Search Results for 'Ciaran McDonald'

It has been a remarkable few years for Ballintubber, escaping with the intermediate title by the skin of their teeth in 2007 and going on to put together back to back senior titles in 2010 and 2011. This year, they are looking to make it three senior titles in a row. On Sunday in McHale Park, Crossmolina Deel Rovers will become the latest side to try to knock Peter Ford’s men off their lofty perch.

Could Castlebar Mitchels stop Ballintubber's drive for three senior titles in a row? That was the big question that was being asked in the lead up to last weekends quarter finals in the Treanlaur Catering Senior Football Championship. After 60 minutes of battle on Sunday evening, for the third year in row, Ballintubber emerged victorious from the heat of championship battle with their near neighbors.

Ballaghaderreen v Garrymore

I was out of the country last weekend on a cycling holiday in Germany (more anon). I deliberately stayed away from all forms of communication until I arrived back in the country. By the time I landed in Dublin I was bursting for information on all of last weekend’s sporting activities. I called a few friends on the trek home from Dublin Airport and managed to get a good account of most of the action. The first conversation I had informed me of Kilkenny’s demolition job on Cork in the league final. These Kilkenny boys are simply in a different league to most others. I have watched them a couple of times earlier this year when they appeared to be just going through the motions, but once they get a whiff of a trophy they invariably rack it up a few notches. Jimmy Barry Murphy will, for the first time since his appointment as Cork manager, realise that the honeymoon period is over and his task of landing the Liam McCarthy is an enormous one when you consider the conveyor belt of young talent Brian Coady has at his disposal. But it is not just the talent that they produce year on year – it is their entire application and appetite for success that makes them so exceptional.

Throughout the late nineties and through to the middle of the last decade, Michael Moyles was one of the most recognisable players in the club game in the county and with Mayo on more than a few occasions. But injury put paid to his footballing career long before time. Six years have passed since then and Moyles has been all over the province managing a number of sides, but this year the lure of his home club was to much to resist when they came calling. “I was in Leitrim managing Annaduff for the past two years, the first year we got to a league final and were beaten and had a good run in the championship and were unlucky to be knocked out,” he said. “The next year we won a league final and lost a championship semi-final that we probably should have won. We were making progress and it is hard to leave somewhere when you see progress being made. But I got calls from the likes of Stephen Rochford and Ciaran McDonald and other senior lads and I spoke to some of the younger lads, when this came up. It was always something that I wanted to do and it might have come around quicker than I would have expected, but I’m delighted to be managing my own club.”

I was hugely disappointed this week after our Crossmolina boys lost to Castlebar Mitchels in the quarter finals last Sunday. We had prepared exceptionally well, particularly over the last three weeks since the conclusion of the group stages with two good challenge matches and quality training in between. The feeling was that if we could beat Castlebar, we had a right chance of winning the county title. The mood was good coming into the game despite injury to five of our first team squad. There was a quiet air of confidence that we would beat the more fancied Mitchels. There was a big doubt about our county player Peadar Gardiner’s participation right up to the last few minutes, but he had pushed himself right to the limit to be fit to play.

Castlebar Mitchels 2-10

With dreams of Sam, put to one side for another year last weekend. It is back to the real heart of the GAA this weekend when the Mayo club championships thunder back into action at the quarter final stage. McHale Park on Saturday and Sunday is the place to be with a double header on the first day and the Sabbath day serving up a triple header of action in the county ground.

I did not get to watch the Dubs v Tyrone game until Sunday afternoon due to it clashing with our own club championship. Obviously I was aware of the result by that stage, but did not fully realise just how good the Dubs actually were until I watched a recording of the game. They were brilliant albeit against a tired looking Tyrone side. The Dubs played a fast intense refreshing brand of football that quite simply blew the opposition away. It looks as if the timing could be spot on as they have put their indifferent form from the Leinster Championship firmly behind them and are now beginning to play with enormous confidence.

NUI Galway men’s basketball and senior rowing teams have jointly won the college’s team of the year award for 2011.