President's Monday Musings
From the pen of Marist St Pats' President, John Spillane...
What a way to sign off on the 2024 season!
On Thursday 28 November, many of the Marist St Pats faithful gathered for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and for the Volunteers Evening – a thank you to those who have given so much throughout 2024.
What a night – I mean it, as silly as it sounds, the AGM / Volunteers Evening was such a great way to finish the 2024 season.
It started really well, with this AGM being the best that I have ever attended (and I have been to a few over the years).
The meeting was excellently managed by John Holden – with Lourdaiz, Fred and MaryAnn all having supporting “speaking parts” – covering the Club's operations throughout the year and the Club's financial position respectively.
The highlights within the meeting were:
- Confirmation that the Club had a strong financial performance throughout the 2024 season – being a combination of outstanding fundraising efforts and exceptional cost control.
- The announcement that Julia Kennard and David McGuinness are joining the Management Committee.
- The endorsement of Jason Adamson (Marist St Pats Premier Coach) by all of those who are actively attending and supporting the off-season training programme that is preparing our players for the way we want to play in 2025 and participating in the retention of the 2024 players and the recruitment of new players into the Red Machine
The AGM progressed as all such meetings do until we reached the bit where the Club is asked to consider nominations for Life Memberships.
Now, Life Member nominations are not unusual but to have two nominations of this calibre at one meeting was wonderful and speaks volumes about the quality of the people we have working tirelessly in the engine room.
Firstly, Michael (Soody) Sood presented a wonderfully detailed and amusing nomination for Stephen (Porky) Jensen. The nomination covered an exceptionally long list of achievements and highlighted almost 40 years of service to the Red Machine.
Porky’s nomination was accepted unanimously.
Unfortunately, Porky was not able to attend as he was busy with a family matter – but I am sure we will all get to celebrate this achievement during the 2025 season.
Secondly, Matt Calvert presented a nomination for Brendan Reidy.
Matt presented a detailed nomination that covered many of the things that Brendan has achieved and touched on much of what Brendan has done for the Club over 30+ years.
Unbeknown to Brendan, his family and friends had been given a heads up and they had gathered in secret outside the Clubrooms – and at the appropriate time during the meeting they made their way silently into the clubrooms – out of Brendan’s eyeline.
When Matt finished his nomination, and the Club had accepted that nomination – marking this with an unprecedented standing ovation – Brendan was asked to say a few words and it was only then that he saw the massive crowd that had gathered to share this moment with their husband, father, brother, uncle and mate.
Brendan’s acceptance speech was heartfelt, emotional and wonderful and as the AGM ended and the Volunteers Evening commenced everyone present set about celebrating our two new Life Members and all that MSP achieved in 2024.
The mood was exceptionally positive but what I liked the most about the chat throughout the Volunteers Evening was that no one in the room was satisfied with where the Club is at right now.
Sure, we are in a “good place”, and everyone was in a happy and positive mood – but good has never been enough for MSP.
There are a few really obvious work-ons for the 2025 season, namely:
- Rugby (results, depth, recruiting and retention)
- Juniors (depth, building a lifelong connection) and
- Engagement with our army of supporters (converting supporters into members)
I can assure you all that there is a small army working on these points and there is a steely resolve amongst the management committee and the coaching and management teams and confidence that 2025 will be another significant step forward for the Club.
MSP Supporters
Shamrock Club
