THE AMOUNT of walkovers declared at GAA club games in Donegal has risen by 400 per cent in recent years.
Concern has been raised at the heightening figure, which stood at a startling 76 across the nine Divisions of the All-County Football League in 2016.
The Reserve Leagues were the worst hit with Division 3 Reserve seeing 22 of the 90 scheduled fixtures decided by way of walkovers.
“This has continued the bad trend of last year, which is a grave and concerning development,” Edward Molloy, one of the fixture planners in the county, reported to last Sunday’s annual Convention in Donegal town.
“Considering that this is an increase of 400 per cent over some years not long ago, this is a worrying aspect of our games programme.
“The main area for games not taking place was in reserve football which showed 49 of the fixtures or 16.9 per cent were not played.
“The reasons for this: Emigration, the fact of the underage rule not allowing to play adult, or could it be the lack of interest at playing our National games?
“Either way, we must do everything in our powers to strive to keep the playing of our games – which is such a vital factor to all involved in the Association.”
The total breakdown for the number of walkovers awarded by League in 2016 was:
Division 1 – 1 out of 90 scheduled games
Division 2 – 3 out of 90 scheduled games
Division 3 – 8 out of 90 scheduled games
Division 4 – 10 out of 72 scheduled games
Division 1Reserve – 12 out of 90 scheduled game
Division 2 Reserve – 12 out of 90 scheduled game
Division 3 Reserve – 22 out of 90 scheduled game
Division 4 Reserve – 3 out of 20 scheduled game
Division 5 – 5 out of 30 scheduled game
Although the fixtures revealed were high in the extreme, the Donegal County Chairman, Sean Dunnion, expressed his dismay that clubs chose to miss the chance to address the matter last month.
“Not one club brought in a motion for discussion at the fixtures meeting in November,” he said.
“The opportunity has been missed for 2017. It was very disappointing that clubs didn’t take up the opportunity to sort something out in reserve football.”
