Frank O'Connell

Dec 11, 2022

At Sunday’s Cork convention, it was confirmed by the executive that medals would not be provided to clubs who were victorious at U19 level in 2022. 'ONCE-OFF COMPETITION': Marc Sheehan, Chairman of the Cork County Board addressing delegates at the annual convention at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Pic: David Creedon Sun, 11 Dec, 2022 - 21:05 Eoghan Cormican      The Cork county board executive have been lambasted for not providing county medals to the winners of the various Cork U19 championship competitions. At Sunday’s Cork convention, it was confirmed by the executive that medals would not be provided to clubs who were victorious at U19 level in 2022. Frank O’Connell, delegate for the St Michael’s club who won this year’s U19 Premier 2 football championship, said it is an “absolute disgrace” that the board are not providing medals and that this expense must now be picked up by the clubs themselves. “The executive complained about people not joining the U19 competition, and then you come along at the end of it and say that we have to pay for our own medals. Sure that is mickey mouse stuff,” O’Connell remarked. County board chairman Marc Sheehan, in response, said the decision was taken on account of the U19 grade being “effectively a once-off competition”. “We provided the trophies but decided not to provide the medals,” the chairman added. “If [county vice-chairman] Pat Horgan mentioned that at the start of the year, there’d have been no club taking up the option of playing U19,” insisted O’Connell. “How do you expect to run a board like that? It is an absolute disgrace. Some of the players may never win a county medal again. There is no excuse for this.”  Elsewhere at convention, a detailed breakdown was provided of the €1.6m spend on Cork’s inter-county teams. Catering and players’ travelling expenses came in at €362k and €341k respectively. Gear was another sizable expense, totalling €392k. Physio, masseuse, and nutrition hit €152,000. The bill for medical expenses and supplies was €145k, while costs associated with strength and conditioning, and facilities reached €129k. “The cost of running teams is constantly increasing and the expectations are ever increasing. What’s exceptional this year becomes normal next year,” said treasurer Diarmuid Gowen. Although the board took in €1.5m in club gate receipts, €214,161 from that pot was paid back out in club team expenses. Cork is the sole county who pay their clubs a 7.5% cut of the gate for games they play in. For the second year running, the board received an anonymous contribution of €150,000. More in this section