MIKE FINNERTY
MAYO manager John O’Mahony has voiced his dissatisfaction with proposed GAA regulations that would restrict the dugout to five specific people - the manager, physio, doctor, County Board Secretary and the “runner”.
“All these regulations have been handed down with no consultation,” O’Mahony told The Mayo News last night. “I suppose, in one way, that issue doesn’t apply to me as I wasn’t involved in management last year, but I can see where the managers are coming from in that regard.
“There’s a lot of anger out there at the moment. From our point of view, for example, Kieran Gallagher and Tommy Lyons would be up in the stand during matches. It goes against the tradition of management teams being on the line together. The feeling that came out of Sunday’s meeting was that there would have to be changes or compromises to the proposals.”
The Mayo manager was among twenty-nine football and hurling managers and selectors – representing about 20 different inter-county management teams – that turned up in the Mullingar Park Hotel last Sunday evening to discuss the recent disquiet over the match day regulations which were approved at a recent Central Council meeting.
All those present agreed that they would speak with their respective County Boards and ask them to formally approach GAA authorities in an effort to examine the proposed changes.
“If these rules aren’t changed you’d have a situation where you wouldn’t be able to consult your selectors and that’s not an ideal situation,” added O’Mahony. “Somebody has suggested the possibility of using head-sets but if your team was under pressure in the second half I have a feeling that there would be plenty of advice for the selectors coming from supporters up in the stand. Most grounds are just not suitable for this kind of initiative.”
MEANWHILE, Mayo GAA Board Chairman James Waldron admits that the response to an appeal for submissions on proposals to revise the Senior Leagues has been positive writes Edwin McGreal.
It is two weeks since the County Board Delegates meeting which saw the proposals from the special Task Force Committee receive mainly negative feedback from the club delegates present.
Waldron called a halt to the debate and asked clubs to submit their own ideas for changes and admitted he was pleased with the level of the response.
“We’ve got quite a few contributions,” Waldron told The Mayo News on Monday. “Sean (Feeney, County Secretary) will be sorting through them tonight and the lads (Task Force Committee) might be meeting later this week yet.
“Everyone got the chance to speak at the County Board meeting two weeks ago and it was great that views were aired. It really focused everyone’s minds that we can’t allow what happened this year happen again. What will happen from here is that the review committee will decide on which proposal they think is the most suitable. That proposal will be put before the delegates at the next County Board meeting sometime in January.”
The Task Force was set up to address difficulties that were being encountered with the current league structure which sees a handful of games from the 2006 season still to be concluded with one game – the Division 2 clash of Knockmore and Tourmakeady – provisionally fixed for Christmas Eve.
