Cork club delegates vote unanimously against manager payments

CORK club delegates last night unanimously opposed the introduction of payments to inter-county managers and backed a proposal from the county’s board executive to pursue the second option in GAA Director-General Padraic Duffy’s discussion paper on payments to managers, which will reinforce the association’s policy on amateurism.

A motion to back that option was brought forward by county board chairman Bob Ryan, seeking to establish that as Cork’s stance on the issue. This was met with widespread approval and will be articulated at the next meeting of the GAA’s Central Council.

Ryan stressed that paying managers at inter-county level was not an issue in Cork and stated that the county ‘is very lucky that people are very glad and happy to train and manage teams of all levels without payment’.

However, Midleton club delegate Pat Horgan insisted that if the county was to advocate that option, then the payment of club managers, which he described as ‘rampant’, was an issue urgently in need of being addressed.

“It (payment to managers) is a huge problem in this county,” he said. “It may not be a problem at the top but it is a huge problem at club level. We can’t stand idly by as it’s going on rampantly in clubs all over the county. It’s something (that) will have to be addressed sooner rather than later.”

County board treasurer Pearse Murphy, who seconded Ryan’s motion, warned that if inter-county managers were paid, it would open the door for other units of the association to also start seeking financial reimbursement.

“You cannot change the rules for one group in the GAA. That will open the door elsewhere in the association. No one is denying the workload of inter-county managers but the same applies right throughout the association. If you decide to look after one group, you have to look after everyone.”

St Finbarr’s delegate Denis Harrington called for a programme to be established to assist the training of adult club coaches. This would be done with a view to avoiding the practice of clubs recruiting outside coaches.

“There’s a major problem that there is no senior coaching development going on. We would recommend that given the amount of coaching of coaches at underage level, we should set out a programme to coach our own adult coaches.”

Several club transfers were ratified but the proposed switch of Bishopstown’s Anthony Seymour to Castlehaven was turned down. The Bishopstown club had no objection but as the player’s address has not changed and he is not yet inactive for a period of 96 weeks, board chairman Bob Ryan denied the application. Michael Byrne (Ballyhea) and Noel O’Callaghan (Clonakilty) were elected to the executive of the board.