Leinster vs Toulouse

The Club President in 2013/14 and
2014/15 soon realised his other major
pastime golf would have to take a back
seat for three years, such was the allencompassing
grind of the office.
Since then, John has held the post
of Director of Rugby, not quite the
glamorous position pursued in the
professional environment.
“I am 65 years of age now. I’ve told the
lads I will give up next year. But sure, I
won’t give up. I just love being involved
as a touch judge, match reporter, doing
anything to help.”
However, progress isn’t easy.
The flourishing women’s section of rugby
has led to an explosion in girls at the
minis, youth and senior levels of the
game, all trickling down to a need to
upgrade and expand the club’s services.
Greater participation means a greater
need for facilities, coaches and all
manner of resources.
The IRFU actually own the grounds
at Clonattin, right in the middle of the
town. The club leases the venue in an
arrangement both parties are very happy
to have.
“We have two pitches and two training
areas and we installed a full gym in
2012,” shares John.
“We’re struggling for room, even though
we manage things fairly well. We are put
to the pin of our collar with the numbers.”
Gorey has been pro-active in pursuing the
monies needed to add on new dressing
rooms, to the cost of €300,000, which
are designed to cater for girls’ needs.
“We have girls playing AIL with
Suttonians, Railway Union, Old Belvedere
and Blackrock,” states John.
“There is no grand plan to create an
AIL club here in order to attract those
girls back or, indeed, keep the girls here
from leaving. We just want to be a club
where players can stay and play, if they
want to.
“In previous years, we had success in the
ladies through encouraging them to come
in from the GAA. But, they came and
went, leaving us with a ‘one year good,
the next year bad’ scenario.”
Since then, the commitment has been
made to grassroots level to build on
strong, local foundations, reaching out to
everyone in the community.
“In total, there are 700 members in the
club. We have three men’s adults teams,
the thirds only coming out for the cup.
In fact, we won the Anderson Cup last
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