Celtic head to table toppers

Fri, Nov 14, 2014

Castlebar Celtic will be making the long trip to Ferrycarrig Park on Sunday for their eighth round game in the Continental Tyre’s Women’s National League to take on table toppers Wexford Youths. The southeastern team are two points ahead of second placed Raheny United, with UCD Waves just three points behind them in third place.

When it is club v country in the GAA club always wins

Fri, Nov 14, 2014

A few weeks ago before the county final between Castlebar Mitchels and Ballintubber I envisaged a predicament that Cillian O’Connor could find himself in. I thought nothing of it at the time because I expected Castlebar to retain the Moclair Cup. O’Connor was at the final stages of the trials for the International Rules team, with his skill set and physical attributes I have no doubt he would have been on Paul Early's panel. When Ballintubber won the county final I immediately thought of O’Connor and the predicament, club versus country? It was simple; he was going nowhere and immediately pulled out of the Irish set up to give his full attention to his club.

Achill and Oileain Arainn to meet in a real Wild Atlantic Adventure

Fri, Nov 14, 2014

There’s been plenty of novel match ups in the history of the GAA, but this Sunday’s meeting of Achill and Oileain Arainn (Aran Islands) in the Connacht Club Junior Football Championship Final is probably one that will not be topped for a long while to come. Having two islands meet on the mainland for the title of being the best junior club in Connacht is going to be one of those games that will be talked about for many years to come. Of course if they wanted to be finicky the Galway outfit could probably claim to being the only true island team, with part of the parish of Achill stretching on to the main land and the Michael Davitt bridge joining it to the rest of the country. But enough of that geography talk, it is the football that really matters on Sunday.

NUIG the first exam for Holmes and Connelly

Fri, Nov 14, 2014

New Mayo management duo, Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly, will put their first Mayo senior football team out into competitive action in seven weeks time on Sunday January 4 when they take on NUIG in a Galway venue at 2pm. They will follow that up the following week with another test against a third level side when they head to Yeats County to take on IT Sligo. They will wrap up the group stages of the competition with a game against Roscommon at home on Sunday January 18. We sat down with the new management duo last weekend as they looked forward to the new year, you can read it at http://www.advertiser.ie/mayo/article/73605/meet-the-new-bosses-holmes-and-connelly-are-ready-to-go.

The Mayo senior hurlers will get some practice in before they get going in the National Hurling League when they take part in the Connacht Senior Hurling League in January. They will open their season away to Leitrim on Saturday January 3. The following week they will host Sligo on Saturday January 10, before they finish up the group stage of the competition away to GMIT on Saturday January 17.

Broderick leads the way for brilliant Ballintubber

Sun, Nov 09, 2014

When the big questions are asked the big players stand up and that's what happened on Sunday, when Ballintubber battled their way into their first ever Connacht senior championship final. When the Roscommon champions came knocking, Alan Dillon, Cillian O'Connor, Jason Gibbons and Stephen Broderick all stood up and had the answers for the questions put to them and their team-mates and in a few weeks time, they'll be ready to answer those same questions from Corofin in the final.

Hard work and determination key to win – Broderick

Sun, Nov 09, 2014

He may have been the elder partner to the younger inter-county man in the middle of the field on Sunday in MacHale Park but Ballintubber's Stephen Broderick put in masterful performance alongside Jason Gibbons in midfield. The Ballintubber middle-third duo were supreme throughout the game and had Karl Mannion and Padraig Kelly in their back pockets for long periods of the match.

Meet the new bosses - Holmes and Connelly are ready to go

Sun, Nov 09, 2014

You don't often hear an inter-county manager saying it was the wrong decision taking on the job, or it was wrong that they were offered the job in the first place. But Pat Holmes did admit last Saturday night that when he was appointed Mayo manager for the first time in 1999 it probably wasn't the right choice by him to take it on or for the county board to offer it to him.

Ballintubber look to take the next step

Fri, Nov 07, 2014

They knew they didn’t do themselves justice last year when they crashed out of the Mayo Senior Championship at the quarter-final stage and Ballintubber used that loss as motivation to drive them on this time around.

Ding-dong display of boxing skills at Castlebar tournament

Fri, Nov 07, 2014

MA_0711_E1_046Castlebar Boxing Club sprang back into action with their first home tournament of the boxing season in the Welcome Inn Hotel on Wednesday, October 29.

With a mixed group of both male and female boxers from underage up to Under 18 level, it proved why boxing is now the number sport in the country.

Record entry for David Barrett Perpetual Trophy

Fri, Nov 07, 2014

A record forty-five players took to the greens at Balla Golf Club for this year’s David Barrett Perpetual Trophy competition.

O’Malley scores a home win in first winter league race

Fri, Nov 07, 2014

Sunday’s cyclo-cross event at Ballinrobe attracted a large entry drawn from Connacht and further afield but it was local rider Seán O’Malley who emerged victorious after leading for most of the 10-lap race.