Photo: @EoghanOReilly06 via Twitter (Sportsfile)
The nearest I got to following what was happening in today’s senior club final between Castlebar Mitchels and Breaffy was by keeping an eye on the blow-by-blow score updates posted by Mayo GAA on Twitter. The final was, I know, live on TG4 and on Midwest but I had other GAA-related fish to fry this afternoon up here in the capital.
In any event, the score updates told me all that I needed to know, with Castlebar Mitchels taking a firm hold on the Moclair Cup decider early on and never subsequently letting their near neighbours back into the contest. Their first goal, a loose ball booted to the net by Danny Kirby, put them three points clear with just over twenty minutes on the clock and they had a second major, this one the first of three from Man of the Match Neil Douglas, before the half-time whistle blew. By then Castlebar had a commanding 2-6 to 0-5 lead.
Breaffy’s efforts to force their way back into the game after the break yielded no reward on the scoreboard. Instead Castlebar, with another goal from Neil Douglas, pulled further clear and even the loss of Barry Moran due to a black card did little to stop their canter towards a 29th county title. They won in the end on a decisive scoreline of 4-10 to 0-9 .
Match reports: Mayo Advertiser, GAA.
Mitchels now march on to the Connacht club championship where they face newly-crowned Roscommon top dogs Clann na nGael at the semi-final stage in two weeks time. Best of luck to them in that one.
A quick word before I finish on St Vincents who today qualified for their third Dublin SFC final in a row by beating Na Fianna by 0-22 to 2-9 in a fairly pedestrian contest at Parnell Park this afternoon. Vinnies now face Ballyboden St Enda’s in next weekend’s county final, where they’ll be aiming to become the first team to win three Dublin titles in a row since Na Fianna did so at the turn of the new Millennium.
Very well done to Castlebar today. They made it look easy. I was particularly impressed with Danny Kirby. Unfortunately, I think the pressure got to the Breaffy County players which was a pity as we were all hoping for a cracker of a match. Aidan’s positioning didn’t work today. For him to excel, the majority of the other players need to be on form. This happens seamlessly at county level. But when club players are struggling, it makes Aidan look ordinary. The leadership seemed to be lacking the pitch today with Breaffy. I am disappointed for the lads but am optimistic that Castlebar will take Connacht.
Well done Castlebar definetly the best team day disappointed with Breaffy though expected a lot more from them
AOS held scoreless today as he was in the quarter final against Garrymore, was his performance in the semi final more to do with how poorly Ballintubber defended? anyway well done to Castlebar goals wins games and in Kirby,Douglas they have two players with a keen eye for goals. I think they are well placed to retain the Connacht title now, Clann na nGael are young inexperienced side and i don’t think Corofin are in the form of last year and their manager can’t be focused with the Mayo senior job interest.
0-5 from play D Connolly scored for St Vincents today its a while since he scored that much from play who was marking him?
Connolly was on form for sure today, Magic Mayo – hard to know who was meant to be marking him. For the first time in ages he really looked like he’d got his mojo back today. Incidentally, Vinnies had ten different scorers today and racked up over twenty points for the second successive Sunday.
wj, are vincents players all locals or are they from around the country? 10 players scoring in a semi in a county like dublin is some going, they must have some special tonic that they take before games, get us a couple of bottles for castlebar and Mayo if you can !
Most of them are home-grown, Dave. On the starting fifteen only Brendan Egan (Sligo) is an import as is Joe Feeney from Armagh who came on as a sub. Both scored today.
Barry Moran was the orchestrator. Feeney did very well and Alan was good too, Kirby featured strongly and in the backs Turbo Tom hoovered up balls all day. Douglas showed good poaching skills… the last goal was a beaute.
Breaffy.. only AOS shone much, dragged them back in it a few times but from too far behind. His brothers had decent games but not spectacular. Their full forward line was too lightweight and didn’t feature at all apart from when Connor OS went inside. After AOS Hennelly was their best player.
The winners have the experience to beat Clanna Na Gael but although 1 to 15 could even be better than Corofin would need to move the ball just a bit faster to emulate them as they now set the standard for team play. Also the Durkan bros were a bit wasteful with shooting in non ideal weather conditions.
Based on today Barry Moran is much better midfield option than SOS for Mayo because of the difference in kick passing success though summer pitch conditions might mean different and Breaffy just didn’t have good enough target men to hit inside. Too light for the backs marking them in October pitch conditions.
Still Castlebar were much the more patient team and rarely kicked the pass unless it was on.
Shuffly Deck, think we were watching different games if you think Hennelly was Breaffy’s second best player after letting in 4 goals. Did you really think the rest were that poor?
I watched the final on tv yesterday was very impressed with Danny m kirby and Neil Douglas, both definetly deserve a shot with Mayo
On the Breaffy side what can you say , where were they planing AOS and what was their game plan ?!
Thought the breaffy defence was v poor and Robbie hennelly had a similar performance as against the dubs- concession of four goals in a county final , he just cannot command the square , kicked a v good free however
I think Castlebar look a very good team and will go a long way in the series
[Deleted].
Managers job looks like a one horse race now. Horan is not letting his name go forward.
How do you know Done deal that Horan isn’t allowing his name to go forward
In the Western.
Cbar will know goals might not come in such a fluirseach fashion again! With the wind,teams need to take points at distance. I’d like to have seen NDg score seven or eight points from play rather than his 3-1 ! V few good points were scored by either side yest….a kind of disease that’s fairly rife abroad and that ll be a concern for Cbar going on!
Well done by the Champs in re guards to their defence set up…TC worked a charm while E OReilly showed great composure on various occasions.
And still at score 2-6 to 0-5 Breaffy could well have made their position a bit more comfortable with a bit of luck.We also saw again that one man can’t be out the middle when he’s needed badly inside.
However , a young team are Breaffy and they ll be rattling at the door next year with more conviction I would think!
Breaffy county men poor including goalie. Conor O Shea good game, Ballintubber must be kicking themselves. Kirby and Douglas were on fire, I hope new Mayo manager gives them a go.
Magic Mayo – I’ve now deleted your last two comments, both of which were catty in nature and designed solely to have a pop at someone else. As someone who has only recently started commenting here, I think it’s clear you haven’t yet fully grasped what’s expected. Let me give you a hint – this isn’t the place for posting puerile, childish remarks so if that’s what rocks your boat then find somewhere else to amuse yourself.
Kirby and Douglas looked good and certainly should be looked at by new management. It’s not like Mayo are rocking with talent up front and these guys are big and mobile and as they say a good big one is always better than a good little one. Plus we have a lot of similar small type forwards in the panel as it is.
From a purely Mayo perspective I think this is a good outcome for the county team. Breaffy and Ballintubber players need a rest from football to be fresh for next year while Castlebar players get a chance to impress in the Connacht club championship. Bit of a mystery how more of them aren’t on the Mayo panel.
sadly it was a very noncompetitive game yesterday but it was great to be able to watch it.
utter slobber for the first goal but fair play to kirby he was there.
Castlebar will surely beat the Clann lads who haven’t won a title in a long time and might have celebrated too hard ( lets hope so anyway )
if they could then beat corofin and release our new manger they would be doing the county a power of good by winning Connacht and allowing Rochford to leave Corofin!!
Sorry WJ, yes was a bit overzealous, felt was being a bit undermined as a newbie and people speculating that I am in a tent!
Made the pilgrimage down yesterday (and back) from/to Dublin.
Not really a match after Castlebar’s first goal went in. Castlebar had good runners and ball players all over the field and Barry Moran, until the black card, was a clever orchestrator who made every pass count Dougie of course, and Kirby impressed. Kirby puzzles me; going for some balls he can look cumbersome and you are inclined to shake your head, yet the next minute he can fire over a beauty or have the ball in the net. The running of the Durcans is very powerful, though James looked more composed when he came on. Still felt Castlebar hit a lot of short balls into Rob’s hands. Agree with shuffly deck there that RH was good – he had no defence.
What of Breaffy? Really a one man band. Aido was everywhere and tried to do everything and he looked the class player on view, but support was very poor, with the exception of Conor who I thought did a lot of things well. Dravins and Irwin seemed to make some impact near the end, but Mitchels probably had taken the foot off the pedal at that stage.
What of county prospects? It’s very hard to judge and those who look good could well be found wanting. Corofin players didn’t exaclty worry Mayo too much in Salthill. And would you have forecast this time last year that Diarmuid O’C, Paddy Durcan, and David Drake would be the ones who would face Dublin.
Still I think Conor O’Shea and Danny Kirby need to get more game time. And, maybe James Durcan also, even though only a sub for Castlebar, but he has scorching pace.
BTW, here’s a link to the Horan ‘withdrawal’ comments in the Daily Star, via Hogan Stand:
http://tinyurl.com/o6lg2zz
That’s fine, Magic Mayo – thanks for getting back on it. New voices, with new perspectives, are always welcome here and if everyone sticks by the rules then it helps to keep the debate constructive for everyone.
Mayo51 and All The Way – Douglas and Kirby are already on the Mayo panel. You need to say who your would forsake on the starting 15 to make way for them.
Trev
Kirby a better option than Dillon at this stage.Alan has been fantastic of course.Think Douglas better than Mikey Sweeney and possibly others too.
On last years performances docherty and mcgloughlin will be under pressure if there are any lads making shapes in the league campaign but in saying that any posibilities need to start putting in the yards in s&c now . I think that’s where we seem to be fookin up as the regulars on this panel the last 3/4 years seem to be miles ahead of the fringe squad men around the county in terms of s&c other than say the exceptionally fit men like DOC and Durcan. Take the likes of kirby who seems to go to the back of the pack when championship sharpness is required . I wonder is that down to the persons commitment to the cause or lack of direction by mentors?
Disappointed to see James Horan has ruled himself out but in fairness to him he has a young family and commutes everyday to Ballina. I hope he does come back again one day or gets involved in some capacity with Mayo football. In the meantime I hope the new manager is from Crossmolina but hasn’t managed Mayo before that’s as diplomatic as I can put it
In fairness Huey and Louis, Trev asked who would Kirby and Douglas replace on the starting 15, as mentioned, they are already on the panel.
While I agree Kirby is a class above Dillon, Dillon hasn’t been making the starting 15.
So question remains, who would they replace on the starting 15?
Delighted Stevie Rochford has the big gig in the bag.
He has been my choice since Day 1 and just glad that the way he was treated poorly by the County Board did not see him lost elsewhere.
His backroom team is impressive and gives the players every opportunity to be the best they can be.
dying to get going in Cork with the real stuff
I think Kirby and Douglas could replace Doherty and mc Loughlin for the Fbd and the league give them a chance and see how it pans out
Knockmore lad
You are correct.I would have them on panel but not starting 15.Dont remember Dougie ever being in first 26.
Dougie played for Mayo in one of the League games last year and was MOTM, but never appeared since. I don’t know what he has to do to be given a starting place or even an introduction as a sub. I understand he was showing well in training too.
Worrying times for Mayo club football and Mayo football in general….The average winning margin of mitchels this year in thw championship was 10.5 points per game. They have plenty of good players coming through. Will clubs be able to hold on to players if they haven’t a hope of winning a senior title? This could be detrimental to the Mayo Senior team. Look at what s happened in laois and Armagh when they haven’t competive club championships
Disappointed for James who has changed mayo football since he took over,and feel he gets a bad press from some posters for tactics, I think that we have been short three or four players to really make a difference in big matches. That being said I voted for Stephen in the poll so I will be very happy if he gets the gig,hope he gets full backup from the county board, as I wonder if Down baulked at the demands of someone who is rumored to be in involved, well Mayo county board won’t be happy,hopefully some of the young players who we think are good enough will step up and finally get that cup down here
Mitchells had a well rounded team and always looked threatening when they ran at breaffy who were lucky to only concede four goals. Breaffy county players did not shine and you wouldn’t have picked them out whereas you would have picked out castlebars with panelists Kirkby and Douglas impressive and barry morans passing immense before he was harshly black carded (AOS should have been black carded more so in 1st half i thought). Eoghan reilly also put in a massive performance.