John O’Mahony and his senior management team are more than likely disappointed with Keith Higgins’ decision to play hurling for Mayo rather than travel to NY for Mayo’s championship opener on Sunday week. The Mayo hurlers will play Kerry in their championship opener on the same weekend. The talented corner- back has just returned to Ireland having spent a number of months in Australia. Keith did however line out last week in Mayo’s challenge match against Kildare in Kiltoom. I expect that the Mayo management are delighted to have their ace defender back in plenty of time for the bigger challenges ahead, but would have liked if he could have travelled to the Big Apple for the weekend. However it should not have come as a huge surprise that he declared for the hurlers as Keith has always declared his love of hurling and it is no secret that it is his preferred game. This is the first time that both codes have clashed on a championship weekend, which is unfortunate as it has forced Keith to declare his preference. Coincidentally, I met with Martin Brennan, the Mayo county senior hurling manager, during the week who told me that he was thrilled that Keith opted to play in Mayo’s Christy Ring Championship encounter with Kerry. It was not a total surprise to him either as he had been in touch with Keith frequently over the last number of weeks once he was aware of the imminent clash of fixtures.
Poor crowds and poor games
The National League finals in Croke Park at the weekend were pretty dismal. They had all the appearances of end of season, meaningless games. You would not have thought that there were league titles on offer. The paltry crowd didn’t help either. There was an eerie atmosphere as a mere 20,000 supporters turned out to support the four teams. And as far as I could establish about 10,000 of those in attendance were down to support Monaghan. ( I would think that a large number of them wished they had stayed at home! ) So the generous offer from GAA HQ to cut prices for stand tickets to €25 obviously wasn’t really appreciated by the football fraternity. A more generous €10 entrance fee might have helped in generating a bigger crowd. There is an issue here that just may occupy the minds of those charged with providing quality GAA action at the concluding stages of our National Leagues. We were treated to better fare in earlier rounds of the competition when teams were fully focussed on either staying up in, reaching the higher divisions, or avoiding relegation to the lower ones. There will always be an argument surrounding the choice of venue for League finals. I thought there might have been a much better atmosphere in a tight compact ground like Portlaoise or Mullingar had the Division 1 and 2 finals been played in a venue like these. But then again there didn’t appear to have been much of a problem in selecting a choice of seat in Pearse Park Longford on Saturday for the two other finals either, so I don’t know what the solution is on this one? Anyway, Kerry as predicted here last week, won the Division 1 title, but I cant imagine any bonfires being lit around Killarney to celebrate this particular achievement. They rarely had to get out of second gear to overcome the challenge of Derry who in fairness did play occasionally in third gear. Kerry are little bit like Manchester Utd. In that they can play poorly and still manage a victory. Teams at this stage of the year are caught between a rock and a hard place. Most counties are in the middle of pretty intense preparations for the championship at the moment and while I am not suggesting that teams do not want to win league titles, it is just a fact of life that they are looking ahead at much bigger games a few short weeks away. Jack O’Connor would have left Croke Park arguably the happiest manager of the four as he now realises that he will have serious competition for team places come championship time. Remember his team lined out last Sunday with Tadhgh Kennelly, David Moran, and Darragh Ó Sé on the bench. What other team in the country has such a luxury? So while Sunday’s encounter had all the appearances of an afternoon kick around, Kerry look to be more disciplined more focussed and a much hungrier side than the 2008 model. Others watch out!
Cork won the division 2 title in a canter. It’s not often we hear a manager complain afterwards about the quality of opposition after a competitive encounter, but Conor Counihan flagged his disappointment about the poor challenge that Monaghan presented to his team. Cork were very impressive and they have improved considerably this year. While I am sticking my neck out in predicting at this early juncture that Kerry will win this year’s All-Ireland, I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if it is Cork that will prove their biggest threat during the summer months.
Had someone suggested to me last Saturday morning that the best entertainment of the weekend would come from the two lower divisional finals I would have questioned their credentials. But that is exactly what happened and it was Tipperary in particular that were the League’s success story this year and, to a lesser extent, Sligo. They (Tipperary ) appointed their current manager, John Evans, last year when they were rooted at the bottom of Division 4 with few signs of moving from the abyss. Declan Browne, their talismanic superstar, had just retired and there was no rush of applicants for the vacant managerial position. Within two seasons the enthusiastic Evans, in his first inter-county managerial role, has turned the fortunes of the Tipperary men right around and they now find themselves mixing it with the big boys. Who is to say that they wont replicate the achievements of last year’s championships heroes, Wexford? Their victory in extra time over formidable opponents Down, was, for me, the highlight of the weekend’s GAA action. On this team’s journey home I suspect that there may have been a bonfire or two lit in their honour.
Local action heating up
After a couple rounds of the club league competition here in Mayo there is already a familiar pattern evolving with one or two exceptions: Breaffy and Castlebar will be particularly disappointed with their respective starts but I firmly believe that, with the quality of players available to both teams, injuries not withstanding, both teams will prove to be formidable opposition later this summer. I hear the dreaded hamstring curse has depleted the Castlebar squad which goes some way to explain their poor results in recent weeks. We in Crossmolina are not immune to this curse either with three of our players currently on the soft sofa. Crossmolina played Ballaghadereen in Charlestown last Sunday. We were half hoping that they might have travelled to Crossmolina as their pitch is currently GUR! However they nominated Charlestown as their choice of home venue. Ballaghadereen, as county champions, are a formidable outfit and we knew we would have our work cut out to beat them. They started the game without Andy Moran, who obviously had hoped to rest out this game. They deservedly led at half time, having played with the wind, on a scoreline of 10 pts to 3. To be honest we were disappointed heading to the dressing room at half time as there was only three points in it with five minutes of the half remaining. We felt that we would need a goal at some stage in the second half to get ourselves back into a winning position. That goal duly arrived midway through the second half from the boot of Cathal Carolan. The other catalyst to our changing fortunes was the great performance of the ever young James Nallen both at corner back in the first half but even more influentially, at midfield in the second. He continues to defy logic but is a great example to younger players, proving that good lifestyle management prolongs the engine capacity! We were, needless to say, happy to have come away with a victory but rest assured we won’t be getting carried away with ourselves. With regard to Ballaghadereen there is no doubt in my mind that they are still a force to be reckoned with, and will be come championship time. In particular Barry Regan turned in a flawless performance of free-taking from the hand that could surely be an asset at a higher level! I was delighted to see Kevin Cahill involved with the Ballaghadereen set up. He was getting rather animated on a number of occasions during the game, something I hadn’t witnessed during his playing days with Mayo. He is definitely displaying all the characteristics of a future team manager! Tomorrow evening we play Charlestown at home and right now they are the form team in the county. I watched them against Knockmore in Charlestown in the game preceding ours last Sunday and they were hugely impressive. They have a very well balanced outfit and appear to have quality players throughout the team. David ‘Ginger’ Tiernan is like a spring chicken these days. It is wonderful to see a player of his stature leading by example every other Sunday for his club.
