Banner Ladies' Football Club Secretary and Clare County Board PRO Paul McKenna has stated that he will be appealing to the "Munster Council's better judgement" over the decision to exclude the Clare senior champions from competing in this year's Munster Intermediate Club Championship. The issue has risen after the Clare champions had been scheduled to play their provincial opening round on Saturday, October 3, despite the fact that the champions would not be know until the following day (October 5) when Banner Ladies and West Clare Gaels played out the county decider. However, Munster Ladies' Football Secretary, Marie Halvey, has accused the Clare County Board of "not getting their house in order" as the final was supposed to have been played by September 14, and said she had informed the Banner board that the Clare champions had to be know by this date back in mid-July. "Clare would not tweak their dates," Halvey told the Clare Champion newspaper. "Mr McKenna is very quick to put pen to paper. The bottom line is that Clare did not comply with the request that went out," she added. "Cork were playing in junior, senior and intermediate grades at county level. Yet their intermediate club football champions are playing Munster championship next Saturday," she stated. "I feel very sorry for the players but the Clare County Board didn't get their house in order," she added. In his letter to Marie Halvey, Paul McKenna aired his concern for the state of the game of ladies' football in the Banner County if the champions were not let into the provincial intermediate championships. "Both Clare finalists, the Banner Gaels Ladies and West Clare Gaels, have been excellent ambassadors for the sport of ladies' football both in Clare and nationally and to summarily dismiss their chance to play in the Munster Club Championship, is short-sighted in the extreme," he wrote. "You may wish to quote a rule that has been transgressed in eliminating both clubs from the competition but in doing so, you have chosen to apply the letter of the law. Neither the clubs involved nor the Clare County deliberately transgressed any rule and to then apply this ultimate sanction is without doubt a decision to detriment of ladies football as a whole," McKenna added. "As has been already outlined by the Clare Ladies' Football Board, exceptional circumstances prevailed which forced the delay of our Clare county senior championship final. That the Munster executive is not willing to grant a one-week postponement date of the fixture of October 4 is most disappointing and will I fear have far reaching negative repercussions for the future of ladies' football in Clare," he stated. McKenna went on to reveal that he would be launching an appeal to the provincial body in the hope of getting the ruling overturned. "Even at this late stage, I am appealing to Munster Council's better judgement to have this decision overturned and the Clare representative club team allowed to participate in the Munster club intermediate championship," he revealed. "There's no favours to anyone. End of story," Halvey responded before concluding by citing Rule 344. Tweet

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