Search Results for 'Pat Holmes'

Not long after they had overseen a win in their debut contest as the joint managers of the Mayo senior football team, Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes came out of the dressing room to speak to the local press corp in the concrete tunnel under the bowls of the stand in Elverys MacHale Park.

Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly got their senior management tenure off to a winning start in Elverys MacHale Park on Sunday. The fare on show wasn't anything that will be remembered for long, but it got a few miles in the legs of a a couple of new and some returning faces in green and red.

The last of the big titles to be given out in Mayo football will be handed out on Sunday week, all going well, with the final of the MD Roofing Services Mayo u21 football championship pencilled in for that date. Before then tomorrow night, Saturday, November 29 there is the small matter of the two semi-finals in the competition down for decision in Elverys MacHale Park.

New Mayo management duo, Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly, will put their first Mayo senior football team out into competitive action in seven weeks time on Sunday January 4 when they take on NUIG in a Galway venue at 2pm. They will follow that up the following week with another test against a third level side when they head to Yeats County to take on IT Sligo. They will wrap up the group stages of the competition with a game against Roscommon at home on Sunday January 18. We sat down with the new management duo last weekend as they looked forward to the new year, you can read it at http://www.advertiser.ie/mayo/article/73605/meet-the-new-bosses-holmes-and-connelly-are-ready-to-go.

You don't often hear an inter-county manager saying it was the wrong decision taking on the job, or it was wrong that they were offered the job in the first place. But Pat Holmes did admit last Saturday night that when he was appointed Mayo manager for the first time in 1999 it probably wasn't the right choice by him to take it on or for the county board to offer it to him.

Anytime you win a county senior title is a good time but there are certain times when it can be more favourable than others.

In sports management, it is often said that when a successful manager leaves a job, you want to be the guy, who follows the guy, who followed the successful guy. Because following in the immediate footsteps of someone who brought great success is a very tricky task to master. But when Pat Holmes decided that he was going to step away from the Castlebar Mitchels’ hot seat following their defeat in last March’s All Ireland final after guiding them to county and provincial glory for the first time in two decades, his two trusty lieutenants Shane Conway and Alan Nolan stepped up to fill gap and they have bought them back to the county final at the first time of asking.

Wherever he lines out on the field, Danny Kirby is a man who gets special attention. The big Castlebar man could feature anywhere from midfield through to full forward for his team on Sunday. While some players like a certain role in a team, Kirby feels that his adaptability has made him become a much better player, as he told the Mayo Advertiser in the build up to Sunday’s final. “I think it’s a help, you become a more rounded player. If you’re in the full forward line you see the kind of ball a full forward wants; when you’re out midfield and you get the full forward line giving you a bit of guff about the ball you’ve played in, you know, yeah you’re right, this is ball you want.”

The widely anticipated County Board meeting passed off relatively peacefully last Thursday night with a few members of the board resigning over the process in which the new Mayo managers were appointed. The story had gained national headlines for all the wrong reasons and certainly it was a little embarrassing the way matters were conducted in appointing Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly. An apology was offered as there were and still are a lot of disgruntled people in the county. I am sure Kevin McStay and Liam McHale are bitterly disappointed at what happened, and some gesture or apology to both men should be offered as both are true Mayo Gaels who gave an awful lot to the green and red and they deserved at the very least an interview before been told they did not have the job. I am sure anyone reading this has heard the vile rumours about players not wanting McHale, which I am told could not be further from the truth. It is amazing how widespread the rumours went and pretty much to the point that people started to actually believe them. Liam McHale suffered a severe character assassination over the last few weeks and did not deserve it. Good luck to Pat and Noel; it is time to let them at it. The new management team along with selector Michael Collins and strength and conditioning coach Barry Solan from Ballaghaderreen were deep in discussion and taking lots of notes during the senior semi finals last Sunday. I am a little surprised a forward coach/selector was not incorporated in the set up, I guess they will be basing their team on a strong defence. I feel someone like Kevin O’Neill would have been a great addition to offer some insight into good forward play. I am delighted Barry Solan has finally been given a chance with his own county. Apart from working with Laois and Kildare he has also done a lot of work with Katie Taylor so there is obviously good pedigree there. If Hollymount/Carramore win the intermediate title on Sunday and get a good run in the Connacht championship, Noel Connelly’s wife Valerie and their children may not be seeing a lot of him for the next few months.

It's been some week for Noel Connelly, the former Mayo captain was appointed as the new joint manager of the Mayo senior football team alongside his old running mate Pat Holmes. While the whole appointment process and the wrongs and rights of it were played out in the public spotlight, Connelly also had to be preparing his Hollymount-Carramore team for Saturday afternoon's Egan Jewelers Intermediate Championship semi-final replay against Belmullet. Last weekends meeting between the sides wasn't anything to write home about as Belmullet played to their strengths and packed their defence and hit Hollymount-Carramore on the break and used the sharp-shooting of Jonathon Donoghue to keep themselves in the game.