Proposal for minor league rejected by council

A proposal from Clare to inaugurate a Munster league for the minor champions of each county has been rejected by the Munster council. Responding to a query from Miltown’s Noel Walsh, the proposers of the motion, at this week’s Clare County Board meeting, Munster delegate John O’Sullivan said they had put the proposal but the other five counties were opposed to it. Mr Walsh asked if it had been proposed and seconded, to which chairman Mr O’Neill expressed surprise. “The other five counties opposed the proposal, which was put by Clare and there is nothing we can do,” he said.
Mr Walsh also asked if central council had considered Clare’s proposal to continue the inter-provincial series (Railway Cup). Ger Hickey, Clare’s Central Council delegate, replied that the council had decided to continue the competition and the CCC had been asked to find a date for it in the 2012 calendar.

County team costs
To date this year, the cost of preparing county teams has cost Clare GAA €371,922.71.
Presenting his report to the June meeting of the board on Tuesday night, treasurer Bernard Keane gave a breakdown of this figure, which showed that €207,333 went on hurling teams and €164,591 for football. Catering cost €49,362 for hurling and €48,258 for football while bus hire cost €10,190 for hurling and €10,926 for football. Medical costs were €29,709 for hurling and €21,297 for football

County board draw
Calling on the clubs for “a final push” ahead of the upcoming county board draw, treasurer Keane revealed that in the past five years the draw had netted €673,000 for the clubs of the county and €462,000 for the board. The first draw in this year’s promotion will be on July 1.

U-21 football
Parteen delegate PJ O’Doherty asked the June board meeting why his club had not been included in the U-21 football draw. “We affiliated a team and we haven’t been included,” he said.
Secretary Pat Fitzgerald explained that the grading of teams for U-21 took place at the previous meeting when a list of teams was handed to the delegates. There was nobody from Parteen at that meeting and they hadn’t taken part in the competition last season. Team insurance fees are paid directly to Croke Park and Clare GAA would not have a list of what clubs paid.
“There is another team in a similar situation, a North Clare amalgamation of Michael Cusack’s, Kilfenora, Ballyvaughan. They have also paid the relevant fee but while they had entered a team last year, they did not take part. The gradings for U-21 have to be done at a board meeting and that is why we gave out the list of teams at the last meeting. No one raised these situations then,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
Chairman Michael O’Neill said, “There is nothing we can do now. The draw has been made and the competition will start next week.”

Results on Aertel
O’Callaghan’s Mills GAA Cub had a letter before the June board meeting asking why Clare GAA results don’t appear on the RTE teletext service on Sunday evenings.
“There is a finance implication,” said secretary Pat Fitzgerald, while the board’s IT officer John O’Sullivan explained, “For this to happen, they want the fixtures on the Monday beforehand.
“That’s another issue”, added the secretary. If that is to happen then clubs will not be able to get changes in fixtures times, something which happens quite a lot every Tuesday,” Mr Fitzgerald explained.

GAA newsletter
The second of Clare GAA’s monthly club/county newsletters will be published at the end of June, Clare GAA’s public relations officer Syl O’Connor told this week’s meeting. He added that this was discussed at a meeting of PROs last month and he asked clubs to ensure that they submitted material in good time.