Friday's round-up

Not a lot to report today, so I may as well start with the somewhat less than newsworthy fact that I spent the bulk of the day yesterday behind the wheel, undertaking a Dublin-Limerick-Dublin round trip. Oh, that lovely N7 - someone should write a song about it.

Hogan Stand is reporting that Ronan McGarritty could get called upon to play against Cavan but the quote from Johnno seems to come from the same interview we spoke about the other day. All Johnno says is that "we'll have to see what role he plays" on Saturday week. Depending on how the match is going, a cameo appearance for the last 15-20 minutes is, I would have thought, the likely option.

There's a more definitive quote from The Deputy in the Western concerning Super Mac's hamstring injury and this doesn't sound good, I'm afraid. The injury occurred last week and Johnno says that "he's gone for a few weeks", which could mean that not only is he likely to miss the Cavan match but, if we win, the second round qualifier tie on the following weekend as well. We could all be gone by then, I suppose, and not just for a few weeks either.

If it's downbeat you want, then this quote from Kevin Beirne (who was a selector with the minor team) should do the trick nicely. Kevin speaks about his concerns for the future arising from our failure to win a provincial minor title for the last number of years and reckons we're entering "a state of emergency". An overstatement, perhaps, given our recent national success at U21 level but it certainly is a concern.

Finally, I notice that Dessie Farrell has provided his tuppence worth on the issue of payments to managers, which Jack O'Connor raised in his kiss and tell book about his time as Kerry supremo. (I was going to buy the book until I discovered that it was ghostwritten by Tom Humphries. That's right. The guy. That likes. To pretend. That he's. The new. Con Houlihan. And has. The really. Fucking annoying. Habit of. Writing two. Word sentences. Yeah. That Tom). As regards payments to managers, the words Elephant and Room seem somehow appropriate - it's like being back in the Eighties where everyone knew tax fiddling was going on all around the place but where it was never mentioned officially. Now that this particular hare is up and running (seeing as it relates to Kerry, a coursing analogy is appropriate, I feel) it's difficult to see where it will lead. Not, sadly, to the Kingdom being disqualified from the 2004 and 2006 All-Irelands, as one bright spark on Mayofans.com suggests. Nice idea, though.

That's it - more tomorrow on the first provincial football final of the year - where Cork defend their Munster title against those Kerry upstarts - and also that interesting Leinster football semi-final clash on at Croker between Laois and Wexford.