History

The club has its origins in the Clann na hOman Gaelic Football team which was founded in March 2003. The founding of the club was a coordinated affair between Colin Butler and the Irish Society President Mrs Terri Johar (who is also Honorary Club President).

The first 6 months consisted of driving for 1 hour to play / train on the lawn of the Al Sawadi hotel half way between Sohar & Muscat. Soon after the base was shifted to the Muscat Rugby Club (which was then a sand pitch).

Numbers grew gradually to a dozen of so - most were non Irish, Aussies, English, Welsh, Scottish, Romanians. Steve O'Connor was a driving force through these years, serving as Chairman of the club until his departure to Bahrain in early 2008.

Tom English and Aaron Henderson rounded off the main committee / coaching staff in the early days.

Muscat began entering a team in the Aussie Rules 9’s tournament in Dubai in 2007, and from 2008 the Australian game began to grow in popularity and evolved into a new playing arm of the club - The Muscat Magpies.

The Magpies won their first game of Aussie Rules on Omani soil in December 2007 defeating the Dubai Dingoes in the inagural O'Connor Cup. The Magpies lined up in the new AFL Middle East competition in 2008/9.

In a great first year the team completed a 5 win / 1 loss home and away season and played off in the inaugural AFLME Grand Final against competition yardstick the Dubai Heat, who beat us by 8 points to win the flag.