Cork GAA have responded to complaints about the County Board\u2019s scheduling of the Premier SHC relegation play-off and its new regulations on juvenile amalgamation teams.<\/p>\n
Both Erin\u2019s Own and Newtownshandrum managers had criticised administrative decisions for placing hurdles in front of country clubs after their relegation final replay last Friday – Erin\u2019s Own manager, Shay Bowen, took issue with the fixture being set for Ballyhooly. It was their second time travelling to a North Cork venue to face Newtown after the drawn game took place five days previously at Mourneabbey.<\/p>\n
Cork GAA have now defended their processes, explaining the sequence of events and communication with the clubs involved that informed the scheduling.<\/p>\n
Their statement read: \u201cAlmost immediately after the Co-Op Superstores PSHC relegation play-off ended in a draw, Erin\u2019s Own contacted the CCC (competitions control committee) to advise that they were unavailable to play on the weekend of October 5th. This had been the CCC’s preferred weekend to play the replay. However, they confirmed that they were available to play on the weekend of September 28th.<\/p>\n
\u201cNewtownshandrum were asked for their observations and informed the CCC that they were unavailable on the weekends of October 12th, 19th, 26th, and November 2nd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CCC also noted that Erin’s Own were scheduled to play an East Cork Junior A Football Championship quarter-final on Sunday, September 28th. In light of this, the CCC proposed Friday, September 26th, as an alternative date. Both clubs agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cA midway venue with floodlights was sought. Ballyhooly was available. Their pitch is 45km from Newtownshandrum and 40km from Erin’s Own.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Newtown spoke against the County Board\u2019s recent moves to cut back on juvenile amalgamations. They have been involved in Shandrum, a successful underage combination alongside Dromina, which won the Premier 2 Minor Hurling title last year.<\/p>\n
Manager Gary Morrissey compared the large populations available to many city and urban clubs with the challenges for rural clubs to remain active and competitive at juvenile grades. He also noted the contrast between divisional teams competing at Premier Senior level against the dismantling of some underage amalgamations.<\/p>\n
The response to those concerns stated: \u201cCork County Board remain committed to protecting our smaller clubs, be they rural or urban. To this end, a review of independent teams (amalgamations) has taken place over the last six months, with a particular focus on increasing player participation and the safeguarding of club identities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross three County Committee meetings, all clubs have been assured that general rule facilitates independent teams in all cases where clubs are unable to field on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, a newly established Monitoring Committee, including representation from clubs, is currently liaising with all clubs who find themselves in this difficult position.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn parallel, the County Demographics Committee is currently engaged with Board officers to bring forward recommendations to increase participation levels in urban areas and to consider options for areas suffering from rural depopulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Club Affairs Committee continues to meet directly with any clubs who face significant challenges related to the areas highlighted above.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork GAA have responded to complaints about the County Board\u2019s scheduling of the Premier SHC relegation play-off and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,24,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-97465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cork-gaa","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}