Club Mayo Dublin have a world exclusive this morning (with my thanks to Ma-Yoman for alerting me to this a few minutes ago) with the news that our opening NFL match – against our old pals from Galway, with their new pal Joe Kernan calling the shots for them for the first time in a proper competitive encounter – is now being shifted to Sunday, 7th February, because of the long-running and as yet unresolved planning issue relating to the use of the new floodlights at McHale Park. Club Mayo quote County Board Chairman, James Waldron, as saying that the switch in date “has to be confirmed” (by HQ, one assumes) but that it would be “hard to see any problems with that”.
That’s true, I guess – there are likely to be fewer potential problems for the County Board by switching the match to the Sunday than there would have been if they’d decided to go ahead on Saturday night with the planning situation still to be sorted. Seen in this light (pardon the pun), the decision to move the game back till after the spuds have been consumed on the following afternoon sounds like a whole load of common sense to me. Oh yeah, and now it means that I’ll be able to get to the game too. That strikes me as a win-win, even if it does means that the live coverage on Setanta now won’t happen either.
PS: I see that Midwest are reporting the switch in date too (they’re saying that James Waldron was speaking to them on the radio this morning so maybe the Club Mayo lads didn’t have an exclusive on this after all) so it seems definite that the match will now take place on the Sunday. The Mayo News now have the same story too.
what a shame..i know it prob suits urself WJ but it would have made for a great occasion and maybe even 10k crowd.
im mad as hell its been switched as i`ve posted on this site that i recently come accross,
http://gaatipster.forumotion.net/peil-ghaelach-gaelic-football-f1/mayo-v-galway-t1910.htm?sid=44d06b4ee06a6c5cb10facba366cd2e2
Great shame. Was looking forward to that game under lights, wont be the same on the Sunday now. Seaneen.
It is a shame alright that the match couldn’t have gone ahead as planned under the lights – it would have given a great kickstart to the year’s football. I agree (even if it does mean I’ll be able to get there) that a Sunday afternoon throw-in won’t have the same cachet. That said, it is still Mayo v Galway in McHale Park, a clash that always and ever can go either way!
so what is the story with TV coverage on this one now ?
My worst feelings confirmed. Today’s Indo has a piece written by Martin Breheny that does John O Mahony and indeed John Prenty no favours. Indeed it has cast Mayo the county back into the whinge/moan light that people love to associate with us.
Breheny is right on one thing; if you make an assertion about other counties breaking rules then you gotta back it up. John O Excuse’s failed to do that. In Breheny’s words “Meanwhile, Mayo seem to be the only county who are exercised by rumours that others were training, while they themselves play by the rules. Now who could they be talking about?”. Who indeed.
I assume it’s now gone by the board, Roger – Setanta only do the Saturday night games and TG4 have probably got their lineup for the Sunday sorted already (I think they may have announced which matches they’re covering but I’m not 100% sure on that) so I’d say it’s now down to a choice between live commentary on Midwest or seeing it for real.
Who indeed? It would appear, though, that Big Joe might have come very close to letting the cat out of the bag on the telly last week (see the RTE TV report on 14th January “Teams Back Training Despite Weather” – I can’t provide a direct link to it as it’s on the RTE Player) where he talks about all the pre-Christmas training they were doing indoors and then very hurriedly backtracks and clarifies that this only involved the players “doing their own sessions”. Could this be why Johnno is so exercised about the whole business? It would certainly explain why he is.
I don’t blame Johnno for exposing the hypocrisy within the GAA on this issue. Johnno didn’t put in place the training ban and he’s only making the valid point that those who did have a responsibility to enforce it. It may be a completely stupid rule but it’s a rule that Congress voted for and they should now either be making some effort to enforce it or making plans to get rid of it. If Johnno’s public statements mean that the latter happens sooner than might otherwise have been the case, then so much the better.
feck it lads i dont see indoor group sessions in december having any bearing on a championship outcome in the summer , ok if another county have broken the rules then thats up to them to risk sanction but surely it wont be the deciding factor in a connacht final..
What a shambles!!!
It took the county board less then 2 yrs to fall out with the locals.
Castlebar Mitchells–at great expense to themselves–ran the pitch themselves for decades with no problems.
What a load of rubbish about winter training.Who was the best centre half back in the country last year and when did he join the county panel ? So much for winter training. We need a few defenders with strength, heart and passion– full stop.
Could be right RogerMilla, doing weights in Dec may have no bearing on the football in July; but at the same time Joe’s idea might be to build mental strength through shared suffering/ experience.
i can understand that innocentbystander , the clare lads talk about that famous hill that laughnane made them run up and i also see that joe wanted to hit the groudn running as a new manager..
is JOM thick becuase he feels a march was stolen on him becuase as i said above i dont see it making a huge difference…