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The Galway county final was on last Sunday in Tuam Stadium and it ended in a disappointing draw, Corofin 0-9 and Mountbellew/Moylough 0-9. The replay is on Sunday week. The standard of fare on offer was very poor and despite splendid weather conditions for football, none of the Mountbellew forwards could manage a single score from play in the entire 60 minutes and the Corofin forwards weren’t much better, hitting nine wides in the first half alone and only scoring 0-3 (1f) in the second.

If friendship was to be measured by the number of times I called to John Naughton’s house to say hello, I was not John’s friend at all, for I never called to his home, nor he to mine and this despite the fact that he only lived over the road from me here in Castlebar. But I have known John all of my adult life because he played in goal for the Crossmolina senior football team for years. Unfortunately John lost his brave battle with cancer and passed away last week. John was a very clever, gifted, man who knew things that others didn’t. He was interested in predictable things like Gaelic football, his farm and livestock, and loved his work with the HSE in Castlebar Hospital. He always struck me as being a wise man. He remained passionate about the Crossmolina football team even after he stopped playing. When I made my way on to the senior team in Crossmolina John was already the well established custodian, having played in goals for years prior to my arrival. He took his game seriously and was never shy in making a suggestion as to how the opposition would be beaten, or offering his point of view on what was going awry in a game. John had notions of grandeur for the club. He wasn’t content with the junior medal won in 1975 or the intermediate title won in 1980. He wanted the team to be the best it could be, to be up there with the top teams competing for the county senior title annually. He was one of the real leaders in the dressing room during my indoctrination. At that time I was a young naive defender on the team and John often pulled me aside before, during, and after games to offer encouragement and advice, for which I was most grateful for. What I loved about those words was the fact that they were delivered in the language of the plain man. In other words, there was no doubt in my mind about the content of the message delivered! John’s manner was genial, his humour easy, and his mind acute. He was enormously proud of the achievements of his native Crossmolina, particularly the All Ireland club victory in 2001. On big match days, whether it was Mayo or Crossmolina that was involved, John would have the field in front of the house bedecked in the Mayo and Crossmolina colours. The display of a variety of paraphernalia, bunting, and flags signalled the fact that a serious follower of the GAA lived in the house behind the field. An enormous crowd of old GAA friends and colleagues, from as far away as Co. Tyrone, turned out for his funeral last weekend to bid farewell to a good man who loved his sport. John would have been immensely proud of his son Kieran who bravely took to the field last Sunday to assist his club, Castlebar Mitchell’s, get through their quarter-final replay vs Shrule/Glencorrib successfully. It can’t have been easy.

The first of the major adult county titles will be given out on Saturday when Tooreen host Ballyhaunis in the Mayo Senior Hurling Championship final, with the TJ Tyrell Cup at stake. The men in red and black have been the premier force in Mayo hurling for the last decade, picking up their fifth title in seven years last year with a 0-15 to 2-7 win over their opponents. The last time Tooreen won the county title was back in 2003 and since then they have been on the coat tails of their neighbours.

The Galway county final was on last Sunday in Tuam Stadium and it ended in a disappointing draw, Corofin 0-9 and Mountbellew/Moylough 0-9. The replay is on Sunday week.

Patrick Gardiner (Ballinahowna, Mountbellew)

Garrycastle 3-8

You can’t beat experience or class. Despite the flamboyance and arrogance of youth, the old experienced warhorse who’s been there, done that, invariably realises that something clever is required if his team is going to prevail. And so it was last Sunday with Charlestown edging past Castlebar, just when some might have felt a shock was on the cards. In Crossmolina’s case in our semi-final defeat to Knockmore it looked as though we had too much experience and not enough youthful exuberance. Last Sunday Castlebar had plenty of youthful energy around the field, but when the game was there to be won, Charlestown had that little bit of guile and know-how to close out the deal. With all their experience they knew how to win this game and advance to yet another county final.

The past week has brought contrasting fortunes for Galway United, who enjoyed a thrilling success over Derry City, and then suffered a trimming from Drogheda United. That ensures tomorrow’s Terryland Park contest with Bohemians is now in the critical category.

With the Flanagan Cup already settled into the comfortable surrounds of Garrycastle, Tubberclair, and Caulry completed a memorable treble for south-side clubs by capturing the Westmeath intermediate and junior titles respectively last weekend. All three clubs border each-other, and to have the three main pieces of silverware on offer in the county wintering so closely together is a rare occurrence indeed.

Galway’s Padraic Joyce, former All-Star Michael Donnellan, and a host of national football greats such as Kerry’s Seamus Moynihan, Armagh’s All-Ireland winning captain and current Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney, Kildare’s Glen Ryan, Anthony Rainbow, John Divilly David Heaney, Derek Savage, Conor Mortimer, Paul Clancy, Richie Fahey, and Maurice Sheridan will all be in action this Saturday at Tuam Stadium at 3pm when they take on the current Galway football panel in a charity game.