Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
Subscribe Today!
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
KEVIN McSTAY Is the idea of a tight group a thing of the past with some football teams?
STUCK IN TRAFFIC Mayo’s Alex Corduff tries to find some space against Roscommon during Saturday evening’s Connacht Minor Championship quarter-final at McHale Park, Castlebar.
Knowledge is still power
Kevin McStay I DON’T want to hammer a team when they are down but sometimes when they don’t even try to help themselves you are tempted to stick in the boot in an attempt to introduce the reality and serious competitiveness of modern day football. Last Sunday, Roscommon shipped another heavy defeat and this time it was in the championship. The whole country anticipated a Galway win — their odds made them unbackable at 1/10 with Ros’ available at 8/1 as throw-in time got closer. How the bookmakers came up with the derisory 12/1 for the draw escapes me but there you go. Anyway, back to helping yourself. Is the idea of a tight group where everybody looks out for his buddy a thing of the past with some football teams? It appears so and I suppose the texting generation have a lot to answer for. Comparing and listing the names and positions of the team Roscommon announced earlier in the week with the actual line-out that took the field gave a result that surely sets a national record. Only the goalkeeping line (and there is after all only himself!) remained the same — all other lines changed. That is of course, a manager’s prerogative and I have no problem with that except to say, such moves convey a lack of confidence generally and portray a squad that is uncomfortable in its own skin. But the morale within the camp must be low if ALL those changes were allowed into the footballing arena days in advance of the match. Are disgruntled squad members annoyed at their non-selection and as a result, letting the cat out of the bag? And believe me, this is not a problem confined to Roscommon. But it is a poor reflection of a camp that throws away whatever advantage they might get from the changes. Liam Sammon must have been surprised such was the flow of information around the province last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Mayo are obviously a lot better off when it comes to the Official Secrets Act; word of their midweek challenge match in Hyde Park against Offaly did not leak until late in the day. So, is a secret only a secret if you alone know about it? Looks like that. These days of texts and e-mails and mobile phones make the possibility of a ‘match behind closed doors’, well, impossible actually. How does a manager attempt to keep plans close to his chest with all the titbits of information out there? Matters reached a ridiculous level when a texter to Mid West Radio’s ‘Hot Hits Hour’ had his question aired: “Is there anybody out there with any information on Mayo playing a challenge match this evening?” You could imagine a fellow texter, say a guy by the name of ‘Johnno from Ballagh’ contacting the presenter to fill him in on all the details. No better man to fill the information vacuum. All the scores, the tactics, the positional changes, the injuries and the plan for next week! But on a serious note, word did eventually filter through to us about the Mayo versus Offaly game and it helped to while away a pleasant summer’s evening in Hyde Park. And allowed us have a look at Mayo now that the league is out of the way and championship momentum is building. Mayo has a particular difficulty with challenge matches this year. While once we were indeed kings of the challenge match/pitch opening circuit, we must give up our crown this year. Because we are not due to play Sligo until June 22 in Castlebar, every team we face is at championship tempo and beating them is proving difficult. This match followed the trend of recent encounters on the rubber chicken tour and Mayo played in fits and starts. A dreadful opening ten minutes left the Green and Red with too much to do but the second half was an improvement. It was a dreadfully poor game and that is disappointing from the viewpoint of management and players. In essence, it was a wasted evening with a worrying injury to David Heaney adding to the despondency. Challenge matches always pose a particular challenge, if you know what I mean. It is imperative that you ‘sell’ the game beforehand to your players, insist this is not a simple workout and attempt to get a serious tempo into the game. This is not easily accomplished, as most players will know they are there or thereabouts regarding selection and want to stay injury free and under the radar. But if the attitude is wrong you get a wasted evening, usually an injury or two, plenty of frustration from management and players and a larger carbon footprint as the squad drive back to the four corners of Ireland. And still, despite the boring nature of this outing we continue to look forward to the championship opener. We know we are in with a great shout and the Galway win over Ros’ did nothing to frighten us. But first there is Sligo and whisper it, I met a few well-informed Mayo men who are certain the Magpies will put it up to us. Get over Sligo and the Galway match will look after itself. Fail to Sligo and the year is a washout.
Minor system failure
I STAYED away from the next topic despite a few e-mails in the last month or so asking for my opinion. But now that the first games are played allow me a comment; how did the format for the Connacht minor championship pass muster? By now I expect you understand that last weekend’s Mayo and Galway wins really mean nothing, that all four teams remain very much alive and at the same level of the championship. Indeed, you could argue both winning teams are showing their hand early. You might also argue why the big powers should never be disadvantaged by being asked to play another team who have already played championship football. And then you might wonder how Galway ever won a senior hurling All-Ireland when they suffered the great disadvantage of getting a bye to the quarters to play Antrim! Anyway, anyway. In these days of burnout, busy academic schedules and elite young players in need of protection (from their managers and themselves!) here is a proposal: scrap the Connacht Minor League and have a five team round robin championship. Each county will play four games, two home and two away. Let the minors prepare in March and April, play two championship games each before the leaving (early May) and two after (mid June onwards). The top two teams then play the final with the traditional setting of Connacht Final Day and the young lads providing the curtain raiser. Any takers?
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
4
To continue reading this article, please subscribe and support local journalism!
Subscribing will allow you access to all of our premium content and archived articles.
Subscribe
To continue reading this article for FREE, please kindly register and/or log in.
Registration is absolutely 100% FREE and will help us personalise your experience on our sites. You can also sign up to our carefully curated newsletter(s) to keep up to date with your latest local news!
Warrior: Dáithí Lawless, 15, from Martinstown, in his uniform and holding a hurley, as he begins third year of secondary school in Coláiste Iósaef, Kilmallock I PICTURE: Adrian Butler
This one-woman show stars Brídín Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh, an actress, writer and presenter who has several screen credits including her role as Katy Daly on Ros na Rún, and the award-winning TV drama Crá
Breaffy Rounders will play Glynn Barntown (Wexford) in the Senior Ladies Final and Erne Eagles (Cavan) in the Senior Men's All-Ireland Final in the GAA National Games Development Centre, Abbotstown
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy a paper
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
Kevin McStay
