Noel Walsh brands Kerry County Board’s Legion ruling as ‘farcical’

Former Munster Council chairman Noel Walsh has described the decision of the Kerry County Board to nominate Legion as the county’s representatives for Sunday’s Munster Club SFC semi-final as “farcical”.

Walsh empathised with Kerry Club Championship winners Dingle, who were overlooked after the citing of a bye-law which states: “In the case of the senior football championship, Kerry shall be represented by the longest standing club in the county senior football championship with the following exceptions — where the county shall be represented by the winners of the Kerry Club Championship: (a) Where the county championship is completed and won by a divisional/group team. (b) Where the county championship is not completed and all club teams have been eliminated.”

The Miltown-Malbay native lamented the uneven playing field which saw Stradbally forced to play two games in the space of 23 hours to ensure Waterford representation in the provincial championship, whereas Legion have been afforded the opportunity to line out against Nemo Rangers on Sunday and then return to play South Kerry in the replayed senior championship county final the following weekend.

“The rules should be no different for Kerry as they are for Waterford or Limerick. The rules should apply equally to every county,” remarked Walsh. There is a big question now over Legion being nominated to the Munster championship. If they lose to Nemo, they go back then a week later to play the county championship which, in my mind, is farcical.

“Dingle are right to be sore. The reward for winning the club championship in Kerry is representing the county if the county championship hasn’t been finished or has been won by a divisional outfit. Why is it changed now?

“Somebody of influence came up with this solution. I never heard of this rule that is being cited. Kerry and Cork in football have always been a law unto themselves.”

The two most recent club controversies in Munster, added to the backlog in Laois two-weeks ago which forced Portlaoise to play the county final on a Saturday and the first round of the Leinster SFC 24-hours later, is further evidence of the requirement to prioritise club players during the summer, according to Walsh.

“If these championships were played off during the summer, we wouldn’t have situations like this. Every county, irrespective of how successful their county team is, should be able to finish off their championships on time. What is going on at the moment isn’t satisfactory. I thought it terrible the Waterford football champions had to go out and play Nemo so soon after winning their county championship. That wasn’t the fault of the current system, that was the fault of the Waterford County Board.

“Waterford football team was knocked out of the championship at a very early stage and while the hurlers went a bit further, there was no justification for Waterford not having their county championship finished. Inefficiencies within the counties will have to be dealt with, and there are quite a lot of those.”

Meanwhile, GAA director general Páraic Duffy says “there is no excuse” for situations arising where club teams have to play two championship games in the space of 24 hours.

“Maybe we need to do more in holding county boards to account,” he told Newstalk’s Off The Ball last night.

“We cannot go into every county and run their competitions for them. They have got to run their own affairs. No structure, even as bad and all as it may be at the moment, can justify what happened [in Laois and Waterford]. There aren’t very many football people in Waterford who would be happy with what happened with the Waterford football championship this year.

“There is huge discontent among the club players. Number one, they want more games. Number two, they want more games during the summer months and number three, they want more games alongside the very best players. I spoke with Jack McCaffrey’s dad at the All Stars, one of the dregs they have in Clontarf, and this is not Jack’s fault, but he rarely plays with Clontarf and the players in Clontarf rarely get a chance to play with the best player in the country. That’s not right.”