“When all beside a vigil keep, the West’s asleep, the West’s asleep”…
It may now be the case that if there are many more defections – real or rumoured – from Connacht counties, they may a vigil keep in persuance of a night’s sleep. Firstly, Cian O’Neill switched from watching the sun go down on Galway Bay, to going back to watching the pale moon rising.
Then, Mickey Graham forgot his way to Leitrim but could find his way to Padraic Joyce’s base camp handily enough. Over in Roscommon, the Aussies came from a bush tucker trial to try and tempt Daire Cregg to the rear end of the world, while Coolera/Strandhill did their bit to put Sligo in the news – taking Ballina Stephenites out of the Connacht Club SFC.
Speaking of the latter, just when it was nearly a case of is there any signs of life in Mayo, if they weren’t awake in the land of green and red, they have been dramatically jolted from their slumber over the last couple of days.
With bombshells big enough to leave a Sam Maguire sized crater in a roadway. Both Cillian O’Connor and Padraig O’Hora stepping away from Kevin McStay’s county senior panel. Oisin Mullin seemingly in no rush to come home. Lesser known panelists Michael Plunkett and Rory Byrne as well experienced impact sub James Carr have also departed.
That’s only the stuff directly related to players. Now factor in McStay’s own brother-in-law Liam McHale stepping away from the setup and the fact that what was presumably the outgoing Mayo panel already met some months ago and it wouldn’t take superior academia to sift out that there were obviously a significant level of feathers ruffled in the nest.
Whatever sent the cat in among the pigeons, it can’t have imbued McStay, the players that are in situ or, indeed, the most loyal, unwavering fans in country with much optimism.
Dublin will most likely survive and/or prosper any, even with Batman McCarthy and ‘Robin’ Fenton having hung up their respective capes. Whether any other county could ship such losses and keep going to a high level is doubtful.
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