Search Results for 'football'

The Galway footballers will head up the motorway to Jones Road this Sunday morning to face Tipperary in the All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park [4pm], hoping to be the first senior football team from the county to taste success at the venue since 2001.

Mayo put in their best 70 minutes of football under Stephen Rochford's watch to easily account for Kildare in their third round qualifier in sun drenched Elverys MacHale Park last Saturday. There is no question it had to have been the most relaxing 70 minutes Rochford has had since he took over the reins. The opposition has to be taken into account however. Kildare are no longer a force in football, they struggle to beat division four teams, they are probably the fifth best team in a Province that has only one decent team, but as the saying goes Mayo can only beat what is put in front of them.

Mayo will be heading back to Croke Park next Saturday when they face Westmeath in the final round of the qualifiers with a place the last eight up for grabs. Keith Higgins was out to meet the press this week ahead of the game and he's looking forward to getting back to GAA HQ next weekend. "That's where everyone wants to play, we're delighted to get back there and hopefully and we'll have another day out there."

The Galway minor footballers will face either Kildare or Laois in the All-Ireland quarter-finals in two weeks time after an impressive 1-9 to 0-6 Connacht final victory over Mayo last Sunday in Pearse Stadium.

They may be one of only two counties to have never claimed a provincial title alongside Wicklow in the football championship, and their pedigree may not be as strong as other counties, but as they showed on their route to the All Ireland quarterfinal stages last year, this Fermanagh side are only worried about writing their own history. The man on the sideline guiding them, Pete McGrath, has been there and done it all before, guiding his native Down to two senior and one minor All Ireland titles in the past. In his last meeting with a Mayo side he was in charge of a Down u21 team that saw off Mayo in an All Ireland semifinal in 2009 in Longford, there are plenty familiar Mayo faces from that team no part of this year's set up and they do not want to see McGrath smiling at full time again at the end of a championship encounter.

At a recent Mayo Sports Partnership Board meeting €19,500 was allocated to 46 clubs/organisations in Mayo through the Partnership's 2016 Special Participation Grant Scheme. Special guest at the presentation event, Minister of State for Regional Economic Development Michael Ring, paid tribute to volunteers involved in sport at all levels throughout the county. “Without volunteers sport in Mayo like every other county would not happen. Its so important that we recognise the hard work of volunteers through initiatives such as the Mayo Sports Partnerships annual small grant scheme,” Minister Ring said.

Galway football captain Gary O'Donnell has been down the Connacht final road before and he knows the victors next Sunday will be the team that produces a consistent and solid team performance.

When we narrowly defeated Roscommon in the Connacht final in 1998 after a replay, it was a bit of luck that made the difference between two evenly matched sides.

It is Enda Gilvarry's fourth year in charge of the Mayo minors and on Wednesday night he guided a third batch of minors to the provincial decider in those four years with a big win over Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon, but there is still plenty work to do he said afterwards. "There was some good and some bad, it's fantastic and great for the players, a great opportunity now over the next number of weeks to prepare and we're into an All Ireland quarter final. We will need to improve in a lot of aspects of the game to compete in the Connacht final and then in an All Ireland quarter-final, but it's great to have an opportunity to do that. We're all really looking forward to that, you can see it in their reaction after the game that they are delighted."

Mayo have been drawn to play Fermanagh on July 9 in their first qualifier appearance since 2010. It does pose the toughest draw they could have got however home advantage should make them overwhelming favourites. Fermanagh  have two seriously good forwards in Tomas Corrigan and Sean Quigley, and their midfielder and captain Eoin Donnelly is an inspirational player for his county but we  are dealing with a seasoned Mayo team who should be more than capable of dealing with their threat, Naturally Fermanagh folk are gutted as an away trip to Mayo was the last thing they wanted. It really was the nightmare draw for the Ernesiders. Incidentally Mayo are priced at 1/12 to prevail while you can get 7/1 on Fermanagh. I’m mystified at such short odds on Mayo.