Search Results for 'Seamus O'Shea'

It all started for Seamus O'Shea in the green and red in a senior jersey on a wintry Sunday afternoon in Ballinrobe in January 2008 - the eldest of the O'Shea brothers got his first game time for Mayo as a senior as sub against NUIG in the FBD League that day.

James Horan's Mayo senior side who got back to training earlier this week, have been handed a Connacht Senior Football Championship opener against Sligo, at the quarter-final stage, following this week's provincial championship draw.

This week has seen an outpouring of gratitude for a number of Mayo players who have announced their retirement from the inter-county game.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Come Sunday evening, either a long drought for one of the traditional big beasts of the game or the realisation of a long-held dream for one of the pretenders to the throne will become a reality, when the Moclair Cup is handed over in MacHale Park.

Over the past 12 seasons, just four clubs have ended the year with the Moclair Cup in their possession and for nine of those years, it was passed between Castlebar Mitchels and Ballintubber, with Ballaghaderreen winning twice and Charlestown once.

A decade and a half ago in 2005, it was a so-so year for the Mayo senior footballers. A year after reaching the All Ireland final, they had a league semi-final loss to Armagh in the Spring, which was followed by elimination from the championship at the quarter-final stage at the hands of Kerry, having been beaten by Galway in the provincial decider.

Ger Cafferkey called time on his ten-year senior inter-county career this week after 104 appearances in the green and red of Mayo.

You would imagine there is very little more than can be written about Mayo and Dublin's rivalry over the past seven years.

The Greatest Show on Earth - was the tag line used by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for 146 years until it shut up shop two years ago and Cecil B. DeMille's 1952 movie about the same institution starring Charlton Heston picked up two Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture.