The team for Saturday should, if Mike Finnerty was right in what he said yesterday (and I’ve no reason to doubt him), be announced later on this evening. There’s little point in engaging in any speculation about who’ll be named to start and who won’t as (a) I’m far too busy with work and stuff at the minute, (b) I think the million or so permutations already posted by the lads on gaaboard.com are more than enough to be getting on with and (c) if that isn’t enough for you, my blogging chum TIALTNGO has already provided a more than sufficiently interesting take on what he thinks the selection might look like.
The papers haven’t much to add, apart from the Indo which is claiming that Johnno is “reeling” about a spate of groin injuries in the camp. Hang on a second there: can they really claim with any validity that Johnno is reeling? (He is a Blueshirt, after all). Why couldn’t he be jigging instead? As regards the injured parties, it’s just the same names we know about already so there’s no need for anyone to start engaging in any further jigging or reeling on the basis of this report.
Right, seeing as we’re all kicking our heels waiting for the team selection, I thought it might be useful to share the stats below in relation to the 2009 squad with everyone, given that official sources within Mayo GAA were kind enough to share these details with me in the first place. I operate on old money where it comes to weight and height and so forth and I haven’t had the time to convert these vital statistics back to imperial measurements so that’s something useful for you to do while you’re waiting for the team announcement. However, a quick scan down through the list confirms that 193 cms is kinda tall, 170 cms is rather short, 96 kgs is pretty heavy and 70 kgs is a bit on the light side. As for the rest of the details, have a good look – there’s only ten hours or so to go till the team is named.
Just summoning up the courage to catch up on Mayo related news now WJ, understandable in view of my Roscommon loyalties…
A Quick comment about the above tables, I’ve noted that alot of these stats provided to media are bunkum; Colin Cooper and Declan O’Sullivan are regularly listed at 6’0 and having met them both, they are more like 5’10 each. Colm Cavanagh is around 6′ in football boots but is listed at 6’3 in programmes. Methinks some jiggery pokery is afoot here, either by players themselves or a well meaning county board man, determined not to do his bit for the cause.
Hi Innocentbystander – didn’t realise your Rossie leanings up till now. It was a bad day for the county, alright, but hopefully you can come back from it. I know it’s a tall order but a win in the qualifiers would be the best way to get back into the swing of things. It’s not an impossible aim either: just look at Wexford after last year’s Leinster final.
You could be right on the stats front – I should have brought a measuring tape and weighing scales with me to McHale Park the last day to double-check!
All the best
WJ
I think the sooner we remove ourselves form the Championshp the better. As Liam Horan pointed out we don’t even have the luxury of sacking the manager this time out. Having seen Fergal O’Donnell in action as a club manager within the county I doubt whether progress will be made under his tenure. Hope ye can keep a lid on the hype until ye meet Galway, as ever the duopoly that exists in Connact represent the best hope for provincial success. And this year, depending on how the loser comes out of the provincial final I think either may have an influence on the final destination of Sam.
I still think if you got a reasonable draw in the qualifiers, it’d do the team good for the future to have ended 2009 on a more positive note. It’s difficult, I know, to be thinking about positives after that result but that can’t be undone now.
On our side, I doubt there’ll be too much hype ahead of the final. Last year we beat Sligo easily in the semi-final and then came up short against Galway in the final. I expect it will be Galway again and our poor record at Pearse Stadium will mean that over-confidence won’t be a problem for us going into a final with Galway there.