Patrick‟s rallied towards

the end with a late goal but the

Kilmacud work rate was tremen-dous and we ran out winners to take the league title. This was a great win for the Team and capped a successful four years at Under 13

to 16 level with two league wins, one runner up and one year playing in Division 3 football.

Particular thanks must go to Bren-dan Scanlon and Kieran Lally who took the core of the team from

nursery to under 12.

There are several dedicated hard working players in the panel and it is hoped that most of the squad will stay together and integrate with

the Kilmacud minor teams in 2012.

Team Management: Michael Kelly & Patrick McDonnell

This year we were back in Division 4 playing with some strong first teams including Raheny, St Pat-rick‟s, St Mark‟s and St Pere-grine‟s. From the start we strug-

gled with numbers and apart from a core of 10 regulars we had disap-pointing attendance at training and

matches early in the season. We did manage to recruit but with inju-ries and competition from Rugby we were usually short. On behalf of

the mentors and players we wish to acknowledge the tremendous help from Matt and Eamon and the un-der 15 players.

We had mixed results in the league but we were encouraged that we

were playing reasonably. In the second half of the season we im-

proved and when the league was over we had ended third in the divi-sion and so qualified to the top 4 play-offs.

U16 B

We had 25 players in the panel of which five represented the Club at inter- county level. David Campbell, Paul Mannion and Andy O‟Malley played with the footballers. Oisin

O‟Rorke and Robert Murphy played with the hurlers. Unfortunately both teams fell at the final hurdle never the less they have Leinster Champi-onship medals for their efforts and it was a measure of the quality of the Kilmacud players that so many

were called up for county duty. The lads represented the club and their

families with pride and this recogni-tion was fully deserved.

We started training in January and took a break from the end of May

to the end of June. Training re-sumed in July and we had a three-day training camp in Mayo during the Month of August. Various fund-raising events were planned in

which the players fully participated. We would like to thank the fund raising committee and the parents for all their support and help throughout the year.

Our form has being mixed winning four games and losing five. Consid-

ering we played most of the games minus the inter-County players the

performances were good and it gave us a chance to fully utilise all the players on the panel.

The championship was run off in a round robin series. Four groups of four teams and the top team in each group qualifying for the semi-finals.

We were drawn against Ballymun Kickhams, St. Marks and Raheny. Following three fantastic wins we qualified for the semi-final against Castleknock. On the day we were well beaten on a score line of 1-10 to 5 points. It was a very disap-

pointing end to an excellent run in the championship however on the

day the best team won. Cas-tleknock went on to beat our near neighbours Ballyboden St. Enda‟s in the final.

Finally, to the players who showed

great character and as much talent in everything they did throughout the year. To all our second year minors we wish you well as you progress to the next level in your football development. The commit-ment and the attitude of the whole

minor panel cannot be faulted.

They were a pleasure to work with and a credit to the club especially on our training camp in Mayo.

Team Management: Tommy Lyons, John Costello, Mick Leahy, Robbie Kelleher & Pat Cunningham

neither team was as fit as we would have liked. The B‟s played 10 league matches, winning 5; lost all 3 championship matches, the first two narrowly - to Colmcilles by one

point at home and by two points away to Oliver Plunketts in a very hotly contested match.

The C‟s had to make up numbers in league and championship with 5 or 6 U16 players, winning just two league matches, losing their two

championship matches and conced-ing the third. We are grateful to John Moriarty and Greg O‟Brien for mentoring the C‟s on match days.

The season started with the Bs and Cs as one, amounting to 40+ names, of whom some 35 were regular so we opted to have a third minor team and 30+ players got

game time in league and champion-ship.

Training in mid-summer was disap-

pointing, being called off on a few occasions when less than 6 players turned up. This resulted in a loss of interest by John Sweeney, brought

in as a brilliant and enthusiastic physical training man.

The delayed championship meant

Lessons have been learned:

There is no reason why all the

club‟s minor players could not train together in the quieter weeks mid-summer.

Hurling commitments for 9 or so

B players badly affected football

in league and championship.

We need to look at player devel-

opment and create opportunities for B players to advance and/or get an „A‟ team outing.

Team Management: Declan Herlihy,

John Sweeney & Tommy Mannion

Minor B & C

Minor A

Page 15

John Shovlin was recently elected to the position of Chairman of the Football Com-mittee to replace Pat Lamb who was finish-

ing a very successful four year stint in the Chair.

Many thanks to Pat for his great support of our under age football.

We know we are also in “secure” hands with John who has always been prominent in his contribution to the juvenile side of things.

We look forward to his continued support.

New Football Chairman

Croke Family Crest

This is the crest of the Croke Family. Archbishop Croke of Cashel was one of the first patrons of the GAA when it was founded in 1984, and Croke Park is named afer him.

The Top Half

About 1920 Croke Park United, which became The Crokes Hurling Club, was set up, around the Drumcondra area of Dublin. In 1966 Crokes Hurling Club joined with Kilmacud GAA club, which had been set up in 1959, to form what is now Kilmacud Crokes.

Our version of the Croke family crest has been updated. The symbol on the left, which looks like a spear-head with wings, is a type of lily, a fleur-de-lys.

The open red hand is a symbol of Ulster and comes to us from the club Benburbs, which was from around the

Roebuck area. Benburbs joined up with Crokes in the early 70's.

The lily on the crest has a holy meaning. For example, due to its shape, it is sometimes used like St. Patrick used the shamrock. The sleeved arm is a symbol of devotion, and our gold sleeve looks like it could belong to an archbishop alright! Another meaning of the sleeved arm is 'victory in tournament', going back to when knights took part in tournaments. So this is a good symbol for us in our tournaments - football, hurling and camogie.

The Bottom Half

The reason Benburbs had the red hand is that Eoin Rua O'Neill, Earl of Tir Eoghan, beat the English at the Battle

of Benburb in 1646.

Apparently the building with the red roof is the scout den near the junction of the Upper and Lower Kilmacud Road, and guess what is in the window of the den? A big fleur-de-lys. It is very like the crest of Scoil Lorcan Naofa, the local school. The school crest is the old St. Laurence's church, but instead of a chimney the school has

a round tower.

2012 Under Age Football Committees

Our Club Crest

Can you help with input for the ju-venile football website or would you like to volunteer to help out

with our website administration?

Please contact:

Des Molyneaux

086 8228385

desmx@eircom.net

Web Help Wanted!

U6 - U12 Chairman: Martin Byrne

U13 - U18 Chairman: Pat Horgan

Vice Chair / Social Officer: Peter Ward Secretary: Eamon Keating

Child Protection Officer: Ronnie Murray CCC2 Board Delegate: Michael Kelly

Mentor Registrar: Maurice Roche Equipment Officer: Gerry Kelly

Facilities & Gear Officer: Kevin Bannon Communications Officer: Des Molyneaux

Club Liaison Officer: Arthur McMahon

Nursery Officer: David van Zuydam