Earlier on this evening, Mayo GAA confirmed details of the first two rounds of fixtures in this year’s Senior, Intermediate and Junior football Championships. The Round 1 fixtures are set to be played on the weekend of 3/4 September while the Round 2 ties will be played the following weekend.
Here are the Round 1 and 2 fixtures in all three Championships.
Thanks Willie Joe. Would be great to see a few new players put their hand up over the next few months. Preferably some forwards who are deadly accurate and aren’t afraid to shoot.
Great stuff Willie Joe, thanks for that. Looking forward to it now!!
Great info Willie Joe, fair play.
Love the club championships. Hopefully the weather holds and we get some top quality action. My wish this year would be for more people to come out and support their local clubs. I’m sure we all know people who seem to be at Mayo games all over the country but some of these same supporters are rarely if ever seen at a club game….
Well said yew tree. But unfortunately it wont happen.
Just the interest levels in the club championships on this blog tells the tale.
Most people view the function of the club championship is for the Mayo management team to find new players.
For the club supporters all over the county, the next two weeks anticipation is as good or even better than the start of the inter county championship.
Just see that some clubs will have only 6 days bewteen round one and round 2 of club championship, if a player gets a knock, could miss two rounds. And most of them are waiting around for the last 4 weeks for it to start.
Will there be any club championship season ticket pass?
I know there is Cairde Maigh Eo season ticket but I can’t get it since I didn’t renew back in 2017.
Last season’s club championship was excellent and able to get to a lot of games. Won’t be able to do the early rounds but hopefully there will be streams for them again. I could be wrong butte North and West teams appear to be stronger than South and East but hoping to be surprised. Will Westport with all their lads back from Chicago finally fulfil their promise? They are the team I think could do it but hoping Aghamore might get things together and have another good run.
Michael – havent seen a season ticket (bar the club plus) in previous years so doubt this year. I think its a great idea and should be looked out. Or alternatievly some counties do “weekend passes”. I think people are afraid these tickets cost money (less mney collected) but I believe the opposite as if paying in for every game you dont bother going
No word of streaming this year yet -I would have expected first round games to be announced. If it is not in operation it will be a pity
Joe – I just cant see Westport doing it this year. I think the four league semi finalists are the four strongest clubs. However they are in two groups so seeding/quarter final draws in the knock out will be interesting. Especially since teams from same group cant meet again until final
My prediction is Ballina to win the Moclair this year. Garrymore are my second favorites
What day is the round 1 Ballagh game on – Saturday or Sunday (Saturday I assume)? Seems to be a typo.
Tasty fixture – although if it’s a Saturday it clashes with a number of other senior championship games in Ros!
I look forward to the Club Championship every year and go to a Saturday and Sunday game each weekend and occasionally two games on one of the days where the schedule allows.
Dissappointed to see that both games in some groups are on the same day.
Ideally the schedule for each round for each group would have a Saturday and a Sunday game.
Wishful thinking on my part!
“Looking forward” yes I know Roscommon do weekend passes or season ticket.
Yes I say MayoTV will cover games but call me old fashion but I like to 3-4 games each weekend as I love club championship.
Senior: Ballina Stephenites
Intermediate: Parke/K/C
Junior: Swinford
I think Westport have by far the strongest panel in the county. They’re going to have a bench full of former Mayo underage players.
They’re in a nice group as well which is important for them to gel together, Ballintubber at home the only tricky game. If they can sneak a win there and top the group, I think they’ll win it out.
How will claremorris do this year think myself they will sneak out of the group
Times of games an absolute mess putting 4 Senior games on all at one time,A joke of a County Board we have.
Claremorris will do the same as they have done since 1972 not winning the Moclair cup.
On paper Ballina and Westport should be strongest as practically all team and squad seem be current or past Mayo players at senior or underage level.
That said they’ve been like that a couple years and not delivered.
Dempsey and his team have Knockmore well tuned despite not having the abundance of county men of some the others. King is a massive loss, but if they can get him and Darren McHale back they could give it a good shot again as the squad is extremely young with bulk under 24.
Castlebar going extremely well in league and with numbers they have are sure to feature.
Didn’t say claremorris will win championship said they could get out of group Robinson think they will beat breffay and balla
Co board meeting tomorrow evening to ratify new manager.
Claremorris are an anomaly in Mayo football. Fourth largest town in the county with plenty of recent underage success. You’d imagine if they could get things right they will be a force at senior level but in recent times they are in relegation play offs instead.
I think Claremore will be a strong senior team.
Is it fair to say Mayo club football will be stronger in two years?
That’s my view for senior and intermediate.
JP – most likely. The larger town teams will get stronger. Rural teams will come and go when a generational bunch of players come along together. You think Ballintubber in recent years, Crossmolina in the 00s.
Claremorris i think this year could make an impression, it will depend on Conor Diskin. He is the main man for them and i hope he has a great club campaign and gets a call up for Mayo. A serious talent with a big frame. What Mayo need right now.
Diskin,and a fully fit James Mc Cormack will be the driving force for Claremorris but still pretty young and inexperienced.
Extra time in Ballina between castlebar and knockmore
Claremorris have players good enough no doubt, but they have been bullied by teams like Tubber ,Ballina and Knockmore consistently throughhout the years, nice footballers but a softness to alot of there players against the better physical teams.They win alot of underage titles cause of the huge population they have over every other club in the South Mayo Divison.
Claremorris didn’t even field a junior team this year, amazing given their underage success and population base.
Westport, Castlebar and Knockmore all fielded third teams.
Claremorris had a junior team Gizmobobs they won the south mayo final last week
Great game in Charlestown today, Open entertaining and fast flowing between two good young teams.
The evergreen Ronan Mc with another great performance.
Whoever is our new manager I hope they bring Fenton Kelly of Davitts and Ronan Carolan of Parke with them. Superb players
Knockmore had 70 players tog at Adult level this year ,what a club!! Huge credit must go to the volunteers and coaches in Knockmore.
70 players togging is superb player retention and club culture with the latter being the most important.
Any reports from the lmayo eague finals guys?
Was tied up in dub with club commitments so wasn’t able to follow. Castlebar knockmore looked a right bumsqueaker
Uncle buck they played in a South Mayo competition but didn’t field in county league. Look at division 3 or 4 table.
Sean Morahan looks to be a good prospect in Castlebar. Marked Aidan Orme for a lot of the game today and done very well. Kicked the leveller with his weaker left foot. Castlebar man beside me said that he is still under 18.
It takes a long time in a lot of cases for juvenile football dominance to turn into success at senior football
Teams like Claremorris, Westport etc will always have 15 strong players at underage level on any team with their pick, so will be very strong. Rural clubs with lesser numbers will often only have 7 or 8 decent players at best, and will always carry a few passengers. That’s the nature of it
At senior level obviously every team has far more of a player base than underage teams who have to pick lads spanning a certain age range, and rural clubs can come with one-off generational teams containing lots of brothers etc. Tradition counts for much more also
Good underage players often emigrate/drift away etc anyway
Breaffy will have way too much quality for Claremorris
They might catch Belmullet, but you’d have to think last year’s experience will make the latter very tough to beat again, they were very well organised throughout the campaign and got some great scalps. Balla will fancy a right cut at Claremorris also
JP Claremorris ha not been in a county final since 78 and they bottled it that day.They are a soft touch.
Yew_tree- I am not so sure about the larger town teams getting stronger, Ballina haven’t won a senior county championship in about 15 years. There’s so many different sports to contend with and young fellas tend to drift away too at a young age. Clubs like knockmore will always do well, huge pick, tradition etc.. But big town teams don’t always do well.
Morahan definitely looks a good prospect , very assured for a 17 year old.
Another serious prospect at 17 /18 years also is Knockmore man Ollie Armstrong. Seen him play for the u-19s last week and he was really impressive. He bossed the game with great fielding,accurate distribution,aggressive tackling and boomed over great scores.
Couldn’t help but think if he started the final against Galway and was used properly ,close to goal he would have made enough of a difference on the day.
Knockmore do not have a huge pick, they have a medium sized pick but have brilliant player retention and longevity. Can talk about area, it comes down to national school numbers.
JP is right, population in Knockmore like all rural areas dropping. One N.S. closed there in last couple years and 2 more only 2 teacher schools that may not last long either, including Garracloon which was home to the Ruttleges and Keanes only about a dozen or so pupils now.
Knockmore is the second biggest parish in the county.. They have a huge pick ya. I understand what you are saying about national schools though.. But compared to some rural clubs, they have a very large area to choose from
Plenty have been saying for years now that town teams/bigger pick areas will dominate at senior.. going back as far as the 90s/00s
Yet take the last 4 county finals.. no sign of a Castlebar, Westport, Claremorris, Ballina
Tradition still counts for an awful lot, the likes of Knockmore will always be strong.
The 4 all Ireland semi finalists in the club hurling in January were all rural clubs. Its 7 years since a Dublin club won an all ireland in football, and the big guns there have nonsensical picks altogether
Sure plenty of Commemara teams in Galway have monstrous picks area wise.. tiny populations though
Jroc – their pick isn’t that massive. Usually just the 1 team at age grades from what I see. They just have huge retention. Culture above finances and numbers.
Large areas and large populations are very different things. Also 2nd largest parish doesn’t mean second largest club by area. Several clubs are made up of more than one parish if I think e.g. Westport/Aghagower = Westport St. Patricks, Crossmolina/Keenagh = Crossmolina Deelrovers, Bohola, Foxford, Attymass, Toomore = Bohola Moy Davitts
Clubs with greatest numbers i think are Ballina, Castlebar Westport, Claremorris. Thats why they get more allocations of all ireland final tickets compared other senior clubs.
“There’s so many different sports to contend with and young fellas tend to drift away too at a young age”
100%
this is actually a fair challenge for the bigger clubs at adult level (but they don’t get any sympathy). Player turnover is humongous. Unlike in underage when you only have one year each at a specific age group, and young lads will play everything they can
The perfect club model at senior is probably a big enough rural area (with optimum community spirit and all that and a good footballing tradition) with only the one sport to contend with, but near enough to a town/city to prevent mass emigration etc.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MAYO_FOOTBALL_CLUB_GAA_MAP.png This graphic helps show it
Fair points above yes, If population is dwindling in these areas its sad for football too aswell as economic and family situations… I think someone said there was 70 adult players this year for knockmore.. That’s still fairly good.. A great club too. One of mayos stalwarts.. They had and still do have great spirit.
In Galway – Claregalway, Salthill, Oranmore are fielding minor B teams this year – they have between 50 and 60 players registered at minor level alone
That puts the 70 adult members into perspective.
Fair play to them ciaran.. Great to see an interest in the gaa whatever the numbers
Absolutely Jroc, the more younger lads and ladies playing – the better
Its the other end of the scale where the real problems are, rural areas with tiny populations.
Ciaran
Oranmore are still only Intermediate and only have 2 adult teams.Galway urban teams are worse for dropping out at adult level than Mayos 4 Urban teams.
Has it been announced when the Club Championship semi-finals and finals are likely to be held? I can’t find those dates anywhere. Thanks for any info!