Garnish re-grade, as Urhan are now the only junior A team in Beara

GARNISH’S decision to re-grade to junior B this year leaves only one team in the 2020 Beara junior A football championship.

Urhan, who beat Garnish in the 2019 divisional final to win the title for the first time since 2015, are now the only junior A club in the Beara division.

It appears that Urhan will now go forward as the Beara junior A representatives in the county series without playing a championship match.

This scenario highlights why Beara GAA has undertaken its strategic review, says Jim Hanley, who was returned as chairman at last week’s board meeting.

Hanley had to step down as chairman at the end of December’s Beara AGM because in 2019 his club, Bere Island, didn’t field a team and it meant, technically, it wasn’t a member of the GAA.

That meant Hanley was ineligible to continue as Beara chairman, but he put his name forward this month and he was the only nomination by clubs for the position.

This will be his third year as Beara chairman and he is also one of the driving forces on the division’s strategic review committee that also met earlier this month to discuss the findings, and put together a set of draft recommendations, from the original public meeting in October.

‘When you see the situation with Garnish asking to re-grade to junior B, it highlights again why we are doing this review. There is an uncertain future and we need to have a united Beara and we need a united plan going forward for the division,’ Hanley explains.

‘At the strategic review meeting, we went through each proposal in more depth and we’re at the stage now where the proposals will be ready for the clubs in the next week or two.

‘They will go to the clubs and at the next Beara board meeting in February, hopefully we will get the clubs to ratify the document as a set of proposals to help Beara GAA in the short to medium term future.’

There could be as many as 20 proposals, ranging from straightforward to bigger issues, such as the pressing need for Beara to have their own Games Development Administrator (GDA) to assist clubs in the division.

The Beara GAA Board is also hoping to fill two positions on its top table and is actively looking for an assistant treasurer and a development officer.