Down side Ballycran succeeding both on and off the pitch

By Niall McCoy

THE 2019 season was one to cherish for the Ballycran club in county Down, and they have another reason to celebrate after picking up a MacNamee award for the best GAA website last year.

The St Joseph’s club picked up county title number 26 with a seven-point win over Portaferry last September, and now the GAA has recongised their efforts in promoting sport online throughout the year.

Michael Corcoran, the club’s accredited photographer and former PRO may be working abroad these days, but he was one of the driving forces behind the project and he explained why it was so welcomed by the club – and how distance doesn’t have to be an obstacle.

“It’s a proud time for the club and we’d like many others to enjoy the occasion,” he said.

“It’s always good to get positive exposure and this will hopefully shed a little of the limelight on hurling in Ards, a rural club from Down and Ulster. When the press release was issued, the social drums went berserk. It was lovely to see, very special news at this trying time for everyone.

“We’re very fortunate to have a progressive set of committees under the stewardship of chairperson Shane Gilmore,” he said.

“The concept for a new site was an easy sell, a penalty kick as they say. In actual fact, some years ago, Shane crafted the club’s first version of a website.

“For a variety of reasons, it fell by the wayside. Technology was harder to drive in those days and that can be an instant hurdle. My own involvement was a practical example of how a club values diversification into much needed tasks.

“In 2015, I started out coaching juveniles then moved across into a PRO role to help ramp up our club’s exposure and public relations. Ballycran embraced the role, seeing the immense value in using social media to engage our members and supporters. I dusted off an old camera, read a few GAA PRO booklets, attended a workshop or two and jumped in. It was a few years before I got to the website.”

The delay in getting the website up and running can be explained by Michael’s changing living circumstances, one that took him to Gibraltar.

“Changes in my employers business meant that my role as Director of Technology and Operations for a local TV company came to an end in 2017.

“I was faced with a fork in the road, either early retirement or find a sunset role.

“I spotted a job with the national broadcaster in Gibraltar. I was attracted to that primarily due to their desire to relocate to new premises.

“This was something of interest and a great project to wrap up your career. That’s my current role now; Chief Engineering and Technology Officer, lead architect for the technical design and build of the TV, radio and online systems.

“I work closely with an architectural and construction team, carving out a design and workspace from an historical building called a Bastion. For our history scholars, a bastion is an architectural structure built to usually jut out of a defence wall. Gibraltar has many defence walls and a peppering of bastions.

“It’s a great project where a modern building design fuses with an historical structure. When it’s finished, I doubt if there will be a building like it in the world!”

A busy man no doubt, but he still found time to work on the online presence of the Ards club.

“I perform most of my work for Ballycran currently in a remote fashion. When I get home for a break, I fill my boots with pictures from around the club and then work off those for a period.

“Last year, I felt that I was reaching a watershed in the ‘Gib’ project and therefore had some time in the evenings to work on something else. That’s when I read somewhere that the GAA were strong on seeing each club build and operate a good website.

“I approached Shane, it went to the committee and a nod came back my way to review, recommend and eventually roll it out. I ended up working with Kristina Gunn from Club and County. The poor thing, I’m sure I was a testing customer with a stringent set of requirements, issue logs and testing phases. Her patience and the professionalism of the team got us the design we felt we wanted.”

Of course Corcoran is not the only Ballycran native to set sail around the world, and one of the things that impressed the GAA the most was content relating to their diaspora.

“One night I was feeling the impact of missing the family. I’ve got a couple of young hurlers and a camogie player. They all play for the club. I’ve missed blitzes, a spell of Down captaincy, an Ulster U-15 game, numerous county games and plenty of school hurling honours. I have to console myself by saying I’m only too glad to be able to keep them in boots and sticks.

“Anyway, it got me thinking. What about exploring the Ballycran folk in a similar position. So I approached up to a dozen Ballycran folk living in various corners and folds of the world. Gorgeous folk, they were all generous with their time and contributions.

“It all played in well with the club’s contribution into the GAA’s ‘Where we belong’ initiative too. That all also paved the way for our local members to feel comfortable being interviewed for their own articles.”

Corcoran also had some advice for any clubs hoping to revamp their website in 2020.

“I guess and I say this humbly, have a look at Ballycran’s to start with.

“Keep it simple and clean. People have enough information being bombarded at them on a daily basis so they need to be able to see what you’re trying to say conveniently and fairly quickly.

“Avoid the temptation to monetise with pop ups. A jiggling screen of content isn’t pleasant to look at and in my opinion isn’t worth the incredibly small return.

“Make sure it’s multiplatform compliant i.e. you can read it on a variety of screens.

“As a strategic mechanism, you should be looking at using your Facebook page to drive your readers over to your web site. That’s your club’s real estate. You own the space and you’re in control of the content.

“Just put a taster on Facebook to hook the audience and keep the gems for over on the website. Remember you want that to be the ‘go-to’ area where they will get good information about events, fixtures and general club information.

“Content is king, that’s what they say in my trade and it applies equally well here too. Make your stories relevant, to the point and carry good pictures to help establish that important connection with the reader.”

Michael finished by offering his gratitude to all who helped with the website in any way.

“I’d like to thank everyone that has helped Ballycran to exceed our expectations for this project and we look forward to telling our stories for many years to come.”

n.mccoy@gaeliclife.com