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profile of the O’Connor brothers lining out for Ballintubber on Sunday, but Corofin would be foolish to think that Padraic O’Connor didn’t pose as much of a threat as his two younger brothers who will be joining him in their attack. In his last three championship games, the eldest of the four O’Connor brothers, who will start for Ballintubber on Sunday, has rattled in 3-5 from his corner forward position.

It looked like it was going to be a big year for Jason Gibbons on the inter-county scene in the early months of the year. The Ballintubber midfielder had taken his chance in the middle of the park for Mayo and looked to have nailed down a starting spot for the team for the rest of the year. Then disaster struck when he injured his ankle in training in May ruling him out for a long period of time. It was hard to come back from, he admitted to the Mayo Advertiser. “I suppose it was disappointing, when it happened I heard the snap and I knew I was in serious bother. Look it the medical team did all they could, but it took me longer than I thought. I was hoping to get back for Roscommon but I didn’t. I suppose I never really got going again with the county as I’d have liked.” He continued: “When your sitting on the sideline and you’ve had what was a good league and it’s all been taken away from you and you know the competition is very fierce on the panel; it’s very hard to get back in again. I didn’t get to start a game until the All Ireland semi-final. I had no doubts that I was training well and it didn’t just go for me in Croke Park against Kerry. You’d lose a bit of confidence when you get that badly injured, it takes a lot to get back, but happily I feel myself that I’m back going well again and looking forward to the county final.”

t’s been 36 years since it was last achieved when Garrymore saw off Knockmore by the smallest of margins on a scoreline of 1-9 to 2-5 to claim a historic three-in-a-row. On Sunday, Ballintubber are looking to become the latest side to enter their name in that ledger in the history books of Mayo football.

Last year Ballintubber failed at the first hurdle in the provincial championship. But coming on the back of an emotional first ever win of the Moclair cup, losing out at the first stage of the Connacht championships wasn’t as bitter a pill to swallow as it could be this time around.

All eyes will be on McHale Park on Sunday for the repeat of last year’s senior championship final, last year it was Ballintubber who were the last men left standing. While both groups of players are still more or less the same, on the sideline two new men will have been busy for the past few weeks plotting and planning each other’s downfall. When James Horan left Ballintubber to rejuvenate the standing of Mayo football on a national level, Anthony McGarry was the man left with the task of filling his boots. For the Mitchels, when Peter Ford stepped aside his banisteoir’s bib was handed to former Mayo senior and u21 manager Pat Holmes, and one target was given him, bring the Moclair cup back to the county town.

The four sides left in the Treanlaur Catering Senior Football Championship have lifted the Moclair Cup a grand total of 72 times. Ballina Stephenites (36) and Castlebar Mitchels (27) have more than the lion’s share between. But that does not mean that those two sides will make it through their semi-finals over the weekend to set up a traditional classic pairing in the final. In fact the favourites to the make the final in a lot of people’s eyes will probably be the younger pretenders Knockmore and Ballintubber with their eight and one title respectively. While Castlebar won their first title in 1888 and Ballina in 1889, Knockmore did not climb the mountain for the first time until 1973 and Ballintubber did for their only time so far last season.

Ballintubber 0-8     Castlebar 0-5

Ballintubber 1-8