Search Results for 'Adrian Leonard'

Calling the eventual winners of the Mayo GAA Intermediate Football Championship is a fool's errand most years and this year is no different.

The hardest thing to predict before the start of any championship season is who is going to win the intermediate title.

There was confusion on the field at the final whistle after Justin Healy slotted over Mayo’s ninth point of the day - but according to the scoreboard it was their tenth, with the scoreboard operator putting up an extra point for Mayo after a free from Brendan Carr dropped in and was deflected over the bar by one of the rash of hands that went up to contest it.

They looked down and out with three minutes to go in normal time, trailing by four points and playing with a man less - but there was still fight left in Lahardane. A fight born from the bonds of brotherhood, community and pride that you find in small clubs, where fighting for survival is in their blood.

In a season of firsts the men from the shadow of Nephin, are looking to create another first on Saturday - when they play for a place in the All Ireland Club Championship junior final. Lahardane have gone from outsiders for the junior championship in Mayo to, not only Mayo, but Connacht junior champions in the space of a brilliant few months last summer. Now they are just an hour away from Croke Park and a tilt at something that will never be forgotten.

They love their football in Lahardane and going by the sheer numbers of Lahardane people who showed up in MacHale Park, there wasn’t to many left behind to mind the shop at the bottom of Nephin on Sunday. The black and amber was on show in powerful numbers and their sons responded in kind - with a powerful display of football - especially in the second half where they outscored their opponents 1-11 to 1-3 to claim the Connacht junior title.

They surprised many - but not themselves - in winning the Mayo junior title and on Sunday John Maughan's men will go looking to book a spot in the provincial final when they take on St Gabriel's from Galway at 1pm.

This promises to be something special on Sunday, we got it wrong last weekend when we picked Balla to see off Lahardane and book their spot in Sunday's semifinal — John Maughan's men hit Balla with everything they had and were deserving eight point winners. They never let Balla settle and against the wind they went in leading by two points, in the second half they really upped the ante and outscored their opponents by 2-7 to 1-2, after they had been pulled level five minutes into the second half, with sub Cormac Reilly netting two goals in the final quarter of the game.

On Sunday in MacHale Park the junior semifinals of the Mayo GAA championship will be played as a double header with the action getting under way at 2pm, with the meeting of Kilmaine and Ballycastle. The north Mayo men booked their place in the final four last Saturday night when they saw off Kilmeena in a quarterfinal replay by five points in terrible weather conditions, their opponents booked their spot in the final four with a big  3-16 to 1-9 quarterfinal win over Killala a few weeks ago.

When the season was about to kick-off, you would have got pretty good odds on Straide and Foxford United leading the league table after the first few rounds of games, but that is exactly where they are right now, with seven points from their opening three games. You would have also probably got as long odds that the two sides who battled it out for the title last year would be in the bottom two, but once again that is what we have so far with Ballina Town propping up the table and Westport United just ahead of them.