Fitz stays after spirited debate
Jason O’Connor reports from last week’s County Board meeting which saw Eamonn Fitzmaurice ratified for another three seasons
ALTHOUGH it was passed without a vote, Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s ratification for a further two years on top of the existing year he has to serve at present was not without comment from delegates at last Wednesday night’s County Committee Meeting in Tralee.
County Chairman Tim Murphy read a lengthy statement to the meeting when the matter came up outlining the rationale behind proposing that the Kerry manager’s tenure be extended to the end of the year 2020.
Mr Murphy began by stating that he felt his role as county chair was to provide leadership on the progression of Gaelic football in the county into the future.
He thanked delegates and other interested parties who had offered their views and concerns to him following the defeat to Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final replay and said such opinions had formed the basis for his discussions with the Kerry manager about continuing in the role.
Mr Murphy said that he had met Mr Fitzmaurice on six occasions since the defeat to Mayo for two to four hours at a time discussing the future direction of the senior side.
He said that the desire for success underpins football in the Kingdom and said that the question that must be asked was what was best for Kerry football and he felt that the proposed extension was that.
He said that he understood that there was a desire for change and that while he supports change in a lot of ways he felt that change for the sake of change was not the answer in this instance and he felt that granting such an extension would express confidence in the management and serve as a strong statement of intent. Mr Murphy felt that a stable environment had to be created and that the County Committee had to be proactive and not reactive in this situation.
He also said that the management had received the backing of the players at a team meeting in Killarney last month and that he preferred to see the glass as half full and not half empty with the promise of the minor players coming through, the strength of the club structure in the county, the quality of its coaches and the development of Currans.
When the matter was opened to the floor, Gneeveguilla delegate Bill O’Riordan spoke firstly at the East Kerry club’s displeasure that the proposal had been put out to the media in the manner it had been leading up to the meeting and that in future clubs should get an option to discuss such proposals prior to them being voted on at meetings.
Killarney Legion delegate Sean O’Sullivan meanwhile said that while he agreed with Fitzmaurice being granted another twelve months he felt that two years was a bit excessive.
A number of speaking including Austin Stacks’ Eddie Barrett, Kerins O’Rahillys’ Dan Walsh and Scartaglin’s James O’Donoghue spoke of the desire to see county players feature more with their clubs as part of the new arrangement saying that a ‘club vs. county’ situation has developed at the present time and that the clubs are the ones losing out in such an instance.
Mr Murphy said he understood such concerns and said he could see the ‘club vs. county’ debate from both sides, but assured delegates that the new master fixture calendar for 2018 had the ability to address a lot of the issues around player availability.
Milltown / Castlemaine delegate Mike Hickey asked was there a post-mortem done amongst the set-up on the actual performance on the day against Mayo in the replay, the only speaker at the meeting to be critical of the style of play by Kerry in the campaign this year.
St Senans Tom O’Connell concluded the discussion by saying that if the players were happy for Fitzmaurice to stay on then there should be no need for the County Committee to go changing things.
With that Mr Murphy asked the Meeting was a vote wanted on the matter and as no such request was forthcoming the ratification of the management team’s extension was confirmed.
Elsewhere at the meeting double All-Ireland winning Kerry minor manager Peter Keane was confirmed in the role for another two years, the first two that will played under the new Under 17 age grade.
Following on from the discussion about the Master Fixture list for 2018, County Secretary Peter Twiss proposed that a forum be held on future fixtures within the county when the new calendar dates are confirmed by Croke Park.
Mr Twiss spoke of his excitement at the changes and said it presented a real opportunity to address a lot of the issues regarding the availability of inter-county players to their clubs. However he also asked clubs to be realistic and not to start thinking about having their inter-county players available for every league game in such a scenario.
Also at the meeting the County Chairman expressed his delight at the news that All-Ireland Minor winning Captain David Clifford had decided to stay in the county and not pursue a career in the AFL saying that Eamonn Fitzmaurice and the ad-hoc sub-committee put in place by the county had been instrumental to this.
Mr Murphy said that the sub-committee will remain in pace for any future players in the county that may be targeted by Australian clubs down the line.
While the work of the Parish Rule and Player Registration Sub-Committee is now at an end Munster Council delegate Joe Crowley said that the District Board Review Committee should be reporting to the County Committee in January.
Mr Crowley asked district boards not to be fearful of the Committee’s work as it has no intention to get rid of a district board, merely asking what is best for their workings in the future.
Finally Coaching Officer Terence Houlihan in his report requested that the county come up with a collective viewpoint on the proposal to change the underage grades to odd numbered as opposed to the present even years.
While the matter had been withdrawn from the recent Special Congress to allow more time for debate on the matter, Mr Houlihan said the county needed a definitive position on the matter.
County Secretary Peter Twiss had given a personal view in the earlier CCC Report that applying the Inter-County changes to Under 20 and Under 17 in the county would remove a lot of the clutter there would be if the county remains with Under 18 and Under 21 competitions into the future.