O’Keeffe for top post
There were increasing speculation last night at Congress in Belfast, that the ex-Kingdom official is to be appointed chairman of the high powered Games Administration Committee by incoming president Sean Kelly.
Both men worked closely together over a long period, during O'Keeffe's tenure as county secretary and Kelly's involvement as vice chairman and then chairman of the Kerry county board.
Mr O'Keeffe formally retired at last year's county convention, following his appointment as principal of Tralee CBS.
Current county chairman, Sean Walsh, describing the election of Sean Kelly as the first Kerry president of the association 'as the final piece in the jigsaw'.
After the winning of 32 All Ireland titles, members of Mr Kelly's family and home club, Kilcummin, were gathering in Belfast.
A party of 34, led by club chairman, Tim Ryan and PRO Dermot Moynihan, travelled up by train last evening to join in the weekend celebrations. Mr. Kelly's wife, Juliet and their children came up earlier in the day.
Meanwhile Sean Kelly's first task will be to try and solve the impasse between the Leinster Council and the Dublin County Board over the chairmanship of the committee set up to implement the recommendations of the Strategic Review Committee.
Mr Kelly will be meeting with the Dublin officers 'as quickly as possible' to solve the issue. Meanwhile, the Leinster Council issued a statement last evening, explaining their policy on the matter.
It pointed out that at a meeting earlier in the week their executive confirmed an earlier decision that the appointment of an independent chairman of the 'Dublin Overarching Committee' was essential in order to move the process forward. And, this decision had been endorsed by a full meeting of the Council.
Under the recommendation of the SRC, over 4m. has been earmarked for the development of the GAA in Dublin with the funds to be contributed jointly by Central Council and the Leinster Council.
The stumbling block is that Dublin County Board is insisting that Chairman John Bailey should co-chair the committee.
In their statement, the Leinster Council stressed that they had no desire to assume the position of chairperson (or joint chairperson) of the Overarching Committee "and only allowed such a possibility to be considered for the purpose of ensuring that the recent discussions explored every avenue in their efforts to reach an amicable solution.
"The involvement of Comhairle Laighean officers on the Dublin committee has always been on the understanding that key issues impacting on Comhairle Laighean will ultimately have to revert back to meetings of our full council for consideration and ratification," it added.
Meanwhile at an earlier Central Council meeting, it was announced that Limerick, Clare, Tipperary and Waterford from Munster, Leitrim and Sligo from Connacht, and Wicklow, Louth, Wexford, Longford, Westmeath and Carlow from Leinster, will be able to field their second-best teams in the junior football championship.
Down formally complained about 'the timing' of the NFL re-fixture between Sligo and Kildare, which puts them in danger of being relegated.
However, President Sean McCague chairing his last meeting of the Council said that Down didn't really have reason to 'be aggrieved' over the (unanimous) decision of the Games Administration Committee to agree to the match being re-fixed.
Initially, the GAC awarded the points to Sligo after Kildare breached match regulations, but Sligo agreed to play the game again.
Antrim delegate Joe Boyle complained about the 'scandalous treatment' of one of their referees, who had been replaced for the Longford/Derry League tie the day before the game.
The President called on the North American Board to take action over clubs 'poaching' players from Irish clubs.
Donegal delegate Brian McEniff reported that 'a Dutch auction' was taking place for players in his county to travel over to play for clubs in Boston and Chicago 'for financial gain.'
Mr McCague accepted assurances from North American Board delegate Eamonn Kelly that they were doing everything they could.
"I know it's difficult in North America because only a trickle of people are going over from Ireland, but it's a serious matter when small clubs risk losing their best players even before a ball was kicked in their county championship."
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
