Search Results for 'Yeats'

There had not been one shock so far in the first round of the All-Ireland football championship, a few landslide victories that we did not see coming, but no underdog eliminating any overwhelming favourite from their provincial championship. That all changed last Saturday evening in Markevicz Park in Sligo where the home side completely outplayed and outfought a Roscommon side that seemed to believe all their own hype.

There was plenty of shock on Wednesday evening when it was announced by the Connacht GAA Council that Hyde Park in Roscommon would be the venue for this year's Connacht Senior Football Championship final between Mayo and Sligo. All indications up to that point were that the game would be played in either Castlebar's Elverys MacHale Park or Galway's Pearse Stadium.

The distraction of Wednesday’s news that Conor Mortimer has decided to leave the Mayo senior panel is the last thing that Mayo manager James Horan will have wanted ahead of Sunday’s Connacht final showdown with Sligo in Hyde Park. Horan’s side had only just been announced by the county board online and through traditional methods a matter of hours when news broke of Mortimer’s decision to leave the panel, bringing the eye of the national and local media on Mayo ahead of Sunday for reasons other than what happens on the field. Mortimer being the second member of the panel to make themselves unavailable for Mayo in a matter of weeks, following Robert Hennelly’s decision leave the panel due to work commitments a few weeks ago.

Mayo 1-6

Last week I suggested that home advantage might prove decisive in deciding who would advance to play Roscommon in the Connacht final on July 17. I was wrong. Having witnessed the display from Galway last Sunday I am now of the opinion that if Mayo had played the first half of last Sunday’s encounter in Pearse Stadium and the second half in Tuam we still would have won in a canter. I have never in my lifetime witnessed such an inept performance from a Galway senior side. They were spiritless and soft when it came to putting up any sort of a challenge to Mayo last Sunday. In fact the game, particularly the first half, ranks as one of the worst of this year’s championship. (I would rank the first game played in this year’s championship, Donegal v Antrim as the worst.) I accept that the second half did improve but that improvement came from Mayo as a single point from play by Galway in the entire second half tells its own story. At no point did Galway radiate the belief that they had the measure of Mayo. When a team plays without any semblance of a pattern as Galway did last weekend, it suggests that there is little synchronisation between management and players.

Mayo 1-19

Cork 1-17     Mayo 0-12

Both Ballina and Westport got their Connacht Junior league campaigns off to winning starts last Sunday, while Castlebar had to make do with a share of the spoils at home.

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.

Mayo 3-14