This is a really good idea.
There’s an old saying that training only takes you so far and that it’s matches that are the real test of a player.
A new website called FindAFriendly.ie plans on helping GAA club teams around the country to play more matches by making it easier to organise challenge matches.
Here’s how they describe the options on their site.
Find a team: Scroll through the list of teams on our homepage and find a team and date that suits you. Once you have found a match that suits you just click on the “Challenge this team” button and fill in your details.
Your challenge will then be sent through to the other team manager. If your challenge is accepted your details will be swapped and you can start making arrangements for the match.
Find a date: If you have a specific date in mind then you can go to “Find Friendly“, Choose your code (Hurling or Football) , Choose your grade (Senior, Intermediate or Junior) and then you can see if a team has posted a match on that particular date.
If you find a team on a date that suits you click on the “Challenge this team” button and fill in your details. Your challenge will then be sent through to the other team manager. If your challenge is accepted your details will be swapped and you can start making arrangements for the match.
Request your own: If you can not find a suitable team or a suitable date you can post your own. Fill in your details and wait to be challenged.
It’s a pretty clever idea and we reckon there might be appetite for it in the GAA community.
The service is currently only available in Dublin, but they plan on expanding it to the rest of the country soon.
