NEW ROLE Damien Gavin.
Daniel Carey
Castlebar
DAMIEN Gavin was officially ratified as Mayo minor football manager at last Wednesday’s County Board meeting.
Mayo GAA Board chairman Mike Connelly said that Gavin was the candidate recommended by the interview committee, and that he was thus being nominated by the executive. He was proposed by Anthony Egan (Bonniconlon) and seconded by Richard Cosgrove (Kiltane). Martin McIntyre, Tomás Morley and Paul Jordan were the unsuccessful candidates.
While Gavin’s back-room team weren’t mentioned at the meeting, the official @MayoGAA Twitter feed confirmed that the Swinford man’s selectors are Brian McLoughlin (Burrishoole), Pádraic Costello (Ballinrobe) and Michael Doocey (Cill Chomáin).
In answer to a question from Ollie Dillon (Ballintubber), Connelly said the interview committee members were ‘Ronan Kearns, Pat Fallon, Dermot Butler, Kevin O’Toole and a HR man from the ESB’ [Gerry Gallagher].
South Mayo GAA Board chairman John Farragher wished Damien Gavin well, but added: “In future, before key appointments are made or names are put forward for manager, the county executive should be notified … The crows on the road knew before the county executive – and that’s not acceptable.”
Asked by James Waldron (The Neale) whether members of the executive had met Mayo senior football team manager Stephen Rochford, Connelly told delegates: “Well, we’ve had … one discussion with the manager. We haven’t sat down and gone through in detail. I suppose we’re giving him a bit of breathing space because of his own personal circumstances, but we’d hope to get that done in the next couple of weeks.
“Our plan is to have everything agreed before January 1, because we do have to have the charter sent ... We’ve had some preliminary discussions in certain areas.”
Meanwhile, coaching officer Pádraic Carolan revealed that the inaugural under-17 competition ‘will run alongside’ the Connacht Senior Championship, probably starting with the Sligo game in May.
“We’re not allowed to start training until April 1,” said Carolan. It’s going to be run by academy coaches. We may have trials during the mid-term in February.”
JP Coen was officially ratified as Mayo senior hurling manager.
Gavin officially gets minor job
