More plane-painting in the West and Banty gets a little tongue-tied

They've been painting planes again in Knock Airport and Seamus 'Banty' McEnaney appears to have ran out of clichés.

More plane-painting in the West

Having painted, or allegedly painted, airplanes at Knock Airport in the Donegal and Mayo colours before the All-Ireland Football Final, Ryanair couldn’t well be seen to be discriminating between the big and small ball games in the west now could they?

And they haven’t. In fact, they appear to have gone even further out of the way to declare their support for the Galway hurlers ahead of the replay of the All-Ireland hurling final this weekend if this image of yet another Ryanair plane is anything to go by.

Pic via Facebook/Ireland West Airport Knock

Donegal and Mayo might have got their county colours on a plane, but there was no individual homage paid to an Alan Dillon or a Michael Murphy as there is to Joe Canning on this one and although we’ve more than a sneaking suspicion that the entire thing is photo-shopped it still looks very impressive all the same.

So Galway are already ahead in the battle to dominate the skies and if they can stop the likes of Brian Hogan and Henry Shefflin from ruling the air as they did in the second half of the drawn game, then Joe and Galway could be well on the way to victory.

Banty’s not going to “switch anything in or out” at Roscommon. Come again?

When the All-Ireland Final is done and dusted on Sunday, it will be a fairly long winter with no inter-county GAA until the triumphant return of the eh, the errrr, McKenna Cup, FBD League, Walsh Cup and other provincial equivalents after Christmas.

Until then we’ll only have speculation about managerial vacancies and such to keep us going until the New Year and according to the Hogan Stand website, the ball is already rolling in that regard with Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney being linked to the vacant post in Roscommon following the departure of Des Newton after only one year in charge.

Asked if he’d be interested in the position, Banty told Shannonside FM: "Roscommon have a lot of young players coming through. Maybe if they are well harnessed they might not be far away in the next two or three years. I never turn anything down or switch anything in or out."

For the most part, Banty answered the question while adhering to the perfect response for a manager who doesn’t want to rule a job out but doesn’t want to come over all needy either.

Praise the team in question? Check. Predict a relatively bright future if under the tutelage of a proper manager? Check. Make sure your response is generally positive but completely non-committal? Check.

But what’s the last bit about? Why would he need to switch anything in or out in a county where he has no present commitment?

We never thought we’d say it in a world like the GAA where well-worn sayings are ten a penny, but it looks like Banty just ran out of clichés on this occasion.