Convention nominations now known

IN the wake of Tuesday night’s County Board meeting it has been confirmed that club delegates will be asked to vote on two executive positions at the County Convention.
The County Convention, hosted by the east divisional board on December 7 next, will see two elections take place. Both Ger O’Connell (Pallasgreen) and Eamonn Phelan (St. Patrick’s) have been nominated to run against current public relations officer Helen Cross (Ahane).
Meanwhile there will also be an election for Limerick’s two Munster Council delegates. County secretary Mike O’Riordan and Rory Kiely represented Limerick at provincial level this year. Mr. Kiely will not run on this occasion since he has been nominated to take over from PS O’Riain on the GAA’s Ard Comhairle.
While Mike O’Riordan will be in the running again this term the Kilmallock man will be challenged by Oola’s Denis Holmes, Mungret’s Donal Fitzgibbon, Eddie Wade (South Liberties) and Patrickswell’s Oliver Mann - five candidates contest two seats.
Development officer Eibhear O’Dea has decided to step down from his position for personal reasons, but there will be no election to replace Mr. O’Dea since only one candidate was nominated to replace him, namely Tim Ryan (Crecora).

Minor management
The minor hurling management team was ratified at Tuesday night’s meeting - Ger Hegarty (manager) will take charge while he will be joined by selectors Brian Begley, George Lee and Paul Flynn. It was also announced that a round robin under-17 inter-divisional series of games will be introduced (first round on October 31) in an effort to identify talent for future minor hurling teams. The respective divisional boards will be responsible for managing said teams.

Minor hurling final
The minor hurling final between Kilmallock and Na Piarsaigh has been fixed for Wednesday, October 21 at 7.30pm in the Gaelic Grounds.
Kilmallock are favourites to win that decider. They beat Bunoke Gaels (2-15 to 0-9), Pallasgreen (3-20 to 0-5), Na Fianna (2-20 to 0-7) and Patrickswell (3-16 to 1-9) while they also lost to Mungret (0-12 to 2-11) during the round-robin phase of the competition.
In the semi-finals Kilmallock beat Adare comprehensively - 1-12 to 0-6.
Meanwhile Na Piarsaigh beat Newcastle West (1-28 to 1-3), Doon (3-13 to 2-15), Claughaun (1-17 to 1-3) and Adare (2-16 to 2-11) during the group phase, but required a replay to see off Patrickswell in the semi-finals.
It is hoped that a scheduled round of the Dr. Harty Cup, which has also been fixed for October 21, will not hinder the Na Piarsaigh players’ preparations for the minor decider - six of the panel play for Ardscoil Ris.

Football manager
Last Wednesday night’s (October 7) Football Board meeting was hastily called off after Newcastle West’s Billy Lee decided, for personal reasons, not to let his name go forward as a potential county under-21 manager.
The Football Board are now attempting to source another candidate who will also act as a selector with Mickey Ned O’Sullivan as the Kerry man prepares for a potential fifth consecutive year in charge.
Once the Football Board have settled on a candidate he will then by forwarded, along with Mickey Ned O’Sullivan’s management team, for ratification by football club delegates and subsequently by the senior board.

County finals
The excitement is building on Shannonside ahead of this weekend’s county senior hurling and football finals. The county football final, which was abandoned last weekend after a severe injury to Thomas Cahill (Fr. Casey’s), has been re-scheduled for this Saturday afternoon (Gaelic Grounds, 4.30pm) when the defending champions Drom-Broadford will face off against Fr. Casey’s at the Ennis Road venue.
Meanwhile, on Sunday at 3.30pm, the Gaelic Grounds will also host the senior hurling decider which pits three in-a-row chasing Adare against Na Piarsaigh who are appearing in their first-ever senior final.
Patsy Coffey (Cappamore) has been appointed to referee the senior hurling final. This represents Patsy’s first final and he is a son of the famous Jimmy Butler Coffey who won a senior hurling All-Ireland medal with Tipperary in 1937 and a minor one in 1930. Jimmy also won two county senior titles with Ahane in the 1940s and will be celebrating his 100th birthday on October 26.
In another exciting departure Sunday will see a plaque unveiled in the honour of the great Mick Mackey (Ahane) at 1pm in the Gaelic Grounds. The unveilling will be performed by Jimmy O’Gorman, chairman of the Munster Council. Also during the half time interval of the senior hurling final the 1984 All-Ireland winning minor hurling team and their selectors will be paraded before the crowd.

Camogie All Stars
The nominations for the 2009 Camogie All Stars in association with O’Neill’s were announced on Tuesday with Ahane’s Niamh Mulcahy nominated for a spot in the half-forward line. Cork dominated the nominations with 12 potential award winners while Kilkenny received 11.
The winners will be announced at a gala banquet in the Citywest Hotel, Dublin on Saturday, November 7.

GPA Awards
Although both John Galvin (Croom) and Johnny McCarthy (St. Kieran’s) were nominated for All Star awards neither player has been nominated for the 2009 Opel GPA Football Team of the Year - the GPA nominations were announced earlier this week.

Brian McDonnell