John Hartery Elected Munster Rugby President

The Annual General Meeting of the Munster Branch was held last night, 6th June at Thomond RFC before a large attendance.

The out-going President Stan Fuller in his address thanked everyone including all the sponsors for their help and cooperation over the season.

He proposed Thomond’s John Hartery as the new President of the Munster Branch for season 2013/2014 and this was seconded by his club.

John Hartery has been a member of Thomond RFC since joining the club’s youth section at age 10 in 1971 and played with the club throughout his adult career as a scrum half and centre.

The highlight of John’s rugby career was winning the Munster Junior Cup in 1991 and the following year he went on to win the Munster Junior League. John also represented the Munster Juniors in 1991 and 1992. On retiring from playing John coached his club’s U20 team over a period of two seasons.

At age 14 John was elected Thomond RFC’s Press Officer and has been involved in committee life ever since. Throughout his career he has served as Munster Rugby’s Chairman of Finance, Chairman of Management and has been Chairman of the Professional Game for the past four seasons. Playing an integral part on the development of Thomond Park, John currently serves as Stadium Director.

In accepting the position John thanked Thomond RFC for nominating him and was humbled to be the club’s first ever President as they embark on their 70th year of rugby. He went on to say that he hopes to represent his fellow club members to the best of his ability throughout his term of office. He also thanked his family who have also had a long association with the club and have been hugely supportive of him throughout his rugby commitments.

He went on to say that despite the financial challenges facing Munster Rugby he believes the club has a very bright future. Commenting on the current economic situation John said “like all organisations and businesses, particularly those in the sporting sector, we have been subject to a very severe downturn in our income. These challenges have been met head on and with the cost reduction programmes we have put in place, we are budgeting a break even situation for next season without sacrificing the quality of our playing squad.”

“The single biggest factor in our financial stability will be our on field performance and having worked closely with the Professional Game Staff for the past four years I am confident that the squad we now have in place will compete again with the best as evidenced by our finish to last season. We lost a huge amount of rugby intellect and experience with the retirements of key squad members over the past few seasons but we have seen our new brigade of leaders grow over the past 12 months and these players are now set to take on the challenge of making Munster Rugby winners again.”

John concluded the evening by welcoming Munster Rugby’s newly elected Honorary Secretary, Joe Murphy from Midleton RFC and thanked his predecessor Frank Byford for all his efforts in the role over the past eight seasons.

The other elections at the meeting were –

Senior Vice President: Michael Goggin (UL Bohemian)
Junior Vice President: Bertie Smith (Cork Constitutioin)
Honorary Secretary: Joe Murphy (Midleton)
Honorary Treasurer: Tom Kinirons (UL Bohemian)
Immediate Past President: Stan Fuller (MAR)

Senior Club Delegates:

Bruff: Richard Leonard
Cashel: Peter Silke
Cork Constitution: Greg Barrett
Dolphin: Michael Magner
Garryowen: Declan Madden
Highfield: Mick Carroll
Midleton: Denis Kelleher
Nenagh Ormond: Sean McCullough
Old Crescent: Ken Lyons
Richmond: Natalie McNamara
Shannon: John Sheerin,
Sunday’s Well: Nicholas Comyn
Thomond: Joe O’Shaughnessy
U.C.C: Charlie Buckley
U.L. Bohemian: Michel Nix
Young Munster: Gerard Quaid

Junior Club Delegates:

North:
Bobby O’Brien (Thurles)
John King (Ennis)

South:
John O’Brien (Ballincollig),
Tim O’Herlihy (Castleisland)

Munster Schools Delegate:
Declan English (Castletroy College)

Munster Association of Referees Delegate:
Eugene Ryan

Youth Committee Delegate:
Dermot Kelly (St. Senans)

Women’s Committee Delegate:
Jim Gibson (Garryowen)

Other Committee Members:

Hon Secretary Junior Committee: Paul Griffin,
Hon Secretary North Munster Sub Committee: Christy Ryan,
Hon Secretary South Munster Sub Committee: Deirdre McCarthy