Search Results for 'qualifier'

Balla

Mayo will be looking to get back on winning ways on Sunday when Cavan come calling to Castlebar in round five of the league. This will be first meeting of the sides in a decade in competitive action, with a John O'Mahony managed Mayo seeing off the Breffni men in a qualifier in 2007.  There are a few survivors from that win still involved with Mayo today, with David Clarke and Andy Moran very much part of the Mayo side so far this year and Alan Dillon yet to return to the fold. Dillon and Moran contributed seven of Mayo's 19 points that day, with the Ballintubber man hitting 0-5 and Moran adding 0-2. A return of 19 points on Sunday would be something that Stephen Rochford would be very pleased as his attack have not exactly been lighting things up so far this season.

And so it begins. With the greatest respect to the FBD league, Mayo's season kicks off in earnest with a home tie against Monaghan in MacHale Park tomorrow evening. I will let someone else tell Andy Moran about the insignificance of the FBD league. Mayo's evergreen full forward was full of passion for the trip to Kiltoom to face Roscommon in the final FBD group game, scoring two late goals to ultimately decide the contest and rub salt to the wounds of the Rossies' who had given him plenty of stick while he was on the sideline.

The age-old debate of club versus county seems to raise its ugly head year after year. For a county like ours with such a prominent senior football team that has been in so many All Ireland finals of late it seems we still cannot get the balance right between club and county. The same problem occurred again this year with a fixture pile up as our county champions and genuine All Ireland contenders Castlebar Mitchels had to play six games, six weeks in a row, eventually losing to now Connacht champions Corofin in extra time having run out of gas during that period of extra time. Some may be wondering what about Westport? They had the same conundrum. They even had to replay a county semifinal against Shrule/Glencorrib mid-week such was the backlog of games. However, Westport were not on the go for a continuous 18 months as the Mitchels were, and Westport had plenty in the tank at the final whistle of all their games.

Galway athletes were in the medals at the 29th annual British & Irish Masters International Cross Country in Glasgow on Saturday.

Connacht Championship quarter-final

It should have been a week of celebration and reflection for GAA supporters in Mayo, but it turned out to be something much different from Monday morning on. Mayo's progress to the All Ireland final through the qualifier system has thrown a spanner in the works of the club player and once again they are the ones left kicking their heels as the summer winds down, having played just two rounds of championship games so far.

He is the man who has guided the team who have become the story of the championship to an historic first All Ireland semifinal since 1935, and he is the man who is looking to mastermind Mayo's downfall on Sunday. Liam Kearns has been around the block in the senior inter-county game over the past 16 years. He took charge of Limerick back in 1999 and managed them for six years, bringing them to a Munster final 13 years ago and turning them into force in Munster football, but was unable to get them over the finishing line and claim a provincial title. Since then he managed Laois for two years, but he was not able to repeat the trick, and more recently he was involved with John Evans' management ticket where he was the forwards coach for two years.

This Mayo team have never shirked away from a challenge, they have shown over the past six years they will give it their all. After having to swallow the bitter taste of defeat for the first time in the Connacht championship in more than half a decade against Galway they faced some hard truths. Cillian O'Connor recounted some of those sessions in the lead up to Sunday's All Ireland semifinal against Tipperary last week. "It wasn't enjoyable, it's not easy to go through things when they have gone wrong but you have to just face up to them, you can't hide away and hope they fix themselves so we just got back training," the Ballintubber ace recalled.

At the end of the day the long and winding road has led back to the destination that most had hoped for, Mayo in the first All Ireland semifinal on Sunday August 21. Rather than coming through to this stage as provincial champions with just a quarter-final to play, Mayo have made their way through the scenic route and disposed of Leinster opposition twice and then the Ulster champions to get here. Next up for them is a challenge from a group of men from Munster, but once again it is not one of the ones we would have expected. Tipperary, a division three side that finished their league campaign just two points above relegation to division four for next year, have wandered their way through this championship summer to become the story of the summer.