The nominations list for this year’s All-Star awards was published last night and, as expected, we’re well represented on it. Newly-crowned All-Ireland champions Donegal lead the list with twelve nominations and we’re next on a generous enough ten. Cork have seven, Dublin six, Meath and Longford have two each while Armagn, Down, Kildare, Kerry, Laois and Wexford have one each. The full list is here.
Our ten nominees are David Clarke, Ger Cafferkey, Keith Higgins, Lee Keegan, Colm Boyle, Barry Moran, Aidan O’Shea, Kevin McLoughlin, Alan Dillon and Andy Moran, which is pretty much everyone we were talking about last week, with the welcome addition of the battling Davitts man at half-back. Congrats to all of them on making it onto the list.
The Footballer of the Year shortlist is comprised solely of Donegal lads – Frank McGlynn, Karl Lacey and Colm McFadden – which I guess is understandable enough. It would, however, have been good to see someone like Kevin McLoughlin included in this select group even if the winner was always going to come from the Donegal camp.
We’ve better luck in the Young Footballer of the Year category where Cillian O’Connor – last year’s winner of this award – is included along with Meath starlet Donal Keogan and Donegal’s Paddy McBrearty. This is another gong headed for the North-West, I reckon.
In separate news, the Indo is reporting this morning that the Connacht Council are considering turfing us out of next year’s FBD League due to our failure to send a team to New York for this year’s final final. It’s an understandable reaction, I suppose, but it’s a bit of a pity if it comes to this. Once we’d qualified for the All-Ireland final at the start of last month, it was pretty bloody obvious that our appetite for an early October trip across the Atlantic wouldn’t be all that strong, regardless of the result, and so steps should really have been taken at that stage to formulate alternative arrangements. Instead, we’ve got recriminations and sanctions over a meaningless junket, which is all a bit pointless.
If the Connacht Council does go ahead and throw us out of the FBD then we should, I reckon, use this as a building block in creating a siege mentality around the team for 2013. If they don’t want us, we should then retaliate by withdrawing all of our players from the various Third Level teams playing in the FBD and use the month instead for internal training purposes ahead of the league’s resumption in early February. Let’s face it – the FBD is a bit of a waste of time as things stand so if a slap on the wrist is coming our way due to the New York thing we should turn this to our advantage and use the month of January for our own purposes to prepare for the far bigger challenges that await us in 2013.
I think Donal Keogan will take the YPOTY. Brilliant versus Kildare. Nominated for an All Star which would increase his chances over the Cillian and McBrearty, don’t know what the fuss is about the former to be honest, big lad but hasn’t overly impressed me anytime I’ve seen him.
Micky Conroy can feel a bit hard done by, deserved a nomination. If Clarkey had kept a clean sheet in the final, he would have got it.
I think it’ll go something like this…
Paul Durcan
Neil McGee (Donegal); Ger Cafferkey Keith Higgins
Lee Keegan Karl Lacey (Donegal); Frank McGlynn (Donegal)
Neil Gallagher (Donegal); Aidan Walsh (Cork)
Mark McHugh (Donegal); Michael Darragh Macauley (Dublin); Kevin McLoughlin
Colm McFadden (Donegal); Michael Murphy (Donegal); Colm O’Neill (Cork)
edit: I don’t agree with that selection by the way, it’s just what I think will be dished out. Aidan Walsh wasn’t in within an ass’s roar of an all star in my opinion but I can see that run and point versus Kildare getting him it sadly.
i agree with a lot of what alfie says though i think they might not pick caff and pick dillon instead of mccauley. think barry moran and david clarke are deserving however and wouldnt be surprised to see either of them get it.
Can’t understand the reactions to the fixture in new York. Is it a case of us not having the dough to send a team. Surely there must be 20 lads close enough to the county panel who would be willing to travel?
Also disagree with not taking part in FBD league. Could easily leave out 12 of our starting 15 or so from the Ai final and give fringe players an opportunity.
I agree with JPM. It would be nice to see the young O’shea and young O’connor, plus others, cut their teeth.
The County Board are on record as saying that cash isn’t the issue, JPM. They’re citing (rightly or wrongly) a combination of fixture congestion (with senior and intermediate semi-finals on this weekend when the trip was supposed to be happening) and player unavailability as the reason for cancelling. Re not taking part in the FBD, it could be that we have no choice if the Connacht Council throws us out of it. My point is that if they do then we should use the month for our own purposes. If they leave us in, I suppose we’ll have to take part in it only this time we should avoid winning it, just in case we end up in the same bother in 12 months time!
Why didn’t someone on the Board pick up a phone after the Dublin game and make contingency plans? They could have postponed the trip or offered it to another county, who would certainly have taken it. Why didn’t someone see this coming before now?
Being banned from the FBD League next year would be bad. It means you’re starting the League cold and then fighting relegation by Easter, rather than looking at as many players as you can over the course of the League and then getting in Championship form by Easter. Bad job by the Board here.
Certainly some plans should have been made after we won the Dublin game, as it would have been obvious then that there was no way a trip to New York was going to happen this weekend. Offering it to the runners-up (NUIG) might have been an option, it certainly could have been tried. I’m not sure I’d agree that we’d lose anything by not being allowed to take part in next year’s FBD, though. We never go with a full deck in January anyway, as a number of the panel end up playing for Third Level teams and not taking part in a tournament where we mainly play fringe players would, I think, have little or no impact on how we fare in the league. My point is that if they do turf us out of the FBD next year we should use the time for our own pre-season prep and as part of this it would make sense to withdraw our players from the Third Level teams, which would then mean that the full panel would have more pre-season time together compared to what would happen if we are in the FBD.
Yet another f**k up by Mayo county board. I agree with you WJ, if they throw us out of the FBD league next year, we should withdraw all our county players from other teams in the league, and use the time for training/team bonding weekends etc.
Was Galway thrown out some years ago? I have it in the back of my mind that they were for some reason.
Yup mayo.mick the County Board are shown up again. Maybe they could withdraw themselves from their positions? Added to the debt they have built up, the Strategic Review, this and the ticket fiasco that we see in the locals this week. And we’ll stay in the FBD. These are games we need to try out players and see if they are up to league action and we cannot withdraw players from college panels. Remember many are on scholarships and are preparing for the Sigerson and will not be able to step out.
That’s fair enough WJ but the best pre-season prep of the lot is playing matches. I don’t think there’s anything to beat that.
This is the team from our first FBD match of this year, from this great site’s genuinely spectacular archives: David Clarke; Shane McHale, Eoghan Reilly, Lee Keegan; Peadar Gardiner, Donal Vaughan, Colm Boyle; Barry Moran, Seamus O’Shea; Kevin McLoughlin, Pat Harte, Danny Kirby; Enda Varley, Darren Coen, Michael Conroy.
That’s not that weak a team, and it was an excellent chance for an under-the-radar look at players like Reilly, Kirby, Coen and Conroy. The absence from the FBD League denies Mayo that level of experimentation. They can’t play challenges, because everyone else is playing their own competitions. There are so few inter-county matches Mayo need them all to look at players before the Championship begins.
I’m sorry fellas. Any way you slice this it’s looking worse and worse.
@Mayo Mick, Galway opted out of the FBD, a bit like Man U opted out of the FA Cup some years back. I wish we would too, its a pointless competition without playing the men who need game time the most ie the college players.
Stone Cold Steve Austin & Mayo.Mick
Totally agree with your previous posts.
The Mayo county Board don’t think logically, simple as. I also believe that the annual give away draw is way behind and hasn’t taken place yet, it was due to start last APRIL.
Some very interesting reading this week in the local papers, It seems the well known local journalists are turning against them to.
30,000 the “free” New York trip was going to cost the CO board claim money wasn’t issue even though the huge debts we have! FBD were giving 18,000 for playing the final and now a big fine is likely.
It would have made more sense to send over any patched up Mayo team.
Maybe the Board in their wisdom might learn a bit of courtesy now to supporters and to the Connacht Council. A phone call weeks ago could have sorted everything. There are all types of solutions. If there was an All Ireland replay this week would thry have allowed the lads to play?
This was brewing a few weeks ago when I spoke to an official – and when I asked him about the FBD final I got no answer. They knew they werent going a good bit before the AI final. Poor New York only get two games in the year and this one was pulled from under them. Mayo shouldve sent over the Junior or U21 team to this and fulfilled the fixture. Colleges have the first call on the 3 players in each Connacht county for the FBD. It will mean that between the three Connacht Colleges aswel as Dublin and Limerick, our lads will be well scattered throughout January and wont get it together right until the opening round of the league.
First of all I don’t believe for one second that the connacht Council didn’t know about the FBD withdrawal weeks ago. Anyone who is in are around Mc Hale park will see Connacht officials in and out of the place all the time. Especially in the lead up to the AI final. This is a face saving exercise by the Connacht Council, and fair enough in my view.
Afterall it would be the Connacht Club finals which would loose out as no way would Mayo clubs play their semi’s and finals without their County Men, resulting in a delay in Mayo Championship and expulsion from the Connacht competitions.
Mayo will probably be allowed play in FBD next year if they wish, as the competition is stronger with them in it.