Planning Ahead

It's been hectic since coming back after the Christmas period and the blog has been neglected. I'm sure your breakfast is a more dull experience not having a regular update on all things Belgium G.A.A. However, we took a good step forward in The Oak last Friday night.

Normally I hate holding any form of meeting in a pub but in this case it's a little different as The Oak is kind of the spiritual home of Belgium Gaelic Football. It was over many a Vedett back in the winter of 2007 that myself and Conan started to scheme and plot for the first time.

It's funny to look back at our attitude then. We were willing to set up Belgium Gaelic Football club independant of Brussels Hurling & Camogie club. We were both involved in the Hurling and that wouldn't change but we wanted to do things our way. I think we had even discussed what kind of money we would need to invest to secure pitches, jerseys etc. Conan may have even bought the first ten footballs out of his own pocket. We got a good way down the road of securing a top class pitch too.

It's all happy families now though as the Hurlers and Footballers went on to win their first European Championships in the years that followed. We are more calm now and the main topics on Friday night's agenda were; 2009 reflections, B Team, Training, Player pool, Challenge games and the players meeting.

You'd be surprised at the length of the player list we have. It's pushing 50+ and a good 40 of them are live contenders. Others showed last year at various times. We are going to draw up a more definite list this week and contact the borderline cases to see their intentions. Conan is going on a big recruitment campaign and will try and tap into previous untouched markets like the Ozzies and foreigners (Matti excluded). We will cover every major town in Brussels. The more the merrier has to be the attitude.

Challenge games will be a big thing, especially given the three month gap in the football season in the summer. We already have a trip to Clare Island pencilled in and there are a few other plans hatching.

We agreed on the format of the player meeting. I know Conan was strongly in favour of having one but as written previously, I'm not a fan. The compromise will be we will meet fellas in groups of 5/6 for 30 minutes. That way we can have a more direct conversation. There is always pub talk when you are involved in a team (which is totally natural and I am guilty of engagin in it myself)and it's important to allow fellas get this stuff off their chest. The quality of the conversation will be better in small groups. Better but maybe more explosive!!

The three of us left with our to do lists. Training starts Thursday night. It will be good to be back.