Search Results for 'National Football League'

This Sunday in Tuam Stadium a Roscommon team that is beginning to improve and show some signs of unity and purpose under the stewardship of their great white managerial hope Fergal O'Donnell, take on Liam Sammon's exciting cocktail of youth and experience in the FBD league final.

Croke Park and an All-Ireland final is now their final date with destiny at intermediate level, and roses and chocolates will have to be temporarily replaced by flags, hats, and headbands. The city club has really caught the imagination these last few months and as a reward for their majestic win over Ballyroan last Sunday they will face St Michael's, Foilmore (Kerry), in the final under lights at 7.45pm on Saturday February 14.

It has been a wonderful change over the past few mornings to look out from around 7.20am on and see some brightness and light to help you scoff down the porridge, toast and tea before dashing out the door for work. And the really noticeable stretch in the evenings definitely adds a pep to your step as you hit the training fields or head for a good jaunty walk or jog. With winter's darkness practically in our rear-view mirror and next Sunday heralding the start of spring, it is time for us to start checking out the new faces on the county panels and see if all the old stagers are back in the fold and if they are carrying any excess baggage around the midriff and buttocks. Are the young guns up to the job in hand and is there another year or two in the auld lads? Those are the questions that will be up for debate over the coming few weeks.

It has been a wonderful change over the past few mornings to look out from around 7.20am on and see some brightness and light to help you scoff down the porridge, toast and tea before dashing out the door for work. And the really noticeable stretch in the evenings definitely adds a pep to your step as you hit the training fields or head for a good jaunty walk or jog.

Last Sunday morning was a case in point. I was haring down the motorway to Mullingar from the fireworks in Croke Park on Saturday night when I phoned a friend to see if he was going to the Galway v Westmeath game.

It is funny what makes you feel loved and appreciated. I have just spent the last 20 minutes talking to God on the big white telephone with our three-years-old Neasa rubbing my back, giving me hugs, and telling me that it will be OK.. “You’ll be better soon…” was the recurring mantra.

As Mayo footballer supporters, one of our most important assets down through the years is our optimism. With all of the news about corporate bail outs, bank rescues, layoffs, falling stock prices, and businesses going belly up, I have to admit that it is hard to stay positive at times. We are really fed up with reading bad news, and listening to the prophets of doom. And so, I was eagerly looking forward to the start of the National Football League and some good quality football in order to see a few smiling faces for the first time in ages. I arrived in Ballina in good time and was met at the showground entrance by the ever so jovial Barry McLaughlin, who was doing his bit for the local club by managing traffic flow at that end of the ground.

Galway produced an epic, lyrical performance in the first half against Dublin last Sunday afternoon. The standing ovation they received as they trouped off at half time for their Jaffa cakes and tea summed up the mood of the paying customers in the stand as they found themselves whipped up into a real "feel-good" moment by the superb free-flowing football of the forwards.

It was Sigerson Cup last weekend so senior inter-county football teams had an opportunity to regroup and conduct a ‘where are we now’ review of their opening two games of the National Football League. In Mayo’s case the review might have involved the use of a ‘head doctor’ in order to establish how the team can mix the brilliance of the extraordinary second half comeback against Donegal, with the ordinariness of their performance in the first half.

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