With his five year term coming to an end, Patsy Dolan gave his final Chairman’s Address to the delegates at Monday night’s County Convention.
Reflecting over his tenure at the helm of Fermanagh GAA, Dolan stated that he felt it was in a stronger place now than when he took the reins.
“Five years ago when I took over we were in a very difficult place financially. I am pleased to report that thanks to our clubs, our sponsors, Club Eirne and supporters we are better off now than five years ago,” he said.
Club Eirne’s input last year of £107,000 has played a part in allowing Fermanagh to begin to plan for the future instead of treading water and Dolan praised the fundraising groups contribution.
“Club Eirne under Ger Treacy has grown from strength to strength. Ever since the formation of this funding group many years ago we as a county have been able to develop many projects to improve our standard. The current group continues that pledge.”
He stressed though that investment is needed in the training facility at Lissan.
“Lissan is, and has been, I would say, the best investment this county board ever made. It provided to us a training facility which at the present time requires more investment to meet the needs of overuse. Some remedial work is required on pitches, at least one extra pitch is required and more changing facilities are also required. This can be met within the confines of the existing structures,” he said.
The Chairman went on to warn that referee availability in the county is at ‘crisis point’ and that clubs risks forfeiture of home games if they don’t provide the minimum requirements.
“I warned earlier this year that availability of referee’s is at crisis point. Again tonight at County Convention I say it again, for us to continue coverage of games with referee’s then all clubs must provide a minimum of two active personnel to referee for your club available on a weekly basis. Failure to supply will, I imagine, have to be penalised with forfeiture of home games in all competitions.”
On this year’s county action, Dolan touched on the ‘fiasco’ in Catlebar when Fermanagh went down to Mayo after a late penalty was awarded to the Westerners following what appeared to be a dive by Aidan O’Shea. Dolan also feels that the black card has had its day.
“Referees are assessed on nearly every outing, by who, some of us could ask. Linemen and umpires are wired up, for what? Cards were introduced to improve our games yet are invariably used sparsely it seems or only by some which has caused nothing but confusion to players and supporters alike. I would suggest we get back to basics in our game. For my part, the black card has been tried and failed. When I watched a prominent referee being assessed by a past referee who has officiated at a much lower level I questioned the whole ethos of positive assessment and referee development,” he stated.
Dolan finished by giving the seal of approval to the new Chairman Greg Kelly.
“ I wish Greg every success in his term. No better man could lead the association in Fermanagh,” he concluded.