Feeney: Autumn start too costly

A LEADING GAA official has dismissed calls for a return to an autumn start for the National Leagues claiming such a move would cause costs to spiral for county boards and lead to a congestion of club fixtures.

Mayo secretary Sean Feeney, one of the most experienced administrators in the association, also revealed the inter-county training ban during November and December saves his county in the region of €60,000 per annum.

His comments came in the wake of a Roscommon GAA motion which will be put to Congress in April, proposing that the Leagues revert to an October start, with three rounds played before closing down for the winter break.

However, Feeney has hit out at such proposals. He said: “I think playing matches in the autumn would make fixture congestion worse at club level. At the moment we use most weekends in October and November to run off our club championships without the distraction of the National Leagues. For me, one of the main attractions for starting the leagues in February is that you don’t have club games competing with it. We tend to play a lot of secondary league games and divisional cup matches during the spring that clubs are happy to participate in without their county players.”

The full-time Mayo GAA official also revealed the closed season training ban on inter-county teams shaved around €60,000 in travelling and catering expenses — between senior football and hurling squads — off the county board’s balance sheet last year.

“An average training session, between mileage expenses and catering, costs about €2,000 and a senior team would have roughly two a week. So, from that point of view, if the National Leagues moved to an autumn start you’d be looking at senior teams training collectively for practically 12 months a year. The clash between the U21 championships and the Sigerson Cup is the biggest issue I believe.”

Meanwhile the new Mayo manager James Horan will be trimming his squad down to size next week ahead of the start of the NFL and has called on fringe players to show “how much they want it” next weekend.

Mayo play their final FBD Connacht League group game at Leitrim on Sunday and with almost 50 players competing for 30 spots in the NFL panel, competition for places will be fierce.

“I suppose there are going to be a lot of players who are of a similar level, a similar ability, and what it will come down to is attitude. That will be a significant factor along with desire,” explained Horan.

“I think most people that we can play have had a game (in the FBD League). We’re trying to give everybody a game and a half this month so there are some guys that’ll be starting the next day.

“At the end of January we have to pick a panel so there will be some guys who are borderline, or close calls, so we’ll be playing them as well next Sunday.”

Mayo have used 32 different players during their wins over GMIT and Roscommon over the last two weeks.

However, that figure does not include a cluster of last season’s squad like Aidan O’Shea, Alan Freeman, Kevin McLoughlin and Tom Cunniffe who all lined out with DIT in the O’Byrne Cup, as well as injured regulars like Donal Vaughan, Tom Parsons, Seamus O’Shea and Conor Mortimer.

Plus, Peadar Gardiner, Alan Dillon, Kieran Conroy and Neil Douglas, all of whom were members of Mayo’s championship squad last summer, have been lining out with John Maughan’s NUI Galway in recent weeks.

“There’s a lot of players who are keen, with the changes, the new management,” mused James Horan last weekend.

“It’s all about improvement at the moment. It’s all about development as we try to get ready for the National League and our first game against Down.”

Meanwhile, the Mayo debutant who broke his jaw just five minutes into his first senior game will be out of action for the next 10 weeks. Tourmakeady’s Kevin Dolan sustained the injury after falling awkwardly during the opening minutes of Mayo’s opening game against GMIT 10 days ago.

He will be unable to take part in any contact work until April.