Kerry Ladies busy planning for 2008

The Kerry Ladies Football board are already gearing up for the season ahead as they look to secure a sponsor for their 4 Intercounty teams for 2008.

Speaking  earlier this week the Ladies P.R.O Kevin Casey who is spearheading the sponsorship drive explained the Board’s  current situation :

“Our three year deal with Kerry Group expired last month so we are currently talking to a few interested parties. Kerry Group to be fair have been very good to us in the past and obviously we are hoping that they will stay on board with us, but at the end of the day we’ll be looking to put in place the best package we can from our point of view”.

The Ladies board have taken note of developments from over the border where earlier this year Cork attracted construction giants CastleLands as their main sponsor to the tune of €100,000 over a two year term.

Kerry who enjoyed a decent level of success at underage level with two of their four  sides ( U-14 and U-16) contesting All Ireland semi-finals this year, hope the season ahead will be a turning point for their flagship side, the senior Intercounty team.

It’s a point the P.R.O concurs with “ There’s no point saying otherwise but the senior side badly underachieved this year, while reaching the semi-finals of the league looked like we might be turning a corner our subsequent failure to make the quarter finals of the TG4 All Ireland series was simply not acceptable. The players know that and are extremely dissapointed but you can be sure that they along with Robbie Griffin and William O’Sullivan will be looking to make amends in a big way in the year ahead”.

“ What should not be forgotten is that we played Cork off the Park for 50 minutes in Beaufort and that four point loss was as near as any side got to Cork all year. Sarah O’Connor was unavailable for that game so you always wonder what might have been, the players are definitely there. Look we’ve Geraldine O’Shea going for her 6th Allstar next week, Grainne Ni Fhlartharta should also be in contention and would feel right to be aggrieved for not receiving a nomination. Mags O’Donoghue, Caroline Kelly, Katie Kenneally and Patrice Dennehy are all class players so I’ve no doubt good things like ahead for this bunch of players”.

But does the Glenflesk man feel they will find a sponsor who’ll invest €50k in the County teams?

“Well, I believe we should be getting at least €40k as at the end of the day you have 4 county teams that encompasses 120 players. The Kerry brand is always highly sought after and any potential sponsor will receive huge coverage both locally and beyond. We have gotten plenty coverage on Radio Kerry all year. Raidio Na Gaeltachta are helping out with our awards night in a few weeks time and have spoken on several occasions with Robbie Griffin and the players during the year. Indeed the new National station Newstalk 106fm did a half hour special on the senior team earlier in the year.”

“Aside from that, all the local papers have given both the County sides matches and the local championships  extensive coverage and TG4 will broadcast Kerry games in the year ahead while Setanta sports always airs several underage competitions, such as the Feile event in Leitrim this year which Southern Gaels won so overall it’s a very attractive package for anyone who’s intersted in talking to us.”

“It costs over €130k to run the Ladies County board on an annual basis so we need a figure of €35-€40k to ensure things are done properly. At the moment we have over 100 players in development squads right from the  U-12 agegroup up to the Minor grade and this all costs money. We’ve love to look at Summer camps as well but funding is something that is needed for all these projects. The numbers continue to grow within the County playing Ladies Football and beyond so as we saw with the U-14 and U-16 County sides this year if we can nuture these players, we can indeed bring back the glory days for Kerry Ladies Football” concluded Casey.