Ed Donnellly brings us his last installement of the year which looks ahead to happenings in 2005. FOOTBALL TEAMS OF THE PAST The Nationalist newspaper and Hotel Minella Clonmel in Association with the Tipperary County Board will honour a County Senior Football Championship winning team from the past starting at the 2005 County Senior Football final. County Chairman Donal Shanahan announced this new initiative at last weeks Football Board Convention. It is hoped to honour the Ardfinnan Senior Footballers three in a row team from 1962 to 1964 at next years County Senior Football final. NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE FIXTURES Tipperary will play in Division 1B of the 2005 Allianz National Hurling League. The fixtures for Tipperary will be as follows. February 20th in Semple Stadium vs. Down. February 27th in the Gaelic Grounds vs. Limerick. March 13th in Semple Stadium vs. Wexford. March 20th vs. Antrim (away). March 27th in Semple Stadium vs. Cork. After the first round of matches, the top three teams in each group will play off for a place in the National Hurling League final while the bottom three teams in each group will play off to avoid relegation to Division 2. These matches will be played on April 10th, April 17th and April 23rd. Best wishes to the Tipperary Senior Hurling management team of Ken Hogan (manager), Colm Bonnar and Jack Bergin in 2005. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE FIXTURES Tipperary will play in Division 2B of the 2005 Allianz National Football League. The fixtures for Tipperary will be as follows. February 6th in Clonmel vs. Cavan. February 13th vs. Waterford (away). March 6th in Clonmel vs. Meath. March 13th vs. Louth (away). March 20th vs. Wicklow (away). March 26th in Clonmel vs. Antrim. April 3rd vs. Derry (away). Best wishes to the Tipperary Senior Football management team of Seamus McCarthy (manager), Colm O'Flaherty, Jim Healy and John Owens in 2005. ALL-IRELAND VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS Hard luck to the Tipperary Vocational Schools Football team last weekend when they narrowly lost out on winning their second All-Ireland title in a row. Despite a battling performance, they went down to Kildare after extra time in the final of the All-Ireland Vocational Schools Senior Football "B" Championship. Well done to all concerned with this team over the last two years and hopefully some of these players will come through for the Tipperary Minor Football team in 2005. SPIRITUALITY AND SPORT St. Patrick's College will be the venue for an interesting GAA seminar on January 15th, 2005. The theme for the seminar will be "Exploring the link between Spirituality and Sport". Some of the best known sports starts in the country will be speaking at the seminar including Ger Loughnane, Tyrone Senior Football manager Mickey Harte, Fr. Harry Bohan, Sunday Game camogie analyst Therese O'Callaghan and Tomas Mulcahy who will be the master of ceremonies on the day. The cost of the seminar will be ?30, which will include lunch and tea & coffee during the day. The seminar will last from 10:30am to 4:30pm and places are limited so if you wish to attend, please send your application fee in addition to your name, address, club and contact number to Fr. Tom Fogarty, President, St. Patrick's College, Thurles, Co. Tipperary as soon as possible. The closing date for entries is Friday, January 7th and entries will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis. Only those who have booked in advance will be admitted to the seminar. FOUNDATION COACHING COURSE A Foundation Coaching Course aimed at Third Level Students will be held in Thurles Sarsfields GAA Centre on Wednesday December 29th and Thursday December 30th running from 1:00pm to 5:00pm each day. Both hurling and football will be catered for. Such accreditation would be very useful on any student's CV. Clubs are asked to bring this to the attention of third level students among their membership, or indeed anyone interested in participating. Contact the Games Development Committee this week if interested. LEVEL ONE FOOTBALL FOLLOW-UP In early 2004, a Residential Level One Coaching course for Football was held in the Clare Inn and over 100 people from the Premier County attended. A follow-up course for the people trained on this course has been planned and will take place on Sunday, January 16th from 2:00pm to 6:00pm in the Thurles Sarsfields GAA Centre. Pat O'Shea and Keith Ricken will be the tutors. MUNSTER COACHING INITIATIVE The presentation of certificates to clubs that completed the programme and initiation of new clubs to the Munster Coaching initiative will take place in Hayes Hotel Thurles on Monday, January 17th at 7:30pm. TIPP FOOTBALLERS IN UCC For the 2004 / 2005 season, UCC have entered two teams in the Freshers (first years) Football competition. Both teams have qualified for the All-Ireland quarterfinals that will take place after Christmas. On the first UCC Freshers team, Brian Mulvhill of Moyle Rovers is the captain and is joined by Stephen Murphy (Kilruane McDonaghs) and Paul Hally (Rockwell Rovers). Barry Quinn of Arravale Rovers has appeared a substitute for the first team and is currently centre-back on the second UCC Freshers team. Other Tipperary players involved with the second team include Eamonn Condon (Lattin-Cullen), Kieran O'Connell (Clonmel Commercials) and Philip Britton (St. Patricks). The manager of both teams is Tom O'Connor, originally from Rockwell Rovers. The aforementioned Brian Mulvihill was awarded a Sports Scholarship from UCC this year while Stephen Murphy received the Munster Council Football scholarship. Both Brian and Stephen are also on the UCC Sigerson Cup panel at present. Best of luck to all from the Premier County involved in these competitions in the New Year. TOMMY DUNNE Q & A A question and answer session with Toomevara and Tipperary hurler Tommy Dunne appears in the December edition of High Ball, the official magazine of the Gaelic Athletic Association. SYDNEY SHAMROCKS Six players from Tipperary helped the Sydney Shamrocks to win the 2004 New South Wales Hurling Championship in Australia recently. Darren Keane (Upperchurch-Drombane), Dara Rabbitte (Borrisoleigh), Pa Norton (Ballybacon-Grange), Tom Fitzgerald (Killenaule), John Treacy (Nenagh Eire Óg) and Liam Croke (Ballingarry) all started for the Sydney side against Central Coast in the final. Well done to all concerned who are keeping the Blue and Gold flag flying proudly in Bondi, Sydney. TIPPERARY GAA DRAW 2003/2004 FINANCIAL REPORT As the largest community based organisation in Ireland, the question is often asked of the GAA - "Where does the money go"? Recent media reports have highlighted the total amount being spent on preparing inter-county teams with one county spending over ?1 million in 2004. The improvement in GAA stadiums all over Ireland is there for everyone to see also, none more so than our own Semple Stadium. But there is more to it than that. There is the local club, the backbone of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The Tipperary GAA Members Draw is a very important source of income for clubs in the county. The financial report of the Tipperary GAA Members Draw for 2003/2004 appeared in the County Convention booklet last Thursday night. The report covers the period beginning in May 2003 and ending in April 2004. In total, 20,674 members subscribed to the Members draw bringing in a total of ?2,068,020. A further ?26,230 was returned on Weekly Lotto Sales while ?5,387 was earned on Interest from investments. The draw is very much based towards providing income for clubs in Tipperary with 50% of all subscriptions going back to club of the promoter. In total, ?1,153, 352 was divided up among the clubs of Tipperary during this period, providing an invaluable source of income. The total prize fund was ?661,482 while total overheads such as printing, postage and advertising can to ?107, 418. In addition to giving the money back to clubs, a number of grants totalling ?191,525 were allocated. These breakdown as follows: - Coaching (?80,000), Dr. Morris Park (?34,134), Lar na Pairce (?28,651), Post Primary Schools (?12,265), Primary Schools (?9,000), County Hurling League Winners (?3,750), Bord na nOg (?3,195), Handball (?2,887), Camogie (?2,000), Ladies Football (?1,448) and Scholarships (?500). NEW REFEREES COURSE The hard working county referees committee intend running a course for new referees in the County early in the New Year, most likely in February depending on demand. The course will be run the County tutors, Willie Barrett and Johnny McDonnell. To sign up for the course, contact John Lonergan (086-2417763) or William Robinson (087-7739066). ALL-IRELAND GLORY Former Galway hurling star Frank Burke has produced a new book with a unique pictorial history of every All-Ireland senior hurling final since 1887. The paperback is called 'All-Ireland Glory - A Pictorial History of All Ireland Hurling Finals 1887-2004'. TIPPERARY GAA SCENE Information concerning all areas in the GAA will appear in this section in the future. If you wish to include any item of interest in future articles, please contact the County Public Relations Officer Ed Donnelly at 087-2055642 Tweet

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