Nationalist piece

By: TCM Editorial
GAA: APRIL COUNTY BOARD MEETING
By Ger McNally
DESPITE the protestations of Moorefield’s Peter Whyte, it looks like Kildare clubs will have less than a week to prepare with their county players before the opening round of the Kildare club football championship.

As has now become the norm under Kieran McGeeney, the Kildare team will head to the Marriott Hotel in Enfield the weekend after Easter week for an intensive training camp finishing up on Sunday 1 May. The clubs will then have access to the players from the May Bank Holiday Monday but with the championship due to be played the following weekend, it gives them precious little time to prepare their teams.

By way of a compromise, the senior panel were available for their clubs for league games last Sunday despite clubs previously agreeing to do without their county players for the entire league, and talks are underway for the players to be available next week too but Whyte was unimpressed.

He argued that the training weekend contravened Rule 6.23 of the GAA’s Official Guide, which states:

“Senior inter-county Panels shall not be permitted to go on training weekends, or training of longer duration, after the final of their respective National League having been played, except during the 13 days period prior to a Senior Championship Game, or during the 20 days prior to an All-Ireland Senior Final.”

“You cannot ignore that rule,” said Whyte.

The dates of training camp were complicated by the fact that up to last Sunday week Kildare could have been involved in a league final which would have ruled out both last weekend and this weekend coming but Whyte was in no humour for backing down.

“You can’t wait to see if you are going to be in a league final to make a decision like this. It is a huge disturbance to all the clubs and is in breech of the rule in the Official Guide.”

It certainly was a baptism of fire for new chairman John McMahon who is in the unenviable position of trying to keep both senior county management and the Kildare clubs happy but he stressed the importance of the training weekend.

“This is a weekend aimed at developing the 30, or whatever number of players are going to be brought, for the Kildare senior team. At the end of the day, everybody wants to be in a situation in the latter part of the summer where we are trying to compete for national honours. I think the team management are trying to do what they can to help the clubs, i.e. despite the clubs agreeing to play without their county players for the league campaign, players will be available to play league games this weekend (last Sunday) in an attempt to try and get them back into the structure of their club teams.”

There was quite a lengthy and heated debate between the chairman and the man who has already announced his intention to run for vice-chairman with the Moorefield man not placated by the availability of players for league games. He also noted that after such a heavy training weekend that it can take up to four days for players to fully recover.

“The preparation for the most important club match is the weekend before the first round of championship. These guys are coming back and they can’t train with their clubs for that week so don’t tell me that the management took into consideration the clubs, they didn’t. They were made aware seven weeks ago that this situation could not occur and that it is a breach of the rules. It’s a huge disadvantage to the clubs. If it had been done properly, it would have been discussed properly,” said Whyte.

Whyte received little or no support from the other club delegates on the night, most of whom were more concerned with moving the meeting closer to an end.

Moorefield currently have Ronan Sweeney, Daryl Flynn, David Whyte and Ciaran Kelly in and around the panel and while they are one of the highest contributors of players, Whyte may have expected to get more backing from other clubs.

The discussion between Whyte and McMahon lasted almost half an hour and ended with the Moorefield chairman seeking clarification from Croke Park on the rule which would seem to outlaw this training weekend.

In wrapping up, McMahon summed up the difficult position that the county board find themselves in.

“We have a situation here. You have people making valid arguments for one side and people listening and making valid arguments for the other side but there has to be consensus. There is not a man or woman in this room that does not want to see John Doyle lift the Sam Maguire trophy next September. This discussion that we had tonight will fade into insignificance if and when we get to that situation. We have to work to get this thing, in conjunction with the work done by the clubs. That’s all we are trying to get here, consensus, agreement and tolerance from two sides of the same coin,” he said.

The chairman’s words were well received by the delegates who were happy to move on from the matter although there is a growing feeling that most of these delegates come over all misty eyed at the mere mention of Kildare winning an All-Ireland and care for little else, now even it seems at the expense of their own club’s welfare.

Lads surprised there isnt talk of this? What do ye make of it?
To be honest I feel the clubs aren't getting enough use of their county men and it will just get worse if they all lie down which already happened when the delegates agreed to go without their county men.
This whole argument of Johnny Doyle lifting Sam to counter-act it and say "ya wont be complaining if we win it..." is also flawed.
If we look at the most successful group in the GAA over the past decade in the form of Kilkenny hurlers their players are not wrapped in cotton wool. The county men are allowed out and can get battered in the club championship. Surely that is the way to go.

If my club gets relegated because we do'nt get our county players to play with us, Johnny Doyle lifting Sam is'nt going to make up for it.

The trouble with the Kilkenny arguement does'nt compare because they could win 4 matches an they're in an All Ireland final, Kildare would have to play possibly twice that number and thats not including replays.

It's not fair on the clubs alright, or the players themselves.
I'm surprised more clubs didn't kick up over it. I know Moorefield have the most players on the panel but still you'd imagine more people would have protested like Whyte.

Peter Whyte reminds me of Luke Ming Flanagan.......

Training weekend or not, 3 weeks before theleinster championship players were going to be either playing an intercounty challenge or have intercounty training, so they would prob be then expected to play challenges/train with their clubs aswell. Like for instance last weekend, Kildare
I dont see the problem, now they get to play a league game with their club tonight, as opposed to a meaningless friendly next weekend.

and sure Moorefield might decide not to use their county men like they did last year!!!!

peter whyte some man to be quoting rules what happened to his rules last year when moorefield played illegal players in division 2

Follow and quote the rules when it suits. Its a grand old organisation we have.

It's ironic this is posted in the same week that lads are saying they don't want matches scheduled because of Punchestown. You couldn't make it up.

umpireonditch wrote:

Training weekend or not, 3 weeks before theleinster championship players were going to be either playing an intercounty challenge or have intercounty training, so they would prob be then expected to play challenges/train with their clubs aswell. Like for instance last weekend, Kildare
I dont see the problem, now they get to play a league game with their club tonight, as opposed to a meaningless friendly next weekend.

Well we have 2 county players and we did'nt have either of them playing with us today.

One is injured at the moment and thats fair enough, but the other fella was "too tired" to play because of a heavy training session yesterday with Kildare!

Taibi wrote:

umpireonditch wrote:

Training weekend or not, 3 weeks before theleinster championship players were going to be either playing an intercounty challenge or have intercounty training, so they would prob be then expected to play challenges/train with their clubs aswell. Like for instance last weekend, Kildare
I dont see the problem, now they get to play a league game with their club tonight, as opposed to a meaningless friendly next weekend.

Well we have 2 county players and we did'nt have either of them playing with us today.

One is injured at the moment and thats fair enough, but the other fella was "too tired" to play because of a heavy training session yesterday with Kildare!

poor willie

fone wrote:

Taibi wrote:

umpireonditch wrote:

Training weekend or not, 3 weeks before theleinster championship players were going to be either playing an intercounty challenge or have intercounty training, so they would prob be then expected to play challenges/train with their clubs aswell. Like for instance last weekend, Kildare
I dont see the problem, now they get to play a league game with their club tonight, as opposed to a meaningless friendly next weekend.

Well we have 2 county players and we did'nt have either of them playing with us today.

One is injured at the moment and thats fair enough, but the other fella was "too tired" to play because of a heavy training session yesterday with Kildare!

poor willie

he should go and play cause he wont grace the grass of croker this year anyway. unless wit "maor uisce" across his chest.

lastline wrote:

fone wrote:

Taibi wrote:

umpireonditch wrote:

Training weekend or not, 3 weeks before theleinster championship players were going to be either playing an intercounty challenge or have intercounty training, so they would prob be then expected to play challenges/train with their clubs aswell. Like for instance last weekend, Kildare
I dont see the problem, now they get to play a league game with their club tonight, as opposed to a meaningless friendly next weekend.

Well we have 2 county players and we did'nt have either of them playing with us today.

One is injured at the moment and thats fair enough, but the other fella was "too tired" to play because of a heavy training session yesterday with Kildare!

poor willie

he should go and play cause he wont grace the grass of croker this year anyway. unless wit "maor uisce" across his chest.

Thats what makes it all the more galling.

Ah we did'nt need him anyway

well Tiabi, if thats the case then problem lies with your mans desire to play for his club...

umpireonditch wrote:

well Tiabi, if thats the case then problem lies with your mans desire to play for his club...

Well he wouldn't be alone in that... there are plenty of lads who chose not to play with the clubs last year when they were freed to do so, some from the top senior clubs in the county.

Cork are playing a league final and they have injury worries because they had a couple of championship games in the space of a week about 10 days ago or something like that. Tyrone players have Justin McMahon with a busted jaw and Dooher sent off playing league last weekend. These are the reasons we wrap our players up in cotton wool and yet Cork and Tyrone are much more successful than Kildare. To me, it's an absolute insult to the clubs and the majority of the footballing population. I would have thought you could have a round of championship three weeks before a Leinster championship, no problem. Every lad is going to be worried about his own patch, which is why the board must have the strength to make a decision. Here, there'd be absolute fear that Geezer would walk. In Cork, if the manager walked in either code no matter who it was or when, they'd have just appointed someone else. In Tyrone, I get the feeling little happens without the say-so of Micky Harte mind you but it happens to be that he wants his players playing now.

Did any county players play?
i know ours didnt play for us yesterday, due to their training this morning.
I heard the Kildare players all decided together not to play with there clubs yesterday.(could be just rumour though)

kildare havent a hope in hell of winning an all ireland, we havent won anything since 2001.

geezer is making a laughing stock out of the county board and clubs.

clubs and county board need to stand up to this bully and demand that we get our county players back playing with our clubs on a regular basics, this will help bring the club football and players to a higher standard.

can we afford a huge fine from croke park for breaking this rule on the training camp?

end of the day it will be the clubs that will have pay..

geezer is the manager of the kildare senior football team, that is his only interest so of course he will want to protect his players. the co board however have to oversee all the fotball in the county so it is up to them to do something if needs be.
as was pointed cork and tyrone have lost some men in recent weeks playing club games but that is just unlucky. they have Celtic crosses to prove that their way of doing it is the right way.
when was the last time a county man got injured playing for his club here? (honestly if someone can tell me as i can't think of one).
just thinking too last night that its 4 games into the league and there were also pre-season games and the county man from my club hasn't trained once. he played one game ad now he is off for a full week the week before our biggest game of the year.
mcgeeney has had him for the entire year in countless trainings and at least 15 matches including challenge games.
lads as i said if i was geezer i'd do the same if i was let, the problem is he is being let. also a disappointing thing is that rumours abound that some of the more senior players are putting pressure on younger lads not to play with their clubs when they technically can.
why cant we just go and do what the successful teams do. if a lad gets injured in county training he is still just as injured as he would be playing competitive club matches.

well said.

heard smithy and chalky played for the sash. chalky came on as a sub midway through first half for another player with injury.

Welcome back sillycow, I missed your optimistic view on events......... thank god there is enough people around to push the envelope and say why not!

realmoore wrote:

I heard the Kildare players all decided together not to play with there clubs yesterday.(could be just rumour though)

this shows lack of respect of county players have to their own clubs by not playing last night and well done to county players who put club jersey on last night

fone wrote:

realmoore wrote:

I heard the Kildare players all decided together not to play with there clubs yesterday.(could be just rumour though)

this shows lack of respect of county players have to their own clubs by not playing last night and well done to county players who put club jersey on last night

Like i said it could just have been a rumour.

centreback wrote:

peter whyte some man to be quoting rules what happened to his rules last year when moorefield played illegal players in division 2

Centreback this issue has been discussed at length already. Moorefield were punished for breaking the rules, we were deducted two points for the game as was in the rulebook.

Well said centreback ,id venture to say if anyone else had started to quote the official guide without the pro Moorefield chemical ali style guff that accompanied ,it might have got a better hearing.

fone wrote:

realmoore wrote:

I heard the Kildare players all decided together not to play with there clubs yesterday.(could be just rumour though)

this shows lack of respect of county players have to their own clubs by not playing last night and well done to county players who put club jersey on last night

Tommy Moolick played for us and all the Larries county lads played for them.

Also just to add it's plain to see the improvement in Moolick's game over the last couple of years down with the county seniors, he was excellent yesterday.

Final score was Leixlip 0-14 St Laurences 1-11