Everyone loves a Saturday replay under lights.
The novelty, the added drama, the added few hours of pre-match ‘build-up’, the fact you have all day Sunday to revel in victory or wallow in defeat before returning to real life.
But, as Dublin GAA highlighted on Twitter, this evening’s All-Ireland final replay is a Sunday All-Ireland final for some.
Not in the country for the match tomorrow? Here are the local throw-in times around the world #COYBIB #DUBvMAYO pic.twitter.com/O1z9DgfdAK
— Dublin GAA (@DubGAAOfficial) September 30, 2016
Namely the good people east of Singapore, in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, China, Japan and much of East Asia. For them, our Saturday night 5pm throw-in is a late-night/early morning endeavour to watch.
The ubiquitous Irish bar and more recent developments like GAAGO mean that no matter where you are in the world, you can keep on top of the football and hurling Championships.
Undoubtedly there are some cracking stories out there about fans cheering on their counties from jungles, the side of mountains and beachside resorts (they can’t hear you, lads, but keep roaring). But we are not sure anyone can top Trevor Mortimer’s remote location.
The former Mayo captain (centre), and older brother of Conor Mortimer (left), has recently returned to Ireland after years working in mines in Africa and the Middle East.
He turned his back on intercounty football to follow a career abroad, but he never turned his back on the Mayo footballers, and in a wide-ranging interview in Saturday’s Irish Examiner he told of watching one match 300 miles into the Sahara Desert in Mauritania.
“It had better internet connection there than I have here in my house in Ireland,” Mortimer told John Fogarty.
“It was run by one of the top five goldmine companies in the world, Kinross Gold, and their facilities were very good. Very good food, very secure. They had a bar inside which opened for a couple of hours every night. To be fair to them, none of them compared to Kinross. They were very good to their people.”
Sounds alright, if you can handle all the mining (we couldn’t).
Always an interesting character to speak to when playing for Mayo, Mortimer’s interview is very interesting, ranging from his views on Islam to the poverty of Africa – poverty that sees the unlikeliest of charitable donations end up in the unlikeliest of places.
“I was driving through Accra one day. I don’t know where I was going but I was being driven by a mate of mine and we were coming back and got a flat tyre,” says Mortimer, a versatile performer who played in both the 2004 and 2006 All-Ireland finals.
“As it goes in Africa, you pull into the side of the road and somebody will come and sort you out. This guy came out to fix the tyre and he had a Mayo U16 t-shirt on him. I knew it was one of the t-shirts only players get. Somebody gave it to a clothes collection and it ended up on this guy.”
Should he ever get access to GAAGO he may realise the significance of his t-Shirt, or the tremendous skill and toughness of the man whose tyre he fixed.
Will it be Mayo (or the Dubs) 4 Sam? Wooly, Paul Galvin and Conán Doherty preview Saturday’s All-Ireland final replay.
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