Board meet on disputed report

MAYO FOOTBALL: THE COUNTY board meeting to consider the report of the Mayo Strategic Report Committee is to take place on Thursday of this week.

The report has already caused controversy with its implicit criticism of the board’s failure to reveal financial details to the Finance and Funding sub-committee of the MSRC.

The recommendation that the report be accepted or rejected as a whole has been seen as provocative in some quarters and there is a distinct sense that the wide-ranging proposals do not enjoy support at official level.

Liam Horan, chair of the MSRC, said it had been hoped that the report would be debated at a dedicated meeting of the board.

“It’s not for us to dictate when meetings of the county board take place but we would have hoped that the report would be given a thorough airing and not be taken as it is scheduled, well down the other business on the clár.

“It would also have been helpful if someone from the committee was allowed to present the proposals.”

One of the sub-committee members, Connacht rugby player and former Mayo minor Gavin Duffy, spoke of his involvement in the MSRC on local radio.

A key recommendation of his sub-committee is the establishment of a Mayo Gaelic Football Academy.

“The reason I got involved is that I feel hugely passionate about Mayo. Stephen Rochford (chair) of the sub-committee “Bridging the Gap – Bringing Through Our High-Potential Players” approached me and that’s an area I’ve a big interest in, having been a minor in 1998 and ’99.

“We were hugely disappointed to lose the (All-Ireland) final in ’99, but I haven’t seen too many of the guys come through and I thought there was a lot of talented footballers there.

“It has been seen in the past 10 years that Mayo have brought through a lot of good minor teams and the same could be said about under-21 teams, but, unfortunately, we don’t seem to be consistently attaining high levels of performance at senior level senior level and I suppose that was one of the reasons I jumped at the chance to get involved.

“We went into all levels of professional sport such as Australian Rules. Pierce Hanley’s experience out in Australia was also tapped into and my perspective from Connacht rugby, such as academy teams to help bring through our own home-grown talent. . .

“Connacht rugby has had success in the past few years doing that.”