The new Board of the New York GAA got down to business last Thursday night by electing the officers for the senior football division. Mark McAllister was elected chairman while John Twomey comes in as vice-chairman. Seamus McNabb was appointed secretary and John Riordan will be the delegate to the CCC.
There followed a lengthy discussion on a number of issues pertaining to the senior football in the Big Apple. It was generally agreed that New York’s performance was poor both in the Connacht championship and the FBD final. Many of the more accomplished players showed no interest in playing in the FBD, thus making a difficult situation much worse. Currently three names have been submitted for the manager’s position but it was decided to extend the deadline for another week. It was agreed that the senior football division needs to increase the number of teams as there were only six last year, the fewest since World War 11.
Dublin as intermediate winners will be promoted while it is hoped that Down will come back into the fold, thereby increasing the total to eight. The situation regarding Down brought the issue of the draft into the debate. In essence it was the failure of the drafted players to play with Down that precipitated their decline. Thus the consensus was that fewer drafted players would encourage teams to rely more on their own resources as they would seek to establish a stronger nucleus of a team. In addition many delegates thought that clubs were relying too much on the summer players and also incurring considerable expenses, especially in the later stages of the competition. So naturally with fewer drafts and fewer sanctioned students clubs should create more opportunities for players coming from the Minor Board.
The chairman Birmingham had said in his election manifesto that he would like to see a shorter season and many players and managers would tend to agree with him. However it has been pointed out that with the GAA assuming control of the bar and catering facilities, there would also be a substantial increase in the rent, thereby necessitating a need for greater revenue. So judging from the lively discussion at this stage, it is expected that the delegates will be presenting some interesting motions to conventions in the new year. There has also been a change of the guard in the Minor Board. Danny McKenna completed his three year term thus setting the scene for a new chairman. In the race for the top spot Dave McIntyre defeated Dave Kilkenny by 28 to 13 votes. The new chairman is a native of Belmullet, Co. Mayo and he has resided in the Big Apple since 1985. He played with the Donegal club before becoming involved with the Rangers. Currently Dave is very active with Rockland and his children Shane, Conor, Logan and Fiona play at various under-age levels. He sees these as very exciting times for the Minor Board as it continues to expand. He noted that the youngsters love to play in Gaelic Park and with further development imminent, this opportunity should be exploited in an effort to keep more of the older players involved.
The rest of the Board consists of: Denis Twomey(1st V. P.), Rich Corridan(2nd V. P.), Colm McStay(Secretary), Gerry Loane(Treasurer), John McCarthy(Financial Secretary), Tom Kerins(Registrar), Roger Slattery(Sgt. at Arms), Pat Guerin(PRO), John McCormack, Dave Ryan, Paul Moore( Auditors), Eamon Deane, Pat Ryan, Robert Corridan(Trustees), Aiden Traynor(Development Officer,) Eamon Ryan(Cultural Officer), Danny McKenna( Delegate to Congress).
