Kerry green light for Algarve camp

KERRY’s footballers have received the green light from the County Board to proceed with a four-day warm-weather training camp in the Algarve later this month.

And county Board chairman Jerome Conway moved to rubbish claims of exorbitant costs and said that Jack O’Connor and his management team believed the trip would greatly aid Kerry’s cause in their assault on Sam Maguire.

The squad are heading to the prestigious Amendoeira Golf resort for four days over Easter, the same facility used last week by Anthony Daly’s Dublin hurlers. The Cork hurlers are also currently at a training camp in the Algarve. Conway told County Bord delegates the trip would not cost anything like the figures suggested in the local media. Reliable estimates put the figure at around €20,000 — about 0.5 of one percent of the total Co Board expenditure last year.

Conway explained: “We are well aware of the economic problems, and neither the board nor its clubs are immune from the effects of the recession.

“The benefits of warm weather training are that players can train three times a day. In normal circumstances we train three times a week so if the players spend four days in warm weather training, that is equivalent to four weeks training.

“Some of senior players have come back late this year, having taken a well earned rest, and that has become the norm in most counties as older players try to prolong their playing careers.

“Also we have our county and club championships coming up in early May and June and the normal squad training will be interrupted, as it is only right that players return to their clubs to prepare for the championships.”

Conway concluded: “The version of costs in the public domain (around €40,000) is well wide of the mark. There is cost for Portugal itself and there is also a figure for the flights. We could not book the flights until we knew we were going to get permission from the delegates. So flights have yet to ne booked and prices fluctuate the closer you get to the date.”

The chairman explained that team management have trimmed costs that help to minimise any extra financial burden on the Board.

“The team management are not irresponsible people and they understand the financial constraints that are placed upon the board. They have, in consultation with us, agreed cost cutting measures in other areas of preparation to such an extent that the Portugal aspect of the trip will be cost neutral,” said Conway.

“If we accept that, the only other expense is to an Irish airline. Now if we weren’t to go to Portugal then that figure would be spent in Ireland so it’s a matter of swapping one Irishcompany for another.

“The reason we have to travel is that we are dealing with amateur players and we only have a window on the Easter weekend when players are off Good Friday and Easter Monday. It is important that the weather is favourable in that window and that cannot be guaranteed at home.”

Later at the meeting, the chairman described the Munster U21 final hammering in Cork as most disappointing and said he was planning to meet team boss John Kennedy this week to review training, preparation and performance.