Nixon sets sights on Aiden O'Shea deal

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Is every thread involving a west of ireland player going to be hijacked like this? I mean we had a perfectly good debate going here and now we're talking about county boundaries and town planning regulations? If you want a setup a thread for it go ahead- but this is totally un-related to the thread topic.

What county do you support Indiana, Fingal, South County Dublin, Dublin Corpo. etc.  Sligonian fails to understand that the GAA counties are not the exact same replicas as the Administrative Counties, surely, there would be two Tipperary teams. Four Dublin teams, and dozens of County teams north of the border. Mayo's GAA boundry takes in the areas of Clubs and areas loyal to Mayo football.

[ross matt]

Larnaparka... Turlough.... Think Paul Early was younger than that when he went. Played senior for ross when about 17ish but I thought he went to Oz after he finished minor... 19ish. Not many doing it then. Think Kerry minor Sean Wight would have been there before him. Paul only played one top flight match over there I think so not sure if it could be classed a success story but he did spend some time there and returned to play for his county winning connacht senior medals in 90 & 91. Would have had a much longer career if not for back injury. Good guy and were he not Dermott's brother he would have received much more appreciation from Ross supporters. Completely different in build and positions they played in. Massive gap of about 15 years in age althiught they did play together due to the big brothers longetivity.

[muppet]

Leitrim had the swing vote and I won't go into why they voted against allowing Ballagh have a second club that could play in Roscommon.

Right, so it's all Leitrim's fault. I'm glad that has resolved the issue for everyone here.

GAA politics are full of you scratch my back and I'll look after you down the line, Leitrim only voted against it beacuse there was something in it for Leitrim. That's how the system works and always has worked. If that seems unjust to some, go about changing the system. And good luck with that.....

That is corruption. What was in it for Leitrim? Money, more grants....hardly a democracy now is it. It was never going to be a Just vote. Roscommon should of went further to ensure fair play and use ardnaree as a precedent.

The system is designed to suit the powerful counties and mayo especially. It helps ye in terms of land gain, players and getting a free centre of excellence. Connacht Council gave galway our connacht title in 1922 after us winning AI semi, because of a spelling mistake, where one letter was wrong. Then you have the school rule. So again I dont trust the CC based on past evidence.

Now you have completely lost the plot. Back in the 1920s the Gaa was one part matches on sunday, 3 parts appeals, objections and disputes. For example Mayo's 1st victory in an All Ireland Final was voided as they were instructed to play Galway who hadn't bothered to play that year and when Glaway won they were awarded the title. After appeals, objections and disputes of course. So much for 'The system is designed to suit the powerful counties and mayo especially'.

But I suppose when you think that Tom Parsons playing for Mayo is the greatest crime against humanity ever you aren't really going to rely on facts or coherent argument.

Extremely selective posts, I mean yere all completely ignoring the parts where I tear yer points apart . So question is does even 1951 count as an All Ireland so? Where do we start and stop?

I just used the past as evidence as lar challenged me to, in present times theres the centre, school rule etc..... With all due respect yer going back 116 yrs on Ballaghdereen are ye not, to lay claim to it? Im doing the same east of the moy. Fighting Fire with fire its called.

You seem to ignore the fact that the Gaa rulebook and it's interpreters agree with us. 

[rosnarun]

so are charlestown now the best team in mayo and sligo(see my post from a year back re Ballaghadereen)

[INDIANA]

Is every thread involving a west of ireland player going to be hijacked like this? I mean we had a perfectly good debate going here and now we're talking about county boundaries and town planning regulations? If you want a setup a thread for it go ahead- but this is totally un-related to the thread topic.

I think you have a very good idea there. If either of the gruesome twosome wants to set up a thread about their grievances with Mayo about Bellaghy and Ballagh, it might free up other topics for sensible discussion.
I know I am as guilty as anyone else for egging them on but it must be irritating for anyone outside of the county that every thread goes off-topic like the present one.
I think the present subject matter is important enough in its own right to merit serious consideration.
Should Aidan O'Shea leave to take his chances in Australia, it will be a big loss for Mayo but the implications for all other counties could be serious also.
Paul Earley, like Stynes and Kenneally, was not a teenager coming straight from secondary school. I can't be sure but I'd imagine that all of those above had a level of third level education to help prepare them for the time their football careers were going to come to an end.
I am genuinely concerned for the welfare of the youngsters being headhunted now.
Of those who left before them, the list of the ones that made the grade in Aussie Rules is very short and there is no guarantee that any one who sets out will return to the GAA if he decides to return home.
For selfish reasons, I hope young O'Shea stays put but I'll wish him the very best if he decides otherwise.
Like I said earlier, John O'Mahony seems to be making a fair attempt at putting some sort of a settled side together. If Aidan follows Pierce Hanley, the loss to Mayo football will be very considerable but that would be outside Johnno's control. All other counties had better sit up and take notice also as no one knows who will be approached next. Nixon is not going to go away.
There is another immediate concern and again it is not John O'Mahony's fault that it exists in the first place.
The overall standard of football in Connacht is as poor as I have known it ever to be. A few short years ago, four Connacht sides featured in the semis of the league. On present form, I doubt if even one of them would make it that far.
Maybe, just maybe, it's not a case of the standard deteriorating but that of other counties improving. I think Joe Brolly's assessment that Ulster (6) counties were going to dominate football until the time other counties developed underage structures to match the likes of what is to be found in the likes of Tyrone, Armagh and Derry- with the other three rapidly closing the gap.
Only Kerry appears capable of bucking the trend and Kerry doesn't appear to need under-age success to find talented senior players. When I saw all the horse trading that went on before the Connacht Council came up with Bekan for its centre of excellence I was very sceptical about the chances of it being a success but right now, I think it is essential to have it operating as soon as possible.
Kerry will probably cope with the possible loss of Walsh and Moran and Tyrone could get by if Kyle Coney makes it in Oz but Mayo badly need both Hanley and O'Shea – if he goes.

the limited view of pearse hanley I got was he one of the best minors I saw - up there with Clarke. Think his loss is absolutely immeasurable.
O Shea is a big loss but i still have concerns about his pace for even senior inter county football. I don't think he'll make it at AFL. But he's a huge player for Mayo even as a target man at full forward. Mayo don't produce big strong forwards on their underage teams as a rule - he was the exception in recent years.

[Rossfan]

The ones getting hot and bothered are mainly from Rhubarbland ...who seem to have a problem with being acquainted with the fact that Hanley being from Ballaghadereen Co Roscommon is a Roscommon man.

If O'Shea goes Mayowestros GAA will survive and will still field teams ( no matter where they get them  ) just as any other County that loses a player to Australia( or drink/women/emigration/soccer or whatever) will.
It's always disappointing to lose an up and coming star while the GAA remains amateur( probably for ever) then the lure of a professional sports career will entice.

[Lar Naparka]

The ones getting hot and bothered are mainly from Rhubarbland ...who seem to have a problem with being acquainted with the fact that Hanley being from Ballaghadereen Co Roscommon is a Roscommon man.

If O'Shea goes Mayowestros GAA will survive and will still field teams ( no matter where they get them  ) just as any other County that loses a player to Australia( or drink/women/emigration/soccer or whatever) will.
It's always disappointing to lose an up and coming star while the GAA remains amateur( probably for ever) then the lure of a professional sports career will entice.

Rossfan, I am shocked and disappointed!
(TBH; I don't give two flying f**ks as you yourself once told Roger over in the general section but I won't admit this in public and that's why I'm putting it in brackets-see?) 
All the same, I'd hate you to think I'm hot and bothered by you pointing out (again and again) that Pierce Hanley is from Roscommon. I couldn't give the two proverbials above if he came from Timbuctoo.
It shouldn't really bother you either where he came from as he didn't play for you before he left and won't be playing for you if he returns. So why keep up the howling and bitching??
Sensible lad that he is, he followed in the footsteps of Sean Flanagan, John Morley, John O'Mahony, Kevin Cahill, Andy Moran and countless others who wore the green and red with pride and distinction. (I know this is awful crap but I can't resist rubbing it in.)
So; see the list above and weep for it will continue to grow longer and more distinguished as the years go by.

[Bomber2312]

This is probably going to drive the lads mental, but its quite possible to say that pearse hanley and parsons would not be the footballers they are today if they werent from mayo? i mean, they have played in mayo underage football all the way up against teams in mayo, the standard is higher in mayo than in sligo or roscommon. this surely would have contributed to their current abilities. they would have been involved with mayo county panels from the age of 15 also, mayo coaches playing with the best players from mayo. Parsons could play for bellaghy but its illogical to think that he would be the same footballer he is now unless you were to conclude training with under age panels has no benefit or playing at a higher standard is also of no benefit.
you cant complain about a family who makes a choice when a lad is 7/8 because when hes 21 he is a high standard player. i have not once seen names of players who are from the bellaghy area who played for charlestown that you demand play for sligo.

[joemamas]

Sligonian,

Still waiting for the official congrats for last Sunday victory. Tremendous victory for Charlestown The Cup was also brought down Bellaghy where the team were given a great reception. In fairness when Curry won Sligo, the came up into Charlestown and were given a similar ovation.

[spectator]

Turlough is mostly correct regarding the St John's club [Agree, btw, that how Leitrim were lobbied by Mayo and came to vote down St John's is not a story that needs to be gone into.]

But a point that's been missed on here is that St. John's was purely an under-age club which was to have been affiliated to Ros. What's more, Ballagh GAA club would hardly have lost any under-age players had it gotten the go-ahead.

There were young Ballagh Rossies willing to play for St. Johns, if it was formed, who didn't play for the Ballagh club at that time because of things that had happened prior to that. When Durks, who was an avid Ros supporter, was 'told' to play for Mayo if he wanted to play IC at all, around '83, Ballagh Rossies weren't one bit impressed - it was just another insult flying in the face of their hard work and harder earned cash contributions towards developing new grounds and a clubhouse for Ballagh GAA a few years earlier. There's no need to go into the details, but ye get the gist that things took a few turns for the worse which lead to some of the Ros kids not playing with Ballagh GAA by the early '90s. It was mostly those kids who would have played for St. Johns Under-Age Club, had it been sanctioned.

In any event, for various reasons, St Johns was vigourously opposed by the Mayoites. One of those reasons, I'd guess, was that Mayoites feared a potential situation arising in later years whereby Mayo could lose their stranglehold on good Ballagh Rossie players, lads such as Andy Moran and Pearse Hanley for example, if St Johns later developed into an adult club down the road. [And it might well have too, given the way the economy started improving later on in the late nineties.]

Happily, there are more Rossies getting involved in the club again these days, as the link below of last year's Mayo Senior Club Final presentation shows. There, ye'll see the Rossie captain declare "C'mon The Ros" as he's bantered by Mayo supporters when making his acceptance speech! How Mayo can deny a wholehearted player and leader of the stature of Gaz Conway the sporting choice of playing for his native Ros is beyond me, but there you go. Ballagh Rossies will doubtless respond  'Sure isn't that Mayo for ya'  They seem to be getting their act together back there though, so you never know what might come about.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5dTtMIyxwk&feature=related


Regarding Paul Earley ; IIRC, I first saw him playing senior championship in The Hyde against Galway in 1982 at 18 \ 19 years old, I think he was home on holidays from Melbourne at the time, after his first year over there. That was before he hurt his back - to say he was jumping four to five feet clean off the ground to field balls coming into him at FF is to understate it. He destroyed Stephen Kinneavy in the air, which is saying something, before later moving out the field where he also left Richie Lee floundering in his wake. He'd been a great player as a minor, winning a Connacht minor medal in '81 playing a leading role from midfield. It was gutting for Rossies to see him leaving for Oz after the '81 AISF. Unfortunately, a back injury picked up during his time in Oz curtailed him somewhat in his later gaelic career proper after he'd returned home, not that most onlookers would have guessed it from watching his performances on the field of play. He was some player all right and an absolute gentleman too, always having time for us young lads looking for autographs, taking time out to attend supporters club meetings etc.

[johnpower]

Turlough is mostly correct regarding the St John's club [Agree, btw, that how Leitrim were lobbied by Mayo and came to vote down St John's is not a story that needs to be gone into.]

But a point that's been missed on here is that St. John's was purely an under-age club which was to have been affiliated to Ros. What's more, Ballagh GAA club would hardly have lost any under-age players had it gotten the go-ahead.

There were young Ballagh Rossies willing to play for St. Johns, if it was formed, who didn't play for the Ballagh club at that time because of things that had happened prior to that. When Durks, who was an avid Ros supporter, was 'told' to play for Mayo if he wanted to play IC at all, around '83, Ballagh Rossies weren't one bit impressed - it was just another insult flying in the face of their hard work and harder earned cash contributions towards developing new grounds and a clubhouse for Ballagh GAA a few years earlier. There's no need to go into the details, but ye get the gist that things took a few turns for the worse which lead to some of the Ros kids not playing with Ballagh GAA by the early '90s. It was mostly those kids who would have played for St. Johns Under-Age Club, had it been sanctioned.

In any event, for various reasons, St Johns was vigourously opposed by the Mayoites. One of those reasons, I'd guess, was that Mayoites feared a potential situation arising in later years whereby Mayo could lose their stranglehold on good Ballagh Rossie players, lads such as Andy Moran and Pearse Hanley for example, if St Johns later developed into an adult club down the road. [And it might well have too, given the way the economy started improving later on in the late nineties.]

Happily, there are more Rossies getting involved in the club again these days, as the link below of last year's Mayo Senior Club Final presentation shows. There, ye'll see the Rossie captain declare "C'mon The Ros" as he's bantered by Mayo supporters when making his acceptance speech! How Mayo can deny a wholehearted player and leader of the stature of Gaz Conway the sporting choice of playing for his native Ros is beyond me, but there you go. Ballagh Rossies will doubtless respond  'Sure isn't that Mayo for ya'  They seem to be getting their act together back there though, so you never know what might come about.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5dTtMIyxwk&feature=related


Regarding Paul Earley ; IIRC, I first saw him playing senior championship in The Hyde against Galway in 1982 at 18 \ 19 years old, I think he was home on holidays from Melbourne at the time, after his first year over there. That was before he hurt his back - to say he was jumping four to five feet clean off the ground to field balls coming into him at FF is to understate it. He destroyed Stephen Kinneavy in the air, which is saying something, before later moving out the field where he also left Richie Lee floundering in his wake. He'd been a great player as a minor, winning a Connacht minor medal in '81 playing a leading role from midfield. It was gutting for Rossies to see him leaving for Oz after the '81 AISF. Unfortunately, a back injury picked up during his time in Oz curtailed him somewhat in his later gaelic career proper after he'd returned home, not that most onlookers would have guessed it from watching his performances on the field of play. He was some player all right and an absolute gentleman too, always having time for us young lads looking for autographs, taking time out to attend supporters club meetings etc.

He was and is a legend (as is his brother  and nephwew ) I remember following his debut

[stephenite]

Spectator - why would Mayo agree to the founding of a club that goes against the rules of the association. By that logic clubs could set wherever they wanted - there would be anarchy. The GAA operates off it's own set of border rules - always has done.

And for Sligonian - as Ardnaree was formed well after the ruling all those years ago I would imagine they are exempt from that rule - but you might want to seek clarification from your barrister on that.

[SLIGONIAN]

Spectator - why would Mayo agree to the founding of a club that goes against the rules of the association. By that logic clubs could set wherever they wanted - there would be anarchy. The GAA operates off it's own set of border rules - always has done.

And for Sligonian - as Ardnaree was formed well after the ruling all those years ago I would imagine they are exempt from that rule - but you might want to seek clarification from your barrister on that.

Why arent st johns exempt so as they would of been formed even longer after the ruling?

Spectator, stephenite alluded to leitrim being corrupted and so have you, why should it brushed under the carpet?

And joe, congrats to charlestown.

Bomber, mayo coaching and development of players is no better than Sligo, we have produced some great players like Nace O Dowd, Mickey Kerins, Eamonn O Hara, Paul Taylor, Dessie Sloyan, David Kelly, mayo have 52 clubs over twice the amount of players we have, its favourly predictable they might produced more quantities based on there pick is it not? We won manning cup in 08, at u16 level, you seem to suggest we have no u15 team, it pretty much the same set up pretty much as mayo with developmental squads at u15 and u17, county teams at u16 and u18. There club championship is good and our county champions beat theres in  08 and in 05. You raise a few other points which make me think you dont know much about this, Bellaghy isnt a club, its Curry they could play for. You also state I cant complain if parents want there kids to play with mayo, at the end of the day loyalty and pride in where your from, is that not important?. If every parent had the same atitude all our players would play with mayo. Parsons could of made the best of himself with Sligo too.

Parsons and the 2 mulligans play for Charlestown are from Bellaghy, and a towey who used to I think, there the first generation that have played for Charlestown. Bellaghy used to be extremely loyal to curry and sligo even in olden days cycling the couple of miles to training. The thing the annoys me most about parsons is his Dad is a staunch Sligoman and his uncle played for Sligo and Tom himself wore the BW as short back as early 2000s supporting Sligo. But in fairness to Tom it might not be his fault he had to play with mayo, he may of wanted to play for Sligo.

[stephenite]

Why arent st johns exempt so as they would of been formed even longer after the ruling?

Because there is already a club in the area, Ballaghaderreen. And because somebody objected. I'm not aware of any objection to the formation of the Ardnaree club.

Spectator, stephenite alluded to leitrim being corrupted and so have you, why should it brushed under the carpet?

I'm only speculating that there have been a deal, but I've no idea if there was or not - that does not mean there is corruption involved. Others have been quite coy on this subject but hinted that they know something, I don't know why they're not prepared to divulge any info they might have and wouldn't speculate on what they do or don't know.

[Greenabovethered]

Spectator - why would Mayo agree to the founding of a club that goes against the rules of the association. By that logic clubs could set wherever they wanted - there would be anarchy. The GAA operates off it's own set of border rules - always has done.

And for Sligonian - as Ardnaree was formed well after the ruling all those years ago I would imagine they are exempt from that rule - but you might want to seek clarification from your barrister on that.

Why arent st johns exempt so as they would of been formed even longer after the ruling?

Spectator, stephenite alluded to leitrim being corrupted and so have you, why should it brushed under the carpet?

And joe, congrats to charlestown.

Bomber, mayo coaching and development of players is no better than Sligo, we have produced some great players like Nace O Dowd, Mickey Kerins, Eamonn O Hara, Paul Taylor, Dessie Sloyan, David Kelly, mayo have 52 clubs over twice the amount of players we have, its favourly predictable they might produced more quantities based on there pick is it not? We won manning cup in 08, at u16 level, you seem to suggest we have no u15 team, it pretty much the same set up pretty much as mayo with developmental squads at u15 and u17, county teams at u16 and u18. There club championship is good and our county champions beat theres in  08 and in 05. You raise a few other points which make me think you dont know much about this, Bellaghy isnt a club, its Curry they could play for. You also state I cant complain if parents want there kids to play with mayo, at the end of the day loyalty and pride in where your from, is that not important?. If every parent had the same atitude all our players would play with mayo. Parsons could of made the best of himself with Sligo too.

Parsons and the 2 mulligans play for Charlestown are from Bellaghy, and a towey who used to I think, there the first generation that have played for Charlestown. Bellaghy used to be extremely loyal to curry and sligo even in olden days cycling the couple of miles to training. The thing the annoys me most about parsons is his Dad is a staunch Sligoman and his uncle played for Sligo and Tom himself wore the BW as short back as early 2000s supporting Sligo. But in fairness to Tom it might not be his fault he had to play with mayo, he may of wanted to play for Sligo.

The two Mulligan brothers are originally from Church Street Charlestown and moved to a new house in Bellaghy about 10/12 years ago.  Their older brother played for Curry & Sligo u-16 after failing to make the Mayo team. Their family business remains  in the town. I don't think you can claim them. As i understand it Bellaghy is in the Charlestown parish. According to the Curry club centenary book, Bellaghy was coopted to the Curry club in 1955 at their AGM. This is generally ignored by the residents and  apart from 1 or 2 lads that played underage for Sligo (and Curry to complete legalities) who have not made the mayo grade. 

In fairness, once you leave the Bellaghy limits, you are into Staunch Curry country.

7 of the Charlestown starting 15 live in Bellaghy.