Back in eight minutes and 41 seconds

Mon, Aug 31, 2015

It was done and dusted, Mayo were going home and the dream looked to have died for another year when Jack McCaffrey put the ball over the bar to put Dublin 2-12 to 0-11 clear with 60.45 gone on the clock. Mayo brought in Alan Freeman just after the white flag had been raised.

Moran's magic saves Mayo

Sun, Aug 30, 2015

Ten minutes from time Jack McCaffery swung the ball over the bar and the Hill was in full voice as Dublin went seven points clear and Mayo were hanging on looking for a punchers chance of resurrecting their interest in this years All Ireland senior championship. But they dug in and fought it out to the not so bitter end. Eight minutes from time Andy Moran fired over a nice score from play, a minute later Keith Higgins side stepped his way to a point and the gap was closing in.

Mayo look to take the Hill for a crack at the Kingdom

Fri, Aug 28, 2015

Traditionally, once the starting 15 was announced all talk would move towards the various match-ups that would occur on the field. But even with Mayo announcing their starting 15 on Wednesday night for Sunday's big game, most of the talk was shifted towards "is that how they will actually line out". Since Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly threw the curve ball of dropping Barry Moran into the starting 15 for Mayo's win over Donegal in the quarter final win over the Ulster men, the chances of their doing the same for Dublin became a more real possability.

Are we there yet?

Fri, Aug 28, 2015

What a mouth watering clash we have in prospect for Sunday. Some of the biggest names in planet GAA competing against each other. We can now definitely say the three best teams in the country are left in the race for Sam Maguire, no one can argue against that. Kerry did all they had to do to get by Tyrone and reach another final but Sunday’s clash between Mayo and Dublin is the one we have been waiting for. The games against Dublin are incomparable especially at championship level. People all around lose the run of themselves. Croke Park is a cauldron of unimaginable noise, even deafening while wearing a headset and on radio duty. The league game in McHale Park this year between the two sides almost attracted a crowd of 16, 000, the likes of which I have never seen before for such an early season clash, which is where I am going to start. Dublin came into that game on a serious losing streak and in relegation trouble, Mayo were on the crest of a wave. All Dublin folk will tell you that game was the turning point in their season; they gave Mayo a right trimming winning by 2-18 to 0-10 that evening and went on to comfortably win the league thereafter. They have since won nine games on the spin.

Making the match ups

Mayo can beat Dublin if they play to their optimum

Fri, Aug 28, 2015

This Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final clash between 2013 All-Ireland champions Dublin, and the team they defeated by a single point in that final, Mayo, has the entire country anticipating a humdinger of a game. Croke Park itself is a total sell-out, so there will be 82,000 plus a few stragglers at the game itself, and about 750,000 viewers tuning in on TV.

And with the quality of players on both sides, and two of the top three teams in the country in action, it has the potential to be the game of the championship. It would be no surprise at all if that came to pass, as these two sides have produced some truly fantastic games over the past decade, with the 2006 classic where Ciarán McDonald kicked a stunning winner to edge Mayo to a 1-16 to 2-12 win in the All-Ireland semi-final, providing epic entertainment.

Holding forth at the back

Fri, Aug 28, 2015

He is one of the hardest, toughest, defenders you are likely to come across on the field of play, the kind of guy who puts his head in where it hurts, without consideration for his own wellbeing in the pursuit of victory. His hard hits are legendary, with the shoulder he put in on Damien Comer in last year's Connacht championship meeting between Mayo and Galway being felt right back up to the rafters in the stand in MacHale Park. But when you meet Colm Boyle off the field, he is one of the nicest fellows you could meet. Boyle has become a regular of the Mayo senior team press events and he is always courteous with his time and willing to ask whatever questions are put to him. For a guy who thought six year ago his inter-county career might have been over, he has become one of the backbones of Mayo success over the last half a decade.

Managing the moving parts

Fri, Aug 28, 2015

"What we do need to concentrate on is being at our very best in June, July, August, and September, and whatever we have to do to be in the best shape we can be, that's what we have to concentrate on," said Noel Connelly on a wet and cold evening last November when he and Pat Holmes sat down to meet the local press for the first time after their appointment as the new Mayo senior management ticket. This coming Sunday is last Sunday in August, and things have gone exactly to that plan so far. If they are to keep going until September then the next step is to get over Dublin on Sunday.

Big Bird is happy to be soaring again

Fri, Aug 28, 2015

When word filtered through, shortly before throw in ahead of Mayo's All Ireland quarter-final win over Donegal, that Barry Moran was starting instead of Andy Moran, it caught almost everyone off guard. Where would the big Castlebar man play? In a twin towers approach with Aidan O'Shea on the edge of the square? In the middle of the field with either Tom Parsons or Seamus O'Shea pushing forward? They were two of the most likely options, but as a defensive sweeper, nobody saw that one coming.

Final four book their place in junior semi finals

Mon, Aug 24, 2015

Eight became four over the course of the weekend when the quarter-finals of the Mayo GAA JFC were down for decision. At the end of four pulsating games, Achill, Ardagh, Ardanree and Killala were the four sides left standing at the final whistle and moved on to the final four stages of the competition.

The action got underway on Saturday night in Elverys MacHale Park last years beaten finalists Achill were given a serious examination by Lousiburgh. The islanders place in the semi-finals was only secured by a brilliant goal ten minutes from time from the boot of Jonathan Fadian, which killed off Lousiburghs efforts to reel them in.  Fadian's goal was worked at lighting pace from back to front and when the wing-forward let fly there was nothing Danny O'Malley in the Louisburgh goal could do to stop it.

Keane gets the all clear for Dubs encounter

Fri, Aug 21, 2015

Mayo defender Kevin Keane will now be eligible to play for Mayo in next weekend's All Ireland semifinal clash with Dublin after winning an appeal against his sending off in the dying stages of Mayo's victory over Donegal in the All Ireland quarter final.

Make sure to enjoy it while it lasts

Fri, Aug 21, 2015

As Mayo people, it really does not seem to bother us right now because we most definitely dine at the top table in terms of Gaelic football. Not only have the Mayo team won five Nestor cups in a row but more impressively they have qualified for the All-Ireland semi-final five years in a row, beating Donegal twice, Cork twice, and Down in those quarter finals. Two of them, victories against Cork in 2011 and Donegal in 2013, were when they were All Ireland champions.

The pride of the parish

Fri, Aug 21, 2015

Last year Achill came within touching distance of bringing the Pete McDonnell Cup back home from the mainland, when Castlebar Mitchels B pipped them at the post in the junior final. Despite that disappointment the island men shook off that heartbreak a few weeks later and went out and represented Mayo in the Connacht championship and went all the way to the Connacht final, where once again they fell just short when the Aran Islands beat them in a game that was dubbed the All Island final. But the men from the island have dusted themselves down and are back again for another shot at claiming the Mayo junior title.

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