ONLY ONE LOSER IN CLUB VERSUS COUNTY
Club football has long had a battle with the inter-county game in determining availability for vital matches and too often comes out the loser in every respect.
Difficult as it may be to offer some sort of balance, there is surely an onus on the G.A.A. authorities to come up with a solution.
It’s an issue that has again surfaced in recent times with a number of officials and players highlighting the problem and looking for answers. No more so than our own Patrick McBrearty who pointed to his club side Kilcar’s participation in the Ulster Under-21 Championships.
On Sunday week last, Kilcar lost out to Monaghan side, Magheracloone having been forced to send out a team with no less than three quality absentees in the form of Stephen McBrearty and the McHugh cousins, Eoin and Ryan McHugh, the latter having just this week being named as the best current player NOT to have received an All-Star.
The trio had been required by Rory Gallagher for a challenge match against Westmeath. Fair enough. They are county players and it’s not much good the Donegal boss using these build-up games to assert what he’s got if some of his best operators are missing from the panel.
But where then for the clubs who must struggle on without those very same players?
“As a Kilcar man, you can see how it can be difficult for the lads. Rory is trying to get ready for the league and Kilcar want to do well in the Ulster Under-21 competition. The players are the ones who are caught in the middle of it,” McBrearty told the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ at the weekend.
Central Council, he considers, should offer some leadership when the fixtures calendar is being organised.
Spot on. There are too many fixture clashes and too many occasions when a competition stretches from one year into the next. But then some of us believe that the G.A.A., in its ever-relenting efforts to keep all age groups happy and all players involved, have just too many competitions pencilled in throughout a normal year and consequently an overkill scenario for teams and players.
For instance, I’ve long considered that the likes of the McKenna Cup and the O’Brien Cup and other such competitions should be afforded a decent send-off and laid to rest. True, there’s a trophy at the end of them and some inter-county honour and they do provide managers with the chance to experiment and prepare for the bigger fish ahead. But they are surely just unnecessary add-ons to the playing year.
And are there too many under-age competitions cluttering up the schedules and threatening player burnout in the modern era?
Patrick McBrearty is right – it’s time for Central Council to put some measure of balance into the system and show some leadership to ensure players are not caught in the clamp and having to divide their loyalties and passion between playing for county or club. Someone and, invariably, some club is always going to lose out.
MOUNTAINS OF MOURNERS BUT DONEGAL OFF TO A WHIRLDWIND
Some of the roads leading to Newry last Saturday evening were snowbound but it was Down who were frozen out by an impressive showing by Donegal in the opening salvo in the Allianz National League.
I thought Donegal would earn victory against their newly promoted opponents but, let’s be honest, even the most optimistic of us could not have foreseen a seventeen point gap at the finish.
There are those who will point to the inept performance by the home team but inept performances by one team can often drag the other side down with them Not so, Rory Gallagher’s men.
Away games in Division One haven’t exactly seen them at their best, particularly where results are concerned. This was only their third such success in their past eighteen matches on the National League road but they were well in charge from the start, racking up three second half goals to condemn the home side to some deep soul-searching as they anticipate other battles ahead against teams that will be even better equipped than Donegal.
Not for the first time Michael Murphy led the way in the scoring stakes with a tally of eight points including a magnificent touchline effort while Ryan McHugh showed his eye for goal by securing a brace.
Much more difficult challenges lie ahead but on this evidence, Gallagher may be quietly looking forward to them in a Division that also includes All-Ireland Champions, Dublin, comfortable victors over the Kingdom on Saturday evening, and the likes of Mayo, Monaghan and Cork who are up next.
Too early, of course, to start counting those chickens but this start will have supporters hatching out hopes for better days ahead.
SPORTS STARS ALL
Due to another engagement, I wasn’t among the throngs who squeezed into the Mount Errigal Hotel on Friday night for the annual Donegal Sports Star awards but, by all accounts, an occasion to savour and certainly one to remember for those who came home with a prize for the mantlepiece.
A huge congratulations to every single winner and nominee on the night and to those who continually put the whole event together.
Few could in all honesty have begrudged Letterkenny’s Mark English of the overall award but the odd one did on social media. Not so much that he got the award but because he wasn’t there to receive his trophy for the second year running if you’ll pardon the phrase.
Mark was warm weather training in South Africa in preparation for the Rio Olympics and has also the little matter of his medical studies with which to contend so he could by any standard of reasoning – except for the odd Facebooker – be excused from attending an awards ceremony that he otherwise would have been honoured to have been present at.
Incidentally, great photograph doing the rounds recently of him and others in the company of a real live cheetah at his base in South Africa. No word yet if he challenged it to a race. Or it him.
Wasn’t quite sure what to make of Derry’s City decision to start up a so-called “Satellite Centre’ in Killygordon and invite young Donegal players to take part with an eye to eventually bringing them into the Brandywell fold. Well, to be honest, I did, my first reaction being – a bit of a cheek to even think of it let alone do it. And my second reaction wondering why the club from the Maiden City wouldn’t set up such a scenario in their own county before taking such a liberty in an adjoining county that has a club that also competes in the League of Ireland and will, indeed, be operating in the same division when the new season kicks off in a month’s time.
And then along came Kevin McHugh and set the cat among the greyhounds by pinpointing exactly why his former club have taken this step.
“The whole reason Derry City are crossing the border is because Donegal schoolboys football is so strong because of all the years of hard work from people out here. Would Derry City be angry if Finn Harps, Sligo Rovers or Colerainen set up shop in Derry? Of course they would be, and rightly so,” insists the Harps striker.
Claiming that it was “embarrassing” that Derry didn’t have an Academy in their own city, Kevin considered the move would anger most good football people there and would result in even more boys heading to Donegal to play schoolboy football here.
The veteran Harps player referred to a comment from new Derry City boss, Kenny Shiels who stated recently that the club were “ahead of the pack” and wanted to stay there.
“If not having your own Academy in a city the size of Derry is “staying ahead of the pack’ then I think our progress to date, is commendable to say the least.
“They’re not the only Senior club in the Northwest and to try and piggy-back of Donegal and Inishowen’s great work to date, and not to bother working on their own structures is downright lazy to say the least,” McHugh, who is in charge of the Donegal under-14 Schoolboys, lambasted the move.
Satellite Centre? The Candystripes are definitely floating around somewhere in David Bowie’s tin can if they believe they should be allowed venture into someone else’s space and take advantage of the efforts of others along the way.
QUICK QUESTION
He featured in Friday night’s Derby County/Manchester United F.A. Cup clash at Park Pride and scored for Finn Harps in a competitive match on one occasion. Can you name him? [See the end of the column for the answer].
A STAR IS BORN – ELSEWHERE
So Johanna Konta is the new star of British tennis? Her heroic efforts in the Australian Open during which she reached the semi-final and lost to the woman who would go on to win it has put her in the top bracket (racket?) as far as the media across the water is concerned.
“Britain’s New Grand-Slam Star”, one outlet hailed her. “Catapulted to become the nation’s number-one player”, it added. Konta “bidding to become the first female British grand slam finalist,” one publication previewed her semi-final tie with Angelique Kerber (ultimately to become the first German to win a major tennis title this century).
And Konta’s background? Born and raised in Australia with Hungarian blood coursing through her veins. But now – after being awarded British citizenship in 2012 – she has, all of a sudden, become the new Virginia Wade.
Let’s be fair here, She did play some outstanding tennis to reach that semi-final and there can be no doubt she can go a long way in the game.
But it is mighty hard to hear her being lauded as the new great British hope when her upbringing suggested she is as far from that as any Irish hopefuls are of winning Wimbledon or even getting there in the first place.
SPORT’S GREAT DRIVERS
You’ll be reading a lot more about the Donegal Mini-Stages rally in Brian McDaid’s new motoring column tomorrow so I’ll leave it to someone who knows what they’re talking about to wheel in the details of last weekend’s event.
Cavan’s Jonathan Pringle (once he pops, he can’t stop) claimed his first rally victory in the company of co-driver Alan Keena but I just want to laud the efforts of those who crawled out of their beds in the middle of the night (Liam Devenney was up at 4.a.m. he tells me) to aid the preparations.
I’ve said it before and here it is again – we probably don’t half appreciate all those volunteers who, for the love of their sport, burn the midnight oil and drive themselves to extreme efforts to organise, coach, prepare, and ensure that such events are held and we have the bodies to take part in them.
Remember that, the next time you’re sniping from the sidelines.
PEP AND CHIPS
Well, that was a Transfer Window to remember. There we were watching it all unfold on the B.B.C. when the news came through. Sensational. Dramatic. And almost unbelievable.
Danny Murphy was having a steak baguette and chips for his dinner. Yes, I know they have to fill in the hours between one non-transfer and the next but this was really taking the baguette.
Not often mind you that a managerial changeover steals the headlines from the players. But truly Manchester City came away on Monday night with a Pep in their step as the worst kept secret in world football was officially released
So that’s it, then. From next season on, City to win everything and playing in the style of football that was once the preserve of their fierce rivals across Manchester.
And what about United? Despite the defensive injury crisis in their ranks and notwithstanding last night’s win over Stoke City, the transfer window passed without any movement. So surely it’s time to let him go.
Not necessarily, Louis the Loop, I’m thinking more of the club’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, who allowed City to commander the services of the great Guardiola without so much as a whimper. The same Guardiola who was quoted in the recent past that if he had a preference he would be occupying the dug-out at Old Trafford.
Well, he will but only when City play there.
TERRY SHOCK
And then came the shock news on Terry, The man we thought would be around forever. The guiding light. The personality who was adored by his fans.
Monday’s papers full of it Back page and front.
John Terry to leave Chelsea; Terry Wogan departing before his time (and much footage and recollections of the time he interviewed a very inebriated George Best who wanted to talk about his love life though not in so many words).
And John Terry, who love him or loathe him, was the heartbeat of his club for so long? Talk is that Gus Hiddink is reporting that he, Terry, may actually remain at Stamford Bridge after all.
Only remains to be seen if Gus will be staying with him.
AND THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION…
As some of you will undoubtedly have observed, Roy McFarland (interviewed at half-time during that Cup match at Derby) is the answer to the question posed further on up the column.
Not that he ever actually played for Harps but he did put through his own goal inside the opening twenty seconds for Derby County in the second leg of a U.E.F.A. Cup tie at Finn Park on September 29th at the start of the 1976/77 season (and just in case you think I carry these dates around in my head, I don’t but I do have quick access to Bartley’s Ramsay’s bible on Finn Harps!).
That score looked as if it was going to be the start of a comeback, Harps having narrowly lost by the odd dozen goals in the first leg at the then Baseball Ground but it wasn’t to be, the Rams running out 4-1 winners in Ballybofey to complete – and while mathematics were never a strong point in the same head that doesn’t carry around those dates, this aggregate is forever ingrained in it – a 16-1 rout.
Still, we can be grateful to McFarland that he didn’t mention it on Friday night.
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