Last night’s challenge match with Westmeath at the St Loman’s pitch in Mullingar seems to have been a useful enough exercise. In the end, I didn’t make it there myself as I had a number of commitments closer to home to attend to. My eldest is making her First Communion tomorrow so there’s a good deal on the agenda here at the minute and last night’s list including cutting some rather wet grass.
My thanks to Richard (see his comment on the previous post) who was at the game and who provided details of the result (we won narrowly) and the team, which he says was as follows:
MAYO (SF challenge v Westmeath 14/5/2009): David Clarke; Liam O’Malley, Ciaran Conroy, Keith Higgins; Peadar Gardiner, Trevor Howley, David Heaney; Tom Parsons, Ronan McGarrity, Barry Kelly, Alan Dillon, Aidan Kilcoyne; Mikey Sweeney, Barry Moran, Billy Joe Padden. Subs: Donal Vaughan for Howley, Trevor Mortimer for Dillon.
I don’t think there’s much point speculating on the whys and wherefores of a challenge match line-up, not least because we don’t really know what the story was with player availability (though I assume that AOS has at last been given some time to study his Shakepeare). It’s good, though, to see Keith Higgins get a run-out after such a long absence from the team and David Heaney’s appearance at wing-back shows that he’s still very much in the running for a starting spot there when the real action begins. Good to hear, too, that Killer did well: if he’s ever going to make a mark for us – in the way that the potential he showed in spades in 2006 suggested he might – he needs to do it this year.
That’s it: the next challenge match is the one up here against the Dubs on Friday week which I’ll definitely be at and so will be able to spout about in a bit more detail.
i an digusted that jimmy nallen did not get a run
Sure, didn’t he get a run-out in the Bronx? Maybe Johnno is keeping him in reserve for the Dubs next week!
There’s a good in-depth report on last night’s match on this thread at gaaboard.com where it’s reported that Kenneth O’Malley started the match between the sticks for us (another very welcome comeback to the colours there) and that he was replaced by David Clarke for the second half.
Id say mahony has an idea about what team he would like to put out if all players were avail and fit but at this stage it looks like higgins and howley are understandably well off the pace. We really need these 2 guys back to full fitness if we are to suceed this summer.
Delighted to hear killer did well….he is the only specialised free taker other than mort and can kick long range ones too which counts for a lot. His return to form and a starting slot would be a huge bonus and could be the difference between having an ordinary summer and a good one.