Gavin Duffy and the round ball game

Shelflife wrote: No mention of a Connacht coaching gig when I was chatting to gav recently. I would have imagined that either he was offered it and turned it down or he wasn't offered it ,meaning that his services weren't required.

skysports.com/news/12040/9311986/gaa-former-connacht-rugby-captain-gavin-duffy-joins-mayo-football-panel

Mayo have confirmed that former Connacht Rugby captain Gavin Duffy has joined their senior football squad.

The Ballina native left Connacht this month after he was not offered a new contract and had hinted at a return to Gaelic football.

The 32-year-old recently met with Mayo manager James Horan and joined up with the rest of the squad on Tuesday night for a training session.

Horan said: "Gavin Duffy was invited down to join up with the squad for a couple of weeks where the management will have a look at him to see where he is at."

Horan added that Duffy is a "professional athlete who brings great leadership and a presence to the squad".

Former Ireland international Duffy played underage football with the Westerners and was part of the minor team that reached the All-Ireland final in 1999.

The Mayo County Board said in a statement: "Gavin Duffy has always claimed that we would love to play with his county and has previously lined out with the Mayo minor football team.

"The Mayo County Board are delighted to see a player of the calibre of Gavin Duffy linked with the Mayo senior football team and hopefully will remain a permanent presence in the Mayo senior football team setup."

Mayo won their Connacht Championship quarter-final against New York earlier this month. They will face the winners of Sunday's fixture between Roscommon and Leitrim on June 8.

At the risk of being accussed of using the wrong thread it'd be interesting to hear people's thoughts on how much game time he is likely to see and which position he would be playing.

Mayo for Sam??

Hard to know what position he might play, there is still a lot of work to be done I know he said he has been playing with Salthill but county football is generally a lot faster paced than either club football or rugby.
Personally I was thinking maybe half or full forward.

Urgh, I enjoyed seeing Mayo lose finals. I can't enjoy this now, and might even cheer them on

I know nothing about GAA, but to me it seems like a big ask to expect to be able to play a sport at the top level at the age of 32, having not played for 13 years. I'm not saying it's not worth a shot, and he obviously has the background combined with the physcial attributes/fitness, just saying I don't expect to be seeing him start for Mayo in a big championship match any time soon. If he does, I'll definitely cheer him on.

The 1999 Minor Semi-final against Cork was the best display from a Mayo team I have ever seen at any grade and Gavin was brilliant that day. I don't think there is a Connacht fan out there that doesn't believe just having Gavin in the squad is a major boost. Over and over again he has proved to be a team man and leads from the front. So I'm of the opinion that even if he doesn't get any game time it's still a major boost to the Mayo squad just having him there.
To ConnachtCows by law of averages we were always going to upset you at some stage its just sooner rather than later.
MAYO for SAM

Its certainly an interesting move. He has a lot of the attributes needed but its still a code he hasn't played competitively in over a decade. We might see him off the bench in a couple of games but its very late to be joining a panel and expecting anything major.

No to foreign sports

ummm, wrote: No to foreign sports

Take your points and the goals will come