Conference focus on medical side

The GAA cleaned out their initiatives closet yesterday. The launch of the national coaching and medical conference at the Croke Park museum was coupled with a raft of other new plans.

The conference takes place on the weekend of November 24th to 26th in Croke Park with some of the most respected names in GAA coaching speaking on their areas of expertise.

This includes former Cork hurling coach John Allen, Mayo football coach Mickey Moran, Kerry trainer Pat Flanagan, former Meath footballer Colm O'Rourke and Prof Niall Moyna.

"Developing individual coaching programmes for talented players", by Dublin academy coach Val Andrews, and "Facilitating elite players", by Allen, are just two of the lectures available on Saturday, November 25th. Eight hundred delegates and coaches from around the country are expected to attend.

This is the first time the conference will include a medical aspect, with heart screening again high on the player welfare agenda. Chartered physiotherapists Ronan Carolan and John Murphy will address updated treatments on the ever-present groin and hamstring injuries.

The central theme of the conference will be coaching and games development but a new education framework for Gaelic games, entitled CARE for all foundation, will also be unveiled.

The Minister for Sport, John O'Donoghue, was in Croke Park yesterday where he announced an Irish Sports Council grant of €3.59 million for the GAA - €1.34 million will go to the grassroots to national programme, €1.25 million to hurling development and €1 million for Dublin Gaelic games. The GAA also launched a cross-curricular resource pack for primary schools called "step ahead". This will see all 14 primary school subjects taught through the medium of Gaelic games.

Finally, a GAA club hire insurance scheme has been introduced to provide public liability insurance for outside groups or individuals wishing to use GAA premises for functions. This is primarily to protect clubs from subsequent claims.

Work group chairman Michael O'Donoghue said up to one third of the association's liability losses had arisen from non-GAA activities in the past: "This scheme has been designed to be inexpensive and accessible. Put simply, anyone wishing to use a local GAA club, having got the approval of the club, will be directed to the scheme brokers Coyle Hamilton Willis, who will make the necessary arrangements to ensure appropriate cover is in place."