An initiative involving Mayo County Council and the Mayo County Board has resulted in a funding boost for the GAA.

Two more full-time football coaches have been added to the Mayo County Board staff after the Mayo County Council gave its GAA counterparts €30,000 in funding and this figure was matched by the county board.

There are now six full-time football coaches working in the county and Mayo GAA chairman Mike Connelly told the Western People that they needed to act as they were losing numbers to other sports.

"There's been a huge shift in population from rural areas to urban centres and we found that we had some schools getting the same amount of hours coaching and others getting very little," said Connelly.

"We're up against other codes soccer, rugby and we can't stand still. If we don't do something they will - and they'll be eating into our pie."

The team of coaches are to be divided into regions around the county, which will be based on population, rather than divisional boards.

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