Cork and Galway bank on Croker’s guiding hand
A spoiler alert usually involves ruining something that is anticipated, .
We’re reminded of an audacious chap in 1999 who stood for a students union election in NUI Maynooth on the single platform that Edward Norton was Brad Pitt in the then recently-released Fight Club movie. Silly then as it is now, but he made quite the impact. Spoiling the final season of House of Cards is nigh on impossible when there is nothing to spoil.
However, our viewing of it last week coincided with Michael Moynihan’s interview with Croke Park stadium and commercial director Peter McKenna in this newspaper in which McKenna revealed the final cost of redeveloping Páirc Uí Chaoimh
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In the second episode, oligarch Bill Shepherd, played by Greg Kinnear, guides the hand of Robin Wright’s US President Claire Underwood as she signs a Bill he was desperate to see made law. It’s an outrageous exhibition of power by Shepherd (note the subtlety of the surname), one you would never imagine would happen in The White House. Well, up until the time of the current incumbent.
It’s McKenna who will now be motioning to Páirc Uí Chaoimh’s powers-that-should-have-been what to sign and what not to. Despite protestations at Saturday’s convention, a part of Cork’s sovereignty has been lost. The claim at the meeting that the €86m figure remains the total cost of the project does not reflect well on the executive.
That there were no dissenting voices at Convention about the money pit raises serious questions about how well clubs are represented in the county. Irrespective of it being Frank Murphy’s swansong and a changing of the guard, McKenna’s comments necessitated an interrogation of the top table.
Unlike Cork, there was disgruntlement expressed at Galway’s annual convention in Claregalway yesterday evening as the county reels from the findings of an independent audit into the board’s financial dealings.
Apparently, the internal report, overseen by county treasurer Mike Burke, goes further but it remains to be seen if that work will ever be published, given the legal actions which have been taken against it.
What the Mazars report clearly demonstrates is that the finances of Galway GAA have been run shoddily in recent years.
Just how much Croke Park knew about it is unclear but the breadth of issues identified by Mazars confirms that Galway did not follow the financial manual set out by central GAA powers.
In any case, Galway should have been under constant supervision following the loan Central Council offered them after the ill-fated decision to buy the Mountain South site outside Athenry. Cork can rightly be criticised for the spiralling expenditure on reconstructing Páirc Uí Chaoimh but some of their actions are put in the shade by Galway, who made less than €120,000 from their two Ed Sheeran concerts in Pearse Stadium last July - and that doesn’t include the €30,000 or so they had to fork out for CCTV at the Salthill venue. Cork, who hosted the English singer on three nights, earned €1.4m. Approximately 120,000 attended the three nights in Cork, meaning the Cork board made almost €12 per person. As for Galway who welcomed 60,000 or so fans to Salthill? Less than €2 a head. Pitiful isn’t the word.
What has happened in Cork and Galway will be likened to how Roscommon and Kildare in 2005 and ’12 respectively had to sign away their freedom, albeit temporarily. Admittedly, Roscommon and Kildare were in dire straits, but Cork and Galway’s inability to manage their affairs has rightly cost them part of their sovereignty.
In that same House of Cards episode, President Underwood pulls her arm away from Shepherd’s sister Annette as the latter attempts to put on a united front after an explosion at a factory owned by the Shepherds.
Perceived as a snub, Shepherd attempts the gesture again at a later function and Underwood acquiesces. Galway, but particularly Cork, can preach about their autonomy all they want — but right now, they too need their hands held.
Email: john.fogarty@examiner.ie
New rules must apply to league
A previous column highlighted how the experimental rules need to be put into operation in the Allianz Leagues simply to see them in (hopefully) better weather conditions. That there is something at stake will also ensure they can be judged more precisely.
But there’s also another consideration - the amount of leading teams who aren’t involved in the pre-season competitions.
When the Gaelic Players’ Association (GPA) oppose the rules being put into play in the leagues, they neglected to mention Dublin's likely A team, London, Kerry and Tipperary won’t be involved in the O’Byrne and McGrath Cups.
Inadvertently, were the GPA to have their way that quartet would be spared the trouble of having to count their hand-passes, make sure all their sideline kicks go forward and take their kick-outs further out the field on the 20-metre line.
How are the GAA expected to be able to determine just how successful the changes are if they don’t apply to the All-Ireland champions, the winners of the last six Munster championships and the 2016 All-Ireland semi-finalists?
GPA chief executive Paul Flynn highlighted the strong opposition among players to the alterations such as the limit on the hand-pass but it is better that they trialled by everybody before their fate is decided.
Generous O’Neill classiest of Cats
The tributes paid by former and current Kilkenny players on social media to the late Mick O’Neill highlight just how an incredible and generous the Nowlan Park groundsman was.
In a volunteer capacity spanning 40 years, the Fenians man not only contributed to what is hailed as one of the finest fields in the country — voted as the pitch of the year for 2018 — but made the Nowlan Park experience a pleasure for journalists.
Most writers would have been given O’Neill’s mobile number by the man himself over the years.
Whoever was last out of Nowlan Park on the evening of a game was never told to turn the lights off — he would do that himself — walking up from his home closeby on O’Loughlin Road to shut up shop.
Quiet, unassuming diligence — Kilkenny GAA in its very essence.
Ask Gaelic games correspondents what is the best stadium outside Croke Park to work at and the vast majority say Nowlan Park — we know because we’ve asked the question.
Some would say Nowlan Park beats all and so much of that was down to the accommodating, kind spirit of Mick O’Neill.
O’Neill was laid to rest yesterday and is survived by his wife Mary and his children Martina, Michael, and Willie.
His memory will live on with them as it will with journalists whenever they attend Nowlan Park, beginning with January 27 when Kilkenny embark on their Division 1A campaign with the visit of Cork.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
