AN tSRAIDBHAILE THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE.
Stradbally GAA club is one of the oldest clubs in Waterford having being founded in 1886 under the chairmanship of a Mr Whelan of Whelan's Hotel, Stradbally. Like all clubs at that time we were an athletics club, with our first athletics meet in October of that same year. Soon later we took to the football and as they say, the rest is history.
Nowadays we are a dual club with both hurling and football being played at Senior level and both codes are heavily encouraged at underage level. Stradbally Scor is very active and it was great to see our dancers winning the All-Ireland title in Belfast a couple of years ago. We also boast a fine club house which includes a social centre with bar and dance licences. While one may point to the fact that our hinterland is quite small, we have turned this into an advantage. Our teams are based on a small panel of players who are bonded together for the love of Stradbally club and parish and for the continuation of the tradition of 115 years.
Our first title was captured in 1932 when we annexed the Junior County Championship. Five years later we annexed the county minor championship.
While we had the players, it was the arrival of a great organiser, Fr Pat Cummins to Stradbally that put us on the map as a football power. Between 1940 and 1944, five senior football titles came to reside beside the Tay. An interesting facet of Fr Cummins reign was that he brought along a set of red jerseys which became the colours of the club from there on. Before that it would appear that blue and white was our colours often in the design of hoops. It took until 1972 before another senior title arrived with the defeat of Kill in the county final. 1974 gave us our first under-21A title together with our first adult hurling title and to cap it off we were deservingly awarded club of the year.
The eighties were a fruitful decade for the reds. Three senior football championship were captured, those being in 1980, 1982 and 1987. In 1980 we were defeated in the Munster final by St Finbars from Cork. We had beaten Kerry Champions, Greeveguilla in the semi-final. The eighties also yielded us a Junior Hurling title.
The nineties were a case of hard luck stories for our Senior footballers losing in three county finals, 1990, 1991 and 1999 but looking on the bright side we took two Under-21A titles in 1997 and 1999. More importantly these teams are the springboard for success in the new millennium.
Hurling flourished in the '90's with Intermediate titles in '93 and '98 and an under-21 championship was captured in 1998.
The 2000's have been a purple patch for Stradbally GAA. We have won the County Senior Football championship in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. In 2004 we reached the Munster Final after beating the Tipperary champions in round one, Bishopstown of Cork in the Semi Final and drawing the Final in Semple Stadium to Kilmurray/Ibrackane of Clare. We lost the replay by just a point.
Off the pitch we have built two new dressing rooms and have installed state of the art floodlights and have developed a new pitch.
