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Tony Duffy is in his third year as Mayo minor manager and on Sunday he’s looking for his latest batch of minors to pick up a second provincial crown in those three years. This year Mayo will have to do it the hard way by going to the their opponents backyard to win the title.

Mattie Murphy has been synonymous with Galway underage success since first becoming involved in inter-county management in 1989.

The new Galway minor football manager for the 2011 season is to be announced tonight.

The future of Mayo football was given a new direction on Wednesday night when James Horan was appointed as the new manager of the Mayo senior football team for a term of three years. The Ballintubber manager who this year guided his club to their first senior county final was put forward by the five man interview committee and ratified by the county board delegates at a county board meeting. Horan won two All Stars during his playing career for the county, lining out 57 times for Mayo between his debut in 1995 in the national football league and his last game in 2002 against Cork in the All Ireland quarter final. He scored 4-83 for Mayo over his seven year inter county career. Horan’s back room team will be made up of James Nallen, Martin Connolly and Paul Jordan, Tom Prendergast, Dr Sean Moffatt, Paul O’Grady, Joe Dawson, Liam Moffatt, and Ed Coughlan.

They may not have won the five-in-a-row but as illustrated on Monday night the senior hurlers are still the heroes of Kilkenny.

Mattie Murphy’s Galway minor hurlers face Kilkenny in the eagerly anticipated All-Ireland semi-final on Sunday at 1.30pm in Croke Park.

So with the seniors out of the championship before June was finished, the u21 season over, and the Mayo ladies in an even worse mess than the men’s senior team all hope of provincial and national success rests on the tender shoulders of the Mayo minor squad of 2010. That is a lot of pressure, and that kind of pressure should never be applied to this or any batch of 17 and 18-year-olds who are still only learning their trade in the game. And the real Mayo supporter will never place that kind of pressure on the latest batch to don the green and red for the minor side, no matter how success starved they are.

If it wasn’t a difficult enough task for Tony Duffy taking over as Mayo minor manager after two successive appearances in the All Ireland final at this grade for the county, on Saturday evening it is win or bust for the year before June is even out. Duffy was the man to come out on top of a number of candidates picked by the county board to lead the Mayo minor side this year, following Ray Dempsey and his backroom team’s elevation to the u21 side. So far so good for Duffy and his backroom team of Vinnie Walsh, Liam Lavelle, and Michael Ruane, the Connacht minor league saw Mayo pick up four wins from five, the only defeat coming at the hands of this weekend’s opponents Roscommon on the opening day of the competition at the tail end of March in Ballyhaunis.

Six days on from the titanic struggle in Croke Park where Mayo and Tyrone battled it out in the white heat of competition, both sides will have to do it all over again tomorrow in a quest to claim the Tom Markham Cup. Aidan Walsh’s nerveless injury time free from under the Cusack Stand looked to have sealed the win for Mayo. Only for some late Tyrone pressure and some sloppy play by Mayo allowed Matthew Donnelly to level the game and set us up for a replay.

How can a minor manager make an impact? Delivering purposeful footballing teams? Cultivating talent? Ultimately Gerry Fahy craves to aid players on their career adventures. Considering Fahy’s coaching pedigree it is certainly an achievable mission.