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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).

Athletes with their families and friends, club coaches and officials, gathered at Gowran Park Racecourse on Friday night last. It wasn’t to run or train but to enjoy the cuisine and ambience of the racecourse restaurant while celebrating another very successful year for athletics in the county.

Potato growers and other farmers throughout Galway who are facing financial ruin in the wake of the flooding and more recent cold spell are now calling on the Government to urgently provide assistance to save them from going out of business.

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 Michael Lyng Motors Carlow senior football championship final, between the top two teams Palatine and Eire Og ended level 1-10 a piece on Sunday last. The game provided the passion, the spills and thrills, and all that is good in a hard-fought sporting encounter at Dr Cullen Park.

I only got to see one game last weekend and that was the much anticipated replay between Ballaghadereen and Ballintubber on Sunday. The previous encounter was a right rip-roaring clash with Ballintubber denied a famous victory when Andy Moran scored a goal for Ballaghadereen almost at the death, to put his team in front with time almost up. Ballintubber did manage an equaliser deep into injury time and set up the opportunity to witness these two do battle again. The weather was perfect for football and I was really looking forward to a good game. I parked myself with a few of the Crossmolina boys, who were there keeping an eye on proceedings, as they play the winners this Sunday. No note taking required by these boys as Liam Moffett, the Crossmolina manager, was videoing the game from behind us, obviously for closer scrutiny later in the week in his effort to try and orchestrate another county title for the Deel Rovers. Sadly the game never really caught fire and once Ballaghadereen started getting ball into their forwards there was never going to be anything other than a decisive victory for the boys from the east. Andy Moran, who was having a really quiet championship campaign up until last weekend, played like an inter-county footballer and proved to be a right handful for the three defenders who tried to curtail his scoring threat. Andy has perfected the knack of shoving off his marker with his hand and demonstrated this tactic several times throughout Sunday’s encounter.

The announcement regarding the appointment of Jim Greene’s successor as manager of the county senior hurlers was made at last week’s county board meeting, and quite interesting it was. Trainer of Oulart The Ballagh for the last two seasons, Kevin Ryan is to be the new man in charge. Speaking to county chairman Pat Deering in the lead up to the appointment, he assured me that a very highly regarded candidate had expressed interest in the job. This is in no small way due to the fact that the profile of Carlow hurling has risen consistently over the last few years with the performances of some very talented minor teams and the senior squad’s Christy Ring success this year.

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.

A - Has to be for All-star awards as Westmeath had an unprecedented three nominations, and collected two awards on the night. Gary Connaughton was a popular winner of the number one spot while John Keane picked up his second award at corner back. Michael Ennis was somewhat unlucky not to collect one at wing back following some outstanding performances throughout the year on the wing. It could be some time again before we collect two all-stars in the same year.

So another year drifts by and the Galway senior footballers once again cannot make any real impression at the business end of the season on the inter-county championship.