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So while our rugby team slug it out in Murrayfield the glories of Tuam await the green and red next Sunday. It is early in the season but you would think that the loser is going to find it very difficult to escape the drop.

Can Mayo maintain their 12 year unbeaten record in Tuam?

Having been out of the country for the past 3 and a bit weeks I haven't got into the full swing of the football season until this weekend. I must say I have watched a video of the Down game and was in Castlebar yesterday and am a little worried already.

It is fair to say we are starting at a very low base and we have a rookie manager after the departure of John "Straight Talking Straight Answers" O'M! I am delighted to see some new lads get a run - the two Feeneys did well yesterday although I do think that Alan is a more realistic long-term prospect, Jason Gibbons has shown promising but limited signs in midfield, Aidan Campbell is one that should be given the time to develop.

I do think Kerry didn't even get into second gear yesterday and it is the performance of the backs when Down really played that has to be of concern. We are probably not as bad as that in defence, but in no way are we as good as we looked yesterday, and we did get some lucky touches. What disappoints is that there is no real sign of a game plan. It is the same old Mayo football that has failed time and time again. The work ethic is ok but was lacking compared to the Kerry backs. We are still being left exposed on counter-attacks, and the tracking back is a token effort at times.

Some of the handling was atrocious yesterday. I know conditions were very poor but the Kerry lads were able to get over that better than us. Much comes down to concentration as much as to ability.

I have mixed views about whether the penalty decision was right but the goalie did make it very easy for the ref to make the call. But we too often rely on excuses and love our moral victories. These players have all too often relied on excuses and come out in newspapers to say we will do better next time. If we are ever to get anywhere we need to adopt the Vince Lombardi attitude - "Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser" and realise that "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will". Last year it was the manager to blame and anybody listening to players all through the season knew that was their problem. They now have a new regieme and should have no easy fall-back - they have a lot to answer for after the humiliation of last Summer.

And it is galling that one our best players has now decided to go on holidays for the next 3/4 weeks after playing the first game. What type of commitment is that? What type of example is it? You either want to play for the country team or you want to be going on holidays. Nobody would begrudge a lad a winter away but when that has been had and you line up in the early games you are letting down your team mates by fecking off in the middle of an important league.

Galway next week is a big one now if we are going to survive.

Really looking forward to Saturday and to the new season.

The management have to be left at this and work through the problems they have inherited. Of course things are going to be disjointed but they need to be given time and judgement will have to be made in 2 or 3 years, not this year even.

Impossible to predict a result on Saturday. Our aim has to be to stay in Division 1 and so this is one of the "must win" games but as we know the league throws up funny results. It is not the end of the world if we lose, it is not a bright new era if we win.

I wonder will JOM be canvassing outside?

So the real stuff gets underway for James Horan.

A good FBD League and the 50ish players involved to date will have to be culled. I think there will be trial and error involved in getting the best team out and this is a 2/3 year project now. I like what I see so far though even if Div 1 survival will be tough.

Home games are going to be crucial and we have 4 so lets hope that helps us.

A guess at team? Its impossible to know. From talking to a few players it is definitely a case of thinking towards Summer rather than short term goals like the last few years.

I turned up for the game yesterday as well. I thought it should have gone ahead but calling off the matter so late in the day really is not acceptable in this day and age. Do the GAA care - not a bit.

Disappointing that the start of the season is delayed. I guess the match will be re-fixed for the weekend before the league? Or maybe midweek under lights in Cloone?

Good to see 4 Mayo lads tog out for DIT yesterday in their win over Wexford. Cunniffe was full-back. Kevin McLoughlin was on the wing. Aidan O'Shea scored a point at number 11 and Alan Freeman picked up 3.

Happy to see a lot of these fellas get a chance.

I hope the return of Austin O'Malley isn't a sign of the imagination that the new set-up are going to bring.

Style of play is going to be very interesting and I would expect that Andy Moran is going to be play a lot deeper than would be expected. His previous games in the full forward line have been underwhelming so it is hard to see him having a future there.

Anyways there are as many players missing as are available so very difficult to read anything much into the line-up even with regard to the first league game

Happy New Year all!!

Looking forward to the start of the new GAA season. Throwing in for Mayo in lovely Leitrim on next Sunday.

FBD League fixtures

SUNDAY 9 JANUARY

Sligo v Galway, Enniscrone (2.00pm)
NUI Galway v IT Sligo, Dangan (2.00pm)


Leitrim v Mayo, Ballinamore (2.00pm)
Roscommon v GMIT, Ballyforan (2.00pm)


SATURDAY 15 JANUARY
IT Sligo v Sligo, Ballinode 7.00pm


SUNDAY 16 JANUARY
Galway NUI v Galway

Roscommon v Leitrim, Elphin (2.00pm)
GMIT V Mayo, Ballinrobe (2.00pm)

SUNDAY 23 JANUARY

Sligo v NUI Galway, Tourlestrane (2.00pm)
Galway IT v Sligo, Tuam (2.00pm)

Leitrim v GMIT, Cloone (2.00pm)
Mayo v Roscommon, Ballyhaunis (2.00pm)

SATURDAY 29 JANUARY

Home final

What in under God are ye going to talk about now though - a new jersey design? 

I wonder will we be getting a change actually. I think it should do away with the old memories of the Johnno era and make a change.. It is a 2 year old jersey at this stage.

I think we all need a break though and I certainly intend to take one after the initial fanfare has died down and the NY game is over.

Fantastic news and best of luck to James.

I do not doubt but that the comments by supporters by ourselves on blogs and boards like this did have an influence in persuading the Board that they would not be able to push through Tommy Lyons.

It is still a risk but there is a huge amount of goodwill for James and that is a great starting point. He will be low-key and needs time and space and judgement should only begin after next Summer.

Its all a bit transfer deadline day really!

Interesting and potentially good news!!

Until its signed and sealed though....

As I understand it one name will be selected by the selection Committee and put to the Board.

Will they read the cards. Will the delegates be willing to oppose? If they are not I expect Tommy to get over the line. If they are then I expect they may just nominate Horan to save their own bacon. Any decision will be for the benefit of "the boys" not for Mayo football. All we can do after that is pray

I see Mayo bloggers have a call to arms reflective of views here, but in much brighter prose than we could ever write;

An Spailpin

The reaction in Mayo to what is expected to be a rubber-stamping of Tommy Lyons' appointment tonight as the new Mayo senior team manager by the Mayo County Board has been varied.

Storming the Bastille
On the one hand, there are those who wish to storm An Sportlann, headquarters of the Mayo County Board, just as French stormed the Bastille in the name of liberty, before they made their way to Killala to spread the same gospel of freedom here.

And on the other hand, there are those who just want the pain to stop, like that clapped-out boxer on the telly who yearns for the old one-two that one only gets from Uniflu™. Think of the prisoners on the Moorish ships in Chesterton's Lepanto, who find their God forgotten and seek no more a sign. You get the idea.

There are very few who welcome Tommy Lyons' appointment and the one emotion that the Bastille-stormers, busted boxers and prisoners-broken-by-years-of-adversity share is a deep and dark dread towards what the future may hold under a Lyons stewardship.

It's not about Tommy Lyons personally, although it can't be said he helps. Mouthy metropolitans are seldom welcome back the heathery mountain. The big problem that people in Mayo have with a potential Lyons appointment is the way the appointment was made.

Heartbreak and Bitterness
After the heartbreak and bitterness of John O'Mahony's Second Coming the Mayo Board was in humour to salve wounds. They promised a process through which a new man would be appointed, divisions healed, new processes set in place and the Good Ship Mayo pointed to a brave new tomorrow.

Everyone who got involved in that process now seems to have been sold a pup, as horse-trading went on behind the scenes. The result is Tommy Lyons. The stories about the nature of that horse-trading vary, but the bottom line is that there are very real fears that the Lyons appointment will happen for reasons other than what is best for the county team.

Liam Horan has been put in charge of a Strategic Review Committee but Horan's first job as chairman of that committee will be to explain how exactly it's the case that Tommy Lyons has a better chance of having a Mayo team still playing football in September than James Horan, Denis Kearney, Anthony McGarry or John Maughan. Or Mick O'Dwyer, if it comes to that. Because it's not at all easy to see right now.

A lot of this has to do with the responsibility of the County Board. What is their duty? Is it towards the clubs, the debt on McHale Park, or have they also a duty to field the best team they can in the senior inter-county football championship?

There is no doubt – except, perhaps, in the addled minds of the GPA – that if there were no clubs there would be no GAA. But the county team cannot be treated in so cavalier a fashion as to appoint a manager for reasons other than his being the best man for the job.

In Memory of Our Fathers
People live and die by their county teams. This is true for all counties, of course, but – and An Spailpín must confess a certain bias here – it seems especially so in Mayo where the people are so defined by what the football team does. The very notion of the team, of a Mayo style, of the unique colours, has a resonance for people that transcends a game or an organisation. The notion that there is a Mayo team out there, playing football, is a part of people's souls. It helps people understand who they are.

For instance: a great and good friend of the blog was at the 2004 final, and he got talking to the man next to him. The guy next to was from Limerick, but he had hunted down a ticket and come up anyway, because of his father.

His father was a Mayoman and had died earlier that year. The son was making a vigil to Croke Park to do honour to his father's memory, to see a Mayo victory that was no longer possible for his father but that would have meant so much to him had he lived. The Mayo GAA scene meant nothing to this Treatyman, but the very idea of Mayo was vivid and clear in his head.

He went home disappointed, as did we all. But that man, whoever he is and where-ever he is now, deserves better than this. He did honour by his late father's memory, and he deserves better. The poor deluded fools who travel on Sundays for FBD League games and National League games as well as the glamorous Championship games of high summer deserves better than this.

The gobdaws and buck eejits and helpless innocents who daydream at least once a week about what it will be like when Sam returns to Mayo deserve better than this. The ludramans and the mentally unbalanced who compose greatest-ever Mayo teams drawn from men who never played senior club football in their heads to pass the time deserve better than this. Or else it's time for us all to wonder just why we invest so much emotional energy to just get smacked around by an ungrateful lover. Again.

The Eleventh Hour
Today the eleventh hour, but it's still not too late. The Board can still turn away from the Lyons candidacy and appoint James Horan, one of the stars of the first John Maughan team of the mid-nineties and the current manager of Ballintubber, now contesting a county final for the first time in their long and proud history. Horan has galvanised the anti-Lyons feeling and become the people's choice. It's up the Board tonight to do the right thing. God be with them

Willie Joe:

The new Mayo manager is due to be appointed tomorrow night, with a press briefing at which the announcement will be made set to be held following a meeting of the County Board that's scheduled for 9 pm.  One way or another, we'll all be put out of our misery before heading for the scratcher tomorrow night but I'm still hopeful that the right decision will be made and that James Horan will be the man who'll get the job.

This report in today's Indo provides confirmation of stories that I'd picked up around McHale Park on Sunday that Horan's star is, at the eleventh hour, on the rise.  His own confident stewardship on the line for Ballintubber in the county semi-final has been an obvious factor in this – making the timing of his interview all but perfect from his point of view – as has the shrewd addition of James Nallen to his backroom team.   Nallen is the sort of man that will command respect in any company and, combined with Horan's burgeoning reputation on the sideline, they're starting to look like the Dream Ticket.

By contrast, Tommy Lyons is, from what I gather, likely to pitch up as a one-man band who will rely on the County Board to fit him out with a local backroom team.  All that Tommy Lyons has to offer is, as a result, the Tommy Lyons brand and, as I understand it, even his backers may now be beginning to see that this simply isn't a proposition that will fly.

This is a seminal moment for those whose responsibility it is to pick the man who we all want to see steer the county team out of the ditch that Johnno drove us into.  It's a big decision and those of us who have the luxury of watching on from the sidelines need to be aware of that – it's all too easy to damn those making the decision regardless of which choice they make.

And it's very easy – I know, I've done it myself – to take cheap shots at those we don't like in furthering the cause of those we do.  In this regard, I think we need to be scrupulously fair to Tommy Lyons (and Tony McGarry, though I think everyone now accepts that he's not seriously in the running at this stage) and his motives for wanting to become Mayo manager.

I once thought that Tommy might have been a good option but that was at the end of the Maughan I era, when he seemed to be one of the new breed of forward-thinking managers.  But that was over a decade ago and Tommy has now been out of inter-county management for more than half of that time, during which time the game has moved on enormously.

All of the current breed of successful managers (and, by success, I mean those who can take the talent they have at their disposal and maximise it where it matters in the championship) come from a different era and they all have an entirely different approach to the game than the one that someone like Tommy Lyons could bring to us right now.   Will Tommy Lyons bring a different perspective than someone like John O'Mahony, whose management style is of the same era?  I don't think he would.

James Horan, by contrast, is cut from the same cloth as the likes of James MacCartan, Kieran McGeeney, Pat Gilroy and Kevin Walsh and, with the right team around him, we can I reckon be confident that the foundations for significant improvements in our fortunes will be painstakingly laid, based on the ethics of hard work and commitment and leaving no stone unturned to ensure that all available talent is utilised to the full.  Can we have the same confidence that a management team led by Tommy Lyons would lead us down this same road?  I don't think we can.

And that's the nub of it.  The other factors that have been dragged into the debate – such as the media bullshit, arseboxing and whether or not his roots are really in the county – simply aren't relevant.  It's a question of who is the best man for the job and which one of them has the best team around him.  That man has to be James Horan.

If the selection panel is prepared to put petty politics and all the rest to one side on this one crucial decision that could determine so profoundly the direction the county team goes in over the next few years, then there is only way this appointment process can go.  It's a big call for them to make but, if they stand back and take their decision in a dispassionate manner, it should also be an easy one. There's still time for them to make the right decision – that time is now.

I cannot see the County Board changing course now.

It will be Tommy Lyons with Denis Kearney and Declan Ronaldson.

This may be a legacy appointment for the Chairman to add to a growing list of what he is going to leave behind from his time in charge:

* the shafting of Mickey Moran.

* the appointment of a Fine Gael General Election Candidate as Manager.

* the overseeing of the development of McHale Park with its design flaws, planning problems and financial noose around the neck of our clubs.

* the non-commitment on the position of the County at Congress on the opening up of Croke Park.

* and of course pledging the support of Mayo GAA to Padraig Nally when he was imprisoned.

Anything left out?
*