Square Ball - 15th April 2009

Written by Frank Kearney

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Big Kevin Takes Sligo to Division Three

His surprise appointment as Sligo manager came, but already big Kevin Walsh is making an impression up in the Yeats county. In his first few months in management Kevin Walsh has guided Sligo out of division four and into division three for next year's league. In their final game against Waterford last weekend Sligo had to pull out all the stops before eventually coming out on top.

Taking into account that Leitrim had taken on board the high profile management team of Mickey Moran and John Morrison and edged out the near neighbours in the promotion battle, it makes Kevin Walsh's achievement all the more admirable. After winning the Connacht title in 2007 when they shocked Galway in the final, Sligo dropped back into division four of the league last year. They then looked to Killanin’s Kevin Walsh to turn the tide for them and so far that has been a success. While Sligo have a division four final to play against Antrim, Galway have a trip to the exiles of London before they take on Sligo on July 4th.

Dependent on Meehan

Last week just again showed just how dependent Galway are on Caltra's Michael Meehan. Against Kerry in the deluge last summer Meehan kept his side in the game, and again last Sunday we totally depended on him to deliver. Liam Sammon has a lot of work to do before we face the Connacht championship. While a cakewalk against London is expected as would victory against Kevin Walsh's Sligo, we cannot take too much for granted. Mayo had a bad start to the league and almost overtook Galway so we have a lot to do.

McHale Park Back in Action

Although it is far from complete McHale Park in Castlebar hosted the clash of Mayo v Tyrone last weekend that finished deadlocked. The new stand is near completion and changes the whole face of the grounds. Like Tuam Stadium, over many years McHale Park has been a wonderful stadium that has brought out the best in teams. Just as the Galway board did in Pease Stadium, the Mayo Board are currently selling five-year tickets in a bid to raise funds for this excellent facility. No doubt many of our Mayo friends in Galway will be interested.

Des Cahill

So Des Cahill is our new man at the helm in the Sunday Game. Cahill has looked impressive in some of his television work to date including the build up to All-Ireland finals and has good knowledge of GAA affairs, but always gave the impression of having scripted questions. How he will fare in a challenging programme like the Sunday Game is hard to know, but time will tell as we wish him the best.

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