Gavin Duffy joins Mayo football panel

mjp

After finishing up with connacht last week duffy has agreed to join mayo senior football panel for this year and trained with them lastnight. At age of 32 he hasn't played competitive football in 12-13 years.

Talking him up on newstalk here as being potential centre forward for mayo and having similar effect to tadhg Kennelly on Kerry. Think their going bit OTT with their reaction.
Surely he can't be in position to play for them in this years championship.
I'm sure his experience will be a good addition to mayo squad but doubt he can add too much to them on the pitch

Fr Tod Umptious

mjp wrote: »

After finishing up with connacht last week duffy has agreed to join mayo senior football panel for this year and trained with them lastnight. At age of 32 he hasn't played competitive football in 12-13 years.

Talking him up on newstalk here as being potential centre forward for mayo and having similar effect to tadhg Kennelly on Kerry. Think their going bit OTT with their reaction.
Surely he can't be in position to play for them in this years championship.
I'm sure his experience will be a good addition to mayo squad but doubt he can add too much to them on the pitch

CF is a position that Mayo are weakest in this year but I don't believe that this is the answer.

And there is no comparison with Kennelly.
Kennelly played North Kerry championship with Emmett's in the off season, plus the AFL is much closer to football skills wise than rugby.

finisklin

More on it here.

Have seen him play as a 17 year old, senior championship with stephenites. Savage player - hungry for ball, good scoring sense and strong.

How football sharp is he or will he be for the championship?

Hard to know as a lot of years have passed. Would be good to see him play club football first. Definitely worth a shot and see how he measures up.

Any ideas on his club as he is Galway based?

mjp

Think it's salthill knocknacarra he playing with. They have reputation of poaching players from all sides. Can only have played 1 or max 2 matches cause his contract with connacht wouldn't allow him I don't think

Fr Tod Umptious

Hi Mods
Any chance of merging this onto the Mayo thread please ?

kupus

I think its a great idea. he can bring professional coaching techniques from rugby, (should horan be willing to listen) a lot of positives from this inclusion.

km79

Pity he could not have played a few league games.
Tis a bit late in the year for a lad who has not played football in over a decade!

Fr Tod Umptious

The main source of this info seems to be David Brady.

And the same man who in 2013 brought us "they are using ear pieces in training"

Clubmate of Duffy's too by the way.

finisklin

This is early doors.....let's not jump the gun.

Wait and see what the official mayo line is and what is club performances are like. Plus there will be a few county challenge games for him to strut his stuff.

Not sure if all the panel will be happy either.

How does he get time to do Dragons den, run his businesses AND play for Mayo?....:pac:

km79

finisklin wrote: »

This is early doors.....let's not jump the gun.

Wait and see what the official mayo line is and what is club performances are like. Plus there will be a few county challenge games for him to strut his stuff.

Not sure if all the panel will be happy either.

http://www.mayogaa.com/news/317445/Statement_Re_Gavin_Duffy_Mayo_Senior_Team

Dtp1979

Am I the only one whose disappointed it's not the guy from dragons den??

Dirty Dingus McGee

Best of luck to him but surely he should be obliged to at least play a full year of club football before getting a call up.It seems a bit unfair to parachute him into the squad ahead of fellas who have given a lot more commitment to Mayo football over the last few years.

Also Mayo in my opinion need some more scoring forwards not good runners (which I assume Duffy is considering he played rugby) regardless of how good a footballer he was in the past I imagine his shooting sharpness probably wouldn't be at top class inter county standard at the moment.

Fr Tod Umptious

eastmayo wrote: »

Mayo gaa have released a statement that Duffy is training with mayo so it's true

I'm not suggesting that he was not there.
I'm questioning Brady's feedback on how good he was at training

Cartman78

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Am I the only one whose disappointed it's not the guy from dragons den??

Yeah...that's the first thing that spring to my mind as well :pac:

Maybe he could buy 35% of David Brady's patented GAA hidden earphones business, or drop in as an emergency full back if we need to close out a game.

Surely, this kind of thing would result in a load of disillusioned Mayo forwards? Potentially losing your place to a retired rugby player/Dragon's Den panellist would be a right kick in the teeth.

ANXIOUS

I think it's pretty much fact now that they wear ear pieces so let it go.

Fergus_Nash

Meh, if you're losing your place on the team or in the squad because a player who hasn't played for ten years comes in and takes it then you probably don't deserve to be there in the first place. For me it would be the same as any minor star coming into the team straight away. Anyway, the likelihood of Gavin Duffy starting a championship match for Mayo is very low, it's just a nice story for people to latch onto.

Wolf Club

Well I guess a full back should be more well suited to football than any other position in rugby as it involves high fielding and running through tight spaces with the ball, hopefully the optimism it's currently giving supporters will also be seen in the team.

keane2097

Fergus_Nash wrote: »

Meh, if you're losing your place on the team or in the squad because a player who hasn't played for ten years comes in and takes it then you probably don't deserve to be there in the first place. For me it would be the same as any minor star coming into the team straight away. Anyway, the likelihood of Gavin Duffy starting a championship match for Mayo is very low, it's just a nice story for people to latch onto.

Exactly. Guys are cut from every panel in the country every week of the year for worse reasons than a professional athlete being brought into the squad.

Number 30 on the county panel has no god given right to be there, it's a privilege that you don't just become entitled to because you trained with the panel during the league.

glued

keane2097 wrote: »

Exactly. Guys are cut from every panel in the country every week of the year for worse reasons than a professional athlete being brought into the squad.

Number 30 on the county panel has no god given right to be there, it's a privilege that you don't just become entitled to because you trained with the panel during the league.

Have to agree. It's all about picking the best guys available.

No place for sentiment on a Championship panel.