Cash woes put paid to Déise full-time football director plan

WATERFORD GAA chiefs will proceed with plans to appoint a Director of Football but the position will be a voluntary one as the cash-strapped board are unable to finance a full-time position.

A motion from the Micheal MacCraith (Tramore) club calling on the board to recruit a Director of Football to improve standards throughout the county was passed at the annual convention before Christmas.

The performances of the county’s underage teams in inter-county football championships came under scrutiny at that convention with secretary Timmy O’Keeffe admitting their future participation at those levels needed to be debated. It is envisaged the new Director of Football role would encompass underage development and seek to target improvements in those areas.

Waterford’s financial difficulties have been well documented over the last few years with their 2011 accounts revealing a shortfall of €120,000 and a drop in income to €1.313 million from their 2010 figure of almost €2.5m. County board chairman Tom Cunningham welcomed the prospect of a Director of Football being appointed but insists their hands were tied in relation to putting together a financial package to entice prospective candidates.

“We’ve still a lot of work to do in filling the position as it’s still very early in the new year,” revealed Cunningham. “Our convention was only just before Christmas when that motion was passed and it’s only now in January that things start to get going. Having a Director of Football was something clubs spoke strongly in favour of and we’re going to look into it. We’d hope to make progress over the next couple of months and it would be a very positive development for the improvement of football in the county. But it’s going to be a voluntary position. The way things are, we don’t have the money to afford appointing someone full-time.”