Ladies' Squad for 2008/9 Season

The decision by the Board of the Club at its June meeting to establish a Ladies' Team for the 2008/9 Season has been broadly welcomed as a step in the right direction for our Club. The Vice-Chairperson of the Club, Anne Traynor, (pictured right) has been appointed to the position of "Ladies' Squad Coordinator" to oversee the signing-up of the Squad and the appointment of a Manager and Deputy Manager. The Board had hoped that the positions of Manager and Deputy Manager of the Ladies' Squad would be filled from within the existing or former managerial and coaching personnel of the Club. However, this unfortunately now seems very unlikely and therefore, Anne will be examining a number of options in this regard. The Board, on advice, decided to initially recruit only persons aged eighteen years or over as members for the Ladies' Squad for the coming season. This position will be reviewed next year by the Board as and when more volunteers come forward to assist the Club's managerial team with this important and long overdue development in the Club.

Board Selects Managers for 2008/9 Season

At the Board meeting held on Monday 9th June 2008, the Managers for the "A" and "B" Squads were selected by the Board members by way of secret ballot, please see the explanation of the process below. The new Manager for the "A" Squad is Jay Kane (pictured right) who has chosen Dean McAfee as his Deputy Manager and for the "B" Squad the Board members selected Ian M. Kane who has chosen Abrahim Abdul-Wahid as his Deputy Manager on an interim basis depending on Abrahim's college commitments. Performance will be keenly monitored by the Board as major improvements are fully expected on the results achieved by both squads last season. Though, there were a number of factors involved, the commitment by both squads was far from consistent during the later half of the 2007/8 season and therefore, the Board is determined to push for considerable improvements all round in the coming year. Already many new players have signalled their intention of signing for "The Town" and indeed, quite a few of our former players are set to return to the fold. Voting Procedure: Each of the Board members present at the meeting, with the exception of the Chairperson, was entitled to vote. The Chairperson could only exercise a vote in the case of equity - "casting vote". Ballot Papers were distributed to each Board member by the Chairperson. There was no debate on the matter prior to the vote been taken. The Ballot Paper contained two questions, one regarding the position of the Manager of the "A" Squad and the second regarding the same for the "B" Squad. The names of the two existing managerial personnel for each squad were listed alphabetically and a further choice of "Neither" in each case was added. Therefore, each member of the Board was asked in this Secret Ballot to select a person to manage the "A" Squad and another to manage the "B" Squad, or if they so wished, they could indicate that they did not support any of the candidates on the Ballot Paper by ticking the "Neither" box. The reason for placing a "Neither" option on the Ballot Paper was to allow for the Board to be instructed to find other candidates for the either of the positions to be filled.

Preparing for the New Season

An informal training session in preparation for the new season will be held on Saturday 7th June 2008 at 13.00hrs at Shanganagh Cliffs. New players are always welcome as two teams will be entered into the Leinster Senior League for the 2008/2009 Season. Changes for the coming season include the abandonment of the separate training sessions for each squad as both will now be required to train together at Shanganagh and also it is planned to recruit more younger players between 16 and 18 years of age to be the backbone of the "B" Squad. The latter measure will allow the "B" Squad to act more effectively as a "feeder squad" for the "A" Squad which will compete in a higher league as before. All players will be required to sign for both the Club and the Leinster Senior League (http://www.lsl.ie/) and in signing for the Club, each player will receive a copy of the new Handbook and undertake to read it carefully. The Club's officers will also be available to clarify or explain any sections of the Handbook if requested. The management teams for each of the squads will be chosen at the Board meeting to be held on Monday 9th June 2008 in time for the first formal training session on the following Saturday. In the interim all enquiries regarding the training sessions should be directed to Ian M. Kane, Club Development Officer (pictured above) on 085 764 7900 or by e-mail on ian_m_kane@hotmail.com The Player Directors, listed in the panel to the right, represent the views of the player members at the meetings of the Board of Directors of the Club and therefore, these Player Directors always welcome suggestions from players aimed at improving the Club, its facilities or indeed, any aspect of the Club's activities.