These sure are strange days, what with record low temperatures for the time of year and the national finances going down the tubes and all that, but you’ll be glad to know that I’m not about to launch into a rant about either, especially not the latter.  Instead, I want to let you know about a new development on the site, one which I’ve been thinking about trying to start for some time but which I only began to move on over the past few days.

Whatever about the country writ large, in the world of Mayo GAA we find ourselves in an interesting spot right now.  The godawful year we had on the pitch is behind us, a new management team is in place and has begun to plan for 2011 and work is continuing apace on the Strategic Review.  Over the next six weeks or so, there’ll be very little happening in relation to football within the county that’ll be in any way visible (aside, maybe, from the start of the FBD but that’ll depend on the weather) but, like the proverbial duck, there’ll be plenty of activity going on under the surface.

With this in mind and in light of the fact that it’s the time of year for rumination generally, I’ve decided that it’s time to throw open the doors here on the site to other voices.  The idea behind this is that it gives an opportunity for different perspectives to be presented here, with the bonus for me arising from the fact that I won’t have to spend as long scratching my head wondering what I’ll write about next during these long, empty football-less days.  It might also, perhaps, give everyone something different (i.e. not IMF-related) to focus on over the coming few weeks.

I’ve got the first few contributors lined up but I intend to tap some others over the coming few days so, if you haven’t had a call or an email from me about this to date, don’t consider yourself in the clear just yet. Alternatively, if there’s anyone out there who fancies putting together a piece without being cajoled into doing so, just drop me an email and we’ll take it from there.

I’ll be throwing the ball in on this series of guest appearances tomorrow and a cracking start it promises to be too.  Stay tuned.