Westmeath footballer appointed as Athlone GAA's first GPO
Athlone GAA has announced the appointment of Robbie Forde as the club's first Games Promotions Officer (GPO).
A statement from the club said: "Robbie brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role having completed a BSc in Sports Science with Exercise Physiology at TUS (Technological University of the Shannon) Midlands and is also a member of the Westmeath senior football panel.”
The statement said Robbie will be providing top class coaching to the club’s underage teams while also working in local schools to bring football to the entire community of Athlone.
“A big part of Robbie's brief will also be to upskill our voluntary coaches to ensure all our kids receive the best coaching possible.
“We welcome Robbie to the club and we're really excited to embark on this journey with Robbie at the helm,” the club spokesperson added.
Forde has been a key player for Moate All Whites in recent years and he won a Westmeath intermediate championship medal with Moate in 2020.
The Moate forward featured in Westmeath's successful Tailteann Cup campaign this year, making a scoring contribution off the bench in the semi-final win over Offaly.
Forde played against Athlone in the 2022 Westmeath SFC, scoring eight points in a match won by Athlone (3-9 to 0-11). Interestingly, the two clubs will be in the same group of next year's championship as well.
In 2021, Athlone GAA launched a five-year strategic plan – which could be viewed as a root and branch review of how the club runs its affairs, and also a call to arms in order to bring about change.
The plan was entitled ‘2020 Vision’, the name coming from the fact that most of the work on compiling it was carried out in 2020.
Athlone still leads the roll of honour for Westmeath senior football titles, but their last championship came back in 1998 and the club hasn’t contested a senior final since 2003. And there is ongoing concern over how the club is struggling to transfer underage promise into senior progress.
In an interview with the Westmeath Independent about the strategic plan, Athlone GAA chairman Fergal O’Toole said: “We felt we had to do something in our club to try and get Gaelic football back on the map. We have been competing very well at underage level. Obviously at senior level, we’re not bringing that forward but we hope to do so in the future.”
The strategic plan highlighted a number of action areas, including coaching & games development (encompassing improved underage structures and coach education) and developing club facilities.
In terms of coaching, one of the club’s objectives was to appoint a GPO who would be suitably qualified in such areas as coach education and strength & conditioning. With the appointment of Forde, the club has now achieved this aim but plenty of hard work lies ahead.
A key objective of the club is to attract players from areas of Athlone where the club has traditionally had little or no presence.
“We have to broaden the base. Every club wants to compete and wants to win, but you have to provide facilities for young people,” said Fergal.
“Sport is such a healthy and active pastime. Not every young lad is going to be like Rory O’Connell, it’s as simple as that, but you still have to provide facilities for them," he added.