Worst and Best Club grounds

blackbelt

I got inspiration for this thread yesterday.We've all played and maybe refereed or attended some club grounds across our county.Just a thread to see what club grounds you think are lovely or indeed are the pits.

I'll get the ball rolling.

In Dublin

The Best

St Vincents (Marino): Biased I know but lovely floodlights,ground in great condition,lovely clubhouse and decent changing facilities.Also,lovely view of the city lights as you are training.Lovely atmosphere around the place.Never stuck for a chewing gum outside the changing rooms.

Scoil Ui Chonaill (Clontarf Road,Clontarf): Again excellent changing facilities,good ground and decent pitch with lovely view of Poolbeg and seafront.Nice clubhouse.

Ballyboden Wanderers (Ballyboden,Dublin Mountains): Not so much for the pitch itself as its in the mountains and the wind will skew shots off goal.Ok changing facilities but the view wins this ground over for me as you can look across and see Dublin Bay below from the pitch.Also a very interesting and challenging ground to go to play and get a result.I love those type of matches.

Kilmacud Crokes (Kilmacud): Excellent facilities and pitch is immaculate when I've been there.

Park Rangers (Phoenix Park) : Always a pleasure to play in Phoenix Park.

St James Gaels: Iveagh Grounds are lovely.Pitches are decent and lovely clubhouse.If I were playing for Crumlin,I'd want to play all the matches against St James there.

The Worst

St Maurs (Rush):They have a few pitches but they are all terrible in my opinion.One of them is a park beside a housing estate full of skangers riding their souped up hair-dryers.Playing there on a bleak Sunday afternoon in February is enough to start considering topping yourself.Also,be careful not to kick any balls over the sideline or you will have too jump across a stream to get it back.

Geraldine Morans (Cabinteely/Cornelscourt):This pitch is terrible.Its a slope with the team playing uphill being at a terrible disadvantage.The goals are a joke.They are more like rugby posts with the cross-bar being bent downward.Changing rooms are a health hazard too.Get changed on the sideline at all costs.

jellybaby21

Come to Wicklow my friend ;)
Don't get me wrong there are some excellent grounds i.e Blessington, Dunlavin, Hollywood,Bray, Newtown, Greystones, St.Pats......... probably some more being developed.
The pitch in Pearse park Arklow is a nice one the changing rooms however are stinking!
A little place called Knockananna never seen anything like it in my life awful place you have to park your car outside a big wall the sink is hanging off the wall in the dressing room and the toilet?? I won't go there!!
There are other awful grounds that is the worst I'v been in by far.
In this day and age there should be minimum standards no??

jethro081

I remember playing juvenille football in the currin club where the changing room was a patch of grass behind some pallates.

Also corduff where the grass on the pitch was more often than not up to your knees. Taking 45's was shall we say interesting.

Ballybay, clontibret, aughnamullen and of course the bold st. tiernach's park in clones are deadly places to play though.

Green Giant

Clare

I was at the redeveloped O'Garney Park in Sixmilebridge recently for the Clare-Kilkenny match, which threw in at 6:30pm for the official launch of the newly-renovated arena. I must say I was most impressed. The pitch easily withstood persistent heavy rain and the recently-installed floodlights gave excellent illumination to the place. Also, the clubhouse and facilities are more than satisfactory; parking is ample.

kaimera

[Laois]

Best: Portlaoise: O'Moore Park. | Ratheniska is quite good too.

Marse

blackbelt wrote: »

I got inspiration for this thread yesterday.We've all played and maybe refereed or attended some club grounds across our county.Just a thread to see what club grounds you think are lovely or indeed are the pits.

I'll get the ball rolling.

In Dublin

The Best

St Vincents (Marino): Biased I know but lovely floodlights,ground in great condition,lovely clubhouse and decent changing facilities.Also,lovely view of the city lights as you are training.Lovely atmosphere around the place.Never stuck for a chewing gum outside the changing rooms.

Scoil Ui Chonaill (Clontarf Road,Clontarf): Again excellent changing facilities,good ground and decent pitch with lovely view of Poolbeg and seafront.Nice clubhouse.

Ballyboden Wanderers (Ballyboden,Dublin Mountains): Not so much for the pitch itself as its in the mountains and the wind will skew shots off goal.Ok changing facilities but the view wins this ground over for me as you can look across and see Dublin Bay below from the pitch.Also a very interesting and challenging ground to go to play and get a result.I love those type of matches.

Kilmacud Crokes (Kilmacud): Excellent facilities and pitch is immaculate when I've been there.

Park Rangers (Phoenix Park) : Always a pleasure to play in Phoenix Park.

St James Gaels: Iveagh Grounds are lovely.Pitches are decent and lovely clubhouse.If I were playing for Crumlin,I'd want to play all the matches against St James there.

The Worst

St Maurs (Rush):They have a few pitches but they are all terrible in my opinion.One of them is a park beside a housing estate full of skangers riding their souped up hair-dryers.Playing there on a bleak Sunday afternoon in February is enough to start considering topping yourself.Also,be careful not to kick any balls over the sideline or you will have too jump across a stream to get it back.

Geraldine Morans (Cabinteely/Cornelscourt):This pitch is terrible.Its a slope with the team playing uphill being at a terrible disadvantage.The goals are a joke.They are more like rugby posts with the cross-bar being bent downward.Changing rooms are a health hazard too.Get changed on the sideline at all costs.

Brigid's have a great setup. I'd put them up with any you named above and I'm not biased, they're not my club.

StrawDub

Marse wrote: »

Brigid's have a great setup. I'd put them up with any you named above and I'm not biased, they're not my club.

I am a brigids man myself, alot of good people putting a tremendous effort to upgrade the facilities. The astro we have is based on the NFL pitches in the states, its unlike any other surface in Ireland.

The next stage of the development will be finished in August, new dressing rooms. Followed on by the redevelopment of the existing pitches with a new sand based adult pitch and the redevelopment of the 3 existing pitches. All the details are in the link below if you are interested!

http://www.stbrigidsgaa.com/ClubDevelopment/

Tazdedub

The worse ground I ever played on was Setanta's pitch that was in the middle of the flats in Ballymum, I remember having to get changed in one of entrances to the flats. Those were the days. Trinity Gaels old ground in Fr Collins park wasnt pretty either but I have to say their new grounds are excellent with excellent facilities. Another ground that I have to say was really bad was st christophers Gaels (use to be paveh) ground at I think its st vincents school in glasnevin. There was just a pitch there and nothing else.

Best ground I played in was St Vincents, the grass always seemed to be at the right height for hurling, the goals were always in great knick and the facilities were always excellent, I always looked forward to playing at Vincents.

Mushy

jellybaby21 wrote: »

Come to Wicklow my friend ;)
Don't get me wrong there are some excellent grounds i.e Blessington, Dunlavin, Hollywood,Bray, Newtown, Greystones, St.Pats......... probably some more being developed.
The pitch in Pearse park Arklow is a nice one the changing rooms however are stinking!
A little place called Knockananna never seen anything like it in my life awful place you have to park your car outside a big wall the sink is hanging off the wall in the dressing room and the toilet?? I won't go there!!
There are other awful grounds that is the worst I'v been in by far.
In this day and age there should be minimum standards no??

Blessington...nice
Dunlavin...never played on club grounds before
Hollywood...same as Dunlavin
Bray...nice but like a rock in the summer
Newtown...despite never saying nice things about the plae(jokingly:p), I like the pitch...a lot
Greystones...despite never winning there, tis a great pitch
Pats...dont see whats overly special here, decent at best(IMO)

Being biased here, but like Ashford pitch. Nothing overly special again, but just like it, and is very handy to get to.

There was one place I didnt like, think it was Coolkenno. Although think it was being re-developed at the time, cant remember too much.

Like the Arklow pitch to. And needless to say Aughrim, loved it when I played there.

An Citeog

StrawDub wrote:

I am a brigids man myself, alot of good people putting a tremendous effort to upgrade the facilities. The astro we have is based on the NFL pitches in the states, its unlike any other surface in Ireland.

The next stage of the development will be finished in August, new dressing rooms. Followed on by the redevelopment of the existing pitches with a new sand based adult pitch and the redevelopment of the 3 existing pitches. All the details are in the link below if you are interested!

http://www.stbrigidsgaa.com/ClubDevelopment/

Haven't played in Russell Park in a while but that pitch looks really nice.

Best

St. Vincents: Good facilities, really nice bar and although the main pitch can be a little sandy at times, it's nice and open and with the floodlights, it's very impressive.

Ballymun Kickhams: Their artificial pitch up near the airport is top class. Ball bounces a bit weird but it really looks brilliant. Haven't yet played hurling on it but I know from experience that there's a really weird bounce.

O'Tooles: O'Toole Park (the one in Ayrfield) is a really nice pitch for hurling. The other O'Toole Park (Páirc Uí Tuathaill) in Crumlin is a nice pitch aswell, but I've some bad memories of that pitch.

Ballyboden: Main pitch is really nice. Had some good games (and fights!) there.

St. Claires: DCU's Sportsground has some great facilities and a couple of nice senior pitches.

There are a good few more that I can't think of but I think these are the main ones.

Worst

Hmmm, where to start!

O'Tooles, Darndale: Remember playing in goal on that pitch years ago. In the first half I dived to save a shot and cut myself on some broken glass. Second half, there were a gang of little knackers behind the goal and one little fúcker kept poking me with a big stick. Me being a weak little 12 year old couldn't do much about it.

Na Fianna: Slightly controversial but their main pitch is the sandiest I've ever played on.

Stars of Erin: Higher than Johnny Fox's pub in the Dublin mountains. Absolutely terrible pitch. As for the changing rooms...

There are loads more aswell.

Aodan83

Even though it pains me to admit this, Nemo rangers have an unbelievable set-up. state of the art facilities and what not. ballygarvan on the other hand... i dont even know what to say. its just the dressing rooms really.

molby14

An Citeog wrote: »

Haven't played in Russell Park in a while but that pitch looks really nice.

Best

St. Vincents: Good facilities, really nice bar and although the main pitch can be a little sandy at times, it's nice and open and with the floodlights, it's very impressive.

Ballymun Kickhams: Their artificial pitch up near the airport is top class. Ball bounces a bit weird but it really looks brilliant. Haven't yet played hurling on it but I know from experience that there's a really weird bounce.

O'Tooles: O'Toole Park (the one in Ayrfield) is a really nice pitch for hurling. The other O'Toole Park (Páirc Uí Tuathaill) in Crumlin is a nice pitch aswell, but I've some bad memories of that pitch.

Ballyboden: Main pitch is really nice. Had some good games (and fights!) there.

St. Claires: DCU's Sportsground has some great facilities and a couple of nice senior pitches.

There are a good few more that I can't think of but I think these are the main ones.

Worst

Hmmm, where to start!

O'Tooles, Darndale: Remember playing in goal on that pitch years ago. In the first half I dived to save a shot and cut myself on some broken glass. Second half, there were a gang of little knackers behind the goal and one little fúcker kept poking me with a big stick. Me being a weak little 12 year old couldn't do much about it.

Na Fianna: Slightly controversial but their main pitch is the sandiest I've ever played on.

Stars of Erin: Higher than Johnny Fox's pub in the Dublin mountains. Absolutely terrible pitch. As for the changing rooms...

There are loads more aswell.

endas? i would not sow spuds on that its that bad and its been worse , a lot worse looks good with the bill boards around it but some of the pot hole on the pitch a size 5 football could get lost in . unless it has dramatically changed in recent years it would be one to steer clear of for me

cournioni

Best in Cavan:
Templeport
Swanlinbar
Kildallan
Drumlane
Cuchullains
all quality Prunty pitches with great set ups.
Kingscourt is a great pitch when its dry too, superb floodlights too.

Worst
Shercock (my club), brutal when there is either dry or wet weather. Its either rock hard or boggy as hell.
Arva, ****ty ****ty little ground on a slope. I took a kickout from the 21 once and it went out for a goal kick on the other side.
Butlersbridge, another with a huge slope to the side. Crap when wet.
Kill, in the middle of a forest and really horrible to play on when wet.

Someone please get us a new pitch...

cournioni

jethro081 wrote: »

Also corduff where the grass on the pitch was more often than not up to your knees. Taking 45's was shall we say interesting.

Corduff's pitch is class now. Bigger than Croker's pitch with great floodlights on both it and the training pitch. Quality surface. They really did a good job on it...

Smartly Dressed

I'm not sure what it was called but I remember playing on a pitch that was at a slope of about 20-30 degrees and the pitch was just a complete mess - about 35% grass and the rest mud. The fact that it was raining didn't help either.

Dressing rooms were in great condition, though.

Nalced_irl

molby14 wrote: »

endas? i would not sow spuds on that its that bad and its been worse , a lot worse looks good with the bill boards around it but some of the pot hole on the pitch a size 5 football could get lost in . unless it has dramatically changed in recent years it would be one to steer clear of for me

Grrr! *&%$ You!! Only joking of course I wouldn't quite put our ground as being one of the best either tbh. Certainly not one of the worst but there are some lovely grounds however i dont know when you last played there, its not as bad as your suggesting. Was at a game there last weekend and some areas of it tend to catch any rainfall and almost look like a water polo/football game but for the most part its in great condition. Just wait for the Santa Maria development to be fully completed tho and i think we will have top class facilities then. For the anti "gah", "where did the money go", corruption theory lovers (well, theres only been one here who has thankfully had his posting privilages revoked) thats where

PS. Made sure not to type stars at the start so you know i didnt actually say anything bad

blackbelt

After being on the St Brigids All-Weather pitch in Tom Russell Park,I have to say that it is a fantastic pitch.Quite possibly the best pitch in Dublin.

Killme00

blackbelt wrote: »

The Worst

St Maurs (Rush):They have a few pitches but they are all terrible in my opinion.One of them is a park beside a housing estate full of skangers riding their souped up hair-dryers.Playing there on a bleak Sunday afternoon in February is enough to start considering topping yourself.Also,be careful not to kick any balls over the sideline or you will have too jump across a stream to get it back.

+1

All round it good to see such an improvement in the facilities. Great work by the clubs. Vins/Brigits/OTooles/Balyboden all ahve great facilities

dugout16

Mallow in Cork is amazing really

Mclovin

Check out DONAGHMORE/ASHBOURNE GAA set up in meath. It is the only one in the country to really rival nemo.

Its probably better cause its brand new and finished to a v.high spec, and an indoor all weather arena.

Marse

Tazdedub wrote: »

The worse ground I ever played on was Setanta's pitch that was in the middle of the flats in Ballymum, I remember having to get changed in one of entrances to the flats. Those were the days.

Ah the San Siro, the memories come flooding back. It was an experience to play there that's for sure.

Stealdo

Mclovin wrote: »

and an indoor all weather arena.

Sounds great - but have to say the idea of an indoor arena that wasn't for use in all-weather gave me a laugh.

Maybe an indoor arena that has the gutters direct the rain water to some kind of sprinkler system inside?

Or maybe just the national aquatic centre?

Mossin

Laois:
Best:

Park/Ratheniska's pitch and facilities are up there amongst the best.

O'Moore park too

Worst

The Heath GAA - damn sheep

Worst outside Laois, is without a shadow of a doubt that awful pitch at Moneygall, which staged an all-Ireland Junior Semi-Final.

Archebald

i no im being biased but i can only tell what i no,,
cork have some of the best gaa grounds i have ever seen.
look at nemo rangers they have a really classy set up .
thelikes of the smaller clubs like canovee and uibh laoire really have real good pitches,,
i ould like to highlight that the all weather pitches all though popular ,im not a fan of the are rock solid all year round

Fast_Mover

dugout16 wrote: »

Mallow in Cork is amazing really

*chuckle*
..and they really got that drainage problem sorted too!!:D

DeJaMo

DONAGHMORE/ASHBOURNE have a very nice setup (although built by housing contractors in the area)

Other clubs in Meath..

Best Pitch

Waterstown
Simonstown
Slane
Seneschalstown
Skyrne
St. Bridget's
Rathoath

Worst Pitch

Ballinabracky - this club should be given to Offaly - its a complete dump
Rathkenny
Bellewstown
Duleek
O'Mahony's
Longwood - terrible pitch but good facilities
Kells

hunter164

Have to say nemo is unreal.Quality changing rooms top marks. Vinnies ain't bad but could do with new changing rooms.Brigid's ain't great for hurling and does rip ur legs to bits when u fall.Crokes pitch in Glenalbyn is nice.

But the worst is Erins Isle, the pitch outside the club, getting abuse from half of Finglas out there.

Tazdedub

hunter164 wrote: »

But the worst is Erins Isle, the pitch outside the club, getting abuse from half of Finglas out there.

This made me laugh, does the pitch still have the cowpath going from one corner to the other? I remember a game I was playing in there once was stopped because some mother and her mates decided that they would use the cowpath while the hurling match was in progress, rather than walk around the pitch.

Another pitch that was just as bad was Saint Kevins in Kilnamanagh, the one behind the shopping centre.

callaway92

Best in Ireland in Ardfinnans Pitch which is in Tipperary..Lovely Spot

Groe

I have to agrre that Kilmacud Crokes have an excellent pitch. They are my club and I find that it is rarely used for Juvenile matches and I aalways find it in excellent condition. I also love the bridgets pitch. Rain, hail or shine you are gaurenteed to have a good pitch to play on. The other pitch that I love is the Na Phiarsigh pitch excellent pitch in the summer.

Marse

Tazdedub wrote: »

This made me laugh, does the pitch still have the cowpath going from one corner to the other? I remember a game I was playing in there once was stopped because some mother and her mates decided that they would use the cowpath while the hurling match was in progress, rather than walk around the pitch.

Another pitch that was just as bad was Saint Kevins in Kilnamanagh, the one behind the shopping centre.

There is no longer a path through that pitch, it was re laid a few years ago and a new path laid around it. The whole green area fenced in.

As for the abuse from the locals, not much changed on that front.