Connacht Centre of Excellence

[Cosmo Kramer]

€10 million and not a handball alley in sight...

Have you looked at the plans? There are three handball courts and a wallball court shown.

The more I read the replies to this thread the more I can see that lads from other counties are desperate to take pot shots at this project purely because its being built in Mayo and not in their county. But at least check your facts first.

[SLIGONIAN]

€10 million and not a handball alley in sight...

Have you looked at the plans? There are three handball courts and a wallball court shown.

The more I read the replies to this thread the more I can see that lads from other counties are desperate to take pot shots at this project purely because its being built in Mayo and not in their county. But at least check your facts first.

Cosmos you should be a politician, as your spinning this to suit your agenda. Im just going to repost Neilthemac post IN FULL and not just take the ONE snippet out thats incorrect,

€10 million and not a handball alley in sight...

it'll be used mainly to play:
colleges games
3rd level games
primary school blitzes

I cannot see who will train there:
Mayo teams?

all the other counties are developing centres. the money from Croker was meant to help clubs. if that means county teams will have somewhere to train and play challenge games and save the club pitches up and down the country then that is money well spent. but i do not know who will use this Prenty Palace. its like some Nicolae Ceauşescu would have built in Romania back in the day to demonstrate his largesse and greatness

The CC is a dicatatorship and prenty is man running the show, Mayo might get fair play in Connacht, and you only have to look at the ruling on ardnaree, bellaghy and ballaghdereen to see it blantantly abused, but Sligo, leitrim and Roscommon dont get fair play too often on/off the field in connacht so its a familiar trend to us. Just dont expect a mayoman to ever have a fathom of understanding where we are coming from when the shoe is never on the other foot. When have mayo ever been robbed, on/off the field in Connacht? I feel prenty has robbed Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon of valuable funds.

[stephenite]

€10 million and not a handball alley in sight...

Have you looked at the plans? There are three handball courts and a wallball court shown.

The more I read the replies to this thread the more I can see that lads from other counties are desperate to take pot shots at this project purely because its being built in Mayo and not in their county. But at least check your facts first.

Cosmos you should be a politician, as your spinning this to suit your agenda. Im just going to repost Neilthemac post IN FULL and not just take the ONE snippet out thats incorrect,

€10 million and not a handball alley in sight...

it'll be used mainly to play:
colleges games
3rd level games
primary school blitzes

I cannot see who will train there:
Mayo teams?

all the other counties are developing centres. the money from Croker was meant to help clubs. if that means county teams will have somewhere to train and play challenge games and save the club pitches up and down the country then that is money well spent. but i do not know who will use this Prenty Palace. its like some Nicolae Ceauşescu would have built in Romania back in the day to demonstrate his largesse and greatness

The CC is a dicatatorship and prenty is man running the show, Mayo might get fair play in Connacht, and you only have to look at the ruling on ardnaree, bellaghy and ballaghdereen to see it blantantly abused, but Sligo, leitrim and Roscommon dont get fair play too often on/off the field in connacht so its a familiar trend to us. Just dont expect a mayoman to ever have a fathom of understanding where we are coming from when the shoe is never on the other foot. When have mayo ever been robbed, on/off the field in Connacht? I feel prenty has robbed Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon of valuable funds.

Sligonian engages in mind games in lead up to big match to try and stir a bit of trouble, 'they're all agin us lads!! '

Amatuer attempt but 7/10 for effort

[magpie seanie]

€10 million and not a handball alley in sight...

Have you looked at the plans? There are three handball courts and a wallball court shown.

The more I read the replies to this thread the more I can see that lads from other counties are desperate to take pot shots at this project purely because its being built in Mayo and not in their county. But at least check your facts first.

Well you mustn't have read the replies so. People are against it because its unnecessary and the money could be spent far better elsewhere. The location doesn't really come into it but with the man at the helm that we have in Connacht it was only going to be in one county.

[Lar Naparka]

Now, now, seanie, you are being unreasonable here.

People are against it because its unnecessary and the money could be spent far better elsewhere.
Unnecessary??
Back In 20012, Galway won the AI, Mayo won the national league with four Connacht sides contesting the semis and Ballina won the club AI. By any standards, Connacht football was in fairly good condition back then.
What has happened in the interim?
At senior IC level, Conor Mortimer and Alan Dillon won All-Star awards in 2006 and, in the 8 years, 2002-2009, no other Connacht player has been deemed good enough to merit one. By my calculations, out of a total of 120 possible awards, Connacht managed to snag a grand total of 2!
Is the state of Connacht senior IC football as strong, relative to the rest of the country, as it was back in 2001 or is it slipping further and further behind the rest? I'll leave that for you, or better still Sligonian, to answer.
There was a brief mini-renaissance of sorts in the mid-noughties when Connacht counties won a brace of titles at club, u21 and minor levels but that was about the height of it.

and the money could be spent far better elsewhere.
Pray tell me where.
This is how John Prenty described the proposed facilities:
The centre will feature six outdoor GAA pitches, a 900-seater stand on the main pitch, a state-of-the-art indoor pitch, gymnasium, and related facilities.
The same man went on to state:
"What it will be is an add-on to what counties have," he said. "Each county needs their own training centre but there are parts of this centre, like the indoor pitch for instance, that make more sense to have in a central provincial location rather than the counties each having them. The counties can use these facilities in addition to their own."

Now, what problems, if any, do you find with either statement?
Do you think it would be prudent and responsible to divide the funds being allocated by HQ so they all can continue on their merry ways and come up with their conceptions of what a centre of excellence should be? They have has sweet damn all success in doing so so far and I can't see any of them being any more successful if they managed to siphon off funds from the GAA to aid and abet them further.
Look at the scandalous waste of money and resources involved if each county went its own way—not to mention the duplication of fitness trainers ,dieticians, clerical staff and other back up personnel.
The location doesn't really come into it but with the man at the helm that we have in Connacht it was only going to be in one county.
Now, if the man in question is John Prenty, he should have known that Bekan is more accessible to all parts of Sligo and Roscommon than it is to dozens of Mayo clubs from Newport to Ballycroy. You can throw in large chunks of Galway and Leitrim while you are at it.
With regard to the same decent individual, all I usually hear from posters from other counties here is a litany of moans, insinuations and innuendos about his character and modus operandi; I have still to come across a single instance of alleged wrong doing that comes within an asses' roar of solid fact.
I am quite prepared to be corrected on this and the other points I have made but I won't be holding my breath to wait for sensible replies.
(Naturally, that excludes Sligonian!)

[Westie]

This is a disgrace this centre. Mayo should have their own centre as should the other counties. This is for no one. I am a Sligo man, went to school in Mayo and would go out there. This is not anti-Mayo believe me.  Just split the 10m 5 ways and all the counties are taken care of. It is a vanity project for the head from Ballyhaunis. Who is going to use it. We have a Handball club, hurling, and football. New centre for handball in Colloney, football and hurling in Strandhill, why would we go to Ballyhaunis. The poor souls in Glenamoy, Bellmullet, even Ballina would be quicker getting to the one in Sligo(trust me I know the mileage to both places). 
This is not an anti-Mayo thing. If it was in any of the counties I would argue against. Let the counties look after their own. The fact is it is time to be rid of the provincial councils, but that is just my opinion.
I filled in as such on the connacht council website more than a year ago and I have not seen any report since. It has come up at the last number of Sligo county board meetings but we are being spun a tale there. It is going to be a waste of money for Connacht but some of Mayo will gain by it.

It is a disgrace, and I know it did not come before the Sligo board for approval, which is why there is fanciful tales now.

[magpie seanie]

Lar - I'm not being in the slightest bit unreasonable. I'll take your points in order. I'll assume you're not on the wind up.

The first thing you talk about is the relative strength of Connacht senior intercounty football. I assume you are implying that having this centre of excellence is somehow going to improve that? Maybe you'd like to expand on that because I can't see the link. There's nothing to suggest this provincial centre is necessary.

You've proved my point with your words taken from Mr Prenty - "What it will be is an add-on to what counties have," he said. "Each county needs their own training centre but there are parts of this centre, like the indoor pitch for instance, that make more sense to have in a central provincial location rather than the counties each having them. The counties can use these facilities in addition to their own." Let's build the county ones first before we worry about "add-ons" to quote Mr Prenty.

Next you seem to argue against counties having their own centres. Is that your position? This is a direct contradiction of Prenty's statement above which you seemed to support.

Lets now deal with your stoic defense of Mr Prenty. Are you convinced of what you wrote? Seriously? If you are then you are clearly in the category of believing what you want to believe. My opinion is based on many things the foremost of which is personal experience. Plenty of solid facts for those who wish to listen. You can choose to believe that or not but to dismiss the anit-Prenty comments as you did is plainly ridiculous.

The mask slips then at the end where you say you won't be holding your breath for sensible replies. What an insulting attitude! It's clear you don't want any replies, sensible or otherwise, as your mind is closed.

[SLIGONIAN]

Now, now, seanie, you are being unreasonable here.

People are against it because its unnecessary and the money could be spent far better elsewhere.
Unnecessary??
Back In 20012, Galway won the AI, Mayo won the national league with four Connacht sides contesting the semis and Ballina won the club AI. By any standards, Connacht football was in fairly good condition back then.
What has happened in the interim?
At senior IC level, Conor Mortimer and Alan Dillon won All-Star awards in 2006 and, in the 8 years, EOH in 2002-2009, no other Connacht player has been deemed good enough to merit one. By my calculations, out of a total of 120 possible awards, Connacht managed to snag a grand total of 2!
Is the state of Connacht senior IC football as strong, relative to the rest of the country, as it was back in 2001 or is it slipping further and further behind the rest? I'll leave that for you, or better still Sligonian, to answer.
There was a brief mini-renaissance of sorts in the mid-noughties when Connacht counties won a brace of titles at club, u21 and minor levels but that was about the height of it. Whats your point, Galway have gone miles backwards since 2001, we had a good 2002, but I think we heading back strong again and we have by far the worst training facilities at present

and the money could be spent far better elsewhere.
Pray tell me where. on our own facility Lar
This is how John Prenty described the proposed facilities:
The centre will feature six outdoor GAA pitches, a 900-seater stand on the main pitch, a state-of-the-art indoor pitch, gymnasium, and related facilities.
The same man went on to state:
"What it will be is an add-on to what counties have," he said. "Each county needs their own training centre but there are parts of this centre, like the indoor pitch for instance, that make more sense to have in a central provincial location rather than the counties each having them. The counties can use these facilities in addition to their own."Yes this makes sense in a way, but he is justifying 10million for a indoor pitch, remember he said the main use would be the college fixtures as the CC have a hard time finding pitches for them

Now, what problems, if any, do you find with either statement?
Do you think it would be prudent and responsible to divide the funds being allocated by HQ so they all can continue on their merry ways and come up with their conceptions of what a centre of excellence should be? They have has sweet damn all success in doing so so far and I can't see any of them being any more successful if they managed to siphon off funds from the GAA to aid and abet them further.
Look at the scandalous waste of money and resources involved if each county went its own way—not to mention the duplication of fitness trainers ,dieticians, clerical staff and other back up personnel.
The location doesn't really come into it but with the man at the helm that we have in Connacht it was only going to be in one county.
Now, if the man in question is John Prenty, he should have known that Bekan is more accessible to all parts of Sligo and Roscommon than it is to dozens of Mayo clubs from Newport to Ballycroy. You can throw in large chunks of Galway and Leitrim while you are at it.
With regard to the same decent individual, all I usually hear from posters from other counties here is a litany of moans, insinuations and innuendos about his character and modus operandi; I have still to come across a single instance of alleged wrong doing that comes within an asses' roar of solid fact.
I am quite prepared to be corrected on this and the other points I have made but I won't be holding my breath to wait for sensible replies.
(Naturally, that excludes Sligonian!)

Some in bits in bold above my reply aswell, The location doesnt come into for us either. Its just not needed. Galway have far better training facilities than us, but yet we beat 3 times at u21 and won a senior connacht, never been much between the minors, I mean using your logic that shouldnt happen. Connacht is too big for this to be feasible.  Provincial centres over County centres is just plain stupid. Get the County centres up first then if there is a surplus maybe go ahead with Provincial. IMO its the Sligo and Roscommon talking all the sense here, the mayolads is just typical ignorance as usual. Take yere heads out of yere arses.

[Lar Naparka]

Lar - I'm not being in the slightest bit unreasonable. I'll take your points in order. I'll assume you're not on the wind up.

The first thing you talk about is the relative strength of Connacht senior intercounty football. I assume you are implying that having this centre of excellence is somehow going to improve that? Maybe you'd like to expand on that because I can't see the link. There's nothing to suggest this provincial centre is necessary.

You've proved my point with your words taken from Mr Prenty - "What it will be is an add-on to what counties have," he said. "Each county needs their own training centre but there are parts of this centre, like the indoor pitch for instance, that make more sense to have in a central provincial location rather than the counties each having them. The counties can use these facilities in addition to their own." Let's build the county ones first before we worry about "add-ons" to quote Mr Prenty.

Next you seem to argue against counties having their own centres. Is that your position? This is a direct contradiction of Prenty's statement above which you seemed to support.

Lets now deal with your stoic defense of Mr Prenty. Are you convinced of what you wrote? Seriously? If you are then you are clearly in the category of believing what you want to believe. My opinion is based on many things the foremost of which is personal experience. Plenty of solid facts for those who wish to listen. You can choose to believe that or not but to dismiss the anit-Prenty comments as you did is plainly ridiculous.

The mask slips then at the end where you say you won't be holding your breath for sensible replies. What an insulting attitude! It's clear you don't want any replies, sensible or otherwise, as your mind is closed.

Fair play to you, seanie; I didn't have long to wait for a reply in your case.
I just might have been trying to get a response from somebody else- if you can follow me.
BTW; there was nothing of a personal nature intended when I quoted you- it was more a case of, "Good God, even seanie is at it now," than anything else.
To begin at the end as Irish people tend to do, I am not stoically defending John Prenty from anything. The man is surely entitled to his good name unless and until he proves himself to be unworthy of it. Anything otherwise is a misuse of the right to freedom of expression.
I am not dismissing any anti-Prenty sentiments expressed here or elsewhere and I have never doubted your sincerity here or before now but what I've seen from anybody to date are subjective opinions and not solid facts.
As you will recall I imagine, a fair bit of horse trading went on between the various county boards and council members before the venue was finally selected. That's the nature of Connacht GAAA politics and is to be expected. However, Bekan was the location selected.  I doubt if the fact that it is very close to the geographic centre of the province came into the reckoning. Of far more strategic importance is the fact that Bekan lies within easy reach of three of the major roadways in Connacht.
If a centre is to be built, it would be illogical to situate it anywhere else.
For anyone to suggest that John Prenty manipulated proceedings in order to get Bekan selected on grounds other than location implies that all of his CC colleagues are pawns in his hands. That may appeal to many but I'd like to have proof before I'd go along with it.
Now, I think I've already given sufficient reasons why Connacht needs a common centre of excellence and why the CC is to be commended for taking the initiative and deciding to build one somewhere. You have only to look at the national returns over the last 8-9 years or so to see this.
I certainly am not suggesting that the reported €10 million allocation should be split five ways so that each county can go its own way but that is far from saying that counties should be discouraged from improving their own facilities; could any county fund a full-size indoor playing pitch out of its own resources-even with a once-off €2 million handout?
Surely all counties could find better value for their own monies that paying for facilities and back up that will be available to all.
All in all, my mind is far from closed but I would need facts not gripes to make me change it. I would also like someone, anyone, to explain to me how the mere fact than Bekan is physically in Mayo will give that county and extra claim to its use than any of the other Connacht counties. (Sligonian, this includes you!)

[muppet]

Look the simple fact of the matter is that counties should have their own centres before you go down the route of contemplating provincial ones. I really don't see the point of it. It's a complete joke. No sport facility is a waste of money but the money could be spent so much better whatever the amount.

These are team games. The teams involved are in competition with each other, in some cases they involve the most important rivalries for each team. The whole idea is competition, not co-operation. I don't think this was thought through.

And as an aside is it just me or would others feel extremely uncomfortable spending an organisation's funds in a manner that could easily lead to suggestions of favoritism? Or am I just not cut out for politics Irish style?

[magpie seanie]

Lar - thanks for that reply. I wasn't sure where you were coming from with the earlier one but I see now. We just disagree on a few of the fundamental points. That's ok.

Your arguments on the location at Bekan are red herrings as far as I'm concerned. If I thought it was a good idea Bekan is probably as good a spot as any to locate it and geographically Mayo is at the centre of the province so its logical it should be in that county. Trouble is I don't think its a good idea to do this before all counties hae their own facilities up and running.

Anyway - I think I've made my points, as has Lar.

[Farrandeelin]

Go on Sligonian, tell me the ruling on Ardnaree?

[SLIGONIAN]

Nothing more too say farran.

I have the exact same opinion as westie and seanie and the rossie lads. I think weve made ourselves very clear. The ignorance on the mayo side never ceases too amaze me.

[ludermor]

Nothing more too say farran.

I have the exact same opinion as westie and seanie and the rossie lads. I think weve made ourselves very clear. The ignorance on the mayo side never ceases too amaze me.

9.06 pm . The 24th Of May 2010. Sligonian has nothing more to say. I never thought i would see the day.

[Peter Solan the Great]

Any update on the Connacht center of Excellence Has construction started?