While Liam Sammon, John O'Mahony and Fergal O'Donnell are managing their native counties, there are now as many 'outsiders' looking after affairs of county teams all around the country. John McIntyre is nearly long enough a resident in Galway to be a Galway man, but as we all know John who played hurling for many years with his native Tipperary, will never get away from his roots. While he will be ready and do his best to defeat the Premier County he will always be a Tipperary person, but we look forward to him achieving success with Galway.

For the past year Galway native Frank Doherty who guided Caltra to All Ireland success has been travelling to manage the fortunes of Clare football while Killanin native Kevin Walsh is now manager of Sligo footballers. Tuam born Brian Talty is never far away from Dublin football, while many have sprinkled to clubs and back up support to county teams over the years. Getting back to hurling and while Galway have looked to Clare and Tipperary for managers, Galway man Seamus Qualter guided Westmeath to two Christy Ring Cup titles and was hugely involved with a number of clubs, while former All Star, Pete Finnerty followed in the footsteps of Mattie Murphy and Gerry Spellman on the road to support Mayo hurlers. Former All Star, Frank Burke was involved with Sligo hurlers, while Justin Campbell, Damien Coleman, and several others have been strongly involved in helping clubs in other counties over the years. One this for certain is that the club or county boundary does not come into existence when it comes to coaching, training or managing teams.

Frisbee the game
Over the weekend NUIG hosted teams from all around the country for a Frisbee tournament. The popular children’s pastime turned into some hugely competitive games and with several United States competitors the Galway side fancied their chances of winning the tournament. However in the end they were overcome by a team from Cork University who had a number of Canadians on their team. Frisbee is a pastime that is popular on the beaches of Ireland and beyond as a pastime, but making a competition out of it, seemed ridiculous. An interesting part of their game is that there are no referees present and that gentlemanly behavior rules. Even high level events are self-officiated, and observers only make calls when appealed to by one of the teams, at which point the result is binding. Just wonder how the likes of that would hold at a GAA match?

Safe hands
While many didn’t agree with all that Nicky Brennan did as President of the GAA, he was still seen as a safe pair of hands. However President elect Christy Cooney was in the news for the wrong reasons through his work with FAS last week. No doubt Padraig Duffy and others at Croke Park are watching the Fas expenditure with more that a passing interest.

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