Ciaran McDonald not named in Mayo panel

Started by RedandGreenSniper, April 24, 2008, 08:13:35 AM

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ludermor

f**k me, have so many posters ever been named checked before one one article?

Tubberman

Kevin McStay's view is that there were wrongs on both side, but McDonald was more sinner than sinned against
It's hard to argue with any of the points he makes.

Quote
Kevin McStay
SOMETIMES you have to see the funny side to these things. And even if our very own Saipan lessens our summer prospects, a bit of humour is always welcome. It appears Nokia, the mobile phone giants, have been wrestling with a mutually exclusive set of goals; on the one hand they want to saturate the world with hand-held mobiles so that we are ever and always available to talk, while on the other, their marketing people are telling them the men of the world are about to cash in their chips unless new technology emerges.
See, the male of the species is just too contactable. 'Her Indoors' and the squad can track your every movement and when you are with the lads, such a situation is just not on!
'Where are you now?' is the most common sentence uttered on Irish mobiles and the 'Mayo Hood' I hang with have a standard set of replies to it. 'Swinford, but the traffic is heavy' means you are still in the pub in Ballina but thinking of leaving soon.
'Just stopped at the public toilets in Ballagh' is our own morse code for being on the session in Murray's of Charlestown.
Personally, I do not answer any calls that do not register as a name on my screen. And even then, I might hit the silent. But Nokia are monitoring the 'McDonald Affair' and I understand, they are about to launch a mobile that will save us all.
Called 'The Messiah II' the model is a McDXI and the sales angle is simple: you can never be contacted if you own this phone. It's brilliant in its simplicity and is expected to sell out upon launch. Watch this space...
Okay then, stop laughing at the back of the class and let's see what happened last week. This column had no sooner produced a resumé of our league performance and the subsequent announcement of the championship panel when all hell broke loose.
I deliberately stayed away from comment on C McD and Jimmy Nallen. One was in, one was out. Big deal. Move on.
A few days later the Crossmolina attacker had launched a startling and blistering attack on his manager. He felt he had been treated shabbily and was anxious to correct the perception he did not want to play for Mayo again.
The past week has affirmed, once again, that when it comes to footballers versus managers, the Mayo public row in heavily behind the player.
My own sense is that this call to the defence of the player is, in most respects, poorly informed and very often contradictory. But perhaps we need to see things from both sides before we can make a definitive judgement.
Ciaran McDonald is one of the top three attacking footballers in Mayo football today; certainly at club level and most likely at county level too. If he is fit and enthusiastic and committed to another year, his name should be in the panel, that is pretty much a no-brainer.
He has given good service in the past and for over a period of a dozen years or so; but that service has been interrupted by bouts of absence for reasons unexplained, bouts of petulance, periods of injury and periods of anger when some supporters gave him a hard time.
I accept McDonald loves playing for Mayo but the evidence also suggests that he often does so only when it suits him to be available. His league appearances over the years have been patchy and the facts of the matter are that he has failed to play league at all in recent times and made only two cameo performances in the 2007 championship.
His exclusive piece in last week's Irish Independent noted he played in the 1996 All-Ireland final and replay. For the record, allow me to note he failed to play any part in either game, a game we badly needed him to play, because he was housed Stateside.
John O'Mahony is incorrect when he states the championship panel was selected using performances in the league. That is true in most cases (as last week's piece attempted to point up) but let's be correct when we go to argue our positions: Jimmy Nallen is on the championship panel and did not play a single minute in the league.
The now infamous trial game did include Jimmy Nallen but Ciaran McDonald felt slighted by the invitation. Ciaran, get up the yard will ya...
A manager is fully entitled to ask any player to these games so that form, attitude, fitness and enthusiasm can be gauged. McDonald felt the trial would be of no value as he would be 'playing with a lot of lads for the first time'.
Hello? That is what a trial is usually about, lots of new guys trying to impress and a sprinkling of older sweats trying to do the same.
John O'Mahony made one bad call. He should have met the player face to face and told him of the management's decision. He had to know the only question pundits, hacks or supporters would ask in the seconds following the issue of the panel was: 'Is Ciaran McDonald on the panel?'
JOM knew this better than anybody and would have been very concerned, in the days prior to the release of the names, that this very scenario might unfold. That it did, with the player going to the press, was avoidable if the confrontation/meeting had taken place earlier.
It will add to the summer pressure because I cannot see a scenario whereby McDonald will be asked back or indeed will want to return. Supporters will not be as understanding towards the Mayo management and that is a most disappointing fact. We are not the great discerning followers of football we like to think we are and some of the stances taken in this case underline that.
The player is always defended because the club want to be seen to be behind him so that he will, at least, tog big for them. Many ex-players go around with very poorly thought-out positions and this too is disappointing. They know more than they say or type and when that happens, managers can be hung out to dry.
The bold truth for those that follow Mayo football is that we seem to produce more 'difficult cases' than most and then compound matters by giving them an unhealthy responsibility for our football fortunes. Down Kerry way you'd end up a panellist and then an ex-panelist.
Ciaran McDonald made a few bad decisions this winter/spring too. Non-attendance at a post-season meeting, league matches, trial game, and other gatherings was coupled with a non-communicative approach to the Mayo senior set-up.
Those circumstances could convey only one conclusion. And that conclusion was that he was no longer committed to embracing the full responsibilities and commitments of being a senior inter-county player with Mayo.
I quote the Mayo manager: 'All we can do is  invite people to participate'. Of course, I accept there are two sides involved; every tango insists on that, but this dance was more stumble than grace.
Yes, Ciaran McDonald deserved to be informed, directly, face to face, that he had missed the cut. But if he did, Mayo football and especially Mayo management, deserved much more consideration than he felt he should give them.
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

Tubberman

Sean Rice is even more supportive than McStay of the management's position on this. He says it was entirely reasonable that they would call on McD to attend a trial game, and gives a brief history of McDs more controversial times in (or not in) the green and red

Quote
Sean Rice
IN baring his soul to a Dublin newspaper Ciaran McDonald has re-awakened memories that would have been best left undisturbed among the football canons of the subconscious.
McDonald's tussle with authority is not a new phenomenon. Hitches between our brightest stars and Big Brother have blemished Mayo football periodically down the decades.
Obscured by their success of 1936 were the ripples of discontent among some Mayo players over the surprise selection of Seamus O'Malley, who captained that team and was also county secretary.
A celebrated letter written in 1948 by a group of malcontents — which included Sean Flanagan and Eamonn Mongey — to an apathetic County Board, prologued the story of the illustrious Fifties.
In the Sixties jinking Joe Corcoran fell foul of the selectors and was dropped from a trip to America. In the early Nineties players objected to tactics adopted in training by Brian McDonald.
The previous decade belonged to Padraig Brogan. In his left foot, the Knockmore man carried the hopes of a new generation of footballers and supporters, but they died when his tangled web of emotional confusion brought a premature end to such a promising career.
Brogan's was not an intermittent talent. He won an All-Ireland Colleges senior championship with St Jarlath's in 1982. His performance at midfield prompted Galway's great full-forward of the Fifties, Frank Stockwell, to rank the Knockmore man's display among the greatest he had ever seen for St Jarlath's.
Laden with club honours, an U-21 medal is the sum of his All-Ireland honours at county level however. He scored some wonder goals for Mayo, but the lights went out on his potential much too early.
John Maughan had trouble with David Brady late in the Ballina man's career and, lest it be forgotten, Ciaran McDonald's communications with management were less than cordial four years ago.
On the occasion of the FBD final of 2004 the Crossmolina man failed to turn up. Conscious of a public apology Mid-West Radio was obliged to make a few weeks earlier for announcing McDonald's premature retirement from county football, greater effort was made to find the reason for his absence on this occasion.
The retraction was forced on the radio station after Mayo GAA Board dismissed the report as being untrue, McDonald having denied reaching any such decision.
You can imagine how the radio reporters felt when Kevin O'Toole, the county public relations officer, apprised them of the facts. Ciaran McDonald, he said, had made it plain that he would not tog out with Mayo again because of the abuse he received for squandering a number of chances in their Allianz League match with Fermanagh the previous week.
It was an unconvincing excuse. In that game McDonald scored two points, kicked eight wides and had a shot come back off the crossbar in the final seconds. Judgement of his performance was in no way harsh.
He had not reached his own high standards, but the outcome did not alter Mayo's position in the league table. Criticism of the Crossmolina ace, therefore, could not have been serious.
McDonald has always been an enigma. Until his surprising revelations in the Irish Independent he had kept his own counsel. Selection was never in doubt, but his availability for selection never straightforward. The arbitrary nature of his absences left you guessing how much richer a harvest he could have reaped for himself and his county.
John Maughan did entice the Crossmolina man back to his panel. He also allowed him leave from training until well into the spring, a decision with which this column had not entirely agreed. Maughan may have concluded that because McDonald was engaged in manual work he did not require the physical exercise laid down for those whose daily routine was less strenuous — and few can disagree with that argument.
But we have said here on more than once occasion that there is more to team preparation that muscular exercise. Team spirit is essential. No training is complete without the bonding that comes from togetherness, sharing in one purpose, building pride and confidence and comradeship — esprit de corps.
McDonald's absence from springtime training denied him the opportunity to share in those values. Think of the asset his presence would mean to his young team mates. If he never partook in physical exercises McDonald's god-given talents, his advice, his experiences, his wisdom, his encouragement could do for a young team what no manager or coach could summon. Surely, he could have made the effort to be present.
McDonald questioned why, after playing for Mayo for so long, management would want to see him in a trial.
Why not? To determine its strengths and weaknesses is a prerequisite in team building. Coaches would surely want to know how McDonald would interact with new players, and indeed whether his own form had in any way receded.
"I would have loved to play for Mayo again this year, but obviously he (O'Mahony) doesn't want me," he said.
Could he not have taken a minute of his precious time to pull out his phone, ring John O'Mahony and declare that he was ready to return, that he was unable to make the trial, but that he could be there for the next training stint.
I watched him score seven points for Crossmolina recently. All had the trademark quality of his marksmanship. Nothing went astray. He would be the first to admit, though, that the freedom he enjoyed against Ballaghaderreen might not be so readily available against other opposition. The photograph that accompanied his complaints shows him enveloped by Kerry opposition, a tactic that stultified his effectiveness in the All-Ireland finals.
In any inter-county competition McDonald is a marked man. His distinctiveness emanates from his left foot. Nowhere else, neither in pace, fielding nor handpassing is he quite so accomplished. There was a time when he had the agility to flaunt that left foot from any corner of the field, to score like no other. Whether that still exists remains to be seen.
His last great deed for Mayo was that winning point against Dublin two years ago. Little enough of his expertise has been on display since. Was it any wonder he was not included in the panel? And could his anguish be rooted in the realisation that at 33 he will have soon run out of time?
Given an opening he still has the accuracy to score from any angle, and in the opinion of this writer his value — if he is considered to be fit enough — could now be best suited on the bench to be sprung in the final ten or fifteen minutes of a match against an unsuspecting defence.
O'Mahony claims he has never ruled out McDonald. "Our job is to get the best possible panel we can all pulling in the same direction in the interests of Mayo football," he said.
"That's what we have done in this case, but if a situation arises at any stage where a player is performing so well at club level that he deserves to get into the county set-up, it will happen. That applies to all players whether they have played for the county before or not.
"The reality is that for the past eighteen months he (McDonald) was not in a position to play. Maybe that will change in the future."
The manager has got it right, I think.
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

Farrandeelin

Quote from: ludermor on May 06, 2008, 02:20:21 PM
f**k me, have so many posters ever been named checked before one one article?

And typically of me I'd be left out!
Inaugural Football Championship Prediction Winner.

rosnarun

QuoteYou are not getting my drift with that one, ros

I get your point but my one is . dont ask a straight question if you wont like the answer. By forcing Mcdonald into a corner all you would do is further cut off his route of return. when dealing with people you have to take personality into account .
to mangle a phrase by Babs Keating ' trainers who cant deal with  throughbreds  only win donkey derbies'.

If you make yourself understood, you're always speaking well. Moliere

Lar Naparka

QuoteKevin McStay's view is that there were wrongs on both side, but McDonald was more sinner than sinned against
It's hard to argue with any of the points he makes.
I know what you mean, Tubberman, he certainly puts his points well and I can’t contradict him on anything he wrote here; for one thing, both he and me are relying on speculation to put our take on the controversy across.
If the Three Wise Men of the Mayo News all come to more or less the same conclusion then the case seems cut and dry, doesn’t it?
We can all join McStay in saying, “Ciaran, get up the yard will ya…”
Or can we?
To do so would be to ignore the words of another Three Wise Men, who all, co-incidentally, worked closely with McDonald over a long number of years and who happen to have had a lot of contact with O’Mahony to boot.
O’Mahony’s former All-Ireland winning captain and the Terrible Tans of Mayo football, McHale and Maughan, came to a different set of conclusions – and they gave their reasons at considerable length as well. 
It’s so very confusing: as all of them get paid for what they spout, they must all be right!
So I decided to check the wise sayings of He Who Has To be Right, John the Messiah no less; after all he’s the gaffer and gaffers don’t make gaffes, do they?
Janey, I’m now more confused than ever!
John decreed (before the Kerry match, I think) that the panel was going to be closed off at the end of the league run. Things were said about the county board needing finality so tabs could be kept for grant payments. The vets, Ger Brady and Mac had to attend a trial game or wouldn’t be considered.
In Mayo-speak I think he was saying, “We can’t have more than one bull in a field and I am that bull. And I’m not talking bull either.”
Even I can understand that: the panel was being closed off .Period! No latecomers, [Aside to Mac. Come on board or else!]
Pity he used public media to broadcast his message. He didn’t have to resort to this. As Ciaran was later to say a face-to –face, man to man chat would have sufficed.
As Sean Feeney once said famously of his rows with Mickey and Beefer, dirty linen shouldn’t be laundered in public- and then proceeded to go do that himself.
Then the panel is duly announced; no Mac on board. He didn’t tell me of his intentions, sorry to see him go, great servant of Mayo football etc. etc. etc.
Then unexpectedly Mac goes public, “The bloody hoor shafted me! He made it clear all along the line that I wasn’t going to be part of his f**king plans!”
[At least that seems what he was saying!]
On mature reflection, the Messiah speaks again. This has to be it. This has to be the ultimate explanation; after all, our manager knows what he is talking about. I mean the man is a politician, isn’t he? Plain speak from here on!
Well then try this:
"Our job it to get the best possible panel we can all pulling in the same direction in the interests of Mayo football. That's what we have done in this case but if a situation arises at any stage where a player is performing so well at club level that he deserves to get into the county set-up, it will happen.”
The panel that was closed off is not really closed off at all. It is still possible for any player from Mayo to get onto the panel, or is it?
Maybe it’s all a load of bull, or just a case of having one particular bull in one particular field at this time.
Given Johnno’s ability to rival Long Paddy at speaking from both ends with equal ease, I’d have my doubts about who is telling the truth.
Nil Carborundum Illegitemi

stephenite

#216
Those lads in the Mayo News have a job to do but I would have thought at least one of them could sing from a different hymn sheet to the others if only to play the Divils advocate in the whole saga and provide a bit of balance.

And as far our own comments on the matter - that man must have the best job in the world, reading Gaaboard all week and then copying and pasting into his article just in time for the deadline. Pints are on Daniel Carey next time anyone mentioned sees him :)

RedandGreenSniper

Both McStay and Rice bring up very valid points. Perhaps people on this board (myself included) have been too kind on McDonald. It is only now that we are aware that he is keen to play for Mayo. Obviously he felt his talents and experience would buy him more grace with the management than other players in the panel when perhaps he should have been a bit more forward at an earlier stage.

JOM, on the other hand, did err in not meeting him. I think a lot of the negative reaction towards JOM is due to the fact that we would expect him to be better in these types of situations than McDonald. He is known as a good man management person. We know McDonald needs man management, more than most to be honest. Who do you blame - the player who waits for the manager to move or the manager who fails to handle a difficult situation appropriately?

I still don't know how this is going to end up. Part of me has to wonder what the rest of the panel make of McD's omission in the first place, and the subsequent hysteria created by it.
Mayo for Sam! Just don't ask me for a year

Barney

I think lads we may as well put this one to bed. There will be no comeback. There will be no more interviews on the subject. Its a sad end to a great players career.

In a few weeks time on a bright western day when a big Connacht championship match is in a melting pot JOM will look into the dugout at the panel he picked and be inspired to throw on the likes of Mickey Mullins or Mark Ronaldson to be a matchwinner. On such decisions will he make or break his Mayo career (and maybe he wants out anyhow).

rosnarun

if you want to know that Pri*k  Rice's real views on mcdonald go back and read early 2004 articles in which he impuned bith his fotball ability and goodname . of course hea had to change his tune in ala dunphy so I reckon hes is now just sticking the knife in while he can
If you make yourself understood, you're always speaking well. Moliere

small white mayoman

Quote from: Barney on May 07, 2008, 08:16:02 AM
I think lads we may as well put this one to bed. There will be no comeback. There will be no more interviews on the subject. Its a sad end to a great players career.

In a few weeks time on a bright western day when a big Connacht championship match is in a melting pot JOM will look into the dugout at the panel he picked and be inspired to throw on the likes of Mickey Mullins or Mark Ronaldson to be a matchwinner. On such decisions will he make or break his Mayo career (and maybe he wants out anyhow).


Amen to that Barney however before we do that i think the real people to blame are the Aussies , pierce hanley was the next great white hope in mayo however he left for greener pastures, o mahony did his best to keep him here i  hope he met the man at least  ;) and if he had the fans would not be mentioning mc at all , however got me thinking there is a player who has played with mayo since he was 15 and yet the likes of sean rice  writes that drivel of course they are selective with what they say they failed to state that he has played for his county nearly 70 times , also failed to state that he missed leage campaingns because cross were still involved in the Ai club series , and because of work commitments where he was working all over the country he couldn't give the committment but sure that doesn't count,in my opinion  he has giving more in sweat and toil without even looking for expenses than jom ever did and before any of ye jump down my neck thats only my opinion.I tell you what pierce hanley good luck to him in Australia i hope he is a savage success beacuse at the end of the day having looked at the way Mc's career has ended he needs to look after number 1 because every one else does.Also the mayo papers know what side their bread is buttered and they will  be looking fir interviews from o' mahony this year not mc so they are hardly going to give the manager a roasting are they and as ros said on his last post Rice never liked mc anyway and was allways having ago at him he didn't want him back in 2004 but had to change his tune.
All Ireland Champions 2006 & 2007

Lar Naparka

I’m going to take Barney’s solid and sensible advice on this one. It’s all we can do at this stage.
I also think that it is appropriate that R&GS should have started this thread off and, for me at any rate, he has summed up the whole crux of the matter in a single paragraph.
QuoteJOM, on the other hand, did err in not meeting him. I think a lot of the negative reaction towards JOM is due to the fact that we would expect him to be better in these types of situations than McDonald. He is known as a good man management person. We know McDonald needs man management, more than most to be honest. Who do you blame - the player who waits for the manager to move or the manager who fails to handle a difficult situation appropriately?
Over and out from Lar.
Nil Carborundum Illegitemi

the Deel Rover

Crossmolina Deel Rovers
All Ireland Club Champions 2001

magpie seanie

No offence lads but after reading some of this thread and some of the comment on it and articles its no wonder ye are such serial underachievers. When you see JOM and McStay against McDonald well you know who is right. I simply cannot believe what is happening. Last year Maughan ran Roscommons best forward. This year O'Mahony is doing the same to Mayo. I know we've a lot of improving to do but it would give you hope!

turk

Quote from: magpie seanie on May 07, 2008, 05:44:16 PM
No offence lads but after reading some of this thread and some of the comment on it and articles its no wonder ye are such serial underachievers. When you see JOM and McStay against McDonald well you know who is right. I simply cannot believe what is happening. Last year Maughan ran Roscommons best forward. This year O'Mahony is doing the same to Mayo. I know we've a lot of improving to do but it would give you hope!


Agree 100% Seanie - this is something we should discuss in another thread