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RTÉ News
19-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Mayo soul searching in 'no brakes' football championship
The group stage of the football championship is barely underway, however, this year's All-Ireland campaign looks set to be one of the most open and unpredictable in recent years. Meath have already turned Dublin over, before losing out to Louth in the Leinster final, while the hotly tipped Connacht kingpins, Galway, proved second best on Saturday, getting beaten by the rejuvenated Jacks. And not to mention Cavan joining the conversation with an emphatic victory over Mayo at MacHale Park in their opening Group 1 encounter. On the flip side, Kerry maintained the status quo by signalling their intent with a ten-point victory over Roscommon. "This year, with everything that is going on, there is a freshness and uncertainty about it," said Éamonn Fitzmaurice, speaking on this week's RTE GAA Podcast. "Where are Galway at, because of the way Mayo played, where are Meath at because of the way Dublin played, where are Louth at because they beat Meath. "Down's performance in Clare, where does that put them? Where are Kerry at? You know you can go down this rabbit hole and wonder what it means. "I think what it emphasises for the next couple of weeks is that it is like old-style championship football where we are just going to have to take it on its merits." And the former Kerry boss expects the trend to continue throughout the summer, which will lead to a more competitive, and as a result, more exciting championship with teams unable to coast through the group stages. Three out of four teams go through from each group, however, there will now be a real emphasis on teams winning their respective tables with the uncertainty of what might lie ahead in the preliminary quarter-finals, which see the second and third-placed teams going head to head. "Teams are going to take points off each other, teams are going to beat each other, we're going to get the surprise results," added Fitzmaurice. "It's great for the championship, it's great for us looking on that there isn't a predictability about out it, there isn't a procession about it, there isn't anything about teams pulling handbrakes or anything else because on any given weekend teams are going to beat each other, which is great and exciting." Following Sunday's defeat, Mayo now look like they will need to take points from both of their remaining games against two of the strongest sides in the country, Tyrone and Donegal, while they also have to contend with having a worse head-to-head with Cavan should it come down to it after the round robin stage. And while Fitzmaurice feels that Mayo have put themselves in a really tough position, he does feel that they have the experience of overcoming adversity, which could prove vital. "From a Mayo perspective, it was a serious defeat, and their record hasn't been great in MacHale Park over the last couple of years," he said. "It is very Mayo-like to get themselves into these situations and dig themselves out of it, but at the same time, they are away to Tyrone next and have Donegal coming in their last game, so there are no easy games. "And just the fact that they were so far off it yesterday, there is going to be a good bit of soul searching for them. "They are going to have to dig deep again, they are good at it but they have to dig deep." Fitzmaurice was, however, impressed with Cavan, who he felt were a side transformed from their under-par defeat in the Ulster championship last month. "You have to give a lot of credit to Cavan," said Fitmaurice. "I was at their game against Tyrone and they weren't at it at all that day. Tactically, they weren't at it, they had a lot of under-par performances from the players, and they looked unfit and didn't look like they were not at the required level. "I heard last night that they did do a good bit of fitness work over the last couple of weeks, and you could see that they were full of running and a lot of the scores came from hard running and support play higher up the pitch. "They were impressive and deserve massive credit for righting the ship after that performance in Ulster five weeks ago."
RTÉ News
05-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
When is a two-pointer not a two-pointer? - FRC member Eamonn Fitzmaurice explains
When is a two-pointer not a two-pointer? The new rules in Gaelic Football are continuing to spark debate. And they were again highlighted at the weekend following the awarding of one point instead of two when Galway goalkeeper Conor Gleeson helped the ball over the bar, taking advantage of the rule. Former Kerry manager and current FRC member Eamonn Fitzmaurice spoke about the incident on the RTE GAA Podcast and offered his opinion, while also explaining the thinking behind the rule. "There is a lot you can say about the incident," said Fitzmaurice. "It was a significant incident at that time of the game, the flow of the game, and everything else. "You have to give huge credit to Conor Gleeson to get a touch on it, Stephen Cluxton did something similar in Portlaoise last weekend when he got a touch on one of the long Meath two pointers. "I didn't think it was as conclusive as some people are saying, it did look like it was all the way over the bar, when Glesson managed to get a touch on it, so it should have been two in that case, and that's an officiating mistake." Fitmaurice said that the rule did cause much debate when it came to predicting the scenarios that could arise from such a situation, which was really aimed at taking the uncertainty out of the situation and making it easier for the officials. "The rationale is that we did debate around this particular one and it was trying to write a rule in terms of how far out do you allow a touch?" added Fitmaurice. "If it comes in and a full-forward and full-back are competing for it and it is added to, is that still at two-pointer. And we debated if it was just the full back, it can stay as the two-pointer, and it could be [a question as to] who got a touch on it. "So it was to try to make it as clean as possible from an officiating perspective. "We saw yesterday what can happen in that situation and I know there was commentary around you'd hate to see that being a deciding factor in a game, especially in the knock-out games in the championshop "And from the FRC perspective, when anything like that happens, we are discussing it, seeing if it is something that we need to consider. "To me if someone kicks from outside the arc and the full forward touches it before it hit the ground, it becomes a one-pointer, but how do you decide how significant a touch, so that was the rationale."
