The Bunratty Cratloe AGM took place yesterday evening. The main themes and activities of the evening were:

• The club is going from strength to strength in terms of membership leaving us with a significant challenge in terms of professionalising our structures to cater appropriately for same on the playing and organisational sides.
• Plans for facilities improvements including ongoing work at Woulfe Park and the new astroturf facility at Clonmoney NS for which grant funding of €105k has been approved.
• Fundraising plans to ensure we can deliver on the facilities above, while meeting the day to day administrative costs of a growing club. Support from both sponsors (main sponsors in 2021 included Aughinish, DHL, Tara Oil Bunratty, Smitz Cafe) and club members through fundraising support, membership fees and donations has been very strong and is a feature of our success as a club and will be vital to help us flourish.
• Recognising the sporting achievements of the club over the past year
• Huge increases in numbers and participation across the board which has us as one of the only clubs with teams in every available boys and girls CSSL league from U15 down for 2022 together with a junior adult team and for the first time ever in 2022 a ladies team is being fielded by the club.
• Bunratty Cratloe playing its part in ensuring that underage soccer went ahead in 2021 when the CSSL had difficulty in putting a committee together with Cathal Jones taking on the role of treasurer.
• The U14 boys team winning the first division league and being hugely unlucky in the Cup final, losing on penalties which the U11s made up for winning their shield final on penalties. We had a huge number of matches in a short time frame ranging from blitzes and friendlies to league and cup matches aimed at maximising the amount of football played at each age group.
• Mens Junior team winning both the Third Division League and League Cup in 21/22 season under the stewardship of Dean Russell and Pa Twoomey.
• The quality of our underage coaching is reflected in the fact that we have a number of players selected at each age group from U14 down in Clare ETP panels in both boys and girls for 2022. In 2021 Kyle Kirby and Matt Jones both started for the Clare team that won the U14 Kennedy Bowl which was a major achievement. Matt has progressed to play with Limerick FC in the National League of Ireland U15 this year and all of us at the club wish him well. Kate Jones also captained Clare in the U13 Gaynor cup final in late 2021.
• We have also had players selected for the North Munster Centre of Excellence in each of the last 3 years.
• Election of officers. Outgoing chairperson Cathal Jones handed over the reins to Joe Rooney after over 10 years in the chair and is staying in the role of vice chairperson to assist Joe in his new role. Trevor Twomey taking over as Secretary from David Jones after a similar period of time in that role. The committee for the upcoming year 2022 will be:
• Chairperson - Joe Rooney
• Vice Chairperson - Cathal Jones
• Treasurer - Darragh Kelly
• Secretary - Trevor Twomey
• Registrar - Sonia Jones
• Child Welfare Officer - Christine McNamara
• Committee members - Don Murphy, Conor Twomey, Carol Kearney, Fintan Quinn, David Jones, Declan Adams, Shane Purcell.
• Fintan Quinn is taking on the role of Coach Development Officer to head up a subcommittee specifically targetted at ensuring a co-ordinated approach across the age groups for equipment, coaching, participation etc., making sure that the club is working to the FAI Player Development Guidelines and also availing of whatever external supports are available. Declan Adams will support him in this role. Shane Purcell will continue leading the facilities development initiative.
• The requirement for a dedicated PRO was also noted and the role was kept open to be filled over the coming weeks.
• Joe Rooney thanked both Cathal and David for their work which has seen a revitalisation of the club. Also special thanks was recorded to Noel McInerney who stepped down from the committee and also passed on his coaching baton following stellar service to the club where he was one of the main drivers behind both our facilities improvement (astroturf development in particular) and the restart of the underage club 8 years ago.