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Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Supporters talking a not so good game
BY ANTHONY HENNIGAN
‘Come on to feck lads, Roscommon are yellow.’
One could only guess whether the Sligo fan was talking for the benefit of the colour blind at last Saturday’s Connacht U-21 football final or casting aspersion as to the character of the Shannonsiders. If, as presumed, the more sinister was his intent, he was badly mistaken.
Aye, you’ll hear all sorts of analysis out and about at matches. And there was plenty of it at Markievicz Park, even before throw in, the sort so enlightened you’d wonder what’s the need of us sporting scribes at all. Roscommon fan No.1: Will we win? Roscommon fan No.2: Well we won the last day.
So there you have it, the Cork preview in nine words. Will Mayo win? Well we won the last day.
If only a journalist’s work was so straightforward!
Managers in a muddle
It’s interesting to see managers getting all excited about the change of rule that has head to head results about to determine what team of two with equal points will finish higher in the table if relegation, promotion or a league final place is at stake. Is their grievance really that they didn’t know of the rule change or is it that the ambition of their team, whatever their end of the table, has been jeopardised by the new system? Or is it both?
Whatever the reason, theirs has been a totally understandable human reaction – we’re creatures of habit after all, GAA folk especially, and tend to greet change at a snail’s pace but that the motion passed at Annual Congress 2009 seems to make for a fairer National League is something that should not go lost in the malaise.
For example, there’s no doubt but that the Galway team that faced Mayo in Round 1 was not the same Galway team that faced Dublin last Saturday week.
Joe Kernan’s team had improved considerably. So if after next week it’s only scoring difference that separates Mayo and Dublin i.e. both lost to Cork but beat Kerry, Tyrone, Derry and Monaghan, then why should it not be their head to head record rather than how they fared respectively against the Tribesmen that decides who faces Cork in the final?
Too often we have seen lop-sided results caused by teams on the rise or slide for whatever reason, have an adverse effect on the hopes of other teams hoping to earn promotion, avoid relegation or reach league finals.
The new rule gives every game a purpose. You never know when one particular display could rescue or ruin a campaign.
Let’s just hope there’s no sting in the tail of Mayo’s defeat to Dublin.
Running tips
It’s from experience that I can recommend Martin McIntyre’s upcoming Running School workshop to take place on Friday and Saturday week, April 16/17. Not that I’ve gone running much further than up and down the stairs of late, but that I had the pleasure of attending a past seminar involving Martin and Mike Antionades, who will be joining the Belmullet man for the workshop at the Sports Injuries and Sports Medicine clinic in Castlebar.
Mike, who specialises in performance and rehabilitation training, has worked closely with Chelsea and Arsenal Football Clubs and more personally with Eidur Gudjhonsen (football), Tim Henman (tennis) and Ollie Barclay (rugby).
Martin McIntyre is, of course, a well known footballer with Belmullet and has letters aplenty after his name from his studies of sports injuries and sports science. The Kerry senior, under 21 and minor footballers have all benefited from his expertise, he worked with Roscommon’s All-Ireland winning minor team of 2006 and is currently assisting the same county’s senior footballers.
So for all you runners out there, if it’s about how to best use your arms while running that you’d like to find out more, if you’re unsure how best to land your foot, if you want to find out how to run faster and change an inefficient running style, or if you wish to reduce repetitive strain injuries or understand how to enhance recovery from surgery, then this upcoming two day workshop could be right up your street.
For further details contact Martin at 094-90-20005.
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