The ever excellent Mayo News is carrying a not-so-excellent story today that minor captain Aidan Walsh is an injury worry ahead of Monday’s All-Ireland quarter-final clash with the Stone Throwers at Tullamore. He went over on his ankle in the Connacht final replay last Sunday and apparently wasn’t fit enough to train yesterday evening. Minor jefe Ray Demspey rates his skipper as “very doubtful” for Monday’s match and Ciaran Charlton is also battling to be fit for this tie. Both lads were in the starting line-up for last year’s final so we can ill afford to be without them at this stage of the campaign so here’s hoping the few days that are still to go before throw-in down at O’Connor Park will be sufficient for them both to recover.
It’s all quiet enough at the moment in relation to the seniors (the press night at McHale Park yesterday evening notwithstanding) but I see that both John Maughan and Mickey Harte are bigging us as regards how we’ll fare out in the All-Ireland series. John is being genuine enough, I reckon, in his assessment of where we stand and he feels (as I do) that the draw we got for the quarter-final was a good one. Naturally enough, he’s hankering after a rematch with Meath but reckons that it could be the Shannonsiders that we’ll be meeting on the 9th. He could be right. Meanwhile, Mickey Harte (who is, by the way, the only bainisteoir whose name comprises two human organs) is, I think, doing the Kerryman on it – I wouldn’t have thought that Tyrone would be all that delighted just to get to this year’s final. That’s the thing about success: the more you have, the more you want. Just ask the Kerrymen.
In case there might be any danger that we’d start to believe any of this talk about how great we are, Johnno has come out with his usual “we’re taking nothing for granted” routine. Good man, Johnno – let’s keep the lid on things for now.
Right, that’s it: I’ve been slaving over this bloody laptop all week so I think I’m going to declare this Bank Holiday weekend officially open Chez WJ. Have fun, y’all: here’s to the happy sight of Kerrymen getting their holes kicked at Croker on Monday.
Willie Joe – be careful what you wish for.
If Mayo get to a semi-final I’d much rather face the Kingdom in a half empty Croke Park, than the flying Dubs.
I’m with you Eriad , would much prefer to meet kerry than the Dubs in the semi, and i have a feeling that kerry will beat them.
Going to go for
Limerick ( but would prefer meath )
Kerry
Donegal
Tyrone
lets see if i even get one right..
Prediction for the weekend.
Tyrone will account for Kildare
Cork will beat Donegal
I think we will face Meath in the Q/F. Meath’s forwards are better than Limericks.
Kerry V Dublin
Difficult on to call. Dublin Look good this year, but Leinster football is poor. Thought they did really well against Kildare with 14 men. B. Brogan looks like the best forward in the country at the moment.
As for Kerry, They are where they want to be in the QF in August. They have not been impressive this year. Struggled against Longford and Sligo. But luck was on their side. The Bastick/Walsh battle will be key to this game. I don’t rate the Dublin Full back line that highly. I think they will struggle if Kerry get the right ball into Gooch and Walsh. But overall I Think Dublin will have the firepower to outscore them.
I’m going with Meath, Cork, Tyrone and, and, and – I can’t decide. I agree with the above though, if Kerry’s forwards click they could destroy Dublin’s full back line. This match is the first that I’ve ever picked as a draw in the predictions league, but I just don’t trust those Kerry hoors to be as anemic as they have been so far in the Champonship
See the lads on http://www.clubmayo.ie throwing out some stats and facts as the showdown for semi-final places gets underway.
Leaving the head and the heart out of it altogether and were Cork, Tyrone and Dublin to make it through the weekend and qualify for the semis we have an interesting record in the offing. If they all win then Mayo will be tasked to win against whoever and make it the first time in the 9 years of the back-door that all provincial winners make it to the semi’s. Something to ponder allright! In a funny kinda way I will feel more comfortable if one of the Cork / Tyrone / Dublin trio come a cropper over next few days. Then again the 4 provincial winners contesting the semi-finals has logic about it and will raise memories of how it used to be. Curious though that is has never happened.
Right,
meath,
tyrone,
donegal,
kerry-dub draw & penalty scored anytime
paddy will give you 400/1..
yes 400/1..dont ask me how..i think someone might have made a mistake but i have my betslip in writing..!
Cork arent as good as they looked yesterday, was up there at it as I’m exiled in Cork and have two young bucks who are fond of donning the rebels jersey and heading to Croker. Donegal were wogus and effectively gave up after 20 mins. They are a good team and I think will beat Tyrone. Its a feature of every summer that “the team that last won well” is spoken about as the new favourites, the opposite is true also as we saw when Tyrone stumbled past us last year.
Bernard Flynn basically wrote us off on Newstalk last week, was saying that the winners of Meath and Limerick have a great change of making the semis. This lazy perception that we cant play in Croker is still doing the rounds, despite, stastically being the fourth most succesfull team in Croker in the All Ireland series over the last 9 years. Of course when we’ve failed we’ve failed spectacularly, and thats probably where it comes from. Anyway I hope Johnno has his scouts out and has a recording which he can play to the lads over and over again. The glee in Flynn’s voice was unreal, the paraphrasing I just did didnt really do it justice.