Pete Finnerty to coach Mayo hurlers

[GalwayBayBoy]

From Mayo News:

GALWAY hurling legend Pete Finnerty is set to join the Mayo hurling management team ahead of their 2008 campaign.
The two time All-Ireland Senior hurling winner and five time All Star was confirmed as the coach to the Mayo senior hurlers last week. He will join manager Westport's Martin Brennan and trainer Ray McNamara in a three man team.
Finnerty, who made his name at right-half back on the All-Ireland winning Galway teams of 1987 and '88, will come on board with Brennan and McNamara, who were involved in the same positions last year.
Jimmy Martin and Stephen Broderick are no longer selectors however.
Mayo will play in Division 2 of the National Hurling League next year and Finnerty's presence within the Mayo camp is likely to lead to drive for league honours.
They will play in the Connacht League and the Leinster based Keogh Cup prior to commencing National League action.
Finnerty (43), from Mullagh near Ballinasloe, is a businessman based in Tuam. He owns the Supermac's franchise in the town. He was right-half back on the swashbuckling Galway half-back line that also contained Tony Keady and Gerry McInerney.
Finnerty has been a hurling analyst on RTÉ's The Sunday Game for several years as well as writing a weekly hurling column with The Sunday Independent

[stephenite]

Good to have a big name appointment - hopefully the powers that be will give the new manager and his players the support they deserve, unlike the shameful treatment dished out to Browne, counting sliotars and setting limits on the number of the training sessions they are allowed etc.

[theskull1]

Good to have a big name appointment - hopefully the powers that be will give the new manager and his players the support they deserve, unlike the shameful treatment dished out to Browne, counting sliotars and setting limits on the number of the training sessions they are allowed etc.

Surely that is a joke stephenite Are they that bare faced?

How come they've got Finnerty to come in if this is how they've treated previous regimes?

[the ship]

if i was to tel you some of the strokes the mayo football board get up to when it comes to hurling, i would be here for a week and probably thrown off the board.l

some of the people behind the scenes in mayo hurling at the moment are quite wealthy im told, so thats where the money must be coming from to pay finnerty, as all money earned by the hurlers is diverted to footbal activities.
l   

[Bord na Mona man]

if i was to tel you some of the strokes the mayo football board get up to when it comes to hurling, i would be here for a week and probably thrown off the board.l

some of the people behind the scenes in mayo hurling at the moment are quite wealthy im told, so thats where the money must be coming from to pay finnerty, as all money earned by the hurlers is diverted to footbal activities.
l   

Maybe someone from outside the county and with a bit of profile would be more capable of ensuring hurling doesn't get shafted.

[slow corner back]

Good to see someone in Mayo is taking hurling seriously, best of luck to Pete Finnerty one of my all time favourite players

[Gnevin]

some of the people behind the scenes in mayo hurling at the moment are quite wealthy im told, so thats where the money must be coming from to pay finnerty, as all money earned by the hurlers is diverted to footbal activities.
l   

Well that's a waste anyway .

Good to seen the efforts being put in to drive Hurling forward .

[the ship]

Maybe someone from outside the county and with a bit of profile would be more capable of ensuring hurling doesn't get shafted.

do you think Finnerty is coming just out of love for mayo hurling?, i doubt it all thats bringing him is pounds shilling and pence, and as to
an outsider ensuring that hurling wont get shafted, may i just mention the name of Micky Moran who got them to a football final and look what happened him.

[GY Joe]

if i was to tel you some of the strokes the mayo football board get up to when it comes to hurling, i would be here for a week and probably thrown off the board.l

some of the people behind the scenes in mayo hurling at the moment are quite wealthy im told, so thats where the money must be coming from to pay finnerty, as all money earned by the hurlers is diverted to footbal activities.
l   

Go on ship tell us!!

I slag Mayo men every day. Many of them look at hurling as a foreign sport altogether so their county boards attitude does not surprise me...

[Farrandeelin]

I want to wish Pete Finnerty the best in the role. I'd love to see the Mayo hurlers playing at a higher level than they are at. However, GY Joe makes a good point about the attitude of Mayo people in general towards hurling. I will be the first to admit that I've heard Mayo people actually call hurling a foreign sport and that they would actually prefer to watch soccer/rugby than hurling. It's sad but true.

[Bord na Mona man]

Go on ship tell us!!

I slag Mayo men every day. Many of them look at hurling as a foreign sport altogether so their county boards attitude does not surprise me...

It's always disappointing to hear that sort of nonsense from GAA people.
From both hurling and football people towards the other code.
The motto seems to be, if you aren't successful at the other sport, then sneer at it.
Some people seem to wear their ignorance and contempt for hurling/football as some sort of badge of pride!

[Bord na Mona man]

do you think Finnerty is coming just out of love for mayo hurling?, i doubt it all thats bringing him is pounds shilling and pence, and as to
an outsider ensuring that hurling wont get shafted, may i just mention the name of Micky Moran who got them to a football final and look what happened him.

If Finnerty goes to Mayo and is continually having the rug pulled from under him, it is far easier for him to blow the whistle and expose it.
He is not from the county, so upsetting Mayo county board officials won't damage him in the long term.
He is on the tv and in the papers and is bound to mention how he finds things in Mayo.
The last thing Mayo should want is to have their dodgy dealings with hurling exposed nationally and I'd expect them to be shamed into improving things.

[scalder]

Name and shame lads - if the Mayo board are undermining hurling it needs to exposed. Now this is an issue for the GPA but where are they on this??

I beleive that hurling has grown in the county but thats its inspite of the board - Connacht needs a meaningful championship and it would be great if Mayo could rise to the challange!

[A Quinn Martin Production]

Good move by Mayo and all the best to Pete and the Mayo hurling boys.

Hopefully in a few years you'll be good enough to join us Antrim boys in the fourteenth preliminary round of the McCarthy Cup (a bitter Antrim man

[the ship]

there is not doubt that hurling has grown in mayo in the last 10 years, we have 6 senior clubs which all have juvenile clubs plus  in the last number of years juvenile clubs have been started in claremorris, ballyvary and moytura (ballinrobe) this is in spite of all the roadblocks put in our way.
so while we will never be in the same league as the galways, kilkennys of this world we can still aspire to be at least at the top level of christy ring and who knows if a special bunch of hurlers came along together we might give the higher counties a rattle for a few years.
but the harsh realities of life in a football county is you spend most of your energies fighting to keep the sport alive as opposed to moving it on to a higher plain and when the people who could really help you don't give a toss you are fighting a losing battle.