Nugent: No appetite for paying managers in Tipp

Tipperary chairman Seán Nugent believes the Premier County will come out strongly against paying managers at next Tuesday’s monthly board meeting.

Nugent has already voiced strong opposition to the idea of top inter-county team managers receiving structured and monitored payments and insisted the view from Tipperary delegates will be along similar lines.

“The matter will be discussed in light of correspondence from Croke Park,” he said.

“And we have to make a submission to Croke Park in light of the discussion that takes place. I think you’ll get a consensus from the meeting. My stance hasn’t changed and I’ve made my position clear.

“But I would recognise at the same time the amount of work that managers are putting in and the amount of time involved in it.

“It’s greater than some of the players even and when you’re in that job you eat, sleep and drink it.

“Maybe there is some kind of happy medium, not paying managers but perhaps enhanced expenses, and especially for managers that come from outside the county. If you have to travel 100 or 200 miles to a county, the job is much more difficult. But having said that, in the present climate, where is the money going to come from?

“We have our own financial issues to deal with but in general, we’d be able to come up with the finances to cover these things but smaller counties would find it difficult.”

Nugent believes increased mileage expenses for managers is an avenue to explore.

“I would be totally against paying managers. You have to stick by the amateur ethos that has stood the association in good stead for 127 years. It’s something that has sustained us, and we need to keep with it.”

Meanwhile, Nugent has come up with a novel suggestion to revive the flagging inter-provincial series.

The Kilsheelan native is in favour of continuing with the Railway Cup but insists that the Martin Donnelly-sponsored competition is unsustainable in its current guise.

“You have to build something around it and I have suggested holding a mini-festival over the course of a weekend in October, along the lines of a Fleadh Cheoil, with the hurling taking place in the county of the All-Ireland champions, and similar with the football,” he said.

“I believe that is the only format it can continue in but it’s often very hard to get the hierarchy to come on board. But it’s good to see it back and it’s great for our county players to get their opportunity to represent their province.”