Mayo Football and Hurling - Discussion pages

[dodo]

I understand what you are saying Dodo but i also see where mannix is coming from if you look at the competitive results since the national league final last year we have lost to Donegal twice, Derry Twice, Beaten Cavan and drawn with Laois not pretty reading by any manner of means. Micky Moran got us to the AI in 2006 yet he was turfed out do you think that if he was still manager and getting those results that he wouldn't be under pressure? At the end of the day i think that the managers job is overrated anyway if you have the players you can have success if not you wont thats why i think Mayo have been fighting above their weight for the last few years . If you look at the galway team that won the All Irelands look at the forwards they had Donnellan, Fallon, Joyce, Savage, Finnegan to name but a few it was them that won the AI not Jom yet he has made the name for himself. Like you said we don't want negativity but O'mahony has to prove to us that he is the man as of yet he hasn't and in fairness he wasn't slow in showing his own negativity when John Maughan was in charge with his Articles in the western people.

I agree totally regarding O'Mahony's record from the league final onwards last year. Even more concerning is the team he picked for Salthill last year in the championship and afterwards how quickly that team was dismembered (so to speak  ) for the Cavan game. The performance in Derry was poor, lucky to be competitive at half time given the performance. O'Mahony's has a lot of work to do to prove himself in this tenure as manager, but I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt considering his past record which I would not be as quick to dismiss as others. When you consider our situation before he came on board, the 2004 and 2006 AI finals were absolute disasters for the county. A lot of the older leaders have moved on and along with this a total overhaul of approach is essential to bring us on. If we are in agreement that this overhaul is necessary, then time has to be allowed for progress to occur. He gave the 2006 AI team their run in Salthill last year and were beat comprehensively. Against Cavan the new lads did OK but the opposition were limited enough (Pierse Hanley looked the part but that's another story). Surely from these matches and this year's matches he is a lot better informed and that we will see the product of this soon.

[rosnarun]

2004 and 2006 AI finals were absolute disasters for the county.

Jeez
MODs
can I be granted an exemption from the personal abuse laws for Just one post please

[the Deel Rover]

steady Ros steady

[Davitt Man]

The league is starting this weekend, no talk about it all. Maybe shows that the clubs dont really care about it anymore??

[the Deel Rover]

The league is starting this weekend, no talk about it all. Maybe shows that the clubs dont really care about it anymore??

Well we can't be accused of not taking the league seriously in Cross Dm looking forward to the start of the league .Are we not playing each other on Monday? Dusting the auld boots meself the juniors are playing on sunday against ardnaree looking forward to it i must say, hope i don't cease up mind

[rosnarun]

are there many actual players or even people living within their parishes on here .most of us seem to be exiles of on sort or another
Ive forgotten where ive hung my boots( Maybe if the keenagh team reforms) i have a look , but apart from a few ballintubber lads and deel rover Apparently who else will be togging monday?

[the Deel Rover]

are there many actual players or even people living within their parishes on here .most of us seem to be exiles of on sort or another
Ive forgotten where ive hung my boots( Maybe if the keenagh team reforms) i have a look , but apart from a few ballintubber lads and deel rover Apparently who else will be togging monday?

there is no apparently ros i will be togging out might not be playing though 

[rosnarun]

of course you will and good luck with that . who is in charge this year?.

[dodo]

2004 and 2006 AI finals were absolute disasters for the county.

Jeez
MODs
can I be granted an exemption from the personal abuse laws for Just one post please

Let her rip Rossie

[Mhic Easmuint]

Full details and you your ticket online at: http://antrim.gaa.ie/saffron-sweep-2008/

Feel free to ask questions on the main thread.

[dodo]

Saw this on Mayofans.com
Didn't realise that he was so badly injured.
Hope it all works out for him.
No source was given for the piece.

HAVE you ever wondered what happened to Kenneth O'Malley? Remember him? The goalkeeper from Ballinrobe who made his senior league and championship debut for Mayo last year. Great shot-stopper, wonderful kick-out, good temperament. Ring any bells? He was being talked about as being the next great white hope of county goalkeeping. The next Murphy or Cluxton and the man who was about to battle with David Clarke for the number one jersey for years to come.
How quickly some of us forget.
You see, in case you didn't hear, Kenneth O'Malley hasn't kicked a football since November 15 last year. It was a Thursday in case you're wondering. A random Thursday afternoon when he boarded the University of Limerick team bus and headed off to Templemore for a run-of-the-mill Higher Education League quarter-final against the Garda College.
Eleven months had passed since he was called into the Mayo senior panel. Forty-four weeks of club games, county matches and training sessions. U-21 and senior. A constant regime of togging out and doing the business. He was looking forward to the end of the season.
A few hours later, as Kenneth O'Malley lay on the cold, wet pitch in Templemore, he knew his year was over. In fact, he feared it was an awful lot worse. The pain in his chest was unbearable and he could feel himself losing consciousness. He was afraid. Something was wrong.
Now, almost four months on, he knows exactly what was wrong. His kidney was severed in two when a Garda College forward collided with him. One half of the organ died instantly while the fate of the other half won't be known fully until the end of next month.
And in the meantime, Kenneth O'Malley tries to get back to some kind of normality. His football career and life in general has been stopped in its tracks.

What's the up to date situation on your injury?
KOM The last time I spoke to my doctor he told me that there was only 50% of my kidney there. He doesn't know if that's working or not at the moment, he's hoping that it will regenerate over time. In about two months I'll know for definite if the remaining 50% is going to work again.

How is it affecting your everyday life?
KOM I wouldn't have even have 50% of the energy that I had in the past. College is tough going, I have to make up for everything I missed, and having to do double the work with only half the energy is tough. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to catch up.
I wouldn't stay up past 10 o'clock anymore because if I do the next day is practically ruined. I can't even jog across the road at the moment because of the impact and I just feel tired all the time. I've been told it's part and parcel of having a kidney problem.

How are you feeling mentally now?
KOM At the start I wasn't willing to accept it. I just kept telling myself that I'd be fine. But I attempted to drive down to Limerick shortly after Christmas but had to give up when I got to Galway. I just have to accept it now. I can't do the things that I was able to do so it's a case of not not fighting your body. You can deal with it or let it eat you up. It was a very unfortunate thing to happen but how I deal with it is going to make me or break me. It was an accident and now I have to get on with it.

What do you remember about what happened?
KOM We were losing by ten points early on in the game but I had saved a penalty from Denis Glennon. We ended up going back level and it was getting exciting going into injury-time. One of their lads took a shot from about 40 yards out that was going over the bar. If it did, they probably would have won the game.
I jumped up over the crossbar but couldn't catch the ball, I just managed to knock it down. The ball was just off the ground so I dived straight out onto it, a Superman dive I suppose you could say. One of their forwards came rushing in, with his knees up to protect himself, my whole body was open. He hit me straight into the side with his knee and I knew straight away I was in trouble.
I thought I was winded initially because I couldn't breathe. But then the pain started coming... I can't even describe how bad it was. I was in and out of consciousness. I was told since that I went pure white and I knew something was seriously wrong.

Can you describe what was going through your mind?
KOM I was very afraid. I won't pretend I wasn't. I couldn't breathe, there was so much pressure on my chest. Everything and anything was going through my head. I couldn't breathe anyway but then I started panicking too. That didn't do me any good either.
An ambulance was called and had to come from Nenagh. Our team physio thought initially that I had broken some ribs but I wasn't so sure. I had pain everywhere. Then they thought my lung had collapsed and I was given some morphine to try and ease the pain.
I spent about six hours in Nenagh Hospital. They did tests on my lungs and were trying to calm me down. It was a bad time. I had calmed down a little because the pain had eased off and I was told that there was no damage to my lungs. I was told I was free to go.
I was actually walking out the door when one of the doctors stopped me and asked me for a urine sample. It was just pure chance. It turned out that I had internal bleeding and if I had left the hospital and gone home, while bleeding so much, who knows what could have happened...

How long did you spend in hospital altogether?
KOM I was in Nenagh for three to four days while they figured out exactly what was wrong with me and whether or not they could deal with it. I was transferred from there to the urology department in Limerick and it was there that they discovered that my kidney was sliced in two. They told me that half was dead and the other half was badly damaged. I spent another nine days in hospital there... It wasn't a good time.

When did the seriousness of it all dawn on you?
KOM It happened on a Thursday and I was transferred to Limerick the following Monday. They did the tests on me all day and the following morning, at around 8am, the doctor did his rounds and told me the news.
I was on my own at the time. It was a relief in one sense. I knew there was something wrong but nobody could tell me what was wrong. It was almost a relief then that they had figured it out and I could get my head around it.
When I come back playing again, I'll appreciate it.

What was the lowest point?
KOM I was totally bed-ridden in hospital. I wasn't allowed out of the bed at all for nine days. For me, as an active person, that was very difficult. I was completely helpless. It was demoralising. I had to get help doing absolutely everything and I had some very bad days.
About two days after being admitted I lost all concept of who I was and where I was. I don't know if was the medication or my body reacting or what but it was very frightening. I remember sitting up, looking around me, and seeing my name on the bed behind me. Things started to come back me at that point and it passed off.
Getting home allowed me get back to normal a little bit. I had my parents around, I wasn't alone with my thoughts, and I had a lot of friends and people from the club calling.
THE new year brought a new start for Kenneth O'Malley and he returned to college in Limerick last month. There is a lot of catching up to be done as last semester was effectively lost and he notices that it is not as easy to concentrate and absorb information when lacking so much energy.
But the affable young sportsman has come a long way in a short time. Only last Saturday night he celebrated his 21st birthday with family and friends in Ballinrobe. He is also back driving again and can at least walk from A to B of his own free will. None of this was possible during Christmas so he is drawing strength from the positives. As for the future, well that will have to take care of itself.

Have you thought about the 'worst case scenario'?
KOM I don't like to hear that kind of negative talk. Some people have advised me to stay away from football in the future. I could end up in a situation or an accident where I end up damaging my other kidney and what happens then? It's all ifs and buts. You could drive yourself mad thinking all that could go wrong but there's just no point.

How are you looking at your football career now?
KOM It's impossible to set myself any targets at the moment. When I'm ready to even start coming back my first instinct will be to get my body right. I've lost all strength in my body so that will have to be built up again. So will that ability to go 100% into a tackle again. I don't want to be worrying about what happened before so as soon as I'm able to be back, I will.

Has it changed you?
KOM That's a good question...I made my senior debut for Mayo last year and this was going to be the biggest year of my football career so far. I was going to use last year as a foundation to build on. But that obviously won't happen now.
Football has been my life but, realistically, I wouldn't have huge hopes for my football career this year. I'm prepared for the specialist to tell me that but I just have to wait and see.

Does something like this teach you a lot about yourself?
KOM It makes you appreciate what you have, how good things were, and how good they will be again.

[RedandGreenSniper]

That was in the Mayo News.
Poor lad got a very bad doing. And you know what he'd be a great option for free taking for Mayo! He was sticking them over from anywhere within 60 metres for Ballinrobe last year. Don't know if you could have a goalkeeper coming all the way upfield to take frees though! He was a serious keeper though, would have been very tight this year between him and Clarke
Just goes to show, out of sight, out of mind. Not that much interest in his plight around Mayo. Pity really

[StoneWall]

Looks like Feeney is getting a nice pension position...

http://www.westernpeople.ie/news/story/?trs=eyaumhkfoj&cat=sport

Mayo seek full-time GAA secretary


HOW would you like to find yourself at the nerve-centre of Mayo GAA? Do you think you're capable of organising the day-to-day business of the county's main sporting organisation? Do you believe that you have the ability, drive and desire to take on such a role? If you have answered 'yes' to all of the above questions then you could very well be in line for a change of employment.

The search is on for the first full-time secretary of the Mayo County Board and the closing date for applications is April 25th.

Chairman of the County Board, James Waldron, told The Western People that while the job is a challenging and exciting one, it is also tough and arduous, which will require great dedication and commitment.

"The workload is huge and we're very lucky to have been selected by Croke Park as one of the county's to get a full-time secretary. Our current secretary Sean Feeney has worked extremely hard in a voluntary capacity for years, giving huge amounts of his time to the job," the chairman explained.

It's understood that Mr Feeney will be applying for the position, but the job is open to the public and application forms are available from Croke Park by contacting countysecmayo@admingaa.ie. A job description and application form will then be issued to the potential applicants by e-mail only.

It is understood that the authorities in Croke Park will then appoint an interview panel, which should have strong Mayo representation according to Waldron.

"Croke Park set the criteria for all these things but I'm sure that we'll have some input, because obviously the successful candidate will be working hand in hand with the county chairman and the county board, so it stands to reason," he added.

The successful candidate will be responsible for the day-to-day management of County Board activities and will be accountable to the County Committee and will report to the County Chairman. He or she will also have to have excellent written and oral communication skills as well as having a working knowledge of the Irish language. The new secretary will also have an under-standing of accounting systems and the capability to manage finances in conjunction with the treasurer as well as having a proven track record of leadership, management, decision making and organisational skills, or an equivalent qualification.

[rosnarun]

well who all is going to nenagh tomorrow? any team news ?. it could well be the game of the year but trying to find anything about it is like looking for Lord Lucan

[Farrandeelin]

I'll be there rosnarun. There's not much word about it anywhere though. Typical GAA I suppose...