Dundalk FC launched the 2012 season tonight in Oriel. This included a launch of the new club sponsors, Fyffes, along with an introduction to the management and playing team for the coming season.
Emma Crewe, Fyffe's Marketing Manager, was very enthusiastic about the sponsorship deal, given that it is a link with the home town of Fyffe's, a sports team that ties in with their healthy eating message and the community activities at the club which promote that healthy eating message to children. She commented that a lot of people don't know about the community activities ongoing at Oriel Park. The shirt with the Fyffes logo was used for photos etc to launch the new sponsors. As has since been confirmed on dundalkfc.com, the sponsors logo will be smaller on the shirts when they are received later.
The Friends of Dundalk FC scheme was presented by Colm Murphy of the DFC Trust and the DFC Board, who confirmed that any subscriptions will go directly to the club to be used for Sean's playing budget. He also confirmed that the benefactor mentioned previously will match any money up to €30,000 although he was a bit wary that if interest in the scheme is too low this year then it will be a harder sell to continue that arrangement in the future.
Sean McCaffrey spoke about his squad, he has a lot of faith in their ability and spoke strongly about their ambition, energy and the need for fans to back the players through the season. He admitted it may be a slow start, but pointed out that a slow start is better than being fast out of the blocks and tapering off to a disappointing finish as in previous seasons.
Sean spoke about the confusion currently that seems to equate youth with inexperience, pointing out that the squad he has signed is full of great players who have lots of experience but also have the energy and ambition of youth. He said we won't win the league this year as the squad don't know each other long enough, but is confident that we will be strong.
He asked fans to be true fans and get behind their team this season to give them the best possible chance of doing well. He has no doubt that they will, is not in the least worried about the season, but hopes that fans will be supporters not knockers. I can only hope that most people will pay heed to this request!
He was asked about our first match away to Monaghan, given our track record there, and pointed out that this is a different squad of players who don't have that mindset. He said that previous teams went to Monaghan and paid them too much respect, we will be going there to win and if every player does what he is capable of then he is fairly confident that we will win.
John White introduced the captain, Chris Shields, and the vice captain Stephen McDonnell. These guys are being given the role based on the respect they have earned from their team mates as well as the management, and I for one will be interested to see how the team functions with the captaincy team side by side in the middle of the pitch. The rest of the players seemed to be very enthusiastic about the decision. Chris Shields spoke (briefly!) about the coming season and his respect for the manager. Stephen McDonnell was also very positive about the coming season.
It was more than a little disappointing to hear some petty remarks tonight about various aspects of the way the club is being and has been run. It is also disappointing to see the negative reaction to the event tonight from people who didn't attend. Personally I traveled a 100 mile round trip to be there as I wanted to see things for myself and am glad that I did. There is optimism in the air around Oriel Park, it is a shame that some are missing it.
