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Jeepers Jack. What a few weeks the Galway footballers have had.

Kerry won the league in 2004 under Jack O’Connor. And then in September they collected the Sam Maguire at their ease. They did the exact same thing two years later and no doubt that is what is on their agenda for 2009.

Jeepers Jack. What a few weeks the Galway footballers have had.

I had the privilege of introducing the last man who captained a successful Mayo All Ireland winning minor team to my own young man and a few of the Castlebar under- 12s at their training session last Saturday morning at McHale Park. Michael Fitzmaurice, captain of the Mayo minors in 1985, approached my car with a bag of footballs on his back. I hadn’t a clue who he was until he removed his cap. Even then it took me a second or two to recognise the former star as, like a few more of us he is, by now, follically challenged. He sat into the car and we chatted football for a while. I was delighted to discover that he was a part time GAA coaching officer, travelling around to a number of national schools down around his home place, Lacken. Michael was a great footballer and I recall making a number of telephone calls to his home in the mid nineties trying to persuade him to get involved with the Mayo senior set up of my tenure. He couldn’t make the commitment at the time for a number of reasons and I have to say it was our loss. Still it was good to have the chat and to reminisce about times past. Michael had spent the morning working with a Mayo under-14 development squad and I am sure they will be better players because of his tutoring. So also will the national school kids in and around Lacken.

2009 marks an important milestone for the GAA as it celebrates 125 years of its existence. This Sunday, May 10, has been designated as La na gClub, a day when every club in the country is encouraged to organise events to mark the occasion.

The reality is that neither of these teams will be going too far in the 2009 county championship. Nevertheless that won’t stop them trying their damndest to take one more step forward at least.

I paid a visit to Anthony Finnerty’s hostelry in lower Salthill before the game last Sunday. There was a great buzz about the place with plenty of Mayo supporters popping in for the crack and banter before the short hop over to Pearse Stadium. One of the first people I met on arrival was PJ Kelly from Moygownagh. He is a great passionate football man and was eagerly seeking everyone’s opinion as to who they thought would win the game. “Would we win it? Are we good enough to win it”? I got the impression that PJ was happy with the answers coming from the gathering and would have left for the stadium pretty confident that Mayo would win their first provincial title since 1967 at the city venue. If I am to be perfectly honest here I have to admit that I found it very difficult to predict the outcome in advance of Sunday’s game. I know from experience that Galway v Mayo encounters take on a life of their own and the form book goes out the window when these two sides meet. Irrespective of form coming into a championship encounter, there is rarely more than a point or two separating these two great rivals. Galway looked so ordinary against Sligo a few weeks ago that punters could have been forgiven for believing that this would be a relatively ‘handy’ match for the Mayo boys. Mayo, on the other hand, looking hugely impressive when carrying out a demolition job on Roscommon in the semi-final. I suggested, prior to the game, that our poor run of results in Pearse Stadium in recent decades would be a factor. Because of that I felt we would have to be five or six points a better team than Galway to beat them in a venue where we hadn’t won a provincial championship since 1967.

The Leaving Cert class of 2009 might have found out their fate on Wednesday of this week but the club footballers of Westmeath are anxiously awaiting, results of this weekends games to know exactly where they stand.

Meath 0-18

The Gaelic4Girls National Blitz Day took place at St Brigid’s GAA ground, Kiltoom, Athlone last Saturday.