Okay, this needs to be quick as a hassle-filled day of work lies ahead.
First up, here’s all the match reports from yesterday: from the Times, the Indo, the Mayo Advertiser and from There is a light that never goes out. Hang on: here’s another one, from An Spailpin. Keith Duggan in the Times is fairly upbeat about our performance yesterday and says that “there is a sense about them that it is going to click into place sooner or later”. I hope you’re right Keith but I have to say I saw precious little yesterday to convince me that anything is clicking into place for us right now. In the same report, Johnno is quoted as saying that the ref’s performance was one that merits “an in-depth analysis”. No it doesn’t – summary execution would do just fine: that tool should never be let near a football pitch again. In the Indo, Johnno claims that our performance showed we have “a unity of purpose”. I must have been at the wrong game, then.
Onto other match reports from the weekend, the nationals have very little to say about that U21 classic on Saturday but There is a light that never goes out more than makes up for it in his excellent match report and the Mayo Advertiser has a full match report as well. That U21 Connacht final against Sligo, by the way, will take place on Saturday, the 4th of April. No word yet on a venue for that one.
Still on ruminations about the weekend, if you want to soak up more of that Grand Slam feeling then this eloquent piece from my good buddy TJ at UnLaoised is well worth a look. He may be at the rear of the field for the Gaelic Football mini-league but he’s second to none when it comes to the rugger.
And so, onto the mini-league, where, for the first time ever, we haven’t had a change at the top from the previous week. Dearg Doom still leads the way with the top five featuring the same names as last week, though in slightly different order. DB isn’t out of it yet, either – he’s now up in sixth, having made steady progress week-on-week and he could yet sneak in under the radar to scoop the prize. He has Kerry connections as well so needs watching from here on in. Likewise, yengae – who moves back up to seventh this week – is still in there with a shout. Here’s the full table:
I hit a few speed bumps this week and so I’m down to 17th, where I’m on the same points as An Spailpin. A mini-mini-league appears to be in progress between us (No One Shouted Stop! already seems to be in the winner’s enclosure for the Blogger’s Award) and so you can expect to see skin and hair flying mid-table (or a bit below) over the remaining two rounds.
Spalpin nails it perfectly. Midfield is not robust. Put plainly McGarrity is not good enough. Twice wiped in All-Ireland finals but not fingered in enquiries he is still deemed as our number one mid. He’s not.
The mention/nonmention by Spalpin of a guy called MacDonald is plainly obvious. The forward s,all six play as a poor U10 outfit without a leader.Sometimes we gotta use the guy that can do it to do it if you follow my drift. MacDonald is a can do guy, even if its only for this year.
Its tragic that the two Mortimers, Dillon,Austin and who ever else is inflicted up front cannot gel.Kilcoyne flaters to decieve,Roanaldson or Conor but not the two. Simple science says play a big guy at 14, feed off him, surely amid the plethora of u21s and minors of the last four years there are at least two decent front men?
More than likely we will survive in div1 but its painful watching us go round in circles. The players are there but there is no spark, bite or gung ho feel about this team.
C Mort had a shocker yesterday, but given what he’s done (mainly from frees) over the last few years I can’t see him being dropped for the championship. The guy cannot play alongside a target man FF, he doesn’t seem to have any idea of what to do with breaking ball. The only way he gets possession is when low ball is given in front of him.
Hopefully Barry Moran will be fit to play in the next 2 games as I can’t see him being thrown into championship unless he gets a few games more games in the league. O’Shea was very impressive in the U-21 game on Saturday, if we could get a few games into a Barry Moran and O’Shea in the full forward line they’d make a interesting combination for championship.
Austie is non-runner for championship, although he is a good point taker, he makes the wrong decision too often to be a fixture at this level.
I’d be inclined to persist with Killer as he has more potential than most, at least he is not afraid to take on shots (mostly wayward admittedly) and always puts the work in.
I can’t believe people as criticising Trevor’s performances. He’s been one of our best players all year and yesterday was no exception. He turned over any amount of ball around midfield.
Backs form is encouraging, how much of that is down to us playing an extra man in defence in the last 2 games? We have a lot to return there too, so we should have plenty of options for summer.