As you were at top table

JUST three elections were needed to bring together a 2017 county board top table on Monday night.

Two of those votes were for the annual excursions to Congress and Leinster Convention, while the third poll saw outgoing Leinster delegates Declan Byrne and Pat Toner comfortably retain their seats in Portlaoise from David Rogers.

With 126 delegates registered, Byrne returned 59 and Toner 45, with challenger Rogers securing 19 votes. Tomas O hEochaidh withdrew prior to the vote.

Clubs also opted to send sitting officers to Congress and Leinster Convention.

The chairman, Des Halpenny, and secretary, Fra Kieran, attend Congress as per rule and Aidan Berrill and Declan Byrne secured the additional two seats for the two-day get-together in Croke Park in February.

There are no free passes to Leinster Convention, but Halpenny, Kierans, Berrill and PRO Bob Doheny were the first four past the post, thus eliminating Aidan Kirk and Paddy McMahon.

The only other changes at officer level saw Perase Og’s Stephen O’Brien take up the Irish Language and Cultural Officer role and there was finally a happy-ending to the long search for a Coaching Officer, with Dreadnots’ Paul Aspell filling the void.

Other than that, it was a case of ‘as you were’, although the role of Development Officer was left vacant after Tomas O hEochaidh stepped down under the five-year rule.

Meanwhile, motions to convention were similarly low-key, with all six proposals coming from the county committee in the form of administrative bye-law changes.

There was some controversy before the motions were discussed as Clan Na Gael’s Aidan Kirk claimed a GAA rule was broken as clubs had not been furnished with the motions or meeting agenda at least seven days before the meeting.

A brief stand-off ensued with chairman Des Halpenny advising the Clans to appeal to Leinster Council if they feel a rule has been broken.

The motions themselves were all passed, including a proposal to change the inter-club transfer window from December to January as of 2018.

There was a large number of motions relating to competitions, with a number of clubs seeking to nail down a player re-grading plan now that a club’s second team can win promotion at the expense of another club’s first team.

As usual, all competition motions were deferred to the new year to be dealt with by the incoming committee.