There’s oodles of stuff, as you’d expect, in this week’s Mayo News about the minor replay and, as you’d also expect, most of it is of the wistful variety. Sean Rice did the match report and some analysis, Austin Garvin did some more analysis, An Spailpín did his now usual fan’s eye piece and Daniel Carey did the after-match reaction stuff, where a number of Ray’s soundbites that were covered in yesterday’s nationals get another airing. It’s this article, however, where all the really pertinent stuff is, particularly Ray’s call for the county to learn from Tyrone’s blueprint and to put the work in now within the schools and at under-age level if we’re really serious about competing with the leading counties at All-Ireland level in the coming years. Is it just me or is it the case that the Knockmore man is a rock of sense when it comes to footballing matters?
And then there’s Kevin McStay’s final column with the paper, where he too gets all wistful not only about the minors but also about his 13 years doing the column. I’ll miss old Kev – I always looked forward to reading what he had to say every week as he always sounded like he knew what he was on about and was usually fairly direct and to the point in how he said it. A bit like Ray Dempsey, in other words.
That’s it, must dash – wounds to lick and all that.
Dempsey says all the right things for sure. He has surprised me i have to say but when you think back he nearly always did the right thing on the pitch. He had no pace but had a good head on him and scored vital goals for us( including one in an AI final remember). It would appear he has brought that wisdom, straight talking and thinking to the other side of the white line. I really hope he stays put. His contribution to a successfull senior team could be invaluable. On the flip side of that I find myself turning mahony off when he comes on the radio and dont even bother reading his after match quotes. I wonder did the penny drop for mahony in longford on saturday. He is too caught up in making excuses to the mayo people as to why we havent won connacht or an all ireland but he is missing the point. Mayo fans dont demand all irelands, they just demand that the team performs to the best of its ability. We are realists. No where was this more evident than in longford last Saturday. the team did its best and the fans appreciated it. I hope mahony took note.
That’s it in a nutshell, Ted, and it’s the reason why so many Mayo fans – myself included – are so disillusioned with The Second Coming. We haven’t played near our potential at senior level for the past two years and I’m not expecting us to do much better next year either.
An additional problem with Johnno is his position as a TD: I’d go so far as to say that he can’t do both jobs at the one time. Politicians don’t ever want to be unpopular but the manager of the county team has to risk that to get the best out of his chosen players – recall that Mickey Harte wasn’t exactly the most popular man in Tyrone over much of the summer. As football manager, you’re trading in the stuff of people’s dreams whereas in politics (especially backbench politics) it’s bullshit like potholes and medical cards and what-do-I-have-to-do-to-retain-that-fifth-seat in the next election. The two don’t mix – how could they? – which leads me to believe that 2009 will (unless we show dramatic improvement on the past two years) be Johnno’s final one as bainisteoir.
Well put Ted, what we always wanted was to play with a swagger and a bit of pomp, not percentage damage limitation rubbish of the last two years. Also its time to have a hard look at some of the players that heve clogged up the panel for the last few years with out setting the world alight. We have lost McDonald, the two Bradys and O Neill but have replaced them with journey men. There are a few guys that never make the panel no matter what they do i.e Ger Brady Claremorris and the Kilcullens along with John Brogan. Lets free up our thinking. Time for Seamus O Shea and Barry Moran to be tossed in and another look at Micheal Conroy to be reassesed once more. I am not talking about ten minutes versus Sligo I.T or N.I.U.G or whatever they are called nowadays but real game time. The minors have shone the light in and the time for waffle wont be tolerated days are over.
jeez lads youse have hit the nail on the head about jom.was tuned into madwest on saturday and d.brady and jom were doing pregame and ht anylysis.brady was very good and his passion for mayo football shone through.found myself tuning out j.om as ihave heard the same b.s from him time and time again and god forbid if he would make a prediction about anything.i nearly fell off my chair when o’mahoney said after the match that he was looking forward to working with these players over the next few years and me thinking that we had only to endure one more year of his leadership.ray demsey deserves alot of credit for the job he done this year and the image he potrays of a strong leader who expects his mayo team to win every game ,should be what we expect from our senior manager.any ways rant over and cant wait for the fbd league to start