Well, for me at any rate it is because prior commitments mean that I won’t be able to make it to Omagh for our final NFL fixture of the year next weekend. While both ourselves and Tyrone ostensibly have something to fight over – a win for either of us would secure 5th spot in the Division and both of us could still, mathematically at least, get relegated (if either of us hammers the other and Kildare inflict a similar beating on already relegated Laois) – it doesn’t look like one where the players will have any great incentive to lay everything on the line to secure a win. That said, both sets of players will be keen to advance their claims for inclusion in their respective counties’ championship panels so it could be a competitive enough encounter all the same.
There’s the usual coverage of the Galway game in today’s papers (i.e. a damn sight more than there was on RTE’s Sunday Sport yesterday evening: they should just get Michael Lyster to wear a t-shirt with “We don’t give a toss about the NFL” written on it and be done with it). The Indo has a longish match report and the same paper even sent Eugene McGee west to cover the event. His piece on the game is worth a look.
Willie Joe – have made a the scary discovery that only the Rossies, London & Kilkenny have conceeded the same/more goals than us in the league. That’s not the company we want to be keeping in mid April… Strange considering that the backs are playing quiet well in their individual duels! Work to do for the deputy
On the upside, if we have a +2 scoring difference, the forwards must be tipping on nicely…
It’s scary alright. I was checking back over past results today and I saw that the league final this time last year was the last game in which we didn’t concede a goal. Since then, we let in 7 in the three championship games last Summer, followed by another ten in the six league games played so far this year.
As I said on the post about the match, you could see from the gimp of the Galway lads that they knew there were goals to be had and they could easily have scored at least one more. I’ve just watched the highlights on TG4 and the goals we did give away were pretty poor, both originating from softly conceded ball well out and both times we got caught flat-footed by the quick ball played inside.
At least, we’ve started to raise some green flags of our own but, by the looks of it, we’ll need to hope that Andy has developed an appetite for goals, given all that we’re conceding at the other end. Maybe that’s what John Morrison was on about in 06 when he compared us to Brazil!