In today’s Hospital Pass, there’s no room in the Mayo team for goal king Jason Doherty, and will Kerry be looking and feeling blue come Sunday evening?
Doherty attracted all sorts of plaudits earlier in the year with his exploits in the National League and the Sigerson Cup, and, Mayo being the county it is, he was compelled to shoulder huge expectations going into his first summer in the team.
Perhaps understandably, that proved to be too much for him to bear and having managed a paltry one point from play in his three appearances – which included 83 minutes against London, remember – he has now been demoted to the subs’ bench by manager James Horan for Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Cork.
Into his place comes Garrymore’s Enda Varley, who is, it’s safe to say, a man unburdened by expectation.
The other change to the Mayo team sees Ger Cafferkey included at full back, where the ousted Alan Feeney is probably counting his lucky stars that he will be spared the humiliation of running around a bit while Donnacha O’Connor scores 2-4.
Kingdom feeling blue
Last year’s Munster final saw both Kerry and Limerick wear predominantly green jerseys, but now that the game’s been taken out of the control of the colourblind folk in Munster Council, common sense has prevailed with the news that the Kingdom will wear blue and Limerick white in Sunday’s second All-Ireland quarter-final.
The terms “Kingdom” and “Royal Blue” are happy enough bedfellows everywhere but the GAA, it seems, and some of Kerry’s more forgettable days have come while they were compelled to wear their unfamiliar second colours.
They were on the wrong end of a 15-point defeat by Meath in an All-Ireland semi-final in 2001 and were also in blue when they lost to the same opposition in the National League that spring.
Ten years on, is there a danger that Kerry will be feeling blue again come Sunday evening? Is there?
Eh, no.
