No dual jewels for Sligo in this year’s games is a reality of modern GAA
Sligo’s dual players have opted for one or the other for 2021, either Gaelic football or hurling, meaning fewer selection headaches for Gaelic football boss Tony McEntee and his hurling counterpart Padraig Mannion
FOR SOME local GAA folk, not having Sligo dual players to cheer for at Senior inter-county level makes for a bleak, cold reality.
This county has been extremely fortunate to have produced players deemed good enough to represent Sligo in both hurling and Gaelic football. Numerous names spring to mind, among them Paul Severs, Mickey Galvin and Keith Raymond.
But what could have been the Famous Five of 2021 – Gerard O’Kelly-Lynch, Tony O’Kelly-Lynch, Niall Feehily, Mikey Gordon and Conor Griffin – won’t be tangible as these dual stars have chosen what squad they wish to be part of for the campaign to come. As confirmed by the respective county team managers, Tony McEntee (Gaelic football) and Padraig Mannion (hurling), Easkey’s Gordon and Griffin of Calry-St Joseph’s have opted to commit to Sligo’s Senior Gaelic football panel. Throwing their lot exclusively with the hurlers are the Naomh Eoin trio of the O’Kelly-Lynch brothers (Gerard and Tony) and Niall Feehily.
That these players had to make the choice, having previously served both teams with distinction, is not the issue. The reality is that inter-county panels can no longer afford to have dual players on board.
Put yourself in the shoes of Tony McEntee, in his first year in charge of Sligo’s Gaelic footballers and eager to
HURLER AND FOOTBALL: Calry-St Joseph’s ace Conor Griffin, make an impression, or those of Padraig Mannion, who has already won one national trophy as Sligo’s hurling boss.
Both McEntee and Mannion would relish having the aforementioned dual players as exclusive options for their teams. Each of these dual stars have traits that obviously make them capable of starring with a Gaelic football in hand or when swishing a hurley.
But, given the intensity of intercounty, juggling twice the workload has to come with a risk attached. When injuries, fatigue and loss of form comes into it, the player suffers and so do the two teams that they are trying to excel for.
It is not fair on other panel members, those who have opted out of playing both codes (even if they are up to it), that a selection of their teammates are – for part of the week and either on alternate or the same weekends – heading off to play for another county team?
What happens when ‘Player X’, who is also a brilliant hurler, misses a series of Gaelic football games because of an injury picked up playing hurling, or vice versa?
Tony McEntee’s job, first and foremost, is to leave Sligo’s Senior Gaelic footballers in a better place than how he found them.
He might have a love for hurling but his remit isn’t the enhancement of Sligo’s Senior hurling.
The dual player debate can be