pinky wrote: If anyone sounded like they didn't love you Sean, they were probably just confusing you with another guy with the same name who's not quite as good

I reckon we've got a good case for passing off, folks. That other 'Sean O'Brien' is obviously trying to cash in our SOB.

Some people have no moral compass. Sad, really.

Diom wrote:

wp_rathead wrote: Sean in his excitment after getting sponsored by Clan looks up website. Clicks on forum. Finds thread. Reads thread. Gets sad as seemingly no ones first choice.
:silly:

Sean, if you are reading this thread, we picked you because you are the best. Simply the best.

If anyone sounded like they didn't love you Sean, they were probably just confusing you with another guy with the same name who's not quite as good

galway_gas wrote:

Decadence wrote: We are now open for donations which will be put towards recouping the money that the Clan invested in sponsoring Sean O'Brien (any excess money will be given directly to him), contact Sol_ie for details on payment.

Happy to contribute again this year. However can I suggest that any excess cash is put towards adopting another unloved academy player rather than a cash gift.

Would love to, but it's highly unlikely we'll have enough, we may not have any excess at all! If it happens that we do have enough for another sponsorship we'll re-open the discussion here.

Decadence wrote:

clanman wrote: We are now open for donations which will be put towards recouping the money that the Clan invested in sponsoring Sean O'Brien (any excess money will be given directly to him), contact Sol_ie for details on payment.

Happy to contribute again this year. However can I suggest that any excess cash is put towards adopting another unloved academy player rather than a cash gift.

clanman wrote: if I was given the choice between SOB and one of the 4 established players that hasn't so far got sponsorship I would'nt have picked SOB. Maybe we can get another player sponsored by the Clan, is the contribution by Paypal still open for this year?

As I said before, not every player on Seapoints list above was available, and none of the four player you mention were available. Not everyone is going to agree with the choice, but we had to reach a decision quickly, and as other people have said, there are many other factors involved apart from being a regular first team player.

We are now open for donations which will be put towards recouping the money that the Clan invested in sponsoring Sean O'Brien (any excess money will be given directly to him), contact Sol_ie for details on payment.

Completely agree with Fourdogs on this.

Fourdogs wrote: I might be wrong but if you look around most of the other Supporters Clubs, you will see that they put their money and effort into assisting with the younger / developing players. The Clan is not a Commercial entity that should be looking to get 'pay back' for any money it puts into the Club like wanting its sponsored player to wear a particular watch or brand of clothing.

That's a big part of it. I think Quinns (I saw it on their site last year, can't see it now) have it as a rule that they sponsor only academy players. There'd be no point in us stumping up major cash (which we don't have, and people wouldn't be happy to raise) to sponsor a 'high profile' player,

Personally, I just hope 'The Real Sean O'Brien' catches on!

wp_rathead wrote: Sean in his excitment after getting sponsored by Clan looks up website. Clicks on forum. Finds thread. Reads thread. Gets sad as seemingly no ones first choice.
:silly:

Sean, if you are reading this thread, we picked you because you are the best. Simply the best.

Guys

I might be wrong but if you look around most of the other Supporters Clubs, you will see that they put their money and effort into assisting with the younger / developing players. The Clan is not a Commercial entity that should be looking to get 'pay back' for any money it puts into the Club like wanting its sponsored player to wear a particular watch or brand of clothing.

I for one fully support the Committee decision.

As the Official Supporters Club of Connacht rugby, we should have access through the Branch to all the players to visit the Clan Bar sometime during the year. Our money should go to someone who may not necessarily be high on a commercial sponsors radar.

Sean in his excitment after getting sponsored by Clan looks up website. Clicks on forum. Finds thread. Reads thread. Gets sad as seemingly no ones first choice.
:silly:

See post above, you can send me an email for bank details if you're interested in contributing that way, paypal (should, fingers crossed) be up next week).

As regards the rest of the queries, I think Dec summed it up

Decadence wrote: we didn't have a lot of options (a lot of the names listed above were not available), and when some of our shortlist candidates started to get snapped up by other sponsors we had to act quickly and sign up Sean. It's also difficult to put something like this to a vote without talking about individual player sponsorship costs, we which have told Connacht Rugby we would not disclose.

clanman wrote: if I was given the choice between SOB and one of the 4 established players that hasn't so far got sponsorship I would'nt have picked SOB. Maybe we can get another player sponsored by the Clan, is the contribution by Paypal still open for this year?

CM, yeah we aren't sure if we will be sponsoring another player but we will be opening up for contributions. We covered most of the sponsorship from the club funds so first we will be looking to cover that I think.

If we do sponsor another one we can probably arrange an "EGM" so people can have a say.

swift4prez wrote: Isnt henry from sligo, and sligo in connacht??? :evil: :evil: :evil:

Is he?! I assumed he was a Munster man. Great.

i cant believe i googled Johnicus Dos Concretim

Brilliant! :lol: Johnicus Dos Concretim is trending.

I missed the "party" so will be in the CB after for a scoop for sure.

swift4prez wrote: Just had a look at the connacht rugby website, few first teamers still without (signed deal) sponsor. its been updated today cause faloon dint have his sponsor up yesterday and he does now. i flicked through, looking for the clan logo. then i copped i had to click on the academy boys. same thing in match programe, main squad profile well away from academy.
some good players still without sponsors. muldowney, harris wright, sean heanry and john cooney. cooney would be handy with talking about inside of leinster, and henry is a nice guy who always chats and even when injured is at every home game.

SOB usually stands not to far from me, only seen him a few times. he wasnt to interested in the game as he kept going in and out.
Also he isnt that active on twitter. Eoin mckeon tweeted a picture last night of him wearing 'Kings head' tshirt that he got.
Muldoon has been all over Front dooe facebook page giving away tickets to the match tomorrow.

Last year didnt seem we got much out of heally. i expected him to show up at the dail bar when he was injured for one of the away games and talk during half time etc. i think value for money needs to be got from SOB, find out from the branch does a sponsor get pairs of match tickets, photo opp and a signed jersey etc

if I was given the choice between SOB and one of the 4 established players that hasn't so far got sponsorship I would'nt have picked SOB. Maybe we can get another player sponsored by the Clan, is the contribution by Paypal still open for this year?

Thanks for the reply. I know its a hard choice picking. Not giving out, just my thoughts.

Diom wrote: It's hard to cover all the bases... if we have sponsored Henry someone would wonder why we didn't sponsor a "native" or an "up and comer". Isnt henry from sligo, and sligo in connacht??? :evil: :evil: :evil: SOB seemed like a good choice and, anyway, we can't really discuss players' value-for-money in public without risking letters from lawyers. Fair enough, i expected that

You're dead right about getting our dues this year, and we were provided with a list of benefits for the sponsor as part of the contract. I'm not sure we we are allowed to post that list (Dec can probably answer that). fair enough as long as value for money is got
A good bit of our motivation for this as well is to raise our profile WITHIN Connacht Rugby and with the players. This year sponsorship was being handled by Gavin Duffy, so our name is now familiar with one more man who is intimately tied to the province's rugby community.

Join the committee and you'll be party to all these intrigues (once you have sworn fealty to our secret god Johnicus Dos Concretim, and been initiated to the Secrets of Elwood). i cant believe i googled Johnicus Dos Concretim

see ye tomorrow

It's hard to cover all the bases... if we have sponsored Henry someone would wonder why we didn't sponsor a "native" or an "up and comer". SOB seemed like a good choice and, anyway, we can't really discuss players' value-for-money in public without risking letters from lawyers.

You're dead right about getting our dues this year, and we were provided with a list of benefits for the sponsor as part of the contract. I'm not sure we we are allowed to post that list (Dec can probably answer that).
A good bit of our motivation for this as well is to raise our profile WITHIN Connacht Rugby and with the players. This year sponsorship was being handled by Gavin Duffy, so our name is now familiar with one more man who is intimately tied to the province's rugby community.

Join the committee and you'll be party to all these intrigues (once you have sworn fealty to our secret god Johnicus Dos Concretim, and been initiated to the Secrets of Elwood).