PRESIDENTS ADDRESS 2019/20

Over the next few months most of the country’s attention, concerning rugby matters at least, will be focused on events in Japan which means that in rugby clubs around the country the domestic season will kick off with little fanfare. And while the results of clashes such as South Africa v New Zealand will make headlines, in local communities the results of local rivalries which transcend generations will stir passions in parts of the soul that high level sports cannot reach. Because despite the proliferation of high level sports available on demand, it cannot replace the quintessential element of local rivalries due to the fact that local clubs represent communities and not international business interests. This is a fact recognised by a small working group in the Club who met several times during the summer to produce a club development plan (which we hope to publish soon) and at the heart of the plan they have recognised the need to build strong links within our club to create a sense of belonging and community between all members.  This will underpin the decisions of our General Committee throughout the coming months and years.

Mini’s

The lifeblood of our club is our mini’s many of whom will go on to represent our senior teams, become referees, coaches and volunteers in the future and I am confident that they are in safe hands with Mark Brennan, our incoming mini coordinator. Mark has big shoes to fill (literally) but his strong organisational skills with stand him in good stead. I wish Mark and all his coaches the best of luck instilling a love of rugby in our stars of the future.

Youths

Conall Fitzgerald continues in his role as youth coordinator as we attempt to achieve a clean sweep at youths’ level, a clean sweep meaning that we field a youths’ team at every age group. We almost achieved it last year with only one age group missing and we hope to go one further this year. While winning trophies is always welcome, a key measure of success for our youths’ is the retention of players’ year on year as this ensures that we are able to provide rugby for all age groups. I am sure that Conall and all his coaches are well placed to overcome the many challenges that the rugby season invariably brings.

Senior Women

We welcome back Niall Kane as senior women coach for this season, Fiona Faulkner also joins the team as a manager. Last year was a difficult season but there was some good work done with most of the players from last season retained and they will be joined by some players graduating from our youths’ section which means that we can look forward to the coming season with a positive outlook.

Senior Men

Last years attack coach, Thomas Campbell, has been promoted to Head Coach which has lead to a sense of continuity from last season and the result is that similar to the Senior Women we have retained most of the players from last season, this allied with some new players and graduates from our underage section means that newly appointed captain Darren Brady will lead a very exciting group into the new season. Thomas Campbell will be supported by Cormac Dunne who was on our coaching staff last year and Lemeki Vaipulu who joins us from Tonga via Tullamore.

Lions

Our CCRO, Clare O’Brien, will continue to bring her unique brand of enthusiasm to supporting and facilitating our disability tag rugby team, the Mullingar Lions. The Lions add an important and unique strand to the fabric that is Mullingar Rugby Club.

Undertaking to tie all the strands of our rugby family together will be the Rugby Development Committee which is headed up by incoming chair, Dave Farrelly. For the uninitiated Dave is steeped in Club history, he has been senior men’s captain on a number of occasions, coached both the senior men and senior women at various times, and was the CCRO for a period as well. All of this means that Dave brings a huge amount of passion, experience and knowledge to the role which I am certain will ensure his success.

Volunteers and Sponsors

The huge amount of positive work that goes on in the Club could not happen without the many volunteers that give freely of their time and our sponsors that provide greatly appreciated financial support, I want to whole heartedly thank them for their support and I hope that we can reward them for their generosity with a season to remember.

Yours in Rugby

Tony Doolan

Club President

(Photo - Tony and U17s Captain Conor Gibney with the Culliton Cup)