HAVING broken new ground already this year in becoming the first GAA club in the country to acquire a sponsorship from a brewery, St Vincent's of Marino further strengthened their position when they signed an additional sponsorship deal with Champion Sports yesterday.

The club's ground breaking deal with Beamish and Crawford, signed earlier this year, applies only to the adult section and yesterday's announcement of a relationship with the Champion Sports group is specifically designed to bolster the club's 500 strong juvenile section.

St Vincent's, having had their roots in juvenile games for over 60 years, have like many other Dublin units struggled in recent years to bridge the ever growing distance between schools and clubs. The club's deal with their new sponsors is geared as part of a citywide approach to improve the coaching and skills element of hurling and football among youngsters.

"In the past juveniles joined St Vincent's with the basics," said Brendan McGrath, chairman of the club. "Today in lots of cases they don't. Therefore more and more of our time will go into this area.

To this end the club have developed a highly successful series of mini leagues and have run innovative programmes throughout the summer holidays. The club have been considering the enlistment of professional help to augment the efforts of volunteers.

With Dublin folk once again reduced to gazing over the border to Meath for an example of youth structures producing senior success, deals like that struck by St Vincent's may represent the future of Gaelic games in Dublin.