Tight finishes in competitions around Mayo

Fri, Jun 20, 2014

Balla
Paul Murtagh was the winner of the gents’ competition last weekend with a score of 38pts, he finished just one point in front of Joe Healy in second place, and Don Dillon was the third place finisher. The ladies’ section was won by Nora Heraty who scored 38pts, Breege Jennings finished in second, and Mary B O’Donnell took the third place finish.

Second round showdowns to decide the future

Fri, Jun 20, 2014

There will not be an inch given in any of the eight games in the second round of the Mayo GAA Intermediate Football Championship this weekend, with a number of exciting battles in store over the two days of action.

Where has the time gone?

Fri, Jun 20, 2014

World Cup fever is well and truly upon us with games coming thick and fast and most of us struggling to keep the lids open for the late starts every night. Mayo football and the World Cup is something I relate to from my memories as a Mayo footballer. I made my championship debut for Mayo all the way back in 1994, the World Cup was on in the USA the same year. It is hard to believe 20 years could go by so fast. Mayo football was taking a bit of a bashing then on the back of Mayo’s humiliating defeat to Cork in the All-Ireland semi final by all of 20 points in 1993. As a new kid on the block I did not care about the World Cup, and I was oblivious to the thrashing I am sure Mayo football was taking from the entire country, because I had achieved a goal I set myself as a 16-year-old who failed to make a Mayo u16 team for the Ted Webb Cup. When I arrived home from Mayo u16 training in 1990 to tell my parents I had been dropped from the panel because I simply was not good enough I swore to them that day I would play for the Mayo senior team before I was 20.

Local pride at stake this weekend

Fri, Jun 20, 2014

A number of teams will be looking to have booked their spot in the last eight of the Mayo senior football championship this weekend when the curtain comes down on round two.

A weekend of thrillers just gone

Fri, Jun 20, 2014

Last Sunday, Outside the Box made its way along to Ballyglass for the clash of the top two in the Premier A division and did not leave disappointed, as Swinford held out against their hosts to record a 3-2 win and send them top of the table by two points. The game itself was the proverbial game of two halves with Swinford looking home and hosed 10 minutes before half time after going into a 3-0 lead, but the straight red card needlessly picked up by midfielder Padraig Noone just before the break turned the game on its head. Up to that point Val Kenny’s men had been bossing the game with their number nine Alan Carter the main man on the pitch, scoring two goals and causing all kinds of problems for Tom Connolly’s side.

New challenge for Connacht in European rugby

Fri, Jun 13, 2014

After three seasons of Heineken Cup rugby, Connacht return to the Challenge Cup next season where they will face new opposition in two French and an English outfit. Drawn in pool two and ranked in tier four of eight, Connacht will face English outfit Exeter Chiefs, ranked in tier one.

Mayo AC 5K series goes to the gun on Tuesday

Fri, Jun 13, 2014

The fifth annual Mayo AC Summer 5k Series sponsored by C&C Cellular

Club referees have a big role in how a county team does too

Fri, Jun 13, 2014

Last weekend I went to a few matches in the Galway senior football championship. The only consistency in the games that I observed, was the absolute inconsistency in the referring between games, the softness of some of the frees being given, and the poor standard of club football in the county. Anyone who has been watching inter-county football over the past decade or more will surely be aware of how the Tribesmen have drastically slipped back down the football rankings. From top of the pile in 2001, to not having won a senior provincial title since 2008, or even more shockingly, a provincial minor title since 2007. Watching the dire standard of referring at club level in the county last weekend convinced me that poor quality referring is also a factor in Galway’s, or any other county's demise.

In the Corofin (managed by Mayo's Stephen Rochford) and Mountbellew/Moylough (managed by former Galway star Val Daly) - there were 48 frees. And there was not an ounce of genuine physicality, or a puff of a dust-up, in the entire match. In fact there was not a single really big shoulder or anything that could be considered really dirty play. Apart from one blatant hand-trip as a forward ripped in on goal, however, the referee must have left his black card at home on the kitchen table. Corofin are odds on favourites already to retain the Galway county title and they won in a canter, by 3-14 to 0-10, which begs the question, why was there a need to blow a free for almost every minute of the tie?

Lots of good scoring around Mayo clubs last weekend

Fri, Jun 13, 2014

Balla
Chris Jennings was the winner of the men’s competition last weekend with a score of 44pts. Bert Eagleton finished in second place and Matt Leonard came home in third place. The ladies’ competition was won by Breda Cleary with a score of 42pts. She finished just one point in front of Patricia Larkin in second place and Mary Conlon finished in third place.

Chris Jennings was the winner of the men’s competition last weekend with a score of 44pts. Bert Eagleton finished in second place and Matt Leonard came home in third place. The ladies’ competition was won by Breda Cleary with a score of 42pts. She finished just one point in front of Patricia Larkin in second place and Mary Conlon finished in third place.

Mayo do just enough in the Hyde

Sun, Jun 08, 2014

Rarely does anything come easy to Mayo in Hyde Park and on Sunday they were peering over the ledge and an exit from the Connacht championship at the hands of Roscommon, but they were able to go to the well once more when it was needed to eek out the win that puts them into the Connacht final.

Horan pleased by character, but knows there's work to be done

Sun, Jun 08, 2014

After walking their way to a third Connacht title in as many years last year, Mayo were sorely in need of a test in the competition this year and that's what they got from Roscommon in Hyde Park on Sunday. After the game Mayo manager James Horan was in a reflective mood following his sides tight one point win.

Horan shakes up Mayo attack for Roscommon showdown

Thu, Jun 05, 2014

James Horan sprang a surprise with the team he announced for Sunday’s Connacht semi-final against Roscommon this week when he opted to hand Conor O’Shea his first championship start at centre-half-forward alongside teenager Diarmuid O’Connor who will be making his second championship start after making his debut against New York at the start of last month.

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