Search Results for 'Joe Keane'

I’d always be open to progression and forward thinking in the GAA but I can’t get my head around Galway competing in the Leinster Hurling Championship. It doesn’t sound right. Galway; Leinster hurling champions. It did, of course, happen a number of years ago when the Galway hurlers defeated Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling final. That victory, in my opinion, cost Galway an All-Ireland title as Kilkenny went on to beat Galway in a replay in the All-Ireland final later on that year.

Garrymore picked up the first piece of senior silverware on Easter Monday, when they saw off Castlebar Mitchels to claim the Michael Walsh Cup in Ballinrobe, but this weekend the action proper gets under way with the first rounds of games in the Breaffy House Senior Football Leagues. The action in Division 1A, 1B, and 1C will throw in on Saturday evening, with Division 1E, 1D, and 1F getting under way on Sunday afternoon.

Ollie Canning has played senior club championship hurling for more than 20 years, and with six county senior medals and four All-Ireland club medals in his collection, he knows what it takes to win on big championship days.

The second round of games in the Treanlaur Catering Mayo Senior Football Championship saw plenty of action and excitement over the last two days. The defending champions, Castlebar Mitchels laid down another marker of their intentions to retain their title with a top drawer display against the former star attractions of the competition Crossmolina Deel Rovers in MacHale Park on Sunday afternoon in group one. The county town men rand out 2-22 to 1-5 winners showing little hospitality for their guests on the field. Mitchels hit an impressive 1-11 in each half of the game and went in leading 1-11 to 0-1 at the break as their powered through the Crossmolina defence at will. The Mitchels were superior in every area of the field with their inter-changeable attack and midfield players running riot against a weakened Deel Rovers side.

Next Friday night (December 6) in the Welcome Inn Hotel the Mayo League will honour the best performers of the year at its annual awards night. The league has selected teams of the year across all five divisions of the Mayo League, from the Super League to League Two, and team of the year for the Masters competitions it runs. It will also announce on the night the player of the year in each division.

It has been a remarkable decade of success for the hurlers of Portumna.

When Anthony McGarry took over as manager of the Ballintubber team late last year, he did so from a position of considerable strength. They [Ballintubber] had just won their first county title, and not alone did McGarry get to manage a talented bunch of young men, he also inherited a team that knew how to maximise their playing strengths. He was then given the scope to evolve the team’s style of play by shifting away from the rear-loaded defensive strategy, employed to reasonable effect last year, to a more expansive attacking style this year.

Castlebar Mitchels 2-10

Cup finals are well known for surprises across the globe, but before even a ball has been kicked in this year’s Mayo FA Cup final there is a big surprise already and that is the two teams who will be taking to the field on Sunday. When the season began, there would not have been many punters out there willing to take a punt on both Fahy Rovers and Straide and Foxford United winning the competition, let alone both of them making it all the way to Milebush on finals day. Sunday will offer some kind of redemption to whichever side comes out on top as both teams get used to the fact they will not be playing in the Super League next season, as both sides failed to escape from the bottom four which dropped through the trap door. Next season they will be competing in the newly formed Premier A league.

Following the penultimate weekend of action in the group stages of the Royal Theatre senior football championship seven of the eight quarter finalists have emerged. On Saturday evening, Ballina and Knockmore booked their places in the last eight draw. Knockmore topped section four with five points from their three games thanks to a 0-15 to 0-9 win over 2008 champions Ballaghaderreen. The east Mayo men now have to navigate their way through the relegation play offs to ensure they hold on to their senior status for next season. Ballinrobe who were drawn in the group of death for not the first time in recent history, had a great chance to make the quarter final going into the last round of games. They were a point ahead of Ballina and had a home draw against the Stephenites, but it was the north Mayo men who came out on top steam rolling to an easy 3-7 to 0-9 win over Norman O'Brien's side. The performance by Ballina was a fine tribute to the late mother of Paul McGarry who died earlier in the week.