Wait over for Ó Flatharta

GALWAY manager Tomás Ó Flatharta says the Connacht championship structure has to be addressed as his team finally see action over a third of the way into the competition.

The Tribesmen face neighbours Mayo this Sunday — eight weeks after Roscommon travelled to New York in the first round of the campaign.

“It is a thing that has to be discussed,” said Ó Flatharta. “We are the team that have suffered the most because there is an 11-week gap there between our league game and our championship game.

“It’s not a thing we need to be worrying about or focusing on in the week of a championship game.

“We knew earlier on in the year there was going to be that gap, and we planned accordingly, that training would go a certain way while that 11-week gap was there. That’s the way we went about it.”

Ó Flatharta says the criticism of his management and players in the early part of Allianz Division One this year when they lost their first five games never affected the camp.

“I suppose I have no control over what anybody says in the press, or what anybody writes about it. What was important for us was that we worked away in here.

“I was delighted with the way the lads responded. They worked away all the time.

“We knew the reality of the situation and we kept working, and kept focused on trying to improve all the time. We stayed away from all of that.”

Picture: Tomás Ó Flatharta: His side have had an 11-week enforced lay-off.