Christmas greetings to everybody. I hope this message finds you and all your family in good health and keeping spirits up. To say it’s been a tough year for everyone is an understatement. At times like this Rugby comes a distant second. Notwithstanding that, Dolphin must keep going and be fully prepared for when the season re opens.
Whilst we have been quiet on the Rugby front, we have been very active and very successful on other fronts during this Lockdown.
The work of the Covid officers in the Club has been ongoing and fantastic. Their work has contributed enormously to the fact that the Minis Section of the Club is thriving. To see the large number of kids at the Club every Saturday morning is inspiring. With the large number of enthusiastic Coaches and Parents helping out, the future of our great Club is in good hands.
The Adult players in Club have been training away with individual programs throughout the suspension of the season in order to be prepared for its resumption hopefully in the not too distant future. My sincere thanks to all those players, coaches and managers.
The Club Management Committees (otherwise known as the Old Farts) have also been working away hard in the background during the closedown especially dealing with the Club finances which are fundamental to our survival as a Club in these strange and challenging times. I am delighted to report that the Old Farts have had enormous success in securing the future of the Club from a financial point of view.
When all our income sources dried up due to Covid we faced a dire situation. All income from our Club Bar disappeared. The large revenues we got from Munster and Ireland U20 games over the years, were no more. Added to this we had a very very large old debt from 20/30 years ago weighing down our Club. This debt arose from times when the financial safeguards which we now have in place, did not exist.
Thanks to the mighty work done by John Stringer and his fellow Old Farts, a large sum of money was raised from a group of members and this sum has been used to wipe out in full this legacy debt. This is an enormous success and those involved along with John are true heroes of our Club. Though the contributors will remain nameless at their own request we owe them our sincere thanks.
The IRFU Your Club Your Country annual draw has been fully sold out thanks to Noel Hickey and his band of merry men.
Thanks to the efforts of our Club Engineer Mick Mescall we have secured a large Government grant towards the erection of a new set of floodlights for the back pitch. This will dramatically improve training facilities.
Further good news on Financial front was received last week, when thanks to the efforts of Pat Hitchmough Club Treasurer and Turlough FitzPatrick Club Secretary we have secured a grant for the day to day running of Club whilst we have no income sources.
All of the above financial successes prove that the Old Farts actually do achieve the odd thing for Club.
All the above work and success over last 6 months has secured the long term financial future of our Club and will enable us to hit the ground running when Rugby re starts.
Our Club has many goals both on and off the Rugby field. On the field it is to be the best we can possibly be from U7s up to Senior. In tandem with this and just as important as winning is to us, we want to have a Club where everybody is equal, everybody feels welcome and everybody feels at home. We want member’s families, partner’s, children etc to feel that our Club is their Club.
We are a Club that tolerates no discrimination of any nature, where everybody is free to express their opinions and where everybody is encouraged to participate in all Club activities. We can disagree with each other without being disagreeable.
We are in process of reviving Ladies Rugby within the Club. We are in detailed talks with people about this and we will succeed. We will be up and running on that front for next season. We look forward to welcoming into our Club our new Lady members as full and equal members in Dolphin . I have no doubt that they will bring new life, new ideas, new energy with them and contribute hugely to our Club’s continued success.
Lastly but very importantly a huge thank you to our Sponsors who continue to loyally stand by us.
Dolphin RFC is in existence since 1902 and neither the Covid or anything else will stop us. Have a great Christmas all
Donal Daly
Club President