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Everyone is still recovering from the great escape in Ruislip last Sunday, when Mayo were put to the pin of their collar by London in the Connacht Senior Championship. This Friday offers a welcome distraction in the form of the Connacht Junior Championship final in Charlestown which will throw in at 7.30pm. This evening’s game will offer Mayo the chance to dethrone the current All Ireland champions from the Yeats County, who will be under the guidance once again of their senior inter-county manager Kevin Walsh. Mayo for their part have John Kelly running the line for them, with Ray Connelly, Jarlath Cunningham and Vinny Gavin also on sideline duties. In the quarter final Mayo saw off the challenge of a tough Leitrim side after Mickey Moran’s side pushed into an early lead, while in the last four of the competition Roscommon were defeated in Ballyhaunis.

An accomplished second-half display has given the Galway Garda a tilt at the All Ireland Interfirms Senior Football title.

Galway Garda won the Connacht Senior Inter-firms Football Championship for the first time with a victory over fancied Mayo Teachers.

Tourmakeady v Ballyhaunis,

On Sunday, Killala will look to book their place in the All Ireland Junior Football championship final when they take on Liverpool side John Mitchels in Carrick on Shannon. This will be the second time in two years the north Mayo men have been within touching distance of Croke Park and the All Ireland final. In 2006 they fell short against Greencastle at this stage and they will be aiming to put things to right this weekend.

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 1-13

It’s a case of all to play for in most of the groups in the Intermediate championship this weekend. Last year’s beaten finalists Kilmaine look odds on to make it out of section one in top spot. They will face a testing encounter against a Killala side who are currently in second spot in the table on points difference and will be going all guns blazing to keep their own chances alive. The other game in the group promises to be a tough physical battle when Hollymount make the trip to Tourmakeady; neither side will give quarter to the other, but home advantage should be enough to see them make the last eight along with Kilmaine.

We are officially up and running now, with the championship opening in 16 days on another continent all that we were waiting for was the 30 names who would make up the championship panel for 2009. When the list was announced on Sunday evening there were no major surprises as John O’Mahony and his backroom team set out their stall for the summer. As was widely expected James Nallen, Keith Higgins, David Heany, and Trevor Howley were all included in the panel despite none of them taking part in the league campaign. In total 22 of those picked for last year’s squad at the same stage of the year were selected again this year, with the likes of Colm Boyle, James Gill, and Michael Mullins all not making the cut this time around. While the veterans Nallen and Heany were included Aidan Higgins, whom many thought might have got the nod, was not selected despite lining out in a recent challenge match against Offaly in Castlebar.

The weekend could see things sorted out in section A if Killala and Kilmaine are able to pick up the points on the road leaving both sides to battle it out for top spot in the table on the final day. Last year’s beaten finalists gave Tourmakeady a 10-point trimming in the first round, while Killala had enough to hold of Hollymount by two points in their first game. This weekend sees Killala make their way to Tourmakeady for a do or die battle for the Gaeltacht men. Tourmakeady would have fancied their chances of coming out of Kilmaine with some points on the board last time out and came home with their tail between their legs, so they will be all guns blazing on Saturday to take the points. Despite having a win in the bag already, Tourmakeady should take this one.