Merely surviving as a senior or intermediate club is not ok - Devane

Tipperary County Board Chairman John Devane isn't backing away from his desire to get the games structures right in the county.

In completing his first year as chairman, the Boherlahan-Dualla described it as “an eventful year”, both at club and inter-county level.

However, the meaty part of his address was on the continuing quest to improve the fixtures structure in the conty which he said is “seriously flawed.”

“I'm convinced that with teams playing in a championship that they are competitive in, playing in a set format, we can get a system that will be of benefit to all,” he added.

“Now I hear a lot about the inter-county scene taking over the prime summer months and leaving the clubs on the fringes, but ever before this new round robin format was even considered, we in Tipperary had a championship with too many teams playing an uneven and irregular number of games, leading to mismatches and mediocrity.

“If many clubs survived at senior or intermediate level, it was seen as ok. But it's not!

“We in Tipperary have fallen behind our competitors in many ways and if there's one motivation for me in my role its to try and provide a proper structure to our competitions. I know that many people will not agree with my views and I can accept the will of the majority. But please make the decisions based on fact and what is right, not what's best for me and my club right now. Or even worse, because this is the way we've always did it and it has served us well when clearly it has not.”

 

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