A majority of motions are withdrawn

WHILE the majority of the motions submitted for the Competitions Meeting of the Kerry County Committee were withdrawn (10 out of 17) at Monday night’s meeting in Tralee there was a lot of debate about the introduction of quarter-finals into some of the Club Championship events along with the length of time it took to play the County Championship this year and the possible break-up of the East Kerry Minor team which drew huge resistance from East Kerry Chairman Johnny Brosnan.

The proposal put by the County Committee to the Meeting suggested that an Eoghan Rua side involving the clubs of Rathmore, Kilcummin, Glenflesk and Gneeveguilla be formed with the remaining clubs in the district to form any other combination from the district that doesn’t already involve a side from there competing on their own.

Mr Brosnan expressed his annoyance that there had been no consultation with the district board prior to the motion coming before the meeting and sad it would be a said day if a team was being broken up because of success.

Speaking for the County Committee, Coaching Officer Terence Houlihan said that the motion was to provide players from the large number of clubs currently within the district set-up (nine) with the chance to play County Minor Championship Football, but Kilcummin delegate and former East Kerry Chairman Tim Ryan said that running and funding a group team at County Championship level is difficult without the input of a divisional board.

It was pointed out to the Meeting by North Kerry Hurling Board delegate Joe Walsh that the motion was out of order as it had not made provision for the fact three clubs within East Kerry, Cordal, Currow and Scartaglin, are involved with St Kierans at County Championship level.

Eventually it was agreed to withdraw the motion, but take the matter under further consideration into the future especially with the district board review in mind.

A motion that drew a longer debate was one from the Ballymacelligott club seeking the introduction of quarter-final stages to the Club Championships by means of two teams coming out of the one group.

While there was support on the floor for such a move, Development Officer Eamon Whelan pointed out that the introduction of such a stage would mean a midweek fixture for it to be played within the confines of the timetable that exists at present.

When the issue of ‘dead rubber’ games were highlighted by those in favour of the motion, Beaufort delegate Colm Kelly suggested that the two winners of the first Round Robin game in each group play in the second round of fixtures to give the two losers of the first matches something still to play for. Eventually the motion was defeated by a vote of 48-24.

Rathmore delegate Donal Murphy brought motions to the Meeting from the club seeking to expand the number of club teams in the County Championship, quicken the time frame the County Championship is finished and seeking all club fixtures played by December 1.

The first two were withdrawn, the first on the basis it will be considered as part of the next County Championship Review, the second also, but when the issues of the effect the playing of the competition was having on district Championships, County Secretary Peter Twiss said it was up to district boards to think outside the box in getting their competitions played on time.

The third was heavily defeated when put to the floor despite Mr Murphy asking the Meeting if they all felt happy that major fixtures were still going on until the end of December.

In all only one motion was passed, the CCC have now been given permission to include ‘Result on the Day’ as part of the playing of the Club Championship semi-finals. Mr Twiss said the issue of how to eventually decide a winner was being considered by Croke Park and might not necessarily involve ‘free-kicks’ as was the case this year. A motion to introduce a ‘B’ competition for the first four teams eliminate from the County Senior Hurling Championship, meanwhile, was referred to a meeting with the hurling clubs.