The GAA at all levels has depended enormously on voluntary effort during its one and a quarter centuries of life. Without the willingness of people to get stuck in for the cause of their club or county the organisation simply wouldn't be the thriving, vibrant one it is today. By Paul Clarke.

All over the country and further afield men, women and a fair few children too give of their own time for the good of the association as a whole, whether they be occupying roles on committees, training under-age teams, washing sweaty jerseys, cutting grass, collecting at gates or making tea and sandwiches. The list goes on and on and it's this type of effort which sums up much of what helps to make the GAA so special.
The Meath GAA Supporters Club is a voluntary body made up of people who care about Meath football and are ready and willing to give of their time for its betterment. Reformed six years ago during Brendan Dempsey's term as chairman of the County Committee, it plays a hugely important and significant role in the preparation of Royal County teams.
Under the chairmanship of Dunshaughlin-based solicitor Raymond Finnegan, it has achieved a membership of approximately 600 in the past and for a fee of just €25 members can play their part in ensuring that county players, who give so much of their time for the enjoyment of others, get what they need.
This may be training gear, a contribution to the training fund or money towards training camps. Whatever is required the Supporters Club is there to help and with the cost of fielding teams increasing all the time and a recession in full swing this is more important than ever.
Supporters Club members man the car park at what used to be the swimming pool end of Pairc Tailteann on big match days and this brings in vital revenue, while they have also organised draws at the Navan venue, though the large amount of people required to do this, especially when attendances are very large, has posed a problem.
The club also organises buses to travel to away matches and one member of the Supporters Club, Tony O'Brien, plays a key role in this venture. Many good friendships have been built up during trips to far away venues around the country and the craic on these journeys can be mighty, irrespective of the result.
Navan man Tony is PRO of the Supporters Club along with Patsy Farrell from Kilbride and in his youth he played with the Navan de la Salle club, winning a couple of under-14 and under-16 medals and one minor championship medal. His late father Vincent was chairman of the Simonstown Gaels club during the earlier years of their existence.
"I played under-age with the Salles up to minor, but that was about it," he said. "You would want to have been very good to break into the O'Mahonys' team."
He has been a member of the Supporters Club for five years.
"I was approached by Jacksie Kiernan about helping out," he added. "I didn't have time before that, but I said I would give it a go. I'm the PRO along with Patsy Farrell. I try to work with the media as best I can to help the Supporters Club. I give updates to LMFM radio about anything we would be doing and make contact with the local media and websites like hoganstand.com and An Fear Rua."
One of the successful initiatives undertaken by the Supporters Club has been organising buses which makes it possible for more Meath supporters to travel to matches they might otherwise be unable to attend, whether it be in the National League, championship or even the early season O'Byrne Cup.
"I am a contact along with Jacksie Kiernan and Declan Byrne from Duleek," Tony said. "We do a deal with Navan Bus.com. I have to say Padraig O'Brien has been very good to us price wise. The bus trips aren't specifically for Supporters Club members. You don't have to be a member. We do a deal which is as cheap as possible for Meath supporters.
"Padraig has a 24-seater bus and a couple of 17-seaters. We have the option of a 55-seater if the demand for places is high. It all depends on the numbers. For instance, 25 supporters travelled to the National League game against Down in Newry earlier this year and we had about 115 or 120 for the Leinster final."
Meath have some attractive away matches coming up in the National League next spring and the Supporters Club members are already thinking ahead.
"We will try to get a concession for Meath's four away games in the National League next year against Laois, Antrim, Kildare and Derry," Tony added. "Unfortunately, people have a habit of leaving it as late as Saturday morning to make contact with us. We advertise the bus on our website and also put up posters. We have the option to increase the capacity, but we do encourage people to call us early."
Some people use the bus service practically all the time, while others travel occasionally and there is always plenty of fun.
"Throughout the year certain people will travel on the bus for every game," Tony said. "We have regulars like Johnny Jordan, Brendan Hughes and Martin Cooke. There is great craic, even if we lose. We will go out of our way to pick people up. We try to get as many people as possible to go to games at the cheapest price we can get. As I said, Padraig is excellent in this regard. When we travelled to the National League game in Donegal earlier this year we even had people from Ballinabrackey with us."
The Supporters Club has gone from strength to strength, but the desire is to increase membership.
"We want to encourage as many people as possible to join the Supporters Club," Tony added. "The more people we have on board the better. It means we can do more for Meath teams. Fielding teams is a very expensive business. We do whatever we can, like contributing money for training weekends, gear, food, etc. We provide money for training camps like the one in Portugal this year.
"We have an online membership on the website and we are still getting membership in even this late in the year. We get people from many different places joining, like the United States, Australia, Germany, Belgium and even Thailand. There's a big support from people living in Dublin, with whole families joining. We also get people from down the country.
"All monies generated by the Supporters Club go back into helping Meath teams, so the more members we have the better. We have about 500 members at the moment and we would really like that to increase.
"The Supporters Club would like to help out hurling more, especially Meath under-age teams, but we're not getting enough members from the hurling end of things. We have only a handful. The bottom line is that we need more members. Then we would be in a position to do more. We would also like to start a junior section in the club and invite them to attend Meath team training."
A popular initiative undertaken by the Supporters Club over the last few years has been the Player of the Year Award where members have the opportunity to vote for who they think was the Royal County's best footballer in any given year. The inaugural winner of the award in 2007 was Graham Geraghty.
"The Supporters Club has organised the Player of the Year Award in recent years and it has been very successful," he said. "The award is sponsored by Declan Black of Eco Facility Management. The club members have a vote and we send forms out to each member."
The €25 it takes to join the Meath Supporters Club is small compared to other counties and it gives Royal County fans a chance to play their part in the preparation of county teams. If more people join the club, more can be done.

You can contact the Meath Supporters club by email [email protected] or details of how to join online are available at meath.gaa.ie Tweet

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