Waterford hurlers to self-fund Portugal training trip
A fundraiser will be staged at the Faithlegg Golf Club on Saturday to help finance the trip, while monies from GPA grants will help alleviate the costs incurred.
Many of the players in Derek McGrath’s panel are taking up to four days off work in order to travel.
Meanwhile, the Waterford County Board is set to have a €600,000 bank loan approved next week which will see it start a seven-year programme to clear debts of almost €500,000.
County secretary Timmy O’Keeffe revealed the state of the board’s financial affairs in a presentation at Monday’s county board meeting in Dungarvan. The current debt of the board rests at approximately €490,000.
With €92,000 raised from the club levy, the board will owe the bank €508,000 when the loan is approved. The repayments will run for a seven-year period at 5% interest until the target date of 2021.
O’Keeffe also detailed the projections for the 2014 accounts. After recording a small deficit of €2,798 last year, the board aims to make a profit of €24,000 this time around.
Income is foreseen at €800,000 due to increases in gate receipts, sponsorship and fundraising. On the expenditure side, the main cost will be the €500,000 outlay for county teams.
County chairman Tom Cunningham also expressed his dismay about the lack of support for a fundraising table quiz that was held last Thursday night.
“It was disappointing; it got a very poor response. We will have to cut back somewhere on account of this.”
Treasurer Joe Cleary estimated the quiz raised between €7,000 and €8,000.
Meanwhile, Waterford U21 football boss Jimmy Healy is concerned about their match sharpness ahead of tonight’s home quarter-final against Tipperary.
Healy explained: “I was appointed to the job one month ago, which isn’t an awful lot of time to prepare. Two out of the four weekends available to us were taken up by the first two rounds of the U21 club championship. That gave us a chance to look at the lads but not a lot of time to prepare a county team or any team.
This has left little or no space to mould a cohesive unit. You don’t make excuses. It is what it is.
“[The players] are a great bunch of guys and they are doing everything they can. Niall Carew [senior manager] has been very helpful and he let us have a mixed match with the senior team.
“We are really up against it on Wednesday but everybody involved will be doing our best.”
Waterford are without a win in this competition since 2006.
