As President of Clontarf Football Club it gives me great pleasure to welcome everybody to Castle Avenue this season – our members, players, sponsors, match officials and all visitors whether supporting Tarf or the opposition of the day.
In addition, I would welcome back any former member who has lapsed for whatever reason – relocation, family, job or lack of one, and ask all of you who might read this to reconsider renewing your oath of allegiance and come back to us if only for a pint or two with former mates in the clubhouse.
Nothing stays the same for long – and this reoccurred to me when comparing some aspects of the games in the first World Cup in 1987 with those in the current World Cup – and it is surprising how the game has evolved without your really noticing it as it happened. So too with our club and our clubhouse. Most communications regarding the club are now conveyed electronically by SMS, email, our website, other social media and our new i-phone APP. That is not to say that a lot of news is not still disseminated in the midweek and weekend sessions in the bar – it is, but there are other ways of staying in touch. Our clubhouse too has evolved over the years, facilities have been added or improved and this summer it received a facelift, thanks to Crown Paints and the many volunteers from the Rugby and Cricket clubs working together.
Even though we do have a very supportive and active membership, we continue to benefit greatly from our corporate sponsors led by Dublin Port Company but including many other companies and businesses who make life a lot easier for our Treasuser and allow our Executive Committee to achieve some of the objectives that they set themselves at the start of each season. I would also like to thank the many individual benefactors and volunteers who assist us in many different ways and help to make our club the successful and happy club that it is. I add to this Mary Walsh our secretary/manager who makes the life of all of us involved in working for the club so much easier, Paul Fallon and his bar staff, Jill O Neill and her catering staff and our unofficial photographers Laurent and Lynn.
This season sees the start of the 22nd year of the All Ireland League with Ulster Bank now as it’s sponsor, only the third sponsor in that period. I hope that Ulster Bank perceive this sponsorship as successful this season, albeit that there will not be the climax of playoffs to win the AIL as there has been for many years, and that we will have them for a long time to come.
Although Clontarf Rugby is more than about our Senior team – it encompasses Junior rugby at a serious but also at a social level, U21s, U19s and other age grade level teams and also a large and thriving minis section – we still, inevitably, measure ourselves on how our senior team performs. We know, more than most, the heartbreak of “nearly winning “ and that if general synpathy was to win the AIL, we would have done so already. But it doesn’t. We have had a series of excellent coaches over the last 15 years, a series of great squads and backroom teams and yet we have failed to achieve the ultimate prize for us. There is very little that a President like me can do for an experienced and talented team save that I might be able to pass on some of my luck, something that we have perhaps lacked, but that thankfully has attached to me all my life since I was a 2 day old baby. So if it is “luck” that is missing I will gladly cede some of my quota to our Senior team this season.
We are delighted to have Andy Wood and Simon Broughton back in Tarf as our coaches and with their enthusiasm, hard work and expertise and the onfield leadership of our Club Captain, Barry O Mahony, I dare to hope that this year, with the new League format, we will eventually prove to everybody that Clontarf is a great club and deserves to rank in the top few in the country.
Finally I wish all our teams and their managers and supporters a successful, enjoyable and injury free season.
JOHN GLACKIN
President 2011/2012
