Petmuller
03/08/2005, 10:34 PM
Any of ye guys listening to the debate on RTE Radio One Long Wave tonight after the Shels game. It made for very interesting listening. Eoin Hand, Dermot Keely, Johnny McDonnell (Pats Manager). With Shels dumped out of Europe tonight the discussion was along the lines of where our league is going. Both Dermot and Johnny's opinions were along the same line - clubs not getting the backing they deserve from the league legislators, whereas Eoin felt that the league clubs aren't doing enough at grass roots levels to promote and move the game forward in this country. He sighted the Kennedy Cup in Limerick a competition for U13's and according to Eoin not one Eircom league club send representation to watch these games with the view to picking up the cream of the crop yet the place is awash with representatives from across the water. Both Dermot and Johnny blamed it on the lack of finance as one reason the others being resorces etc but Eoin was having none of it. He used our club Sligo Rovers as prime example of doing things the wrong way by bringing in imports from across the water in order to gain success. The years we were successful the players were gone the following season so there's no stability. He said he too fell into the same trap when he managed Limerick when they won the league. Acording to Eoin there's too much of a blame culture in our game instead of getting out there and doing something about it. He felt Shels went into the game tonight expecting to be beaten whereas if the opposite were the case then they could have got something from the game. Of course the others disagreed which really added fuel to the fire of the debate.
Both sides made great points but I had to side with Eoin Hand and I'm looking at it from a Sligo Rovers point of view. Too often we feel hard done by and expect it to be that way and we go into games with that belief. This being the case our side is not totally focused on the real job so we're not really surprised when the expected happens.
The debate on the radio was when a team from the Eircom League will progress to the league stages of the Champions League if ever. Eoin Hand feels that teams like Shels are not too far off depending on the qualifying draws of course, the others differed in their opinions. Eoin says it's down to attitude and believing in ones ability I'm inclined to agree.
Both sides made great points but I had to side with Eoin Hand and I'm looking at it from a Sligo Rovers point of view. Too often we feel hard done by and expect it to be that way and we go into games with that belief. This being the case our side is not totally focused on the real job so we're not really surprised when the expected happens.
The debate on the radio was when a team from the Eircom League will progress to the league stages of the Champions League if ever. Eoin Hand feels that teams like Shels are not too far off depending on the qualifying draws of course, the others differed in their opinions. Eoin says it's down to attitude and believing in ones ability I'm inclined to agree.