Search Results for 'Mark McHugh'

Group 1:

Just three weeks after the disappointment of the men's senior All-Ireland final, the club championship starts back this weekend. Six weeks after the end of the league campaign, all 16 teams will get a chance to start afresh in the chase for the Frank Fox Cup. With four groups back in play for this year’s competition it is much simpler to see how teams can progress through to the latter stages.

Connacht can take a great deal of heart having delivered a timely and valiant victory over Scarlets when they face South Africa’s DHL Stormers at the Sportsground on Saturday (1pm).

We never do it easy, do we.

My first permanent teaching post was at St Gerald’s College, Castlebar, 20 years ago this September. And having taught in the county for eight years, I appreciate the ravenous and deep rooted desire that exists there for a senior All-Ireland success. The school principal at the time was big Brother Thomas Durnin from the De La Salle Order, and he asked me to bring the Sam Maguire Cup down in 1998. The reaction of the older members of staff was revealing. They would take the canister. Look at it, and then hand it over quickly, with a certain amount of disdain, muttering something like; “I don’t want it. Or want to touch it, unless we have won it ourselves.” 

Mayo qualified for a mouth-watering All-Ireland semi final with Dublin after an emphatic and clinical display against Donegal in the quarter final. I’m not going to lie, I was worried about this one, and I wasn’t sure how Mayo would cope against a team with 14 or 15 players constantly behind the ball. It’s very easy to get the life sucked out you playing against such tactics; in this regard Mayo were superb.