Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

On the scrum-half situation. If I could only keep one it'd be Devine. He's a fascinating prospect.

It's down to Willie Ruane to tie down Matty Devine on contract. Ruane needs to start earning the money he's on.

Couldn't agree more and symptomatic of the lack of direction from the top and Ruane. Tucker is itching to go to Munster, Fardy, Wilkins, and Sexton are gone. There's talk of Jack Carty being offered another year on his contract FFS for the want of persuading decent kicking 10's like Callum Sheedy or Ciaran Frawley to join us. There's talk of Matty Devine going to Ulster. A sorry mess indeed. What the fu@k is going on at HQ?

Few academy players missing. Billy Bohan and Eanna McCarthy. Sean Walsh (confirmed on an instagram post), Diarmuid O'Connell and Bobby Power look like they will be also in Year 1 next year.

Mullins is not academy - Was promoted to first team squad last year. I would say Treacy gets a professional contract but Naughton stays on academy contract. Not sure if year 3 lads get a professional contract. Maybe they get an additional academy year?

Flynn and Farthing announced as part of academy intake May bank holiday weekend last year…..

Hopefully the Devine rumours are just rumours. Once Connacht start losing the good young local players they produce to any of the other provinces they may as well knock down that big stand they are in the middle of constructing. It's a fast track to irrelevance.

Yes both have. Ulster have that big Saffa backrow coming in from Northampton and Munster have announced Milne, Barron and Dan Kelly (pretty sure that's official). Not a huge amount maybe but all more than the 0 we've announced with still question marks over a few renewals.

Not to single you out SqueakyKneecap. Lots of us fans are down on the team right now, but I'm going to try to be optimistic

"What a depressing couple of years it's been"

Since 2021, we've had

• A starting Lion
• More representation in the Irish 23 than Munster and Ulster
• A Heineken Cup knock-out match
• A sell out game in Castlebar
• Re-development of the Sportsground
• A player in the running for World Player Of the Year during a World Cup season
• A semi final in the URC

Go back 10 years, and all of that would be a pipe dream

I know you mentioned "couple of years" and I've gone back 4 years, but it's good to probably put some perspective on what we're going through

Unfortunately, our biggest issues have come down to coaching/attitude of the players

Fans (well, me at least) are frustrated, as the players dont seem to play anywhere near their potential when playing for us.

We need a restructure of our approach from top down. Hopefully that will come with the appointment of Millard. We need all the coaches having the same goals, and understanding of how we can get there. There is no point in one coach wanting players who play a physical, tight game, where as an other wants the ball thrown around, and our players relying on fitness.

We look disjointed these days, but hopefully we're near the end of a dark period, and there is light approaching

I'm fairly optimistic about this group of players generally.

I am a bit disappointed that it looks like we have very few new additions coming in especially in light of Porch, JJ, Cordero, O Connor all supposed to be leaving. Surely their collective wages would allow at least one medium quality addition in a key role?

Dunne could be a good signing, and God knows we need some oomph in the second row.

Don't Connacht have an interest to Jarlath Gleeson ? He plays currently in Lyon (maybe academy) He was ex -London Irish player and IQ (in my memory). age 20, Height 207cm, weight 111kg). If there is no LO at this age level, he seems to deserve to be researched.

Thank you very much for your good information.I remember Andrew Browne as a good LO player.