Sligo Football - Where do we go from here?

[Sligoper]

Well yesterday was depressin! A shambles but whats our next step?
Management? County board?

[Zapatista]

I think to many are to quick to look for a quick fix. Rather than "Where do we go from here?" It could be - how did we get to here? The same question you ask about Sligo is being asked about Tyrone, Derry, Meath and Laois. No one will want to take on a job if we keep this up.

[Sligoper]

Well how did we get here? Did we know we were gettin here? Could we perhaps have avoided getting here? Or should we have looked at a map when getting here?

[Zapatista]

Sligo are no world beaters but there needs to be a look at what the problems are before we go suggesting solutions. A change of management is a solution but it is not necessarily the problem. I don't believe the likes of Kerry have all the success due to management, there must be something else they consistently do right.

[heineken_on_tap]

I think like most counties not doing well at present, Sligo need to look at their youth development. It might take years to pay off but a good under age structure is key for any county. I saw the Sligo U-21 and minor teams this year and they had some very promising players but some passangers as well.

Sligo people IMO need to be realistic, winning Connaugh last year was a fantastic achievement but in doing so ye beat a poor Roscommon side and a tired(perhaps over confident) Galway side. Sligo did not play that well in any of their games in the championship last year. Maybe this year some of ye got carried away - the truth is any year Galway and Mayo are on opposite sides of the draw the likes of Ros, Leitrim and Sligo need to be lucky to contest the final.

I would not be too depressed, alot of teams are in the same position and it will take a few years of hard work inside these counties before things come right...

[kevmy]

I wouldn't say last year was a fluke. Sligo have had a good team for 6 or 7 years. TBH I was surprised you won it last year not because of lack of quality but more because of the age of the key players. O'Hara, McNamara, Breheny, Davey, Naughton, Quinn. A lot of these boys have a lot of miles on board. I thought last year they were out of steam but in fairness they pulled a big year out of the bag. Maybe this year was going to the well once to often.

I'd also have to say Breheny did a fine job in managing ye last year. He should have been kept on at all costs.

Sligo is a soccer town. That effects numbers and Sligo have no great tradition in Connacht and that effects confidence. Sligo need a really good team to win a Connacht title. A lot more mediocre Galway and Mayo sides have won Connacht than mediocre Sligo sides.

This present team has probably run it's course. Young talent need to come through. If you're really asking yourself where teams go wrong it's bringing in young talent. Kerry bring one or two in ever year, of course it's easier to come into a winning team but the point remains.

We have got rid of Brady, O'Neill, McDonald (by the looks of it), Gary Ruane, Fergal Costello, Peter Burke since the final in 2004. Some other guys have fallen from favour or have lost places in the 1st 15 (Pat Kelly, Dermot Geragthy, Gill, BJP) and their places have mainly been taken by younger players from the U21 teams which got to the final in 04 and won it in 06 (Howley, Higgins, Clarke, Cunniffe, Parsons, Boyle, Andy Moran).

Galway have done something the same with young player from the 05 winning U21 team coming onto the team. Now there might be a lull or some transition period but the fact remains they are being brought through from relatively successful underage teams.

[Teeling Gael]

Can see this discussion having 3 separate paths . One being the current actual team and management, one been looking to next year and one more been a  fundamental overview of the future of sligo football and what can be done structure wide.

Will concentrate on the former in this post. The natural starting point is Tommy Jordan and his future. On the positive he was very good for club football in Sligo releasing players to play for clubs and panellist even 7 days before matches. He brought through alot of players giving debuts to more players than probably any other manager in the country in the last 9 months.

However sadly the negatives outweigh the positives. Firstly and fundamentally , how a manager can accept or seek out the very same selectors from the previous regime particuliarily when himself not totally offay with Sligo players I cant fathom.  He is automatcially compromised in my view.

How Maguire was fit to come on after 10 minutes but not fit to start against Mayo. Why then wasnt he given a full game a week ago vrs Roscommon to acquire match fitness ? How come Maguire didnt play in the less taxing fullback position when he did come on ?

The selection of a dummy team to play LONDON

The selection of 2 backs in J Davey and Mc Namara as forwards vrs Mayo

The selection of the smallest and lighest forward line in the country along with a relatively small midfield and half back line left our running game totally exposed.

In essence Tommy Jordan came across as a very decent man who took on a Sligo job at the worst possible time both as Connaught Championship and been in division 3 of the league. He was ultimately let down by his players but in my view all the above contributed to his downfall. I posed the question previously whether his success in Crossmolina was down to his management or been in charge of an extremely talented bunch of players led by 2 of the finest players of their generation. Sunday would appear to answer that question as been the latter.

The players who put a huge amount of time into Sligo football feel bad enough today however it is obvious that they didnt replicate the hunger of previous years this season. Sligo need a hungry team.Their talisman and still one of their best players in months away from 33 and cant be expected to dominate games from midfield anymore. Players like Davey, Mc Govern, McNamara , Quinn , Brehony and Curran all very key players last year had poor seasons and Sligo cant afford to have 1/2 their first choice team playing below par.

The question we need to look at , is where to now with this bunch of players ?? Are they all washed up or will a fresh approach next spring reignite their enthusiasm.

[Sligoper]

Alot of things well said there and youth is a key!
I mean Gerry McGowans shot the last day! Didnt even trouble the keeper. How is that man considered better then steoheb Coen i'll never know?

[SLIGONIAN]

Im going to comeback on this issue in greater detail when Im over the initial pain of the performance.

I ask a few initial questions, the 2nd sub yday who came on was brendan phillips, for injured mcgovern. He didnt even get one runout in the FBD or NFL, can someone explain that to me? Sweeny no run at all yday, If Jordan wanted to make more mistakes he couldnt, he was a disaster.

He has no courage too, it was very easy to take off eoin mchugh (who wasnt our worst) and leave on others who were appalling.

I dont just blame him, his backroom team, listen i spoke to john kent a while as some of yee know, when I said to him mcnamara is not a chb, he disagreed strongly. Now if I was manager mcnamara wouldnt get near the senior team until he puts in a few outstanding performances for his club. There was an instance yday when he cowered out of contesting for a high ball.

Like bringing on mcgowan is a joke, who are we kidding? mayo bringing on BJP and aidan kilcoyne... look at JOM made the big calls and made an emphasis on youth and stood up to mayo people and may reap the benefits.

Maguire was fit too start. Why wasnt he?

The problem i have with Sligo football, we keep making the same mistakes over and over again. The work is being done on underage, etc.. IMHO and ive heard good things so that is not the problem.

[SLIGONIAN]

Just seen something interesting on connachtgaa.ie
The following is the amount of clubs in each county in connacht.

Sligo 20 football 4 hurling
Leitrim 24 football 4 hurling
Roscommon 27 football 4 hurling
Mayo 44 football 6 hurling
Galway 43 football 35 hurling

We have the smallest pick of players in connacht, population has nothing to do with it. It is the amount of clubs that dictates the amount of players available to feed the county panel.

What does the above mean? That MAYBE we are not completely way off in developing talent and maximising our potential.

[Kerry Mike]

Underage is the key, with only 20 clubs it should be easier than bigger counties to develop a strategy for U14's and beyond. With a senior team with many of the players now at around the 30 mark there should be a flow of younsters ready to step up, I dont think they are there to be honest, Sligo need to start contesting consistantly and winning at a minimum minor and U21 connacht titles.

The senior team needs consistancy as well, the poor league form has rubbed off , there is an infectious attitude to winning but the same applies to losing. Hopefully Sligo can now start from the bottom and work themselves back up from Div 4

[SLIGONIAN]

The stuff im seeing written on other message boards about bellaghy is shocking, im going to post them on here starting with this one. There even a more shocking one on hoganstand.

From sligogaa.ie
The age old debate about Bellaghy and its spelling came to promidence again last sunday. Bellaghy is spelt so. Bellaghy is in South Sligo and its translation is the mouth of the Slough.Its GAA team is Curry and that is where there players have played down through the years. people like Michael Marren, Allen Moran,Vincent Henry Marty Webb The Duffy Brothers All the Parsons'(not this genertion),etc. This has to be sorted out. Too many players are been lost to Mayo, Example, Paul Mulligan, Oliver Conway,Brendan Towey, Tom Parsons etc.Sligo can not afford this leak of talent.

Sorry lads but something needs to be done. FFS weve got 20 clubs they got 44 and there stealing players left right and centre.

[Bod Mor]

Sorry lads but something needs to be done. FFS weve got 20 clubs they got 44 and there stealing players left right and centre.

I can't understand this sh!te about 'stealing' players. It's the same when we beat the Rossies, they go on about Andy Moran. In this day and age surely to god no one points a gun at a man's head and tells him he should play for Mayo. Obviously they do it on their own free will. Maurice Horan went and played for Limerick a couple of years ago and nobody begrudged him that.

[stephenite]

Yep, I agree - however they're probabaly right to bring it up.

Nobody gives a fiddlers who the next Tom Parsons plays for when he is 9 years of age, best way to stop this is to ensure that all players within your boundaries play for your club and when the gem surfaces it's clear cut who he represents.

But stop whinging about it when the lad plays Senior Inter County - too late for that I'm afraid.

[moysider]

Look, Parsons has been a Charlestown and Mayo player always. I ve been telling people in the loop about himself and Pierce Hanley since they were kids [ @14]  and I saw them on opposition teams. He s the archtypical Mayo footballer and could hardly have been created anywhere else [ yeah, and I include Kerry in that]  and if we had the so called Ros player Hanley we would have a foundation for a team for a decade and maybe for the ages. They are Mayo players through and through and you only have to look at how they play to understand that. If I was a Sligo person I would be more concerned about the football wasteland that exists around the largest town in the county but stretches a bit outside as well rather than what we lost from a village over the border. Reality is lads if Parsons had been born in Sligo Town he d be playin centre half in the League of Ireland. One of the largest secondary schools in the province hardly makes an impression at Colleges B level any more. Why? That is more pertinent than thinking what may have been with a lad that  got all his nurturing in Mayo and is a Mayo type footballer to the core. Yeah he is a special talent but its a Mayo talent with yet some Mayo failings. In other words he ll never take the head off ya which is a trait of the more creative Mayo Players. But he s a special  player and some of you now will realise how one or two  had him down as a possible no. 11. Management will be a lapse rate behind as usual. If he was nurtured in Kerry he d have been a Darragh O Shea. He s a Mayo player to the core.