The West County Hotel was the venue for the annual convention of Bord na nÓg football on Tuesday night, when delegates reviewed the past season, planned for 2013 and heard from the two candidates chasing the position of county board chairman. Sports Editor Seamus Hayes was in attendance

Addressing the attendance at this week’s Bord na nÓg football convention, chairman John Smith said, “From 2013 onwards, the county committee will select the officers of this board. This decision was passed at congress and the only county that lodged an appeal was Galway. I don’t know how it will work. It takes away democracy but we have to embrace it.”

Referring to the club forum, he said, “The work is ongoing. Three additional coaches were appointed and this is now down to two, as one has moved on. There are two positions to be filled and there are five applicants.”

Continuing, he said, “Clubs have problems with numbers. We do not have to look too far for a solution,” he said, when suggesting to the delegates to look to the Kerry structures.

He told all present that the bylaws are being updated and copies should be available in January.
He paid tribute to his fellow officers, saying “as a team, we worked well together”.

O’Neill enjoyed his term

In his final address to Bord na nÓg as chairman of the county board, Michael O’Neill told Tuesday’s meeting that he has “enjoyed my five years as chairman immensely”.

“The whole world has turned on its head and the whole economy has changed over the last five years,” he said, before paying tribute to the GAA for the role it continues to play within all communities.
He told the meeting there has been a great response to the new senior football management and concluded by paying tribute to all involved in the board for their work for football.

Teamwork important

Teamwork has played an important part in the success of Bord na nÓg, according to county board treasurer, Bernard Keane. “Successive bad management by governments has put clubs in the position they are today, the pressures that clubs are under is enormous and if there were more GAA people in charge of running the country, things would be better. Our clubs have been robbed of many personnel and there is no club not affected because of emigration.”

Continuing, he said, “There is an awful lot of money being spent on underage in the county, up to and including minor. In the year just gone, €525,179 has been spent on underage and that doesn’t include anything spent by the Bord na nÓgs. A breakdown of that shows that coaches’ wages, expenses and so on amount to €200,000 and Cul camps €145,000. Monies we got from the Munster and central council amounted to €199,000, which covered coaches’ wages. The total income was €379,461, which means that the county board spent €145,718 on underage affairs for the past year. That is quite a lot of money,” he said, before paying tribute to all involved in Bord na nÓg.

 

West Clare clubs nominate McDonagh

Michael McDonagh decided to seek election as chairman of Clare GAA after being approached by four West Clare clubs, “two who are struggling for numbers and two senior clubs”.
“I thought long and hard about it and in the interest of trying to get football out there in the same spectrum as hurling, I decided to put my name on the board. Hurling is going absolutely fabulous at the moment,” he said.

Paying tribute to Bord na nÓg, “which is about the promotion of football”, he told the meeting, “I am not in favour of the congress directive and if I come in as chairman, once the clubs are happy, I will appoint the people they want. I am not going to act as a dictator.
“These are difficult times. We have a lot of clubs with falling numbers, more than we realise. We have massive unemployment and we have people with young families who are migrating and emigrating. We have an exodus in parts of West and North Clare. We have an urban-rural divide where the urban area has massive numbers while the rural areas are seriously struggling. We have dual players whom we have to look after. If we don’t look after them and burnout, they won’t be playing our games. We have to consider the education of our young players, who have to be educated, along with playing the games,” he said.

He added, “Clubs are going to come under pressure and we are going to have group teams. There is no doubt about that. Bord na nÓg and the county board will have to work together. Rural areas have to be protected. We will have to support Éire Óg and the Banner and make sure that there will be two huge clubs in this town. We have probably 1,000 people going to UL. We have one footballer in the Freshers A and B. Where are we going?” he asked.

Paying tribute to Michael Neylon for his work with the minor team, he said, “The minor championship will have to finish on May 1 so that lads can do their Leaving Cert. “I am a West Clare man. I am in the race and I won’t be withdrawing,” he concluded.

 

Not an east versus west contest

The contest for the chairmanship of Clare GAA is not an east versus west contest, according to candidate Noel O’Driscoll.
The O’Callaghan’s Mills clubman said, “I have as much respect for football as I have for hurling. I am from a hurling club and I played hurling because there was no football there.

“All my family have played football and I have more medals in the house for football than for hurling,” he said, before telling the delegates that he went to school in West Cork in Clonakilty and played football for Carberry.

“I have been deeply involved in the GAA since I was eight years of age, when I played my first juvenile match. I refereed for 22 years. I was coaching officer for five years and youth officer for five years and I wasn’t idle in any of those positions, I can assure you. There are officers today and one would say, ‘what are they doing?’” he asked.

“I was approached by people from West Clare, believe it or not, who asked if I would be interested in the position of chairman. I have support back there. When the committee to find a manager was set up, I urged some of the committee to go after Mick O’Dwyer.”
He repeated his call for a more open and more transparent board. “We need to project a better image. I worked for the State for 40 years. I worked in every parish in the county. I know the lie of the land. I know the people. I spent three years working full-time for the GAA.

“I coached hurling and football during that period. I was supposed to be an administrator. Sean Chaplin replaced me and he is a full-time administrator. I burned myself out because I was both an administrator and I was coaching as well.

“I am in the race and I am going to give it the best lash I can. Michael McDonagh and myself are the best of friends. I saw Michael castigated by the media and I was the only one that stood up and supported him. He shook hands with me and said ‘friends for life’.

“I am a genuine person and my word is my bond. If I am elected chairman, whatever promises I give, they will be carried out. I think I would make a good chairman,” he said.

 

Profit of €7,070.30 recorded

Bord na nÓg football recorded an excess of €7,070.30 in income over expenditure in 2012, treasurer Joe Kelly told this week’s convention.
Income for the year under review amounted to €18,460, with gate receipts bringing in €11,135 while sponsorship accounted for €4,050.
In expenditure, trophies and administration expenses each cost €3,120.
The minor Division 1 final realised a gate of €1,465 while the Division 2 final resulted in income of €915.00

No change
The outgoing officers were returned without opposition for 2013. They are John Smith, Doonbeg (chairman); Sean Lyons, Doora-Barefield (vice-chairman); Niomh Madigan, Kilrush (secretary); Joe Kelly, Wolfe Tones (treasurer) and Jane Larkin, St Senan’s, Kilkee (PRO).

Motions
A Féile Peil skills competition is to be organised thanks to a motion from Doora-Barefield, which was passed without opposition at this week’s convention. Doora-Barefield delegate Mike Murphy pointed out that a skills competition takes place in Féile hurling and in proposing the motion, he said all teams in all grades should be encouraged to submit nominations from their clubs.

Another motion from the Doora-Barefield club seeking to confine the Féile competition to teams from Division 1 was defeated.
Doonbeg and St Senan’s Kilkee submitted motions asking that they be allowed play together in a higher grade and on their own at a lower level in all underage competitions (U-14 to U-18).

The majority of motions were referred to the board’s structures committee, who are to report back in January.
One of these, from the Doora-Barefield club, seeks to confine clubs to “up to three isolated players on the pitch per team at any time during a game. There would be no limit on the amount of isolated players per team panel. Each team sheet to have an annotation ‘I’ adjacent to the player’s name identifying them as an isolated player.

Opening a discussion on this motion, board chairman John Smith said he had spoken with county secretary Pat Fitzgerald, who advised that a decision be deferred until January, as motions in relation to this issue would be before the county convention while the bylaws were also being updated.

Attendance
Four clubs were represented at all seven board meetings held during 2012. They were Clooney-Quin, Doora-Barefield, Éire Óg and Wolfe Tones. Eight clubs had a delegate at six meetings and they were Kilmihil, Kilfenora, Killimer, Corofin, Coolmeen, Ennistymon, Lissycasey and Shannon Gaels.
St Senan’s Kilkee, O’Curry’s, O’Callaghan’s Mills, Clonlara, Tulla and Ballyvaughan weren’t represented at any meetings while Cooraclare attended just one meeting.