By Jackie Cahill

One of the USA's leading GAA officials has called on Croke Park to introduce a full-time administrator for North America.

Liam Moloney, a native of Ardfinnan in Tipperary, is the current secretary of the North American Board and believes that the time has come to establish a newly-created full-time position to deal with the huge workload involved.

Moloney was part of the welcoming party which greeted the fourth O'Neills/TG4 Ladies Football Allstars tour to San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon.

The scene is set for Saturday's exhibition game between the 2009 and 2010 selections at Treasure Island, while a tournament involving local and visiting teams will also take place.

Moloney said: "It's busy out here and at some point, we'll have to establish a full-time administrator.

"When you're doing it on a voluntary basis, you don't have the time to do the job as well as you'd like.

"We would hope that a full-time position will be created.

"There is a full-time secretary in Australia and in a number of counties back home."

Moloney also revealed that the North American board has joined forces with the Munster Council to undertake a major coaching and development initiative in the area.

Former Kerry football manager Pat O'Shea and the GAA's National Director of Hurling Paudie Butler were recent visitors to the US and the first overseas referees tutor was certified in Chicago a month ago.

Moloney, who was one of the founder members of the Sean Treacys club in San Francisco, explained: "We're working towards self-sufficiency.

"We're twinned with the Munster Council for coaching and development purposes. Before, we would call them up, they would send two people out, run a course and then go back.

"But the new Munster Council chairman Seán Walsh is very pro-active on this.

"In San Francisco, it is estimated that over one-third of the participants in Ladies Gaelic Football in the three local Ladies Football clubs - Saoirse, Fog City Harps and Clan Na Gael - hail from a non-Irish background."

Moloney also indicated that overall numbers of players competing in Gaelic Games are holding steady. He said: "The numbers coming out from Ireland have dropped a bit but the girls tend to promote it a bit better among the Americans than the men do.

"The men are starting to do it but the women have been ahead of them in this regard for a good ten years.

"They do promote it very well and it's more of a social thing as well. The difference in ability wouldn't be as important - it's more inclusive."

Moloney added: "There are the three Ladies Football clubs in the San Francisco area, another two in Southern California, and a fairly big club in Seattle.

"What you generally get are the college students who spend the summer in America. We get a lot of them here in San Francisco but also in San Diego and the more traditional American centres like Chicago, Boston and New York."

On Saturday, San Francisco officials and the North American board will once again showcase the fantastic facilities on Treasure Island.

"It's great because it gives us a chance to show the people back home what we're doing here.

"For a lot of people back home, all they ever heard about was the money the county lads used to get when they took off for the summer.

"But on Saturday, you'll see the kids out here playing and an awful lot of them are American. It gives them a chance to get out there on the big stage."

Moloney arrived in America in 1994 when he followed a former roommate over from London. Working in the construction business, Moloney admits that times are tough but he remains positive about the future.

He said: "It seems to be bottoming out. I'm optimistic - you have to be. I would say that if the construction side of things pick up, you would see a lot more Irish showing up here.

"But they do face problems with legality and status and that makes it a little bit more difficult for them. Hopefully they can sort out something between the Governments.

"What you do tend to have are more of the younger, professional lads, college-educated. They're on H1 and J1 visas from multinationals. That suffered a bit too with the economy in the last year but there were quite a few coming out to work for financial and software companies." Tweet

Most Read Stories