Search Results for 'qualifier'

Last Sunday’s classic quarter final clash between Tipperary and Galway enhanced the notion that the real hurling doesn't swing into action until all the back doors have been closed. This is the game we have been waiting for to finally ignite the year.

It’s not too often I start my column with a football theme but the scenes that followed last Sunday’s Leinster football final will have repercussions for every GAA supporter.

Three weeks on from the being beaten by Sligo in the preliminary round of the Connacht Championship, Mayo will roll up to the midlands for the first round of the All Ireland qualifiers. The first round of the backdoor competition, while not quite uncharted territory, is one that is still not too familiar to Mayo players and supporters. In fact Mayo have only entered the qualifier system at this stage once before, also under the tutelage of O’Mahony in 2007. That year a comfortable win over Cavan in McHale Park was followed up with a humbling inside the city walls of Derry by the Oak Leaf county in the second round.

I always find it exciting when waiting to see what teams are paired against each other from the qualifier draw. I watched it live last weekend and once it was decided it would be Longford a good lively discussion took place about Mayo’s chances of progress. Most felt Mayo would be capable of beating Longford, a team that had a very mediocre season to date. When it was clarified later that evening that Longford had been awarded the home advantage for the match on Saturday June 26 (information that was not to hand when the discussion took place earlier), the task looked that little bit more difficult. I suggested in this column last week that it might be better for all if Mayo were drawn against a top tier side. Armagh, Derry, Kildare, or Donegal immediately spring to mind. Had we been drawn against any one of these teams and managed a victory, I feel the team could redeem itself and could certainly give us some hope for a reasonably good run through the qualifiers. However a match against Longford in Pearse Park just doesn’t set the pulse racing for me and I hope this particular clash gets the team a little more excited than I feel about it right now. I watched Longford play Louth in the Leinster Championship two weeks ago. It was a game they could so easily have won and they played without their star man, Brian Kavanagh. Their other star forward, Paul Barden, did play that evening, but was not 100 per cent fit. Both apparently are back training and will start against Mayo. Also in recent years I have attended the compact Longford venue and witnessed the home side frighten the lives out of very formidable opposition. I recall in 2006 a Dublin team looking mightily relieved to leave the midlands after scraping a two point victory over the home side. Longford sent Derry packing the year before in a qualifier game. Most of you will recall Kerry really struggling to beat them last year. So when their manager Glen Ryan suggested last week that he didn’t care who his side were drawn against as long as they had a home draw, you can fully understand where he was coming from.

Sligo 0-15

Monivea face their final and deciding round-robin AIB League qualifier on Saturday when they host fellow promotion hopefuls Seapoint at Judges Road (2.30pm).

Open Men’s Four Ball: Sat/Sun April 10/11 (club winners qualify for Holmpatrick Cup)

Galway athletes enjoyed a successful day at the Irish Juvenile Indoor Athletic Championships in Nenagh Stadium at the weekend, bagging a medal haul of three gold, seven silver and two bronze medals.

There were no real surprises in the two provincial senior finals at Ballaghaderreen on Saturday afternoon as all-Ireland senior doubles champions Dessie Keegan and Joe McCann maintained their unbeaten run to take the provincial title at the expense of fellow club mates Vincent Moran and Campbell Brennan. The champions were in devastating form in a very one sided opener and they won it for the loss of just two aces. Moran and Brennan finally got around to playing some handball in the second and the duo, to their credit, made a real fight of it and it looked like the game could go either way at one stage. However Keegan and McCann did just enough to see off the challenge as they won the second 21 aces to 17. Marianna Rushe ran out the expected easy winner of the ladies’ senior singles final with an easy two games to nil victory over fellow St Coman’s contender Leona Doolin.

Donegal 1-13