Search Results for 'Allianz Football League'

In what will be a welcome boost to the coffers of Mayo GAA, there will be four home games for Mayo in the proposed fixtures for Division 1 of the Allianz Football league next year. The draft fixtures which were released this week will see Mayo entertain Kerry, Tyrone, Kildare, and in a repeat of this years All Ireland final, Donegal in Elvery’s McHale Park. They will be on the road to Dublin, Down, and Cork in their remaining three games. The fixtures will see Mayo open up at home to Kerry on Sunday February 3, and follow that up with another home game against Tyrone the following Sunday. After a couple of weeks break they will be back in action on Saturday March 2, in the first of two away games in a row, on a Saturday night against Dublin, they will follow that up the next Saturday night away to Down. They will be back home the next Saturday night, March 16, against Kildare, before hosting Donegal the following Sunday, March 24, in Castlebar. They will round off the group stages of the competition away to Cork on Sunday, April 7. Mayo will have three Saturday night games and four Sunday afternoon games in the proposed fixtures.

In recent decades there have been a number of inter-county teams that have made real eye catching progress. Dublin, Tyrone, Armagh, Kerry and Cork are the obvious selection in this regard and they, more than most, have brought a new dimension to the whole area of team sacrifice and all year round physical preparation. In fairness, Mayo football has also moved up a gear or two and if nothing else we are a team that few will ever take for granted. But I get the impression that we are just about hanging on to the coat tails of the top three or four teams in the country right now. On the evidence of the matches I have witnessed so far this year, I need some convincing from Sundays encounter with Leitrim that we deserve to be talked about in the same breath as Dublin, Cork and, believe it or not, Donegal. I watched the Ulster champions play Derry last Saturday and those of you who saw Derry’s inept performance will agree that they (Derry) are a team in serious decline. But it was the performance of Donegal that was the main talking point of the encounter. They played a terrific brand of open flowing football that suggests they have stepped up a level from last year. It should be a fascinating Ulster semi-final between themselves and Tyrone in a week’s time. But I am digressing!

A crowd of some 10,000 people are expected to descend on McHale Park on Saturday evening, when the All Ireland champions Dublin come to town for the second round of the Allianz Football League. Tomorrow night’s game will throw in at the earlier time of 6.30pm from the rest of Mayo’s Saturday night league schedule to avoid a clash with Ireland’s RBS Six Nations game with France in Paris which gets under way at 8pm. But the attraction of a Saturday night game and the box office attraction of last year’s All Ireland champions is expected to swell the attendance in McHale Park.

Saturday

Allianz Hurling League

There is one thing that is sure to get everyone talking ahead of Sunday's meeting with Armagh in McHale Park. That is the return of Billy Joe Padden to the home of Mayo GAA in the bright orange of the Ulster men for the first time since his move north of the border. But despite this sub plot there is only one item of business that Mayo manager James Horan will be looking to be taken care of, and that is getting two more points on the board. Sunday will see Mayo play their fourth game in this year’s Allianz Football League and move past the half way stage of the competition. If they manage to see off the challenge of the Armagh men it will move them up to five points in the table and be a major step in ensuring that come the early spring next year, Mayo will be dining at the top table of league football in 2012.

Saturday

Walsh Cup S.H. Final

Mayo 1-14

Mayo 1-11