If The Deputy was trying to talk himself out of his bainisteoir’s bib in the aftermath of a second disappointing year in charge (which, in fairness to him, he may not have been but the way he was hedging his bets in that after-match interview made it sound suspiciously like he was), County Secretary Sean Feeney has now made it clear that the County Board isn’t interested in instituting a heave against him. In contrast to Johnno’s Jesuitical post-match twisting and turning, Feeney was refreshingly direct and to the point, saying that:
“John was appointed for three years without a review and we’re happy to see that through. That was the agreement and there’s no move against John. He’s there and if he wants the job, it’s his.”
That’s it, then: it’s over to you now, Deputy.
Cheers for the update WJ. As you say the descision is now firmly with the man in charge…unless of course the Team go on Strike… which I presume (hope) is unlikely. Any idea when he has to make a Formal Reply?
glad it hasnt being dragged out to be honest. I am happy to give him one more year but I will expect to see a significant improvement in the decision making next year. We know we wont win Sam and we might not necessarily win connacht but it is now backs to the wall time and we must see a structured approach and clear decision making. Im not demanding an All ireland, Im not even demanding a connacht title( we have to face galway away in a venue where I can never remember us winning), but I am demanding that he gets the best out of the players at his disposal and I hope the county board are making the same demands but i have my doubts. We saw signs in the last game that the penny is starting to drop with Mahony, it was the players who ultimately cost us the game. Mahony has achieved his first aim of lowering expectations but must now maximise the talent( which is limited ill give him that) at his disposal. failure to do so will see him gone this time next year. i hope it doesnt come to that for many reasons…
The way Feeney responded makes it look as if Johnno remains on board unless he declares he’s resigning. I can’t see that happening so I suppose we can assume that the issue is sorted.
I’m not sure I’d agree that the talent Johnno has in the squad is limited. In terms of top-class forwards, that’s probably true but remember he did inherit a team that had made it to the All-Ireland in 2004 and 2006 and an All-Ireland winning U21 team as well.
We have to aim to win Connacht next year. I know that winning in Salthill isn’t something we’ve done that much but we have be aiming to do this. If we don’t, our haul of Connacht titles this decade will be just two, which would be a major disimprovement compared to the Eighties (where we won four) and Nineties (five).
And we wonder why we will never win an All Ireland. After reading Teds piece I am finally throwing in the hat. O Mahoney has “succeeded”in lowering our expectations and that according to Ted is an achievement!. Lets get real here, since 2004 we have contested two senior finals, got to a league final, won an u21 final lost another along with a minor and won a club All Ireland. Dont tell me that we should lower our expectations. No county apart from Kerry has a record to equal that, even Micky Harte acknowleged that two weeks ago. Where is the doom and gloom coming from? Dublin last apeared in an All Ireland back in 1995 a full thirteen years ago and are they living of lowered expectations, no sir, similarily Wexford, no long term rebuilding bullshit there, no, a simple plan, lets win the next game is all they want to do. We meanwhile take solace in “lowered expectations” and liken it to an achievement. Excuse me but a county with our record expects and indeed demands that we feature on the big day. We expected to lose to Tyrone, Wexford expected to beat Armagh…big difference. From O Mahoney I expect football talk this coming year not political talk. I expect him to clean out the egotists as highlighted in the Western Peoples editorial and bring in young guys a la Maughan back in 1996. Time for Mayo god Help us to die.
To be fair to Ted, ontheroad, I don’t think he was necessarily endorsing Johnno’s achievement in lowering our expectations. I agree totally with you that we need to hear only football talk from The Deputy from now on but his position as local TD means that it’s going to be difficult for this to happen: on the Mac issue, everything he said was political.
Well said, On the Road. We’ve always been too eager to tip our cap to the other crowd. Salthill is no fortress, but people are making out that it is already, and this year isn’t even finished yet.
Too true, Spailpin, it isn’t as if Salthill is any kind of spiritual home for the Galway crowd. From what I could see, they seemed far more at home in McHale Park the last day than they did in Pearse Stadium twelve months before that!