Dear Members and Friends,

It is a wonderful honour and privilege to be President of Lansdowne Football Club for the coming season 2023/2024. I look forward to representing the Club to the best of my ability.

Congratulations to Cillian Redmond on his selection as Club Captain, an honour he has most certainly earned. To our head coach Declan Fassbender and his excellent coaching team and squad I wish you the very best of luck for the season ahead.

Our Chairman of Rugby Enda Bohan, Director of Senior Rugby, Michael Quinn Jr., Director of Junior Rugby Kevin O’Connor and Director of U20’s Rugby Mark McMahon are all doing a brilliant job on and off the pitch making sure our senior, junior and u20 teams will all compete strongly for honours in the season ahead.

I also want to wish all of senior, U20s, Junior Rugby, Youths, Minis, Girls and Boys players, Coaches, and Managers and indeed all of our volunteers a successful and enjoyable season. The enthusiasm and hard work and outstanding skill on display from all of our teams is quite something to behold and our future looks very bright indeed

To all of our new members and players welcome to Lansdowne and I hope you find your time with us both challenging and enjoyable. We will do our very best to look after you both on and off the pitch.

I would like to pay tribute to Mark Dawson who is stepping down as a Trustee. Mark has given our great club such amazing service over the years. We welcome Past President Ciaran O’Reilly as a new Trustee and on behalf of all our members we wish him well.

A big thank you to all the businesses who continue to support the club through sponsorship. In particular I would like to thank our Club Sponsor Zurich for their continued support as we go into our 34th season with Zurich as our main sponsor. Zurich’s commitment to Lansdowne is exceptional and we are very grateful to have them on board once again.

As many of you will probably be aware we have finally closed our deal to acquire the former YMCA grounds on Claremont Road. This is a really exciting moment in Lansdowne’s history and a very ambitious venture for the club which will deepen our roots further in our local community and provide members with much needed additional sporting facilities for our Junior, Mini and Youth teams. Thanks to everyone involved to date in helping secure this ground. The work doesn’t end here! It’s really important that we all get behind this venture going forward to ensure it is a success for the club.

To all of our members please consider how you can help your club for the season ahead. This can range from  becoming a sponsor of the club to volunteering for a role in the club (join a committee, manage a team, write a match report, the list is endless) or something as simple as coming to a game or better still taking a table at one of our many AIL lunches or events during the year. If you are interested in any of the above please contact Elayne or Stephanie in the office at (01) 668 9300 or email elaynepower@lansdownerugby.com / stephanieojo@lansdownerugby.com.

The club is in great hands with Elayne Power, our general manager ably assisted by our events and administration manager Stephanie Ojo who are both doing a great job. A big thanks to our very hard working bar staff headed up by Dave Mangan and thank you again to Louis Preston (Mr Fixit) who makes sure our wonderful clubhouse stays in one piece!

Finally, I look forward to welcoming the many visiting teams, guests and spectators to Lansdowne FC in the coming season and I hope to see you all in the clubhouse after the game for some warm Lansdowne FC hospitality.

Steve Rooney