A Mayo Day to remember

Fri, May 06, 2016

Who is ever going to forget Mayo Day 2016? Not one Mayo GAA fan that's for sure after the heroics of our U21 team in reaching the promised land and claiming the county's fifth All-Ireland title at this level. Was I confident before throw in? Not really, we knew Brian Reape was out and I heard on the grapevine that fullback Seamus Cuniffe was very doubtful because of a hamstring, and that our most influential player Diarmuid O'Connor might not be able to give his all because of a fractured finger sustained against Dublin in the semi-final. We couldn't possibly win with three key players missing or not at 100 per cent was my gut instinct. I was relieved to see Cuniffee and O'Connor taking their positions for the throw in. The buzz in Cusack Park was surreal, Mayo fans making up at least 7,000 of the almost 8,000 crowd.

It is not often you leave a game, a final that Mayo have played in, that you cannot remember the sequence of, or else mix up the goals scored by a team in green and red, this was very much the case last Saturday, after all they did score five, all beautiful and crucial in their own right. Mayo were under the cosh in the first half and were struggling badly kicking some horrible wides. Deja vu all over again we thought, I could only imagine the opinions from around the country, they are at it again, bottling it for a final. Cork were 0-07 to 0-04 to the good five minutes before the interval despite playing against a fairly stiff breeze, Matthew Ruane's lung busting run from deep and his fine score the highlight for Mayo from those first 25 minutes or so. I have no doubt Michael Solan's planned half time team talk was all about trying to get back in the game and to stop squandering chances created, while also trying to curb the threat of Cork's full forward giants Peter Kelleher and Brian Coakley, but not he or anyone could have envisaged what was to happen next. Shaorize Akram ran at the Cork defence but a high solo meant he was robbed by Ryan Harkin of Cork, Akram did very well to shoulder Harkin over the end line to retrieve possession, instead of picking the ball up Akram toe poked the ball to Liam Irwin who thought he would have a piece of that and slid the ball to Michael Plunkett. Plunkett's deft chip up back to Irwin opened the Cork defence, Irwin returned the pass to Plunkett who fired a perfect hand pass across the Cork goal for Diarmuid O'Connor to palm to the net. It was an unbelievable goal. The control and skill levels of Irwin and Plunket would not go amiss on Soccer Saturday’s show boating segment. The second goal arrived with 34 minutes gone on the clock, again Plunkett was instrumental in the build up after cutting through the Cork defence he laid the ball off to Conor Loftus who lost control, Fionan Duffy picked up the scraps and again took a bad touch before palming the ball to Plunket who hand passed to Liam Irwin, the bear on the square did a 360 degree turn before rifling his shot past a helpless Cork defence. Duffy's bravery cannot be overemphasised in the build up, he took a right clatter for his troubles. Instead of going in three points down, Mayo found themselves four to the good, it was complete shock and awe, Cork were rattled and the Mayo team raced off the field to rapturous applause.

Mighty Mayo make it a Mayo Day to remember

Sun, May 01, 2016

With six minutes left on the clock in Cusack Park in Ennis, it looked like it might finally go wrong for this marvellous Mayo team when Brian Coakley kicked his fifth point of the day to draw Cork level with Mayo with the score 3-7 to 1-13. Cork were coming and the momentum was with them at this stage. Peter Kelleher was causing havoc inside the Mayo defensive line and the legs seemed to be going in some of those in green and red.

Solan’s men look to bottle Cork’s challenge

Fri, Apr 29, 2016

Ten years ago Mayo met Cork in the All Ireland u21 final in Ennis, and tomorrow afternoon both sides will meet once more in the same venue for the Clarke Cup at stake yet again. Mayo come into the final on the back of their first provincial title since 2009 and a heroic come from behind win late on against Dublin in the semi-final in Tullamore a fortnight ago.

GAA: All Ireland U21 final Ten years is a long time in football

Fri, Apr 29, 2016

There are not too many people who will have kicked 1-6 in an All Ireland final, won the man-of-the-match award and a winner's medal, and has not even watched the game back over the past decade, but that is the case for Mayo's star man in their last U21 All Ireland final win, Aidan Kilcoyne.

Solan looking to drive Mayo to five

Fri, Apr 29, 2016

It is hard to believe on the eve of an All Ireland U21 final, that despite the best efforts of Ray Dempsey, Tony Duffy, and Niall Heffernan on the sideline Mayo had failed to reach even a Connacht decider in seven years until this year. The lack of success at this grade was seen as a worrying indicator to the possible prospects of the senior team who are currently backboned by a strong cohort of those who won an All Ireland U21 title in 2006 and those who were latterly involved in the sides that won Connacht titles in 07, 08, and 09 as their careers enter the final few years at the top level.

Holding down the back line

Fri, Apr 29, 2016

In his first year as a minor Seamus Cunniffe was the rock in the Mayo full back line in a team that went on to claim the Tom Markham Cup. The following year he was back on duty again with the minors as part of a side that reached the All Ireland semi-final, before bowing out at the semi-final stage. Last year he missed out on togging out with the u21s through injury, but he is back this year and has been one of the key men in Michael Solan's sides charge to tomorrow's final showdown.

The defensive crust

Fri, Apr 29, 2016

Coming from the tip of the county, with the Atlantic winds whipping in on top of them, Belmullet has produced a fine line of teak tough Mayo footballers over the years, and the latest of that lineage to don the green and red in am All Ireland final battle is Eoin O'Donoghue.

All roads lead to Ennis

Fri, Apr 29, 2016

No matter what the competition, no matter what the grade, nothing beats the excitement of All-Ireland final day. Tomorrow just happens to be a big one in the GAA calendar. The Mayo u21s travel to Ennis to take on Munster champions Cork 10 years on from their last victory at this grade against the same opposition at the same venue. The players would have felt the buzz all week, our senior team have had to take a back seat for the last few weeks, now it's all about the U21s.

For those of you watching on TV or present in Tullamore, you couldn't have asked for two better semi finals, both filled with a little bit of everything. I played in two All Ireland u21 finals, one against Cork in Ennis coincidently in 1994 and the other against Kerry in 1995. We lost both but I have a special gra for this competition and I am amazed and disappointed the powers that be have decided to abolish it. I’m sure after watching the two semi-finals they wondered, what have we done?

Mayo looking for revenge on orchard county

Fri, Apr 29, 2016

The Mayo senior hurlers will take on Armagh in the second round of the Nicky Rackard Cup tomorrow afternoon in Ballina when they take on Armagh, as they look to book a spot in the semi-final of the competition. Last weekend Mayo opened up their Rackard account with a 4-19 to 0-17 win over Tyrone, but it was very hard fought encounter, as manager JP Coen explained. "It was just bad play and a bit of complacency. We hadn't played a competitive game in a good while, probably the journey too didn't help — it's a lot further than you'd think for a bus journey — that coupled with a small bit of rustiness and it took us a while to get going. In fairness to Tyrone, they came at us at a good tempo and they did very well. While we might have looked to be playing badly, we had a few bad wides that could have had us in front at the break, but we found our range in the second half and took it from there."

Mayo look to start escape from third tier

Fri, Apr 22, 2016

It is quite possible that tomorrow afternoon some of the Mayo faithful who make the long trip to the Carrickmore for their Nicky Rackard Cup opener and take a seat in the stand in the ground will have a feeling of déjà vu, because the ground is the new home of the old Nally Stand that was once a fixture of Croke Park before the GAA headquarters was completely redeveloped. The stand of course also has plenty of Mayo connections, being named after Balla native Patrick William Nally.

Ladies look to book final spot

Fri, Apr 22, 2016

Tomorrow afternoon in Birr, Frank Browne's Mayo Ladies' side will be putting their 100 per cent league record on the line when they take on Kerry in the National League semi-final with a spot in the final up for grabs. It has been a seriously impressive league season so far for this side who have swept all before them in the group stages, picking up seven wins from seven games to top the division, finishing nine points in front of the four sides below them in the table who all finished on 12 points. That led to its own confusion and controversy with Armagh initially being told that they had made it into the last four only for it to emerge that it was Mayo's opponents Kerry who had qualified for the play-off spot.

Magic u21s refuse to throw in the towel

Fri, Apr 22, 2016

For those of you who have ever been to Old Trafford to watch Man Utd I am sure you are familiar with the song about “never dying” in honour of the club’s resurrection after the tragic Munich Air disaster. I know there has not been such a tragedy in Mayo football terms but such a song would be very appropriate about Michael Solan’s Mayo u21 team. They never give up. They never die.

Before talking about the game I want to give a small indication of how special a win this was and how the Mayo u21 football team refused to surrender under extreme circumstances when it looked like they had given their all but came up short against a rampant Dublin team in the second half in Tullamore. To summarise, Mayo were cruising at half time, they were in total control yet they surrendered a six point lead to go four down with 10 minutes to go (that is a 10 point swing in lay man terms), only to miraculously get the energy to claw their way back into the game when everything was going against them and snatch it at the end with a Conor Loftus free four minutes into injury time. I struggled to breathe and hold my composure live on radio as I could not believe what I was witnessing, this was perseverance of the highest order, this was special, very special.

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