THE inaugural winner of the Buckley Financial GAA Club of the Year Award 2009 will be announced at the gala banquet in the Maritime Hotel, Bantry, on Saturday 16th next.

Clubs from West Cork were asked to send in submissions, under certain guidelines, nominating themselves for the award. Those guidelines included voluntary effort, on the pitch activities, organisation, community development, discipline and facilities.

The list of contenders for the award is now down to six and over the next two weeks we will be taking a look at those six clubs and why they are laying claim to this prestigious award, which is bound to grow in popularity over the coming seasons. The six clubs are, in alphabetical order, Clonakilty, Dohenys, Kilbrittain, Kilmacabea, St. James and St. Oliver Plunkett's.

This week we deal with the first three.

CLONAKILTY

The Clonakilty Club encompasses football, hurling, camogie and ladies football. In all, 34 teams are catered for ranging from under-8 up to senior. There are separate committees running the adult club, underage club, camogie club and ladies football club.

The underage club caters for approx 200 boys, aged 8 to 16, the camogie club caters for approx 130 girls while the ladies football caters for approx 100 young girls. The adult GAA club has approx 180 adult players, from minor up to senior.

Voluntary effort: a huge amount of voluntary effort is needed to provide for the above players, ranging from an executive committee of almost fifty members to various sub-committees. The running of teams involves at least three mentors with each team, all volunteers, who give freely of their time, many doing courses to become qualified underage coaches. With each team playing at least a dozen games and holding at least 30 training sessions per season, the amount of voluntary time involved is huge.

Apart from the mentors running teams there are various sub-committees needed in areas such as fund-raising, club lotto, bingo, field committee, social committee, pavilion committee, finance committee and development committee. There are at least six people on each committee.

On the pitch activities: the overall club caters for 34 teams, with children beginning as young as seven. Weekly activity is provided for every age group through training, matches, blitzes, internal leagues, etc. 2009 proved to be an amazing year for the club on all fronts.

In football the county senior football title was won for the ninth time and the team contested the final of the Kelleher Shield. The junior B football team won the league and reached the final of the championship.

The U-16 footballers retained their West Cork title, the U-14 footballers won the league and the U-12 footballers won the West Cork league and championship. Four adult football teams were fielded for the first time ever in the history of the club.

In hurling, the junior A team reached the SW final, losing by a point, the U-16s and U-14s also reached SW finals, while the U-12 team won the SW B championship for the first time ever and also won the Muskerry B league.

The camogie club had a fantastic year, winning the county intermediate title and reaching the Munster final. The U-12 team also won the county title and the U-14s won the county blitz.

The ladies football club had an incredible year. Upgraded to junior A this season, from junior C in 2008, they won the county league title, the county championship, the Munster title and capped a magnificent year by winning the All-Ireland title. In underage they won the West Cork U-16 title and the county U-14 championship.

Many individual awards and team awards were won by the various players and teams in what proved an incredible year on the playing pitches.

Apart from the playing record what sets 2009 on a pedestal was the opening of the magnificent new club facilities at Ahamilla, a mile west of the town. Recognising there was a demanding increase in playing numbers and activities, the club executive set about acquiring new facilities five years ago, to replace the single pitch that was catering for every team.

The result of five years of hard work and planning, all on a voluntary basis by club members, saw the provision of a state of the art facilities which includes three full-size pitches, an underage pitch, covered stand, and a magnificent pavilion that caters for all needs off the pitch. The vision of the members who planned this amazing facility will forever be admired by those who use the complex and those who visit it.

The club can now comfortably provide for all 34 teams plus indoor gym training etc. Plans for the provision of an astro-turf pitch and hurling alleys are well-advanced. The club also launched a new club website during the year and there is a huge improvement in communications with club members through various technological advances.

The new facilities are used widely by various community organisations and the club was central in resurrecting the influential Business Association this year. The club also fully funded a new footpath from the town to the complex and spent over half a million euro in re-aligning a nearby crossroads.

It is no coincidence that all the recent successes on the playing pitches coincided with the opening of the magnificent new complex at Ahamilla.

One of the most notable features in the club in 2009 was the return to old values when members volunteered to do various jobs on the club's famed Sam Maguire Park.

Time was when most of the labour would be provided on a voluntary basis by club members but that volunteerism has almost disappeared in most clubs with the arrival of Fás schemes, etc. Dohenys have now returned to involving volunteers in much of the work, such as fencing, thus freeing up badly-needed funds for other areas of club activities.

The club has many sub-committees working on a voluntary basis and is blessed with the participation of lady members. As the submission says: ‘This is no Portmarnock!' Pavilion duties, gate duties, mentoring teams, fund-raising, the ladies are playing as big a part as the males.

On the pitch activities: In adult grades the club caters for approx 300 players. The senior football team reached the county quarter-final and just missed out on qualifying for knock-out stages of the Kelleher Shield. Two junior and a very promising U-21 team are also very active.

Hurling has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, a Munster junior B title being won a couple of years back and the SW minor title being won this season. This account does not include the separate Sam Maguire underage club which caters for all young lads from U-8 to U-16 and is a hive of activity all summer.

Organisation: During the year the club lost its long-serving secretary and chairman, Raymond Lyons, but has taken on a new lease of life through the re-organisation of its executive and various committees. Organisation of the club has been taken to a new level, with IT as a central part.

The pavilion committee, in particular, has been most effective and progressive in providing for the needs of the club and the community. Mentoring of various teams is now very satisfactory and the players continue to wear the green jersey with pride.

Community Development: The Dohenys club has members involved in almost every organisation in the town and very little happens without the club being involved. Examples during the year were the successful soccer game organised by Dunmanway Town FC with the Dohenys club lending every permitted assistance, the Retirement Association annual get-together, the weekly Comhaltas Ceoltóirí sessions, various functions such as book launches, etc. A number of club members are also involved in the new Town Council.

Facilities: The Sam Maguire Park has always been recognised as one of the foremost GAA venues in the county, catering for many big matches down the year. Improvements are always being made but 2009 was exceptional.

The main pitch was drained, levelled and re-seeded with state of the art floodlighting provided. A major resurfacing job is being done on the second pitch and work on two new dressing rooms will commence shortly. Over $200,000 has already been spent on the development, much of it raised through fund-raising and Lotto funding. The Sam Maguire Memorial Wall has proved a great success and is an ongoing project.

KILBRITTAIN

Like all clubs in the country, it takes a huge voluntary effort to keep the club going, officers, committees, mentors and selectors, board delegates, those who cut grass and maintain pitches, stand at gates for games, church gate collectors, scoreboard keepers, golf classic organisers, lotto organisers. An approximate figure of 130 people attend to the day-to-day running of the club.

Teams are fielded from U-8 up to intermediate hurling and junior A football, with different mentors involved with every team. Like all clubs, it is getting ever more difficult to get people involved. Providing referees is another priority for the club, not an easy task. Cúl camp, Puc fada, Lá na gClub, history and photo display, team re-union 1958, were all events that needed a lot of voluntary work during 2009.

On the pitch, the main story of the year was the winning of the county junior B football championship for the second time in the history of the club, while the minor hurlers won the SW championship, doing very well in the leagues.

A notable event in 2009 was the introduction of a competition for intermediate hurling clubs in the division, plus Carbery seniors, and the club presented a new trophy in honour of the late, great hurler, Mícheál Holland. Newcestown became the first winners.

The club was represented by various players on teams such as St. Brogan's College, CIT, Carbery hurlers and footballers, Cork minor and intermediate hurlers and Cork senior footballers. Also noted should be the retirement of the great Dan O'Connell, who captained the successful intermediate team in 1995, and Owen Sexton's last campaign in the red football shirt of Cork, after a wonderful eleven-year career.

The club has a huge involvement in the local community and the pitch used by the club since 1973 is a community field. The club took over the development of the field and has put huge work into it over the years, including the provision of dressing rooms, gym facilities and a small practice pitch. A big draining job in recent years means the pitch is now playable all year round. To provide for all teams a second field was rented at Harbour View and has proved a god-send, with loads of room for a pitch, practice area and car-parking, all on a fine sand-based surface which makes it playable in all weather.

But the great news on the development front has been the purchase of 21 acres near the village for future development, at a cost of almost half a million euro.

When finished, this development will contain two full pitches, one of which will be floodlit, four dressing rooms, ball alley, sports hall, play ground, amenity walk and car park. The ambitious project was delayed for over eighteen months because of the presence of some historical ruins on the site but planning permission has now been applied for. Much of the cost of the development will come from local fund-raising but the club knows it will get the full support of the entire community.