Search Results for 'Jimmy McGuinness'

The four provincial winners have eventually been decided with Dublin and Donegal winning their respective finals in Leinster, and Ulster joining Kerry and of course Mayo. I was in a very precarious position last Sunday at 1.30pm, sitting in 30 degrees of heat by a gorgeous pool in the Algarve, do I stay or do I go to watch potential opponents for Mayo. There was only one winner, I left the swimming pool as I would have been uneasy sitting, wondering what was going on. I happened to meet former Breaffy player Robert Fahy and two of his kids who were there for the same reason as myself, we wanted to see if the Dubs were beatable as most people felt Meath were the team to do it.

Keith Higgins had his fair share of ups and downs with Mayo in the eight years he has been on the scene with the senior team, but the move up the field to the half-foward line from corner back was one that took most people by surprise before throw in for the All Ireland quarter final at the start of the month. But it was something that the Ballyhaunis man enjoyed, even if it did not last that long with Tom Cunniffe’s injury forcing him back into the full-back line before the half-time break. “As I said it was a new experience, but the fact the game went so well, it made it easier for the 20 minutes it lasted,” he laughed at last week’s press night.

James Horan couldn't but have enjoyed what he saw in front of him in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon. It was one of those days when everything fell into place, where all his decisions and ideas about how his team should and could play came to fruition. He was in flying form in the post game press conference to, but still with his eyes firmly fixed on what's coming up next over the horizon for Mayo in three weeks time. Asked about his first impressions of the game, the Ballintubber man said, “We're delighted with that performance, we're delighted to play like that in an important game. A lot of the stuff we've worked on our skills, our tackling and our movement, really a lot of the basics of the game that we put an awful lot of effort came through today. We'll take that win and prepare for the Tyrone challenge.” With Donegal weakened and not going at the same tilt as last year it was up to Mayo to exploit that he believed, which the did ruthlessly over the 70 minutes. “Donegal had a lot injuries, they had a lot of tough games but it was up to us to exploit that and to use our power and pace to maybe show up that if there was an issue today, but look we did that and I'm delighted.”

Once Monaghan had ended Donegal’s three-in-a-row Ulster championship dreams in St Tiernach’s Park in Clones, a couple of hours after Mayo had wrapped up their own hat-trick of provincial titles, this Sunday’s quarter-final pairing was the one that the neutral and plenty of non-neutrals wanted to see come out of the hat. And so it came to pass, not long after 8.30pm last Saturday, the gods conspired to set up a rematch of last year’s All Ireland final, with Cavan man Joe McQuillan the man brokering the peace in the middle of the two packs.

And then there were eight. Watching the qualifier between Tyrone and Meath and Ger Canning announcing that Donegal seem to be into the quarter final after a struggle against Laois, I promptly let my Donegal wife Rita know that Mayo could now get drawn against Donegal. I knew it would happen, it was written in the stars, a chance for this Mayo team to right what went wrong in last year’s All-Ireland final. They could have got an easier draw in the likes of Cavan but getting pitted against Donegal - the All-Ireland champions, the team that made us sick to the pit of our stomachs last September means there is little needed in the line of motivation and complacency is gone out the window. It also means not much chat in the Casey house this week. I hope and expect to have bragging rights at 5.30pm next Sunday.

Mayo 1-10

Paul Clancy knew he had big boots to fill when he decided to put his name forward for the post of Garrycastle manager earlier this year. Anthony Cunningham had, after all, guided the Altown outfit to the three-in-a row of county titles. He was at the helm on their memorable journey which saw them become the first Westmeath side ever to be crowned provincial champions and come within a whisker of all-Ireland glory against Crossmaglen last March.

It was not to be once again for Mayo.

Having watched Donegal in the flesh last weekend in their awe-inspiring victory over Cork, it is difficult to see either Mayo or Dublin stopping them taking Sam back to the hills for the first time in 20 years.

Having watched Donegal in the flesh last weekend in their awe-inspiring victory over Cork, it is difficult to see either Mayo or Dublin stopping them taking Sam back to the hills for the first time in 20 years.