County Committee Report – 06.04.2021

The County Committee met online on Tuesday 6 April 2021. Chairperson Marc Sheehan welcomed everyone who was in attendance (192 logged on). Marc formally welcomed new GAA president Larry McCarthy to address the meeting.  The minutes of previous meeting Tuesday March 2^nd were  proposed and seconded.

GAA President Larry McCarthy addressed the meeting. The President spoke on a number of topics. He congratulated everyone who was involved in Rebels Bounty. He commended everyone who had the foresight in setting up of One Cork. In relation to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, The President said he looks forward to the day when it is a successful revenue generator rather than a revenue consumer for us. The President said that the streaming programme that Cork GAA had last year for club games in association with the Irish Examiner, is an excellent model and is a model that could and he would argue should be copied by other counties.  Concluding the Chairman thanked the President for addressing the meeting.

The meeting resumed with the Runaí going through the correspondence received. Pat Flynn (Ballinascarthy) asked about when club activity might resume and the Runai said he had no further information on this. Fergal Coakley  (Blackrock) put in a query in relation to the medals the County Champions receive. The Executive have reaffirmed their position that its silver medals with gold centre for the 2 Premier Senior winning teams. There was a query in from a club in relation to Rebels Bounty numbers and sales. The support committee has decided against giving out the specific information requested. Paul McCarthy (Kinsale) highlighted the Lower Intermediate Hurling grade along with the Intermediate Football grade. He is concerned at the lack of quantity and quality of games those teams may get when regraded back to their divisions. The Runai said Paul’s correspondence was discussed by the Executive and the CCC. In relation the injury scheme, the Runai said that further correspondence had been received from John O’ Flynn (Freemount), Frank O’ Connell (St Michaels) and Liam Kenny (Kilworth) in relation to different aspects of the injury scheme.

The Progress report was proposed and seconded.

The Chairperson informed the meeting, the Executive has approved Frank McCarthy (Ballincollig) as Vice Chairman of the County Hearings Committee and Brian O’ Loughlin (Kanturk) as Secretary of the County Hearings Committee.

The Chairperson informed the board, that following an Executive meeting held prior to the County Committee meeting, he wished to confirm that the Executive committee has established an investigation sub-committee, to seek observations from a unit of the association in the county in relation to an alleged Covid-19 training breaches, and the matter will be delt with in due course and no further comment would be made.

A CCC update was given by County Vice-Chairman Pat Horgan. Pat said the CCC had been busy dealing with routine business, transfers, appeals and gradings. Exploratory discussions have been held on a proposed league grouping. Ideas have been come up with and a plan has been come up with, but the plan would not be revealed at the moment. Pat said the only positive news he could give the meeting was that it has been decided that the Championship draws would be held on Thursday April 29^th on the same night as the April Rebels Bounty draw.

Staying on CCC matters the Runai said a primary concern was not to corrupt the 2022 competitions, so that’s why would be remaining steadfastly committed to relegation and promotion in both the leagues and championship. The Runai again referenced the correspondence from Paul McCarthy (Kinsale). The Runai said both the CCC and the Executive have had a preliminary discussion on lower Intermediate Hurling grade and whether they are all to be regraded as planned at the end of this year, and the extra 4 teams in Intermediate Football and whether those 4 teams would be regraded at the end of this year. What has been decided is that there is going to be a full Executive meeting next Tuesday (April 13^th). The Runai said we recognise the concerns of the clubs involved and that there’s other clubs with similar concerns. He said we also recognise the views of the Divisions that were expressed strongly when we revamped our championship 18 months ago so we are striving not to make a kneejerk reaction at tonight’s meeting. Between now and the Executive meeting next Tuesday night, we are inviting correspondence from any club that wishes to send in their views on this matter and also from any Division or other units who wishes to send in any correspondence. At the Executive meeting it will be discussed whether there should be a pause on the regrading of those teams, and perhaps have a little view to the future as it was always agreed that the re-grading would happen this year so there will also be a review of Junior competitions, so if there were teams being regraded, we would be certain they would get sufficient competitions following regrading.

Central Council delegate Tracey Kennedy gave a report from the last Central Council meeting held on March 20^th.  It was noted that Conor McCarthy (O’ Donovan Rossa) has been appointed to the Strategic planning committee. The next meeting will be held on May 22^nd.

Munster Council delegate Gerard Lane gave an report from the Munster Council meeting held on March 18^th.

The Runai said the Inter-county teams were looking forward to returning working away on zoom and individual sessions.

In relation to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh,  John O’ Flynn (Freemount) asked about the decision making process in relation to the expansion of SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The Runai said he will clarify the approval process, but the Stadium Board Directors would be liaising with the Executive.

Michael Byrne said a review was currently being undertaken of procedures in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, and as part of that he is hoping to add some new stewards to the excellent group of existing stewards that is already in place. In the coming days an email will be going out to all club secretaries and to the Camogie Association and also to Ladies Football seeking expressions of interest in being involved in stewarding. Michael thanked Cian O’ Brien (Glen Rovers) for his assistance in relation to an information page that has been put up on the Cork GAA website.

In relation to Rebels’ Bounty, the Chairperson said the first 3 draws had taken place. He said in total sales were approximately 28,150 which was a tremendous success and is looking forward to making it bigger and better into the future. It raised €1.9m for the clubs across the city and county. The Runai gave some further details on the tickets sold. There was an increase of 13,300 on the previous year. For Senior clubs the average sale was 304 tickets on a quota of 100, with ticket sales ranging from 59 to 693. Intermediate clubs averaged sales 197 tickets per club on a quota of 70, with ticket sales ranging from 46 to 637. Junior A clubs averaged 136 sales per club on their quota of 55 with ticket sales ranging from 36 to 412. The Junior B clubs averaged 68 sales per club on their quota of 35 with ticket sales ranging from 3 to 148. The prizes were in the Examiner on Saturday and are also up on the Cork GAA website. The Runai said we will taking any feedback on what worked and what didn’t work ahead of next year. The Runai also said the quotas are in place for a 3 year period (2021, 2022, and 2023).

The Chairperson congratulated Shane Barrett (Blarney) who was recently announced as the Munster Under 20 Hurler of the year for 2020.

County PRO Joseph Blake paid tribute the former Echo Hurling correspondent John Horgan on his retirement after 46 years with the paper.

The votes of sympathy were read out. The meeting concluded and the next meeting will be held on Tuesday May 4^th at 8pm.