New year sees dawn of new eras

Gaelic Games News: In the past 15 weeks only one county has played a competitive match, and for most counties it's been several weeks more. Probably long enough to get a little excited about such pre-season competitions as the O'Byrne Cup and the FBD Connacht league.

All four provinces have opening rounds of such competitions this weekend. Leinster stage six matches in O'Byrne Cup football starting tomorrow night, with Wexford playing Wicklow under floodlights at Craanford.

Officially that competition started before Christmas with the Laois-Athlone IT tie, but these counties do claim the honour of playing the first competitive fixture of 2006.

For Wexford manager Paul Bealin tomorrow's game also marks his first in charge of a senior football team. While excited about getting his new show on the road, the former Dublin midfielder admits he could have done with more time.

"Sure, I could have done with another month," says Bealin. "We haven't even played any challenge matches as a team yet. And last night was the first time the panel of 34 actually trained together.

"And this is always a messy time of the year, with players unable to train for one reason or another. But I wasn't putting the gun to anyone's head yet. Really that kicked in from January 1st. It was the middle of November before I started into the job. The players were also on holiday in Cyprus in December. So I'd say we've had eight training sessions in total with the players available, and that includes assessing the players' fitness and things like that."

Among the players to sit out that training is Wexford's first football All Star Matty Forde, who took a break after the Railway Cup. While he rejoined the panel this week, he won't feature in tomorrow's game. Philip Wallace, Nicky Lambert and Redmond Barry are also unavailable.

"They'll be missed," adds Bealin, "because winter football is about experience. But that also allows us to try out a good few players. So there are definitely pluses and minuses to playing this week. And you'd be looking for challenge games at this time of the year anyway.

"The problem is you can't really get the training in over Christmas. We'll go out to win every game in the O'Byrne Cup, and be as competitive as we can. But it's much more important that we're competitive going into the league, maintain our status through that, and ultimately be as best prepared as we can for the championship."

Bealin has announced his first starting line-up as Wexford manager, which includes the return of Leigh O'Brien after an 18-month absence. O'Brien will start at centre back, and there is also a return for corner forward Garry O'Grady, who missed all of last season with a groin injury.

Still, there are no debutants in the starting 15. A notable name in the substitutes is Adamstown's Richie Purcell, who last played for the county in 1997 before moving to New York and playing in the Connacht championship.

Four other managers will make their debuts in this weekend's O'Byrne Cup. Meath's Eamonn Barry will field an experimental line-up for the visit of DCU, with Graham Geraghty among those deferring his return - he has given his commitment to Barry for the season ahead.

New Louth manager Eamonn McEneaney will get his reign under way with the visit of DIT to Drogheda. John Crofton will field his first Kildare team for the visit of Longford, and Westmeath's Tomás Ó Flatharta takes his new charges to Carlow.

In Connacht, new Mayo manager Mickey Moran will field his first competitive team for the visit of NUIG in this Saturday's Connacht League. Moran, however, has already staged several trial matches and put together a panel of 40 players to use over the coming weeks.

While he won't be calling on the experienced James Nallen, David Heaney and Ciarán McDonald until the National League starts next month, Moran has been overseeing gym work for several weeks now.

"We took a break from training over the Christmas period and I feel that the rest will benefit the panel," says Moran. "The last couple of months have been successful in terms of training and the trials. It's no disrespect to the FBD League, but we would like to give every one of those 40 players some competitive action."

John Maughan has his first competitive match in charge of Roscommon when they take on Sligo. In just three weeks' time he'll be plotting against his native Mayo.

WEXFORD (SF v Wicklow): A Masterson; C Morris, R Mageean, N Murphy; P Curtis, L O'Brien, D Murphy; B Doyle, P Colfer; C Deely, D Fogarty, G Sunderland; G O'Grady, J Hudson, PJ Banville.