The long road to Woodlawn worth the wait as club develop fantastic facilities

THE secretary of the club Diarmuid O’Mahony says he is happy with the way the club has been going in recent years and with a good bunch of talented players coming through prospects for the future are looking very optimistic.

“We are fortunate to have fine facilities and with a good underage structure in place we will always have players coming through the ranks. We are one of the oldest clubs in the KDL and there is a dedicated bunch of people running the show behind the scenes and doing an excellent job.

“A huge amount of work went into purchasing and developing our grounds and now we have one of the best facilities in the county. We had to put a lot of fund raising together to finance the project and the Sports Capital Grants were a huge help.

“Now our main source of income is our monthly 300 club draw while over annual 7 a side Tournament is a huge money spinner also. I have been involved with the club for the past 10 years and the highlight without a shadow of a doubt was winning the league and cup double three years ago.

“Very few were giving us any chance of winning either of the competitions, but under new manager Stuart Templeman we surpassed our expectations.”

Looking ahead he says he is confident that more silverware can be lifted in the years ahead.

“We brought through a good few new young players this season and when they get a bit more experience we are confident we have the potential to win major competitions. It was a great boost this season when Brendan Moloney joined Stuart Templeman coaching the side as he will bring a new dimension to coaching and training after all the experience he got with his cross channel clubs.

“The Pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works, but we are ready and waiting whenever the KDL is up and running again.”

THE club have top of the range facilities at Woodlawn with two superb pitches, a fine clubhouse an astro turf facility. These facilities did not come to fruition without a lot of self – sacrifice and a huge amount of work by dedicated members of the club.

Their superb grounds overlooks the river Flesk and are in a great location in the middle of the town. In the early years the club were fortunate that John McShain an American business man allowed the club the use of a pitch in the Demesne estate known as the Half Moon Field.

The club moved to Woodlawn 1988 and has become the clubs permanent home since then. The club purchased the six and a half acre site from Tom Lyne and when funds were raised decided to proceed with development work.

While the club had to knuckle down to finance the project the goodwill was there in the local community and they were not shy of digging into their pockets and supporting the club’s fund – raising ventures.