Bord na nOg Convention

The Annual Bord na nOg Convention was held on Thursday night in Nowlan Park.   Chairman John Byrne, Bennetsbridge, addressed delegates as he headed into his 4th year in the role.   Mr Byrne highlighted the success in the minor championship of the Kilkenny Hurlers and also believed their 10 game run to the final versus Galway’s 4 game run was something that should be looked at, a sentiment echoed by Central Council Delegate Ned Quinn later on in the night who thought it wrong a team could lose 5 games at minor level and still be All-Ireland championship. The run to the U-14 Tony Forristal Final also boded well for the future and showed the huge effort that has being going into the development squads for the last number of years. He also lauded the efforts of all involved and complimented his fellow officers, reserving special praise for his secretary – Willie Dempsey & the evergreen Joe Pyke.  The Bennetsbridge club man pointed out that 37 of the 43 competitions were completed thus far with the remaining 6 due to be completed in the coming days. A particular delight for him was seeing so many different winners in 2018 and country teams being so prominent at Roinn A level.  Mr Dempsey then addressed the meeting admitting that the year for Kilkenny had shown huge promise where Brian Cody’s men went down gallantly to eventual winners Limerick. His personal highlight was the success of the Kilkenny Footballers and Christy Walsh whilst he also noted the continued work at all schools levels and at squads level. The Thomastown Club man detailed all the new changes that were implemented for 2018 and urged all clubs to play fixtures on time as players do not request changes – its clubs. A particular problem during the year was the new inter county minor format which caused problems throughout the year and he thanked clubs for their understanding as it was the first year of the format.   In his report Mr Dempsey also stated he was unhappy over was the new Arrawbawn format which again took an extra weekend of fixtures off clubs but also led to a situation where Kilkenny as defending champions were not allowed to retain their title surely, a first in the GAA – what compounded matters further was whilst Limerick took on teams in a neutral venue in Carlow, Kilkenny were forced to take on Cork, in Cork with a team of Cork officials. All this with only a couple of weeks notice. He finished his speech by looking forward to Kilkenny’s re-introduction to the Leinster Minor Football Championship in 2019 after the huge work taken by DJ Carey and his football management team in the last 3/4 years which has seen a panel of 43 players developed and competed well in the Manning Cup.   Treasurer Ray Byrne gave a comprehensive account of the financial affairs of the Bord for the year and thanked clubs for making their grounds available during the year. He had praise for those who did gates during the year and for Joe Pyke who continued to liaise with the sponsors. The Glenmore noted a clean up operation of trophies would continue into 2019.  Jimmy Walsh (Chairman), Conor Deniffe (Secretary), Barry Hickey (Treasurer) & Ned Quinn (Central Council Delegate) all addressed the meeting.   There was a number of recommendations centreing around football and Chairman John Byrne promised to bring those sentiments back to the first meeting of the year whilst also pointing out home and away arrangements may have to be implemented in championship games going forward.   Elected OfficersChairman: John Byrne (Bennetsbridge)Vice Chairman: John Reid (Dunnamaggin)Secretary: Willie Dempsey (Thomastown)Treasurer: Ray Byrne (Glenmore)PRO: Pado Flynn (St Martins)Registrar: Mary Fitzgerald (Tullogher Rosbercon) Get Outlook for iOS