Former stars, Larry Giles and Tom Darcy ratified as selectors

Former Westmeath football stars, Larry Giles from Coralstown/Kinnegad and Rosemount’s Tom Darcy were ratified as selectors with the Westmeath senior football for the coming season, at last week’s County Board meeting.John Cunningham (Football Board delegate) said that Westmeath manager Pat Flanagan had put forward Darcy and Giles as his selectors, and also Trevor Smullen for the role of physical trainer. The trio were all duly ratified by club delegates.Both Darcy and Giles gave lengthy service to Westmeath as players. Tom Darcy won a Westmeath SFC medal with Rosemount in 1989 while Larry Giles won the same honour with his club in 1996.Darcy had a spell as manager of Ballymore and of the Westmeath junior football team, while Giles has served as manager of Coralstown/Kinnegad.The duo replace Paul Conway (Tang) and David Mitchell (St Mary’s, Rochfortbridge), who served as Flanagan’s selectors during his spell as interim manager, following the resignation of Brendan Hackett.Smullen is a former Longford senior footballer, and he won a Longford SFC medal with Ballymahon in 2002.Westmeath GAA chairman Tom Farrell wished the selectors and the management team well, saying they had a “hard task” in front of them.He also revealed that two separate selectors for the under-21 county football team will be finalised within the following ten days.Meanwhile, last week’s meeting heard that the Leinster Council wants to see more counties enter into home and away arrangements.It was felt that home venues would lead to better attendances and atmosphere at provincial championship games.Ger Carton (Kilbeggan Shamrocks) asked about provincial finals and, pointing to the fact that Westmeath had to travel to Parnell Park for this year’s Leinster U-21 decider, he said all finals should be at neutral venues.Tom Farrell said Tullamore, Portlaoise and Navan have been selected as the three venues for Leinster U-21 finals.Sean Sheridan (Leinster Council delegate) said that semi-finals and finals will be played at neutral venues unless there is an agreement between the counties involved.Joe Martin (Leinster Council delegate) revealed that there is a change to how the ‘back door’ system in the Leinster Minor Football Championship will operate - teams who have already met in an earlier round are to be prevented from meeting again for as long as possible.Mr Farrell said that replays will be played in the event of a draw in finals, rather than extra-time. He said the drop in gate receipts was the reason for this.Lack of stewards at IHC finalJoe Martin said his club, Fr Dalton’s, was “very disappointed” that there were no stewards on duty in Cusack Park on the day of the intermediate hurling final against Delvin.Des Briody (Killucan) said playing the intermediate hurling final on the same day as the All-Ireland senior football final didn’t give the game the respect it deserved. Christy Austin (Clonkill) agreed with Mr Briody’s comments.Mr Farrell said fixtures are a “minefield” and that the County Board is doing its best.County Secretary Pat Lynagh said there was a “decent crowd” at the intermediate hurling final, adding that the fact that it was played at 1pm on the day of the All-Ireland final didn’t take from the occasion.Mr Briody said: “It sends out the wrong message - that it’s not that important, that it can put up against the All-Ireland final.”Pat Lynagh disagreed and said supporters “voted with their feet” and attended the game in decent numbers.Incorrect team listsNed Flynn (Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall) asked if there was any plans to fine clubs who are giving incorrect team information for programmes, and he complimented county PRO Pat Reilly on his efforts to improve matters in that regard.Tom Farrell agreed with Mr Flynn’s view, and pointed to an example of a club who gave a team list which was “completely fictitious”. He said having accurate team lists was even more important now because of the rule relating to the compulsory wearing of helmets in hurling.The chairman said that if teams can get their team lists and numbers right for county finals, there was no reason why they couldn’t get the details correct for other games.U-21 FCThe Westmeath under-21 football championships will start towards the end of October or early November.There will be two separate competitions, a 13-a-side championship and a 15-a-side championship. Clubs can choose to enter the 13-a-side or 15-a-side competition but clubs that amalgamate will have to play in the 15-a-side competition.Clubs were told to apply to enter the U-21 championships as soon as possible.