Ramor's top players lack self-belief. That's the view of former star and current club treasurer Joe Hopkins.

Joe Hopkins continues to bring the diligence and ferocious ambition he exhibited in his football days to bear on administration matters at his beloved Ramor Utd.
His safari as a player back in the sixties and seventies saw him bag a SFC medal in 1974 but for years now he's been engaged in helping put the structures in place which may yet spawn another blue riband title for United.

In the clamourous cockpit of GAA activity in Cavan, Ramor cut a well-heeled look. Hopkins, as club treasurer, is one of the more public faces of the club and has his finger on the pulse of United's financial affairs.
"We have some debt but nothing that's not manageable. We're not too badly off but we're not flush with money either. I think the well-heeled impression would be well off the mark."

Even though Ramor's premier team has deteriorated from invincibles back in the mid-eighties to unconvincing these days, structurally they exude more of a Dublin 4 exterior than barren drumlin facade.
The existence of three playing pitches (including an astro turf model), top notch dressing-rooms, replete with a gym, and car parking to beat the band all contribute to the well-to-do image Ramor has.

As the club's Minister of the Exchequer, Hopkins adopts a pose that is more conservative in hue though than revivalist zeal.
He neither talks up nor talks down perceptions from nearby or a distance away from Ramor's coalface.
Instead, he portrays something akin to a stiff upper lip attitude in response to the ongoing challenging times which currently besets his home club on the field of play - at senior level in particular - and by way of financial matters.
Diplomatic to the core and a man who chooses his words carefully, the retired bank manager seems to be the right man in the right place at the right time for Ramor.

GAA clubs have not been immune to the recession which has washed over the bows of the country.
However Chief money bags Hopkins doesn't cough up the look of a man who has found himself walking into propellors because of the downturn.
It seems nothing brings people quite so close together as a bit of adversity. Ramor have chiselled out their own success story from the ravages of economic madness.
"The recession has hit everyone, every organisation but just have to get on with it and that's what we've done at Ramor," the Mullagh road resident explains.

"We have managed to reduce our debt in three years by two-thirds and that is something everyone associated with the club can take pride and inspiration from.
"A substantial amount of fundraising has gone on over the past few years and the club has received great support from the local area.
"The lotto is still very good to us and we have possibly nearly trebled our membership base over the last five years which helps strengthen the club in a lot of ways, including that of fundraising.
"The facilities are a great asset, of course, and attract interest and help draw in new members and, thankfully, there's still a good inflow of new blood into the club each year."

Still a relatively new club, Ramor is still growing but growing up is an expensive business. How easy is it these days to raise the finance to cover running costs and then some?
"It's not the easiest time to be looking for money from the general public but I've been pleasantly surprised by the response we've had to our various fundraisers and our staple ones like the lotto.
"We have a finance committee that meets regularly and discusses what funds are needed and plans accordingly.
"The club is fortunate in that the fundraising isn't just left to two or three. We normally have two or three people who would put teams together to look after different areas for the collection of funds.

"Ramor has quite a bit going for itself and especially in the fact that we some people as members who are big drivers and once they get their teeth into something, you can rest assured it'll result in a great benefit accruing to the club.
Hopkins and his colleagues at Virginia's Gaelic behemoth exude a countenance of mild satisfaction that the remains on the right path and that the holy grail will be attained in due course.
As he suggests, there are a lot of gaels hanging on the every word of the dieties who dictate who goes right to the winner's enclosure and who goes left to the place thou shalt not speak about.

From the border with Maghera to the south, beyond Lisgrey to the north and around to Billis and onto the hinterland with Ballyjamesduff, gaels pledge their loyalty to Ramor and, together, with the MacFinns' fraternity make Lurgan parish one of the strongest, most solid gaeldoms in Cavan.
Ramor seem solidily rooted at every level of the club. The underage activity there reeks of textbook stuff and the silverware has come on stream in flood-like fashion at times by dint of the dervish-like work put in by Ramor's juvenile coaches and their support staff on the underage committee.
The underage brigade have a representative on the parent committee which makes for a "very good marriage" between the grass roots and the upper chamber of the club.

There is, of course, a very strong sister organisation in place too in the shape of the Lurgan ladies. Silverware has garnished their endeavour too on a regular basis with the promise of more to come at all levels as the game has never been stronger in the area as it is at present.
Winning isn't everything, of course, but is sure helps the profile of a club and nurtures an interest among even the most uninitiated.
"Bringing home a cup to the town always creates great excitement and is one of the best recruiting agents we have," Hopkins attests.

The harvest is rich where Ramor reside and the labourers are aplenty. Everyone the numbers game seems to add up for United.
According to the treasurer, in 2010 the club fielded two teams at under 14 level and two at minor level in 2011 (with Killinkere on board).
And yet, nobody knows better than Hopkins that volume doesn't always make for a readymade bedfellow with quality.
This year's Ramor Utd/Killinkere premier minor team were forced down the road of competing in the Shield competition after an inglorious exit from the top flight championship as they lost out to a Cootehill Celtic/Drumgoon amalgam.
"The minors were disappointing this year, there's no getting away from that. I think preparations for the championship weren't ideal in the sense that it was a late decision to join with Killinkere so maybe there's a lesson to be learned there."
And his own take on the value or worthwhileness of amalgamations?

"I think there are pluses and minuses surrounding amalgamations. On the plus side, it definitely gives players an opportunity to play at a higher level and in a better grade of competition than they may not get otherwise.
"On the negative side, if the players from the different teams aren't brought together often enough and soon enough, the lack of preparation can result in the players not gelling well enough and so their performance as a team will suffer as a consequence.

"On a broader note, I do think that amalgamations will become more common in the coming years because of emigration and falling numbers of young people.
"I can't see clubs wanting to amalgamate though because there is too much tradition and history surrounding individual clubs in Cavan."
To a lot of football fans in Cavan, Ramor are a modern-day sleeping giant that is just a half-dozen quality senior players away from winning the SFC.

With the amount of underage titles the club has won over the course of the last ten years and more, people around the Breffni county are perplexed though as to why things haven't clicked into place at senior level before now.
For his part, Hopkins - a IFC and SFC medallist from times past - understands the sense of wonderment from afar?
"We won the minor league three times in a row during the past decade and I do feel there are a lot of quality players in the club.

"We've made some progress at senior level in recent years with getting to the semi-final of the championship four years ago and again last year but we just didn't kick on this year as I personally would have expected.
"I think there's a case for saying that the current seniors don't have sufficient belief in themselves but I still think there's more to come from them and hopefully we'll see their best sooner rather than later. Tweet

Most Read Stories