Kennedy fears for Imokilly’s football future
The East Cork side were unable to field for Monday night’s game with Duhallow. After a similar occurrence in 2012, board secretary Tracey Kennedy wrote in her annual report that greater commitment was needed if they were to continue competing, but now she feels future participation is in doubt: “I think that that’s certainly the direction that we’re going at this stage,” she said.
“We gave walkovers twice in 2012, and it was looked at. We consulted with clubs then and the view was that we should continue to play in the championship.
“I think it’s just symptomatic of a general lack of football interest in East Cork. It’s the reality that the priority of most clubs is hurling and it’s a struggle at times for clubs to put out their own football teams; it happened recently in the U21 football that a walkover was given.
“In spite of efforts to promote it and stay in the championship and so on, it’s obviously not working out. We’ll have to take a serious look at the situation now in the next couple of weeks to see if we’ll continue.”
Prior to Monday’s game, there were no indications that it would not go ahead, with Kennedy – who is also the Cork County Board PRO – declaring sympathy for the management team.
“It would be disappointing not to field either way,” she said, “but at least if you have advance notice you’re avoiding inconvenience to the other team and the venue and the media and so on.
“It would seem the management were confident that they had enough players to field, so it’s obviously very disappointing for them as well.
With the county board likely to issue a fine, it adds to the costs incurred by Imokilly.
“You have the basic cost of the €1,000 that you have to pay for the players’ injury scheme,” Kennedy said.
“Then, there are the costs of team preparations. Obviously, it’s not the same as a club team with training sessions and so on, but there are still costs.
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