We’re into October and the season of mists, mellow fruitfulness and the ban on collective training (for those goody-goody counties who abide by it) is but round the corner from us now. Strange, then, to think that we have a senior inter-county match taking place this coming Sunday and stranger still that it’s on in New York where, for the second year in a row, we face the locals in the FBD World Series Final (throw-in 3pm local time or, if you prefer, 9pm our time) as we seek to clinch back-to-back victories in this august tournament.
The match this year is due to take place at Gaelic Park in the Bronx, a venue we last played in at the start of the 2009 championship. As was the case for the Home Final against NUIG back in February, Sunday’s contest will be reffed by Roscommon’s Ollie Kelly.
There’s no word yet on a team for Sunday’s game and, from what I can gather, there’s unlikely to be any official announcement on this ahead of throw-in.
According to this report in the Mayo News, James Horan has said that it’s only those players who were involved in the championship panel who would be travelling but it’s already been confirmed that Robbie Hennelly, Andy Moran, Donal Vaughan, Tom Cunniffe, Trevor Mortimer and Keith Higgins wouldn’t be available to do so. I’d say it’s short enough odds then that the team we eventually field on Sunday won’t bear a huge resemblance to other Mayo selections this year.
By the way, that same piece in the Mayo News also states that James is planning to undertake a fairly major shake-up to the squad ahead of 2012 with “seven to eight” new faces coming in and, one assumes, the same number being released. While it’s always tough to see lads being let go, it’s also undoubtedly the case that we need to push on if we’re to challenge properly at the top level next year and bringing fresh talent into the squad has to be part of this process. There’s no point at this juncture in speculating on who might be coming in or going out as I’d say we’ll learn the details on the various comings and goings soon enough.
I was sitting in front of James at the Knockmore-Castlebar match. Judging from the snatches of conversation I heard, I’d be putting smart money on [name deleted – WJ] definately being one of the ones dropped from the panel.
I deleted the name of the player you mentioned there, Digits – I don’t think it’s fair either to James Horan or the player himself to place on record here conversations that may have occurred at the game or to draw any conclusions on the basis of what you may have heard. We’ll all know soon enough what the story is regarding the panel for next year.
I see fergal O donnell pulled out of the roscommon job. thats the last thing they needed at this stage. Hard to see where they will find a suitable replacement
A surprise given its October. He owes us nothing, did a very good job intergrating young lads into the county set up after years of damage both internally and externally. Really cant see any decent candidates from within the county and would think the county board will be reluctant to look outside after the last few fiascos. Good luck to him and hope he enjoys the time he spends with his young family.
I see that the draw for the 2012 championship is on tonight at 8pm. With that news from Ros it seems Mayo are the more settled and steadiest ship of the big 3 in Connacht right now. It would be nice to get Sligo/Leitrim in a semi for us and let Galway/Ros battle it out in the other half of the draw. Probably wont work out that way though.
For Connacht to progress as a province we actually need a strong Mayo, Roscommon and Galway . The glut of All Irelands won between 1936-1956 was achieved by a strong province as Mayo, Ros and Galway shared seven titles in a 20 year span. Actually sorry to see O Donnell go. Obviously its a thankless and time consuming job. Its a reminder to James and Mulholland, basically you have three years of real energy. Its got to be done in that time.