Green and Red

Great report Willie Joe, unable to attend, had our u13s out in slubber instead. I am afraid the alarm bells are ringing for me and I hate being a moaner. O Mahony clearly has no stomach for this competition bearing in mind he pulled Galway out of it before. Still Galway and Roscommon have got something out of it this year. Johnno goes on as if Mayo is the only county in Connacht that has lads attending third level. Galway lost a pile of bucks to the colleges but found out that last years corner back , Bradshaw, did a more than passing stint as a midfielder for U.C.G Similarily Roscommon lost Peter Domican and Donal Shine amongst others to the colleges. This was never offered as an excuse. O Donnell and Sammon focused on using the resources they have rather than crying about the loss of the likes of Cafferky to U.C.G
This year the other counties in Connacht have top drawer managers and our work will be cut out. We have no excuses, 4 U21 Connacht titles in a row since 2004, two Minor All Ireland final appearences since 2005 should put as much decent talent our way as what Galway or Roscommon will produce. Already I am bracing myself for the return of the usual suspects with only Mark Ronaldson making any breaktrough. Winning habits are formed early, already we are playing catch up…O Donnell , Moran etc will be well primed for us come the summer.

I’d say your U13s were well ready for their chicken broth after being out in that weather yesterday, ontheroad!

I wouldn’t go ringing any alarm bells just yet about our lads but it’s clear that Connacht will be more competitive this year. Fergie O’Donnell has added a fair bit of pep to the Rossies’ step and I’d expect them to get promoted out of Division 3 of the league. They should be well used to winning by the time the championship starts and we’d do well to watch out for an ambush come June. Liam Sammon has also got the Galway lads out of the traps quickly and they’ll be looking to improve on last year too. If we’re to be competitive in Connacht, we need to improve sharply on last year and while it’s too early yet to be drawing any conclusions about how we’re doing, we’ll find out soon enough once the league swings into action.

dont panic just yet…that game was a non event..i was more mud wrestling than anything else with the bigger guys winning out. I was burried in amongst rossies who outnumbered us 6 to1 id say, and decided to head over to the dug out for the 2nd half for a bit of piece and quiet. firstly there was nothing on the bench to bring on…reckon if i sat on the bench i might have even got a run out. THe management couldnt have cared less…i was right beside them and all they were doing was chatting amongst themselves. i reckon if i had asked johhno i would have got a cap. nothing to report really althoug Drake lis worth having a look at and prendergast too. Kelly at MF is big but not the answer and the CHF was big too but didnt show. Regan was a disappointment but ill hold fire given the day that was in it…fair play to them for just togging out. the highlight was caffreys goal…it was a bullett..he’s worth a look too but you would have think having started on the bench that its the last we’ll see of him. Cant wait for ballina.

Very good report alright although noting that Roscommon took a more “traditional” approach in the first half while seemingly criticising Mayo for playing short ball against the wind is a bit much.

Wouldn’t be too negative about the game, you only need to look at the team sheet to see what an experimental line up we had out.

I’m not sure you could consider FO’D a “top drawer” manager despite winning the minor All Ireland. JO’M is pretty much as good as there is out there, one or two excepted.

You’re right about the conditions, Ted – it’s the first time I’ve ever seen the Squeegy Man in action at half-time. It was a wonder the game went ahead at all.

Not sure I follow you, MacDanger – the wind was blowing in the same direction for the two halves! Ros made excellent use of the wind in the first but the criticism I had was of Alan Dillon’s decision late on in the second half not to use the wind at his back to go for the point when he had a free 30 or so yards out. Instead he squared it, we lost the ball and Roscommon broke upfield to score what proved to be the winner.

It’s certainly too early to be drawing any conclusions about how Fergie O’Donnell will fare out but I think it’s safe to assume that they’ll be better this year than they’ve been in recent years (that, I know, wouldn’t be too difficult).

Well WJ I see congrats are in order for you once again with you being nominated for the best sports blog for the second year in a row in the Irish blog awards. http://awards.ie/blogawards/

Thanks, nooneshoutedstop, I just mentioned it myself, media whore that I am!

Yeah I figured the wind was probably blowing the same way for both halves but he appears to mention the first half specifically when criticising their short play:

“The first half facing into a strong breeze Mayo were unable to break free of the Roscommon defensive shackles, which started with their full forward line, at one stage in the first half, the ball passed through six pairs of Mayo hands inside the 14m line as they tried to break free of the visitors attention. Roscommon adopted a more traditional approach and let the ball do the work from distance dropping it in on the Mayo full back line”

Good work on the nomination WJ, seems like you’re the only GAA blog nominated.

I get you now, MacD, I thought it was my report you were referring to. I think my fellow Mayo blogger was just stating the facts when he said that we couldn’t get the ball up the field using the short approach. The second half showed that the conditions largely dictated the game.

There’s one other GAA blog nominated – Come on the Deise – but I think this just reflects the fact that there are so few of us out there. There are obviously far more Irish lads blogging about English Premiership soccer teams than there are about GAA county sides!