Rebuilding Ros Glas — a look into the Monasterevin hurling revival

Ros Glas is reaching its 50th anniversary this year and it is fair to say not many Kildare clubs have seen as much change in that time. Originally established in 1974 as a juvenile football club for underrage set-ups in the Monasterevin area, it now serves as a hurling and camogie outfit for the people of the town, as well as Ballykelly, Kildangan and Ellistown.

The early years of the club were rather successful with U14 hurling Championships being won as high as Division 1 in the 1980s. Alongside minor glory in both hurling and football, the Ros Glas seniors won the Junior Hurling Championship in 1983 and ‘86 and things were looking promising.

Success was sparse in many of the years that followed, barring another JHC win in 2003 with a talented group that many felt should have been further capitalised on. Nevertheless, fresh off a 2-18 to 2-10 win over Cappagh in the Division 4 final last month, Ros Glas are showing signs of what many in the club are working hard to achieve.

Ger Dunne is one of the men at the heart of the rebuild and is doing so from the ground up. The go-to man when it comes to juvenile hurling in Ros Glas is three years into a stint coaching his daughter Darcy’s now U9s team.

“It all started when she was about three years-old and my wife was away on holidays. I said I’d take her down to the club and give the lads a hand. She took to it like a duck to water. She loves it and prefers hurling to football. She’ll be a lot better of a player than I ever was,” Ger laughed.

“It is easier to coach your own group and take them from kids right the way up. It was something that we took our eye off as a club the last few years. Even she (Darcy) spent a couple of years running around picking daisies, but she really has the gist of it now. Like every kid, they all ‘get it’ at a different age and I always tell parents when they worry to just keep bringing them and it’ll happen eventually.”

Ger’s own introduction to hurling was unconventional and heavily driven by his family's involvement in the club.

“I was a better soccer player than I was a footballer and probably a better football player than I was a hurler. I grew up just down the road from the pitch so my mother was involved with my brothers and the whole family were heavily involved in it really,” Ger recalled.

“When they got underrage going a bit in the 90s, my brother was secretary and coach of the senior team at the time so he dragged me down to the matches. I got into it that way.”

Those Dunne family links are still very much within the Ros Glas squad today with younger brothers and nephews of Ger all contained within the recent Division 4 title winning side.

“It was really nice to win something. We weren’t expecting to win the league or weren’t even really targeting it. When we got into the semi-final against Naas it was kind of like ‘God we may push on now’. We generally don’t play too well in the league. We blood in new players the majority of the time and focus on the Championship. It was just the way it worked out and I don’t even think the manager expected it,” Ger explained.

“It was brilliant to get the win, especially for the younger players to win something. There are lads on that team that have won nothing, football or hurling.”

Success breeds success as they say and many of the underrage teams in Ros Glas were in attendance to see their senior side lift the cup in Manguard Park.

“They had a great day. They all came up to watch it and there were a load of kids at the match. Then the Monday after it in training they were all able to run around with the cup and get their picture taken with it. That is what it is all about and maintaining that underrage growth is my main focus,” Ger said.

That being said, Ger’s philosophy on coaching steers far away from solely success driven as the man in charge looks to instil skills and create enjoyment for his players first and foremost.

“The kids getting a skill is the best thing about it and their face after they do it is amazing. It is so great to see their eyes light up. We have one young lad with dyspraxia, so he really has to work hard to do a lot of the hurling skills. I was just standing in the big goals and letting them all shoot and he swung two or three times at the sliotar and missed it each time. On the fourth one, he stuck it in the top corner and his face just lit up. He was delighted with himself and that is what underrage is about. Success comes and goes, but if the kids have fun doing it and like doing it, it is better for everyone,” Ger recalled.

“We have all seen the headers on the sideline, sometimes in ladies football and a lot in boys football, it is madness the way some lads can carry on coaching kids. Up until minor there should be unlimited substitutes because 90% of minor footballers or hurlers are not going to play adult ball.”

Ger says the club’s recent Division 4 title win is a taste of the talent that volunteers are hoping to harness in the years to come. The head of the Ros Glas juvenile department hailed the many families that have been helping the club for years. The names Nash, Byrne, Kennedy, Cullen, McCormack and Connelly were all rattled off as Ger discussed those who have made it all happen for Ros Glas.

Ger and many other underrage managers now are hoping to keep leading the Ros Glas of the future.

The Leinster Leader will be doing a feature article from every club in Kildare over the coming weeks and months as part of the Love of the Game series. If you have a suggestion for an article on someone from your club, send them to: daragh.nolan@leinsterleader.ie.