Conway: up to GAA to tackle Sunday Game clout
Conway was speaking to delegates at last night’s Kerry county convention in Tralee and addressed the controversial issue that surfaced this season involving the flagship championship highlights programme. The Kerry senior footballers were hit by retrospective suspensions handed down to Tomás Ó Sé and Paul Galvin during the summer.
Conway is adamant the county must not get sidetracked by fears that the Sunday Game is exerting an overt influence on the suspensions being handed to inter-county players, but has called on the GAA ‘to exercise fair jurisdiction over all its games’.
“Before I leave the senior team, it behoves me to emphasise that discipline on the field of play is a very important ingredient for success. During the year, there was a danger that this fact would be confused with the undue influence of the Sunday Game programme on television on the disciplinary system of CLG.
Although connected, those two issues are separate – one is an issue for Kerry, while the other is an issue for the wider GAA community, as the authorities must strive to exercise jurisdiction fairly over all of its games.”
The board passed a number of motions from clubs that will now be put forward for consideration at Congress next April. These include motions sponsored by the Rathmore club that would see yellow card offences now carried forward to extra-time, that the penalty for repeat infractions may only be doubled once within a 48 week or 96 week period and that suspensions be on a match basis rather than a time basis. The Valentia club are seeking the GAA to play an active role in providing work opportunities in rural areas while Glenflesk want the terms of the Players Injury Scheme to be re-examined and resource reallocated where necessary.
Meanwhile Conway also revealed that the board is hopeful Croke Park will soon green light funding for their centre of excellence project at Currans which has encountered considerable delays in its development and that the board are set to commence refurbishment work in Austin Stack Park shortly.
“Our plans are modest and all we seek is parity with other counties in Munster and beyond in terms of grants.. We are deserving of a positive response in the very near future, we contend. A refurbishment will commence in Austin Stack Park including a new entrance gate and turnstiles at the Mitchel’s end, terracing at that end, tarmac at that end, tidying up areas of concern around the grounds, removal of waste, erection of palisade fencing for compound area, etc.”
The board’s finances were described by Conway as ‘being in reasonably good shape’ but he expressed his frustration that the legal costs involved in DRA and drugs-taking claim cases in recent years has hindered the board’s attempts to achieve a break-even situation at the end of the year. Treasurer John Joe Carroll reported a surplus of €1,607 for 2010 which was a decrease of €28,664 from the previous year. That was largely explained by the Kerry senior footballers exit at the All Ireland quarter-final stage which resulted in Central Council team expense income down by €100,000 and fundraising activities dropping by €25,000.
Inter-county team expenses were down from €915,818 to €812,670 with senior football training expenses dropping from €253,486 to €211,533. Carroll described the 2010 financial affairs as ‘a satisfactory performance’ but warned that ‘a tough couple of years lie ahead in the cost of running teams due to the economic situation’ and that the board will have to be diligent in their spending.
Conway paid glowing tributes to Darragh Ó Sé and Diarmuid Murphy who brought the curtain down on their intercounty careers during 2010, and to Eamonn Fitzmaurice who left his post as senior football selector.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
