Let the games begin

Fri, Jun 12, 2015

The time is nigh. Mayo will put their Connacht championship on the line when they travel to Salthill in Galway to take on the home side in the Connacht semi-final on Sunday. It has been 10 weeks since we watched the green and red in competitive action, but the time seems to have just dwindled away, such was the anticipation about what may unfold in Salthill.

Opinions are well and truly divided about what may occur: “They’ll be lucky to get out of there Casey, let me tell you that and I know football,” declared a customer in our shop last week. “Galway are useless,” another told me. “I was at their game in Carrick-on-Shannon and Leitrim should have beaten them, they were so lucky. Mayo will beat them by 10 or 15 points,” he declared, and that guy does know his football (his name will remain anonymous). So where does that leave the average Joe Soap when they try to predict the outcome? Confused, I’d be thinking.

The cornerstone of success

Fri, Jun 12, 2015

Colm Boyle has become one of the most vital cogs in Mayo's domination of the Connacht champoinship over the past four years, and he has an all-Ireland U21 medal in his back pocket from 2006 when the current Mayo management team of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes guided Mayo to victory. But the quest for the big one goes on still for the man from the borderline, and his 2015 adventure gets up and running properly on Sunday when they head to Satlhill to take on Galway.

Head to head with O'Connor and O'Donnell

Fri, Jun 12, 2015

Our man south of the border, Ray Silke caught up with two of the men who could shape the outcome of Sunday's game in Salthill this week, Cillian O'Connor and Gary O'Donnell

Three things Galway need to do to compete on Sunday

Fri, Jun 12, 2015

Not to be bullied around the middle third
Two years ago Mayo came to Pearse Stadium and defeated Galway by 4-16 to 0-11. The game was effectively over after 20 minutes as Mayo were lording proceedings. What was obvious in that game, is that Mayo were far stronger, bigger, and more aggressive in the middle eight. From wing back Lee Keegan, up to wing forward that day with Cathal Carolan, they were in complete control. Last year in McHale Park, Mayo were again victorious on a score-line of 3-14 to 0-16, and players like Colm Boyle and Barry Moran again bossed proceedings. The Galway players need to take the field this Sunday in the frame of mind that it will not happen again. They need to be very controlled and aggressive within the rules. Galway has to match Mayo’s power play and not allow Mayo’s big players like Keegan, McLoughlin, and the O’Sheas dominate the middle third, as they have done for the past few years. Guys like Paul Conroy (captain), Fiontán Ó Curraoin, Gary O’Donnell, Gary Sice, and Michael Lundy have to show real leadership and set out Galway’s stall early by getting on the ball and winning key possession. If Mayo are allowed to get into their groove and the players start to believe that it will be the same story as it has been in Connacht for the past four years, then Galway will be in big trouble. The key Galway players have to really go at the thing from the get-go, put some doubts into the Mayo heads, and cultivate self-belief in their own teammates. There are no sure things in sport, and the full Galway panel have to believe that they can spring a shock. If they don’t genuinely believe that themselves, then it cannot happen.

Two years ago Mayo came to Pearse Stadium and defeated Galway by 4-16 to 0-11. The game was effectively over after 20 minutes as Mayo were lording proceedings. What was obvious in that game, is that Mayo were far stronger, bigger, and more aggressive in the middle eight. From wing back Lee Keegan, up to wing forward that day with Cathal Carolan, they were in complete control. Last year in McHale Park, Mayo were again victorious on a score-line of 3-14 to 0-16, and players like Colm Boyle and Barry Moran again bossed proceedings. The Galway players need to take the field this Sunday in the frame of mind that it will not happen again. They need to be very controlled and aggressive within the rules. Galway has to match Mayo’s power play and not allow Mayo’s big players like Keegan, McLoughlin, and the O’Sheas dominate the middle third, as they have done for the past few years. Guys like Paul Conroy (captain), Fiontán Ó Curraoin, Gary O’Donnell, Gary Sice, and Michael Lundy have to show real leadership and set out Galway’s stall early by getting on the ball and winning key possession. If Mayo are allowed to get into their groove and the players start to believe that it will be the same story as it has been in Connacht for the past four years, then Galway will be in big trouble. The key Galway players have to really go at the thing from the get-go, put some doubts into the Mayo heads, and cultivate self-belief in their own teammates. There are no sure things in sport, and the full Galway panel have to believe that they can spring a shock. If they don’t genuinely believe that themselves, then it cannot happen.

Four former stars have their say

Fri, Jun 12, 2015

Ray Silke, our man from south of the border, caught up with a few former players who've been through this particular battle before, to get their thoughts on who will win on Sunday.

Maurice Sheridan: Former Mayo player and current manager of Micheál Breathnachs

Mayo ready and raring to go

Fri, Jun 05, 2015

When Noel Connelly used to come face to face with Kevin Walsh in the white-heat of championship action in their playing days, Tuam Stadium was the battle ground. Next Sunday they'll renew their rivalry in Salthill. But Mayo's old torture chamber of Tuam Stadium is where Connelly has his fondest memory of getting one over on Galway. "I suppose the one that's more special for me is the Tuam one in 1997, when the hoodoo was there for so many years and there was so much talk of it. Back then going to Tuam and winning it was like nearly winning the championship outright. To get that winning feeling in Tuam after all the talk and stuff, that was special," Connelly said this week, when asked about his own playing memories against the Tribesmen.

Is the romance of winning a provincial title dead?

Fri, Jun 05, 2015

I’d always be open to progression and forward thinking in the GAA but I can’t get my head around Galway competing in the Leinster Hurling Championship. It doesn’t sound right. Galway; Leinster hurling champions. It did, of course, happen a number of years ago when the Galway hurlers defeated Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling final. That victory, in my opinion, cost Galway an All-Ireland title as Kilkenny went on to beat Galway in a replay in the All-Ireland final later on that year.

League leaders face into north Mayo derby

Fri, Jun 05, 2015

Straide and Foxford Utd v Manulla
Saturday, June 6 at 7.30pm

Mayo launches player welfare lotto

Fri, Jun 05, 2015

The Mayo GAA players have become the first county to launch an exciting new players fund lotto ahead of their upcoming clash with Galway in Pearse Stadium. It’s a lotto with a difference, as all funds raised through this lotto are ringfenced for the sole purpose of the training and welfare of the county panels from underage up, across all codes both football and hurling. It is a lotto promoted by the players for the benefit of the players.

Have ye no homes to go to

Fri, Jun 05, 2015

Home and away fixtures in a sporting context is an international concept,  based on fairness and equity. It should not be something even up for discussion. If a team plays away one weekend, and has to play the same team six days later, they should surely, based on any loose interpretation of natural justice, be granted  a home fixture.

However the Galway hurlers, who have not won a senior All-Ireland title since 1988 (27 years and counting), and have only won one Leinster championship title ever, have not been allowed that arrangement  since they joined the Leinster championship in 2009. In the seven years they have played in that provincial championship, all their games have been played in Leinster venues.

O'Connor returns to action as Ballintubber kick start title defence

Sun, May 24, 2015

The first weekend of the Mayo GAA senior championship had a little bit of everything including one side lining up their entire 15 players in their own half for the start of the second half of their game, a heroic struggle between Mayo men Aidan O’Shea and Colm Boyle against each other for the pride of the parish, the return of Cillian O’Connor to action for Ballintubber and late, late fight back from Kiltane to break the hearts of Shrule-Glencorrib who made the long trip to Bangor.

Mayo battle to avoid the drop

Fri, May 22, 2015

The Mayo senior hurlers will be hoping to avoid moving one step closer to falling through the trapdoor into the Nicky Rackard Cup for next season when they take on Wicklow in Mullingar tomorrow. JP Coen's side lost out to Kildare in a seesaw encounter in James Stephens Park in Ballina last Saturday, and now have 70 minutes to ensure their Ring Cup status for next season and avoid the relegation/promotion final which will see the losers of this game take on the winners of the Rackard Cup on Saturday June 13 for the right to compete in the Christy Ring Cup next season.

E-paper

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