Walsh: Déise wanted financial ‘sweetener’ for Semple final

Munster Council chairman Sean Walsh has claimed Waterford wanted a financial “sweetener” to play this year’s provincial senior hurling final at Semple Stadium.

Walsh confirmed Waterford floated the idea at the provincial body’s Competitions Control Committee meeting on June 7.

The proposal was then withdrawn by Déise delegate Anthony Walsh when he was informed it was out of order.

Former Kerry County Board chairman Walsh also revealed Waterford had explored the idea of a “sweetener” prior to the 2011 final against Tipp – a match that went ahead at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Munster Council chiefs decided there and then that similar requests would receive short shrift – but Waterford still decided to try again this year.

Walsh, speaking on Monday night to Tipp FM’s Extra Time sports show, admitted Semple Stadium is a superior venue to Páirc Uí Chaoimh but was critical of Waterford’s approach.

In 2009, Tipperary and Waterford played a Munster final at Semple Stadium as part of the GAA’s 125 celebrations. It later emerged that Waterford had sought €50,000 to give their potential final opponents (Cork or Tipperary) home advantage prior to a decision being taken on the venue.

But Walsh has now revealed that cash-strapped Waterford tried to negotiate a similar deal for the past two summers.

Last week, a specially-convened Munster CCC meeting voted 8-2 against a fresh Waterford proposal to move this year’s final from Cork to Thurles.

Waterford board chairman Tom Cunningham revealed he was acting on behalf of Waterford players and team management, who had expressed a desire to play in Thurles for purely hurling reasons.

No financial factor was mentioned at this latest meeting, however, as Waterford were told in no uncertain terms by Munster Council chiefs on June 7 that they could not expect to receive money for moving the game to Thurles.

Walsh alleged on Tipp FM: “I’m glad to clarify the situation in relation to this fixture. The draw for the Munster championship was made last October and since then both Waterford and Tipp knew that if they met in a final, the venue would be up for decision. On June 7, before our semi-finals, we met to decide our (final) venues. At that meeting, the date for the final was discussed, as is normal. Then came a proposal from a Waterford delegate that they would consider coming to Thurles for the final if what he called a “sweetener” was on the table. A “sweetener” was something that came up last year – that if Waterford came to Thurles they’d get some of the money due to Semple Stadium for the hosting of that match. That’s a system we ruled completely out of order last year because that would throw all of our neutral venues expecting matches into doubt because anybody could go away then, do a deal with the host county and get money for it.

“We made it quite obvious and quite plain then that there wouldn’t be a sweetener on the table but if they (still) wanted to go to Thurles, they could make a proposal. When the sweetener wasn’t on the table, he (Anthony Walsh) withdrew the proposal of going to Thurles. Cork was proposed and agreed on by the counties involved and by everybody else.

“On June 25, this was revisited by Waterford, who did the very same last year, having agreed to play Tipp in Thurles.”

Walsh added: “I want to be very clear on this – Waterford said they would go to Thurles if a sweetener was involved. (Tipperary chairman) Sean Nugent rang me on the morning of June 25, having received a request from Waterford, to insist that there was no agreement between Tipp and Waterford in relation to providing a sweetener. That is something that the Munster Council unanimously agreed last year would not be happening going forward.”

Walsh also insisted that top table delegates were not under pressure to vote in favour of the status quo last week.

He said: “Nobody was voting under a whip – I’ve never insisted on that on any occasion. But you have to bear in mind that there is a responsibility when you are an executive member of the Munster Council to uphold decisions taken.”

Walsh also confirmed that Waterford delegate Walsh and his Tipperary counterpart Donie Shanahan were the only votes in favour of moving from Cork to Thurles.

And Walsh revealed: “I’d love to have the game in Killarney. I made the point at the meeting the last night, very clearly...my own personal opinion is that Thurles and Killarney are the places to play finals. But that can’t happen and you’re duty bound to the rest of the counties that have stadiums.”

Walsh added: “Obviously Thurles is a fabulous venue and one we all love to go to. €15m has been spent on upgrading Thurles to a standard second highest in the country next to Croke Park. Cork falls behind that by virtue of the fact that they are about to spend millions of euros and are going for planning permission sometime between now and September for a new state of the art stadium.”