O’Keeffe fears new proposals could end club interest by June

Waterford secretary Timmy O’Keeffe fears teams could be eliminated from county championships by June if national proposals to condense club competitions into a calendar year are successful.

O’Keeffe is concerned about the knock-on effects to the county championships if the All-Ireland Club finals are fixed for December.

“If the proposal to play the All-Ireland club championship finals in December goes through, the Munster club championship will have to commence in late September,” O’Keeffe will say in his address to convention in Dungarvan tonight.

“The current inter-county championship structure makes it virtually impossible to play any club championship games in June, July and early August. This will mean that we will have to be at the knockout stages of our championships prior to this. In effect, there will be a lot of clubs out of the championship in early June.

“If this is what clubs want and vote for, so be it but my own view is that no club should be out of the championship earlier than mid-August.

“The proposal to complete the club championship in a calendar year only affects the four provincial champions and it seems to me that we are penalising very many clubs in every county in order to accommodate the four provincial winners.”

Three election contests for the positions of chairman, treasurer and central council look set to dominate the agenda of tonight’s meeting.

Chairman Tom Cunningham will make his final address to delegates as he moves on from the role under the five-year rule.

Two experienced candidates Paddy Joe Ryan of Fourmilewater and Tim O’Byrne from Erin’s Own will compete for the post.

Outgoing Central Council delegate Ryan is seeking a second spell in the chair having held the role between 1994 and 2004. O’Byrne is a former Eastern Board chairman and secretary.

There will be a three-way battle to succeed Paddy Joe Ryan as Central Council representative. Outgoing chairman Cunningham (Stradbally) joins former board chairman Pat Flynn (Passage) and former Munster Council delegate Tommy Hennessy (Kill) in the race. Former PRO and current Western Board treasurer John Jackson (Ballyduff Upper) will challenge incumbent Joe Cleary (Abbeyside/Ballinacourty) for the position of county treasurer.

Sean Michael O’Regan (Kill) is the only nominee for vice chairman and will take the place of John O’Leary.