Rain equals scheduling pain for Super League lift-off

Play it again, Sam. Or perhaps I should say, run it again, Stuart.

The Super League preview supplement that ran in last week’s edition of the paper has received rave reviews in local soccer circles and that is a massive credit to the whole team here from all of the production staff to sports editor Anthony Hennigan and match reporters Jonathan Burke and Patrick Hennelly.

The bulk of the content was put together by myself and sports reporter Stuart Tynan and we take immense pride in being able to provide readers of the paper with as much information possible ahead of the upcoming league season and to receive such feedback is always welcome. If it sounds to you like I’m patting this publication, its starting XI and extended panel on the back, excessively so, then your hearing is totally correct.

The Super League wallchart went down a treat, the one with all the fixtures printed on it. Unfortunately, and without taking anything away from anyone who worked so hard to help put it together, it is a document that hasn’t aged very well.

Of the five league games scheduled for the opening weekend of the Super League season, only two actually went ahead. Scheduling conflicts and the rain made for a disastrous combination. Conn Rangers and Ballyheane went ahead as planned while Claremorris and Manulla was moved at the last minute from Claremorris’s home pitch to Manulla’s.

Relegation-threatened Crossmolina were spared the wrath of champions Castlebar Celtic, who were away in the Connacht Cup to Cartron Utd and Ballina Town’s visit to Maree/Oranmore put their clash with Kiltimagh/Knock United on ice.

Meanwhile, Ballinrobe Town’s long wait to play in the Super League, much like Celine Dion’s heart, it will go on. A waterlogged pitch at United Park prevented their game with Westport from going ahead, which begs the question as to why the game didn’t proceed at the Green in Ballinrobe or if this was even considered. Ballinrobe Town B hosted Achill Rovers there later in the day, it should have been available.

There was fixture chaos elsewhere too. Glenhest Rovers opener at home to Castlebar Celtic 'B' was postponed because of the condition of the pitch after the rain on Saturday night while Westport United 'C’s home game against Ballyvary Blue Bombers 'B' was moved to Ballyvary, again due to that leaky, squeaky Westport pitch.

These things can happen. It isn’t Ballina and Celtic’s fault that they made it to the advanced stages of the Connacht Cup. It’d be a lovely country, if only we could roof it, as Pat Shortt once said. The rain was relentless on Saturday night and was bound to cause some level of disruption the following morning.

I hear what you’re saying out there in Mayo soccer land. It is just a couple of games that were called off, why bother writing a column on it? It is not just about this weekend my friends, it is about the chaos that will surely unfurl in the weeks to come as the Mayo League tries to fit all of the pieces to this Super League jigsaw in place.

The Super League season had to already be pushed back two weeks, effectively three weeks given the mass postponements over the weekend, to accommodate the Oscar Traynor quarter-final and the Connacht Cup. With an Oscar Traynor semi-final on the horizon and with so many clubs having players involved, surely that will be another weekend lost. Celtic progressed in the Connacht Cup and Westport and Claremorris remain in the Shield. More time lost for the Super League.

The Thursday nights assigned to outstanding fixtures may have to do a lot of heavy lifting and as we learned last year, which is not ideal for a lot of clubs who are relying on players coming home the weekend to make up their squad.

It might be time for the Mayo League to think outside the box a bit here. Friday night, under the lights at Umbro Park, anyone? It might not seem suitable for teams to surrender home advantage just to play the game but if I were a manager and had the option to play the game with a full complement, I’d happily play it on the Moon if it helped my team in some way.

Wednesday night could work too. What’s the difference between Wednesday and Thursday I hear you ask? If I were a player, the thought of coming back to Mayo for a match mid-week and returning to your town or city of work, Dublin, Sligo, what have you, is a preferable thought rather than travelling to Mayo and back to Dublin Thursday and potentially home again to Mayo the following day. There are people who do this all the time for GAA club training. Of course, if you want to play Wednesday nights under the lights at Umbro Park on the astro, then we have to wait another few weeks for the Masters to wrap up. This campaign has been going on for about five years now, it feels like.

And won’t somebody please think of the referees? You also need a referee or three match officials if it is a Super League game. There is no question on the availability of refs for soccer in this county but they are being kept remarkably busy these days for sure.

The long-term solution to this problem, barring putting a roof over the country, is more all-weather pitches, better facilities, more referees as well just to be safe.

I text my colleague Stuart on Sunday morning asking, jokingly, if we should just run the Super League preview supplement again and hope for a better run at the matches next weekend. He sent me back a laughing emoji. At least that was better than a crying emoji.

Mayo Soccer Podcast

If you didn’t know before, you’ll know now that this writer is part of the Mayo Soccer Podcast and will now shamelessly plug same. I typically don’t talk about the podcast in this column as it is its own thing and the column is its own thing and rarely do the two cross over.

But it would be remiss of me to not use this opportunity to express how grateful myself and the rest of the lads from the Pod (Stuart Tynan, Pat O’Sullivan and Joe Faughnan) are to everyone who tuned into our first ever live broadcast on Facebook last week. The feedback we got was incredible and we are looking forward to expanding the podcast in the future with more live shows, better equipment and bigger audiences.

It was also quite an interesting experience to be live on camera for something that has been, up to now, an entirely audible experience. A fella came up to me the following night during the Masters at Milebush Park and told me he really enjoyed the live podcast and that it was good to be finally able to put some faces to the voices that he had been listening to over the years on the Pod. He left me with some parting encouragement.

“Keep up the good work, Stuart,” he said. I can see now why Ah Ref keeps his face hidden behind the sunglasses emoji.

Masters’ mystery

Speaking of the Masters, the situation at the top of Division One left a lot of people scratching their heads in the wake of last Wednesday’s results. Ballina Town were deducted points early in the year for fielding an unregistered player and Ballyglass were awarded three points in reverse. The usually reliable FAI Connect app wasn’t providing any good answers and it took a crack team of experts, and by that, I mean the Mayo Soccer Podcast WhatsApp chat, to figure out the situation.

As it stands, Ballyglass are top of the table and will win the title with a victory over Ballyvary next week. Should they draw, Ballina Town could force a playoff with a win over Iorras Aontaithe and should Ballyglass lose, Ballina could win the title with a win in that game.

At the other end of the table, Ballyheane will stay up if they beat Westport United, who failed to fulfill last week’s game against Ballina Town.

Conn Rangers wrapped up Division Two last week and will go up alongside Manulla. S&F and Ballyhaunis Town will drop from that Division.

In Division Three, Bangor Hibs and Partry Athletic seem destined for a playoff to decide the fate of the League title. Even more enthralling is the race for the Golden Boot between Bangor’s Mikie Sweeney and Partry’s John Russell. With Russell absent last week, Sweeney gained some ground and took the lead in the race.