*Aaron Griffin in action against David Clifford in the Munster final. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE GAA’s delegate on Munster Council fears he is “fighting a losing battle” to prevent a return of seeding Kerry and Cork on opposite sides of the provicincial championship while the county’s coffers “are not in a bad position” despite an estimated drop in income of €350,000.
A return to a situation which would see Kerry and Cork on opposite sides when the draw for the Munster senior football championship takes place was mooted at a meeting of the Provincial Council last week, the June meeting of Clare GAA was told.
Clare’s delegate to the Provincial body, Bernard Keane informed the delegates at Clareabbey on Tuesday evening of the move and pointed out that he was the only one at last week’s meeting of the Provincial body to voice opposition to the suggestion.
The matter is to come up for discussion again at the July meeting of the Council and Head of Operations Deirdre Murphy said that “we will gather information to support Clare’s view that such a move should not happen. We want to be able to argue this case on its merits. We will need other counties to support us”.
The suggestion is that the two seeded teams will be decided on where teams finish in the league. Currently Kerry would be number one (they are in division 1), Cork would be number two (they are in division 2).
“They are proposing seeding the teams based on the previous year’s league placings. I took exception to that. What surprised me more than anything else was that I was the only one in the room that objected to this. A final decision will be made at the meeting in July. I believe that for Clare football that is a backward step. Some of the older people in this room like myself spent years trying to get rid of a Cork/Kerry monopoly and this is a step towards returning to that. The league placings last year saw Kerry in division 1 which they won, Cork in division 2, Clare in division 3 with Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford in division 4. Based on last year the seedings will be Cork and Kerry, end of story. There is no guarantee that a Cork-Kerry Munster final will be more competitive. We have been as competitive if not more than Cork in the last couple of years. Cork have a greater infrastructure, a greater number of clubs and a great ability to stay above us. Many people in Clare fought for the change for so many years and in one swoop it was nearly wiped out”, Keane told this week’s meeting.
He went on to say that he believes he “is fighting a losing battle”.
Chairman Kieran Keating said “it’s not quite going back to where we were. It’s not the worst thing possible that could be done. The main issue I have is that they can’t introduce this now or next year. The only way we can get ahead of Cork next year is if Cork are relegated. We were above Cork in the league in six of the last ten years. To try and introduce this now when Cork are above us I would say is very underhand and that is the grounds I would be fighting this on. The principle of this has kind of been accepted in the Tailteann cup and championship as your league position determines where you go. That principle is there for four or five years now. We will fight to make sure we have three years to prepare for this and then it’s up to us to get our league position up to be ahead of Cork and Kerry. Limerick and Tipp should have the opportunity to get up as well. Basically, you could win the Munster championship and not be seeded if two teams were above you from the previous year’s league. There wasn’t any warning that this was coming up”.
Season Ticket:
Season tickets for this year’s Clare championships are “on sale at the moment. Ticket holders may be asked to produce ID. Anyone that purchases one must make sure to have ID with them. They are a really good thing for anyone that goes to a lot of matches but a loss maker for us. If the one season tickets is doing about six people that’s no good. Be prepared to be asked for ID. Whoever buys a season ticket it’s meant for that person. We may bring in photographs for next year,” Head of Operations Deirdre Murphy advised delegates.
Tickets cost €200 and €120 for OAP’s.
Replying to Newmarket-on-Fergus delegate Pat Keogh as to how many tickets will be sold in a year the Head of Operations said “over 200 last year and to date this year 130.
“Some people will shoot me for saying this but I wouldn’t be going to too many senior football championship games as work doesn’t allow me. Before there used to be a hurling ticket and a football ticket”, the Newmarket-on-Fergus delegate said.
“We could look at that next year and see if there is a demand there”, replied Deirdre Murphy.
Junior championship draws:
The draws for the junior B and C hurling and football championships will be made at Clareabbey on Tuesday evening next.
Championship eligibility for players in US:
GAA players from Clare clubs who have travelled to the US for the summer will be eligible to return and play for their clubs if the club they are with in North America is out of the championship over there inside 60 days.
“If the players playing in the North America championship are with clubs that are knocked out before the players 60 days permit is up, they will be eligible to return and play for their club here. For anyone in New York, the 60 day rule applies but we only have a few players in New York”, fixtures secretary Deirdre Chapllin told the meeting.
“When the CCC were doing the fixtures which were sent to the clubs yesterday, we tried to make sure not to put a game on the Friday night if a player was due home on the Saturday after sixty days. We did our best to facilitate players who might be back”, chairman Kieran Keating told the meeting.
Referring to the fixtures the chairman said “we sent out the fixtures for the first three rounds and gave as much detail as we could. Credit to Deirdre Chaplin who did a lot of work in putting the list together. Those fixtures aren’t set in stone but we won’t move them unless there is a valid reason for change. We can’t start doing that because if we did we would never stop”, he said
Newmarket-on-Fergus’ Pat Keogh joined in the tribute to the CCC and said “it isn’t often we get a chance to compliment Deirdre number 2 (Chaplin)”.
Fixture clash:
Commenting on the fact that the Clare minor hurlers will play the All-Ireland semi-final at 1p.m. in Thurles on Sunday while the senior footballers have a vital championship tie at 2p.m in Portlaoise, chairman Kieran Keating said “moving the minor to Saturday night didn’t really suit Clare so we didn’t elect to go with that. We had difficulty moving the Louth game. The footballers are concentrating on preparing for that game so whichever game ye decide to go to hopefully they will win and that there will be further games for both in the next couple of weeks”.
Coaching and Games:
Reporting on coaching and games activities Neil O’Brien (coaching officer) said “in quarter 1 from Christmas to March 31, ten introductory to coaching and games coaching 139 coaches, nine of the TUI introduction coaching and games with 171 students and three award 1 coaches with 53 coaches took place.”
Continuing he said, “club visits are up at 60 with 40 clubs involved. Sixteen workshops with 241 coaches, a mix between development squad coaches with a big increase in the football side with a lot of new personnel and a changing of the guard in the hurling side. The lads have visited 86 schools with a staggering amount of players in excess of 8,000 players with 1700 sessions in the primary side. In the post primary side, there have been 8 schools with 184 players and 66 sessions. All in all the numbers are fairly high and the lads are doing great work on the ground”.
Financial matters:
Treasurer Brian Fitzpatrick presented a financial report covering six months from October 1 to March 31. “The bottom line is that for the six months we are running a surplus of approximately €175,000. In the prior period there was a surplus of approx €500,000 but the big item then was the Win A House in Ennis which had close on €700,000 profit. The six months we are running now we are in surplus. On the income line we are probably down about €100,000 which sounds bad but actually it isn’t. Gate receipts were up by about €150,000 and there was a renewed bounce after September with all of the championships in October and November with the county finals. We are up on commercial income. Money came through because of the All-Ireland, the framed photographs generated €86,000, the commemorative jerseys raised about €90,000”.
He continued, “On the expenditure side, expenditure is up by about €250,000 year on year and the main pieces are team expenses which include the holiday at €130,000. While we look like we are about €350,000 down on the six months this year versus last year, we are not in a bad position. Cash in bank we have about €1.4 million which included profits from Win A House which we have to sit on that until we use in on developing the Astro at Caherlohan. There are monies that are earmarked for use. Invoices are current and they are processed as they come in. There are a lot of projects on the go that will require more money”, he told the gathering.
Admission charges for league knockout game:
Clarecastle delegate Tommy Guilfoyle raised the question of admission charges for the knock out stages of the county leagues reminding the meeting that “it was decided at a meeting earlier this year that there would be no charges”.
Replying Kieran Keating said “the decision was no charges for the round robin games but that there would be at the knock out stage” and this view was supported by Scariff delegate Tom Crotty. The Clarecastle delegate accepted this reply.
