The club scene: Focus on Greystones John O'Sullivanvisits Co Wicklow to sample the bread and butter of the modern game

A biting winter gale whips the rain across the car park at Dr Hickey Park on Saturday morning, the tattoo of oversized drops bouncing off roofs and tarmac and sending the procession of new arrivals scurrying for the clubhouse.

The players of the Presentation Brothers College Bray Junior Cup team and the Greystones Under-16s are afforded no such luxury, squaring up on one of the back pitches, watched by a handful of hardy souls, muffled against the elements.

Cars continue to arrive carrying players, officials and guests for a pre-match luncheon to the day's main event, an AIB League Division One clash between Greystones and Ballymena. The J2 players of the home club and Terenure College will follow in the stud marks of the underage combatants. The latter game will overlap with the Division One match, two independent republics of rugby highlighting the folly of current fixture scheduling.

The halcyon days of club rugby may be over but these constituent nurseries of the professional arm of the sport still have a big part to play in any future success of national or provincial sides.

Self-interest among the clubs, manifest in the current unwieldy league structures, is undoubtedly a self-inflicted wound but in trying to entice the paying customer they're certainly not helped by poorly conceived and outdated schedules.

Club rugby should represent a day out for the family and offer the requisite facilities. Play four games starting at 10am, through an under-20 match as the curtain raiser, and ending with the first-team match. It would offer value for a 10 entrance fee, generate atmosphere, boost club coffers, not just at the gate but at the bar, and help foster club spirit.

Greystones currently field five senior adult teams, half as many as they would have had 15 years ago, and it is becoming increasingly difficult, even with the abridged commitments, because of Sunday fixtures: fewer players are willing to double up or forgo a Saturday night out.

The salvation for many clubs is their underage structure and the Wicklow club provides an illustration as 500 children tog out on a Sunday morning.

There is also a tangible sense of community at Dr Hickey Park, a parish identity that draws players and supporters in from the hinterland.

The Greystones 20-man first-team squad on Saturday had 16 who came through age-grade rugby at Dr Hickey Park and 10 or more would have been present when the club was in Division Three, a remarkable five-year journey. The average age of the first team is under 25.

The coaching carrying the Ballymena team arrives at 12.20pm. It's an advance party of backroom staff that have come to prepare for the match, the first team enjoying their pre-game meal at the Glenview Hotel following a three-and-a-half-hour journey from Ulster. The coach leaves and returns presently with the Ballymena players.

The Greystones players have a team meeting at 1.30pm and as you look around the dressing-room you are struck by how young they look. Togged out and strapped, they stand silent as they are reminded, in earthy invective, of responsibilities, individual and collective.

Through a tiny, panelled window can be heard the footfall of luncheon patrons.

Sitting in the corner of the dressing-room is Gary Brennan, part of the coaching team and very much the future in that respect should he choose to be.

Along with Breffni O'Hagan, Brennan is being groomed under the tutelage of Leinster's Academy director and A-team coach Collie McEntee.

He first stepped through the gates of Dr Hickey Park as an 11-year-old and despite the odd sabbatical has served the club with distinction on and off the pitch. While at Pres Bray he played for the Leinster Schools - outscoring his fellow wing, a certain Denis Hickie, on that team - and won a Triple Crown with an Ireland Schools team (1993) coached by Declan Kidney.

At 18 years of age he was diagnosed with arthritis and given the option to retire or keep playing.

He chose the latter and while the condition certainly compromised his career, given he was an outstanding schoolboy player, it could not diminish his love of the game.

He's played in all three divisions for Greystones and at 33, after four years assisting in coaching the under-20s, he's involved again with the first team, albeit on the other side of the whitewash.

He's done his level-two IRFU coaching course - he's waiting to be assessed - something he found hugely helpful in the context of his coaching ambitions.

He knows while the club face a very difficult year there's a good framework for the future.

"Greg Lynch and Frank Doherty turned the club around when we were in Division Three," he says. "We've always had a good underage structure and 20s pulling in local lads, which I think is very important. Other clubs are trying to pull in players from everywhere.

"When I was playing Division Three five years ago, there was always good support, great crowds (up to 250) down for the lunches, and it gives the club a real sense of community. There are only four lads (in the first team) that haven't come though the underage structure here. We have five players out there today who are or have been involved with the Leinster Academy - James Power, Alex O'Sullivan, Jamie Hagan, Stuart Abbott and Cian McNaughton."

He's old enough to remember the last time Greystones dabbled in Division One: "Poppy (Nick Popplewell) actually collected me for my first league game, against Shannon; it was on the telly, down here (at Dr Hickey Park). I was looking at this 19-stone British and Irish Lion who promised to look after me."

He laughs: "The first man I saw when I ran into on the pitch that day was Mick Galwey. I was only 19 and a good seven years younger than the next-youngest player. The average age of that team out there today is about 24."

The coaches have done their work. Greystones take the field, the lunch-goers huddled in the stand. For 30 minutes the home team, battling into the teeth of a gale, play good rugby but butcher gilt-edged chances. The game is decided in a 15-minute spell either side of half-time; Ballymena rack up 20 points and late in the game grab a fourth try and a bonus point in a 27-0 victory.

In the Greystones dressing-room the post mortem is brutally honest. Disappointed players are then invited to take their aching limbs and plunge them in ice baths. This is an amateur sport and this group know work or college awaits them before they reconvene on Tuesday night to prepare for next Saturday's home game against Galwegians.

The director of rugby, Liam Murphy, toiled in the front row on the Greystones first team from 1989 to 2005, playing over 140 AIB League matches: he can still be seen sneaking out to assist the J2 team. He is well versed in the club's proud history and the demands that will present themselves this season and beyond.

"We keep it tight and are building from within," he says. "We don't spend money on players; we pay a few expenses and keep it at that. We probably struggle at the other end. If you look at the top end and the money they are paying out - what are you going to get for it in the long term? Greystones don't owe any money and at the end of every year we make a few quid.

"Some clubs are struggling financially. We're putting a lot of effort into coaching, going into the local schools as well. We have the community ethos out here and we work on that because it's important. You could easily fork out 200,000 a year on a few players but you're not going to get too much of a return on it. You'd end up looking for someone to bale you out after a couple of years."

A day trip to away matches costs the club about €1,500; up to 4,000 if a hotel stay is involved. Greystones might have a couple of the latter this season. The club have two major sponsors, four or five in total. Several members contribute generously. There was a corporate golf day and there is a monthly club draw.

Murphy has seen the club game change dramatically over the last 20 years and in many respects not for the better. Teams no longer eat together or drink pints together afterwards - Ballymena dined alone in the bowels of Dr Hickey Park before jumping back on the coach for the trip home, a recurring theme for the away team - and there isn't the same camaraderie.

After Saturday's defeat, Greystones are rooted to the bottom of the Division One table but given the attitude and the perspicacity of the executive, the support of the local community and the young playing and coaching talent, the future is far from bleak. They need a bit of luck and a young team to grow up quickly.

It's a tall order but there is a sound foundation.