Search Results for 'Kyle Coney'

Next Friday morning, International Rules will visit our screens for the first time since 2006. Following the violent scenes that marred the second test in Croke Park two years ago, the concept is very much on probation with both camps fully aware that any further flashpoints could spell the end for the hybrid game.

During my first year in charge of Mayo in 1995/6 it was decided that we should take that year’s national league campaign seriously. We were playing in Division 3 at the time and I can assure you we had some right battles up and down the country squeezing narrow victories over some mediocre opposition in order to secure promotion. We made the play offs and managed to take a major scalp in the quarter final with a great victory over Meath in Hyde Park, Roscommon. We went to Croke Park to play Derry in the semi-final and were comprehensively beaten by what was then an exceptionally talented Derry side. In fact we decided before we left Dublin after that defeat that we would work our socks off for a few weeks and look for another game against the same opposition in order to benchmark and progress.

To prove my point, after attending the All-Ireland football finals of 2004, 2006, and 2007, it was impossible not to come away from those days feeling a bit forlorn, a smidgen despondent, and a tad empty from the whole experience.