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Physicality and power of inter-county GAA teams at a new high

Physicality and power of inter-county GAA teams at a new high

A section three assault charge was dropped against a GAA player at Ballina District Court on Tuesday after the complainant player on an opposing GAA team withdrew his statement of complaint last month.

Mayo Rape Crisis Centre would like to invite everyone to join them in Mulroy’s Bar, Main Street, Castlebar on Friday October 26, at 6pm for the launch of Trish Reddington’s New York marathon fundraising challenge. Your support is greatly appreciated.

ESB, official sponsors of the GAA All-Ireland Minor Football and Hurling Championship, launched an exam support guide during the week created specifically for Minor GAA players. Part of ESB’s “Positive Energy” programme, which is designed to provide support for players participating in this year’s championship, www.esbexampass.ie was unveiled on Monday by former Minor stars Séamus Callanan and Marty Clarke, both of whom contributed to the site.

The GAA Player of the Month Awards ceremony was held at the Westbury Hotel, Dublin last week and saw the two leading ladies from last year’s camogie and ladies football seasons, Kilkenny’s Anne Dalton and Cork’s Angela Walsh, respectively, honoured with their 2009 Player of the Year awards.

Brian “Skeach” Kelly will more than likely line out for his beloved Palatine as they try to dethrone reigning champions, Éire Óg, in next Sunday’s county senior football final. Nothing unusual in that you might think. Sure hasn’t he been playing senior football for Pal for the best part of a decade and a half. Well three months ago, Skeagh was in no position to take to any football field. In actual fact his very life was under threat! Following a clash of heads in the Palatine’s clash with Kildavin/Clonegal he was left with quite a bruise on the side of his head. He went to hospital immediately after the game as a precaution but was discharged that evening and told to take it easy for a few days. That he did and was ready and willing to return to the training field. However he was still complaining of headaches and blurred vision. He thought nothing of it but the Pal management team were not happy to let him return. That first night back he was practising a few frees before training when Mick Lillis Pal’s trainer told him he was unhappy to let him resume. The club arranged an MRI scan in Dublin to make sure everything was alright and it was from there that things began to get interesting! He returned home but almost immediately was summoned back to Beaumont hospital where he was informed that he had a life-threatening clot on his brain. As he said himself, he still didn’t realise how serious the situation was. He felt fine. It was only when he asked a member of the medical team attending him to rate the severity of his condition on a scale of one to ten that it really became clear to him. She told him it was at least nine and a half! At that moment all thoughts of playing in this year’s county final disappeared from his mind! The doctors told him that if he had taken part in that training session and received even minimal physical contact, it could have been enough to have killed him. If the clot had moved as much as one milimetre it would have been fatal. He was immediately put on clot busting drugs in the hope of avoiding surgery and thankfully these were successful. Still he was not to go near a football field for at least the rest of the year, if not for ever. But once he was on the road to recovery like any GAA player, the lure of the game was too much. He was back for the latter part of the championship and apart from the unusual sight of him sporting a rugby scrum cap, everything is back to normal and he will be looking for his second county medal on Sunday. That possibility was far from his thoughts three months ago when, as he put it, “they were thinking of opening my skull!” Brian’s story may be an aside but it is just one of those things that add to the occasion of any county final. Every club has its own stories. Reasons why they just cannot afford to let this opportunity slip. I’m sure Éire Óg have their own. As I said here last week, it’s one of the things that makes a county final unique. 

Over the past few weeks and right up to the middle of January 2009 county boards and clubs will be holding their AGMs and releasing their accounts for the club delegates and club members to study. Some of the figures that are in the public domain already make for scary bedtime reading for those charged with raising the revenue to keep the wheels greased and turning. For example, the Waterford hurling board spent nearly €2 million in preparing their teams in 2008. The Galway hurlers cost over €1 million to keep on the road last season and they didn’t even reach the last four. How much would it have cost if they got to the final?