*Cratloe manager, Colm Collins. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
FALLOUT continues following the move to seed Cork and Kerry in the Munster SFC with former Clare manager Colm Collins describing it as “a cynical move”.
On Thursday last, Munster Council delegates voted in favour of re-introducing a format which seeded teams based on National Football League rankings rather than what has existed for the last eleven years where the finalists of the previous season are kept on opposite sides of the draw.
It is noteworthy that officials in Cork and Kerry did not attempt to bring back this system during 2018 to 2022 when Clare finished higher than Cork in the Allianz National Football League and the move comes at a time when Cork are in Division 2 and Clare in Division 3.
Limerick’s delegates decision to go on a solo run and defy the wishes of its senior footballers and management served as the casting vote with Munster GAA officials voting en bloc with Cork and Kerry to bring back the old system which comes into effect for next year’s championship.
Since 2015, finalists from the previous year have been seeded in opposite sides of the draw. Prior to this, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford threatened to pull out of the championship if the preferential seeding of the big two continued. They refused to play in that year’s McGrath Cup leaving Cork and Kerry to compete in the pre-season competition against UCC, UL, Cork IT, IT Tralee and LIT.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, former Clare manager Colm Collins said he was “disappointed” by the decision. He acknowledged, “I can understand the logic in a way that they are unhappy with the way the Munster finals have gone for the last three years I can understand that but I think there is a lot of things they could have done. For example, Kerry giving home advantage to any of the other counties they played in the final, that would have been a positive move”.
Jimmy Lee, Limerick’s manager said county board officials ‘knifed players in the back’ with the way they voted while Collins was equally baffled by their approach. “It’s absolutely mind-blowing that the Limerick County Board voted against the wishes of their players and management, you’d have to be asking yourself what happened there, that just sucks. If Limerick voted as they should have voted then it wouldn’t have come in”.
Collins added, “There’s a lot of better things that the Munster Council should be doing to promote the weaker counties than this move, this is a cynical move and it benefits a county that badly doesn’t need any lift so it doesn’t, giving them a leg-up here is a bit annoying”.
What happens next with Limerick football is unclear as is the future of Peter Keane as Clare senior football manager, the decision to revert to the old system is likely to turn an already unconvinced Keane off returning for a second season.
