Gaelic games coaching courses planned for Westmeath venues
Westmeath GAA Coaching & Games News
An Introduction to Gaelic Games course (IGGC) took place last week in St Joseph's SS Rochfortbridge with 12 coaches completing the course. Well done to all the coaches who took part, and thanks to St Joseph's for hosting.
The schedule of remaining courses in the coming weeks is as follows:
An IGGC Dual course will be held on March 4 and 6 in St Joseph's Rochfortbridge.
An Award 1 Dual course will take place on March 12 and 22; April 5, 16 and 26, online and in Moate Community School.
An IGGC (football) will be held on April 8 and 10 in St Joseph's SS, Rochfortbridge.
An IGGC (hurling) will be held on April 15 and 17 in St Joseph's SS, Rochfortbridge.
Further to the courses above, there will be a workshop on How to Build a Successful Nursery. This will be held in Rosemount GAA on March 8.
The registration links have been sent to all club coaching officers.
For further details, contact Darren Magee (darren.magee.gdm.westmeath@gaa.ie) or Alan Mullen (alan.mullen.coach.westmeath@gaa.ie).
Coaching workshops
The series of coaching workshops continued last Saturday when Down senior hurling coach Barry Mullane hosted a seminar on Practical Approaches to Skill Development in Team Sports in Raharney.
Barry first presented the theoretical elements to the coaches before conducting the practical elements with players from the U15 and U16 hurling squads.
Many thanks to Barry for the excellent session, to the coaches for attending, to the players who helped conduct the practical elements, the vstaff for organising and Raharney for hosting.
The final workshop of the series will take place on Friday, March 7 in Delvin GAA. Staff member and current Meath senior hurling manager Johnny Greville will host a workshop on Innovative Techniques for Modern Teams through Wall Ball Sessions.
Tickets for the session cost €10 and can be got through the following eventbrite link-
Leinster GAA Club Development conference
Leinster GAA will host a club development conference this Saturday (1st March), between 10am and 2pm, with SETU Carlow the venue.
Workshops will cover key topics such as coaching strategies, club inclusion programmes, refereeing, volunteer management, and much more.
The keynote speakers for the event are Michael Fennelly (former Kilkenny hurler and former Offaly manager), Luke Barrett (current Donegal senior football coach) & Colm Cummins (former Offaly GAA secretary). A number of parallel sessions will take outside of these sessions also.
The cost is €20 for a single ticket or €80 for a group of six and they can be purchased from https://www.universe.com/events/2025-leinster-gaa-club-development-conference-tickets-N2B039
U14 Football Development squad
Open trials for U14 footballers in the county will take place over the next week and a half. The dates and venues are as follows-
Saturday March 1: Páirc Chiaráin, Athlone. Wednesday March 5: St. Loman's, Mullingar. Saturday March 8: St. Loman's. Mullingar.
Players must have been born in 2011 in order to attend and must register through the link provided to all club coaching officers.
Development squad news: U16 footballers meet Kilkenny
The U16 football squad had a good workout last Wednesday against the minor footballers of Kilkenny. A total of 22 players made the trek to SETU Carlow to play the black and amber, and despite giving up a year in age, equipped themselves well in the teeming rain.
U15 and U16 squads in both codes are working away on weekly strength and conditioning sessions with pitch sessions taking place on the weekends. Competitive games for these teams will start in April.
Go Games
All clubs have been asked to provide their playing numbers for Go Games in U8 and U10 for the coming year.
The schedule of blitzes are set to kick off on the following dates: football - Saturday, March 22; hurling - Saturday, March 29.