Work, even in the form of a so-called "secondary" competition, comes before pleasure; and, accordingly, Dublin's football management have postponed plans to whisk their squad off for a sojourn in a country retreat next weekend and, instead, will spend Saturday afternoon entertaining Westmeath in an O'Byrne Cup semi-final encounter at Parnell Park.
Originally, Dublin manager Tom Carr had planned to take his panel away for a short break this weekend, as part of a team-building exercise and also a respite from the heavy stamina work being undertaken at the moment. However, tentative suggestions that the match might be re-arranged under floodlights or be put back a week didn't materialise, and Carr said: "It's no big deal, we've just rescheduled our break until the following week."
Although this match comes in the middle of what Carr terms a "very heavy" physical training programme, it is unlikely that he will go with quite the same experimental side that was on duty in Dublin's quarter-final win over Carlow. "The new guys did very well that day and showed a lot of good things," said Carr, "but the National League resumes in just over two weeks time and we may decide to look towards that when selecting our team for Saturday."
Dublin, who select tomorrow night, will certainly be without their Kilmacud Crokes contingent who are involved in the second replay of the AIB Leinster club senior football final with Eire Og at Newbridge on Sunday. Incidentally, this third leg of the epic confrontation will be shown in its entirety on TnaG at 6.40 p.m. that evening.
However, fears that Jason Sherlock had sustained a serious leg injury in Shamrock Rovers' game with Sligo Rovers last Sunday have been allayed. In fact, Sherlock, who hasn't played with Dublin in the league as yet and who is seeking to re-establish his place in the team, trained with the Dublin footballers last night, as per the arrangement between Carr and Sherlock's soccer boss Mick Byrne, and he could even figure in Dublin's game on Saturday as he expects to be on duty for Rovers in their league game with St Patrick's Athletic on Friday night.
As far as busy schedules go, though, Roscommon footballers have the most demanding timetable this weekend. On Saturday, Roscommon play Leitrim in a rearranged Connacht League fixture in Carrick-on-Shannon and, then, on Sunday, they play All-Ireland champions Galway at Ballinasloe.
Meanwhile, two of Kerry's most prominent forwards, Pa Laide and Mike Frank Russell, have recently undergone surgery although, at this stage, it is too early to determine whether or not they will be able to assist the county in defence of the Munster championship. "We can only keep our fingers crossed," said manager Paidi O Se, "but at least both of them have their operations over with, and have time on their side." Kerry are due to open the defence of their provincial crown against Tipperary on May 23rd, a repeat of last year's final. Laide, a long time casualty, had a disc removed from his back earlier this month while Russell underwent an operation on his knee at the weekend.
A more immediate assignment for O Se's men comes next Sunday when Kerry play host to Cork in a McGrath Cup match at Fitzgerald Stadium. Kerry, fielding a second string team in the competition last weekend, surprisingly lost to Limerick but are boosted by the return of new captain John Crowley, who is back from a sunshine holiday with county champions East Kerry.
Cork trio Damien O'Neill, Mark O'Connor and Ciaran O'Sullivan all resumed light training last night - although they are unlikely to resume competitive football for another month, ruling them out of the resumption of the National League in two weeks time - after battling with various injuries.
O'Neill hasn't played for Cork since last July due to a groin injury, while O'Connor recently underwent minor knee surgery and O'Sullivan undertook an intensive programme of gym work in his attempt to recover from a back injury.
The Connacht Council has decided to adopt experimental rules similar to those being used in the National League for a Connacht junior club competition which continues this weekend. Yellow and red cards are being used, along with instructions that the goalkeeper, when in possession is not permitted to play the ball with the hand and outfield players are only permitted to use the fist pass. However, the council has gone a step further than the NFL mandarins by allowing just one solo and one hop while also allowing the ball to be picked directly off the ground, provided the player is in an upright position. The rules will be implemented at the games in Dromohair and Tarmonbarry on Sunday.
