If all 2,500 of Mayo’s season ticket holders make the trip to St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge, they will take over almost half the capacity of the Lillywhites home ground on Sunday. While it is not expected Mayo supporters in that number will make the trek east on Sunday a very healthy number of supporters will be on hand to see the latest update of James Horan’s Mayo make their proper competitive debut of the year, after the shadow boxing of the FBD League. Horan has given two players their Allainz Football League debuts with Aghamore’s Brendan Harrison getting the nod to start in the half-back line alongside Shane McHale and Lee Keegan. While Mayo Gaels’ Adam Gallagher will come into the team in the number 12 shirt in a half-forward line anchored by Keith Higgins and with Cathal Carolan on the other wing,
The big talking point of the week has been Horan’s injury, an enforced absentee list which is looking like a who’s who of big name players. Tom Cunniffe, Barry Moran, and Richie Feeney are excused because of their commitment to Castlebar Mitchels charge to make it to the club showpiece on St Patrick’s Day, while David Clarke, Kenneth O’Malley, Chris Barrett, Donal Vaughan, Alan Dillon, Cillian O’Connor, and Seamus O’Shea, all potential first team starters unavailable for selection.
The FBD League saw Horan give a number of players a chance to impress and put their hands up for a spot in the team with a new look half-back line of Brendan Harrison, Shane McHale, and David Drake starting all three games in the competition with both McHale and Harrison getting a start on Sunday.
A rolling cast of applicants were given a chance to impress in the middle of the park for an opportunity to partner Aidan O’Shea there for the start of the league, Kiltane’s John Reilly, Ballintubber’s Jason Gibbons, Claremorris’ Brian Gallagher and the returning Tom Parsons all getting time to impress and it was the latter who has been given the chance on Sunday.
Robbie Hennelly will continue between the posts with Kevin Keane, Ger Cafferkey and Colm Boyle making up the full-back line. While the attack will the full-forward line will see Kevin McLoughlin and Darren Coen flank Andy Moran in the number 14 jersey.
Sunday’s opponent’s picked up their second O’Byrne Cup on the bounce last Sunday with a 1-10 to 0-9 win over Meath, and with new manager Jason Ryan taking charge of Kildare for the first time in the league on Sunday his players will be out to impress the new boss. And impress they did with seven different players getting in on the scoresheet over the 60 minutes. Players like Paul Cribbin, Darroch Mulhall, and Paddy Brophy impressed over the hour with the trio contributing seven points of the Kildare total on the day with Thomas Moolick getting the only goal of the day.
The action gets under way at 2pm in the Newbridge venue and Mayo will be away again the following weekend in Healy Park in Omagh against Tyrone.
Club championship draw throws up plenty of interesting contests
While the first round of the action in this year’s Trenalaur Catering Mayo GAA Senior Football Championship may be a good few months away, there was lots of interest in the draws held in Elvery's MacHale Park this week for the group stages. Following the draw for each group, a separate draw was made between the four sides to determine their order in the group to ensure there was a random factor in deciding which teams got two home games in the group stages.
Current champions Castlebar Mitchels, who are preparing for their big All Ireland semi-final showdown with Dr Crokes from Kerry in a few weeks, were drawn in group one with local rivals Ballintubber, former kingpins Crossmolina, and Shrule Glencorrib.
Group two was evenly spilt between north and south Mayo, with two teams from each division in the group, with last year’s semi-finalists Knockmore the number one seeds in the draw being joined by Garrymore, Ballinrobe, and Kiltane who are All Ireland final bound in the intermediate championship in two weeks time.
In group three there is a clash of two big guns from out east, with beaten semi-finalists from last year Charlestown squaring up against the 2012 champions Ballaghaderreen, with Westport and Davitts also joining them in the mix. The final group has put together last year’s beaten finalists Breaffy with Ballina Stephenites, Claremorris, and Aghamore. Breaffy will welcome Aghamore in round one while Claremorris and Ballina Stephenites will do battle in south Mayo. The draws for the Egan Jewellers Intermediate Football Championship and the Breaffy House Resort Junior Football Championship also took place on the night. Full details of the draws can be found at http://www.advertiser.ie/mayo/article/66585/draw-throws-up-plenty-of-interesting-contests
