Louis dream shattered by Paul's demolition act

Fri, Feb 27, 2009

St Pauls (Oughterard)1-15
St Louis (Kiltimagh) 0-8

That old familiar feeling

Fri, Feb 20, 2009

There was a palpable sense of excitement in the Royal Theatre on Wednesday night as delegates, managers, and interested parties gathered to see the draw for the 2009 Royal Theatre Mayo football championships. And when the dust had settled there was plenty to talk about on the journey home to the four corners of Mayo. As always the senior championship draw was the highlight of the night as the 16 teams who went into the draw waited to find out what obstacles they were going to overcome in the group stages of the competition. The four semi-finalists were drawn out first (one in each group) and those who fell at the quarter final next, with the final eight the last to come out. The process of the draw meant that one group would include a semi-finalist, a quarter-finalist, and the ominous figure of Ballina among the quartet. That group when drawn drew gasps from those in attendance as Group B pitted Crossmolina, Knockmore, Ballina, and Ballinrobe in one of two groups of death that were pulled out of the hat.

The second group of death was Group C which drew together three sides who were in the same group last year, the group reconnected the trio of county champions Ballaghaderreen, league champions Breaffy, Shrule Glencorrib, with Burrishoole joining the party in a group that is as hard to call as the north Mayo heavy grouping.

Busy weekend of action on the club scene

Fri, Feb 20, 2009

Castlebar Ladies
The weekend 13 hole competition was won by Una Lydon with a great score of 31pts and in second place was another member of the same fourball, Mary Rose McNulty with an impressive 29pts.

The weekend 13 hole competition was won by Una Lydon with a great score of 31pts and in second place was another member of the same fourball, Mary Rose McNulty with an impressive 29pts.

Not falling into the art of losing

Fri, Feb 20, 2009

The art of losing isn’t hard to master. A team can get into a losing streak very easily and each and every loss chips away at a team’s confidence. Every subsequent game then heaps enormous pressure on all involved to put a stop to the losing streak.

All Ireland club championship tops the list this weekend

Fri, Feb 20, 2009

We all remember different defeats with more emotion than others. Some leave a very raw scar that takes a long time to heal. It may be from a game that annoyed you intensely, or 60 minutes you would love to have re-lived again.

Iorras face long journey in FAI Junior Cup

Fri, Feb 20, 2009

“Even when we play away in Mayo we have to travel an hour and half to most places, but this is a bit further all right.” Iorras Aontaithe manager Eric Reilly jested about his side’s trip down the country this weekend in the FAI Junior Cup, the 250 plus mile down from their home in Carne Nash to south Cork and their opponents Kinsale.

Mayo set for Saturday showdown

Fri, Feb 13, 2009

It will take exactly three hours to cover the 122 miles it is between Castlebar and Letterkenny according to the AA on its website. So to make the 2.30pm throw in in comfortable time Mayo supporters will be leaving home from the county town not long after 10.30am on a Saturday. While Saturday evening games have become the norm for the National League, this weekend Mayo have the unusual fixture of a Saturday afternoon game against Donegal. The change in the fixture is something that the Mayo manager, while not overly happy with, will have to deal with. “It’s a strange one all right, when we heard that the game was not going to be played under lights we assumed it would be switched to a Sunday. But as far as I know it’s to do with TV rights that the game has to be on Saturday. It’s far from an ideal time for supporters to make a trip to Donegal and we need all the supporters we can at the games, and the people of Mayo want to come out and support us. We also believed that the game would then be played in Ballyshannon, but it was moved further away to Letterkenny, and this was all only decided last week, which was very late.”

Mayo look to pick up after Derry defeat

Fri, Feb 13, 2009

While the rest of the country was fighting off the chill last Sunday and the pre-eminent side in the game couldn’t make it to Galway for their league game, Mayo made the long trip to Derry to open their account in division 3A of the National Hurling league. And despite a brave battle by their defence and midfield they came out on the wrong side of a 0-9 to 0-6 scoreline. Martin Brennan along with Pete Finnerty is again patrolling the sidelines this year and Brennan was disappointed with the result last weekend. “Well it was played in terrible conditions and we didn’t even think it would be played at all, but that’s no excuse for the scoreline. The conditions were the same for us as they were for Derry. Our defence and midfield put in a fantastic display, but it was up front where we had our problems and it’s something we need to get sorted out.”

This weekend offers Brennan and his side the chance for an immediate return to winning ways when Meath come to Charlestown on Sunday. “Meath are going to be a tough ask this weekend, they are a good side and beat us in the Christy Ring Cup last year so we know it’s not going to be easy. Were also going to be missing full back Aidan Connelly who is out of the country this weekend and is going to be a big loss to take on top of the other losses we have taken in the last while.”

Sports Shorts

Fri, Feb 13, 2009

Athletics

Time to pick things up again

Fri, Feb 13, 2009

The beauty of the National Football League is that you can dust yourself down after a particularly bad performance and within a week or two you are presented with another opportunity to redeem yourself. I know the Mayo lads were hurting after their defeat against Derry in Ballina two weeks ago, so there shouldn’t be too much energy expended in getting their heads right for this one. I was speaking to a few of the players after the Derry game and they were understandably annoyed that they didn’t get off to a winning start.

It’s a weekend worth fighting off the flu for

Fri, Feb 13, 2009

It is funny what makes you feel loved and appreciated. I have just spent the last 20 minutes talking to God on the big white telephone with our three-years-old Neasa rubbing my back, giving me hugs, and telling me that it will be OK. “You’ll be better soon…” was the recurring mantra.