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President's latest musings

From the pen of Marist St Pats President, John Spillane...

Just like the aged rockers emerge from their slumber around Christmas time to release a remake of a traditional Christmas song in an attempt to relaunch their flagging careers, I am back on deck as President in 2025 and ready for another action-packed season with Marist St Pats.

The season is grinding into gear in a somewhat traditional manner – albeit with a lot of new faces – all of whom are working really hard to make 2025 a more successful season that we enjoyed last year.

The pre-season training is pretty much complete, and the coaches are getting down to the specifics now and the shape of things on the rugby side is starting to firm up.

Recruitment remains the ongoing focus for everyone as we search for players to add depth across all the grades.

We are a team up on last year – with the return of the women’s team for the 2025 season – which is great news, and it is heartening to see that team getting good numbers along to trainings.

Already we have had the Clubrooms working bee, had a hit out against Johnsonville and attended the Spillane Cup – so we are so close to the start line now I can almost smell the liniment.

I would be remiss, in this pre-season musing, if I did not reference the impact that the Johnsonville Rugby Club losing their liquor license will have on all Clubs in the Wellington area going forward. I am not going to comment on the reasons behind the decision or any other part of the ruling, but I will pick up on a significant point that was made in the Johnsonville Rugby Club ruling – we have a “collective responsibility” regarding responsible alcohol consumption. It is NOT just the responsibility of the bar staff or the Club Management Committee – monitoring levels of intoxication and adherence to the licensing legislation and Club rules is the responsibility of all members of MSP and the price of abdicating that responsibility is very high indeed.

On that sobering note I look forward to catching up with everyone during the season and I am looking forward to some really good results across all the teams during the 2025 season.

President's latest musings

From the pen of Marist St Pats President, John Spillane...

Just like the aged rockers emerge from their slumber around Christmas time to release a remake of a traditional Christmas song in an attempt to relaunch their flagging careers, I am back on deck as President in 2025 and ready for another action-packed season with Marist St Pats.

The season is grinding into gear in a somewhat traditional manner – albeit with a lot of new faces – all of whom are working really hard to make 2025 a more successful season that we enjoyed last year.

The pre-season training is pretty much complete, and the coaches are getting down to the specifics now and the shape of things on the rugby side is starting to firm up.

Recruitment remains the ongoing focus for everyone as we search for players to add depth across all the grades.

We are a team up on last year – with the return of the women’s team for the 2025 season – which is great news, and it is heartening to see that team getting good numbers along to trainings.

Already we have had the Clubrooms working bee, had a hit out against Johnsonville and attended the Spillane Cup – so we are so close to the start line now I can almost smell the liniment.

I would be remiss, in this pre-season musing, if I did not reference the impact that the Johnsonville Rugby Club losing their liquor license will have on all Clubs in the Wellington area going forward. I am not going to comment on the reasons behind the decision or any other part of the ruling, but I will pick up on a significant point that was made in the Johnsonville Rugby Club ruling – we have a “collective responsibility” regarding responsible alcohol consumption. It is NOT just the responsibility of the bar staff or the Club Management Committee – monitoring levels of intoxication and adherence to the licensing legislation and Club rules is the responsibility of all members of MSP and the price of abdicating that responsibility is very high indeed.

On that sobering note I look forward to catching up with everyone during the season and I am looking forward to some really good results across all the teams during the 2025 season.


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