Leitrim took the trip west yesterday to play in the New York Gaelic Grounds. The Championship is well and truly underway as the 2 Connacht sides played on the only artificial surface in use for the Championship. New York gave Galway a fright in 2010 but Leitrim were untroubled as they ran out big winners.
London are 5/2 to beat Sligo in this years Connacht champ??? Are Sligo that bad? I know London have been improving in the last couple of years but they are shocking odds.
London have been prevented from coming over for a couple of warm up games. I think 5/2 is about right. The GAA has refused London permission to come to Ireland and play two SF challenges. The Exiles wanted to play the two matches next weekend - against Wicklow on Saturday and Louth on Sunday - as part of preparations for their May 26th Connacht SFC opener against Sligo. However, the GAA has refused to sanction the friendlies due to a technicality, even though all the arrangements were already in place for the trip. Rule 12.6, which was introduced to stop county teams from going abroad to warm-weather training camps in the build-up to the championship, forbids intercounty panels from participating in "training weekends, or training of longer duration, after the end of their respective national leagues, except during the 13 days prior to a senior championship game." Ironically, this rule is now being used to block London from coming home to play. "It is not like we are going abroad or anything," London manager Paul Coggins states in The Irish Independent. "We are actually going 'home' and only because that is the only way we can get the sort of quality of competition that we need so badly to prepare for the Connacht championship."
That sounds harsh on London and it sounds like something the gaa would do alright, they need to be helping teams like London not making things more difficult for them.
A few years back they screwed London in the hurling too. Scheduled a Christy Ring semi final on the Saturday and an Ulster semi on the Sunday. No room for wiggling. Absolute shower.
