Search Results for 'Keith Higgins'

The Geraldine Lavelle Trust fundraising committee wishes to express appreciation and thanks to everybody who has supported its during the ongoing fundraising campaign. They have been overwhelmed by the generosity and support they have received from the public.

There will not be an inch given in any of the eight games in the second round of the Mayo GAA Intermediate Football Championship this weekend, with a number of exciting battles in store over the two days of action.

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.

James Horan threw a curve ball with his team selection for Sunday's Connacht semi-final against Roscommon, by omitting his captain Andy Moran from the starting line up. The Ballaghaderren man's omissions from the starting 15 will be the big talking point ahead of the throw in, with Breaffy's Conor O'Shea coming into the starting line-up for his first championship start in a new look Mayo team that will see O'Shea line up alongside his two older brothers Aidan and Seamus. Conor will line out at centre half forward with Burrishoole's Jason Doherty on one side of him and Ballintubber's Diarmuid O'Connor on the other flank. The full forward line will see Alan Freeman return to the focal point of the attack with Kevin McLoughlin and Cillian O'Connor either side of him.

“There’s nothing won yet!” said Christy Phillips this week to the Mayo Advertiser after we congratulated him on his team’s win over Wicklow in the quarter-final of the Christy Ring Cup.

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 will still go into the quarter-finals of the Christy Ring Cup in a few weeks despite their narrow defeat at the hands of Meath on Saturday afternoon in a blustery MacHale Park. A late free from Meath captain Stephen Clynch at the end of normal time was the difference between the two sides on the day. The Royals number six showed nerves of steel to stroke the ball right over the black spot under pressure to send Meath straight into the semi-finals of the competition. Mayo did have a chance right at the death, but Sean Regan was unable to direct his sideline cut from 21 meters out under the stand over the bar.

Mayo did the heavy lifting in first half in their 2014 championship opener, when they ground down the New York challenge with the minimal of difficulty. James Horan will have learned nothing new about his side, but will have been pleased to have been able to give some game time to likes of Alan Dillon who returned to Mayo colours for the first time since the All Ireland final as a second half sub, while debutant Diarmuid O'Connor marked his first senior bow with a well taken goal right at the start of the second half. The game also saw a little bit of history with the three O'Shea brothers on the field at the same time, for the first time when Conor O'Shea made his championship debut as a second half sub.

Mayo’s championship season will get underway on Sunday, thousands of miles away from home when they take on New York in the preliminary round of Connacht Senior Football Championship in Gaelic Park at 7.30pm Irish time.

Mayo limped out of the national league in spectacular fashion last Sunday in Croke Park against a much livelier and hungrier Derry team. What has everyone worried is Mayo’s failure and inability to make a numerical advantage count for the second time in three weeks.