Moroney defends Munster football seeding

Munster Council secretary Simon Moroney has defended the decision to seed this year’s provincial senior football championship.

As a result of a vote last September, Cork and Kerry have been kept apart, receiving byes to semi-finals which won’t take place until the weekend of June 21/22.

Provincial chairman Robert Frost, who proposed the motion to seed the competition, came in for heavy criticism from within his own county over the decision. However, Moroney, another Clare man, said the decision taken was a wholly democratic one and notice of the vote had been flagged two months in advance.

In his annual report ahead of Friday’s annual convention, he wrote: “The most contentious decision by Council during the year was the decision to alter the Competition Regulation governing the Provincial senior football championship. This decision engendered considerable controversy and criticism. All I will say on the matter is the decision was well flagged in advance when the matter was discussed at the meeting of the Council on July 25. It was announced at that July meeting a decision on the issue would be made at the Council meeting scheduled for September 12. Counties were asked to consider the issue before the decision would be made seven weeks later. The meeting on September 12 decided, democratically, on a seeded draw format. The Provincial Council is the only body with authority to decide such a matter and while I respect the right of anyone to disagree with this clearly when a majority decide the issue then all are bound to respect this.

“There is no alternative to democracy. The use of a seeded draw method is envisaged and specifically permitted in Rule insofar as‘Provincial Councils may organise their Championships to take into account the relative strengths of the Counties within the Province’. Seeded draws are not unique to Munster.”

It was revealed yesterday the Kerry v Cork Munster SFC final in Killarney last year, which was attended by 36,370 people, had gross gate receipts marking a whopping €507,000 improvement on those brought in by the 2012 Cork-Clare decider in Limerick. As well as contributing to a jump of 24.8% in crowd numbers in the SFC, the glamour fixture and staging was also cited as the main reason for Munster recording an increase of over 5% in attendances across all competitions, bringing their total to 251,000, and seeing the provincial council enjoy a gross match income increase amounting to €562,000, a 20.8% rise from 2012.

The senior hurling championship brought in €403,000, up 30.6% on 2012, although the Limerick-Cork final brought in the lion’s share of it as the three previous games were down €34,000 on the previous season.

There was an improvement of 6.6% on 2012’s figures, largely put down to the Limerick-Cork final attracting 42,730 compared to the ’12 decider between Tipperary and Waterford which drew just over 26,000.

The two senior championship finals accounted for 46% of gross match income, while the nine senior championships games accounted for 79% of all gross match income. Worryingly, the U21 HC suffered a 19% drop in attendances while the U21 FC incurred a more drastic drop in gross gate income of 41%.