The FBD final is kinda sneaking up on us, with throw-in against NUIG in Castlebar taking place little more than 24 hours from now. Ahead of the final James Horan has been speaking with the Western People while NUIG manager John Maughan has been doing likewise with the Mayo News.

The latter claims that the FBD final is more of a distraction than anything else, with NUIG’s opening match in the Sigerson on next Tuesday. While you can see where he’s coming from – with the whole issue of third level teams being involved in the provincial pre-season tournaments one that’s crying out to be sorted sensibly – I’m not sure I wholly believe the line he’s peddling here. The day John Maughan pitches up at McHale Park only half-arsed about whether or not a team he’s in charge of wins will be a strange day indeed.

No team news yet for tomorrow night but, as usual, once the details are published I’ll stick them up here.

Andy Moran made a welcome return to the fray against Roscommon last weekend and you can hear him talking about this and the general state of Mayo GAA in this week’s Out in Front podcast.  The podcast itself runs for 40 minutes or so but Andy’s piece is at the beginning and Andy being Andy it’s a upbeat, chatty and relaxed interview which is well worth a listen.

While we’re on the topic of audio, Ballinrobe GAA club have established a presence on Audioboo and have uploaded their first audio piece. (They’ve also a very nice looking website – here). In case you think you’ve heard that voice before, your ears aren’t deceiving you – it is, indeed, Liam Horan, whom, as he states on the clip, has now taken on the position of Secretary with the club.

Speaking of online developments, you might also be interested to know that I’ve finally opened a branch office of this humble site on that beast that is Facebook – here. It’s only a page to mirror the posts here but it’s something that’s been overdue for some time. Like me or loathe me or whatever the crack is over there.

Finally, you may have noticed (small point, this) that I’ve changed the banner title on the site from Green and Red to Mayo GAA Blog. The latter appears to be what everyone already calls the site and it’s the URL so I reckon it’s time to go the whole hog and recognise it as such. I’m also, by the way, hoping to give the place a facelift at some point before too long – like the county jersey, it’s well due for a makeover – but when (or indeed whether) this will happen depends on work pressures and the like so don’t hold your breath waiting for it.

PS: As part of this corporate rebranding exercise, I’ve also changed my Twitter name from @williejoe to @MayoGAABlog and have similarly altered my Audioboo user account to MayoGAABlog as well. Nothing like a bit of cross-platform consistency, eh?