Tuohy stresses need to develop pitches and players

The upcoming merger of the GAA with the LGFA and Camogie Association will increase the need for a Centre of Excellence and other playing surfaces, the Chairman of the County Board has said.

In his chairman’s address, Seamus Tuohy said work has been ongoing in acquiring the necessary grass pitches at Mulvey Park and discussions have been ongoing between Mayo GAA, the county council and the OPW.

“Hopefully we will be in a position early in the new year to get that agreement to contract stage,” he said.

He said in light of the amalgamation between the sporting bodies, Mayo GAA needs to move towards acquiring a green field site for a centre of excellence.

Mr Tuohy said an economic impact study, initially proposed by his predecessor Liam Moffatt, was carried out by the Chairde Maigh Eo group to look at the economic value of Hastings Insurance. MacHale Park. A case study carried out on the Mayo versus Donegal Super 8’s game at MacHale Park in 2019 generated €1.5 million to the local Castlebar economy.

“This highlighted the value of this pitch to the region,” he said.

He said the report also highlighted the lack of playing facilities for the GAA and sporting bodies.

“There is a need for additional facilities to meet our current demands but also with the pending amalgamation with the LGFA and Camogie Association, the situation is deeply concerning if there is not major investment by our political leaders and by Croke Park.” The Chairman hit out at ‘unhelpful comments’ made regarding the pitch at MacHale Park but admitted that ‘selfish decisions’ had to be made regarding its use.

“Concerns and some unhelpful comments regarding the surfaces of MacHale Park were made earlier this year. A programme of works was put in place and our pitch has really come on in the past 12 months.”

“The level of use needs to be continued to be managed, especially during wetter months. In order to give our resurfaced pitch to have opportunity of growing and maturing, some selfish decisions had to be made in curtailing our games programme.”

“There is no reason why the playing surface MacHale Park can’t be considered by our players to be the best they’ve played on.”

He said there will be a be heightened focus on the use of strength and conditioning in the development of young players for the Mayo Senior team. He praised the management of the senior team for a solid first year in charge.

“Kevin McStay has laid a solid foundation in his first year as Mayo senior manager going into his second year,” he said.

However, he said it has been identified that young footballers have not been exposed to sufficient levels of S&C training. It is now a key objective to ensure that all senior footballers undergo an individual training programme. These programmes began last month.

He added that they are now in the advanced stages of an U19 development squad programme. This will help players transition from U17 to U20 football and help to build agility and strength to improve on-field performance, ultimately creating a pipeline of players for the senior team. He said that good work is being done in the Mayo GAA Academy.

Mr Tuohy said that the U20 team had a disappointing season but he believes that the round robin format of next year’s competition will help this group of players in their development.

“We continue to push forward the development pathway of our players.”

In addition, 11 new coaches have been recruited under the Club Development Officer programme conducted in association with Connacht GAA.

He acknowledged the ‘mixed response’ to this year’s Mayo Senior Club final between Ballina Stephenites and Breaffy and said that players were not to be blamed, as they go into games following a specific gameplan. He added it was important to remember how big an achievement winning a county title is for any club.

Mr Tuohy hailed the coming together of Kilfian and Lacken in the Junior A Championship as a positive move for both clubs. Northern Gaels have reapplied to compete in the Junior Championship again next year.

“The voice of the GAA volunteers has been listened to,” he said.

Mr Tuohy said that the future of hurling in the county looks promising with the emergence of a number of junior clubs in recent years. He said the amalgamated club of St Ciarans, which brought seven of the county’s junior clubs together to play in the senior championship was ‘a major success.’

He welcomed the launch of a new Mayo GAA website, which was conducted by PRO John Walker later that afternoon, as well as the launch of Beo Mayo, a website of historical records related to Mayo GAA.

In conclusion, the chairman said that there is a lot to look forward to in 2024 in terms of Mayo football and there will be new challenges and opportunities.