Compiled by DAMIAN CULLEN

Ulster council says no: to facilitating soccer supporters

Recently, it was agreed to bring forward the throw-in time for next Saturday's Leinster SFC game between Offaly and Wexford to avoid a clash with the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United.

The match will throw-in at 5pm at O’Connor Park (the football game, not the soccer), leaving supporters ample time to make it home (note we didn’t say pub) in order to watch a game, that, most GAA fans will surely have more than just a passing interest in.

It is, after all, the biggest club soccer game of the year, and features, arguably, the biggest two soccer clubs in the world.

“We feel it is the most sensible conclusion to come to,” said Offaly chairman Pat Teehan.

Of course it is, though it’s a pity the game wasn’t put on the Sunday as one half of a double-header along with the Offaly-Dublin hurling game – though that would have meant the Offaly footballers ceding home advantage.

In Ulster?

The Armagh versus Down game will throw-in at 7.30pm next Saturday, 15 minutes before the Champions League final kicks off.

Apparently, no serious consideration was given to changing the throw-in time, presumably for fear someone would think the Ulster council had gone soft. Maximising attendance figures is not, apparently, the priority. Thumbing one’s nose to soccer is more important.

If the Armagh-Down game had been originally fixed for 5pm, maybe they’d have changed it to clash with the soccer!

Fermanagh pay the price

Last July Fermanagh put up a creditable performance against Armagh in the second round of the qualifiers, before succumbing 0-11 to 0-7.

Yesterday, Derry polished off Fermanagh in the first round of the Ulster championship.

Of the 19 players that played for Fermanagh in their last game of the 2010 championship, for whatever reason, only five played at Celtic Park yesterday.

For the strongest of footballing counties, losing players due to internal disputes can be damaging, but for the weaker teams like Fermanagh it can be devastating.

It is very disappointing, as yesterday should have been a enjoyable one for Fermanagh fans at Celtic Park, with their minor team registering their first championship victory in eight years with a fine win over the home side.

Premier attraction: Corbett gets the musical treatment

THERE have been some brilliantly catchy GAA tunes down through the years - probably most memorably Dancing at the Crossroads in 1997 celebrating Wexford’s hurling success.

And there have also have been some God awful ones – for example, Five-in-a-row from Kerry during the summer of 1982, which earned the band Galleon (a Cork group believe it or not) a ‘Gobshite of the year’ award from the Sunday World at the time.

Somewhere in between those two examples comes the most recent addition to the (fortunately) still barren world of GAA songs.

From the band that brought the music world The Premier Rap last summer, Johnny B and the Boogie men have followed up with Lar Outside a parody of the song Horse Outside made famous by the Rubber Bandits, who have, apparently, given the new version their blessing.

It features a guest appearance by the Hurler of the Year himself and has already received more than 26,000 hits at youtube.com/watch?v=vSH10CVC014

Worth a look.

In fact, probably worth two.

Newstalk in the game

Whatever about Laois and Kildare, it was a confident start yesterday by the Newstalk team at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise.

And it was a notable moment as the live coverage of Kildare’s win over Wicklow was the first time that a national radio station, outside of the national broadcaster, relayed live coverage of a championship game to our radios.

With Darragh Ó Sé, Liam Hayes, Dave McIntyre and Ciarán Murphy on duty, it was just a pity that there wasn’t more exciting fare on the pitch to discuss.

RTÉ Radio One’s sports coverage was disrupted yesterday due to Garret Fitzgerald’s funeral, but, with Newstalk having the rights for 21 games this summer, the head-to-head clash between the stations will be one to watch.

Next week Newstalk have the football clash between Offaly and Wexford on Saturday, and then Dublin versus Offaly in hurling the following day.