Tee-time for Rochestown GAA as major fundraiser planned for June

Having enjoyed a good year on the field in 2024, Rochestown will take to the fairways with a new fundraising initiative.

On Friday, June 27, the city club will hold its inaugural golf classic, with Kinsale GC the venue. A member there, former Rochestown manager Declan Murphy - who stepped down at the end of last year after three seasons in charge and two as a selector before that - is a key figure on the organising committee. 

Keeping a club running nowadays is no cheap endeavour regardless of size and the hope is that the golf classic will provide a welcome injection of capital.

“Before you ever kick a ball, you’ve a lot of costs,” Murphy says.

“You need jerseys, balls, equipment, insurance, players’ registration – it’s like a business, before you turn the key on a Monday morning, you have overheads and clubs are no different.

“No matter how big or how small you are, you still have the costs so we felt that if we gave it one good lash this year, it would put us in a good state for a couple of years.

“It can be difficult, because every club and every organisation is doing something to fundraise.

“It’s nice that it’s our inaugural one, this is the first time doing something like this rather than be going cap-in-hand all the time. Between the GAA and golf and business, we’ve already got a good few guys on board with teams and tee-box sponsors, which is great.”

Beyond the finances, Rochestown are limited in terms of human resources - there is just one team in the cub, operating at junior C - but they punch above their weight.

“Last year, we won the Flor McCarthy in the city division,” Murphy says, “we got to a league semi-final, a championship semi-final and one of our players was voted junior C championship player of the year.

“We did the Pat McAuliffe game again, we had a great day for that. Derek Coughlan, the former Cork City player, came up – coincidentally, he presented the man of the award to Marky Sull [Mark O'Sullivan], another former City player!

“We had our awards night that night and presented the Flor McCarthy medals. When guys can see something tangible at the end of the year, it gives you the impetus to go again the following year.”

Rochestown do not have an under-age system, meaning there is no conveyor belt of younger players constantly joining the adult panel. However, Murphy outlines how their place in the Cork GAA ecosystem can serve them well.

“We’ve a number of lads who play rugby with Sunday’s Well and Dolphin,” he says, “and we’ve guys involved in soccer with Passage or down in Carrigtwohill.

“I think that’s helped us the last couple of years is we’ve lads down from Mayo and living in the area – rather than joining a Barrs or a Nemo, the small club here lended itself to what they were looking for.

“Then you have things like a guy working down in Pfizer saying to another fella, 'I’m playing a bit of ball with Rochestown, you should come up, it’s great craic.'

“The last couple of years, it has really snowballed with that. The lads went back training about three weeks ago. They’re doing a 5km run for fitness training every Tuesday night and then ballwork at the pitch every Saturday.

“They have around 34 or 36 signed up for the year ahead, which is about on a par with last year. For a single-team club in junior C, it’s very good.”

• Teams of three for the Rochestown GAA Golf Classic cost €250, with a meal and refreshments provided, while tee-box sponsorship is €50. For more details, contact Declan Murphy on 086-2622512.