Scouting warning for Royals

FORMER Meath chairman Brendan Dempsey has claimed that some underage mentors in the county are using their positions to scout for talent to bring to ‘other codes’.

The minor board chairman, who was at the Royal helm in 2006 and ’07, has produced a hard-hitting report to next Sunday’s county convention at Simonstown.

And in it he strongly hints that there are individuals in underage coaching positions who are poaching the best talent for non-GAA sports.

“Are clubs only interested in winning competitions or do they want to improve the skill levels of those players who want to play our games exclusively?” asks Dempsey.

“How many mentors has your club/team involved with underage teams in those other codes?

“It could be said that some of them are solely there to spot talent for the other codes. Are clubs/teams vetting these mentors?

“Why do all our genuine Gaelic players have to wait for these superstars to be available to play games and then they are left warming the bench?

“Would scarce club resources not be better used to try to improve the skills of these players who want to play only Gaelic games?”

Dempsey also called on the GAA in Meath to stop complaining about the pulling power of rival codes and work towards making Gaelic games more attractive to young players, starting with scheduling underage games at reasonable times for children.

“We need to take the initiative and stop moaning about the other codes. That is the easy way out, we have to be proactive and not reactive.

“A properly structured games schedule is a start. I hope our clubs did not invest in floodlighting to hand over prime times on Saturdays and Sundays to soccer and rugby.”

At Sunday’s meeting, Meath will also report a healthy profit of €127,000 for the 2010 financial year.

Commercial income fell by €82,000 from 2009 figures in the difficult economic climate, but Royal County chiefs offset this loss by cutting down on expenditure in other areas.

Meath’s former All-Ireland winning captain Graham Geraghty has expressed an interest in the position of coaching officer, which has become vacant as the outgoing Brian Carberry has to step down because of the five-year rule. Geraghty earlier this year had been helping out former Kildare star Glen Ryan in the Longford senior set-up as a forwards coach.

Meanwhile, Wexford GAA are facing the prospect of job cuts as chairman Ger Doyle has refused to rule out the redundancies in the county.

Following on from Ulster Council secretary Danny Murphy’s admission that the province may yet have to lay off staff, the Model County are now reassessing their number of full-time employees — just 11 months after their wages were increased by 5%.

“A rise of 5% was granted last January under their contract conditions,” conceded Doyle. “We haven’t reduced anyone’s salary as of yet but there are changes coming down the road. We have got to evaluate the situation with the result we set up a committee to look into the financial structures of the Association. We will have to cut our cloth to measure so everything will come in for consideration.”

Wexford has a full-time secretary, plus office staff and coaching staff.

The county’s financial report will be presented to the county convention on December 15. Next year’s figures will reflect plans to upgrade the floodlights in the county’s St Patrick’s Park, which are expected to cost around €8,000.

The floodlights have been out of commission over the last number of months, leaving development squads without a pitch for training, while Colm Bonnar and Jason Ryan’s inter-county squads will initially be without an outdoor training facility when they return to training next month.

On a previous occasion, chairman Doyle had revealed that a number of the light-bulbs had blown. However, when questioned on the current position, he admitted the lights which they had originally bought were secondhand and are need of replacing.

“We are exploring avenues regarding the best way for the floodlighting of the grounds, but it could cost €7,000 to €8,000 to have them upgraded.

“We have a new generator and have carried out a lot of work. We hope to have the lights upgraded sometime for the new year.”