Kildare board face clubs’ wrath as weekend games deferred

KILDARE clubs have slammed their county board for postponing this weekend’s senior and intermediate football championship games.

Former chairman Pádraig Ashe and club chairmen fixed the ties in February but the county’s competitions control committee last month opted to defer the ties due to Kildare’s inter-county commitments at senior and junior level.

The matter dominated a monthly meeting of the board on Tuesday night with a number of angry exchanges.

“This decision makes a laugh of the meeting we had back in February with the previous chairman,” said Fran Sullivan of Milltown.

“We have over 400 players who should be togging out this weekend for senior championship, but they are not,” added Maynooth chairman Colm Nolan.

No delegate spoke to support the delay to the games and one by one, clubs stood to express their “extreme disappointment” that the second round would not be going ahead. However all clubs reluctantly resolved to abide by the CCC’s decision.

Kildare chairman John McMahon, who succeeded Ashe in April, said the board was in an unenviable position as they searched for a balance between fixing club games and supporting the ambitions of their county teams.

“We had a CCC meeting two weeks ago and we decided to defer the next round of the senior and intermediate championship this weekend but play the junior championship.

“In hindsight I still think it is the right decision but it wasn’t a decision we came to easily. I think in fairness to the players on the county panels, they are totally focused on their games with the county teams at the moment.

“It’s a hard call. We are conscious of the club and county but our team is on the verge of bringing serious silverware and we have to try and support them. This decision was made in an attempt to bring everybody together.”