Search Results for 'Ray Dempsey'

Roscommon 2-9

Mayo 0-13

Mark Ronaldson has had his appeal against his four week suspension imposed by the CCC turned down. The Shrule Glencorrib club man had a hearing on Wednesday night against his retrospective red card from the Tyrone game. While there are further avenues for appeal open to Ronaldson, there was no decision made at the time this paper went to press. As it stands Ronaldson will miss the game against Dublin on Sunday and next Saturday night’s game away to Derry as his ban will only expire at midnight that night.

With the senior side bowing out of the championship in Croke Park last weekend, Ray Dempsey’s minor side will be looking to build on their Connacht championship win over Roscommon when they take on Monaghan on Saturday in Longford in the All Ireland quarter-final. Dempsey was able to mastermind Mayo’s first Connacht minor title in seven years thanks to a narrow win over a battling Roscommon side in Castlebar back in July and this Sunday’s game against the runners up in the Ulster Championship could send Mayo back to Croke Park. While they rode their luck at times in the Connacht final especially in the first half when Roscommon kicked themselves out of the game with some poor shooting, Mayo never let their opponents superiority on the field during the opening half get to them and kept plugging away before they took off on in the second half. Dempsey knows it’s going to be a big ask on Saturday and there is a lot of pressure on his side. “It’s nice to be here but as each game goes by the pressure builds up on you and your team. But this is where we want to be and that’s what comes with it.”

All Ireland final day looms again and we’ll make the long trip to Dublin in hope of seeing a Mayo team climb the steps of the Hogan Stand to lift the Tom Markham Cup this time. Hopefully it’ll be Sam next year. It’s been a long road for the Mayo minors to get to where they are and the Mayo faithful are hopeful that they will bring home the victory.

On the weekend of a championship match Jury’s Hotel, Croke Park is normally buzzing with animated followers of all the participating teams and last weekend was no exception. I was there early as I had overnighted in the capital and I made my way to the hotel to soak up the atmosphere hours before the game. I mingled with a number of Cork supporters chatting about the match and, to a man, they were hugely confident of their chances against Tyrone. They talked about the maturity of the team this year, the options off the bench and the aerial dominance they had at midfield. A number of them suggested that, not alone would they beat Tyrone, but that they had availed of the 7/2 on offer from most bookmakers on Cork to win the All-Ireland. After engaging them in conversation and having the crack with several of them I must admit that they had me convinced, too, that they were the team to beat this year. Jack O’Connor and Ger O’Keeffe arrived at the hotel. There was a rush of eager youngsters to Jack looking for autographs and he was as courteous as one would expect from a GAA manager, spending time chatting and encouraging all of them. Jack’s son was playing on the Kerry minor team later and he was anxious to have some food before heading across to Croker. We chatted for a while with the ever attentive hotel manager, who incidentally is a Kerryman, and had food organised for the boys. They had played golf somewhere between Kerry and Dublin on the Saturday afternoon and O’Connor was as excited as a young lad with a new toy as he described how he hammered O’Keeffe in a game of ‘skins’ (golfers will understand what I am talking about here). I suggested that a Cork victory over Tyrone wouldn’t necessarily be the result that Jack would prefer. It was widely acknowledged that the Kerry lads would have loved a crack at Tyrone in an All-Ireland this year, bearing in mind their record against the current champions. He didn’t disagree and acknowledged that if Kerry got to a final against Tyrone, his job from a motivational perspective would’ve been a lot easier.

While the Presidental Salute and the “Star of the County Down” echoed through the Cusack Stand players’ tunnel as Kerry and Tyrone lined up ahead of the All Ireland senior final, Ray Dempsey was the coolest man in Croke Park as he picked over what had just unfolded in the minor decider.

Six days on from the titanic struggle in Croke Park where Mayo and Tyrone battled it out in the white heat of competition, both sides will have to do it all over again tomorrow in a quest to claim the Tom Markham Cup. Aidan Walsh’s nerveless injury time free from under the Cusack Stand looked to have sealed the win for Mayo. Only for some late Tyrone pressure and some sloppy play by Mayo allowed Matthew Donnelly to level the game and set us up for a replay.

I recall a few short months ago writing in this paper about the poor fare we were witnessing in the majority of games at the start to this year’s championship. I had witnessed some fairly ordinary fare in every province and the general perception was that football was at a very low ebb. It was hard to argue at the time and I kept my fingers crossed that things just might improve as the season progressed. Wexford created their own fairy tale and did produce some magic along the way as they shocked us all by making it all the way to the All Ireland semi final. But the magic for me in this year’s football championship came in the last two weekends. The All Ireland final displays from the minor and senior final were magical. The quality of play and the excitement generated in the minor final was terrific.

Standing in the broad sunshine in Pearse Park, Longford, last Saturday as evening began to creep across the midlands a disappointed but still positive Pat Holmes picked his way through the questions that followed his side’s third consecutive defeat in an All Ireland u21 semi-final. “Of course you are disappointed, that you didn't get another step when you come out of your province. But some very fine players have emerged for Mayo. The group of players that we had, you couldn't fault any of them for attitude for commitment, and I believe that they all gave to their full potential, but what more can you ask for?” Despite tasting defeat Holmes is confident that the players who have now passed on from his tutelage at this grade and some who are still under-age next year will have a big say in the future fortunes of Mayo football.