Search Results for 'All-Ireland Minor Football Championship'

All roads lead to Croke Park this Saturday if you are a primrose and blue supporter as both the minor and senior footballers are in action in GAA headquarters. The hugely talented minor side take on Armagh in the All-Ireland quarter-final at 2pm. Having won the Connacht title in decisive fashion against Galway, confidence is high that they can go at least a step or two further.

We are down to the last nine in the football championship with all of the main protagonists still standing. Kerry are still my favourites to land Sam this year. They should beat Limerick with scores to spare on Sunday. They definitely appear to be focused and sharp this year. From what I hear they are putting in an extra effort to ensure that one of their favourite sons, the ‘Gooch’ has the opportunity to walk the steps in September. Extra miles on the clock and All-Ireland medals in the back pocket tend to blunt hunger levels, but Kerry look ferociously hungry. A number of their players, namely Declan O’Sullivan, Kieran Donaghy, Darren O’Sullivan, and Donnchadh Walsh, have been particularly outstanding for them. I believe they played a challenge last week against Roscommon in Limerick and, despite pulling off half of their first 15, managed to win by seven points. And the word from that game was that the two best players on show were….. you guessed it…… Tomas O’Se and Paul Galvin.

Murtt Connolly’s Mayo senior hurling side are looking to keep up their 100 per cent record in division 3B of the National Hurling League this Sunday. Mayo will host Donegal in McHale Park on Sunday at 2.30pm. So far this season wins over Roscommon, Fingal, and Louth have Mayo sitting pretty at the top of the table with three wins from three. Sunday’s opponents Donegal have one win from their three outings in the league, with their solitary win coming away to Monaghan in their second round game. Mayo’s last outing was a fortnight ago when they ground out a hard fought win over Louth in Dundalk. Connolly’s men will also have the services of dual player Keith Higgins back in harness for the game on Sunday after he returned from a holiday recently. In their last outing Kenny Feeney was the main man for Mayo, clipping over seven points, keeping up the good form he showed against Fingal in Mayo’s previous encounter. The goals came from Niall Murphy, Derek McDonnell, and Darren McTigue with Eoin Maddigan also prominent for Mayo. After Sunday’s game Mayo will have two games left in the league against Sligo and then away to Monaghan in a double header with the football team on the last day of action in the league stages of the competition. Mayo have their first outing in the Christy Ring Cup pencilled in for Saturday April 23 at home to Wicklow, and if they can keep up their good form of the early season through the latter stages of the league it will set them up nicely for their main competition of the year.

The draw for the Mayo Club Championship last Monday night has the 16 clubs in the senior and intermediate championships along with those in both the Junior A and B championships plotting and planning for the summer ahead. At Monday night’s draw it was also announced that Midfield based catering company Trenalaur Catering would be the official sponsor of the Mayo senior championship for the coming year, with Westport based courier company Jim Hogan Couriers sponsoring the Mayo senior hurling championship.

Rumour has it that there will be a raft of changes for our match v Longford tomorrow in Pearse Park. I expect that management have examined every available option for this encounter. I would say it has been a tough couple of weeks for everyone involved since the championship defeat. Management will be fully aware of Mayo’s poor ‘back door ’record in years past. Both Westmeath and Fermanagh have shortened our summer on two occasions. In fact we have only managed to secure back to back victories when going through the back door on a single occasion, in 2002, when we saw off three teams in a row, beating Roscommon, Limerick, and Tipperary on that occasion.

In Kerry last weekend, a wise man said that it only matters what happens on the third Sunday in September and seeing that his county has more All Ireland titles than most could dream of, it’s very sage advice. Mayo had just picked up their fourth win in this year’s national football league which left them top of the pile with two rounds of the competition to go, but in the grand scheme of things what does making it to the latter stages of the competition really effect in the long run? In 2007, Mayo reached the final against Donegal only to bow out of the Connacht championship a month later in the preliminary round to Galway. The last time that Mayo won the national league back in 2001 under Pat Holmes they bowed out of the Connacht championship to Roscommon in a nail biting encounter. Mayo have been one of the best league sides over the past decade or so reaching semi finals in 2002, 2005, and 2006 along with the finals in 2001 and 2007, but it has failed to see them push on to the biggest prize. Only in 2006 did they go on reach the All Ireland final where Kerry ended the dream once again.

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.

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.

Sometimes in life you can be lucky. And the well worn truism that you are better to be born lucky than rich has many supporters.

Every time you switch on the wireless, the TV, or read a few paragraphs in the broadsheets these past few weeks there seems to be nothing but doom and gloom vying for your attention. George Lee seems to be the only one happy with his lot and I know quite a few people who are steadfastly refusing to engage any of the above activities, unless it is a music channel, a movie or something light-hearted on TV, or the perusal of the sports pages.