Indoor Under 12 Football @ Meadowbank

The Indoor Football blitz's at Meadowbank Sports Arena Magherafelt have had their pros and cons for me. We've had 4 rounds of football since the 11th January. At each round there have been around 250 children participating. I feel it's been great to be able to use a facility like Meadowbank that can take four indoor games at one time and im sure the Under 12's have really enjoyed playing within the arena. The spectator facilities are also first class, when friends and family are in watching their team play the atmosphere is very good. To my knowledge this is one of the largest regular indoor football blitz to take place within Ireland. The addition of Rasharkin, Antrim and Creggan has also been really good.

However on the flip side a few teams have failed to turn up a few times which have left groupings a team short (this really bugs me) and in the current financial climate it is probably a little on the dear side, by the time you take into consideration a bus it can be a substantial amount of money.

The next round is to be the 8th March however Kerry are in town that day and I think everyone will be looking to get to Bellaghy to witness the top of the table clash so i'm guessing it's going to be a non-starter.

That leaves 2 remaining dates: 22nd March and 29th March. Feile na nog has started and it is going to clash with these remaining two Under 12 indoor dates. I know some of the bigger clubs won't be affected by this however many of the smaller clubs will be depending on their under 12's for the Feile.

I think we will go with the 22nd March for those clubs who feel they can field under 12's and not depend on them for their Under 14 team. On the 29th March I hope to have the large blitz day, hopefully we can get C.C.C. to put the feile on Saturday 28th to free up the big day we had planned for the 29th. It would be a great showing on Derry's part and the GAA in general if we could have all our Under 12 teams taking part and fill the facility with spectators. The atmosphere would be something special, lets hope it happens!