Search Results for 'Anthony Finnerty'

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.

A charity game featuring a number of legendary GAA figures that was due to take place in Knockmore on Saturday evening had to be called off on short notice yesterday.

Salthill-Knocknacarra GAA Club is hosting a special pre-match questions and answers session with former Galway and Mayo greats ahead of the eagerly-awaited provincial derby match.

Seventeen Galway players have been named on this year’s Irish National Men’s Volleyball squads which will sponsored by Loughrea-based GIVOVA Sportswear.

Twenty years is a long time in any individual’s journey through life. And 1989 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.

The highlight of Oughterard GAA’s centenary year takes place this weekend with its Centenary Social on Saturday evening.

Twenty years is a very long time in any individual’s journey through life. And 1989 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.

I paid a visit to Anthony Finnerty’s hostelry in lower Salthill before the game last Sunday. There was a great buzz about the place with plenty of Mayo supporters popping in for the crack and banter before the short hop over to Pearse Stadium. One of the first people I met on arrival was PJ Kelly from Moygownagh. He is a great passionate football man and was eagerly seeking everyone’s opinion as to who they thought would win the game. “Would we win it? Are we good enough to win it”? I got the impression that PJ was happy with the answers coming from the gathering and would have left for the stadium pretty confident that Mayo would win their first provincial title since 1967 at the city venue. If I am to be perfectly honest here I have to admit that I found it very difficult to predict the outcome in advance of Sunday’s game. I know from experience that Galway v Mayo encounters take on a life of their own and the form book goes out the window when these two sides meet. Irrespective of form coming into a championship encounter, there is rarely more than a point or two separating these two great rivals. Galway looked so ordinary against Sligo a few weeks ago that punters could have been forgiven for believing that this would be a relatively ‘handy’ match for the Mayo boys. Mayo, on the other hand, looking hugely impressive when carrying out a demolition job on Roscommon in the semi-final. I suggested, prior to the game, that our poor run of results in Pearse Stadium in recent decades would be a factor. Because of that I felt we would have to be five or six points a better team than Galway to beat them in a venue where we hadn’t won a provincial championship since 1967.

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.