Search Results for 'Gavin Duffy'

Mayo travel to Hyde Park on Sunday to take on Roscommon in the Connacht semi-final.  It’s remarkable that it has only been five weeks since we played New York in Gaelic Park. It feels like that game was in a different year. I mentioned in a column a few weeks back that James Horan should keep five or six midfielders in his panel, however I didn’t envisage what was going to happen after that. Tom Parsons is the latest to be struck down with a bad hamstring tear on top of Barry Moran and Jason Gibbons already suffering disheartening injuries. They say things happen in threes, so I hope no more players join them on the casualty list. No time is a good time to get injured but end of May/early June is the nightmare time for any footballer. If your injury is so bad that you are not able to participate in any level of training it may leave you on the scrap heap for the rest of the year as the stamina and fitness levels you have worked so hard to build up will dwindle away like a puff of smoke.

This time last year Mayo trounced Roscommon by 0-21 to 0-9 in McHale Park in the provincial semi-final.

By Ray Silke

This time last year Mayo trounced Roscommon by 0-21 to 0-9 in McHale Park in the provincial semi-final.

In preparation for Mayo’s meeting with Roscommon next weekend in the semi-final of the Connacht Senior Football championship in Hyde Park, James Horan sat down with the media this week. On the injury front, things haven’t really changed he explained saying “Jason Gibbons isn’t healing as quickly as we’d like, Barry Moran is healing well, Michael Conroy got a knock at the weekend, Enda Varley’s groin is a little sore. But we’re not to bad outside that we’re not to bad, any of the injuries there are recovering.” As for Moran or Gibbons making it back in time for the Roscommon game he said that, “it’d be very tight (for them) to be competitive options for June 8, it’d be very doubtful.”

The inclusion of Gavin Duffy in the Mayo senior squad certainly got tongues wagging in the county and several people asked about my opinion on the matter. Gavin Duffy played midfield for the Mayo minors in an All-Ireland final in 1999, which is 15 long years ago. My senior inter county career finished the same year, I wonder would James Horan be interested in a fifth choice goalkeeper; you have my number, James. There is certainly no guarantee a good minor will become an integral part of a senior set up and I have watched many brilliant minors fall by the way side and some weren’t even playing club football by the time they were 22, but in Duffy’s case I’m sure he would have made the grade. The fact that he went on to have a very successful professional rugby career with Connacht and Harlequins reassures me that whatever he put his hand to he would have been a success. There are loads of positives to take from his inclusion in the panel. He has been a professional sportsman for the guts of 15 years so the physique, stamina and temperament are already in place. He is a leader and captained Connacht for many years and his inclusion will lift the tempo at Mayo training and push the existing players that bit further.

Mayo manager James Horan has thrown a wildcard into the mix this week, with the news that former Ireland and Connacht rugby player Gavin Duffy has joined up with the Mayo senior football squad. Duffy who was a Mayo minor star on the team that lost the 1999 All Ireland minor final was recently released by Connacht after his second stint with the province where he played 173 games scoring 83 points. His period at Connacht was interrupted by a spell in England with Harlequins from 2003 to 2006 where he played 110 times and won the Challenger Cup in 2004 scoring a try in their final win over AS Montferrand. Duffy played ten times for Ireland over his rugby career scoring 18 points, getting his first try in his second cap against Scotland in the 2005 six nations. He was also part of Eddie O’Sullivan’s squad for the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Connacht complete their 2013/4 season with a difficult visit to Liberty Stadium on Saturday (6.30pm) where they face an Ospreys outfit smarting from its failure to qualify for the semi-finals.

Connacht's biggest signing of former All Black Mils Muliaina is a huge step in Connacht's growing development, insists coach Pat Lam.

As many winter sports come to a close, some will be celebrating a season of success, others regretting lost opportunities, but many more will be satisfied if they did their best.