€1.7m over 5 years for both football and hurling. I’d imagine that this is paltry compared to other county sponsorship deals. That greasy bastard should be thrown out on his ear.
I reckon he’s getting better value than Galway tbh.
I think that also includes the camogs.
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In fairness the likes of Sean McDonagh, Kilcommins, and the Thomas Brothers from Ballygar are a sign of the joe effect. Lads from football areas playing underage hurling for Galway.
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Do any GAA players get serious head injuries? I know of at least one v high profile young GAA player who lost this season to date to concussion
I know your in the wind up here but there was some serious head clashes in the Tipp Wford game last weekend and no HIA
Would it be right to say the amount of head injuries in rugby dwarfs that in other sports being played in Ireland?
Sweep, sweep
Ballygar always had a decent hurling tradition.
OK. As expected
Great lads the Ballygar boys…
“Dublin hosted that year. We had 2 lads from Ballygar in Roscommon staying in our house. One of them had a moustache, a leather biker jacket and smoked Carroll’s. I have a sneaking suspicion he rode my 16 year old sister after the ceili but she still denies it.”
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Ballygar is most definitely not in Roscommon.
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Also, was this the U14 Féile? There would be nothing unusual in northeast Galway lads sporting facial hair at U12 and up. (cc.@Faldo)
Ballygar, home of the great Mattie McDonagh of course. Only Connacht man with 4 All-Ireland senior medals.
Interesting factoid on his wiki page.
Before he was 18 he has tasted Connacht Colleges glory and also won a Roscommon minor hurling medal with [Ballygar]
They would have been there as the Roscommon representatives though, Ballygar hurled in the Roscommon competitions for years. The young fella must have been watching closely at Ballygar carnival to be able adapt so well to his surroundings in the big smoke.
Ballygar is indeed in Galway, about 2 miles from the Roscommon border. The hurling tradition comes from the Roscommon catchment of Four Roads, Athleague and those rural areas which are fanatics of hurling. Ballygar is a dual club, although only the hurlers use that name while the footballers are St Brendans. Three parishes are involved, Ballygar, Newbridge and Tohergar.
Ballygar hurlers played in the Roscommon championship for years, only coming into the Galway fold in about 1990. By that stage the success of Galway on the national stage at all grades meant more hurling awareness and Ballygar cut the ties with their neighbours. They went into Galway at Junior B I think and worked their way up to Intermediate. In more recent times they have gone back to Junior as have StBrendans, some blaming the dual demands for their demise.
The most recent success was at u16 level a few years back, where a very talented bunch of players, coached by former Galway player Justin Campbell won out the A grade against the mammoth resources of Athenry and the like. They had 15 quality hurlers and 2-3 subs. Some of these lads moved to bigger clubs afterwards, parents got notions that Ballygar lads would never get on county panels, and I suppose many simply stopped as life and growing up got in the way.
As a footnote the great Mattie McDonagh won 4 senior Roscommon championship hurling medals I believe. St Brendan’s had 3 players on the 1956 All Ireland, Mattie, Mick Greally and Jackie Coyle, all now gone to that great stadium in the sky. Indeed those three heroes were the backbone of the Brendan’s team that contested county finals in the early 60s, only to be thwarted by Tuam Stars and the genius pairing of Purcell and Stockwell. Ar dheis de go raibh a hainmneacha go leir.
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And as fat as fools.
A fantastic post, and an interesting insight. Always knew there was a bit of hurling up there. Never knew they were so closely aligned with the sheep stealers though.
I believe the two Thomas brothers from Ballygar and both on recent minor/u20 sides have transferred to Cashel.
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They have. Justin Campbell was mentioned in the excellent post above, I think I heard they are both nephews of his.
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Again I did not know that he was related to them.
Bigger clubs were trying to poach a particular starlet this year, but afaik he’s staying put.
Junior was never a bar to winning all Ireland’s with kk
Can an outsider ask a question? Is there ‘parish rule’ in Galway?
Ignore me, by all means. But I am curious, following recent discussion here about the lie of the parish rule in Cork and in Tipperary, about the issue.