Defeat to Roscommon has prompted something of an exodus in Armagh, while one of the quiet men of the GAA will reach a significant milestone this weekend.
Could the last footballer out of Armagh please turn out the lights?
The Armagh footballers probably didn’t envisage being dumped out of the All-Ireland Championship before July was two days old, but the best apples in the Orchard County haven’t been hanging around to ponder what might have been.
Players spending a summer turning out as ringers on Gaelic Football teams across the US isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, but the scouts at said American clubs were vulture-like in their pursuit of Armagh’s finest following their shock Championship exit at the hands of Roscommon.
According to a report on the Hogan Stand website, four members of the Armagh panel have already secured temporary moves to the US, even though a fortnight hasn’t yet passed since the Roscommon defeat.
Three of Armagh’s highest profile players, Ciaran McKeever, Jamie Clarke and Brendan Donaghy, are off to play for the Leitrim club in New York, while Michael Stevenson is set to take up an offer to play with Connemara in Boston.
The four lads in question will have little chance of playing for their clubs in the championship this season, as in accordance with GAA rules, players have to wait 60 days after their last game in the States before they are eligible to play for their home clubs once again.
On second thoughts, three of the four players in question will have little chance of playing for their clubs this season. The way Crossmaglen have been going lately, Clarke would be safe enough playing right up until Christmas and still be back for what has become an almost annual trip to Croke Park on Paddy’s Day.
All hail the man behind the most distinctive toe-tap in Gaelic Football
Kerry’s qualifier clash with Westmeath this weekend has already started to attract attention for controversial reasons, but there is one notoriously shy guy who is probably glad that such a distraction might mean that his own milestone goes unnoticed.
Tomás Ó Sé will pull on the number five jersey he has made his own for the 80th time in Championship football this weekend, a figure that leaves him one behind big brah Darragh in the all-time championship appearances record.
With all due respect to Westmeath and whoever lies in wait beyond Sunday, there is a good chance Tomás will go onto equal and even better Darragh’s record in this season’s championship and if he does, it will be a fitting honour for a man who is about as fond of self-publicising as Pat Spillane is of hand-passing.
Before the current era, where nearly every wing-back is an auxiliary attacker, O’Sé was popping over points for fun from the half-back line and never has there been a more unique and distinctive solo run in Gaelic Football than the one belonging to the Gaeltacht man.
There won’t be many who will begrudge Ó Sé the distinction of being the most capped man in championship history if and when it does arrive; we just pity whoever the poor chap is that has to try and get him to say a few words about the honour afterwards.
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