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Baoithe

You are way of the mark regarding the illness. Moysiders original post is completely accurate and his wifes illness whilst not common knowledge has been in the public domain for awhile. He could justifably have resigned months ago.

I do not know Tommy Brehony but what I do know is that his already young family got even younger early this year and in  my mind this combined with the downturn in the business sector in which he works were the reasons he resigned as Sligo Manager. Hard to combine managing a county team with a baby and when you are under pressure at work. In my mind , there is no validation for consistent comments that Brehony got out when he seen the road ahead. He was a superb manager who resigned for family reasons. End of story.

See on sligogaa.ie that Tommy Jordan resigned this evening for personal family reasons. Whilst his term wont be remembered for its success, he personally will be remembered as a very decent man who did his best for Sligo footballers . The access he gave clubs to their senior panellist was greater than any manager in recent years and him taking up his first intercounty appointment directly after the 2007 Connaught Championship win showed him to be a man of great courage.

Am certain that all Sligo Gaels wish him and his family all the best and pray that all works out for them.

Owenmore Gaels got effectively relegated on Saturday night thanks to a major refereeing error whereby a 1 point victory to us by everyone present was marked a draw by the "referee". In fairness it was a excellent game with 29 scores with about 10 booking of which 5 were even questionable frees and 3 more more should have been red cards but it didnt play as a rough game. Queried a technical rule with ref during game and he patently doesnt know the rules, and we wonder about the future of Sligo football. Refs department have a hard job and I suppose it is up to us to provide better refs etc but it was the only game in our division that had any significant meaning on Saturday so felt they could have assigned a high grade ref. Thats football though and whilst its very hard to keep at it, the best response is to continue our recent good form into championship but I fear it will completely demotivate our young panel. To be honest dont particuliarily care about other matches over the weekend at the moment !!

Said about 5 pages ago that i would come back here and give my views on way forward. There are 2 parts to this, one being the pretty fundamental structures of Sligo football and one been the actual team going forward. Will deal with latter here.

Dont think there are 2 many club players in the county who arent on the panel and who deserve to be on it. The future lies at our U21 team and last couple of minor teams. They have been competitive without threatening to win anything and hopefully some of these can take the step from been competitive inter county minor players to been competitive inter county senior players. It goes without saying that there is now some deadwood on our senior panel. Some of this is down to the passage of time and some is down to players been on the panel year in year out without getting decent runs on the 1st team and their confidence at senior level been drained away. These palyers by virtue of the fact that they have senior inter county training and with their confidence back at club level , they star and get invited back into senior panel year after year. They dont get nurtured properly and eventually fade away from intercounty scene. Division 4 football and Tommy Murphy cup are ideal times to introduce some young players to inter county football and give other players an extended run in the team and once and for all we can evaluate their true worth.

Why as we discussed at length before Mayo match does the Sligo forwrad line consistently average 5ft 5 and 12.5 stone ?? This is a major problem for Sligo football and is there a reason why we produce such small men rather than big intercounty footballers ? My own "Jim Corr" style theory on this may extinguish any street cred I've built up on this board over last few years but here goes !! I blame the refs !! Sligo club refereeing is pretty consistent and of a good standard but in my view has one huge failing -- The inability to allow for any physical contact in the tackle area and breaking ball area. This automatically promotes small and fast forwards and naturally they stand out more hence making senior panels . No Physical contact is allowed at Sligo club football. One only needs to look at our most prominient intercounty ref and his refereeing of the tackle area to validate this point.

Dont want to get into naming players either who should come in or who should leave the panel at this stage but want to make 2 points. Consistently over the last few months , there is a notion of O Hara playing full forward for Sligo. Perhaps I am missing something here , but in my view he does not have the skillsets for full forward and its the last outfield place on the pitch i would play him. Secondly Sligonian has decreed PeterWilson as the next midfielder for Sligo. I sincerely hope he is but there is no evidence to date that he is Inter county standard let alone a starring midfielder.Let the lad develop , hes only 21 and for Sligo footballs sake I hope he stars at the business end of intermediate championship this year and then plays very well in Division 2 of the local leagues next year and then we can talk about him in those terms.

Also delighted to hear that you see the way to channel your massive interest is working your way up through the club structures.Actually it wont take very long at all before you are in a position to make a difference , Sligonian so best of luck with it. Know you are quoting connaughtgaa but there are 24 football clubs in Sligo not  20 and also there isnt close to 20 adult soccer teams in the town -- Frank Murphy will eat you for dust at congress if we dont help you eradicate these things !!!! Finally want to hear yours or indeed anyones blueprint for the development of Sligo football and how we can minimise dark days like Castlebar two weeks ago.

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.

Fair Play to Mayo. Unfortunately for them they didnt learn alot from the "game" . Sligo were beyound poor. Whilst Sligonian with his style of posting probably talked up Sligo to the extent that he worried the Mayo posters, the majority of the Sligo posters here were travelling more in hope that expectation. And when Sligo teams play without hunger , we are in trouble. Feel we should have are own separate thread to deal with the post mortem and consequences of this defeat for Sligo football as they go way further than Castlebar yesterday.

Best wishes to Mayo for the rest of the year. Hopefully both themselves and Galway make the 1/4 finals and indeed at the very least be very competitive at that level. Connaught football needs it as despite the great success of Mayo U21's , Galway and Roscommon minors in recent years , the senior is the showcase for the province.

Feel with Howley , Dillon , Kilcoyne (and Campbell ?? ) competing for places Mayo have every chance of winning Connaught and indeed also making the All Ireland semis. Sadly dont think they will be bridging the gap since 1951 but at least you have a chance !!

2 quick comments on issues raised this morning. I feel Tom Parsons been a Sligo man or not is irrelevant once he started playing for Charlestown at presumably the age of 8/9. Apart from Kelly , thought Donovan was the other Sligo player who performed well. Andy Moran wont meet too many better corner backs all year.

Maybe this is treasonable but I will be travelling on Sunday more in hope than expectation for the reasons outlined above

Not treasonable at all. Its pragmatic and you're not one of these guys who suffers from the dreaded Sligo inferiority complex.

For Sligo to win , our full back line needs to regain its 2007 form and without Maguire this would be difficult. Even if they did regain their form , if we lose the midfield battle fairly dramactically, good and all our fullback line may play , we wont win. In essence , alot rests on the shoulders of Quinn and O Hara. If Quinn is marking Mc Garrity , he will be marking a damn fine player and he would have to have one of the games of his life to dominate there. Alot rest then on O Hara with presumably the Mayos half forward line paying him particuliar attention also. Great and all as Eamomn is , its a  big ask for him months away from been 33 and not been a particuliarily tall midfieder to replicate the form of 5 years ago when he was at his physical peak. Its not beyound the man but its a big ask. My point early is that i dont see any other sources of possession around midfield other than the midfielders. Sligonian makes some very valid points about our inferiority complex but winning Connaught last year has liberated this bunch of players and unlike previous visits down the years , this Sligo team truly believes it can win and that in itself gives this Sligo team an advantage I've rarely seen in a Sligo team going to Castlebar. If this Sligo team is even money to win with a 6 point spread then it certainly is an excellent bet.

Steve - Think thats a fair point about Maguire. In my mind the fact he only played half a match against Roscommon when obviously lacking in match fitness raises a genuine query whether he will be involved at all and that would be a major blow to Sligo's chances.

Actually thought the Mayo team was well selected. Thankfully for Mayo the management selected their best man marker on Sligos most dangerous forward rather than James Nallen as the majority of the experts on here thought made sense. Nallen will pick up Sligo 3rd midfielder and wouldnt lose any sleep over Mc Namara. Between Nallen on Mc Namara , Parsons/Mc Garrity on O Hara/ Quinn , Heaney on Brehony , Cunnife on Gaughan/ Curran ,Gardiner on McHugh and Harte on Egan, Mayo have height advantages in all the midfield sectors and in most cases very significant height advantages. Make no mistakes , the main reason Sligo are now in Division 4 is that we were annihilated in most league games around the middle and it worries me greatly on Sunday too and irrespective of all the pace Sligo may have around the team , it will be no good without the ball. We lost against Cork for many reason but mainly  because they were way too physical for us around midfield and this worries me greatly on Sunday also.

Again whilst the majority of the Mayo people on here talk about Austie or Conor Mortimer , I would be more worried about Andy Moran. Probably the best Sigerson footballer in the country over last 2/3 years and I felt in the last year he was transferring this form to senior intercounty football. If Mayo are to threaten at the business end of the summer, I imagine Andy Moran will have played a crucial part.

Maybe this is treasonable but I will be travelling on Sunday more in hope than expectation for the reasons outlined above.

Actually think John Mac is most definitely a half forward as well. I dont think he has the skillsets to play as a target man full forward at inter county football. He may line out on occasions in the full forward line but he roams around out the field.

At times I think Sweeney is much maligned. He plays for Geevagh as a half forward and all his inter county underage experience is as a half forward. He should only be judged at this level when he gets a run as a half forward.

Think the problem in Sligo is that the only natural players who play in the full foward line of anything near intercounty class are Flannery and Mc Gowan who both struggle at championship level. Stephen Coen has the potential to play senior intercounty football in the full forward line. Even D Kelly is probably a better half forward. If Mcnamara had played Gaelic constantly for the last 7 years as a full forward , he had the ability to be good enough but at this stage hasnt the skillsets either. Through no fault of his own , Eamomn O Hara took all the national limelight from as equally important player for Sligo in the 2001/02 team in Dessie Sloyane who no one has even came close to replacing in recent years on the Sligo team. Dessie would have greatly helped this Sligo team to be competitive at 1/4 final stage of All Ireland championship.

Therein lies the problem. Because of the lack of naturall full forwards , Sligo are playing a game based on 4/5 half forwards running with the ball. Agree with Sligonian in that Gaughan and Davey do provide a bigger threat than last year but in my opinion this gameplan is forced upon Sligo by virtue of the personel available rather than a tactical choice.

Actually serious here in saying that Donald Bradman gets my vote.Of all records in sport , think his is the most impressive and no one has ever got even close to it and indeed I think will struggle to get close to it in the future.

Talk that discussion on this forum is letting teams tactics and plans out of the bag is in my view fanciful. Mayo have watched Sligo throughout the league , in London and in its challenge games ( not to mention the numerous mayo men involved in club football in Sligo) to know for example that MC Namara wont play centre back and that Egan will. Jordan in his wisdom felt it was necessary to name a dummy team against London so no surprise that he has done it again here. The question is whether its just positional switches or will there be personell switches. Obviously most speculation in Sligo revolves around Maguire. He did play a full club championship game 10 days ago but in a challenge game that you would think was readymade for him to help his match fitness against Roscommon he only played a 1/2 so he may very well not be fit.

Interesting debate between Mano and Sligonian on the makup of our forwardline. Mano sees Cork happening again and bemoans the lack of big men to win their own ball. Sligonian feels that speed is the key and that with our possession game we can run around Mayo. By the team selected , the management have gone for an extremely fast but possibly the lighest intercounty forwardline in the championship. This may be a pragmatic decision due to lack of big men in Sligo panel but if Mayos backs have the pace to stay with Sligo forwards then we will be in trouble. Dont like the notion of Johnie Dvaey with his back to goals and feel he would be better further out the field. Talk here of Nallen playing left corner back effectively marking D Kelly will not happen and personally expect K Higgins to mark Kelly. Dont expect much to be in it and for Sligo to win , the pace in our forward line need to be turned into scores and K Quinn need a big game in midfield to negate R Mc Garritty.

Pride of place to Shamrock Gaels this week who 10 days ago were odds on for relegation and now with a 1/4 final to look forward too. Excellent post there xwave and the stark reality of Ballymotes championship form as detailed is interesting reading. Expect Ballymote to beat Gaels in the last match and send Tourlestane to the B Championship. Feel a certain amount of sympathy for O Hara in that a married guy in his 30's may very well not be available every weekend either for work or personal reasons and O Hara would be entitled to think Tourlestrane would beat Shamrock Gaels in his absence. Harps and Coolera coasted through their section and my reading of the draw suggests that a defeat may even give a slightlier easier path to final in the last game. Fair play to Farnans who beat a Drumcliff side that looks on the way to Intermediate. For a club that looked as if it would take over Sligo football 10/15 years ago , its been a very disappointing few years for Drumcliff. Castleconnor win over Johns must have them thinking of glory and whilst they will be a match for most teams I cant see them winning it. Johns sojourn in division 3 has cost them dear. Marys/ Tubber is the only interesting match in the last round with the winner again likely to be fancying their chances of a run to final in a half including Coolera , Ballymote and Castleconnor which would give all side a fighting chance of making it to final with probably Harps, Curry and(if at all)Tourlestrane on the other side of the draw.

St Mholaise had an excellent win against Pats and may well kick on from there.Desparately disappointing performance from Pats who need a 10 point victory against Michaels to avoid relegation play offs. Ballisodare will probably draw Tourlestarne and survive but another very poor performance from them. Afraid Coolera look in trouble too unless they draw the aformentioned 2 teams. Rumour has it they have a very impressive young manager so hopefully the poor championship run wont effect his confidence. Marys had an excellent win over Cloonacool which signals that they are as competitive as ever at this level. We had an easy win over a very poor Tourlestrane team which to me proves that there must be serious injuries/unavailability in their 1st team as whats left about 2 of them would make our 1st team let alone Tourlestranes !! Half expected to see you back on duty Mano !!


There has been some criticism of CCC on this board re championship scheduling and the big gap now ahead. In fairness I feel they had no option and congratulate them on getting championship commenced in eraly June rather than squashing in into 6 weeks in August/Sept. Can only be of benefit to county lads as well to have such competitive games in advance of Mayo ( touchwood dont think there was any injuries). My only criticism of CCC is the 1 game in 7 weeks from 13 July to end of August in the heart of the summer (bar those teams fortunate enough for league finals). Cant reconcile that with matches starting in mid February and surely at the very leastthey should play the "pre season" competitions at that juncture and shorten the length of the season and thereby reduce the expense of training under lights and damage to pitches of playing games in mid February.

Farnans deserve pride of place this morning after a tremendous win over Johns. As said previously , didnt think Johns were going past the 1/4 finals this year but certainly expected them to beat Farnans. Strangley might do Johns the world of good and knock some of the complacency that is very apperant in their recent games out of them. Farnans are now looking at Drumcliff and Castleconnor as winnable games and a place in 1/4 finals is achievable. Ballymote showed their league form was a true reflection but Geevaghs succession of narrow wins in league matches caught up with them against a focused Shamrock Gaels team. Calrys recent improvement continued against Tubber and there is still nothing between both of those and Marys for the final spot. Harps and Coolera justified their favourism badges in the other section.

Both of the pre competition favourites in the intermediates are now in knock out games next weekend. If, as Sligonian has said that Martin feeney is away is correct and I have no reason to doubt it ,  then they are under serious pressure to beat Pats next weekend. Have said before that I dont agree with naming individual club intermediate players on websites and continue to believe that Sligonian. Would say however that in the last couple of years where St Mholaises have had excellent underage teams, that the profile of some players on their first team looks odd to me and that doesnt simply mean midfield either. No shame in being 2nd fiddle to Michaels midfield as they are particuliarily strong and judging on weekend will now fear no one in this competition. Enniscroine showed their fragility again on Sunday and with a few contentious matches over the last few years between themselves and Marys , there is no guarantee they wont be out of championship on Sunday evening next. Harps overwhelmed a very depleted Tourlestrane and must be beginning to see this competition open up for them. Coolaney had a facile win and if Curry beat Ballisodare on Sunday then the Ballisodare season is over before it has even started. With 3 teams rightly coming down , every team left in this competition sees it as their last chance for glory for many a long year so am expecting an unpredictable but exciting intermediate championship.

On the big picture , I expect the Harps and Tourlestarne to be main contenders. The quality of S Henry and G Gaughan has came to the limelight in the last few months and obviously at their age they have to be improving from last year. Combined with  O Hara and Egan and a multitude of other talented young players and veterans like Haran , Mc Gowan and D Durkin Tourlestrane will be hard bet. Have felt over the last few years the reason Harps havent made the breakthrough has been their dearth of natural midfielders. They always have good forwards and with their 3 county men at the back combined with the like of Rafferty they will never be far away. Howver T Taylors injury meant they were relatively weak in midfield last year so with his return along with that of P O Grady and with the hunger of losing last years final , I expect them to shade Tourlestrane. Coolera to me are the next most likely winners though any team in a section with shock specialists Bunninadden andEaskey need to be very wary. Dont think Curry will win it this year but will be very competitive. Tubber and Johns were fancied as the breakthrogh teams this year but dont think Tubber have prpgressed as expected and the depths of divison 3 football will be a major drawback for Johns. Hardto raise your game from playing Owenmore Gaels to one of the aforementioned teams in a 1/4 final. Ballymote need to make 1/4 finals at this stage and despite a few local derbies think they will. Marys will be competitive without threatening to win it and presume Castleconnor will come out of their section. Perhaps Calry may shock Tubber at weekend and Marys / Curry looks like a draw to me but over all agree with Seanie on the rest of them.

Softest intermediate in memory with the winners having one season at senior. Thought Enniscrone would win it a few weeks ago but their mental fragility showed last time out vrs Michaels. St Mholaises have recovered from an early season blip and are deserved favourites. Seem to have set out to make themselves more likeable this year and its their best chance in years to win it. Pat who are championship specialists , Michaels if they avoid injury to key players ( hard with the 2 matches a weekend) , Harps ( if they avoid injuries in the senior team) and Coolaney all harbour hope of winning championship. If there were an all Star team of intermediate players , Coolaney would have most representatives but their achilles heel is the weakness of theirfringe players. If playing Division 4 has brought them on , then I expect Coolaney to go very close to winning it.

Well done to Mano and Seanie on accuracy of 15 but hard to see the logic behing the team last week in St Margarets if that team starts withso many positional changes. Obviously Maguire is a big loss as Naughton is much better suited to half back line. Indeed you would imagine that Maguires injury has secured McGovern place rather than Naugghtons. In the last few years Mc Govern has went into championship under pressure and has responed with some excellent performance particuliarily in Connaught.Presumably the big talking point is "selection" of McNamara at centre half back. With the protection afforded by defense minded wing forwards , hopefully it will signal a return to last years form. Personally I dont agree with common held view that McNamara is a better forward than back and I cant see how he could be worth his place in forward line. Agree with Mano in that dont think O Hara should be playing midfield at this stage but it is only against quality midfields like Cork where he may be exposed. Presume McPartland has license to roam around forward line where he is at his best. As a conventional full forward, he would struggle longterm. This leaves the pace of Gaughan and Kelly inside  and to me this team looks like a departure back to last years tactics rather than the changes made in the league. This is either due to player power , selectorial power or Tommy Jordan realising the strengths of the Sligo panel ( or indeed a combination of two or more of these). Gaughan should take some pressure of Kelly in this regard and this can only be positive. My contacts in London are extremely downbeat about their chances so am confident of a decent performance and us to pull away in the second half. It only seems like yesterday that Maguire was lifting the Nestor Cup aloft !!