Provincial council give Mayo deadline for plan

THE Connacht GAA Council are “beginning to lose patience” over the delay in completing the Mayo GAA Strategic Plan, according to its secretary John Prenty.

The Ballyhaunis-based official said Mayo’s plan should have been finished “at the beginning of 2010”.

The Connacht Council expect to have “almost a final draft” presented to them when the five western county GAA secretaries meet provincial officials next month.

In an e-mail sent on Wednesday, Mayo secretary Seán Feeney gave clubs two weeks to submit ideas for the plan, in order to meet the May deadline. It’s now almost 18 months since club officers and delegates first put forward suggestions for the plan at a county forum in Castlebar.

At that meeting, it was envisaged that the document would be ready for the December 2009 county convention. Some clubs also contributed to the review of Mayo GAA headed up by journalist Liam Horan following last year’s championship defeats by Sligo and Longford.

Horan’s committee have made a number of controversial recommendations, including the establishment of a full-time commercial director and an audit of the county’s finances.

Mayo chairman Paddy McNicholas says that while some of their suggestions are contrary to GAA rule, “70%” will be incorporated into the board’s own plan.

Explaining that the deadline for completion of the Strategic Plan “has been extended several times”, John Prenty said: “We’re beginning to lose patience.

“There is a template that has to be adhered to and we’re waiting for that to happen … This thing should have been put to bed at the beginning of 2010.”

Noting that the Leitrim plan is already “written and being implemented”, Prenty said the deadline for the other four Connacht counties is the secretaries’ meeting next month.