Things have moved on apace since I first mentioned the Face the Ball prediction website last week and put forward the idea of setting up a mini-league.  Since then, those good people at Club Mayo Dublin have been in touch about the idea and, arising from this, we’ve decided to join forces to get a mini-league with a strong Mayo flavour off the ground.

The resultant division of labour sees myself doing the back-office admin to get everyone signed up for the gig while the lads have sourced a very nice prize for whoever emerges as the mini-league top dog.  This is a set of four GAA-themed DVDs: Part of What We Are and The Sound of Sunday, as well as full match videos of the 2006 All-Ireland semi-final win over Dublin and the 1989 All-Ireland final.  Interested now are we? Thought as much.

Okay, here’s what you need to do to enter the Green and Red/Club Mayo Dublin NFL 2009 Mini-League:

1. Register on FaceTheBall.com (if you haven’t already done so);
2. Send me an email (to williejoe@mayogaablog.com) telling me you want to join the mini-league;
3. I’ll then email you back with an activation link and a password that you’ll need to input to join the mini-league.  Make sure you’re logged into your FaceTheBall.com account before clicking on the activation link and once you’ve clicked on it, enter the password when prompted to do so;
4. That’s it: I’ll email you to confirm that you’re on the list;
5. Don’t forget to do your predictions for Week 1 before midnight on the 30th.

The above signing-up instructions probably look like a major pain in the hole but, trust me, they’re not (a number of your peers have already made it safely over the line) and, in any event, you’ll only have to do it the once.  If anything doesn’t work, you can simply email me and I’ll do my best to get it sorted.

With the first league matches getting underway on Saturday night, you need to move fast enough if you want to take part in what I think could prove to be a bit of a laugh for all involved and, just to keep the crack going, I’ll be doing regular updates during the NFL season on how the mini-league is progressing.  The battle for those four Champions League places across the water will be nothing, I reckon, compared to the scrap that’s going to break out for that set of DVDs.  As the saying goes: if you ain’t in, you can’t win ’em.