Super League teams ready for kick-off

Ready for the big kick-off


The 2010 Super League could be a dogfight at the top – and bottom

Preview
Daniel Carey

Ballina Town
Manager Brendan Kenny
One to watch Brendan Giblin
2009 record Winners

“IN any sport, it’s the teams who come back and do it again the following year that you admire.” So says Ballina Town manager Brendan Kenny. “Whether we’re capable of it, only time will tell.”
Town played Shamrock Rovers in a pre-season friendly last month, and will have Levi Tierney at their disposal once he returns from injury in a few weeks’ time. They have lost Michael Knight and Shane Quinn is heading to Canada, but they have enough quality to be considered title favourites.
Praising Davie Nash for instilling ‘belief’ in the players, Kenny now finds himself hoping his side have maintained their ‘hunger and desire’, and can avoid complacency. “We’d like to think that if we don’t win it, the team who’ll finish above us will,” says the manager. He’s probably right.

Ballyheane
Manager Paul Harte
One to watch Matthew Conroy
2009 record Fifth

“IT’LL probably be the toughest season ever,” is Ian Duffy’s honest assessment of the year ahead for Ballyheane. “The way we look at it is every year has been tough enough for us. We’re only a small village, and to get the amount of players that we need is very tough – especially when you lose one or two.”
With goalkeeper SeΡn Fahey taking a step back, Keith O’Malley out injured and a number of players having transferred elsewhere, it’s all change in central Mayo. They have a new manager too – Paul Harte, who has been involved with Strand Celtic, IT Sligo, Merville and Sligo Rovers.
“We’re trying to re-build a new team,” said Ian Duffy. “ It’s time to bring in the youth … We’re hoping as the year progresses, there’ll be a lot more players coming in.”

Castlebar Celtic
Manager Paul Large
One to watch Adam Gallagher
2009 record Ninth

WITH ‘five or six new faces in’, Celtic’s new Super League manager Paul Large hopes the Hoops will be ‘better equipped this year’ than last. Mind you, as he acknowledges, the prospect of four teams being relegated means the league will be ‘much more competitive’ in 2010.
Among the players Celtic have signed are Ballyheane duo PΡdraig Munroe and Martin Roache, Jonathan Maloney from GMIT and experienced right-back Adam Gallagher. Large feels such ‘experienced lads in their 20s’ will help boost his side’s prospects.
“Celtic is still a big scalp that everybody wants to get,” says Large, but although he’s in charge of what’s effectively the club’s reserve team, he’s setting his sights high. “I’m greedy, so I would like to be chasing for something silverware-wise … [and] a cup would be nice.”

Fahy Rovers
Manager John Creaby
One to watch Colin Napier
2009 record Seventh

JOHN Creaby has taken temporary charge of Fahy Rovers, who are facing up to their second season in the top flight.
The club have signed ‘five or six new players’ from in and around the Westport area (no names being disclosed yet!), and the impending return from his travels of Gary Goggins is a further boost. Joe Keane, who gave some outstanding displays at the back last year, is back, as is Colin Napier, fresh from winning the club’s Player of the Year and a Golden Boot performance in the Mayo Masters League.
“Obviously it’ll be a lot tougher this year with four going down,” comments Gerry Kirby. They may not ‘have the ability of some other teams’, but won’t lack fight. They surprised a few people last year. Maybe they’ll do the same.

Iorras Aontaithe
Manager Michael S Togher
One to watch Pat Barrett
2009 record Third

HAVING been over the B team for the last three years, Michael S Togher takes the reins at Iorras Aontaithe and acknowledges that he has ‘big boots to fill’ in replacing Eric O’Reilly. A knee injury will keep the former player/manager out ‘until at least July’, but the promotion of five players from last year’s B panel gives them a squad of about 23.
Though the Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta in June is a potential ‘Achilles heel’, Togher feels the seven dual players will have an ‘extra bit of fitness’ at its end.
“At the start of every season, you want to win everything,” he told The Mayo News. “Giving boys targets of mid-table is not good enough. You have to up there and fighting for some kind of silverware.”

Manulla
Manager Damien Ansboro
One to watch Patrick Canavan
2009 record Fourth

LAST Sunday’s Charity Shield came only five weeks after Manulla’s last outing. So pre-season has been pretty short for a side which played 35 games last year. Still, Damien Ansbro is back at the helm and looking to build on last year’s Chadwicks Cup success.
Goalkeeper James Jennings has returned from Castlebar Celtic, while Alan McHugh has joined from Ballyheane. They’ve lost nobody, and will have Lars Allworthy for a full season in 2010.
“Last year was my first year [as manager] so we had planned to get to one of the cup finals,” he told The Mayo News. “We did that, and we won the [Chadwicks] Cup … [We also hoped to] get away from mid-table and finished fourth ... Hopefully this year we’ll get closer again and try and challenge for the title.”

Snugboro United
Manager Mick Wallace
One to watch David Roughneen
2009 record Eighth

THE main aim is simple, says Snugboro United manager Mick Wallace: finish above the bottom four. Avoiding the drop is ‘going to be a tall order’, the Scot acknowledges. “We could have a better season than last year and still be relegated!”
Snugboro have lost players too – Stevie Gavin has returned to Castlebar Celtic, while Niall Gallagher went to Westport United. But it’s not all doom and gloom – new team captain Dave Roughneen is ‘flying’ in training, while goalkeeper Leo Coyne has been ‘brilliant’ in pre-season games.
The players are putting in a ‘massive effort’, says Wallace, though some of his efforts to sign new guys have been rebuffed. “With the changes in the league this year, a lot of players don’t want to come and be involved in a scrap,” he says.

Straide and Foxford United
Manager Aidan Flatley
One to watch Paul Moran
2009 record Sixth

STRAIDE and Foxford United’s prospects have been transformed for the better by the winter season. It’s been a roller-coaster few months, and next Saturday, they host Galway Hibs in the Connacht Cup semi-final.
“We’re going to have a right shot at it,” said manager Aidan Flatley. “Galway Hibs are a fairly decent team, but if we play to our potential, we’ll have as good a chance as anyone.”
The cup run will also serve as ‘good preparation for the league’, Flatley muses, while the bad weather means the players got ‘a bit of a break’ after Christmas. Youngsters Darren Flatley and Paul Moran have come to the fore, and with Johnny Jordan and Michael Costello still going strong, the manager is ‘looking forward to contesting’ in the Super League.

Swinford
Manager Alan Gough
One to watch Richie Dalton
2009 record Promoted

“THE aim is to try and do our very best to stay up.” So says Alan Gough, manager of Swinford FC, and best known to soccer fans as an excellent former League of Ireland goalkeeper.
Among the newer faces to keep an eye on are goalkeeper Neil McNelis and former Kennedy Cup player Richie Dalton.
Gough wasn’t unfamiliar with Mayo before taking on Swinford. His job takes him to this county; he knows old Mayo League hands like Gavin Dykes, John Clarke and Brendan O’Connor; had ‘a couple of sessions with Westport’ and saw Mayo representative teams when at Galway United.
He knows the magnitude of the task he has taken on, particularly since four teams are to be relegated. “Obviously, having been promoted, it’s going to a very tough year,” he told The Mayo News. “But the lads working very hard and that’s all you can ask for.”

Westport United
Manager Barry Kilgannon
One to watch Colin Cameron
2009 record Second

WESTPORT United will have much the same squad as last year, but there is a new face at the Sports Park in 2010 – manager Barry Kilgannon.
The Ballina native, who spent the bulk of his playing career in Limerick, is ‘delighted’ with the ‘fantastic’ response he’s got from players since ‘putting my head on the block’ and replacing PΡdraig Burns.
“I’ve big shoes to fill, but so far, so good,” he told The Mayo News. “They’re a terrifically talented bunch of lads, and they just soak up information … these boys would be up to the standard of anything I’ve seen in Limerick.”
The McHale College, Achill principal notes that Westport could find themselves ‘in a transitional phase’, but adds: “There’ll be a number of teams vying for top spot, and hopefully we’ll be amongst them.”