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Andy Williams

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Peter O'Neill Won't Seek Second Term As Laois GAA Chairman

Wednesday, 20 October 2021 07:00

It brings an end to his tenure which began in 2017.

Peter O'Neill is set to bring the curtain down on his 20-year association with Laois GAA in the coming weeks. 

He won't be seeking another term as chairman at the upcoming county convention. 

O'Neill was elected to the top job in Laois four years ago, replacing Gerry Kavanagh. While chairmen are allowed to serve a period of five years, the Portlaoise man is citing his belief that a three-year term is more conducive to success in the role.

During his time at the helm he's overseen an uptick in the fortunes of hurling in the O'Moore county with the Joe McDonagh Cup success and All-Ireland quarter-final appearance as well as a mixed bag of results in the football sphere. 

On his decision, O'Neill says:

I think anyone that knows me when I started, I was going into a three year project. 

I said I would dedicate three years to Laois because of the amount of work that is involved and you have the drive and enthusiasm for the work. 

Get in, get as much as you can done and go. 

After the three years we're in the middle of covid and following discussions with the executive i agreed to stay on for another year to bring a couple of thins through and I think we've got to that place now. 

I enjoyed my term, I'm very busy work wise with different things going on and it is time consuming but I don't regret a minute of it to tell the truth. 

Everything that I'm involved with I'm enjoying doing with the clubs and the executive. We had some very good times coming through there, it's a real team effort. 

I really enjoyed working with the players in both hurling and football, winning the Joe McDonagh cup, going from division four to two and holding that status until that blip last year. I've no doubt we're going to rise again in that off the back of two Leinster final appearances at U-20 level where we came up against two magnificent Dublin teams. 

Off the pitch we completed the Centre of Excellence which is one of the best in the country.

I don't take the credit for that Gerry Kavanagh started it off and I carried it on. The new floodlighting and biodiversity, there's nearly €500,000 gone into that and we have a fantastic stadium. 

There's been a few things in the pipeline that we didn't complete that will hopefully be finished in the coming year. Our patch of astro-turf, ball wall and exchange of seating in O'Moore Park. 

I think we've manage to develop what was there, we've good structures in there at underage level with the strength and conditioning. It has worked fairly well but there's still an aeful amount of work to be done.

Going forward, we're due to get eight additional GPOs which will bring up the number of coaching staff to 11, which is fairly high for a county with a population of roughly 65,000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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