The Galway county hurling final has been called off this Sunday due to the fact that Mullagh GAA club is possibly going to appeal to the DRA about their game with Loughrea being fixed at a fixtures committee when the man who chaired that meeting was suspended at the time the fixture was made. They lost their county semi-final to Loughrea by a point, and as we all know there were some sickening scenes after the game with supporters and some players keen to have a cut off the referee.
That kind of outrageous behaviour from any supporters or players to officials is completely and utterly unacceptable in this day and age. It must be stamped out and we all have a role to play in doing so. Even leaving that appalling behaviour to one side, it is sad to see the culture of appealing against everything being so very strong in the GAA. Have we lost track of what we are about as participants and as clubs?
Where is the sense of fairness and doing things for the greater good? Cynicism, nastiness, and meanness are quite regular at many games now, both on the field of play and sometimes, unfortunately in the stands too. It is very sad to see such petty behaviour carry on after the game is over. For clubs or individuals to appeal when they have been beaten on the field of play is poor form. Mullagh were beaten. That’s the end of that. To be holding the county final to ransom and keeping Portumna and Loughrea in limbo to further their own cause does them no credit. Fold up the tents lads, and move on.
An Spidéal head to Charlestown to tackle Kiltimagh on Sunday
An Spidéal who had a facile victory over Aughavas (Leitrim ) last Sunday in Pearse Stadium head up to Charlestown for the Junior Connacht final this weekend. Dónal Ó Fátharta’s Gaeltacht side are having a great season and they are only one game from crowning off 2009 in splendid fashion by annexing the Connacht Junior title.
However, they will be up against it on Sunday against Kiltimagh who hammered Ballinameen (Roscommon ) last weekend on a score-line of 2-14 to 0-3. Spidéal are very dependant on the scoring excellence of Breandán Ó Callaráin in at right corner forward and he whipped over 1-07 again last week-end. The question has to be asked, if he was tied up and held by a tight marking corner back or an extra sweeper in the defence, have Spidéal other offensive players to take up the slack?
Their manager, Dónal Ó Fatharta believes they have: “For any forward to hit big scores, there has to be men out the field doing the donkey work and winning the dirty ball. We have had a great team ethic all year and the entire panel have worked extremely hard over the past few months. We don’t care who gets the scores or the headlines, as long as we keep progressing. We have top quality players in every line of the field and players who can come off the bench and make an impact. We will probably need 20 players next Sunday to get something out of the game, however we believe that if we play to our potential we can finish off the year on a high.”
