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Conor Mortimer still knows where the posts are

Mayo 0-10

Tonight, if things went to plan for Castlebar Mitchels, would have been a chance to mark themselves out as the premier side in the county across all the big grades this year. But double defeat last Sunday in the county senior and minor finals has left just the U21A title up for grabs for the Mitchels men. The county town side will not want to let this one slip through their grasp and will go into the game as favourites after overcoming a fancied Breaffy side at the last four stage of the competition. Both sides have bounced back from opening day defeats, with Castlebar losing to Aghamore who were beaten by their opponents on Friday night, Hollymount-Carramore at the semi-final stage and the south Mayo men going down to Westport in their first game back in the summer.

It was never going to be easy for Ballintubber this year, following up last year’s emotional first Mayo senior championship title, losing their manager to the county senior team, a new man coming in trying to steady the ship and push on. But they did it again last Sunday and put together back to back senior titles, thanks to a massive effort to overcome a Castlebar Mitchels side who were licking their wounds from last year’s final loss to the Tubber.

All eyes will be on McHale Park on Sunday for the repeat of last year’s senior championship final, last year it was Ballintubber who were the last men left standing. While both groups of players are still more or less the same, on the sideline two new men will have been busy for the past few weeks plotting and planning each other’s downfall. When James Horan left Ballintubber to rejuvenate the standing of Mayo football on a national level, Anthony McGarry was the man left with the task of filling his boots. For the Mitchels, when Peter Ford stepped aside his banisteoir’s bib was handed to former Mayo senior and u21 manager Pat Holmes, and one target was given him, bring the Moclair cup back to the county town.

Castlebar Mitchels 3-8

Castlebar is a long way from the Friday Night Lights of Texas High School football which was the background to HG Bissinger’s seminal 1990 book of the same name. But Castlebar will play host to Mayo’s own underage showdowns under the glare of the floodlights this evening with both semi-finals in the Mayo u21A championship down for decision.

The four sides left in the Treanlaur Catering Senior Football Championship have lifted the Moclair Cup a grand total of 72 times. Ballina Stephenites (36) and Castlebar Mitchels (27) have more than the lion’s share between. But that does not mean that those two sides will make it through their semi-finals over the weekend to set up a traditional classic pairing in the final. In fact the favourites to the make the final in a lot of people’s eyes will probably be the younger pretenders Knockmore and Ballintubber with their eight and one title respectively. While Castlebar won their first title in 1888 and Ballina in 1889, Knockmore did not climb the mountain for the first time until 1973 and Ballintubber did for their only time so far last season.

It is a big weekend in the local championship with a series of mouthwatering matches in the offing. One could make a valid argument for any of the four teams left in the race to covet this year’s county senior title. If I was pressed to predict a winner, I would possibly give a nod towards Ballintubber on the basis that they are winning all of their league matches, so their form is reasonably good. They are the current county champions and will have come on a lot, particularly in terms of confidence, from last year’s success. However I just would not bet on them beating Ballina this weekend. Crossmolina beat Ballina last Sunday in the league, but I got the impression that they were holding a little in reserve for this Sunday. The Ballina boys would also have been anxious not to pick up any injuries so close to a big game. As it happens, Pat Harte did limp off during the game with some sort of an injury, so he might be a slight concern coming into Sunday’s game. I don’t think Ballina manager John Healy was too concerned at dropping two points as it leaves him a little room to kick ass this week as he gets his team focused for the semi-final. All in all I feel the Stephenites have more in them than I witnessed last Sunday, and therefore I think they have a right good chance of beating the county champions. It promises to be a fascinating contest.

I was hugely disappointed this week after our Crossmolina boys lost to Castlebar Mitchels in the quarter finals last Sunday. We had prepared exceptionally well, particularly over the last three weeks since the conclusion of the group stages with two good challenge matches and quality training in between. The feeling was that if we could beat Castlebar, we had a right chance of winning the county title. The mood was good coming into the game despite injury to five of our first team squad. There was a quiet air of confidence that we would beat the more fancied Mitchels. There was a big doubt about our county player Peadar Gardiner’s participation right up to the last few minutes, but he had pushed himself right to the limit to be fit to play.