Search Results for 'Alex Corduff'

Mayo 3-10

“Just because you were there last year doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy to get back there again the next year.” Said Mayo minor manager Ray Dempsey earlier this week when speaking to the Mayo Advertiser about his side’s first foray into championship action for 2009. The wily Knockmore man will be taking charge of the Mayo minor side for the third year in a row, the past two years of his tenure have seen wildly contrasting fortunes on the field. 2007 ended almost before it began, eliminated by Roscommon on a forgettable Saturday evening in Hyde Park, followed last year by another so near yet so far story for Mayo football when his side came with in seconds of claiming an All Ireland title.

Mayo 2-13

Those who made the trek to Salthill early last Sunday to catch a glimpse of this year’s batch of Mayo minors after getting a glowing recommendation following their destruction of Galway in the Connacht semi-final, will have been rightly scratching their heads at full time. It would be hard to imagine any two sides coming together in a provincial final and producing a worse game of football. Mayo got a second chance at the death, thanks to captain Aidan Walsh who tapped over a free manufactured by Cillian O’Connor a minute into injury time, which was sweet relief for Mayo. Roscommon players and supporters will be scratching their own heads at how they contrived to not win a game. They just avoided hitting double the amount of wides to scores they got on the board (15 in total), but also dropped a number of efforts short of the target or so wild that they managed to drift off target and still not cross the end line.

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Mayo 2-9       Down 0-9

Twelve months on and Ray Dempsey and his management team and only a handful of their side from last year are back in an All Ireland final and are once again going in as underdogs against the Ulster champions. But that tag won’t faze either the management team or the players who are sent out onto the field in an attempt to claim the ultimate prize in this grade. Over the season the Mayo minors have adapted to many challenges through the Connacht championship and the All Ireland series and any time a question has been asked of them they have found the answer. Starting off against Galway in Sligo as underdogs, Mayo gave a tour de force in the second half blowing Galway off the pitch and sending them into the Connacht final as favourites. A tag that did not rest well on them, and they struggled against a very physical Roscommon side and were lucky to get a second bite at the cherry, but they learned their lesson from that game in Salthill and despite having to go to Hyde Park for the replay, they were able to up their game and change it around enough to see off Roscommon with ease in the end.

Ardnaree boxing club has become an institution in pugilistic circles in Mayo and across the country from humble beginnings in 1949 when 40 young boxers took up the sport for the first time. The club has gone on to write a very long and proud history, claiming 26 national titles, more than 300 Connacht titles and 500 Mayo titles, and producing eight internationals through the more than 1,600 young boxers who have donned gloves in competition for the club. Ardnaree has also had the honour of being the first club in the country to train female boxers back in 1996 when they had 30 girls enter their gym and club secretary Fiona Hennigan became the first female judge in Ireland to pass the European and World exams. She has gone on to represent Ireland at European and world championships. The club has captured national titles in every decade since it was formed the first in 1955 when Noel Coggins became the first man to bring a national title west of the Shannon. This feat was followed right up to this decade when Gerry Casey (twice), Gary Geraghty, and Alex Corduff all brought national titles back to the club.