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From The Mayo News:

Proposal for Mayo Leagues 
Tuesday, 16 January 2007 
Proposal for Mayo Leagues

MIKE FINNERTY

MAYO GAA delegates will be asked to ratify a proposal next Tuesday night that sees the 2007 club football leagues divided into six distinctive groups, all based on league form last year.
Mayo GAA Secretary, Sean Feeney, sent an e-mail to every club in the county on Monday night outlining the proposals for the forthcoming leagues, based on recommendations made at the last County Board meeting and submissions submitted by clubs and individuals.
Under this proposal, two teams would be relegated from divisions 1A and 1B at the end of next season with two coming up from divisions 2A and 2B. The same would apply to divisions 2 and 3. There would be a final in each division, all county players would be available for all league games and the leagues would commence on St Patrick's weekend.
The proposal also suggests that the Kelly Cup, O'Mara Cup, Centenary Cup and North Mayo Cup would be run in May, June and July on a divisional basis with and without county players. The divisional winners would compete in county semi-finals and a final. Senior and Intermediate teams must take part and junior participation would be optional.
The proposal that will be put before the club delegates would see divisions 1A and 1B being made up of ten teams.
Division 1A: Crossmolina, Kiltane, Moy Davitts, Belmullet, Westport, Ballinrobe, Tourmakeady, Davitts, Ballintubber and Louisburgh.
Division 1B: Shrule/Glencorrib, Ballina, Claremorris, Castlebar, Charlestown, Breaffy, Ballaghadereen, Burrishoole, Knockmore, Kilmeena
Division 2A: Garrymore, Cill Chomain, Swinford, Bonniconlon, Aghamore, Carramore, Balla, The Neale, Ballina B, Eastern Gaels.
Division 2B: Kiltimagh, Hollymount, Killala, Parke, Kilmaine, Mayo Gaels, Ballyhaunis, Islandeady, Moygownagh, Crossmolina B.
Division 3A: Castlebar B, Knockmore B, Ardnaree, Swinford B, Lacken, Ballintubber B, Claremorris B, Ballaghadereen B, Kilmovee.
Division 3B: Kilfian, Lahardane, Ballycastle, Westport B, Achill, Ardagh, Breaffy B, Ballinrobe B, Ballycroy, Na hÓileain.

MEANWHILE, Tommy Jordan will manage the Crossmolina for the coming season after he was ratified at the club's AGM on Friday night last writes Edwin McGreal.
Jordan, who took over from Hugh Lynn last year, is managing Crossmolina for his second term, having led them to All-Ireland glory in 2001. Once again Eamonn Howley and Mickey O'Donnell will be his selectors.
Elsewhere, Westport have appointed former Westport United manager Kevin Cusack to their senior job, replacing George Golden. Cusack was joint-manager with Padraig Burns when Westport United won the FAI Junior Cup in 2005 and has managed the town's Gaelic football team on two occasion.
Cusack (41) is likely to have been one of the youngest managers in Mayo GAA history when he managed Westport to the 1991 County Senior final, where they lost to Hollymount, when he was only 25.
He has an extensive background in soccer, GAA and rugby and is also a qualified sports therapist. Padraig Barrett has been confirmed as one of his selectors with another appointment likely in the coming weeks.
The senior footballers of Breaffy, Claremorris and Charlestown are all back training while they await an appointment of a manager for the year.
Moy Davitts and Garrymore have yet to make appointments while Shrule/Glencorrib manager Declan Ronaldson is expected to make a decision on whether he will stay on in the coming week.

I saw a bit of Laochra Gael on TG4 last night (the Dooley brothers) and they said that next week it will be about John O'Mahoney - at least I'm nearly sure that's what they said, or my Gaeilge is gone v bad!

Scrapping U-21's leaves a lot of players without football from once they are overage for minors, to the time they are good enough to make the step up to seniors.
How about scrapping U-21s but changing minors to U19 or U20?

From this week's Western. Huge panel of players involved at various levels at the moment.

Net cast far and wide in trawl for talent
By: Anthony Hennigan

AS MANY as 25 players not involved in last season's Mayo senior football panel are currently being monitored by the new management team as preparation for the upcoming FBD and Allianz football leagues gathers momentum.

Team boss John O'Mahony over-saw a trial game involving Mayo under 21 and senior selections at Ballyheane last Saturday morning as he continues to familiarise himself with a mixture of players, some tried, others untested, and in total, over 40 players have been assigned various forms of pre-season conditioning and training.


O'Mahony has confirmed to the Western People that a panel of 30 players to compete in Division 1a of the Allianz football league will not be finalised until the week before Mayo's opening round clash at home to Kerry on February 4th but that even then: "the door will not be closed on any players that may have been left out but who later prove to be good enough."


In the meantime, a selection of noteworthy talent from all corners of the county has been called up for assessment, including three players with past senior inter-county championship experience and as many as eight more of last year's successful U-21 panel.


From that victorious All-Ireland winning team, Aidan Campbell (Swinford), Tom Cunniffe, Sean Ryder (both Castlebar) Kenneth O'Malley (Ballinrobe), Ger Cafferkey (Ballina), Chris Barrett (Belmullet), Seamus O'Shea (Breaffy) and Mark Ronaldson (Shrule-Glencorrib) have all been contacted by Johno, thus joining their team-mates of last season (and already established senior panel-lists) Keith Higgins, Trevor Howley and Aidan Kilcoyne.


Declan Sweeney (Knockmore), Marty McNicholas (Breaffy), Gary Mullins and Paddy Navin (both Claremorris) are among the more familiar names to receive call ups for trial matches while three more members of beaten county senior finalists Ballaghaderreen are also in the shake up, namely James Kilcullen, Barry Kelly and Stephen Drake. Other newcomers include Mickey Mullins (Claremorris), a brother of Gary, Ballina's Enda Devenney and Eanna Casey, Kiltane duo Edmund Barrett and John Scanlon, Colm Forde (Aghamore), Enda Casey (Charlestown), Brendan Prendergast (Tourmakeady), Martin Keane and Colm Cafferkey (both Achill).


The aforementioned Prendergast was yesterday (Monday), named as the Connacht GAA Sportwriter's Personality of the month for December 2006.


"Of all the players we are currently working with, a number of them are operating at different categories in terms of the sort of training they are doing. Some of the under 21s are on weight programmes and are being monitored by us, others are involved in Sigerson Cup preparations and are not training full time but we're giving them assistance," disclosed O'Mahony.


"While we may be looking at some of these younger players with a more long-term outlook, that's not to say that if they show up well in the immediate future that they could not become involved in the league campaign. Even during the league it's likely that we'll be having trial matches on Saturday's for the players not involved the following day so they can all play their part in shaping their own destiny and their efforts should certainly help keep other players on their toes," continued the former All-Ireland winning boss.


Five members of the 2006 Mayo senior panel (John Healy, Colum Lyons, Stephen Carolan, James Gill and Pat Kelly) are not involved in the current set-up for a variety of reasons, however, Mayo's medical team are currently working hard with Ciaran McDonald and Pat Harte to try and help both players recover from back and shoulder injuries respectively.


"Ciaran's injury dates back to pre-All Ireland final time and we're monitoring his progress at the moment. It's important to get it right," concluded John, non-committal as to the likelihood of the Crossmolina man being ready for league duty next month.

Ballinode is Sligo IT's pitch, think it's on their campus.
I'm in Dublin so won't be going, but will prob be in Ballyhaunis the following weekend for the Rossie game

McDonald isn't 33 rosnarun. I think he's 31, which would make 33 O'Neill's correct age.
I read that both he and Conor Mort were playing at the weekend. Why aren't they gone on the cruise I wonder?
Anyone know what team was put out?

I'm not healthy at all today, waiting for the day to end!
But wishing you all a very happy Christmas and new year.

Go mbeidhmid beo ag an am seo arís!

I hear Enda Devenney, Kenneth O'Malley and Gary, and Michael Mullins are also in the set-up. Gone, for a variety of reasons, are James Gill, Pat Kelly, Colum Lyons, Stephen Carolan, and John Healy.

A development panel is running side-by-side with the senior panel, and this includes talented young players like Ger Cafferkey, Mark Ronaldson, Tom Cunniffe, Chris Barrett, Barry Kelly and Aidan Campbell. Some of those men will play senior for Mayo in the New Year, and, I expect, next summer.

So Enda Devenney has finally been called up/accepted the call up! Is he good enough? - that's one question we may finally get the answer to.
James Gill has been on the panel for a long time, sad to see him gone in one way, but I don't think he was going to be able to get a starting spot for the foreseeable future - never really performed as well as I thought he might. Had a great league last year, and then disappeared again.
Some good talent in the dev squad, surely these are the players we will see in the FBD and some of the national league matches.

JOM is not happy! Totally understandably in my opinion. Banishing the selectors to the stands is completely nonsensacle

Unwelcome rule changes attract ire of managers

WHEN thirty inter-county Managers, from every corner of the country, travel to Mullingar the Sunday before Christmas to voice their opinions about the proposed new Hurling and Football match regulations for 2007, there is little need to articulate that feelings are running very high. These proposed regulations are the latest of a pattern of pronouncements from GAA headquarters since last Easter's congress that seem to be all pointing the finger at the management bench for the ills of our games.

Managers were being blamed for, among other things, holding up club fixtures and burning out players with too much training along with needless challenge matches. However, it reached a new low last weekend when GAA headquarters' response to indiscipline on the field was to ban team managers to the dugout and expel selectors to the stands along with the supporters for the duration of the Allianz leagues. How crazy can it get?


Now let me state from the outset that I have no problem with rules and regulations on big match days. They are necessary for the proper presentation of our games. In that context, the idea of deploying a runner to get messages to the players is welcomed. Also, there needed to be some tightening of the water carriers - although it is unreasonable to expect players to have to come out to the sideline for water. I thought we wanted to speed up our games!


Will someone please tell me how keeping a team manager in the dugout and the selectors in the stands will solve the discipline problem on the field? The most high profile brawl in 2006 occurred in the league game in Omagh between Tyrone and Dublin. My memory of that incident is that the team mentors were trying to calm things down as is the case with the vast majority of managers and selectors. It is part and parcel of our Gaelic Games to have the Mick O'D-wyers, Paidi O Se, Ger Loughnane or John Maughan gesticulating to their teams as they parade up and down the line. Supporters see this as an essential part of the entertainment value in Gaelic Games.


Whatever about the manager being confined to the dugout, it is simply unworkable to ban the selectors to the stands. First of all, while the idea a few years ago of sending the substitutes to the stands during the game was a good one, it has not worked because the players in most cases are simply in the middle of the supporters. This can lead to all sorts of problems. For example, last year in the All-Ireland semi-final, Ciaran McKeever of Armagh was attacked by a Tyrone supporter as he returned to the stand after being sent off.


You could imagine a couple of selectors sitting next to infuriated supporters if things are going wrong for their team on the pitch. Not only will it not solve indiscipline on the field but it could cause an outbreak of it in the stand!


There has been the suggestion that the new rules came after wide consultation with county boards and team managers but this hasn't been the case with any of the team bosses I have spoken with. Sean Kelly did meet Team Mangers a few years ago to discuss matters of mutual interest with Croke Park but obviously that isn't the route being followed now. It will be interesting therefore to see what comes as a result of the meeting of inter-county managers that took place in Mullingar last Sunday evening.


The match regulation debate has certainly given the GAA plenty of coverage over the last week at the normally quiet time of the season. Last weekend's Central Council meeting dealt with the future of the International Rules Series but with the decision on that well-flagged in advance, the postponement of next year's trip down under wasn't a great shock to anybody.


However, like a bolt out of the blue and slipped in without any fanfare, were the match regulations. The follow up during the week with a dictatorial approach from on high will be an interesting side-show in the coming months. About ten years ago the players were being told to play their games and then keep their mouths shut. We all know what that led to. Ten years on, one wonders have any lessons been learned.

I think you are all picking me up wrong. I've noting against Mayo. I was only passing comment on where the presentation of the cup takes place

Fair enough Mid Mon, didn't spot that at all! 
Still i think a Mayo man would be happy enough to accept it in the jacks at this stage 

Theres more chance of a Mayo man lifting sam in a Pub, than there is of anyone lifting it in the Cusack stand

And where are you from yourself Mid Mon? Monaghan by any chance!? Don't think anything more needs to be said  

Firstly, it has been a successfull year for Mayo football - U21 All-Ireland Champs, All Ireland Senior Finalists (although tainted by display), and now we've secured potentially the best management team in the country.

So my wishes for 2007 would be:
1. Mayo to win SAM
2. Mayo to find at least 2 new players in the back lines - preferably FB and/or CHB
3. Ballintubber to win Intermediate title

No mention of the co board offices and underground museum? Does the new stand run the full length of the pitch or just the same section as the current stand?

I wouldn't play Nallen at corner back either. CHB or on the bench, and I'm afraid I think it's time for Jimmy to get more familiar with the bench. He just doesn't seem to have the pace for it anymore, and he's too 'nice'. A bit of cynicism is needed these days.

I would pick a team along the lines of:

           clarke
l o'malley navin k higgins
a higgins heaney gardiner
mcgaritty moran/brady
t mort dillon harte
c mort mcd k o'neill

I'm not sure about Navin but would like to see him get a couple of games at least so he can make a claim. 

FFS, stop pissing everyone off. 5 'Harps' threads on the first page. Keep them all in the one thread.
Not everyone is interested in your club...

Need you ask!?
It will be the one and only Brush Shiels, a credit to the country.....