It’s not a bad suggestion

In this week’s edition, Finbar McConnell suggests that Mickey Harte should’ve stood down as Tyrone senior manager by now. But it’s not as if he thinks there should be no role for Harte whatsoever – he thinks that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have Harte take a minor or u-21 team, and then come back at a later date. He suggests it won’t happen now, but precedent suggests that good things happen when managers at underage level transition to the senior role – Jim Gavin, Jimmy McGuinness, and Harte himself, who’ll always be associated with the great 1998 minor team. It’ll be interesting to see what transpires in the next few months as this is technically the last season of Harte’s three-year contract, but it hasn’t exactly been a normal year.

NIALL GARTLAND

Poacher bringing some much-needed grit

Anyone who has followed Down football over the last 10 or 15 years will be familiar with the theory that Bryansford should be consistently challenging on paper. They rarely do though and have only reached two finals since their last success in 2003. There had been a feeling that when the tough got going, the ‘Ford couldn’t match the likes of Kilcoo, Burren or Mayobridge. Therefore, it was not surprising that they opted for Stevie Poacher as manager. The marmite coach has his detractors, but his players sure as hell row in behind him. That grit that they have been missing was more than evident as they produced a brilliant comeback win against Clonduff.

NIALL MCCOY

Old guard need a little longer

When Derry captured their All-Ireland title in 1993, yes Derry were once a strong team in Ulster, the titans in the county were Dungiven, Bellaghy, Ballinderry and Lavey. That quartet won the John McLaughlin Cup throughout the ’90s. Bellaghy and Lavey provided key players to the 1993 winning team, and those clubs looked to have had a resurgence in recent years as both picked up recent minor championships. However, this year, in the Senior Championship Lavey and Bellaghy finished third in their groups. And face tough draws in the last 16. Perhaps those clubs will have to wait a little longer for the breakthrough they so eagerly want to see at senior level. The other two strong teams of the 90s, Ballinderry and Dungiven, finished outside the top two in their groups as well.

RONAN SCOTT

Did we get it back to front?

Here’s a debating point worth considering. Did the GAA get their fixtures plans back to front? An opinion that was held among some commentators, including Joe Brolly and Kevin Cassidy, was that club competitions should get priority during the Coronavirus pandemic. Priority meant that club competitions should be played first, and Inter-county should come second. The optics are that the club players get to play their competitions first and get onto the training fields first. The thinking was that there was a danger that as the year progressed, there might be a danger that all competition might stop and that meant that inter-county could be sacrificed. But what happens if in October time, which is over a month away, that cases drop even more? We could be looking at bigger crowds at matches. And that means more money for the county boards, while the clubs have missed out on the opportunity to get the bigger gates which they might have preferred.

RONAN SCOTT

Bring back Leo, all is forgiven

What on earth is Micheál Martin on about? Our new half-Taoiseach had the temerity to say that “in taking the decision we did on the crowds, we saved the championships and the leagues”, a statement which doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny whatsoever. What even is his point? That if 200 people continued to be allowed into matches that the virus was going to spread beyond control and therefore the All-Ireland championship would have to be binned? Really? Zero marks as well for his drippy statement that “I want an All-Ireland this year because I think it would be a symbol that the country is fighting this virus.” Someone please pass me a tissue, I’m welling up here.

NIALL GARTLAND

Shannon still a touch of class

I may be biased, but I was absolutely delighted to see Barry Shannon come on for Forkhill the other day and provide the composure that saw them past Eire Og in extra time. Shannon is in the 40 club now and doesn’t have the legs to play a full game, but after a ropey minute or two he took control of the game and just made intelligent passes and kicked a fine score too. It’s always good to see players playing on as long as they can and it would be fitting if Shannon could sign off with a Junior title with Forkhill.

Niall McCoy