This article is from page 103 of the 2008-06-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 103 JPG
CLARE football is at a crossroads and can go one way or the other. It’s nothing new for the minority GAA sport in the county to be in this state of chassis. It’s always been the way, in all the bad times and very few good times there have been down the generations.
It’s simple really — those charged with promoting the game can commit themselves to the future 1n a positive and proactive way or just carry on the way things have been for most of the 124 years of the GAA in Clare.
People in power don’t like hearing it, much less reading it, but it’s the lack of commitment that’s institu- tionalised at county board level that has kept Clare football down so often and for so long.
County boards have always point- ed to the balance sheet, explaining away its commitment to the game in terms of the amount of money spent on county teams every year. Money never papers over the cracks that are more like the San Andreas faultline.
This is the board’s annual cop-out — the safety net to absolve the top ta- ble from any responsibility for doing something tangible about address- ing Clare’s Third World status as a county football entity.
It was no fault of the Clare senior
team that went down to Killarney on Sunday as ready-made fodder for Kerry’s machine as it very slowly cranked into action for another year.
The Clare team that went down by 1-14 to O-5 were a product of neglect — the blame for which goes to the top and has nothing to do with Frank Doherty and co.
You see, it’s more than county board money that makes the wheels turn — much more important than money is mindset, from the top table down to the clubs. Value, real value, just isn’t placed in a Clare football jersey, from the board or many club WEN Ece
A properly audited system for the development of football in the coun- ty isn’t there — the coaches aren’t there. It’s simple mathematics, but coaches in numbers in every nook and cranny of Clare would help give truth to theory that you speculate to accumulate.
Instead, Clare football has just let good men go. Former manager Do- nie Buckley was a de-facto member of the Limerick backroom team on Sunday, brought in by Mickey ‘Ned’ O’Sullivan to help with the team’s preparations.
Buckley should not have been lost to Clare football — think of the ex- pertise he could give young players in the Development Squad system. Pat
Hanrahan too — a man who helped Clare to win in ’92 and Doonbeg win a Munster club in ’98.
It’s not just the board though, some- thing that came home to roost on Saturday evening in Doonbeg. When Kilmurry Ibrickane brought on Paul O’Connor and Martin McMahon as subs in the O’Gorman Cup, Clare county football was dealt a mortal blow. Both were in action for the Clare junior team the following day.
Who allowed this happen? The club want call on their players — nothing wrong there, but it shouldn’t have come to this. If there was a danger that they’d be played in the O’Gorman Cup final, the fixture should have been pulled by the county board and re-fixed at a later date.
Of course the board will argue that it wasn’t their decision, as the com- petition is run by the Doonbeg club. Doesn’t wash though — the competi- tion has the backing of the board and the board had a duty to intervene and protect the interests of the county team.
This must never happen again, but then again there are a lot of things that shouldn’t happen.