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Clare Camogie PRO Report 2020

2020… a year when our world became concentrated in the 5km around us, a year which saw
so many changes to how we live our lives, when the new normal became face masks, hand
sanitiser and keeping our distance. I want to extend a sincere thanks to all our players &
mentors both Club & County, Club and match officials –your efforts ensured that our game
continued. I am in awe of you all, especially the girls, because despite the Covid-19 situation
around us I commend you for the efforts that you put in night after night, week after week,
game after game – ye are the role models for future generations, and the reason I, and my
fellow officers do what we do.
Plans were afoot to run our now annual PRO Workshops, however mid-March we entered
lockdown and life since has been lived under restrictions in terms of numbers and travel.
Some of our Club PROs attended the PRO Training delivered through the GAA Future
Leaders Development Programme. The good news is that us tutors have recently completed
workshops on delivering on-line training so for 2021 we will be able to have our PRO
Workshops.
There may not have been activity on the field of play in April, May & June but our players
rose to the challenge in terms of fundraising for charities – the Seniors, Juniors and Minors
all completed challenges which helped us to maintain an on-line presence whilst raising
much needed funds for local charities. Our social media channels continued to grow, and I
believe we all learnt so much more about both the advantages and disadvantages of social
media.
With our Adults finals having to be played behind closed doors, many felt this would be a
huge disadvantage for Camogie in the county. However, we again delivered for supporters
as all 4 Cup finals were live streamed thanks to the huge efforts of Channel Clare – Peter,
Alan, Mark, Siobhan along with Anne Marie McGann and Dervilla Moloney ensured that
those games were beamed into homes both in Clare and throughout the country. Over
12,000 watched the games on-line which is a huge audience. Live streaming also gave us the
opportunity to show the county and indeed the country the fine facilities we have at Fr
McNamara Park. As all the games were played the one weekend, we were able to produce a
programme which included all 8 games – another first!! The 54-page programme was
available to all on-line and within 48 hours of the link being posted, over 3,000 people had
viewed it!! My thanks to Marie Louise who had paper programmes at each of the Final
venues & to all who helped out over the weekend.
In terms of local media, 2020 saw changes also. Darren Kelly moved on from Clare FM and
has set up a superb on-line platform – Sports Daz, I would encourage you all to follow this
platform on all the social media channels. Peter O’Connell left the Clare Champion and set
up Channel Clare – we wish you continued success Peter and thank you sincerely for your
efforts to help us get our Adult Cup Final broadcast to so many. Eoin Brennan & James Lynch
continued with Clare FMs Sideline View, while Derrick Lynch and Padraic McMahon
continued to promote Camogie through the Clare Champion and Clare Echo respectively.
Scariff Bay Community Radio again followed us around the county & country covering club
and county games. Sincere thanks to ye all and to all the players who assisted also.
One good thing to come out of COVID is that a number of people put their hand up for
match reporting so this should benefit all Clubs in 2021 when hopefully we can get back to a
more normal season.