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It was not easy to get any work done around the house last weekend because of the feast of sport on TV. I have to compliment our terrestrial TV stations for the great coverage of both football and hurling games at this time of the year. They had TV cameras covering 13 championship matches last weekend which is quite incredible.

Brendan Hackett is expected to hand his resignation as county football manager into the Westmeath county board this weekend after the latest episode of player power was exercised on Wednesday evening (April 14).

Brendan Hackett is expected to hand his resignation as county football manager into the Westmeath county board this weekend after the latest episode of player power was exercised on Wednesday evening (April 14).

Justin McCarthy would have had a wry smile on his face last Sunday afternoon. As you all know he resigned from his post as the county team’s hurling manager a number of months ago after a “heave” from his own players. It had become apparent, in the wake of a heavy defeat to Clare in the Munster championship, that some of the players were unhappy with McCarthy. Much was made of Dan Shanahan storming off the field that day and refusing to shake Justin’s hand when substituted. As in that game big Dan was totally anonymous last Sunday, barely touching the ball, until he was rescued from the action or, should that be non-action! I wasn’t too enamoured with the Waterford players at the time as I felt it was another example of player power being exerted, something that has become quite common this year. Remember it was McCarthy who took Waterford to three Munster titles and also to the brink of All-Ireland glory. It wasn’t his fault the players choked when so near the finishing line. They had the perfect excuse last year. The system militated against them, they said, as they had played three consecutive Sundays in a row. The manager is always the easy scapegoat after failures and these players must have felt the need to apportion blame to someone. Justin is obviously a proud man. He walked before it got ugly and, other than issuing a brief statement at the time, he kept his powder dry. I am not sure if he went along to Croke Park last Sunday, but as the game unfolded he would have felt fully justified in having walked from the job when the players had the audacity to question his methods after seven relatively successful years in charge.

The great organisation that is the GAA has traditionally had a wonderful way of resolving disputes within the confines of its ranks, more often than not away from the glaring eyes of the media. However in these past few weeks and days we have witnessed some quite bizarre happenings within the GAA world that will surely have rocked the traditionalists of our game back on their heels.

If you walk down a street named Calle de la Mar in the town of Denia on the Costa Blanca in Spain you will see at number 20 an Irish bar called Paddy O’Connell’s.

Galway’s triple All-Star of 1998, 2001, and 2003, Kevin Walsh, was ratified on Tuesday night as the new manager at u-21 and senior level with the Sligo footballers for 2009.

“You go to any club championship game in Ireland and you’re going to get that type of physicality in the game.”

Isn’t it a long season for our inter-county footballers when you consider they had their first match of the year last Sunday week, and some or most of them will be involved at either club or county level for another nine or 10 months. I know that the footballers who take their preparation seriously rarely take a week off, and during those two months of so called inactivity at the end of the year will undertake a maintenance programme so as to not lose their superior levels of fitness. It is very easy to pick these guys out if you attend early season matches as they are normally the players that catch the eye. Pat Kelly, Austin O’Malley, Alan Dillon, and Peadar Gardiner are players that spring to mind immediately when I think of players that live as close to a monastic lifestyle as is possible for young men these days. That is one of the primary reasons why they are right up there when it comes to selecting man of the match performances in the FBD league and early rounds of the National Football league.

The beauty of the National Football League is that you can dust yourself down after a particularly bad performance and within a week or two you are presented with another opportunity to redeem yourself. I know the Mayo lads were hurting after their defeat against Derry in Ballina two weeks ago, so there shouldn’t be too much energy expended in getting their heads right for this one. I was speaking to a few of the players after the Derry game and they were understandably annoyed that they didn’t get off to a winning start.