Search Results for 'Shane Morley'

On bank holiday Monday at 2pm, Tooreen will be looking to see off the challenge of Four Roads from Roscommon and book their place in the Connacht Intermediate Club Hurling Championship final. Monday’s game in Athleague will see the blue devils look to keep up the form that saw them demolish Ballyhaunis in some style in the county final a fortnight ago.

The Mayo senior hurlers have their first competitive outing of the season with a home game to near neighbours Roscommon this Sunday, February 24, at 2pm in Elverys McHale Park. This is their first game under recently appointed manager Christy Phillips who is hoping to start the League campaign with a win. Phillips and his backroom team of Ciaran Hynes (Westport), Austin Kenny (Tooreen), and Sean Malee (Kiltimagh) have been fine-tuning their preparations for the League since the first week in January, training three times a week at the 3G Connacht Centre of Excellence in Bekan and playing a number of challenge games. The hurlers received a major boost over the past few weeks with the return of Westport’s Aiden Connolly to the panel. Connolly was Mayo’s stand out player last season and his arrival will be a major boost to Mayo’s full backline. Mayo will be looking for strong performances from seasoned campaigners Donal O’Brien, Pa Connell, Shane Morley, Derek McDonnell, Kenny Feeney, and Brian Hunt. Relative newcomers to the panel Ciaran Finn, David Kenny, Adrian Guiry, and Colin Staunton will also be hoping to impress. The match day panel will also be bolstered by the return of All-Star Keith Higgins and football panellist Cathal Freeman.

The Mayo Senior Hurling Championship Final is down for decision this Sunday, October 7 at 2pm in Tooreen. Champions Ballyhaunis play neighbours Tooreen in what should be a tough and exciting encounter. Ballyhaunis are going for five in a row but local rivals Tooreen will keen to break this winning run and win their first senior championship since 2003.

It was a very strange league campaign for Mayo in division 2B of the national hurling league. They were unbeaten against the top two teams in the division yet only managed to finish in fourth place in the table out of six teams. The league campaign was bookended by impressive wins over bottom of the table Roscommon and eventual table toppers Kildare at the very end of the league stages. Both those wins of course did feature the talents of Keith Higgins who, as has become the norm in recent years, is balancing life as an inter-county footballer for one of the top sides in the country, and as the captain and leader of an inter-county hurling team a nice bit down the food chain when it comes to the small ball game. In between those two wins, Mayo held a fancied Meath side to a draw in Castlebar, before being beaten on the road by Armagh and overseas by London.

The last time that both these sides met was in the blistering sunshine in Carrick on Shannon in the National Hurling League Division 3B final last April. But despite blitzing their way though the league stages of the competition where they beat Roscommon in Tooreen on the first day of the league Mayo came up short in the final by two points.

Mayo hurler Shane Morley has been chosen on the Irish Hurling/Shinty Senior International side to face Scotland over the coming weeks. Morley impressed Irish manager Joe Dooley (Offaly) at recent trials held in Dublin, and was chosen on the 18-man Irish squad to face the Scots in the two-legged series. The opening game between the sides takes place tomorrow (Saturday) in Athy, Kildare, at 3pm - with the return leg taking place in Bught Park in Inverness on the following Saturday, October 29 at 2pm. The home game in Athy will be televised live on TG4 at 3pm. The side with the best aggregate score over the two legs in the hybrid game will win the series. Morley is one of eight players chosen from Christy Ring Cup counties, with 10 players on the panel being chosen from the McCarthy Cup sides. Michael Rice (Kilkenny) will captain the side in the series, while Tipperary duo Eoin Kelly and Brendan Maher are also included. Other notable names from the McCarthy Cup counties include Joe Bergin (Offaly) and Arron Graffin (Antrim). Twenty-six-year-old Morley (Tooreen) - who is making his first appearance in the Irish jersey - is the only Connacht player included in the 18-man squad.

Roscommon 0-17

Mayo 1-13

Mayo               1-11

They have been here before so often, and while familiarity can lead to things becoming stale, there will be nothing stale about the action on the field on Sunday when Ballyhaunis and Torreen get to grips with each other in the Mayo senior hurling final. The game which throws in at 3pm in Ballyhaunis has the makings of another classic, both of these giants of Mayo hurling have been the standard bearers for the small game in the county for decades now.