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23 March 2019 / Club News

TWO HUNDRED FOR COACH RONAN

Rewind the clock to 2000-2001. It was a great season for the Quins, reminiscences of which would often cause coach Neville Roberts to dreamily declare; “It will never happen again.”

Fast forward to 2009-2010. Those words seemed prophetic, but there were more great days / seasons enjoyed by the Quins. There were better seasons. Much better seasons.

After reaching Division Two, the coal black and blood reds had lost many of their star players to higher ranked forces and had dropped down two leagues.

When 2010-2011 preparations were underway, hope springs eternal and all that. Just forge a competitive side would have been the first target, having won just three of the previous league fixtures in Three South-West the previous season.

Robbie Morris returned from the Old Parish to coach the club and then, from out of the blue because it certainly wasn’t discussed by the committee, a fresh[ish] faced twenty-one your old hooker turned up at training. At the end of the session, he was forwards coach.

Quins have never been afraid to do things differently. The previous youngest coach of the club was twenty-nine amid raised local eyebrows, but when the hooker who had only just received the ‘keys to the door’ was handed the role as coach, up and down the valley – heads turned towards town. They are still turning. Swivelling like a tawny owl.

From “What the hell…?”, to “…pity mun they’re desperate…”, to “they’re scraping the barrel,” were just a small number of the comments.

Defending the decision is no longer required. You see, the player / coach in question was of course Dean Ronan. He had already played for Swansea having represented Wales at junior level. He had returned to the Llynfi valley to play for Maesteg and when the Old Parish version of the ‘night of the long knives’ occurred, Ronan found his way to South Parade.

From Division Four the club has had a number of seasons the equal of and surpassing 2000-2001, rising to the dizzy heights of Championship rugby, all under the guidance of Ronan who has carefully navigated affairs on and off the field.

A nasty knee injury and a season at the helm of the Ravens has curtailed the number, but today Ronan takes to the field for the two hundredth time for the Quins. A fantastic achievement, all among the back-drop of unmitigated success with the challenges like the World’s Strongest Man Atlas Stones event, getting harder as they move along.

Here’s to two hundred more and it would be fitting if the tough challenge always set by Newcastle Emlyn were overcome, to give the player / coach a better day to remember,

Extracts from the unpublished: You Ain't Seen Nothing Like ... Maesteg Quins 125 Years

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