Search Results for 'Coen'

This weekend sees both the Mayo senior ladies footballers and senior hurling teams get their league seasons under way. Both sides are under new management this year, with Peter Leahy taking up the top job with the ladies' football side from Frank Browne after the Wexford native stepped down from the role, following Mayo's loss in the All Ireland final to Dublin last year.

He was standing arms folded looking up as his team each took their turn lifting the Nicky Rackard Cup high into the sun kissed Croke Park sky on Saturday, but there as a grin from ear to ear on Mayo hurling manager JP Coen. The man known in hurling parts as “the Rock” had just overseen the first senior hurling championship success for a Mayo side in Croke Park.

After getting relegated from the Christy Ring Cup for the first time, getting Mayo back up to that competition as soon as possible was the number one objective for the management team. In looking to achieve that goal, JP Coen and his management team looked south of the border and asked former Galway hurling captain Liam Donoghue to get on board as a coach and the Clarinbridge man duly accepted their invitation.

"Once the dust settled on last year, we felt we let the county down and we said we had to dig in and see where we can bring this" Mayo hurling manager JP Coen told the Mayo Advertiser when we sat down to speak ahead of Saturday's Nicky Rackard Cup final. The dust he was speaking about was Mayo's relegation from the Christy Ring Cup last year.

The Mayo senior hurlers will take on Armagh in the second round of the Nicky Rackard Cup tomorrow afternoon in Ballina when they take on Armagh, as they look to book a spot in the semi-final of the competition. Last weekend Mayo opened up their Rackard account with a 4-19 to 0-17 win over Tyrone, but it was very hard fought encounter, as manager JP Coen explained. "It was just bad play and a bit of complacency. We hadn't played a competitive game in a good while, probably the journey too didn't help — it's a lot further than you'd think for a bus journey — that coupled with a small bit of rustiness and it took us a while to get going. In fairness to Tyrone, they came at us at a good tempo and they did very well. While we might have looked to be playing badly, we had a few bad wides that could have had us in front at the break, but we found our range in the second half and took it from there."

The Mayo senior hurlers cemented their place at the top of the division 2B league table last weekend with their second tough road win on the bounce seeing off Down by 0-20 to 0-16 in Newry last Sunday. That was JP Coen's men third win in a row, but it came at a big cost he told us this week.

The Mayo senior hurlers got their National League season off to a winning start last Sunday, when they saw off Donegal in MacHale Park in round one of the league. This year sees Mayo drop down to the Nicky Rackard Cup for their championship campaign in the summer time and we caught up with Mayo senior hurling manager JP Coen during the week to look ahead to the season and what he expects from his charges.