Marist's four generations of Mahers
Club member Kerry Maher can trace a family link with Marist rugby in Wellington that goes back four generations.
Kerry was prompted to email on reading about the three generations of Taylors who have played for MSP.
The Maher family link begins with Kerry's maternal grandfather Bernie Sullivan, who played in the first Marist senior team in 1919. Kerry recalls a photo of his grandfather's team once hanging in the MSP clubrooms.
His father Bill then played senior A football for Marist in 1946 and 1947. Winston McCarthy, in his club match commentaries from Athletic Park, referred to him as the 'indefatigable Maher'.
Bill trained for the Wellington team that toured the South Island in 1946 but missed final selection by a whisker. He married in 1948. When a training squad was announced for the Wellington Bs, Bill was on his honeymoon.
As an aside, he had met his wife Patricia on the Marist supporters' bus returning from a match against Eastbourne. His friend Mick Manion, father of life member Terry, told Bill to sit in the seat next to her. As they say, the rest is history.
Kerry and his late brother Kevin played for the combined Marist St Pat's club from its inception in 1971, "without distinction but with a whole lot of fun", he says. He well remembers the initial club gatherings at the Grand Hotel on a Saturday evening and then the move to the clubrooms where the fun and late nights continued.
His son Anthony Maher carried on the playing tradition. He was a well-performed centre for the premiers in 2006 and 2007. "Luckily, the talent from my father which skipped my generation returned in his grandson," says Kerry.
- If you have any anecdotes or news for the club's 40th jubilee in May, please email them to the club.
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