This article is from page 77 of the 2011-07-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 77 JPG
CLARE All-Ireland winner Jim McInerney used the platform of last Thursday’s special county board meeting to lower his blade into the workings of the Central Council.
In a hard-hitting statement, McInerney, a Munster and All-Ireland winner with Clare in 1995 and who led Tulla to their historic county championship success in 2007, lambasted the Central Council for the way its management of inter-county fixtures is impacting on the club scene.
“I think it’s a scandal as Munster champions we don’t know when we’re playing our All-Ireland semifinal,” said McInerney in reference to the fact that Clare won the Munster final on July 10, but had to wait until two weeks later to know when they would be playing their All-Ireland semi-final.
“It’s not good enough. It is typical of Central Council and how they’re running their show and what they’re doing to club hurling and football. I think as a county we should go national on this. We should highlight this.
“We are Munster minor champions and we should be the curtainraiser to Tipperary who are Munster senior champions. We should be the curtainraiser to Tipp, irrespective of who we are playing. It would solve a lot of problems,” McInerney added.
It was only decided after last Monday All-Ireland quarter-finals – Kilkenny v Waterford and Galway v Antrim respectively that Clare would be in All-Ireland semi-final action on Sunday, August 7.
The decision was annoucned by Central Council after a meeting of the CCCC on Monday morning.