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This weekend will be a big weekend of action for both Charlestown and Ballaghaderreen. The near neighbours have been focusing their attention on provincial honours since winning the Mayo intermediate and senior championships respectively.

Everyone expected that it would be Leitrim that came visiting to McHale Park on Sunday, June 24 in the Connacht semi-final. But it was only by the skin of their teeth that they got out of London with the win. The annual trip to Ruislip is becoming a tricker and tricker encounter as Mayo can attest to following last year’s extra time battle and it was something very similar last Sunday when a late Leitrim surge saw them go home 0-12 to 1-8 winners.

I was out of the country last weekend on a cycling holiday in Germany (more anon). I deliberately stayed away from all forms of communication until I arrived back in the country. By the time I landed in Dublin I was bursting for information on all of last weekend’s sporting activities. I called a few friends on the trek home from Dublin Airport and managed to get a good account of most of the action. The first conversation I had informed me of Kilkenny’s demolition job on Cork in the league final. These Kilkenny boys are simply in a different league to most others. I have watched them a couple of times earlier this year when they appeared to be just going through the motions, but once they get a whiff of a trophy they invariably rack it up a few notches. Jimmy Barry Murphy will, for the first time since his appointment as Cork manager, realise that the honeymoon period is over and his task of landing the Liam McCarthy is an enormous one when you consider the conveyor belt of young talent Brian Coady has at his disposal. But it is not just the talent that they produce year on year – it is their entire application and appetite for success that makes them so exceptional.

Roscommon 1-11

The 3,000 or so who paid into McHale Park on Wednesday evening got more than their money’s worth from this clash between the hosts and last year’s All Ireland champions. Extra time was needed by Mayo to send them into next weekend’s semi-final against Roscommon, but even getting to extra time was something that looked to be beyond Mayo in the early stages of the second half, as Galway had a number of chances to pull well ahead of Mayo, but a stream of wides from the Tribesmen eventually came back to haunt them.

March may only be a few days old, but for one Mayo team it is do or die in the championship as soon as next Wednesday. Ray Dempsey’s u21 side will entertain Galway under lights in McHale Park at 7.30pm in the preliminary round of the competition. The Tribesmen are the defending All Ireland champions after beating Cavan in last year’s final. Many of this year’s crop of Mayo u21s will have had their own All Ireland final experience, being part of a Mayo minor side that went down to Armagh in the All Ireland minor final three years ago. Cillian O’Connor will be Mayo’s stand out man in attack, while Danny Kirby of whom there big things are expected will be another man to look out for on Wednesday night. If Mayo come out of next Wednesday’s game with a win, they will be in action the following Wednesday night against Roscommon in the Connacht semi-final.

Almost as soon as it began the group stages of the FBD League will wrap up this weekend. For Mayo the competition so far can be given good grades. Two wins out of two, a number of new players given their introduction to the inter-county game and a place in the final of the competition against NUIG to look forward to in a week’s time.

Andy Moran is on the way back

Mayo 4-11

It was not exactly back with a bang, but inter-county football was back last weekend for Mayo when they took on and defeated a hard working Leitrim side. January throws up very little in definite road signs for the direction the summer will take, but there were a few new options in route planning on show that will have given both James Horan and the Mayo supporters something to think about in the coming weeks and months.