Search Results for 'Kevin Cahill'

They battled together for Mayo during the 1990s and tasted defeat in All Ireland finals together, Kevin Cahill and John Casey were two of the major men in John Maughan’s first great Mayo team that reached two All Ireland finals in a row in 1996 and 1997, with Kevin missing out on the second final through injury. Earlier this week they met up with this writer to shoot the breeze about their own memories from those days, some fit to print, plenty of others that we were probably better off not printing, and to cast their eye over this year’s Mayo team and their former team-mate whose now the man in the manager’s T-shirt and what they hope to see in the final

They have been there and done it three times in the past decade, while we are still waiting to do it for the first time in over 60 years, and on Sunday in Croke Park the Mayo juggernaught will collide with the Tyrone colossus for a place in the All Ireland final in four weeks’ time. Mayo have breezed through Connacht and swatted aside the challenge of the reining All Ireland champions en route to this showdown, while Tyrone have taken the scenic route that has taken them from defeat in May in Ballybofey, on to Tullamore, Roscommon, Newbridge, and Croke Park to get to the semi-final. James Horan named an unchanged side from the one that beat Donegal in the quarter-final on Thursday afternoon, with Tom Cunniffe getting the nod despite limping out of the Donegal game.

Now that the dust has finally settled, I spent some time discussing the quality of the senior football championship this year with a few GAA heads. Overall it was generally felt that it was a reasonably good championship as there were several good games that were of high quality. Obviously Mayo’s victory over Dublin is a stand out match for me, and I’m sure several of you too. But you would also have to admit that Donegal’s victories over both Kerry and Cork, when they produced their two best performances, were really eye-catching. Donegal were the best team in the country all year and deserved their All-Ireland success.

John O’Mahony and his senior management team are more than likely disappointed with Keith Higgins’ decision to play hurling for Mayo rather than travel to NY for Mayo’s championship opener on Sunday week. The Mayo hurlers will play Kerry in their championship opener on the same weekend. The talented corner- back has just returned to Ireland having spent a number of months in Australia. Keith did however line out last week in Mayo’s challenge match against Kildare in Kiltoom. I expect that the Mayo management are delighted to have their ace defender back in plenty of time for the bigger challenges ahead, but would have liked if he could have travelled to the Big Apple for the weekend. However it should not have come as a huge surprise that he declared for the hurlers as Keith has always declared his love of hurling and it is no secret that it is his preferred game. This is the first time that both codes have clashed on a championship weekend, which is unfortunate as it has forced Keith to declare his preference. Coincidentally, I met with Martin Brennan, the Mayo county senior hurling manager, during the week who told me that he was thrilled that Keith opted to play in Mayo’s Christy Ring Championship encounter with Kerry. It was not a total surprise to him either as he had been in touch with Keith frequently over the last number of weeks once he was aware of the imminent clash of fixtures.