Search Results for 'Trevor Mortimer'

At least half a dozen Mayo players were nursing injuries this week according to Mayo manager James Horan. Speaking at the press night in the lead up to next week’s semi-final showdown, Horan confirmed that Trevor Mortimer, David Clarke, Aidan and Seamus O’Shea, Mark Ronaldson and Peadar Gardiner were all nursing knocks at the moment.

I discovered last Sunday that football does occasionally work to Hollywood endings and rose-red sunsets. Last Sunday’s game was a big occasion for Mayo football. Our reputation as a team of being able to compete with the big boys was under threat. However we should not have worried ourselves as Mayo delivered a fearless determined display which ranks up there with the very best we have witnessed heretofore and in doing so ensured that the integrity of Mayo football is back where it belongs after a disappointing couple of years.

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.

Mayo 0-13

With a sell out crowd of 30,000 expected to head to Hyde Park on Sunday, there will be nowhere to hide for Mayo as they aim to dethrone Fergal O’Donnell’s defending Connacht champions on their home patch. Ten years ago O’Donnell was the man who lifted the Nestor Cup in the same venue on a sweltering Sunday evening when a late, late Gerry Lohan goal had primrose and blue ribbons hanging from the old trophy for the year at the end of one of the games of the ages.

The Connacht senior football semi-final win over Sligo was the first step on the road to redemption for the Mayo ladies senior football team after a very poor run in the National Football which saw them go winless over the whole campaign. Jason Tanniane took over a team which had its difficulties, but with a championship win under their belt now he looks to have the team moving in the right direction. The win over Sligo was backboned by a number of old familiar names who have battled valiantly in the green and red for what seems like years now, Yvonne Byrne, Cora Staunton, Claire Egan, Fiona McHale and Martha Carter have all seen the highs with Mayo in the past and their experience will once again be invaluable on Sunday afternoon when they face the old enemy Galway in the Connacht Senior Football Championship final.

I got a call last Thursday from a friend wondering if I could meet him for lunch. Upon arrival at the chosen venue I could see said friend was extremely agitated and frustrated and it became apparent he needed a sounding board to launch a tirade regarding a minor match fixture. Friend happens to be the manager of the minor team in question that had made it through to the county league semi final. It transpired that his annoyance and frustration concerned a break down in communication regarding the fixture. He had received an email the previous night (Wednesday) saying that the fixture was scheduled for the following Friday evening (48 hours notice). He told me that he had been informed on the Monday night that the game would definitely not be played during that week and the best information he got suggested that it would be a couple of weeks before it would take place. Consequently the club did not fulfil the fixture and the match was awarded to the opposition on a walk over. The county final at this particular grade is fixed for this weekend. Some of you may be aware that the Oxegen concert also takes place this weekend when thousands of youngsters of this particular age group travel to the music festival.

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.

James Horan has rung the changes ahead of Sunday’s Connacht Championship clash with Galway in McHale Park. The Ballintubber club man has made a total of six changes to the starting 15 from the side that narrowly avoided being eliminated from the provincial championship at the hands of the exiles in London last month. In defence back come into the team Keith Higgins who missed out against London due to injury and Trevor Mortimer at wing back. Horan has also opted for a whole new look midfield, with Breaffy duo and brothers Aidan and Seamus O’Shea manning the key sector of the field where they are expected to line up against Finian Hanley and Joe Bergin in the middle of the park. Kevin McLoughlin comes into the side in the half forward line alongside team captain Alan Dillon and Andy Moran, while Cillian O’Connor will make his first championship start for Mayo alongside Alan Freeman and Jason Doherty in the full forward line.