Two weekends of wonderful football

Fri, Oct 03, 2008

I recall a few short months ago writing in this paper about the poor fare we were witnessing in the majority of games at the start to this year’s championship. I had witnessed some fairly ordinary fare in every province and the general perception was that football was at a very low ebb. It was hard to argue at the time and I kept my fingers crossed that things just might improve as the season progressed. Wexford created their own fairy tale and did produce some magic along the way as they shocked us all by making it all the way to the All Ireland semi final. But the magic for me in this year’s football championship came in the last two weekends. The All Ireland final displays from the minor and senior final were magical. The quality of play and the excitement generated in the minor final was terrific.

Twenty years, not out

Fri, Oct 03, 2008

Twenty years, is a very long time in any individual’s journey through life. And1989 seems like a different planet compared to some of the advances and negatives that we have experienced in the country over the past two decades. Cork won the All-Ireland football championship that year, whereas Mayo will feel that they should have if Anthony Finnerty’s genuine goal opportunity had flashed into the net. How foot-balling history would have changed then, as John O’Mahony would probably never have left his native land to join Leitrim and then Galway had they won that joust. It was also the year of the famous “Keady Affair” in hurling. Names like Pat Fox, Larry Tompkins, John Kerins, RIP, T.J. Kilgannon, the Bonnars, Willie Joe Padden and the only man to win a senior football and hurling All-Ireland in the same year - Teddy McCarthy - were idols to look up to and the Irish soccer chant of “Ole, Ole, Ole” was only in its infancy.

Sports stars like the men mentioned above inspired many youngsters around the country and some of them are still following in their footsteps - playing and winning titles at the top level. Corofin stalwart and wing-forward Trevor Burke is one such example. Burke will go into the fray with his club again this Sunday two decades after he made his senior debut in a county semi-final, at the tender age of sweet sixteen. Twenty years later, he is still going strong and hopes to collect his ninth senior county medal with his club at Pearse Stadium this Sunday afternoon when they take on the highly rated Cortoon Shamrocks who are inspired by former all-star and double All-Ireland winner with Galway Derek Savage in the Galway county final. Burke won his first senior award in 1991 against a star studded Salthill side and two years ago in 2006 he annexed his eighth medal when defeating Caltra in a county final.

Extra time heart break for minor heroes

Fri, Oct 03, 2008

Once again Mayo fell at the final hurdle, but unlike other instances when the Mayo faithful have left All Ireland finals scratching their collective heads as to what went wrong, this time there could be no question marks about the performance, attitude and dedication of the players and the management. Everything that could possibly be given in quest for the Tom Markham Cup was given in Pearse Park last Saturday. It took 140 minutes of football for Tyrone to shake Mayo off, 140 minutes where every player in green and red gave everything he possibly could.

Coyle to make home pro debut in Breaffy

Fri, Oct 03, 2008

Mayo’s own Henry Coyle will make his Irish debut as a professional boxer next month in Mayo when he appears on the under-card of Bernard Dunnes’s next fight. Coyle will take to the ring in Breaffy House Resort on November 15 on a bill that includes John O’Donnell, Stephen Haughian, Damien Taggart and the aforementioned Dunne.

Coyle left Mayo a year and half ago to turn professional in Chicago and since then he has won eight of his nine fights inside the distance, with one solitary defeat coming in his third professional fight against Omar Bell when he was stopped inside the distance.

United showdown on Sunday in cup final

Fri, Sep 26, 2008

This year’s Chadwicks Cup final (Mayo League FA Cup) sees the meeting of two Uniteds who have seen their historical positions flipped this year. Straide and Foxford United, one of the blue ribbon names in Mayo soccer saw themselves relegated at the death of the 2007 season to the Premier League, while Snugboro United surrvived and launched an all out assault on the higher reaches of the Super League this season. This assault proved ultimately unsuccessful but Johan Collins’s first year in charge of the side can only be marked out as a success so far. And if he is able to guide his men to pick up the Chadwicks Cup the season will have been an unqualified success.

Collins’s has moulded a Snugboro side who have a good blend of experience and youth and set the early pace in the Super League till the old heads of Westport United came steaming through to take the title. New imports like the expereienced pair Russell Gibbons and Stevie Gavin provided a solid backbone while for Castlebar Celtic, youth starlet Paul Curry was in a good goalscoring vein upfront as they charged to the top of the reaches of the Super League.

Winning start for Westport and Ballina

Fri, Sep 26, 2008

Both Ballina and Westport got their Connacht Junior league campaigns off to winning starts last Sunday, while Castlebar had to make do with a share of the spoils at home.

Still more to come from Mayo

Fri, Sep 26, 2008

Clutching a silver plaque to remember being named man of the match in an All Ireland final, Aidan O’Shea was ushered through the concrete jungle under the Cusack Stand to answer the questions of the fourth estate. Standing tall, the Breaffy teenager who had just put in a masterful performance on Jones Road wasn’t getting carried away with personal acclaim and knew that a job still had to be done next week.

Tyrone have set the standards that we must try to emulate

Fri, Sep 26, 2008

Last Sunday proved conclusively that things have moved on in Gaelic football. And it is up to the rest of us to try and catch up with the new All-Ireland champions - which won’t be easy. Tyrone last Sunday played the game at a higher level and with a greater intensity than the best of the rest and they don’t look like they intend going anywhere fast. Indeed listening to Mickey Harte being interviewed during the week, he sees last Sunday’s success as a beginning rather then an end in itself. No more than with the Kilkenny hurlers, there is no point in carping on about how good they are, we have to assess and analyse where our own counties are in comparison with them at this juncture.

The difficult question about what needs to be done to improve our systems and approaches in an effort to compete at the top level has to be asked. Tyrone had never won a senior All-Ireland title prior to 2003, now they have three in the bag. They must be doing a lot of things right. And by looking at their template for success perhaps we in the west and beyond can improve our position in the chasing pack somewhat. Many counties are a long way back, however they must have the ambition and belief to try and take the measures that are required to raise the standards of excellence required to compete at the top level.

Two of the best games I’ve ever seen

Fri, Sep 26, 2008

Last Sunday I witnessed two of the finest games of football that I have ever seen on All Ireland final day, and I have been at most finals since 1977. We occasionally get a memorable match, but rarely do we get two wonderful exhibitions of football. The two games were enthralling, exciting, nerve racking, at times but it was football played at its very best. I left Castlebar early on Sunday morning as I wanted to get to Dublin with time to relax and soak up the atmosphere before the games. Jones’s Road, on big match day, is a hive of activity and last Sunday I mingled with friends and acquaintances for almost two hours before going into the ground. We were blessed with the most glorious day that added greatly to the feel-good factor. There were lots hovering about the place hoping to pick up a spare ticket but I got the impression that there were very few floating about the place last Sunday. (No harm to see the touts taking a hit too in these economically depressed times.) I had my son Johnny and my daughter Sally Rose with me bedecked in their red and green ensembles. They were excitedly looking forward to seeing the Mayo minors play Tyrone. Others from my house were content with the luxury of home viewing. I met and chatted with a few of the 1983 Galway footballers as they made their way into Croke Park for lunch. They, and the Dublin footballers, were guests of Croke Park as they were part of the 25 year jubilee celebrations. I sent my two on their way into the game and made my way upstairs to the media section as I was lucky enough to be asked to work on the game for RTE Radio 1. I had a cup of coffee in the canteen with a few journalists and the unanimous consensus amongst these experts was that Kerry would win their third All Ireland in a row. They couldn’t call the minor match, but I did get the impression that if they were pressed they would side with Tyrone. I spoke with Micheál O Muireachtaigh to establish his views on the two sides. He thought Tyrone had some excellent players but “liked this Mayo team”. He referred to their physicality and suggested that this year’s team reminded him of some of the great minor teams he had seen from Mayo in years past. Micheál is too much of a gentleman and diplomat to suggest either team would win it, so he said that we should have a great game of football. And what a game we had.

Dempsey level-headed ahead of replay

Fri, Sep 26, 2008

While the Presidental Salute and the “Star of the County Down” echoed through the Cusack Stand players’ tunnel as Kerry and Tyrone lined up ahead of the All Ireland senior final, Ray Dempsey was the coolest man in Croke Park as he picked over what had just unfolded in the minor decider.

Straight off the bat, he was focused on what lay ahead tomorrow in Longford. “Mixed emotions, it was a very tight game and it ended up a draw and we have to go back and do it all again. We have to start now again and prepare from this minute on so we can preform and compete again in next week’s game.”

Mayo ready for replay

Fri, Sep 26, 2008

Six days on from the titanic struggle in Croke Park where Mayo and Tyrone battled it out in the white heat of competition, both sides will have to do it all over again tomorrow in a quest to claim the Tom Markham Cup. Aidan Walsh’s nerveless injury time free from under the Cusack Stand looked to have sealed the win for Mayo. Only for some late Tyrone pressure and some sloppy play by Mayo allowed Matthew Donnelly to level the game and set us up for a replay.