83 thoughts on “Mayo manager update with Colm Keys – Mayo News football podcast 2022 E28”

1. Colm Keys as always a good listen. From the pod it would seem likely we are going to go within the county for the next manager and I think that’s best. More of a worry would be the debt and lack of guaranteed training facilities. Surely during the last decade when Mayo were always front and centre a training venue should have been a priority. Time to get moving on it now.

2. Very good interview with Colm Keys. I would agree with his assessment of the likely candidates, it will be between those 3 or 4 names within the county. I do like what Michael Moyes is doing with the ladies (especially considering the amount of players not available to him), if this form continues he will definitely be in contention in 3 or 4 years time. He needs to stay with the ladies now as they look to be building something special there and will be contenders over the next couple of years.
   Lack of training facilities is a big problem, the planned redevelopment of pitches around McHale park would help but isnt the answer there will still be a lack of facilities like changing rooms etc and hard to see how under age teams will be catered for. When the ladies eventually join the GAA lack of training facilities will be an even bigger problem. Anyway I cant see these pitches being developed any time soon if at all, where will the 2million+ come out of? (that’s a hell of a lot of tiles to sell), the clubs cant pay and the County Board haven’t a penny. As long as the dept on McHale Park is there nothing will be done in terms of centre of excellence/proper training facilities and when we finally do pay off that loan the stand will be 50+ years old and will require more money to update. Im of the firm belief now that Mayo GAA and in particularly our clubs would be in a far better condition if that stand was never built.

3. What are the repayments on the loan to croke park per year ?

4. There is an element also of who is appointed and their backroom is attractive for the players.

   We have a player profile at the moment where there could be a lot of retirements and a few lads who might get a taste for travelling after they finish college, especially after the last few years of Covid.

   We can`t afford to have a big overhaul of players if we are being realistic about competing for Sam in the short – medium term.

5. Sean, repayments will be 25000/month for the next 10 years, this won’t pay off the loan either.

6. I remember somebody in the Western People writing it will be 2051 when the debt is paid. Don’t ask who, but I remember seeing it.

7. 25k a month , crikey that is quite a financial burden .

   Should try something different to cover it , sell 1k seats to supporters who would be willing to pay €300 per year ,call it club300 , free entry to mchale park for the year and a chance buy an aif ticket if mayo get there . A type of season ticket I suppose but at least the supporter who is forking out knows he’s helping the cause .

8. Could they not hold concerts in McHale Park to get some money. There will be no big games there for a while .

9. It is good to see the Mayo News/Podcast covering our debt situation and well done to Edwin McG for highlighting the shambolic decisions taken over the years by the people in charge. I have often posted over the years on the Blog about McHale Park debt – there is nothiing that makes me as frustrated /cross. There seems to be no hope now of a Centre of Excellence – so where are the county teams going to train? How can the clubs hand over 25 grand per month for the next decade? How can they develop their own players, fields, grounds. The county board should be supporting the clubs NOT the clubs having to hand over the proceeds of lottos/raffles. Not to mention that we are in the midst of a cost of living crisis where money isnt as plentiful as before. Why arent the delegates talking/asking questions at the monthly meetings? Can the chairmen of all the clubs in the county speak out? And after all that clubs, us supporters or the papers arent being told by the County Board how much is still owed and the revised terms of the loan!! I actually despair…..

10. Goagain, i agree the clubs need to know how long it will take for this loan to finally be paid off and they should be told. To be fair the current County Board cant be blamed for this dept, this is due to poor decisions made nearly 20 years ago. To put it in some sort of context and im open to correction of the figures but the stand cost approx 18m to build, I think Pairc ui Chaoimh cost in the region of 86m for a 45,000 seater stadium (this figure is disputed by some but that’s the figure Cork GAA have said). So our one stand cost about 20% of the cost of an entire modern stadium and we didn’t get near the quality of stand Cork built. I come back to my previous post, this stand should never have been built and definitely not for the money it cost. Poor decisions made 20 years ago have held Mayo GAA back and will do for another 30 years.

11. Sure will Croke Park not clear the loan ?

12. The fact of not having any championship revenue off tickets or commercial revenue off food, coffee and drinks sales or tv revenue would puzzle you as to why bother with any of this stuff.
    Do the minimum to satisfy health and safety.
    Why invest in the stadium?
    The only return is off Fbd and league ticket sales and they’d not be boosted by enough to warrant anything more than just health and safety works on the stadium.

13. Here is an angle by the way. Legally there is nothing in the GAA rulebook about counties needing to repay debts in order to participate in the GAA season.
    So just stop paying.
    The era of such white elephant projects is over. The need to borrow more millions by us or other counties will not be a reality.
    If we don’t want to not pay.
    State we’ll pay 10k a month due 20 years.
    If not accepted, simply stop paying.
    If they seize McHale park, fine.
    We’ll play in Ballina and away from home in championship.
    The hard times pot o spuds on the boil are back for the next number of years.
    We will bury ourselves trying to pay €25k a month. Stop paying or pay way less and build a centre of excellence for 3 million.

14. Just for clarity on McHale Park Stadium, Today a very fine Stadium, great location for road’s, parking..now a great playing surface.. But prior to the reconstruction of McHale Park, it was still a fine Stadium, held over 34K for the 2006 Connacht Final, that’s the GAA official attendance, I certainly doubt it was any less, but if someone told me that the real attendance was more I wouldn’t disagree with him or her..Now what’s our official allowed attendance, … Plenty of room for several thousand more than actually attended Galway v Mayo, or Donegal v Mayo, the last biggest game’s held there…I think 27K was the official attendance for the Donegal match, which was a completely sold out fixture.. would and could have been more if we played a curtain raiser, which we didn’t, we did have the brilliant Sawdoctors (or one of them) and the equally brilliant Goats don’t Shave (or one of them) and still a much bigger and a significantly better Stadium could only hold 7K less fans than a Connacht Final in 2006..Now we could have had a very convenient curtain raiser for the Donegal match, that would have equally suited both Mayo and Donegal because Donegal’s Women’s team were due to play Mayo’s Women’s team in the Championship around the week..We didn’t do that, I don’t know why?.. Now if the allowed attendance of an All Seater Stadium was reduced by about 30% because us not having a curtain raiser before the event, … What’s the chances of the ‘Carbon Neutral Seagull sanctuary” ie Neutral Croke Park with it’s useless Harris Hawk, for chasing away the Seagulls, and it’s Wonky Hawkeye, being reduced to about 55K for the All Ireland hurling final?.. Zero is the chances, because different criteria is and has been used. You know Mayo and their tens of thousands of fans, have the power to put manner’s on Carbon Neutral Croke Park, just like Newbridge or Nowhere did, just like Tyrone did, or just like Roscommon did..The West Asleep, The West Asleep, time for them to wake up!

15. Delighted the debt was given air time on the pod . Especially with Mayo CC a closed shop on this matter .

16. Surely the debt can be legally contested that the revenue to pay the debt was not accurate.
    When you buy a coffee or chocolate bar it is not going to Mayo GAA. Attend a championship match. So where was the revenue to service the debt?
    From clubs and clubs were legally not properly informed. Why should the county pay a debt that was wildly irresponsible in its awarding?

17. Remember every club in Mayo is saddled with this debt.

18. I wonder is there any chance James Horan would take a 2 year sabbatical from his current job and take on that role of commercial director as well as oversee football development within the county.
    We all know the real fundraising for Mayo GAA is in America, England etc. Where there are plenty of millionaires with Mayo ancestory who if sold the right product by the right person would gladly pump millions into Mayo gaa. This is where the real money is – not farting around with a weekly lotto bring in a few quid each week.
    For example with so many high profile Mayo players in Chicago at present – is there any effort been made to tap into this?? Probably not.

19. Absolutely delighted the debt is getting an airing in various media outlets the last few weeks. Enda on Ah Ref used mention it but was not getting traction. Its now been discussed in other media.
    I have brought it up at club meetings/AGM’s a number of times over the years but very hard to get our club delegate to say anything. Met him today and he is an expert on the topic (in his own mind) and he is going to “give it to them” about it at the next meeting. I will not be holding my breath

    I see a comment above about nothing in rule book to say we need to pay back the debt. that is probably true but we dont have first access to our income so hands are tied. Season ticket money / other ticket allocations (league etc) are mostly collected centrally so that income is probably equal or higher than the repayment so I dont see it as an option.

    We have a fundraising commitee within the county board (is fundraising still called Cairde). This year I have seen the golf classic and nothing else. We do a wweekly lotto but looking at last years accounts this is making less than a lot of club lottos. I think people are really fed up with the Season ticket so that income is going to reduce next year. we really need to go for a “big bang”. Set a target of a million and go for it. You see Westport selling out two win-a-houses . Probably made a million in total. A few years ago The Neale did a “Mayor” and i think they were six figure earned in that area. A few weeks ago Garrynore were in the paper for a freinds of Garrymore to put in a carpark and it was something like €40 or €50k raised. You see Shrule and their lotto which by all accounts is taking in great money. These are all clubs raising big money. Mayo has 50 clubs plus a very loyal diaspora so multiples of these amounts are possible.

    There are some good people within the current fundraising group. Some with profiles in business cmmunity. If some of them were interested (and if they are not thats ok) but why not get them or someone else to work with a professional company and go for a series of events and aim for a big repayment. Pay the external guys to manage the day-to-day admin. . Even an open evening where each club / interested group send one or two people and a series of brainstorming ideas.

    I have been involved in club fundraising and its not easy but very rewarding – I would be happy to help in a small way and I am sure many others would also. It needs one or two good leaders and 12 months hard work but there are people who would be happy to do it – just need to find them

    The biggest problem is people dont like giving money and seeing nothing. Westport is a new stadium, The Neale new pitch/facilities and Garrymore was a carpark, Shrule new pitch – they were all selling something new. Our hard sell is we are looking for money for something already there. People dont like given for day-to-day spending either. Tim O’Leary famously fell out as he felt his money was been used for ESB bills but at the end of the day its coming out of the same bucket so I think as a one off people would get behind it and if we could take a big chunk of the debt we could then concentrate on other proper development for pitch/COE or whatever.

    Anyway rant over – I’m probably nuts but just get annoyed by this thing hanging over us and every few years we just extend it rather than face up to it

20. James Horan would be the right fit as a commercial director and chief face of fundraising.

21. Can anyone tell me why the club championship isn’t starting until September. I thought the idea of rushing the intercounty was to get the clubs playing in the summer and not September /October again. Doesn’t make sense to me.

22. When all the new stands were done on Croke Park it cost 10’s of millions.

    I remember then Croke Park been praised for paying off the debt way ahead of schedule.

    Mayo have generated millions for Croke Park over the past decade.

    Croke Park could well afford to pay off the outstanding debt (just to get rid of the interest costs to Mayo Gaa).

    As an act of gratitude for all the Mayo gate bonanzas then, Croke Park could set up managable repayments from Mayo Gaa ( Interest free ) to recover their McHale Park debt payoff.

    It would help relieve the financial burden been placed on the Mayo clubs and would get rid of this nonsense of paying off huge interest sums.

    Croke Park have probably spent more on Hawkeye. Technology that cannot tell the difference between a goalpost and a pigs arse.

23. What lease term have they on the pitch from the Mitchell’s

24. Jaysus 25k a month thats a massive debt lads. The Galway mountain south debacle another basketcase. There is not enough use for all this outlay like how often is the hyde, salthill and mchale empty. Foish mistakes instead of pooling Connacht resources.

25. Revellino, Croke Park have already helped MayoGAA with the dept. Around 2011 Mayo were likely to do bust under the weight of this dept, they were looking at annual repayments of 1million. Croke Park took over the loans, reduced the payments based on a lower interest rate. This has been renegotiated at various stages through the years to reduce the monthly repayments ( downside is the term gets extended each time). So to be fair Croke Park have helped, we would be in a far worse position without them.

26. My head is in a spin after listening and reading all that. How can the mayo clubs be expected to come up with that kind of cash every month for the foreseeable future.

27. No doubht
    The reason the club championship is not on until September is because so many players from all over the County and Country want to go to America to play or take Summer holidays this whole idea that became written into fact unchallenged ie that if we finish the Championship early then we can have Club football in the Summer of dry pitches (a festival of football in the words of that idiot Brolly) was a non runner from the start for those reasons.
    The reality is that for all but 4 counties The Championship was over on The August bank holiday anyway so this daft change was done for no good reason.

28. @Mayomad.

    It actually sounds like we couldn’t be in a much worse position than we are in.

    I don’t think Croke Park can allow any county go to the wall, otherwise the whole fabric of the organisation falls apart.

    If Croke Park had the money, which I believe they have plenty of, then they should have paid off our total debt and allow us to pay the amount back to them, interest free, while allowing us to breathe.

    And who paid for Croke Park in any case. Every other County around the Country.
    Dublin will never have to worry about stadium finances, where they play all their games, because the rest of the country has paid for the building of Croke Park and the upkeep of Croke Park.

    I wouldn’t really be singing Croke Parks praises. They have made millions upon millions off Mayo in the past decade.

    And where did those millions go ?

    Well. Alot of reports claim that a large chunk of change was been granted to Dublin each year. Proportionally much much higher than any other County.

    That’s right. Dublin. Who’s stadium we have already paid for and whose grass gets clipped from the National fund. They have been financed to the back teeth while the rest of us get dragged over the coals to squeeze another thruppence out of us.

29. Bonus pod now up for club members previewing the LGFA All-Ireland semi-final, in which Mike chats with Mayo player Saoirse Lally. I’m also just off the recording of the Q&A pod, with Ed McGreal and Stephen Drake, and that’ll be online for club members tomorrow.

30. Willie Joe – Any chance of getting an interview with James Horan?
    Would be interesting to hear his take on things now that he has stepped away

31. There might be, Southmayo Exile, we’d definitely be interested in having him on the podcast again if he’s up for it.

32. One aspect of Kerry’s fundraising that was a bloody step too far and a moral disgrace.
    They applied for and got a big grant from the Irelandfunds charity and community initiatives fund.
    Tell me how an elite training centre for Kerry GAA teams is a community initiative for the benefit of the community at large or those in need in the community?
    It was in articles at the time, it’s listed on their website and it was never properly questioned by journalists at the time.
    So donors who gave to that fund were unwittingly in part furthering the aims of Kerry GAA to dominate Sam Maguire.
    The seven million is paid in full it seems.
    Bled New York dry on lots of trips also.

33. Actually it slipped my mind, but there was a controversy where the Kerry ladies senior team were not allowed use Currans over a season. A facility funded in part by a community charity.
    That’s the kind of stroke pulling bullshit that our competitors are pulling.

34. The Kerry GAA centre of excellence irks me big time the more I read on it.
    The neck to have four photos of playing legends on the wall, but the ladies player locked out this year in 2022 from using the facility.
    The funding model is a bloody outrage.
    See below copied from Irish times:
    Croke Park, the Munster Council and team sponsor Kerry Group have each donated €1 million; Friends of Kerry pledged €700,000 and the National Lottery gave €300,000.
    So that was 1 million from central council.. process that 1 million.
    Another 1 million from the Munster council.
    300k from the national lottery.
    The donation from Irelandfunds was in the hundreds of thousands but I don’t have it to hand.

35. @Jp If ever there was a white elephant, Currans Centre of Excellence is exactly that. It is located just beyond Castleisland and would, geographically (not to mention standard of roads), be more suited to Limerick, than e.g. players from South Kerry – Cahirciveen/Waterville. It continues to be a headache and major financial drain on Kerry Co. Board resources.

    As regards financing with GAA headquarters, an analogy would be the EU position during Ireland’s financial crisis. Throwing toys out of the pram gets you nowhere – you must work with CP. Mayo is in the enviable position of being able to raise funds in the US – even more so than Kerry. Also, as I understand it, CP has negotiated favourable interest rates. Therefore, the chances are that current inflationary pressures will work in Mayo’s favour in the medium term.

36. @Oneinallin Kerry GAA last accounts were half million profit with Currans paid ahead for 2022.
    Revenue of 7 million. Mayo have a job of work to do in terms of having as good a finance committee. Kerry Group and the contacts from it really does help Kerry a lot.
    Mayo’s peak revenue 2019 I seen 3.5 million.

37. @1989.i see some sense in that. I wonder should they just crack on and play during the summer and whoever goes to America good luck to them. There are a big percentage of players who don’t /can’t go so wouldn’t it be interesting to see how it would pan out. Maybe I’m being a bit unfair.

38. What do they be thinking , all Ireland over in July , it’s a shambles . Stop fucking messing with stuff that doesn’t need tampering with , third Sunday in September is grand , absolutely grand . The official curtains to the Irish summer , all back to normal life then . Now we have nothing absolutely nothing in august , bank holiday weekend and the all Ireland over , clowns .

39. Have to agree with you to a large extent Seán. Hurling over in mid July and football a week later. You’d wonder why bearing in mind lots of co Championship don’t start til August or September. Such a mad rush to get AI over that they couldn’t even allow for replays in Galway Armagh, Clare Limerick hurling And also others. This I feel is unfair on players and supporters not to mention the huge loss of revenue (some of which could be diverted to McHale Park debt!!!!) .Seemingly it was designed to facilitate club players but a lot of club players I know are totally disillusioned with the situation. They have been training since Jan/ Feb and haven’t had a meaningful game yet, loads of glorified challenges games and not very important league games.While the club supporter can look forward to autumn Championship the county supporter especially those who are not based in their native county have little to amuse them for a long stint now. The younger folk may even forget the GAA for a while once the premiership starts up in England. What’s the story with next years Championship? I know the new system will bring quite a few more games but is it still envisaged to conclude it in July?

40. On Dublin playing all there games in croke park and therefore have no stadium costs, surely they must pay some fee for the use of croke park, or is it the case that croke park just takes all the revenue from it?

41. Totally off topic I’m looking for one ticket for the hurling final on Sun
    Long shot I know but any help greatly appreciated

    Thanks

42. Only league format combats that. Sure in the old system there was only the odd match anyway this time of year from quarters onwards.

43. No doubt honestly in my view we need to go back to the old system as its not fair to ask club players to forgo holiday and trips to US etc.
    Just let each county get on with minding their own business.
    Oneinallin
    Excellent points on the debt.Inflation will help and a proper finance committee to pay it off.Although that works counter to inflation of course.We have to pay it though debt is debt.You sign for it you own it.

    Just on the management side i would love to see Cora Staunton as a selector.She is an astute analyst and probably our greatest ever player and she has 4 all ireland senior medals.
    I wonder is she available though with AFL ….thats the problem…

44. The problem with the old system is that the vast majority of intercounty and club players aren’t playing competitively in high summer. It’s madness.

45. I’m not from Mayo, Galway I’m afraid, but Cora Staunton is brilliant on TV with analysis.
    Would be great asset to Mayo or any team in my view.

46. @St .Pat’s Oldie. Reports today in one of the papers that there were tickets for the All Ireland Hurling Final put up on general sale.

47. I see Rochford not with Donegal next year and a lot of talk that Bonner will resign
    I would love to see Rochford back.

48. Tickets were on sale on Ticketmaster for the Nally Stand for the Hurling Final today.

49. Still a limited number of lower davin and upper deck stand tickets on general sale for Sundays hurling final

50. With very hot conditions forecast this weekend, and advise for people to stay indoors what do people think of playing gaa games this weekend at 1pm sunday for club games and 3.30pm for the hurling final.
    Even people sitting or standing in extreme heat for a few hours can be dangerous.

51. Q&A pod for club members has just gone live on Patreon. It’s a chunky one too, 1:25 in length but we had a fair few pages of questions to plough through, on which Ed and Stephen did a great job in answering.

52. Robert it will be the same for both teams

53. @No doubt in regards to why the club championship starting September as already stated to allow the lads in the USA fly home and the schedule of the Connacht championship

    Connacht Senior championship the Mayo winner plays the Galway champion on November 13th
    Intermediate Connacht the Mayo winner aren’t out until the week after November 20th v Leitrim or Galway winner
    Junior Mayo winner the same weekend of November 20th for their Connacht championship opener.

54. In the Q&A on the podcast Steven Drake suggests Ballagh as the designated training base until a CoE can be provided. Talk about pissing off the Rossies!

55. Jesus @Rober, the weather is usually shit in this Country, will you go out and enjoy the heat, doesn’t come here for too long.
    If all the players are as fit as they supposed to be then the heat won’t affect them too much.

56. Personally I believe that Stephen Rochford is our best manager because he picked a very strong backroom team,I believe that he is out best option going forward,just imagine if we have Stephen as manager and if he could persuade Jim Gavin and Jim Mc Guinness as a back room team we would be home and dry

57. JR, if we go báck to Rochford or any of the others we won’t be winning anything that’s for sure

58. We were nearly back to the Longford days in his last tenor, he brought in very little of new talent

59. Back to the debt. To be completely callous about it would it make sense to default. Firstly from a purely financial point of view the venue isn’t worth a fraction of the amount that is owed, secondly is a bank really going to sell the ground to recover the debt- a pr disaster. Also I wonder does the Corporate Trust own the ground and does the debt effectively go back to Croke Park. I appreciate this approach puts Mitchels in bother and CB probably wouldn’t be able to get finance again. Daft maybe, its late !

60. It was notable that twenty of the Irish rugby squad were 29 or over.
    Ten of the players who featured on the day were over 30.
    I would like if the next manager approached David Drake to be involved as a man marking corner back.
    – he’s as quick as alternatives
    – he’s bigger than those same alternatives
    I can’t think of any pacey, strong six foot corner backs that we have.
    I’d be seeing does Caolan Crowe have enough short distance pace.
    Some of the younger alternatives I don’t know if there even that much quicker.
    Trawl back again though fringe players who were involved in recent years

61. Agree JP we need to bring back our best natural full backs to release our 2 best footballers Leeroy and Oisin further out the field.
    I would like to see Eoin O’Donoghue asked straight back in with Caolan Crowe,David Drake and David McHale all been looked at in the FBD and National League next year.
    McHale is probably the best club corner back in the County and is a great leader for Knockmore and has played for Mayo Minors and Under 21s.

62. Regarding the debt , it does seem fairly excessive and one that will only hinder our progress – development of COE, training pitches etc going forward.
    A few years ago Cork GAA headhunted a lady called Sinead O’Keefe from the Irish Cancer Society. Sinead (info on her can be easily found) has a background in fundraising – community and commercial, and with the right committee, helped turn Corks finances which were then badly managed and in a poor state, right around.
    Sinead O’Keefe was paid well for her work of course, and she has gone on to win many awards in Munster and nationally incl business woman of the year etc
    Any Mayo Co Board members reading this, spend the money and bring someone like Sinead O’Keefe on board.

63. Maybe a big starting point is to establish the ultimate finance committee. It would consist of:
    1.Chairperson, Treasurer
    2. Modern finance industry connected professionals.
    3. Political persons. Alan Dillon and Enda Kenny.
    4. Celebrity endorsers and networking helpers. Which can fluctuate. Louis Walsh, Caolan Doris, Sally Rooney.
    5. A few very wealthy business persons direct or generational connection. McEvaddys, Richard Barrett, serious serious wealth.

64. Liam and Noel Gallagher, Bonehead three members of Oasis all connected to Mayo.
    Mary Robinson, Michael Flatley a connection.
    Matt Molloy.
    Take a box in Croke Park every year.
    Help Mayo GAA and get to rub shoulders with the great and the good.
    Massive golf classic every football final weekend.
    Huge fundraising on Mayo day.
    The above would work in the order of millions raised over five years.

65. Nothing personal against the lad but jeez David Drake offered nothing imo when he was in before and I could never understand why he was there. Don’t ever remember him making an impact on any game. A couple of the kilmaine lads wouldn’t have looked out of place on the county team in todays 20pt hammering of crossmolina

66. If you watch the 2015 match against Dublin David Drake was fine on very limited game time.
    He was never used in his best role as a man marking corner back.

67. Limerick captain giving thanks their sports psychologist in his winning speech today….

68. A sports psychologist can help, but we have bigger issues than that to sort firstly.
    Not a deep enough panel and not as quick and powerful as Galway, Kerry and Dublin.

69. @JP.. Michael Flately has Sligo roots but lives in a Castle in Cork, can’t see him really being too interested in Mayo..Matt Molloy is a Roscommon Man. The members of Oasis are big Man City fans..Where would Mary Robinson get the time for fund raising for Mayo…She is now a Climate Justice Activist…I think that might well have been a carbon neutral electric helicopter she used to fly to her estate in Mayo so often?, .. Otherwise her personal Carbon Footprint, would have been the same as an entire big village or a small town probably!.. And last I heard she still hasn’t found Princess Leah..But if you can find them for some miracle funding work for Mayo, maybe you can hire the A-Team?..As far as I know Cornel Decker hasn’t found them yet…

70. I thought we had a sports psychologist with the senior panel this year? Definitely read that somewhere. Anyway as JP said, there are other things to sort out first.

71. I thought it was very telling that Jack O Connor referred to all the psychology work Kerry had done over the last few months in a recent interview. I think we have a few psychological issues to address after last year’s final against Tyrone and not showing up for the league final

72. The biggest issue we have right now is we have a speed and power gap to the top teams.
    I felt Tyrone had such a gap on us also.
    The big blindspot with this is that it is never mentioned. It’s put out there that we are immensely physical and powerful. I don’t see it.
    It only seems like that if compared to teams that are not in that top teams grouping.

73. What is the limit on players from Ireland being on the pitch with American clubs? Was watching the Patriots v McBrides game earlier (game Sunday evening) and Carney, Mullin and Towey started but were replaced by Hession, McLaughlan and Ruane. Oisin limped off in the first half but no word of what the injury was. Carney played in midfield and though the quality of opposition wouldn’t be inter-county standard he was moving really well. Paul Towey scored 1-15 including a penalty goal and 6 frees. In fairness he kicked scores from many angles and distances. In his 3 games so far he has scored 1-02, 1-05 and 1-15. Not bad going. Another thing was the commentary which was so amusing. At one stage he said “number 20 coming on but there’s no 20 on my teamsheet. I’ll just call him Quinn”. Priceless!

74. How are you getting to see these games Joe G? Are you in the states?

75. Pullhard. I’m in Mayo. I started following McBrides after the lads went out to Chicago. They put up another site that streams the games. …….Chicago GAA. Is the site and they do live streams. You can watch live on Sunday evenings or at anytime thereafter. All the games are there for you to watch. Hope this helps

76. Joe G, thanks so much. Gonna check that out.

77. Joe. G. – I believe only 5 intercounty players can be on the pitch at any point in time. I think McBride’s are playing the Parnell’s club next. They have Rian O’Neill, Conor Meyler, Michael McKernan and possibly other notable players.

    The streaming service is brilliant in fairness.

78. Wide Ball. Should be a great encounter and yes the streaming is brilliant. The commentator is great craic.

79. Wide Ball. Did they not beat Parnells the other week? I’ll have to have a look in the morning.

80. I think they’ve only played 3 games so far. Lost to Padraig Pearses, beat Wolf Tones and the Patriots.

81. Wide Ball. Yeah the result I remembered was actually a win for McBrides over Parnell’s but that was at Intermediate.

82. Looking at Irish Times this morning regarding piece with Padraig Joyce, it appears he strengthened his back room team with new s a c coach, coach O Neil and Bernard Dunne performance coach that speaks volumes of his intent for this year. What money did not or couldn’t do for whatever reasons? Look at Limerick a prime example it’s not just a manager that is a recipe for success! It’s a team collective effort ? around you. Mayo need to wise up and take ?

83. Mayo apologies not money error!!