Search Results for 'Diarmuid O'Connor'

If Kilmaine are gong to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Ardnaree and Kiltimagh in reaching an All Ireland Junior Club Football Championship final in Croke Park - they are very much going to have to do it the hard way.

After claiming their fifth Mayo senior title this decade, Ballintubber will go looking to scratch the one major itch they haven't been able to get rid of during that run and win a provincial title to go with the quintet of county title wins.

On the last day of September 2007, Ballintubber claimed the Mayo Intermediate Championship - in the dozen years that have followed that victory, the west Mayo club have gone on to achieve success after success.

The fixtures' makers have decided to run a senior and an intermediate semi final side by side next Saturday and Sunday - which is a novel idea - but strange at the same time.

The battle for the Moclair Cup has reached the quarter-final stage and this weekend the last eight sides left standing will do battle for a place in the final four of the competition.

The rising star can quite often upstage the main attraction on a concert billing and while all the attention will be on the big show at 5pm in Croke Park, the support act could quite possibly be the game of the day for thrills, spills and and excitement.

There are four Round 3 Super Eight games on this weekend but only one has any real relevance, only one has everything at stake. Kerry will beat Meath by as much as they want, Tyrone and Dublin are already through to the semi finals and aren't bothered while Cork take on Roscommon in a dead rubber with neither team having anything to play for.

Come the full-time whistle in MacHale Park back in May - when Roscommon had knocked Mayo out of the Connacht Championship - the prospects for Mayo's summer were unknown and uncertain.

Relief, followed by pride, followed by excitement.

All roads lead to Killarney on Sunday for Mayo's debut bow at the Super Eight's stage of the All Ireland Senior Football Championship.