Carlow RFC

moycullen14

http://www.examiner.ie/sport/rugby/difficulties-may-force-carlow-rfc-to-close-doors-145425.html

Scary stuff

bamboozle

hopefully the locals rally behind the club, most clubs should have a member who's a plumber who could come in and help get the plumbing going.
Clubs need their bars & clubhouses to be open and available for rent to have any sort of cash flow.

Tim Robbins

bamboozle wrote: »

hopefully the locals rally behind the club, most clubs should have a member who's a plumber who could come in and help get the plumbing going.
Clubs need their bars & clubhouses to be open and available for rent to have any sort of cash flow.

Sadly, I think we'll be hearing more and more of these stories. Clubs went crazy chasing success. Paying coaches, physios, players, you name it.

Unsustainable.

profitius

Tim Robbins wrote: »

Sadly, I think we'll be hearing more and more of these stories. Clubs went crazy chasing success. Paying coaches, physios, players, you name it.

Unsustainable.

Are there many other teams who spent big? Its amazing how clubs can get their sums so wrong.

Amazotheamazing

profitius wrote: »

Are there many other teams who spent big? Its amazing how clubs can get their sums so wrong.

A few of the Cork teams cough, Highfield, cough, seem to make fairly large investments in players with little return.

profitius

They should have learned from league of Ireland soccer. I remember reading years ago that I think Shelbourne were paying Glenn Crowe about €5,000 per week! My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw it. lol

Tim Robbins

profitius wrote: »

Are there many other teams who spent big? Its amazing how clubs can get their sums so wrong.

Yeah. There are plenty of clubs who are paying coaches big money.
Some Leinster League clubs (not even AIL) are paying players.

I don't knows the ins and outs but I would hate to see clubs using their land to as co-laterial to get money frmo the banks.

Even when I do U21's games I see physio's. Are these getting paid as well?

phog

They never really recovered from having to pay Contepomi.

xplosive

Carlow never payed Felipe!!!! He was assigned to them (as are all foreign players) because Dan van zyl was coaching Carlow at the time and the two had played together at sale sharks.

He actually played for them during the time his registration was cocked up by Leinster and he needed game time. Although he got injured in his first game for them.

I have no sympathy for Carlow though, they may not have payed Felipe but they certainly payed other players and ultimately that was their downfall. They payed for bought in players and neglected their own home grown players and their underage structure. They also over milked local sponsors and mid treated a lot of the older club members.

The current publicity in the examiner and also the local media is an attempt to kick start support for the club again. They are in no danger of closing down or of selling their grounds. What they are in danger of is reducing expenditure, something they should be more than willing to do!

laugh

phog wrote: »

They never really recovered from having to pay Contepomi.

Considering that he played for them once they hardly paid him that much?

phog

xplosive wrote: »

Carlow never payed Felipe!!!!

laugh wrote: »

Considering that he played for them once they hardly paid him that much?

At the time there was certainly rumours that he was being paid by them, however, I'll bow to your superior knowledge.

Apologies to Carlow and Felipe.

What game did he play with them?

xplosive

phog wrote: »

What game did he play with them?

Its a while ago so apologies if I'm wrong but I think it was either Shannon or Young Munster, def a limerick team anyway. Thomand Park rings a bell so ill side with Shannon.....but like I said, it was a long time ago

amcshannon

He played against Shannon in January 2004. Shannon won 20-11 and he was rather ineffective on the day.

phog

xplosive wrote: »

Its a while ago so apologies if I'm wrong but I think it was either Shannon or Young Munster, def a limerick team anyway. Thomand Park rings a bell so ill side with Shannon.....but like I said, it was a long time ago

amcshannon wrote: »

He played against Shannon in January 2004. Shannon won 20-11 and he was rather ineffective on the day.

That's why I asked, I was there and a guy from Carlow told me that the club were paying him and that thy had to play him because the LB wanted to get him gametime. I got the impression from him that it wasn't Filepe's first game for them, must have met the wrong guy.

Tim Robbins

phog wrote: »

That's why I asked, I was there and a guy from Carlow told me that the club were paying him and that thy had to play him because the LB wanted to get him gametime. I got the impression from him that it wasn't Filepe's first game for them, must have met the wrong guy.

There are laws which stop AIL clubs playing players more than 3K a year (I think). However, there no laws to stop Leinster League clubs playing players.

phog

Tim Robbins wrote: »

There are laws which stop AIL clubs playing players more than 3K a year (I think). However, there no laws to stop Leinster League clubs playing players.

Maybe, but very difficult to prove the law was broken.

The GAA is an amateur association but I'd bet my last euro that clubs paying coaches/managers and maybe even players.

mdoycar

thats hard to read, I am from Carlow and played there for 6 years - I remember Towns Cup Matches when you would see a couple of thousand at them, Carlow were huge!

Interpro teams with 5/6 Carlow starters and a Carlow coaching team...

We had some team in the 90's!

Must get my ass back to Oak Park (dont live in Carlow any more)

Morf

EGM Tuesday next. I'll know more then.

bamboozle

phog wrote: »

Maybe, but very difficult to prove the law was broken.

The GAA is an amateur association but I'd bet my last euro that clubs paying coaches/managers and maybe even players.

the GAA consider there to be a huge difference between paying someone and giving them expenses, apparently 80k a year in expenses is completely different to 80k a year in salary. Pillar Caffery didnt drive a new merc as dubs coach for no reason...

siochain

mdoycar wrote: »

thats hard to read, I am from Carlow and played there for 6 years - I remember Towns Cup Matches when you would see a couple of thousand at them, Carlow were huge!

Interpro teams with 5/6 Carlow starters and a Carlow coaching team...

We had some team in the 90's!

Must get my ass back to Oak Park (dont live in Carlow any more)

yeah those were the days we (Naas RFC) had some cracking games against Carlow and the crowds were unreal compared to the turn out these days. Rember well when Melvin started out for you guy's. If I rember right, did he live in a mobile home in the car park at the time?

CIARAN_BOYLE

bamboozle wrote: »

the GAA consider there to be a huge difference between paying someone and giving them expenses, apparently 80k a year in expenses is completely different to 80k a year in salary. Pillar Caffery didnt drive a new merc as dubs coach for no reason...

I remember a few years ago Dublin had a player based in Scotland who was flown home for training 3 or 4 nights a week

GerM

This comes as no surprise and they aren't the only club in such difficulties. Clubs have overextended themselves in terms of rewarding players and coaching staff in the belief that they would garner success. I know one large Dublin club that provided a few young players with cars and had several of them living rent free together in a nearby house. This doesn't include the more established players who received a few quid for their efforts.

A club I played for briefly paid 3 or 4 players in the senior squad along with backroom staff. They went as far as to poach players from other sides with the promise of a bit of cash in their back pocket. They are a senior club but are far from being one of the more established teams around. During my last few months with them all members received letters advising them that the club had entered financial difficulties as a result of sponsors not renewing and members were encouraged to make a donation of €200 to help matters. Club officials began ringing us to ask when they could expect our donation. At this point in time I had been with them about 6 months and had spent 4 months injured. From speaking with one of the sponsors I discovered that a large part of the reason for them not renewing was the club had treated them with disdain, barely acknowledging them.

It's sad to see clubs which are important parts of the community struggling but, as with a lot of the economic downturn, a large part of it is down to mismanagement and greed by those central to the clubs.

Carlow is a good club and an important one in terms of growing the game so I really do hope they turn the corner here and get their things together. Perhaps this scare will see them take a different approach and improve them in the long run.

profitius

The well run clubs will end up surviving and like Carlow the badly run clubs will be on the slippery slope.

Morf

Does anyone know anything about the Carlow situation besides idle speculation and vague rumour?

The story that ran in the local paper and the Examiner seems to indicate selling the club (or part of), has been disclaimed by the board of the club. Whoever did it did it to stir up local feeling and it seems to have worked. It wasn't the official party line at any rate.

I will be at the EGM next Tuesday and i'll report back what occurs there. The point of having this thread open where people throw in their 2 cents about badly run clubs and make vague links to Carlow isn't really to the point or helpful.

Kinger83

siochain wrote: »

yeah those were the days we (Naas RFC) had some cracking games against Carlow and the crowds were unreal compared to the turn out these days. Rember well when Melvin started out for you guy's. If I rember right, did he live in a mobile home in the car park at the time?

Yeah he lived in a mobile home behind the club house if i remember correctly! There were some great times travelling to support the team during the town's cup days and after they went senior and rose up through the ranks of the AIL. Sad to see how things are gone, and how slim the support is these days for games compared to the 90's.

Morf

The run-down of the meeting:

The club is in a reasonably healthy financial state.

The outgoings are currently more than what's coming in. This is being nipped in the bud early.

Volunteers are needed for fund-raising activities in the club on an ongoing basis (this being the crux of the meeting).

The story in the Nationalist and picked up by other papers was a complete untruth.

Kinger83

Good to hear, be a shame to see the club go.

There was talk of some sort of merger with the I.T i heard, to try and generate more interest in people playing and getting involved in the club. Might not be a bad idea with the way things have been going.

almighty1

Kinger83 wrote: »

Good to hear, be a shame to see the club go.

There was talk of some sort of merger with the I.T i heard, to try and generate more interest in people playing and getting involved in the club. Might not be a bad idea with the way things have been going.

Yes that makes sense. There are decent facilities on their ground and have their own Rugby course so some sort of consolidation could work for both parties.