GAA clubs discuss relegation decision at meeting in Dunsany

Published: Thu 28 Jan 2016, 10:44 PM

Last updated: Thu 28 Jan 2016, 10:48 PM

Delegates from Meath GAA clubs attended a meeting in Dunsany GAA clubhouse tonight with one item on the agenda – the relegation measures that were sanctioned at a Co Board meeting two weeks ago at which not all clubs were present.

Tonight's meeting was chaired by Paddy McConnell from the Bective club who described his concerns to the Meath Chronicle after the meeting ended.

“This is about rural GAA clubs in Meath and it would be the intention to appeal the decision to introduce the block relegation that was sanctioned at the January Co Board meeting,” he commented.

A committee was formed and a meeting will be sought with the Co Board Management Committee as soon as possible.

The committee that was formed comprises: Paddy McConnell (acting chairman), Michael Heery, Brendan Lynch, Peter Collins, Malachy Plunkett, Peter Mooney, Jim Condra, Ciaran Flynn.

There was a good discussion at the meeting and many of the officials present felt that it was unnecessary to relegate so many teams from the JFC and that the matter needed further consideration.

Two weeks ago delegates at the first Co Board meeting of 2016 sanctioned some radical changes to the format for the 2016 club championships with three teams set to face the drop from the SFC, five teams will be relegated from the IFC, seven from the JFC and nine from the Junior B with a number of play-offs in each of the grades to determine which teams will makde the drop.

There was a separate vote on each championship grade with the proposal to reduce the SFC to 16 teams for 2017 and relegate three teams this year carried by 31-24 votes – a total of 55 votes.

There was support for change across all the other grades, but there was only 48 votes cast in the decisions to change the IFC and JFC with the votes as follows: IFC (33 in favour and 15 against); JFC (27 in favour and 21 against).

In the Junior B only 46 votes were counted with 29 in favour and 17 against while the Junior C and Junior D proposals were unopposed.