Footballers easily fend off students in FBD tie

GMIT 0-6

THE last of the January rehearsals is now complete, but with well over half the cast absent, Galway’s potential opening night performance at Navan theatre on Sunday week remains very much a thing of mystery.

The FBD League does have a certain merit in terms of providing early season games, but with so many players unavailable to the Galway management – mostly due to the ‘first call’ of the third level colleges – its value to the main counties is seriously limited.

For the close on 200 hard core supporters who turned out at Tuam Stadium on Sunday, this match was reasonably competitive with some decent scores picked off, but space and time on the ball will be far more elusive when the hungry Meath men start breathing down the necks of Galway players at Páirc Tailteann.

One of the most salient points to emerge from this encounter was the utter confusion of the new black card system, with players and supporters alike, not having a clue of what to expect after an illegal contact had been made.

And remember this was a pretty harmless FBD match, far removed from the cut and thrust of a full blooded National League tie where hard physical challenges will be an intrinsic part of the action – unless the referees leave their black cards in their pockets, expect an early February weekend of chaos and controversy.

It really is a bit like the ‘Nanny State’ philosophy if control of the game is taken away from the players and the referees – where common sense refereeing is replaced by diktats from men in chambers, the game really is in trouble.

Ronan Steede, James Kavanagh, Sean Denvir, Mark Hehir were all ‘blacked’ with everyone asking the same question: “What was that for?” However, as four players trotted dutifully back to the dugouts after being ‘blacked’, they must have wondered what their week’s training had been all about.

Sligo referee John Gilmartin was in the middle of all this and while his black and yellow card ‘awards’ did raise the ire of players and supporters, like all men in the middle, his task of being judge and jury of what’s deliberate and what’s not, was quite impossible. Full report in this week's Connacht Tribune.