Search Results for 'Tony Duffy'

Ballintubber opened up their account in the Breaffy House Senior Football League with a nine point win over Breaffy in a West Mayo derby on Saturday evening. The senior county champions were short a number of their key men going into the game with Cillian O’Connor, Alan Dillon and Jason Gibbons all ruled out of the match due to injury. The hosts had a strong side out for this league opener but with 12 minutes gone on the clock, Breaffy had been reduced to 13 player after both Seamus and Aidan O’Shea were both shown straight red cards by referee Kevin Connelly who was left no choice in the matter by either player.

Garrymore picked up the first piece of senior silverware on Easter Monday, when they saw off Castlebar Mitchels to claim the Michael Walsh Cup in Ballinrobe, but this weekend the action proper gets under way with the first rounds of games in the Breaffy House Senior Football Leagues. The action in Division 1A, 1B, and 1C will throw in on Saturday evening, with Division 1E, 1D, and 1F getting under way on Sunday afternoon.

Ballintubber go into their first senior provincial final as underdogs with the bookies, but the men from Clogher will be having no doubts in their own minds that they are up to the task on Sunday.

The eagerly anticipated AIB Connacht senior Football Club Championship final between Corofin and Mayo champions Ballintubber takes place this Sunday (2pm) at MacHale Park, Castlebar.

The eagerly anticipated AIB Connacht senior Football Club Championship final between Corofin and Mayo champions Ballintubber takes place this Sunday (2pm) at MacHale Park, Castlebar.

They knew they didn’t do themselves justice last year when they crashed out of the Mayo Senior Championship at the quarter-final stage and Ballintubber used that loss as motivation to drive them on this time around.

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.

Setting things right from their own point of view is something that has been driving on Ballintubber this year. To the outsider, a team that reaches three county finals on the bounce, winning two and getting knocked out at the last eight stage in another year, is probably doing all right. But not by the exacting high standards the club members have set from themselves. Joint manager Tony Duffy spoke to the Mayo Advertiser in the build up to Sunday’s senior county final, and he explained: “It wasn’t hard coming back, we’d set very high standards for ourselves in previous years in getting to three finals in a row and winning two of them. It was disappointing in 2012, we were tame enough the way we went out against Ballaghaderreen and last year it was just terrible and very frustrating end to the year. I suppose the writing was on the wall a few weeks out from that game against Knockmore. I suppose injuries to key players didn’t help, but that wouldn’t be an excuse we’re using. We didn’t do ourselves justice in any way or form and it was massively disappointing. At the start of this year, we were determined to put that right.” That is the drive and determination that has propelled them back to the final of the competition for the fourth time in five years. They are very happy with the way the season has panned out for them so far according to Duffy. “It’s gone well, we’ve won pretty much all our games so far, the only loss we had was to Castlebar in the group stages of the competition. We lost that narrowly and drew with them in the league which has been very satisfying and a testament to the work that all the lads have put in and the commitment they’ve shown, after a disappointing year last year and the year before.”

It looked like it was going to be a big year for Jason Gibbons on the inter-county scene in the early months of the year. The Ballintubber midfielder had taken his chance in the middle of the park for Mayo and looked to have nailed down a starting spot for the team for the rest of the year. Then disaster struck when he injured his ankle in training in May ruling him out for a long period of time. It was hard to come back from, he admitted to the Mayo Advertiser. “I suppose it was disappointing, when it happened I heard the snap and I knew I was in serious bother. Look it the medical team did all they could, but it took me longer than I thought. I was hoping to get back for Roscommon but I didn’t. I suppose I never really got going again with the county as I’d have liked.” He continued: “When your sitting on the sideline and you’ve had what was a good league and it’s all been taken away from you and you know the competition is very fierce on the panel; it’s very hard to get back in again. I didn’t get to start a game until the All Ireland semi-final. I had no doubts that I was training well and it didn’t just go for me in Croke Park against Kerry. You’d lose a bit of confidence when you get that badly injured, it takes a lot to get back, but happily I feel myself that I’m back going well again and looking forward to the county final.”