A Chara,

I hope everyone had a great Easter. It’s hard to believe May is nearly upon us! League matches are continuing across the club with Hurling, Football, Camogie and Ladies Football all getting their share of matches each week. Well done to our players and mentors who make sure they are ready to represent our club every day they put on our club jersey. It is great to see people coming out to support our players on match day. It really makes a big difference to our teams. Plenty of matches to look forward to over the next week with all adult games listed below. Keep an eye on social media for any updates to these fixtures. 

Congratulations to Paudie Wall who got married to Clodagh McCarthy last weekend in Vienna Woods. Everyone in the club wishes ye a lifetime of happiness together. 

Huge congratulations to Maurice and Patricia O’Neill who won our latest club Jackpot of €18,000. A huge win for well deserving winners. Club treasurer John O’Neill and Club President John Motherway were delighted to present Patricia her winnings last Thursday evening. Happy spending! Thanks to everyone who purchases their lotto ticket every week. Your support is greatly appreciated. Our current jackpot stands at €5,500 with tickets available in all the usual local outlets and online at: https://bit.ly/3bWAiqD 

Remember, if you’re not in, you can't win!

Huge congratulations to Aoife Healy, Hannah Looney and Amy O’Connor who won the Division 1 National Camogie League 2 weeks ago in Thurles. Well done also to Kyle O’Shea who is involved in the backroom team. The team were busy as they had a great win over Clare in the Munster Semi Final last weekend in Ennis and they progress to the Munster Final in a few weeks. 

Hard luck to Sarah Leahy, Rachel Leahy, Kaitlin Smith, Hannah Looney, Aoife Healy and Abigail Ring who lost out to Galway in the Division 2 League Final in Croke Park 2 weeks ago. Even though the result wasn't what we would have hoped for, the rebels secured promotion back to Division 1 next year with Sarah Leahy captaining the rebels in Croke Park! A great honour for Sarah and her family and hopefully there will be more days out in HQ before the end of the year! Hard luck to Ava Coughlan who captained the Cork U16 Footballers in the Munster Final last weekend in Mallow. Unfortunately, Cork lost out by a point after extra time. We are all very proud of your achievements with Cork this year Ava. Well done. Best wishes to Maisie McRae who will line out with the Cork minors in the Munster Final against Kerry next weekend. 

Well done to Tom Walsh who is excelling in goals for the Cork Minor Hurlers. The rebels qualified for the Munster Final with a game to spare last night after a great victory over Waterford. 

Finally, best of luck to Fergal Condon who will be hoping to get Cork's championship campaign back on track against Tipperary tomorrow after a disappointing draw in Ennis last week. Good luck Rasper! We are all behind ye!

It’s great to see all our juvenile teams back in full swing. Our Go Games teams from U6 to U11 have been putting in excellent performances both home and away, showing great skill and enthusiasm. Meanwhile, our U12 to minor teams continue their league campaigns in both hurling and football, and have played three to four games in their groups, with some great matches and continued improvement in all groups. Links to some recent match reports: 

https://aghadagaa.com/articles/149462
https://aghadagaa.com/articles/148524 

Last weekend, we were proud to host the first rounds of Féile Peil na nÓg, where our U15’s topped their group after a strong showing. Unfortunately, they came up short in the final against a strong Midleton side. A huge well done to all players and coaches involved, and sincere thanks to everyone who helped organise a successful day. We look forward now to Féile na nGael (hurling) which takes place on bank holiday Monday 5th May. Venue TBC.

This week saw our Cúl Camp yet again book out in record time. With demand so high, we could have filled the camp twice over. Coordinators now face a busy few months preparing for the over 180 children attending from July 14th to 18th. Further information for interested coaches will be shared soon via Spond.

Lastly, Well done to our minor player Tom Walsh, who lined out with the Cork Minor Hurlers against Waterford in the Electric Ireland Munster Championship round 4 at Páirc Uí Rinn last night. The rebels had a great win! Rebels Ábú!

Football for the week ahead:

· Mon 28th U16 Div 1 v St Colmans 18:30. Home

· Tue 29th. U13 G3 v Mitchelstown 19:30 Away

· Wed 30th U18 Div1 v Kiltha Óg 18:30 Home

· Fri 2nd U14 P2 v St Colmcilles 18:30 Home

· Sat 3rd U14 Div 4 v Erin’s Own 16:30 Home

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is keeping well. 2 short notices from me below:

This photo below showcases the work carried out over the winter, where LED lighting was installed in our ball wall and astro area. This project was completed at minimal cost to the club thanks to sponsorship and the hard work and skill sets of our members who generously gave their time to help. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who contributed to this project.

Secondly, I want to express my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you who have supported the Rebels Bounty this year and in previous years. Your contributions have been a vital source of income for our club, enabling us to enhance our grounds and facilities, allowing us complete projects like walkways, viewing areas, new scoreboards, ball wall upgrades, netting improvements, drainage, fencing, coffee shop upgrades, and clubhouse upgrades, On the playing side, your support has helped us provide  gear, equipment, coaching, medical support, player welfare initiatives, and establish a state-of-the-art Strength and Conditioning gym for our players. Thanks to Bounty income, these upgrades and improvements will continue into the future and in 2025 a portion of the Rebels Bounty income will be used to supply brand new Aghada  jerseys to various teams across the club.

Fundraising takes many forms across the country whether it’s raffles for cars and houses, or organizing events like cooking classes, dancing, and even boxing competitions. Many of us still remember the days of the club mobilising over 100 members to sell raffle tickets, often purchasing many of them ourselves just to be rid of them! The introduction of the Rebels Bounty however, has changed our approach. It has provided a steady and reliable income stream, freeing us from the stress of organizing large events and alleviating the burden of driving club fundraising from the vast majority of members. This shift has ensured that our efforts are both sustainable and effective in the long term.

Looking back over the past 20 years, sports capital grants have been a driving force behind major projects in our club. These grants along with door-to-door fundraising have typically enabled us to undertake significant developments every 10 to 15 years. However, if we want to accelerate this cycle and continue improving, we cannot depend solely on grants.

The diverse and increasing costs of providing Gaelic Games to our community are rising year after year. Beyond traditional fundraising, many clubs are successfully generating income through initiatives like leasing land, renting facilities, and operating bars to name a few. To continue offering the best resources and facilities for our players while advancing large-scale projects, we must continually explore additional income-generating opportunities. While our  Rebels Bounty (membership) and Club Lotto income remain crucial, they alone won’t propel us forward quickly enough.

Thanks to the incredible volunteerism within our club, we’ve been able to save a significant portion of Rebels Bounty income over the years. Coupled with this, we secured a sports capital grant for the construction of a members' gym. The proposed vision, communicated to members at a town hall in January, would allow us to create a significant revenue-generating space to a)  help reduce the need to pass on additional playing costs to members, parents, and families, and b) deliver future projects more efficiently and within shorter timelines.

Finally, I want to extend a huge thank you to the Rebels Bounty team for their outstanding efforts in growing our participation numbers. Each year a small group of people from across the 3 clubs get together and drive our Rebels Bounty fundraiser for the good of Gaelic Games in Aghada. This year, they added 80 new members, bringing us to an incredible total of 420 participants—one of the highest in the county. Each and every single member of our club will benefit from this group's incredible achievements in promoting the Rebels Bounty fundraiser. Without their efforts, we wouldn’t be enjoying the options and opportunities we have today. So a huge thank you on behalf of the club to John Motherway, Pa O Connor, Jimmy O Leary, Vince Rohan, Una Cashman, Richard Good, PJ Hurley, Tim Barry, Conor Counihan, and John O Neill.

Le meas mór

Anthony Connolly 

CLG Áth Fhada

If anyone still has any items they wish to donate to the club pop up shop, please Helen Walsh or Sarah Walsh ASAP as the pop up shop will be open on the weekend of the 10th/11th May. Keep an eye on social media for further details! Well done to Helen & Sarah for all the work they've done to get this worthwhile venture off the ground. 

I have been asked to share Down Syndrome Centre Cork’s upcoming fundraiser on Sunday, the 15th of June. 

A great cause and you can find out more at the following link: https://c21.eventbrite.ie/ 

Best of luck to all involved!

On behalf of CLG Áth Fhada, I would like to pass on our condolences to the Alcock family on the sad passing of Eileen earlier this week. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.

Finally today, if you have received this newsletter via email, you may have noticed that it came from a new email account. At congress this year, the GAA voted to change the name of the Public Relations Officer (PRO) to Communications Officer. So with all this change, our new email for club communications is communications.aghada.cork@gaa.ie 

So in 30 years time when you are at a table quiz, I’ve no doubt you’ll remember who the last PRO of Aghada GAA Club was!!!! 

Best of luck to our Senior Ladies Footballers tomorrow afternoon in Ovens and best wishes to Rasper in the Páirc at 4pm. UP THE REBELS! 

Slán, 

Vince