Search Results for 'Mayo GAA'

Saturday March 19

A weekend that promised a lot delivered very little for Mayo football followers, apart from more questions. On Saturday a very fancied u21 team went into battle against Roscommon in McHale Park in the preliminary round of the Connacht championship and were dumped out of the competition at the first hurdle. On paper Mayo had a team full of players who would have had designs on at least a Connacht title if not more. But when it came to the crunch, too many players did not show up and they were just passengers on they day when Roscommon won out by 0-11 to 0-9 in Castlebar.

Roscommon 0-11

The launch of Mayo's strategic action plan, after last year’s senior championship disappointment, still leaves a lot to be desired as regards underage development. The selection of a few elitist players for our famed development squads will still be common practice. This leaves players who for one reason or another may not at this young age be quite as competent on the field behind. Surely it is the players who have yet to realise their full potential who need this specialist coaching.

There is one thing that is sure to get everyone talking ahead of Sunday's meeting with Armagh in McHale Park. That is the return of Billy Joe Padden to the home of Mayo GAA in the bright orange of the Ulster men for the first time since his move north of the border. But despite this sub plot there is only one item of business that Mayo manager James Horan will be looking to be taken care of, and that is getting two more points on the board. Sunday will see Mayo play their fourth game in this year’s Allianz Football League and move past the half way stage of the competition. If they manage to see off the challenge of the Armagh men it will move them up to five points in the table and be a major step in ensuring that come the early spring next year, Mayo will be dining at the top table of league football in 2012.

The draw for the Mayo Club Championship last Monday night has the 16 clubs in the senior and intermediate championships along with those in both the Junior A and B championships plotting and planning for the summer ahead. At Monday night’s draw it was also announced that Midfield based catering company Trenalaur Catering would be the official sponsor of the Mayo senior championship for the coming year, with Westport based courier company Jim Hogan Couriers sponsoring the Mayo senior hurling championship.

Mayo 2-14

Within the concrete bowels of the new stand in McHale Park last Saturday night the possible future direction of GAA in Mayo was launched. There were no bells and whistles to the launch, just a top table, a semi-circle of chairs and a selection of people who have the best interests of GAA in Mayo at heart. Liam Horan was the man tasked with pulling all the possible strands of the plan together, the Ballinrobe club-man had overseen the whole process since his appointment as chairperson of the project last October. A steering committee of 19 people was selected and 10 different areas selected to be examined. In total 86 people contributed to 67 meetings that were held over the past five months to get to last Saturday night and the launch of the document. The areas that were examined were finance and funding, coaching and games development, bridging the gap, bringing through high-potential players, urbanisation and rural depopulation, club-board relations and structures, public relations, harnessing support of Mayo people worldwide, Mayo GAA as a stimulator of economic activity, and hurling and secondary schools.

Mayo 1-13

The Mayo senior footballers will welcome Kerry to McHale Park for their second game in the 2011 National Football League on Sunday. The visit of Jack O’Connor’s side will pose another difficult examination of James Horan’s early tenure in charge of the green and red. Last weekend Horan picked up his first piece of silverware in the Mayo bainisteoir’s bib when they saw off the challenge of John Maughan’s NUIG by 1-14 to 0-11. Horan would have surely preferred a sterner test from the students who failed to fire for long periods of the game as Mayo cruised to victory with ease.