Having made the drop from Division 1 over four years ago, Ramor Utd. have found the choppy waters of Division 2 football difficult to negotiate. For a club with such a recent rich history, the sense of purpose of once again playing in the topflight is paramount to all the Gaels involved with the Virginia club. When you listen to the club chairman talk about the future of Ramor United you are left in no doubt that the immediate present is not what Ramor is about, more so a comprehensive outlook visualing and projecting the club well into the future. Club chairman, Gene Clancy, a native of Virginia, who remembers the old Virginia Blues, has acted in his capacity as chairman since 2005 and says that 2008 is his final stint at the helm. When asked how he felt the 2007 season worked out for the club and what they hoped to look at in 2008, Gene, was both pragmatic and forward thinking as to where the club presently stand and how the members of Ramor United would envisage the future. "We are a football club and when we look back on the 2007 season we feel that what we set out at the beginning of the year was achieved. The team finished in a mid table position in the league. We had five draws, which militated against us fighting for promotion. We had a problem in the sense that we had found it difficult to negotiate a win in the first round of the championship over the past number of seasons. The management team of Gary Farrelly and Damien O'Reilly set the target of overcoming the first round of the championship hurdle. It was generally felt at the club that we had been fighting a relegation battle for the previous few years and it was having a downward effect on the players. We played Drumalee in the first round and gave a very convincing performance coming out victorious and having achieved our aim of winning the first round, there was a sense of relief at this victory. I suppose we could deem ourselves unfortunate to have drawn, championship favourites, Cavan Gaels in the quarter-final where we made our exit. It is generally felt that both Damien and Gary did tremendous work with the players and achieved what they set to do. Unfortunately, both men have declined to continue in their position for the 2008. Gary, who is a member of the club and worked with many of the senior squad through the juvenile ranks felt it was time for a change and stepped down, while Damien felt that family matters would not allow him the time needed to take on working with the squad full time," stated Gene. When Gene reflects on the progress of the squads at Ramor, he can take satisfaction in the knowledge that the second team played twelve games in the league and finished in a creditable fourth position with seventeen points. For most of the year they were in a postion to gain promotion and no doubt should be serious contenders for it in 2008. Outlook When Gene was asked how he viewed the coming season of 2008 he was not hesitant in his answer. "I would have high hopes for the club in 2008. With the championship stigma finally put to rest we can now concentrate on making a serious push at regaining our place in Division 1 of Cavan football. Our panel will be a great deal stronger for the coming year with the return from Australia of Shane Cole and Niall McHugo. We also have a number of very promising minors coming through and I would expect players like James McEnroe, Raymond Farrelly and Adrian Cole to make a much bigger impact at senior this coming year. We also hope to see the return of Stephen Monaghan. Stephen missed all of last season when he sustained a serious knee injury. "We also have a new team management in place. It is a high profile set-up of P. J. Buckley and Ciaran Macken. We interviewed quite a few candidates for the position and felt that P. J. Buckley fitted the requirements were looking for at Ramor. P. J. comes with a glowing reputation and is a former Dublin inter-county player. He has been in team management now for many years. He will be assisted by Longford man, Ciaran Macken, who worked with Longford county champions, Dromard. I feel that this combination and the strengthened squad should be a formidable combination for the incoming season. Our target would be to gain promotion and to make more headway in the championship. The final piece of the gigsaw in the management team is selector, Paddy McNamee. Paddy, is a former player and lifelong member of the club. He has a wealth of knowledge of Cavan football having managed a number of teams in the county. A former inter-county player of note Paddy's contribution to the management team will be invaluable. So when you look at what is at our disposal, both on the players side and the high profile management team, yes I do feel confident about our chances for 2008," stated the Ramor United chairman. Juvenile club For many years, Ramor United have been deeply involved with underage football in the locality servicing the needs of the parish and fielding along with Maghera Mac Finns as Lurgan. In juvenile football circles the name Lurgan has long been associated with success at all levels of underage football in the Breffni County. Ramor United made the historic decision at their annual general meeting to 'go it alone' and concentrate on fostering their identity and own nursery. As a juvenile club Lurgan fielded teams in all age categories from U-8 up to U-21 with a great deal of success. You just have to look back across the 2007 season to see just how influential they were throughout most of the grades at underage level. Lurgan minors contested the championship final and were also involved at the final stages of the minor league where they lost out at the semi-final stage; while U-12, U-13, U-14 all contested finals. The club's U-16 made it to the semi-finals both of the league and championship and were beaten by the eventual winners in both games. According to Ramor United's Chairman, Gene Clancy:" Firstly I would like to pay tribute to all the coaches who worked with the Lurgan juvenile club over its many years. Without them, the true lifeline of Ramor United, our success as a senior club may not have been ensured. The decision to go it on our own was something that we did not do lightly. We teased out the process, and a number of factors helped influence our decision. The decision to go it alone in our own right was taken at the annual meeting. The unanimous decision from the floor was that we should concentrate on Ramor United and instill a sense of commitment and pride in the jersey from an early age. "As a club we felt that many people would have thought of Lurgan as a separate club. The need to form our own identity and infuse that feeling and belief into juvenile players as a continuum onto the senior playing ranks of Ramor United was what we felt of paramount importance. A sense of being and belonging to a club is something that is vitally important. You only have to look at the successful clubs like Cavan Gaels and Crossmaglen to appreciate how the pride in the jersey is fostered at an early age. We have examined a number of structures and along with the excellent coaching that is in existence at the club we hope to fuse a plan for not only the juveniles but also for the senior section as well. It would be our belief that a coaching structure will be put in place with all teams from the youngest juveniles to seniors reading of the same manual. Martin Lynch, another former senior player will act as a liasion co-ordinating between the juvenile section and the senior club," stated a pragmatic club chairman. Negotiations "With the establishment of our own juvenile section we realised that a number of children from the parish might miss out on playing gaelic football. To this end we mooted a plan for a parish team encompassing Ramor United and Maghera Mac Finns. Prior to Christmas a five man committee from both clubs met and discussed if this would be feasable. While the meetings were amicable we did not reach a satisfactory conclusion at this point," stated the Ramor chairman. Development When Gene talks about the development that is currently underway at the club, he is quick to point out that previous adminstrations over the years had left the club in a healthy financial state. "When we approached this new phase of development at Ramor we were fortunate that previous committees had left the club in a healthy state. We had not the burden of carrying over any debt and this was a great incentive for us all here to go ahead with our planned development. When completed the development at the club will see a new state of the art clubhouse, housing four new dressingroom with shower facilities, a manger's office, and a meeting room. The provision of an astro turf pitch will also be sited adjacent to the clubhouse and the main football field is being moved twenty metres towards the Lough Ramor lake end. All in all it is a pretty ambitious project and one that has been totally financed through a number of fund-raising events which has left the club in the fortunate position that they did not require to borrow from any banking institution. Much of the credit for this must go to the hard-working finance and development committee of Michael O'Donoghue, secretary, Joe Hopkins, John O'Reilly, Frank McGuinness, Larry Carpenter, Niall Dolan, Pat Joe Monaghan, Michael Maguire and chairman, Gene Clancy. The captial outlay for this new project is estimated to cost in the region of half a million euro. A sizeable amount of money and considering that there is no borrowing needed, it is a credit to the committee and to members who worked hard to raise this much needed finance. A number of fund-raising events and Lotto funding will be sufficient to see this project to finalisation," stated Gene. Fred Duffy Club chairman, Gene Clancy said that the club lost one of its most outstanding members in 2007 and said that on behalf of himself and club he would like to pay tribute to the late Fred Duffy. "Fred, was a life-long member of Ramor United, having previously been a former playing member of Virginia Blues. He embraced the coalition of the new club, Ramor Utd with great enthusiasm and vision. Fred acted in all capacities at executive level for Ramor United and always acted in an unstinting and positive manner towards the advancement of the club. For many years he acted as treasurer and was one of the leading figures in creating a situation that saw the club debt free as it moved into the new millennium. On behalf of all the members of Ramor United I would like to extend our sympathy to the entire Duffy family on their loss," stated the Ramor United chairman. Tweet

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