Standing ovation for Smith

It had threatened to be a fitting end to a black year for Cavan football when the hall at Drumavaddy was plunged into darkness as the ballot papers were being distributed for the second round of voting in the chairman's election. Luckily, the excellent local organisers from the Denn club sprung into action and fixed the problem, allowing the show to go on. While Tom Reilly was lauded from all corners of the room for taking the hot seat, it was the outgoing chairman who drew a rapturous standing ovation following his address. The Kingscourt clubman was a popular chairman during his three years at the helm, as was evident from his successful election as Ulster Council delegate in the final vote of the night, and his touching send-off was as spontaneous as it was apt. Smith spoke for over 20 minutes in his final address. He praised Denn GAA club for hosting the event, 40 years since Fr Owen Collins (current Cootehill Celtic chairman) called a meeting to amalgamate the Crosskeys and Drumavaddy clubs and mentioned the work of Scor, handball, coaching and other committees. The disappointing performances by our county teams including our seniors who "survived in Division Three by the skin of our teeth" and our minors, juniors and u21s who all fell at the first hurdle, drew comment from Smith, who stated that the quick-fix, "sack the manager and his management team" response in Cavan has become "too common". He thanked everyone for their support and insisted that he would "not be lost to the association". "If we are to achieve what we want to achieve," concluded the outgoing chairman, "we have a lot of work to do." Overall, debate from the floor was tame enough. One delegate quizzed county board treasurer Martin Cahill about whether team manager Tom Carr's expenses were included under the heading (all of which were, explained Cahill, pre-ordained by Croke Park) of "players expenses", but that was as far as that went. Later, a Munterconnacht delegate expressed disappointment about a motion changing the format of the All County leagues being included as a recommendation and a lively debate ensued, with some junior clubs seemingly unhappy with the current system. Other than that and a couple of excellent contributions from the erudite Peter Brady (Ballymachugh), there was little in the way of probing questioning from the floor. Treasurer Martin Cahill's report, which, he revealed, was only completed at noon on the day of the convention due to technical problems with the new system, was lucidly compiled once again and gave a very clear picture of the state of the county board finances. And that state is a worrying one. From an operating surplus of €62, 725 in 2008, the board showed a deficit of €64, 817 in the last 12 months, with total income falling from €1,753,912 to just over €1.5m, with the administration of the county senior football and hurling teams coming in at an eye-watering €592, 834, €120 up on the previous year. Cahill warned gravely that expenditure will have to come down. Unfortunately, the suspicion is that that may not be conducive to results going in the opposite direction. Overall, the night will be remembered as a changing of the guard, with Phil Smith passing on the baton to a straight-talking Tom Reilly from the very opposite end of the county. Rumour has it that Reilly was in Breffni Park early on Friday morning, as he had pledged, to get the ball rolling in the new job. The long road to recovery has to start somewhere. Hopefully, to quote Brian Lenihan from last Wednesday's budget, the corner has been turned. Postscript: Best line of the night looked set to be John Paul Feeley's (proposing banning drinking from cups, he explained deadpan that it was because he foresaw a flood of cups returning to Shannon Gaels and Cavan in 2010) until Paddy Sheanon delivered a killer late on. The successful Congress delegate candidate almost brought the house down at the end of the night when he joked that Denn clubman Kieran Callaghan (a well-known electrical contractor) must have "wired the hall", much to the hilarity of the crowd and, to his credit, the vice-chairman himself, who responded with a thumbs-up. A good-natured end to a testing year for Cavan GAA. paul@anglocelt.ie