‘The only time you beat Carnacon is in the boardroom, not on the football pitch’

Former Mayo ladies football selector Michael McHale has said that there were some delegates of the Mayo Ladies County Board that had not consulted their clubs before voting Carnacon out of the 2018 Mayo senior club championship.

McHale, who left the Mayo intercounty panel earlier in the summer alongside fellow selector Denise McDonagh and 12 members of the playing squad due to player welfare issues, said that delegates voted independently and in some cases against members within their own club. "How could they vote on something like that without consulting their clubs?" asked McHale. "I know for a fact that there's people involved at clubs in Mayo ladies football that wouldn't agree with that at all. There's delegates in there voting and when all is said, the only time you beat Carnacon is in the boardroom, not on the football pitch. "The delegates voted on it and the county board meeting was full last night from what I was told. We didn't know it was happening but of course obviously we found out by the end of yesterday. "If you do have to vote on something go back to your club and find out and agree on it before a delegate votes on something. I know one club member that was distraught about it and their club person seconded the motion. "The clubs don't know what's going on, it's the delegates that know what's going on." The Connaught Telegraph reported that the decision to throw the Carnacon senior team out was made under rule 288 which relates to bringing the game into disrepute during the saga over some of their team members withdrawing for the county senior panel last month. The reasons given by the players was that they had player welfare issues and personnel reasons were also cited. However, McHale states that the Mayo walkout stemmed from issues of player welfare and that now personal reasons are being cited since the original decision. The ex-selector would not reveal what those issues were while the WGPA said that they were aware of the matter at Carnacon but were still trying to gather information on how the decision was made.