Board chairman defends ladies

CLARE ladies football county board chairman Alan Copley has expressed his disappointment at former manager Noelle Comyn’s written attack on the Clare ladies senior football panel.

The former Clare dual player, who also played inter-county football with Dublin, revealed on Sunday night that she was stepping down from her position, following five months in charge.

 

Her last game at the helm was Clare’s Division 2 league semi-final defeat against Galway on April 29.

Via a text on Sunday night, the now former manager said that the entire management team, which also included Aidan Moloney, Joe Carrig and Martin Frawley, were resigning.

That statement said that management had been “awaiting a satisfactory response regarding issues that are pertinent to the Clare senior squad as they prepare for the championship ahead”.

A lengthy statement issued on Monday said that a divide between players and management were the other reasons behind her decision to hand in her notice as manager.

The statement suggested that the current panel had “developed a culture that is not to the standard required for top inter-county sides” and that a group of senior players believed they were better equipped to manage the team than Comyn and her selectors.

Furthermore, a “core group of senior players” were said to have forthright opinions as to the make-up of the squad and the style of play that Clare adopted.

Speaking to The Clare Champion, player representatives said they had decided not to issue a statement and were more interested in “concentrating on our football”.

However, Clare County Board chairman Copley said criticising players is not acceptable to him.

“Rounding on players probably isn’t fair. Some issues would have come up alright. A lot of players have left the panel and players would have opinions about that. They have to be voiced,” he told The Clare Champion.

Clare haven’t trained under their former management team since their league semi-final defeat but players have organised a number of recent sessions, with Fergie O’Loughlin (Clarecastle) and Noel O’Grady (Kildysart) among those to take a session.

However, the county board have yet to make significant progress in terms of appointing either an interim or long-term management team. Clare are due to play All-Ireland champions Cork in the semi-final of the Munster championship on June 29 at a Cork venue.

The losers will play Kerry the following Wednesday, July 4, to decided who will qualify for the Munster final. If Clare lose to Cork, they will have home advantage against Kerry. The Munster final is scheduled for July 14. There are only three senior ladies county teams in Munster.

“The players organised their last few training sessions and brought in a number of people. They have the next session or two organised but that doesn’t mean anything in itself. We’re due to meet the players and we’ll probably do that on Friday,” Copley explained.

He said he attended a number of recent meetings with the former management team.

“The first meeting was all positive and looking towards the future and the championship. That was a week after the semi-final. The following week then there was another meeting with Noelle, where it became clear that things were getting a bit more serious and some of the issues that Noelle raised in her statement raised their heads. Last weekend, there were a few phone calls from management to me and from players to me to try and meet. Then I knew it was getting quite serious,” Copley stated.

“We met then with the players’ representative last Sunday and it became clear that a bit of a gulf had emerged between the management and players. I was hoping that we might have been able to bridge it.

Noelle sets very, very high standards for attendance and training and you can’t argue against that but you can’t ignore your panel either,” he commented.

Dual players playing camogie and ladies football was one of the issues that caused concern for the outgoing manager.