Blake puts his name forward for role as county board PRO

Adrigole man announces he is interested in position

THE first hat is in the ring for the position of Cork County Board public relations officer as Joe Blake of Adrigole has announced his candidature.

With the three-year term of current PRO Donal Leahy set to end at the county convention, there has been speculation as to who will be in the running to carry on his good work and Beara man Blake has taken the first steps.

In his first year as the Beara divisional PRO, Blake is also a county board delegate for his club and is a member of the county board PR committee. He served as secretary of Adrigole from 2012-14 inclusive and then, after a year as assistant secretary, assumed the role for an additional year in 2016.

The last three county board chairpersons – Bob Ryan, Ger Lane and incumbent Tracey Kennedy – have all served as PRO before going to three years in the vice-chairperson role and then chair.

However, the position of PRO fell out of cycle with chair and vice-chair when Edmond Forrest, elected at the end of 2014, had to opt out after a year due to work commitments. He had won an election against Donal Leahy, Derek Connolly and Cian O’Brien and all three contested the position again in 2015, with Tadhg Mac Cárthaigh clubman Leahy emerging victorious.

Outgoing Rebel Óg PRO O’Brien, of Glen Rovers and St Nicholas, is considered to be among those who may put their names forward for the role. The deadline for nominations in early November and convention takes place at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday, December 9th at 2.30pm.

Meanwhile, a replacement for county board secretary Frank Murphy is due to be announced soon, with interviews having taken place in recent weeks to find a successor to the Blackrock man, who has been in situ since 1973.

The next county board meeting is this coming Tuesday, October 9th, when the special discussion topic will be a review of the 2018 season and how well the fixtures programme operated.

A meeting involving various stakeholders took place at Croke Park on August 29th and all counties were furnished with the information from it so as to provide extra feedback.

One of the things discussed at that meeting was the addition of a week for Munster and Leinster SHC games to avoid counties having to play four weeks in a row and that has been adopted, but the question of abolishing the preliminary hurling quarter-finals – where the third in each province play the top two in the Joe McDonagh Cup – is one being given consideration as the current structure has closed May and June for club championship games.

With regard to the national hurling league, the competitiveness of Division 1A is a subject for debate, with consideration given to have a more even spread across Divisions 1A and 1B from 2020 on, as well as abolishing quarter-finals and a possible later start as a result.

Possible matters for discussion with regard to the football championship include the lack of a reward for provincial champions in the quarter-finals as current set up – the document sent to clubs asks if provincial winners should be at home first.

In addition, the possibility of a second-tier championship, mooted for so long in so many quarters, is also on the agenda.