St Saviours building for the future

By Cian O’Connell

Helping the next generation by affording them sporting opportunities is crucial for St Saviours in Waterford city.

A couple of years ago, the club ran a GAA on the Greens initiative. The aim was to bring Gaelic football and hurling to children in their estates, to spark an interest in the GAA.

St Saviours Treasurer Stephen Whelan has served the club in many roles and remains enthusiastic and optimistic about the future.

Developing and enhancing the underage section was key for the long term. “What we were finding was in order to attract people into the club, it was difficult,” Whelan says.

“We were putting out posts on social media and not getting a whole lot of engagement. Where we're located, our primary area for drawing in younger players was the local housing estate. That has always been the way for the last 40 years.

“There is a lot more urban development out in our area over the last 10 or 15 years. The whole reason with the GAA on the Greens was, rather than putting a post on social media, and expecting people to come. We literally brought the GAA to the Greens in all of these new housing developments, to showcase what we have on offer.

“We set up small little come and try sessions on the Greens. That proved to be very successful in 2024. We did have a large influx of boys and girls coming into our club, in particular through the nursery programme, as it's known in Waterford the Well!Kids programme for those four to six years of age every Saturday morning. That was sustainable for that summer.”

Valuable lessons were learned. There is a willingness in St Saviours to explore different approaches. “The following year we wouldn't have kicked off with the massive numbers that we had at the end of the previous year,” Whelan adds.

“Still, the numbers were up. Last year we had what we called a Club Together Wednesday. We promoted it on social media; we had all kids training at the same time on a Wednesday evening and the adults were training.

“It created an environment, and a bit of an atmosphere around the club where people knew if they went there on a Club Together Wednesday, there was a come and try aspect to it. While it wasn't as successful, and the GAA on the Greens took a bigger effort, it was worthwhile doing.”

In 2026, though, momentum and energy were generated in the Spring. “We initiated come and try girls Ladies Football,” Whelan says. “We ran that in March, every Wednesday night in March for four weeks. We did it in partnership with the next local camogie club, who facilitate girls. We formed our own LGFA structure.

“We'd massive numbers during the four weeks. Some nights we'd 50 or 60 girls, the outcome of that is the St Saviours this year have fielded U12 and U13 which have given us a bit of a pathway. When girls come into us, between the ages of four and six, they can then play mixed with boys up to the age of 12.

“If they're unsure about playing mixed with boys, we'd encourage them to play camogie with Butlerstown, and likewise if they've girls that only want to play football, they come into us. We're hoping that over the next few years it will develop, and it can back fill the age groups.

“In year one U12 and U13, next year maybe U12, U13, and U14 and perhaps put in an U10 team, if possible. We will try to grow that aspect of the club.

“It has all stemmed from initially seeing the level of interest from girls as well as boys in the GAA on the Greens. That has been a really positive outcome from it two years later.”

The Gaelic4Mothers&Others sessions have also been successful. “All of a sudden, female members of our club or just associates of people, they came in their droves into the Mothers and Others.

“We have looked to the Mothers and Others group to take on coaching roles. That's why we've a bigger plan, if we can get that aspect of the club sustainable, it'll start to develop over the next few years with younger teams and older teams. It's all positive.

“The day of a GAA club facilitating men only teams, that's gone. There has to be a larger engagement with the local area. To get that, it's through male and female participation. We've probably been behind the curve in terms of other teams locally, that would facilitate girls.

“We were operating off such a small committee, the volunteers on the committee being overstretched trying to initiate things. This year, we just said let's work at this, we put a subgroup in place, and it's now formed into an LGFA committee for the club which is great.”

Ultimately, St Saviours are hoping to field at every level in the coming years. The recent improvements are encouraging. “Initially, after the GAA on the Greens we saw a rapid increase, but a lot of those people were probably coming to try it out, to see how it goes,” he reflects.

“With sport, in general, what could be popular for a child one month, mightn't be popular the next month. The retention of those people hasn't been 100 per cent, but we've definitely had additional people into the teams. We now have a full quota.

"We'd have struggled previously, we now have 30 kids in the Little Saints, another panel of 15 or 20 kids for the U8s, we've U10s, U12s. Next year we will have U14s. Our club was struggling a bit.

“We had to amalgamate over the last number of years to fill some of the teenage teams, but we're building towards no longer having to do that. It's all by having a foundation in place that your Little Saints structure is fully inclusive for every child, boy or girl.

“You try to do things in a fun, inclusive way. To do all of that, we reached out to our members and new members about being involved in different coaching aspects in the club. I wouldn't say there has been a dramatic improvement, but there definitely has been an improvement.”

Coaching Officer Albert Healy and other club members are carrying out important work according to Whelan. “We've focused on our relationship with the local school St Saviours National School,” he says.

“Albert Healy is our coaching officer in the school; he has a crew of helpers from our GAA club. They're really doing a solid piece of work and we're bearing the fruits of that now. We can see the crossover from the school to the club.

“Austin Gleeson is a good help, he's providing support. He's giving us a hand. He's in a position of Urban Games Development Officer.

“He's trying to support three clubs, that would all have submissions around engagement with clubs and retention. Three local city teams - ourselves, Erins Own, and Ferrybank. Austin is helping.”

Challenges will be embraced, but Whelan is hopeful that St Saviours can continue to make progress in the coming weeks, months, and years. “Part of the reason we decided on the LGFA, we were looking at the numbers in the school, with females and males,” he responds.

“They'd good results playing in their schools’ games.

“If we can try to encompass that into the club side of things, who knows over the next few years, hopefully it'll develop into something sustainable, and work organically rather than having to drive it on, all the time.

“We would be hoping, if you project down the line five years, that we would be able to field an adult Ladies Football team. That would be the bigger picture.”

It is another mission St Saviours intend to accomplish.