How can you say that Hooperman beat Freddy the Fox in the dance off? 'Typical Rovers bias!' was the refrain from the MNS production crew after the programme on Monday night.
It was a rare moment of levity after a weekend which saw Gareth Coughlan suffer an horrific injury following Mark Quigley's over the top challenge. The fact that Pat Fenlon, quite rightly took the decision to take Quigley off after the incident, doesn't take away from the fact that the referee only saw it as a yellow card offence.
When you see some of the innocuous incidents that have led to red cards this season, it is puzzling that Mr Hancock only saw Quigley's foul as a yellow card offence. What would he have to have done to get a red card I wonder?
As for the sudden head butt frenzy that seems to be in fashion. I can only imagine how frustrated Gary McCabe and Jamie Duffy's managers must feel – that is if Jamie Duffy had a manager at the moment! We saw Shamrock Rovers Robert Bayley go unpunished when he used the head on an opponent, but it's something that players must curb, because as we saw this weekend, a zero tolerance policy is in operation and use of the head to butt an opponent, will lead to a red card.
If one was to be hyper analytical, you could argue that McCabe's wasn't as aggressive a movement with the head as Duffy's, but it was enough to give him a very early unnecessary bath.
The recent good weather has me thinking about the joys of going to football matches in the sunshine. I should state at the outset that I'm a big fan of summer football.
It's only when I look at the Cult Heroes segment on MNS, that I am reminded how terrible the pitches used to be in the League of Ireland.
Younger fans probably have no idea how different things are nowadays. Yes of course the pitch in Galway was pretty rotten earlier this season, but rest assured it will improve with the combination of rain and warmer weather, albeit, it's being over used. The ground-staff deserve a medal for getting it playable at all. But in general the pitches now are far better than a decade or two ago, and the summer weather is surely a big contributory factor.
Let's not forget the fans who take the trouble to go to matches all over the country (I see you already raising an eyebrow when I talk about all over the country, but I'm not just referring to this season).
Better road conditions and longer daylight make for easier journeys, and if you happen to be in a ground like Oriel Park, where there's no overhead cover for visiting supporters, you're more likely to find conditions to your liking in July than in January. I well remember as a youngster freezing my cojones off at venues the length and breadth of the country, watching skilful players attempting, and failing to play football on what were essentially ploughed fields.
Of course with the start of the GAA Football and Hurling Championships, the battle for column inches in the newspapers will become more difficult, but at least with the majority of games taking place on Friday and Saturday nights, the likelihood of Airtricity games clashing with Championship Football or Hurling matches is much diminished. Now you can follow your local Airtricity League side and still be available to support your county in the Championship if you're ambidextrous!
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about fixture congestion, and the fact that our part time players were being asked to play too many games too often. If we ever revert to winter football here, I dread to think what the fixture congestion would be like after matches are called off left right and centre during the worst of the winter months.
As you may know, I also present Sunday Sport on RTE Radio One, and during the months of December, January and February, every Sunday morning as we prepare for the programme the phone inevitably rings with news of cancellations of race meetings, and other sundry sporting events. I'd hate to see the day when Eoghan Rice or someone else from the FAI is on the blower to us to tell us of more Airtricity Games falling by the wayside because of frozen/waterlogged pitches. That, I fear, would be the scenario if the decision was ever taken to return to the dark days of winter footy.
Make no mistake, those cancellations would rain down on us like the coloured balls in the Sony ad shot in San Francisco (what product was that ad for?) – The clubs here don't have the budgets for the advanced under soil heating that the clubs in the top divisions in England have, to cope with the freezing winter temperatures, and without that facility, pitches would take a hammering from the elements, and the traffic upon them. How would the Terryland Park surface cope with matches every week during the winter with the addition of games from the Galway and District League.
I haven't mentioned the improvement of our ranking in European football because of the better results in Europe thanks to the summer soccer season. It's no coincidence, that the results have improved immeasurably since the switch was made, and our clubs are now firmly mid season when they enter European competition. Do we want to throw that away? No thank you.
I think this one is a no brainer.
Enjoy next week's matches in shirt sleeves, wearing factor 15, and hopefully for the Airtricity league, the future's so bright, you'll have to wear shades.
