Motion to modify Mayo junior club championship shot down at Mayo GAA convention

A motion to modify the ‘exclusive’ junior football died on the floor of the Great National Hotel in Ballina when it was overwhelmingly rejected by delegates at Mayo GAA’s annual convention.

The motion, tabled by Westport, was the only one of nine motions defeated by a vote at last Thursday’s convention following vocal opposition from several clubs.

The motion would see the winners of the Primary Junior A Football Championship - composed entirely of secondary teams - qualify for the following year’s exclusive junior championship on a one-year basis.

Willie McDonagh, the Westport delegate, argued that the current system did not allow the Primary Junior A champions the chance play against tougher opponents the following year.

Bernard Treacy from Castlebar Mitchels - the only other club to voice their support - said his club had won the old junior championship four times in 50 years and argued that Westport motion was ‘not a threat’ to junior clubs. 

The club’s motion met major pushback, including from Ballycroy and Bonniconlon, who were among fifteen first-team sides that contested this year’s Mayo Junior Football Championship.

Ballycroy’s delegate, Michael Gallagher, said that Westport’s motion, though ‘made with the best of intentions’, would ‘destroy’ the junior championship.

Bonniconlon’s delegate, Anthony Egan, said that allowing second-string teams from senior clubs to compete in the junior championship would turn the competition into ‘a farce’.

Paul Hunt, Chairman of Claremorris GAA, received a round of applause when he said it wouldn’t be fair if Claremorris were allowed to contest the junior competition with ‘four or five’ senior players who were injured the previous year.

Achill delegate Paul McNamara and Eastern Gaels delegate Michael Murphy also voiced their disapproval with the motion.

All but a handful of delegates voted against the motion when it was put to a vote by a show of hands.

Four of the remaining eight motions were referred to Mayo GAA’s Competition Controls Committee.

This included motions supporting the introduction of twelve-team league divisions, the playing of senior and intermediate championships on alternative weekends, the U-21 club championship being played earlier in the year and concluded within six to seven weeks, and adult club championships commencing no later than 14 days after the All-Ireland final and completed within 12 weeks.

Mayo GAA’s Coiste Bord na nÓg also had a motion passed that would mandate every club fielding at U-12 to have at least one full member who has completed the online Go Games referee course.