Iceland’s answer to Puff the Magic Dragon may be responsible for detaining the Fat Controller and his Herrin Choker charges over on the other side of the Atlantic but it seems that a more prosaic obstacle, in the shape of the GAA’s bureaucratic goons, has caused the abandonment of our lads’ planned training sojourn in the Algarve next week.
As this report in the Mayo News explains, the proposed trip fell foul of rules brought in by the GAA all of two years ago, which prohibit such trips except during the 13 days prior to a senior championship game. It might have been an idea to read the rules before booking the tickets, I suppose, but I see that the lads have been offered a week in Westport instead. If the rain holds off and the mercury rises a bit more, they mightn’t even notice the difference.
By the way, that Mayo News report also confirms where Friday evening’s challenge match with Donegal will be held. The match is set to take place at Glenfin GAA club, which is located between Ballybofey and Glenties. Throw-in at Glenfin, where they’re officially opening new facilities at the ground on Friday, is set for 7.30 pm.
What a ridiculous rule… what purpose does it serve? managers can do exactly the same thing in Breafy house anyway- only because Ireland is so costly it’ll cost them more than if they headed off to sunny spain…
We wonder why we… ahem….have mental problems on big days. Well here is one of the root causes. Our weak county board should have told the GAA big wigs to shag off, the trip was booked and that go and pick on another county to make an example of.
Once more we buckle. I recently read a snippet about the 1989 All-Ireland final. Apparently Mayo were so keen not to infringe the rules that the coaching staff had foul counts in the weeks leading up to the final. Tackle but dont foul. Well Cork had four points on the board and the ref didnt pay a blind bit of difference to Mayos tackiling technique before the players decided to go for broke and abandon the lunacy. In other words let the ref decide…not what Croke Park bigwigs wanted.
Mick Connaughton and the minors of 1961 were warned not to stain the counties name in the Minor final v Cork. Play by the rules. A first minute burst and bloody nose showed Mick that Cork were not adhering to the same set of rules.
Jimmy Maughan was dropped v Kerry in 1981 because the Mayo big wigs were afraid he would be pulled up for the devestating flying hand pass he possesed. Kerry used it to slice us into rashers. When Jimmy came on his first hand pass was in front of the ref. He never gave it a second glance. Too late for Jimmy and too late for Mayo. We grovel and bow to the so called rulers and get shafted with crap refs who enforce rules that they would be eaten for if they did the same to Cork, Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone or Monaghan and Armagh.
Tyrone v Mayo 2008. Cunniffe or Parsons fouled on the run 20 yards from goal and time almost up. Ref blows , takes ball and signals game over! Meath last year anyone? That clown who reffed the league final this year. No he didnt cost us the match but he reffed us different than Cork. That **** McEneney in 1996. Four minutes taken from us in the 1948 final plus a 14 yard free charged down from 5 yards. If our county board had balls then we would have made a stand long ago and we would not be seen as we presently are. Who for example fought the case of John Finns broken jaw that occured in front of 65,000 people. The alleged phantom striker has on occasions made quite dispariging remarks about Mayo football. Do you know what…who can blame him. If we wont stand up for us, dont expect anybody else to.
Any chance of setting up a championship mini-league on face the ball Willie Joe?!?
I’ll be doing that for sure, North Mayo, just haven’t got round to it yet.
Ontheroad, you’re antagonism towards the board knows no limits! But I agree with you 100%.
Sure it’s always been the way. We’re lacking back-bone in many areas.
On a more positive note, I see Keith Higgins is back playing for the hurlers this weekend.
Hi Dan, hate to come across like that. Actually I acknowledge they do a thankless job. Its just like…I wish they would bark back when given the opportunity. You think I am bad? You should read the withering view the great Eamon Mongey had about them who unlike me really knew his football and achieved the greatest accolades. All I want is us to stand up and not be swissed regularily. Nothing more…nothing less.
ontheroad your right. Its not just the mayo board though,the most part of the gaa stinks.
I like your feistiness ontheroad, and while we could do with a bit more of this ‘healthy disrespect’ for officialdom from the cb and players, we must still ask the question, who is responsible for this latest cock-up. It’s certainly not the players fault, can’t blame anyone who is respobsible for the coaching/football side of things, so it must be pinned on whoever has responsibility for ensuring that the ‘rules of the association’ are adhered to. Now, who could that be?, let me think, oh yeah, the bloody county board that’s who.
I know many of you don’t see this as a big deal, but I think it is very disruptive and surely has caused a lot of angst and turmoil behind the scenes (and yes, disappointment too for all who were looking forward to a bit of time away in the sun). Remember when Keano walked out in Saipan because of poor training facilities, well Mayo didn’t even get off the ground, literally and metaphorically!!! So, what are the odds we’ll see Trevor walking a pair dogs in the rain wearing a flat cap declaring to the chasing media that he had no option but to quit due to the shabby standards of the CB and bureaucracy of the ‘association’. Unlikely, but it’s just a thought!!
The Cork County Board know how to throw their weight around. Even when they are in the wrong, they win out.
By the way, W.J., I see that RTE have announced their schedule of coverage of the championship. Sligo v. Mayo is down for 5 p.m. On saturday, 5th June. I presume they won’t need lights. I had thought that match was on Sunday, 6th
Thanks for that, Grainne, I’ve updated the fixtures page accordingly. Being on TV3 means, of course, that we’ll miss out on the Podge and Rodge treatment on the Sunday Game Live until we make it to Croke Park (assuming we do, that is).
As regards the Portugal fiasco, I’m not sure the county board should take all of the blame – I’d reserve most of my rocks on this one for pelting in the direction of HQ. This is another example (like the use of trial by video) where they’ve decided to start enforcing rules well into the season, without giving due notice of any crackdown and which makes no attempt to punish those who’ve already done the deed and gotten away with it.
The rule has apparently been in place for two years yet it’s been completely ignored up until now and there have already been a number of high profile trips to Portugal by county teams already this year. Clamping down on this is very much a case of bolting the door after the horse has gone.
Sure, we could have given HQ the two fingers but I understand that there could have been a significant financial penalty facing the county board if they had done so and so the only sensible thing to do was to cancel it. A public broadside to HQ wouldn’t have gone amiss, though, in light of the way we’ve been jerked around compared to those counties who’ve already completed their warm weather trips for the year.
It’s also worth noting that a week in Westport (or anywhere else in Ireland) is equally out of order as the ban is on all kinds of training camps, regardless of where they’re held, unless they occur in the 13-day window before a championship game. The option of going then (i.e. any time from the 24th of this month onwards) is still there but I guess something like this would take a bit more time than that to organise.
Correction: it’s RTE not TV3 that are covering the Sligo game live (which is, of course, what you said, Grainne) so we’ll have to put up with Brolly and O’Rourke that evening as well as Eamon O’Hara and the rest of the Magpies on the pitch. Apologies for the confusion.
Any word on how the challenge match went last night, or any pointers from it towards a team for the Sligo game?
All I know is that we won by 2 points (Club Mayo have tweeted to this effect) but I’ve no other info yet as regards what the score was or who lined out where.
There’s a report in today’s Examiner (bizarre that, as they don’t usually cover our league matches except when we’re playing Munster opposition) – I can’t link to it as I’m out and about. We won 1-12 to 1-10, Barry Moran started and scored 1-4 from play. Trevor Howley was in the corner and Donie Vaughan (as per Sean Rice’s suggestion in the Mayo News) was at 6.
That sounds fairly positive, to be honest some of those ideas should have been tried out in the league once we were safe from relegation but it’s good to see some alternatives being looked at because I was afriad Johnno might still go blindly into battle against Sligo with Howley at 6 (I suppose he still might!)