Search Results for 'Liam Sammon'

This Sunday’s Connacht semi-final between Galway and Sligo at Markievicz Park has a classic “Hot Favourites v Massive Outsiders” feel to it, and is in truth a potential banana skin for Galway.

I was in McHale Park to see Mayo disembowel Roscommon at their ease and I was in Markievicz Park to see Galway stumble luckily to a narrow 1-13 to 0-12 victory over Sligo. Based on the respective performances from both panels and managements, there will only be one result in Pearse Stadium in just over two weeks’ time. And that is a Mayo victory.

Sometimes there can be no hiding from hard facts. And here are two: Firstly, the Galway senior football team have not won an All-Ireland quarter final since 2001. Secondly, they have not won a single game in Croke Park in the past eight years and on the clear evidence provided last Sunday against Sligo, even if they did beat Mayo in two weeks time, which is a big if, that statistic is unlikely to change.

Sometimes there can be no hiding from hard facts. And here are two:

Mayo and Galway football managers have kick-started a Slow Down for the Show Down campaign to encourage motorists to watch their speed.

I am finding it fairly difficult to establish just how good this current Mayo team really are, so I have conducted my own little independent survey among knowledgeable footballing friends from outside the county. Every single person I have spoken to since Mayo’s Connacht final victory over Galway has suggested that the Mayo team is in with a serious shout of winning this year’s All-Ireland title. They love the fact that this present group of players is big and strong with lots of ball winners particularly in the central positions. They also argue that it is a team that appears capable of scoring goals.

1.The amount of ball lost in the tackle: On far too many occasions ball was turned over by Galway players. They allowed Mayo players to stop them and just physically rip the ball out of their hands. Mayo have obviously worked on their tackling, but from a Galway perspective it was most disappointing to see the likes of Finian Hanley, Paul Conroy, and others losing the ball in contact. Likewise we were blocked down on numerous occasions and that gives a great lift to the opposition. We must not allow that to happen this weekend.

Liam Sammon owes Galway football nothing. That fact is crystal clear. On the contrary, he has given the county wonderful commitment and service over the past 40 years in various different roles, and hopefully he will continue to do so for another decade in a coaching capacity.

A review of Galway football is currently being undertaken by a special task team appointed by the Galway Football Board.

During the reign of Edward VI, when the Puritans controlled Galway, it was provided that “No man should keep an Ale House without being licensed, under penalty of three days imprisonment and a fine of twenty shillings”. It was added: “But because many Ale House keepers in those days were not able to pay that Forfeiture, and it was seldom levied by reasons of poverty, which made people unwilling to prevent the offenders.” Therefore a further punishment was added by statute during the reign of Charles I which not only inflicted the forfeiture of 20 shillings to the use of the poor, to be levied by the constable or church warden, by warrant of a justice before whom the offence was proved, and which distress may be sold three days afterwards; but it provided that if no distress could be taken, the justice should deliver the offender to the constable to be whipped. For the second offence, the offender was to be committed to the House of Correction for a month. A married woman who kept an ale house without licence made her husband liable for punishment.