Replying To Green&Gold2013: "Can anyone clarify where these players are? The players you mentioned are not old ? Have they just lost interest or moved away ?
As much as they were missing yday they still take beating."
Players not available for different reasons, short term injuries , long term injuries, travel. They are just too many lost players for a club with a relatively small population. 4 or 5 years ago definitely on a par with the best winning one FF and close a few more times. Since then attrition has been massive. The natural attrition of older players like Aaron mchugh, Stephen Boyle. Gary Sweeney and Paul Donnellan could, in my opinion, just about be absorbed by the trickle of younger players like Brian Noone, Ciaran Mulhern , Dara Newell, Proulx brothers and a few others. But what is massive is the loss of players in the 30 or younger age bracket . 7 starters from the 2021 final team who are still only 30 or younger not available currently ..mark mannion Colin murray michael daly Matthew Barrett Shane moran Patrick Kelly Eoin Finnerty. That's just an unnatural level of attrition and one that mtbellew does not have the resources to absorb.
Replying To backtooldwall: "After attending Sundays double header in Pearse Stadium which served up two games that were as good as over after ten mins, in the opener a goal which was against the run of play kept St Michaels in it on the score board with wind to come until the half time break.Oughterard looked far sharper and committed even with Matty Tierney "resting" on the periphery of the action for the most part,St Michaels looked like a team resigned to their fate from early on in the second half after failing to add to the two pointer they resumed with. The Bearna na Forbacha v Maigh Cuilinn was a contest between two very understrength teams with Maigh Cuilinn lining out with only I'm told five or six go the team who contested last years county final, admittedly it did contain the Kelly brothers and Dessie Conneely, supplemented five or six from minor winning team of two or three years ago this was the big differnce in the replacements available to each managers. The game itself was a lifeless affair with the winners in almost complete control for almost the entire match although BnaF should have had a goal when hitting the post with defence beaten and the rebound being kicked straight at S Kelly on the line ( I think ) in the first half.It looks like that less than half can be competitive with the rest hoping to survive in the grade from what I take from the reports from the rest to the round."
A few teams like Michaels, Monivea, Bearna would seem to be ahead of the pack in the race to intermediate, making it unlikely that 9+ senior sides are 'hoping to survive' in the senior grade. Expecting to survive more like.