A Chara,

Ba mhaith le CLG Áth Fhada an deis seo a aimsiú chun Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona agus sábháilte a ghuí ar gach duine. Tá súil againn go mbainfidh gach duine taitneamh as an lá, agus b’fhéidir go mbeidh deis agaibh freastal ar na paráidí áitiúla i Mainistir na Corann agus An Geata Bán!

Ná déanaigí dearmad go mbeidh ár bhfoireann peile ag imirt in aghaidh Mhala i Ros Téalain ar an Domhnach ag 11:30rn – bígí linn le tacaíocht a thabhairt do na leaids más féidir!

Ba iontach an radharc é slua mór a fheiceáil ar an bpáirc an Domhnach seo caite, áit ar thug ár mbuachaillí iomána troid mhaith do Chluain Uamha sa chéad chluiche den séasúr! 

Tá súil againn go leanfaidh an slua ag fás de réir mar a théann an bhliain ar aghaidh!

Ná déanaigí dearmad bhur ndathanna an chlub a chaitheamh ar lá an chluiche!

The St. Patrick's Day parade takes place in Whitegate on Monday at 12:30pm. Best wishes to everyone involved in the event! Why not head down to celebrate the big day! 

Our teams have been back in action over the last few weeks with great crowds turning up to roar our players on. Our Premier Intermediate Footballers faced Rockchapel in Rostellan in the opening adult game of the year and unfortunately lost out by the narrowest of margins. Our Junior A footballers played immediately after this game and also lost out to a dominant Dungourney side so not the best start for our adult footballers! Last Sunday our Intermediate A hurlers faced neighbours Cloyne in their opening league game and after a quality contest, lost out late on. On a brighter note, our Junior B hurlers faced Carrigtwohill on Monday night and had a big win over our visitors to Rostellan with Jamie O’Hanlon bagging a hat trick of goals! Click on the following link for the full GAA match reports: 

https://www.aghadagaa.com/articles/144863 

Finally, our U21 Ladies Footballers had a great win down in Clonakilty against Clonakilty in the County Quarter Final last Sunday afternoon. The girls won out in the end by a single point after a very enjoyable game of football. Best on the day for Aghada were Amelia Cooper, Kaitlin Smith and Abigail Ring. They now face Mourneabbey away from home next month.  

Our next two big games for our footballers and hurlers are listed below:

Keep an eye out on social media for all the upcoming fixtures over the next few weeks. 

Over the last few months our school's coaching team have been busy visiting Aghada N.S., Scartleigh N.S. and Whitegate N.S. The young children have benefited greatly from the fantastic coaching provided by the transition year students along with coaching coordinators Pat O’Connell and Paula Dunne. The TYs have now completed three six week coaching programmes in the national schools since the start of the school year. These programmes focus on coaching junior infants to 1st class students. Well done to all involved!

We have been incredibly lucky to have a number of club members representing Aghada with their school and college teams over the last few months. Huge congratulations to Charlie Terry who won the Junior All Ireland Hurling College Championship with MTU Cork a few weeks ago. Congrats also to his fellow club member Diarmuid Cotter who was involved in the MTU backroom team. 

Huge congratulations to Marie Moran who won the Lynch Cup All Ireland Ladies Football College Championship with MTU Cork today in Belfast. Hard luck to Kaitlin Smith, Aoife Healy and Abigail Ring who lost out to DCU in the O’Connor Cup Final this afternoon. 

It is great to have our club members representing Aghada with their schools and colleges. Hopefully they will bring the great form they had with these teams back with them to club action over the next few months!

We are thrilled to have so many members involved with Cork teams again this year. Best wishes to Fergal Condon with the Cork Senior Hurlers in 2025. Hopefully they can go one step further this year! 

Huge congratulations to Ava Coughlan who has been named the Cork U16 LGFA Captain for 2025. Her Aghada team mate, Maisie McRae has also been excelling at centre back for the Cork Minor LGFA team this year. 

Well done to David Murphy and Cormac Cashman who have been selected on the Cork U15 football team for 2025. We are also incredibly proud of Tom Walsh who is involved with the Cork minor hurlers this year with Trveor O’Keeffe a coach with the team.

Finally, we are delighted to have Sarah Leahy named as Cork Senior Ladies Football Captain for 2025.  A huge honour for Sarah and her family. Best of luck also to Kaitlin Smith, Rachel Leahy, Hannah Looney, Abigail Ring & Aoife Healy who will line out with the rebel footballers this year! Hannah and Aoife will be busy as they also tog out alongside Amy O’Connor for the Cork Camogie team who are aiming for three in a row this year. 

This is just a flavour of some members representing rebel teams this year. There’s no doubt we will have more to talk about over the next few months!

Aghada Dads & Lads will continue to train again this year. The aim is to help people at the club get to know each other, have a bit of fun and try and stay fit. Sessions will start in the next few weeks. 

If you are interested in taking part please contact Colin Rooney to get added to the Spond group on 087 975 6011

The Aghada mens shed has been busy down in our club grounds over the last few months and have done some great work cleaning and re-energising the grass/tree area near our club portacabin. Thanks to all involved here. The Aghada Mens Shed hold their AGM on Tuesday the 25th of March at 7pm in our club portacabin. 

Thank you to Pat Cashman, Anthony & John Connolly and Cathal Croinin who have put in a lot of work to erect new lights near our ball wall which will light up the car park at night! Thanks lads.

The annual Aghada LGFA Long Kick takes place on Sunday the 23rd of March at 10am in Whitegate. All are welcome to attend this family friendly event.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased a Rebels Bounty ticket for 2025. It is greatly appreciated by the club. The Rebels Bounty draw has been a brilliant fundraiser for our club since its launch a few years ago and the funds generated have helped us plan for future development. Tickets are still available to purchase for 2025 at the following link: https://dap.ergogroup.ie/uat/rebelsbounty/join-draw 

Get your ticket now to support our club and also be in with a chance of winning huge cash prizes! If you’re not in, you can’t win! Tickets sales close at the end of March so don’t leave it too late.

Our club lotto jackpot has been rising steadily over the last few months and now stands at a staggering €17,250. Wouldn't that be a nice win? Tickets are available online at: https://bit.ly/3bWAiqD 

Tickets are also available in all the usual local outlets listed below. The draw will be live again on Thursday on our club Facebook page at 9:30pm. 

Club membership for 2025 is available at the following link: https://www.foireann.ie/login 

Don’t forget you need to have purchased your membership before the end of March to be an active member in the club (player, mentor, committee member etc). 

CLG Áth Fhada would like to pass on our sympathies to the McCarthy family (Midleton) on the incredibly sad passing of Darragh this week. Condolences to Darragh’s family, friends and all his club mates in Midleton GAA. 

We also send our condolences to Batty & the Cronin family on the recent passing of Eileen. Condolences to the Ring/Lee/Lowrey families on the passing of Iris. Finally, our thoughts are with the Murphy family (Kilmurry) after the recent passing of Timothy. 

Bainigí taitneamh as an deireadh seachtaine!

Slán,

Vince