Search Results for 'Tom Cunniffe'

Leitrim 0-9

All eyes will be on McHale Park on Sunday for the repeat of last year’s senior championship final, last year it was Ballintubber who were the last men left standing. While both groups of players are still more or less the same, on the sideline two new men will have been busy for the past few weeks plotting and planning each other’s downfall. When James Horan left Ballintubber to rejuvenate the standing of Mayo football on a national level, Anthony McGarry was the man left with the task of filling his boots. For the Mitchels, when Peter Ford stepped aside his banisteoir’s bib was handed to former Mayo senior and u21 manager Pat Holmes, and one target was given him, bring the Moclair cup back to the county town.

Castlebar Mitchels 2-10

Kerry 1-20 & nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; Mayo 1-11

The Mayo Senior Football team to take on Cork this Sunday in the All-Ireland Senior Football quarter final in Croke Park has been announced and shows two changes to the team that lined out against Roscommon in the Connacht Final. Ger Cafferkey replaces Alan Feeney at full back while Enda Varley takes his place in the full forward line in place of Jason Doherty.

I got a text last Sunday morning suggesting that Sunday’s result would be dictated by the free takers on either side because of the atrocious conditions. After our failure in this particular department in our two opening games of this year’s championship, I wasn’t exactly buzzing with confidence that we would win the match if it was to be decided in this way. But ultimately it was a very significant reason why Mayo were crowned champions last weekend. Mayo management passed the responsibility of free taking onto the young shoulders of Cillian O’ Connor. He was coolness personified throughout as he kicked eight out of nine frees in the match. Donie Shine on the other hand missed two crucial ones that could possibly have seen his team over the line.

I recall watching the Irish rugby team playing a Triple Crown match in 1985 against England. The match was very much in the balance with minutes left on the clock. It was at a critical juncture in the game that team captain Ciaran Fitzgerald demanded his team step up to the plate with his by now (in) famous line “where’s your f***ing pride?” The team responded and delivered a magnificent final few minutes to beat England on that day. I have no doubt that Fitzgerald’s leadership was crucial to that victory. Mayo football is, to some extent, at a similar juncture right now. We need leadership both on and off the field and, more than anything else, we need to display a bit of f***ing pride and heart. After last year’s championship defeats to Sligo and Longford we need to resurrect our reputation before we slip into a downward spiral of mediocrity that could prove difficult to shake off were it to continue. Mayo looked very sluggish and tired last year and some critics even suggested that they did not appear to be playing for one another. This season, however, we retained our division one status with some credible gutsy performances but appeared to hit a dip again a few weeks before the London match.

Just under a year ago Mayo travelled to Pairc Ui Chaoimh to take on Cork in the final group game in division one of the National Football League and came away with a 0-16 to 0-11 win and a place in the final of the competition. Only a few weeks later both sides squared up again in Croke Park and from the minute the ball was thrown in that day both teams’ seasons veered off in very different directions, Mayo’s ending on a Saturday evening in Longford eight weeks after that league final defeat and Cork’s on the final day with the ultimate prize.

Mayo 1-13

The speculation as to who would captain Mayo this year was ended by Mayo manager James Horan who announced his team for Saturday nights’ encounter with Down in McHale Park on Wednesday afternoon. Ballintubber’s Alan Dillon was given the captain’s armband for the game, with Andy Moran the vice captain.