[caption id="attachment_68197" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Action from the New York vs. Galway Connacht championship game at Gaelic Park in 2010. "]
Once again the honor of hosting the first game in the All-Ireland senior football championship will fall to New York next year. On May 6, 2012 New York will play Sligo at Gaelic Park in the season opener. Two weeks later on May 20 Roscommon play Galway in Dr. Hyde Park and the winners will play either New York or Sligo in the Connacht semifinal on Saturday June 9. Despite calls from various media outlets to stage a few high profile games to kick start the championship, the GAA is sticking with the tradition of the so called weaker counties playing in May and the big guns coming in later in the summer. But with the back-door system now firmly in place the serious action only begins around the end of July for hurling and on the August Bank Holiday weekend for football.
O'BRIEN TO FOOT TRAP BILL AGAIN
Irish supporters should able to make definite travel plans for next summer in the coming days after the draw for the group stages of Euro 2012 finals is made in Kiev on Friday next. The FAI will also be able to finalize their training base when the match schedule is confirmed. It's not known if Giovanni Trapattoni will travel to Kiev, but the likelihood is that the Italian will leave the logistics of the finals to FAI officials. It's expected that Trap will be offered a new contract in the coming days and it looks like telecoms millionaire Denis O'Brien will continue to pay part of the manager's wages. And there is good news for supporters planning to travel to Poland next year as Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary says his company will not be increasing the price of flights to Poland, but says he is not interested in flying to the Ukraine.
Meanwhile the Republic has climbed four places to 21st in the latest FIFA rankings. The Republic's best-ever world ranking was sixth, which was achieved twice in the Jack Charlton era, in Dec. '92 and Aug. '93. Northern Ireland has dropped five places to 89th after a run of bad results.
NEW BOSSES DROP HURLING OLD GUARDS
Recently appointed intercounty hurling managers Anthony Cunningham and Liam Dunne look like they mean business. Cunningham, who has taken over from John McIntyre in Galway, has dropped a third of the squad that played against Waterford in this year's All-Ireland quarterfinal. Out go former captains Damien Joyce and Shane Kavanagh plus Ger Farragher, Donal Barry, Adrian Cullinane and John Lee. Cunningham has called up 18 of Galway's All-Ireland winning under 21 squad. Cunningham said: ''Some of those players who are not included have given years of service to Galway hurling and we acknowledge that, but we think this is the best squad at the moment.''
In Wexford new manager Liam Dunne is still involved with his club Oulart-the-Ballagh and says that intercounty training will not commence until Jan. 10. But Dunne hopes that some the panel he is inheriting from Colm Bonner will walk away before they are dropped. He said: ''I just hope there are one or two fellas who have the cop on to retire gracefully because for a few of them their time is up. I didn't need anyone to tell me when I knew my time was up. I read in the newspapers that I was dropped, but players deserve better after giving many years service to the county and I will sit down and talk to them if they don't call time on their intercounty careers.''
CANAVAN TO TAKE ON TYRONE
Peter Canavan's first game in charge of Fermanagh will be against his native Tyrone in the Dr. McKenna Cup on Jan. 8 when he will come up against his former boss Mickey Harte. January will be an emotional time for the Harte family as Jan. 10 is the first anniversary of the death of their daughter Micheala while on honeymoon in Mauritius. The eleven players who quit the Fermanagh panel this year in protest against former manager John O'Neill, will all be given a chance. Canavan said: ''We will have trials to see who wants to play for Fermanagh and I would like to think that the best players in the county would put themselves forward.''
LONG GETS HELP FROM TIPP COLORS
Irish striker Shane Long says that finding his lucky Tipperary wristband has helped him regain his scoring touch. The Tipperary-born striker said: ''The first time I wore the blue and gold wrist band I scored. Then it go lost when I was moving house, but a few weeks back I found it again lying at the bottom of a box. I don't know how it got there, but it has brought me luck'' But Long's West Brom colleague Jerome Thomas says that Long's secret could be a bowl of breakfast cereal Coco Pops. Thomas said: ''Shane won't play a game before eating Coco Pops beforehand. That is where he gets the energy from. He brings his own box of cereal to games. That is his ritual before every game, but it seems to do the trick.''
COOPER SAYS ANKLE HAS 'SETTLED DOWN'
Kerry star Colm Cooper has denied speculation that he will need surgery on a troublesome ankle prior to next year's championship season. Cooper, who will line out for his club Dr. Crokes in the Munster club football final against UCC in Killarney on Sunday next, says that rest should be enough. Cooper said: ''The ankle was giving me trouble in the final stages of the Kerry championship, but it has settled down now. From time to time it flares up, but the idea of an operation is just media talk. I don't think it's that serious. I'm hoping that the winter break will give the injury time to heal, because I haven't had a break since I picked up the injury during the summer.''
But there is bad news for Kilkenny supporters after it was revealed last week that Henry Shefflin will have to undergo surgery to fix a shoulder injury. Shefflin, who will be 33 in January, has come back before after two cruciate knee injuries. The Ballyhale star expected to miss all of The Cats National League campaign and the early part of the 2012 championship.
LoI TO TRY SWEDEN AGAIN
Times are tough in Ireland right now, with the League of Ireland one of the sporting areas badly hit. The Professional Footballers Association (PFAI) have compiled an initial list of 120 players who are actively seeking new clubs. The situation in the League of Ireland nowadays is that clubs only offer players a 40-week contract and will not pay players in the close season. As happened last year the PFAI will send an 18-man squad to Sweden next month where they will play trial games to try and win new contracts. Last year scouts from 22 different clubs around Europe attend these games and most of the Irish squad got new clubs in the process.
Meanwhile Bohemians have lost their manager Pat Fenlon, who has joined Scottish club Hibernian. Fenlon was all set to take over as manager of Dundee United in January last year, but a compensation deal could not be agreed between Bohs and the Scottish club. Fenlon replaces Colin Calderwood, who was sacked by Hibs earlier this month. But Calderwwod wasn't long out of work and he has now linked up with his friend Chris Hughton at Birmingham City.
