Search Results for 'inter-county footballer'

In the giddy aftermath of Westmeath’s blistering finish - which saw off Wexford in last week’s Leinster Senior Football Championship quarter final - manager Tom Cribbin classed this Sunday’s trip to Croke Park “as nearly being like an All Ireland final” for his young panel.

After hearing Joe Brolly on the Saturday Night Show a few weeks ago on about player burn out and injuries because of over training it made for a fascinating listen and really struck a chord. I’m having my fourth surgery in six years today in the Beacon hospital in Dublin. I put my body through the mill for club and county and played games that I really shouldn’t have, most notably in 1999, when my injury nightmare started.

There was no denying the joy of the Ballyhaunis players and supporters at the final whistle in Tooreen on Sunday. Keith Higgins and his brother Pierce were two of the vital cogs in Ballyhaunis' victory and both were bursting with emotion after the game. Keith who played a huge role in the clubs success in the intermediate football final the previous weekend looking back on the last seven days said, “It's been some two weekends not just for the players but for the supporters, they were behind us every step of the way, not just the hurlers but the footballers too.”

There are 40 questions in the quiz:

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 mother of a Mullingar teenager killed in a car accident in 2006 has said Wednesday’s inquest has not brought closure to her family.

Annaghdown’s Niall Coleman is back on the Galway senior football panel for the new season.

I have so little energy this evening. I am wrecked after a tough session in the gym. The penny hasn’t dropped with me yet that the body isn’t able for the kind of punishment I once subjected it to. Earlier this evening, I was happily plodding along in the gym doing my thing, when I was invited to join in with the spinning class taking place in an adjoining room. The instructor pushed us hard for almost an hour. It was an eye opener and I can now admit to myself that the old body is not what it once was. However I comforted myself when I realised that there is no point in peaking this time of year! That is not the situation however for any new potential inter-county footballer wanting to impress new managers around the country. The reality is many of those players wil not have kicked a ball in months, yet they are expected to make an impression at these trial games. That’s the way it is, and until there is a better solution it will continue that way. I had a text from Ian Rowland from Crossmolina earlier this week announcing that he was invited on to the Mayo football panel for the FBD league. Ian had a wonderful year with Crossmolina, impressing in lots of games in both the league and championship. He is a player who has improved enormously this year and I expect there is more to come from this young student. Ian was one of the players invited to participate in a trial match last Saturday morning in McHale Park. I heard he played well in the trial, kicking a number of monster points that clearly caught the eye. Incidentally, I have rarely witnessed a player anywhere in the country who can kick the ball as far as this man can. Understandably, he is thrilled to be presented with this opportunity and I am quite confident he will do well.

I only got to see one game last weekend and that was the much anticipated replay between Ballaghadereen and Ballintubber on Sunday. The previous encounter was a right rip-roaring clash with Ballintubber denied a famous victory when Andy Moran scored a goal for Ballaghadereen almost at the death, to put his team in front with time almost up. Ballintubber did manage an equaliser deep into injury time and set up the opportunity to witness these two do battle again. The weather was perfect for football and I was really looking forward to a good game. I parked myself with a few of the Crossmolina boys, who were there keeping an eye on proceedings, as they play the winners this Sunday. No note taking required by these boys as Liam Moffett, the Crossmolina manager, was videoing the game from behind us, obviously for closer scrutiny later in the week in his effort to try and orchestrate another county title for the Deel Rovers. Sadly the game never really caught fire and once Ballaghadereen started getting ball into their forwards there was never going to be anything other than a decisive victory for the boys from the east. Andy Moran, who was having a really quiet championship campaign up until last weekend, played like an inter-county footballer and proved to be a right handful for the three defenders who tried to curtail his scoring threat. Andy has perfected the knack of shoving off his marker with his hand and demonstrated this tactic several times throughout Sunday’s encounter.

The time to make amends for disappointments in the past is fast approaching for both Charlestown and Ballaghaderreen. This year’s TF Royal Theatre senior football championship final pits the losing finalists from the 2006 and 2007 final together in Sunday’s showdown for the Moclair Cup. Ballaghaderreen booked their place in the final two last Sunday thanks to a 3-7 to 0-10 win over Crossmolina, the side who denied them twice at the death in the 2006 final (the game went to a replay). After shaking the Deel Rovers monkey off their back with thanks to a three-goal salvo at the three-quarter mark, they have their eyes set on another border side.