Photo: BBC
Various bits of #mayogaa news have been floating down the proverbial river past me over the last few days and I’ve been meaning to do a post or two about them but lethargy and other commitments have got in the way. Time for a quick round-up, then, to catch up on what’s been bobbing along the water this week.
Starting with the U21s, Billy Joe Padden has a good analysis in the Mayo News of the semi-final win over Dublin – here. The paper has also tweeted this evening (presumably at the press night for the final) that Mike Solan is saying he’s “very hopeful” he’ll have a full panel to pick from for Saturday week’s All-Ireland final. I guess that full-back Seamus Cunniffe, who went off with hamstring trouble in Tullamore, is the main worry. Hopefully the Ballaghaderreen player will be okay to line out on the big day.
Some post-match audio clips from Tullamore: Mike Solan, Diarmuid O’Connor, Michael Hall.
Staying with the U21s it was announced the other day that Armagh’s Padraig Hughes will ref the final. He’s an experienced official who has been on the elite roster for a number of years and he’s done plenty of big senior championship fixtures in his time. From what I’ve seen of him, he’s not a man who has any great grá for the black card and I have to say I’m largely with him in that.
Onto the seniors where it was reported by the Mayo News this week (here) that there was good and not-so-good news on the injury front. Keith Higgins, Donal Vaughan and Kevin McLoughlin – who all missed the latter rounds of the League – are now fully recovered from their various ailments and all three played in last weekend’s challenge match against Meath. However, Ger Cafferkey, Barry Moran, Paddy Durcan and Aidan O’Shea all sat out that game, all apparently due to hamstring problems.
That report also deals with the Ruislip ticket issue and the Mayo News tweeted tonight that the issue was discussed at this evening’s County Board meeting where it was announced that the county has been given an allocation of 400 tickets for the game. One ticket each will be provided to every club delegate and every club will get two each.
I was planning to do a post on this issue the other day but it was actually more insightful instead to sit back and watch the debate play out in the comments. I can empathise with both sides in this debate but, at the end of the day, I think it’s a simple supply/demand issue. Unless the match is shifted to another venue in the Greater London area – which is never going to happen (I reckon that Lords or the Oval would be the only places with a big enough playing surface) – the enormous demand for tickets for this match means that many people are inevitably going to end up disappointed. Such is life, I’m afraid.
Have you heard about the new online Club and County Development draw? It’s just been rolled out and full details are here. I hope to have more info on this initiative before too long but it looks like a worthwhile move, one that’ll allow Mayo GAA fans far and wide to contribute to the cause in a much easier format than the players’ training and welfare lotto that was launched last year.
I know we’re probably all in countdown mode for Ennis at this stage but if anyone is chomping at the bit for some Green and Red action this coming weekend there are two matches to consider. The ladies have their football League semi-final against Kerry at St Brendan’s Park in Birr while the hurlers have a Round One Nicky Rackard Cup match against Tyrone at Pairc Colmcille in Carrickmore. Both matches are on this coming Saturday and both throw-in at 3.30pm that day.
Right, I think that’s everything up to date again.
The club and county development draw must be running for the past ten years now at least.
The county board don’t seem to be taking player welfare lotto seriously at all. It is badly promoted and must be only lotto in country with no weekly prizes.
I should have said, tommyk, that what’s new is the online facility. As you correctly say, the draw itself has been in existence for a number of years.
True;1 winner (?) in about a year now?
Yep, the player welfare fund has great potential (if only because of the nature of it being ringfenced) but there’s no great incentive for the ordinary punter to keep playing it.
Great to see the other draw going online though – I wonder if there’ll be much uptake from abroad on it.
Thanks for the updates WJ.
Great podcast with stephen rochford on the mayo advertiser twitter page.
Did we beat Meath in that challenge game? Any news from it?
Thanks, Mayoforsam, I should have included the podcast in the post. The link to it is here.
Talking of podcasts, the latest Mayo News one from last week reviewing the League campaign is here.
I can’t find any further news, Cod, about that Meath challenge match.
Anne Marie,
The players fund lotto is not ring fenced. It was marketed and promoted as such, but when pressed at a CB meeting it was revealed that it went into the big black hole like the rest of the money. Like the fabled “Academy” and numerous other initiatives, when you scratch the surface the reality is different.
Thank you Willie Joe,you are more than entitled to a few days downtime,it is an addiction to this site that I will have to manage,anyway best of luck to the team next week ,hopefully it will set us up for along summer of success
Liam, I missed that update – that’s good to know. Like an idiot, I’ve been paying in a couple of quid most weeks since it started. Was it reported at the time?
On principle, I’ll be abstaining from any future contributions.
I believe we were beaten by 2 points
Long time viewer first time contributor! I was at the Meath game in abbotstown last Friday night. We used 2completely different 15s for each half and was a good runout. I made us 4down at ht but 4swcond half goals saw us up comfortably with ten to go before I had to hit the n4 west!
Interesting @Big PM!! Who did you think played well for us?
Freeman scored two goals which he took well. Parsons also scored a screamer. Jason Doc showed very well at wing back. Was very disappointed with our first half forwards display though Kirby did score 1-1. Andy, Dillo and Mickey c looked very lively upon their introduction. A serious facility abbotstown is
Anne Marie,
I wouldn’t stop contributing, I also play every week. Just making you aware of this fact and no it wasn’t made widely known at the time. I suppose in the end all the money ends up in the same place. The simple reality is that in the positions of coaching and finance you need full-time qualified professionals, a director of coaching and a director of finance. Dublin has Mossy Quinn as a full-time commercial and marketing officer and Kerry has 16 coaches, we have a part time treasurer and 4 coaches. Every other county goes to New York and comes home with a six figure payday, we go with a USA biscuit tin and make $12k despite having one of the biggest diaspora in America.
Despite all these obstacles we place in front of ourselves, we are consistently in the top 4 in the country, you can only imagine what we’d be capable of if we got our act together off the field.
Liam, I didnt know we only had 4 coaches, that for me is unacceptable. A county of the area of Mayo surely requires at least 10 to develop yhe game county wide.
Who came back from America with a six figure sum other than Kerry ?
Galway $98k, Cavan $160k, Dessie Farrell’s GPA $600k. Roscommon $?
If that’s true it’s a bad reflection on our board ,Kerry are streets ahead when it comes to raising funds in the US and I kinda understand some of the reasons for that but I wasn’t aware Galway and Cavan had a drive out there . Hopefully the CB have realised their mistakes and by the time we get out there again with Sam in toe things will be handled better.
Is there any event planned n London night before game and where do people plan go after game?
I hear you Liam, and I agree with you on principle, but if there is one thing I really can’t abide, it’s to be deliberately misled.
As for the fundraising, well, I’ve been banging that drum for years, as have many others here. The combination of our diaspora and our level of performance in recent years would surely suggest that even with half a strategy, we could have done so much better. Even our sponsorship deal isn’t exactly amazing at what (and correct me if I’m wrong) less than €250,000?
Is the 250000 sponsorship from all sources or just from main sponsors.