THE WINTER holiday for inter-county panels has grown less lavish in recent years, unless, of course, there is some silverware in the cabinet.

All-Ireland football champions Dublin are bound for the Cayman Islands and San Diego next month, while their hurling counterparts Kilkenny are holding off until January to visit Cancun, Mexico.

The Kerry footballers have also bought into this period of austerity.

“This year it was agreed between management, players and county board that the team holiday would be shorter, so the squad are off to New York for five days before Christmas, instead of a longer holiday in January,” said Kerry County Board chairman Jerome Conway.

“This was for financial reasons and also Jack (O’Connor) wants the squad to start training on January 1st so as to put in an early start as we have Dublin first in the NFL this year (at Croke Park). It was all thrashed out and I must say it makes perfect sense from a financial and a training point of view.”

Some other counties are also being rewarded for successful campaigns this year. Ulster champions Donegal, minus Kevin Cassidy, are off to Florida next week, while the Dublin hurlers are bound for Las Vegas.

Conway, the county’s outgoing chairman, went on to note how the county board has dropped expenditure on their intercounty panels while conscious not to let it impact on preparation.

“When times were good, people were inclined to spend accordingly but we in Kerry have endeavoured to cut back our expenditure, particularly in the training of teams, without in any way impinging on their preparation.

“I must say that we had great cooperation from the management of the teams and they have cut back on medical bills and such items without affecting preparation.

“Thankfully we have managed to keep expenditure under control but unfortunately this year, our gates at county championship games are down considerably and you don’t expect that.

“Then we had expenditures that we were not planning on, such as legal costs of court actions but hopefully, that will not always be the case.

“We have an intercounty panels committee here in Kerry where the players, management and county board officers all sit down at the start of the year and plan what the year is going to be like and the demands that are likely to arise on funds. So they have all bought into the idea that if you spend with one hand, you got to claw it back with the other.”

Meanwhile, there was mixed reaction yesterday to the unveiling of the new Kerry GAA crest.

The change was a result of the county board not having the copyright for the previous crest.

“Unfortunately we did not own our crest and therefore could not register it and that enables individuals and companies to use it without recourse to the county board,” Conway explained.

“So we thought it would be better if we designed a new crest so having spoken to the design gang here in Tralee, we asked them to design a new crest, keeping the traditional look while at the same time coming up with a new look, and I think this new crest has a clean, sharp and contemporary look about it.

“We have it registered and we are moving forward with this and people from now on will require permission from the county board before they can use it. I suppose from a commercial point of view, there will be some monies for the board to be made particularly around All-Ireland time.

“I don’t have an estimate on how much it will generate, but as the time goes on, it could be quite substantial, as we will have our own shop in the proposed new Kerry GAA museum in Killarney.”

Mary Johnston, a graphic designer based in Tralee, designed the previous version, on the request of the county board, for the centenary celebration of the founding of the GAA in Kerry in 1988. The round tower, the harp and the wolfhound have been replaced by a number of other symbols representative of Kerry.

The Kingdom is represented by a crown, while Skellig Michael is evident along with a red deer, a ship with a Celtic Cross on its sail, a bird in flight and a woodland fern.

“It’s gonna take a while to get used to I think!” tweeted Kerry’s 2010 football captain Darran O’Sullivan yesterday.

The colours on the crest, are green, gold and blue for the sea.