At Wednesday night’s draw, when Garrymore were pulled out of the bag to complete the third quarter-final pairing in the Treanlaur Catering Senior Football Championship, it was the confirmation that only one possible pairing could come out in the fourth game. Out came Ballintubber and they were swiftly followed by Castlebar Mitchels, pairing the sides who have met in the last two finals in quarter-final action this time. The chances of these sides meeting at this stage looked remote enough last week, with both sides top of the table in their respective groups and looking favourites to stay there and claim a top seed for the draw. But Castlebar Mitchels came a cropper to a rejuvenated Crossmolina Deel Rovers at home last Sunday and slipped into the second seeds pot for the quarter-final draw. The draw itself has also the mapped out the routes from here on into the finals in both the senior championship and the Egan Jewellers Intermediate Football Championship.
The first team out of the hat in the senior championship was Crossmolina Deel Rovers, who recovered from being well beaten by Ballinrobe on the first day to claim top spot in their group last Sunday. They were paired up with an up and coming Westport side who will not fear taking on Michael Moyles’ men in the last eight and will fancy their chances of making it to the semi-finals this year. Westport came through their group in second place thanks to win a comfortable win over Tourmakeady and a draw with Ballina Stephenites.
The second quarter-final in the Treanlaur Catering sponsored championship, pairs Knockmore and Claremorris. The north Mayo men topped their group with wins over Shrule-Glenncorrib, Aghamore, and last Saturday night over Garrymore where they were comfortable winners in the game to decide the top spot in the group. Claremorris came through in second place behind Ballintubber seeing off the challenges of Breaffy and Davitts, before being beaten by defending champions Ballintubber, at home last weekend.
The third quarter-final has put together the 2008 champions Ballaghaderreen and the six time winners Garrymore. Ballaghaderreen have really come back to form this year blitzing past Tourmakeady and seeing off the tough challenge of Westport in their opening two group games. They then held off the stubborn challenge of a Ballina Stephenites side who were fighting to ensure their senior survival last Saturday night. Garrymore battled their way through their group beating Aghamore by two points and Shrule-Glenncorrib by four points in their opening two games to ensure their place in the last eight.
Once the draws for the quarter-finals were made, the semi-final pairings was made and it has paired the winners of the Ballintubber v Castlebar Mitchels game against the winners of the Crossmolina Deel Rovers and Westport clash. The other semi-final will see the winners of the Ballaghaderreen v Garrymore contest taking on the winners of the Knockmore v Claremorris game.
Before the draw for the last eight was made, the small matter of the relegation play off draw had to be taken care of. First out of the hat came the born survivors Kiltane who were pitted against Aghamore in the first game, leaving Breaffy and Ballina Stephenites to battle it out in the other game. This time last year both Breaffy and Ballina Stephenites were paired together in the quarter-final of this competition in a game that went to replay.
West-coast derby has makings of intriguing intermediate clash
Of all the pairings for the quarter finals of the Egan Jewellers Intermediate Football Championship, one meeting has the look of a real interesting battle. There is around 20 miles between McGovern Park in Newport and Achill Sound. But Burrishoole who play out of McGovern Park stretch much closer to the island and when these sides meet, neither will leave anything in the dressing room.
Burrishoole are looking to make it back to the final of this grade for the third year in a row and make it third time lucky after losing to Tourmakeady and Davitts in the last two finals.
Charlestown, who won the senior championship as recently as 2009, fell through the relegation trap door last year and are favoured to bounce back up this year. In Wednesday night’s quarter-final draw they were paired with Moy Davitts. Hollymount-Carramore will take on Parke who made it to the semi-final last year in another quarter-final, with the final last eight match up between Swinford and Kilmaine. The relegation play-off draw has pitted Cill Chomain and Kiltimagh in one game and Killala and Mayo Gaels in the other, with the winners of each game staying up and the two losers playing off against each other, with the losing team dropping to the junior ranks for next year.
The times and dates for the quarter-finals in both the quarter finals and relegation play offs for the senior and intermediate championships will be fixed next week. But according to the official Mayo GAA Twitter account the quarter finals for teams with inter county players will be played on the weekend of August 11/12 with the other games the following weekend.
All Ireland quarter final draw on Saturday night
Mayo will find out who their opponents are in the All Ireland quarter-finals on Saturday night. The draw for the last eight will be made live on RTÉ Radio One on the Saturday Sport programme at 8.30pm following the completion of the final round of qualifiers which will take place that evening across the country. The dates and times of the quarter finals which will take place over the Bank Holiday weekend will be announced on Sunday by the GAA.
