Greg Kelly urged clubs to make an effort field in the Erne Cup.
At Monday evening’s county board meeting a number of recommendations from the Devenish and Enniskillen clubs were deferred for decision until the February meeting.
This was after some discussion had taken place on the Devenish recommendations to tweak the size of line-outs that could be fielded in Erne Cup competitions.
Devenish were suggesting that Erne Cup be 13 or 15-a-side by agreement but if both teams had a panel of more than 17 players it would be compulsory to play 15 aside.
Speaking on the proposal Devenish delegate Brendan Gallagher said his club had on occasion found it difficult to field a full side.
“There are dwindling numbers, not just for our own club but for others,” said Gallagher. “There were occasions when we had to field players who had retired and overall we feel that this recommendation would not have a huge effect on most games. However by having it in place it would mean that some games that might not be played would now be played.”
Some concern was expressed from the floor that if the recommendation was accepted clubs might use it tactically.
There was general agreement that there was a serious problem with unplayed fixtures in Erne Cup and Brookeboro’s Gerry Boyle touched on the suggestion that having double fixtures on the one day be looked at as a solution.
Greg Kelly noted that last season (2014) two clubs had not fielded an Erne Cup team and two others had experienced great difficulty in doing so.
“I would urge those four clubs to make every effort to field a side this season as I believe it is vital for the future well being of the club,” said Kelly.
It was also pointed out that CCC would be looking in depth at the problems associated with Erne Cup football and would be in contact with clubs with a view to having some concrete ideas for the February meeting.
In the light of that it was agreed to defer the Devenish motions and also the Enniskillen Gaels proposal that semi finals in Divisions 2A and 2 B be removed.
Ticket proposal defeated
A proposal from the Erne Gaels club that clubs get an additional All-Ireland football and All Ireland hurling final ticket for every 30 games refereed by club referees before August 31st each year was defeated.
Treasurer Patricia Durnien said there was a limited number of All-Ireland tickets allocated to the county and that there was a possibility that the scheme if introduced could result in quite a large number of those tickets having to be re-allocated to referees. After a brief discussion the recommendation was defeated.
Motion on minor training
More successful was the Devenish proposal that county minor training did not take place at the same time as adult competitive fixtures.
Coaching officer Deirdre Donnelly was critical of the proposal and said that it was essential that clubs do more, “To protect their players from burn out. At the moment young players are just being abused and we should not have a situation where a minor player is deemed essential to a senior club side.”
Notwithstanding that contribution the recommendation was carried.