Search Results for 'McHale Park'

As his side made the longer than normal trek back to the dressing room from the pitch in Dangan after subsiding to a five point defeat at the hands of NUIG, John O’Mahony faced the first of his interrogations at the hands of the hungry press core on the 50m line of the college pitch. After getting his first competitive view of his side for 2009 and how the new rules regarding yellow cards would play out, he held court over what he had just seen for the previous 60 minutes. Over the course of the game five players, two from Mayo and three from NUIG, were shown the line for picking up yellow cards, one as early as the eighth minute when Greg Begley was sent to the line for a clumsy challenge on Billy Joe Padden. “I believe the GAA are not going to change them because managers are saying they want them changed, but we have a meeting in the middle of January and I'll do my talking there. There will need to be some tweaking on them, the first lad to get sent off for NUIG my reading of it initially is it's a yellow card if you pull down a player, and will that lead to people appearing to be pulled down or fall and get a lad sent off. We'll give them a chance and see, if it adds to free flowing football then it's always a positive, but we'll have to hold our fire and see,” said O’Mahony.

McHale Park will get its first airing this season on Sunday when the All Ireland champions Tyrone come to town for the final round of the Allianz National Football League. Mayo will be looking to pick up where they left off against Galway in Tuam Stadium a fortnight ago, where a stunning second half performance saw John O’Mahony’s side overturn a six point half time deficit to squeeze past Galway by a single point and secure a one point win. The win leaves O’Mahony’s side in fourth place in the division one table on six points, equal on points with Mickey Harte’s side. A draw on Sunday would ensure both sides’ status in division one for next season, but a defeat coupled with a high scoring win by Dublin over an already relegated Westmeath and a win by Donegal over Derry could drag either side back into the bottom two of a very tight division one table.

McHale Park has been a home away from home for all those who have ever been involved in covering sports for local media in Mayo since the Castlebar grounds opened its doors in 1931, when Mayo took on Kildare at the grounds official opening. With the rain spilling down from an overcast spring afternoon last Friday the current day members of the local press corps were given a guided tour of the ambitious new development that has been undertaken at the famous old grounds. Led by Mayo GAA Board chairman James Waldron, the sheer size and ambition of the project became apparent. The old stand offered seating for 4,482 people with only 2,500 of those fully covered, had bad sight lines, and was far from the standards that you would expect from a modern ground. The new stand will see the capacity of the stadium go from an existing capacity of 35,482 up to 41,217, with the new stand offering 9,685 fully covered seats, the stand will stretch the full length of the pitch on the Sportlann side.

It’s often said that a week is a long time in politics. Can I suggest then that three weeks is an absolute eternity in football? Just a few short weeks ago, all the talk around these parts was that Galway would be a shoe in to retain their Connacht championship. The fact that they would be playing the Connacht final (assuming it is Mayo) in Pearse Stadium added to that theory because the general perception is that the seaside venue is definitely worth a few scores to the Galway men. But the pendulum has very definitely shifted in the last two matches of the national league. Galway were the form team of the league for the first five rounds, getting standing ovations from their ecstatic home supporters on a number of occasions such was the quality of their play. But after a rather slow start by Mayo in their opening rounds, they have very definitely come thundering into the equation again as serious provincial contenders after their impressive one-point victory over the up to then unbeaten Galwegians in Tuam a couple of weeks ago. Mayo followed up on that victory with a very creditable performance against the All Ireland champions in McHale Park last Sunday, where both sides took a share of the spoils.

It all starts here on Sunday at 3pm local time (8pm at home), the All Ireland senior football championship in its celebratory 125th year gets under way with the footballers of Mayo taking to the field in Gaelic Park, roughly 3,047 miles from home in McHale Park, Castlebar.

The whirlwind nature of this year’s Christy Ring Cup continues a pace this Saturday when Mayo make the long trip to Newry to take on Down. Mayo having reached their second semi-final in the tier two competition in two years will be looking to go one better tomorrow (June 6) after losing out to Carlow at the death last season in McHale Park.

I had the privilege of introducing the last man who captained a successful Mayo All Ireland winning minor team to my own young man and a few of the Castlebar under- 12s at their training session last Saturday morning at McHale Park. Michael Fitzmaurice, captain of the Mayo minors in 1985, approached my car with a bag of footballs on his back. I hadn’t a clue who he was until he removed his cap. Even then it took me a second or two to recognise the former star as, like a few more of us he is, by now, follically challenged. He sat into the car and we chatted football for a while. I was delighted to discover that he was a part time GAA coaching officer, travelling around to a number of national schools down around his home place, Lacken. Michael was a great footballer and I recall making a number of telephone calls to his home in the mid nineties trying to persuade him to get involved with the Mayo senior set up of my tenure. He couldn’t make the commitment at the time for a number of reasons and I have to say it was our loss. Still it was good to have the chat and to reminisce about times past. Michael had spent the morning working with a Mayo under-14 development squad and I am sure they will be better players because of his tutoring. So also will the national school kids in and around Lacken.

The worries over McHale Park being ready for the Connacht semi-final show between Mayo and Roscommon on Saturday June 20 is still up in the air, but it is looking likely that the game will go ahead at the Castlebar venue. Speaking to the Mayo Advertiser yesterday Mayo County board chairman James Waldron was confident that the go ahead will be given.

After the pre-season warm up session on the far side of the Atlantic it’s back to more traditional fare, albeit on a Saturday evening for Mayo. And with McHale Park getting the go ahead, it’s all systems go for the welcoming of Roscommon to Castlebar for the first time in five years, and four years after the sides last met in the Connacht Championship.

I am confused as to the real potential of this Mayo team. I can’t honestly say how good this team is, as I doubt they have ever played an easier inter-county match in their lives, nor will they play an easier one ever again. I suggested here in this paper last week that I fully expected Roscommon to put it up to Mayo for 40 minutes or so but that ultimately Mayo’s greater fitness, ability, and general know how, would surface and they would pull away from Roscommon in the last 30 minutes possibly winning by 5/6 points. As you now know we won by 20! I had alluded to Roscommon’s morale-boosting victory over Leitrim a few weeks earlier that would have seen them arrive in Castlebar full of hope and brimming with confidence. I met a few of their supporters before the match in the Sportlann who had the audacity to suggest that they were in fact well capable of beating this particular Mayo team, and for me not to be one bit surprised if they pulled off a famous victory. Oh how wrong they were. This was arguably the worst performance from a senior Roscommon team in a championship encounter that I or many others have ever witnessed. Fergal O’Donnell, the messiah who had guided the county to their historic minor All Ireland victory in 2006, was in charge and their supporters were giddy with excitement and expectancy. Eleven of that minor squad were involved in one way or another last Saturday and they appeared to be relaxed and in confident mood as I watched them go through their paces in the warm up on the back pitch a half hour before the game.