U21s are a credit to Sligo GAA
WHAT a difference an umpire makes! This is the reason that Sligo are not Connacht U21 football champions. Anyone that was on the terrace witnessed a ball going a foot wide and then two men in white coats looking at each other a couple of times before almost inevitably coming down on the side of the hot favourites.
This is why I tend to watch games from the stand or terrace because week- in, week- out, big mistakes are being made and you see them clearly.
If I was Paul Taylor and John MacPartland Jr I would feel cheated by a system that fails so regularly and yet there never seems to be any consequences. If a player, member of management or county board official makes a mistake we are punished by the powers that be and rightly so.
I am 10 years in inter- county management and not once has an official asked me for a video of a match. So how can they improve if they don’t learn from their mistakes? When we played Offaly in our last league game at home, I questioned the linesman when Criostóir Davey got a full box in the stomach when he was in possession.
The reply I got was ‘ Shut your mouth or he will be given a black card for pulling a player down.’ To be honest my response was not pleasant and 10 seconds later Brendan Egan was awarded a black card for what exactly no one knows because video evidence shows Brendan making no contact. The fact is the linesman was punishing me or my team for my reaction hence my decision to go to the stand in Drogheda to view the Louth game.
But that’s not ideal either because you are a sitting duck as management have no privacy unless the game is in Croke Park. When you’re in the middle of supporters you will be subject to abuse especially if things are not going well. It’s one of the less attractive sides to human nature.
I would suggest to Croke Park to make it mandatory for management teams to take to the box but they will have to meet counties half- way and provide these boxes in every county ground in the country.
I personally find it so stressful dealing with officials on match day as there are no guidelines for management to approach them and it’s generally at the discretion of each official if he wants to listen or not. In my opinion that’s not good practice for anyone and this is an area that needs clarification before championship.
Anyway, the U21s were a credit to Sligo GAA and if you were not at it you missed a cracker.
They should be proud of their campaign and if it wasn’t for the men in the white coats they would be champions full stop.
Paul Taylor and co got the best from this group of players and the future looks bright for Sligo.
We carved out a three- point victory over Louth. Strangely, we beat both Tipp and Louth away from home and drew with Armagh.
These three teams finished in the top three with us finishing fourth.
We lost three games, one by a single point against Antrim when we missed nine frees.
We also lost against Longford by two points and missed seven frees.
We lost by four against Offaly when we definitely underperformed and yet we should have gotten something from that game.
All in all, this shows us that we competed very well and we are very close.
Not bad for a team that is always favourites for the drop - sorry to disappoint the people that were tipping us for that.
One man that was a genuine Sligo supporter was Tourlestrane’s Tom Normanly. Tom was an in- law of my good friend and county selector Keith Carty. He passed away after a brave battle with cancer last Friday.
I never met Tom but became aware of his battle 18 months ago.
Obviously Keith and Lorraine Carty, like Sinead and Noel McGuire, are a big part of the Carew family in Kildare so we all know what’s happening in each other’s lives because of Sligo GAA.
So in my local church we have a mass every Tuesday for the sick and we made sure Tom was prayed for each week.
Even our parish priest Fr Jimmy Doyle, a big GAA man, feels like he knows Tom at this stage.
Tom’s battle ended on Friday and when I received the call from Keith a wave of sadness came over me for Tom’s wife Marie and their four precious children Padraig, Brian, Mariah and Lauren, and his extended family.
Tom played right half- forward for Toulerstrane in the 1994 county final where they beat a fancied Shamrock Gaels side.
On that team you had county stars such as Eamonn O’Hara, David Durcan, Gerry McGowan and Fintan Kennedy.
This championship paved the way for a golden era for the club and they went on to win a further nine titles.
Tom was a dual star and this was backed up with two county hurling titles in 1990 and 1991.
After winning both hurling and football titles with his club, Tom’s proudest moments came in the last two years with the Girls U12 and U14 teams in Tourlestrane.
Tom and Fintan Kennedy, along with Damien and Connie Walsh, guided their teams to great success in this age group.
Tom would typically get out of his sick bed to train and manage these teams - he was so proud of his two daughters Mariah and Lauren playing with his club, as he was of the academic achievements and work ethic of Padraig and Brian.
You see Tom’s number one priority was his family. Tom worked very hard on and off the field but was a family man first and foremost. May he rest in peace. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilís.