Search Results for 'Colm Cooper'

Mayo find themselves in a real dogfight to secure a place in the All-Ireland semi final after a ravenous Kerry tore shreds off James Horan's men in the first round Super 8 game in Killarney.

Following on from their victory over Limerick on Saturday, Mayo were drawn out of the hat to face Tipperary in round two of the All Ireland football qualifiers.

The very publicised retirement and eulogising of Colm Cooper caused much debate among friends and foes, current and past players, print and TV media over the last number of weeks. Joe Brolly fought an unwinnable battle against Ciaran Whelan and Tomas O'Shea on league Sunday declaring Cooper went missing in big games when Kerry needed him most and had to keep referencing Cooper's performances against Tyrone as an example of this.

What a difference a week makes. I wondered if the Kerry jersey would bring out a performance? That opinion was more in hope than expectation, because Mayo seemed so off the pace against Monaghan, that I felt they surely couldn't turn it around in a week especially against a Kerry team that hit the ground running the previous week in Donegal.

Galway and Connacht club champions Corofin bowed out of the All-Ireland club series at the semi-final stage when they were beaten by nine points by Kerry and Munster champions Killarney Crokes in Limerick.

Heading out from Dunmore on the way to Carrick-On-Shannon early on Sunday afternoon we recognised the car in front of us going at a good auld pelt.

As Sunday draws near, Galway players and supporters are gearing up for an All-Ireland football quarter-final clash with Munster finalists, Tipperary, at Croke Park. Kevin Wash's Connacht champions will be confident they can overcome one of the surprise packages of this year's championship and advance to the last four for the first time since 2001.

There will always be quibbles with the referees decisions in games, there were plenty to pick over from Rory Hickey’s display. In particular in the 26th minute when Aidan O’Shea was manhandled to the deck by a couple of Kerry players including Aidan O’Mahony, who were aided by Kieran Donaghy testing the strength of the material in the black and lime Mayo jersey. Aidan managed to scoop the ball over the bar somehow from being right under the crossbar for a point, but Hickey should have blown for a penalty before he ever got the shot off. But it wasn’t refereeing decisions that cost Mayo in MacHale Park, it was just bad decision making, poor execution of skills and just not being at the races in the final 35 minutes, all their own doing.

The curtain came down on the 2015 football season in quite possibly the worst weather conditions I remember for our showpiece game. I felt sorry for the players, the supporters, the umpires; even the referee was offered a sigh of sympathy. Some of the most sought after seats in Croke Park were all of a sudden not as appealing as they would normally be as they were exposed to the elements, with some supporters not returning after half time. Many people are of the opinion that conditions do not affect the top players and they can adapt to whatever is thrown at them, I beg to differ. Some of the finest exponents of the GAA game were left to look like they were quite literally playing on ice, sliding all over the place, and that the ball was covered in oil. Keeping your feet was almost impossible when you went full throttle, and handling the ball when it was fired at you was as difficult as peeling an orange in your pocket while wearing a pair of boxing gloves. Bernard Brogan, one of the most skilled players on view was the prime example; he spilled up to six balls in the first half alone that he normally would have gobbled up. Let no one tell me players do not mind playing in such conditions.

A few of us used to go regularly to All-Ireland football finals as a matter of course, and the same four men traveled to all the football finals from about 2004 until 2011. Things change though, and a few of us have children old enough now to want to go themselves with Dad if he can snaffle an extra ticket.