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Albert
Fagan
 Like
any club in the amateur game, Boroughmuir relies on the time given
voluntarily by its members to survive. One such member, who gives as much
time to the club as anyone, is Albert Fagan. Holding the position of Sponsorship
Director, it is Albert’s job, in his own words, to “make money for the
club and help them survive. I sell sponsorship on jerseys, boards,
advertising in the programme, the lunches on a Saturday, sponsoring the
players. Just any way we can bring money in.”
Perhaps
a more pertinent question though, would be why do people give such time
freely? “Because I love Boroughmuir Rugby Club. The same simple reason
everybody else does. It’s nothing more complicated than that. We just
love the club and are more than willing to put in the work needed for it
to survive.”
Albert,
now semi-retired, is an Edinburgh man through and through, having grown up
in the Grassmarket area of the city centre. He made his living working for
Kelloggs for 31 years, before which he worked in the Civil Service.
The
biggest news of the moment, and most likely the next few years at
Boroughmuir, is the development of the facilities which recently started.
And whilst there are some things which have irritated Albert, he, like
everyone else, believes it will greatly benefit the club. “I’m happy
that its finally started. I’m not so happy that we’ve lost the touch
rugby because of it this year, with the mix up on when they were going to
start, but at least it is underway. It’s going to be a very difficult
couple of years for us whilst its completed but I hope we can get through
it. Once I announce the new sponsors, at least that’s going to improve
our portfolio and we’ll certainly be making more from jersey sponsorship
than we have done in the past. Also, I think the development will turn the
place into a sports club. The hockey will come back, the cricket guys will
be able to come into the clubhouse after their games and hopefully we’ll
bring the boat club in as well. That’ll all benefit the club,
particularly financially.”
 And
financial benefits are all the more important now that some clubs seem to
be able to throw money around at will to attract players. “In my
opinion, the money clubs like Watsonians are throwing about is obscene.
And if you look more closely, the sums don’t add up. If you take a ball
park figure of say £100,000 that they are spending and if they won
everything going, the Borders Kings, all the 7s tournaments, the league
and the cup, they’d bring in somewhere around £40,000 so the figures
just don’t add up and I simply don’t understand it. I don’t
understand it at all.”
But
despite such measures being taken by some teams to try and force their way
to the top, Albert feels that Boroughmuir have a team more than capable of
competing. “I think overall we’ve got a good squad. It’s a shame
that we had some injuries during the year and if we had a top goal kicker
then we might have won the league or the cup but considering that I think
we did very well. If we’re to strengthen one area for next year though,
it’d be kicking. There were a few games that we lost because we missed
our kicks. Also, losing Murray Driver, we might suffer a bit with not
really having strength in depth in the front row. If John or Freddie were
to get injured then we’d be in a bit of bother. So I think we’re a few
players short but I’m certain we can bounce back. It’ll be very
difficult this coming year with Meggetland essentially being just a
building site throughout. But knowing the players we’ve got and bringing
a few in, I’m certain we’ll be there or thereabouts in the league and
the cup. The one trouble we might have is that because of the building
going on, the pitch is going to be narrower this year. We’ve always
liked to play open and expansive rugby but the pitch will be about a metre
narrower so the ball won’t be stretched as wide. But I’m sure the
coaches will know how to adapt the play to suit the surroundings.”
Having
been involved with the club for over twenty years, despite being far more
interested in football as a youngster, Albert has seen more than a few
changes in the game. “The biggest, by far, has to be the change to
professionalism. A lot of the die hard fans from the amateur days are just
not interested in following the professional game and have just fallen
away. I think it’s most noticeable when you go down to the borders. In
the old days you would go down to Hawick or Melrose and they had
practically a full house whereas in the past few seasons we’ve gone down
and found the place all but empty. It’s staggering. So, unfortunately,
professionalism has killed the game in some respects but I do believe that
those older fans who’ve left the game can be replaced. You’re now
finding that it’s more family orientated and certainly the SRU are
trying to build on that but for me the big worry is more the falling
number of people actually playing the game. That’s a problem that really
needs to be addressed if the game is to flourish.”
Passion
and commitment are two words that you could not accuse Albert of lacking
and they are the things needed to keep amateur clubs afloat in an
increasingly professional game. The club is in for some hard times over
the next couple of years and it is people such as Albert and the time the
give willingly which will pull us through into a new era.
Albert's
Best Boroughmuir Team:
15.
Bruce Hay
14.
Rory Couper
13.
Malcolm Clapperton
12.
Lindsey Graham
11.
Iwan Tukalo
10.
Calvin Howarth
9.
Chris Cusiter
1.
Grant Wilson
2.
David Cunningham
3.
Peter Wright
4.
George Jones or Johnson (can’t
quite make it out on tape)
5.
George Watson
6.
Brian Richardson
8.
Stuart Reid
7.
Graham Drummond
Simon Furnivall
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