Search Results for 'John Maughan'

While Mayo head into Sunday's Connacht final as favourites, joint Mayo manager Noel Connelly is not taking anything for granted and he is very keenly aware that Sligo will pose a serious threat to his side's ambitions of claiming a 46th Connacht title. Sligo's performance against Roscommon and particularly that of their inside forwards impressed the Hollymount-Carramore clubman. "They were the underdogs, Roscommon were the hot favourites after winning the division two league final. Sligo had won three and lost three in division three, but they were the highest scoring county team in all the leagues, also they used very few players outside the 17 or 18, so they are a very settled team, a very young team, and they played with great belief and no fear, and led from the off. Nobody could say they weren't deserving winners," he said.

There was 17 points between these sides at the end and it could have been 27 if Galway had kept up the pace they showed in the first half in the second period. They went in leading by 11 points at the break and had their place in the Connacht final already secured before the final 30 minutes of the contest.

After the horror show a few weeks ago in Croke Park between Dublin and Derry in the National League, opinion is again divided as regards the state of Gaelic football. That game finished 0-8 to 0-4 in Dublin’s favour with many describing it as the worst game of all time. It really upset Joe Brolly who apparently left the game early with his young son such was his disgust at what he was watching.

Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly had to make the first big decisions of their tenure as Mayo joint managers when culling the panel after a recent challenge game against Clare. The two biggest and most talked about casualties are Gavin Duffy and Enda Varley. Duffy’s inclusion in the panel last year certainly gave the county a lift with his professional athletic background and obvious experience of big match days. However as the year went on and there was no sight of him in a Mayo jersey his much anticipated return to a Mayo jersey became more of a fascination with “what was the point in having him in the panel”. I was at every Mayo match last year and on every occasion his whereabouts was discussed by media men and women from all over the country.

There’s been plenty of novel match ups in the history of the GAA, but this Sunday’s meeting of Achill and Oileain Arainn (Aran Islands) in the Connacht Club Junior Football Championship Final is probably one that will not be topped for a long while to come. Having two islands meet on the mainland for the title of being the best junior club in Connacht is going to be one of those games that will be talked about for many years to come. Of course if they wanted to be finicky the Galway outfit could probably claim to being the only true island team, with part of the parish of Achill stretching on to the main land and the Michael Davitt bridge joining it to the rest of the country. But enough of that geography talk, it is the football that really matters on Sunday.

Come Sunday evening shortly after 5pm, they’ll be building bonfires on the way into Hollymount and Carramore or Ballyhaunis to celebrate either the amalgamation from south Mayo or the east Mayo men returning home with the Mayo intermediate title in their arms and a return to senior football.

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.

This week’s instalment of popular television programme Thank GAA It’s Friday is to look at one of Mayo’s greatest footballing legends, Cora Staunton, who has now turned her hand to women’s rugby.

While the Connacht final is taking up everyone’s attention in this side of the country this weekend, the 2014 All Ireland football championship has been in full swing for a few months now.

Mayo's John Maughan and John Casey, and Galway's Kevin Walsh and Ray Silke, met up earlier in the week at Breaffy House Hotel to preview this Sunday's Connacht final and cast an eye on the All-Ireland championship itself.