Photo: @bonniconlon_gaa
This weekend saw the start of the 2016 football championship at inter-county level – with action in both Leinster and Ulster – and The Sunday Game will be starting on TV most likely before I’m done here. It’s club action, though, I want to deal with briefly here, as this weekend also saw the first round of matches played in this year’s county club senior and intermediate championships on home soil.
Two clubs who featured in Croke Park finals earlier this year – Castlebar Mitchels and Hollymount/Carramore – started with a splash yesterday evening. Defending Moclair Cup champions Mitchels crushed Crossmolina by 3-13 to 0-9 in their Group 3 opener while Hollymount/Carramore announced their arrival on the senior scene in the best possible fashion, edging out recent champs Ballintubber by a point on a scoreline of 3-3 to 0-11.
Tubber’s loss means that they’re already up against it in Group 2, which also features Aghamore and Charlestown. Those two clubs met yesterday at Fr O’Hara Park where the visitors recorded an eye-catching 3-15 to 0-8 victory.
Photo: Aghamore GAA (via Facebook)
Back in Group 3, meanwhile, Ballina Stephenites were out smartly from the traps this afternoon. They crushed Ballinrobe by 4-12 to 1-5 at Flanagan Park, where the home side’s cause wasn’t helped by the dismissal of Donal Vaughan.
Big things are expected this year, perhaps unfairly, of Breaffy and so it was vital that they got off to a good start in Group 1. This they managed to do, recording a 1-9 to 0-6 win on home turf over Garrymore, while Davitts got the better of neighbours Claremorris by 3-8 to 1-8 in the same group.
Group 4 saw the only draw in the weekend’s senior championship fixtures, with Kiltane and Knockmore sharing the spoils, 1-4 to 0-7, at Bangor Erris. Ballaghaderreen, who beat Ballyhaunis by 1-12 to 0-12, lead the way in Group 4 after round one.
Here are all the SFC and IFC results from the weekend:
Senior Football Championship
- Group 1: Breaffy 1-9 Garrymore 0-6 (at Breaffy); Claremorris 1-8 Davitts 3-8 (Claremorris).
- Group 2: Charlestown 0-8 Aghamore 3-15 (Fr O’Hara Park); Ballintubber 0-11 Hollymount/Carramore 3-3 (Ray Prendergast Memorial Park).
- Group 3: Castlebar Mitchels 3-13 Crossmolina Deel Rovers 0-9 (Josie Munnelly Park); Ballinrobe 1-5 Ballina Stephenites 4-12 (Flanagan Park).
- Group 4: Ballaghaderreen 1-12 Ballyhaunis 0-12 (Ballaghaderreen); Kiltane 1-4 Knockmore 0-7 (Bangor Erris).
Intermediate Football Championship
- Group 1: Kiltimagh 3-14 Swinford 0-9 (Gilmartin Park); Bohola Moy Davitts 1-17 Tourmakeady 0-5 (Foxford).
- Group 2: Ardnaree Sarsfields 2-7 Westport 0-15 (Ardnaree); Shrule/Glencorrib 2-12 Castlebar Mitchels B 1-14 (Glencorrib).
- Group 3: Belmullet 0-14 Bonniconlon 0-6 (Belmullet); Mayo Gaels 0-9, Burrishoole 0-10 (Mayo Abbey).
- Group 4: Islandeady 0-12 Parke/Keelogues/Crimlin 0-12 (Islandeady); The Neale 0-16 Kilmaine 1-9 (The Neale).
Impressive win for Aughamore they have a lot of good young players I heard Freeman played well it’s a great time of year really loads of football and Mayo V London to look forward to very soon
The result in ballinrobe was in doubt early inb the second half until Donal Vaughan total indiscipline lost the game for his young team mates.robe had already lost two of their best players killeen and biggins to injury in the first half. Real hot day and a player down end of story.can’t understand why any player can let down his team mates like that but it has happened oin the past also
Very disappointing indeed Rober. They say OHora is showing well…CB or WB!?
It’s weird how few comments there are about the club football, but if cillian or Kevin or whoever get a haircut, new socks or sneeze we are debating it forensically !
Club obviously is a very distant thought in the great realm of football in Mayo.
Yeah Dave that’s interesting. I was at only one match – Intermediate – so I wouldn’t be in a position to contribute much that might relate to the county team.
I am a bit concerned that Tom Parsons didn’t play for Charlestown and Seamus O Shea for Breaffy. We need both this summer. Alan Dillon apparently started on the bench which is surprising. Perhaps the Ballintubber lads could fill us in a bit.
It’s not Dave that there’s no interest in Club football in Mayo, it’s more a case of divided loyalties when it comes to the Club scene. On the other hand this Blog is usually a discussion forum based around the day-to-day happenings of the County Team, and in that scenario, its one for all and all for one.
In fairness WJ lives in Dublin and I wouldn’t imagine a fair few on this forum here live outside the county. Was at my own club game Sat evening. Club football is indeed where it all begins. The GAA has reached a crossroads and the old suits don’t want to change.
I think the inter county and club structure needs an overhaul. How that is achieved is for smarter men than me but in Irrland most players play the leat amount of football in June, July and August…..it’s as Irish as you could get….in a country drowned by rain for most of the year.
Would imagine that is.
Easy win for Mitchels, the game was over after 10 minutes, they coasted. Great start to Mayo and Conn defense.
Ballina is the big game in the group for top spot
I reckon that Gaelic football and hurling will eventually go down rugby’s route. Club games will go ahead, but the elite players will represent county only. A bit like the provinces, but amateurs. I can also forsee a longer, structured county season, leaving the clubs with no choice but to make do.
Alan Dillon is only back from an injury picked up in a club league game a month ago so that why he was starting on the bench for ballintubber!
Just heard that one long term member of the panel is struggling to be fit for the season ahead.It might open the door for Liam Irwin or Danny Kirby.
F’deelin, If that’s the way GAA football goes it will be a sad day, esp. considering that Rugby has shown how detrimental it is for club rugby. The best young rugby players rarely play for a club nowadays, it’s all academy and this nonsensical B & I cup.
Reality is that in GAA the move is to curtail the county season to make room for the clubs and long may that continue. It usually takes a few years for ideas to catch on in the GAA but the direction is clear.
Ros Town, I too have heard about a long term injury concern for one (I won’t name him) of our established players. But there is always a real or perceived fact or rumour to be concerned about… Always has been, always will be, goes with the territory, same goes for other counties as well…. What we will get when eventually meet our first championship challenge, Rochy and Co will put our best 15 available starting in their opinion, and the same goes for our subs bench. What we will learn from London is hard to predict? , but we do need to learn,. The same is true for Dublin, what will they learn from the poor competition in Leinster? It’s too early in the year to worry about injuries for us fans, its not predictable in any case and in the past most of our injury worries have turned out to be only baseless rumours unless confirmed by management, the obvious exception being Donal Vaughan for last year’s replay with Dublin, clearly from early on in that match he was not physically fit to start, a bad error to pick him to play that day. I believe in Mick O’Dwyer’s mantra ‘never play an injured player, no matter who that player is! James Horan done an awful lot right, but playing an injured(and the whole of Ireland knew he was injured) Cillian O’ Connor in the All Ireland final of 2013, was an appalling decision. Cillian contributed very little from play that day, Horan had a man who had won the MoTH award V Tyrone a few weeks earlier, an excellent free taker to boot, Alan Freeman . But to compond his serious error in playing Cillian he then withdrew Freeman from the fray early in the match. Their was a player who should have been withdrawn but it certainly wasn’t Freezer. I don’t blame Vaughan or Cillian for playing in these matchs , but I do blame the management. Both those matchs were very close affairs and had these mistakes not been made, I believe we would have won both of them. Let’s hope Steven Rochford learns from previous mistakes….. On another topic, does any of ye out there think like me? , The Leinster council should reverse it’s decision and play the game Laois V Dublin match at O’Moore Park, it’s plain ridiculous that the first time Dublin play outside the capital in over 10 years that it’s played in a neutral venue. O’Moore Park is one of the best provincial venues in Leinster, it could easily be changed.
Was at the Claremorris & Davitts match Saturday. Colm Boyle had a very good second half. Mickey Conroy played a play maker role at No. 11. Josh Ronanye caught the eye for Davitts and was MOM. Cathal Higgins also played well for Davitts in closing out James Shaughnessy.
Then I moved on to Breaffy v Garrymore. Seamus O Se did not line out. Aido started at 11 and had to move to midfield. He played well. Liam Irwin and COS played inside and were held well by Garrymore. COS came into game when moved out to wing forward.
Michael Hall and Caolan Crowe were in direct opposition and Crowe got better of first half exchanges and Hall got better of second half.
Matthew Ruane had the task of picking up the form midfielder in the county at the moment Shane Nally. Nally had an absolute stormer and really didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.
Sean Rice described his performance as “brilliant and heroic” in today’s Mayo News.
Gerry Jennings was Breaffys best
I think what gets overlooked with injury is the percentage probability of reoccurence. We have been caught out in end of season games with hamstring twinges. Being clear of injury is difficult after 29/30.
On the club scene my two cents is that Aghamore and Ballina are stronger teams this year. Similar Moy Davitts who have some forwards back.
Those are fair observations, Mayo McHale and yew_tree – as I’ve pointed out often, I live in Dublin and my club loyalties are with St Vincents up here (though Aghamore’s rise isn’t going unnoticed by me either …) No more than the ladies football, the coverage club matches gets from me here on the site is a bit tokenistic but, as I’ve repeatedly said, the club stuff is, for practical reasons, beyond my remit. If someone based in the county was willing to take on the job (unpaid, unfortunately) of covering the club scene in more detail I’m all ears, though in fairness the local papers already do this extremely well.
I was at the Ballina v Ballinrobe match. While it was close for 40 mins , I always felt (from a Ballina perspective) that we were getting our scores easier and felt in the first half we could have has tow or three goals. In fact Evan Regan’s first half goal was harshly disallowed and had that stood I think we would have pulled away earlier. David Killeen was a big loss for Ballinrobe because Corduff and Irwin were starting to dominate the middle.I also felt sloppy play from Ballina was keeping the scores closer than any great pressure from Ballinrobe.
Ballinrobe had a great little spell for 5 mins towards the end of the first half where they kicked four or five bad wides in a row and had they taken these points would have been in a real position of strength to give Ballina a rattle in the second half. After Vaughan got the line Ballina coasted to victory with a dubious penalty giving Ballinrobe a slight chance till Ballina struck for two unanswered goals.
Best for the Stephenites were , Jack Irwin (watch out for this fella to be a potential midfield star at U21 next year!!!) , Sean Regan , Ciaran Treacy , Evan Regan and Lorcan Healy. The Ballina defence is looking really solid with Clarke , Caff , Swanie O’Hora , Sean Regan and Healy at the moment.
The Ballinrobe no 5 (is Sean Burke his name?) caught my eye , was lightning quick and caused Ballina a lot of trouble when he ran at us!!
Was anyone at the Castlebar Cross match?? Were Cross as poor as it looks?
Farradeelin , were you out at the battle of the North between Kiltane and Knockmore or were you forced to Brewster park to please your other half?
Leantimes, I’m with you on the Laois/Dublin thing.
Looking at the differences between Nowlan Park (Kilkenny) and O’Moore Park (Portlaoise), all of the online information I could find states that Portlaoise has a capacity of 27,000 (6,000 seated) while Kilkenny has 24,000 (19,000 seated). So why is the match in Kilkenny? Most real Dublin fans I know go to Hill 16, so standing for the match is no bother to them. Was Kilkenny really chosen so that more Dubs could sit down?
Compare Dublin and Mayo travelling fan base for a minute. At least 4,000 Mayo fans travel to every away league game and at least that number went to New York a few years ago for the opening game of the championship. About 4,000 Dubs supporters travel to every away game they have in the league as well. On that basis, we have a like with like situation – except that Mayo fans not to be accommodated AT ALL to even GET INTO the first round game of the Championship, let alone get to sit down!
If it is OK for London to have a home venue against Mayo (and I do not have a problem with it by the way!), there is no logic whatsoever to Laois being forced to lose home venue for the Laois/Dublin game.
The GAA prides itself on having a strong role in supporting local communities but this is a slap in the face for the ordinary GAA people of Laois. At a time when there are perceptions of unequal advantage being given to stronger teams/counties and such perceptions are leading to players deciding to leave county squads, the GAA hierarchy needs to take its head out of its arse and start listening to its supporters before they too abandon interest in their county squads.
was indeed at the Mitchel’s v Crossmolina match, We (crossmolina) were poor. Think the players struggled, and whatever tactics the management went with were wrong and played into Castlebars hands, very slow in making any changes. I also think as it was Crossmolina playing, the Mitchel’s lads who were dropped from the panel knew rochie would be there and that gave them a big carrot to perform, and they did. they looked fit, composed, well structured and even without at least 5-6 who didn’t start the all Ireland final! which begs the question, why were they such a non event on paddy’s day???? Thought we would definatly challenge them on Saturday, hugely disappointing, all is not lost but huge work needed in the next 6 weeks till next championship match!
There is a Sean Burke from Ballinrobe in his mid twenties, 25 or so.
He has pace and a good footballer. But you’d look sometimes at Ballinrobe matches and he would not be listed for what seemed a season? But when I seen him previously I thought he was a very good player. I seem to recall him being physical as well, it’s five years or six years since I seen him playing U21.
Anyone have a teamsheet for how Ballina lined out? I just have an interest in them this year. Would like to see them back stronger again.
Is it just me or does anyone else think its ridiculous that its 6 weeks till the next championship match? Mayo have a very good club championship but like most counties it is shoe horned in around intercounty teams. The club championship started in mid May but potentially will not end until October. Then the winners will play the most important matches in their history in the cold, rain and mud of winter. Utter maddness. The club players are treated with total distain, hanging around all summer not knowing when they are playing.
The GAA must get their heads out of the sand and restructure the whole GAA calendar. The intercounty championship musy be shortened/condensed into a time frame. There must be designated club football and intercounty weekends and a designated off season. For example plyers like Paddy Durcan who I hope will be an important player for mayo this year has been on the go for over a year without a break due to club and county commitments. How will he fair by the time September comes around without a decent break.
I’ll give you a better example of ridiculous, mayomad – the first round of the Dublin football championship was played a few weeks ago but the next round won’t be played until after Dublin’s involvement in the championship is over. Then it’ll all be run off in around two weeks. Lunacy doesn’t come close to describing it, it’s utter contempt for all club players.
Agreed Mayomad and Willie Joe, but I think the gap for the county team has been a blessing this year and last year. It has allowed time to get those injuries on the mend, and more time for the panel to get together, given that the league is really challenging for managers who have players injured, studying, not available for training and so on. We had an awful lot of ground to make up. Indeed the more I think of it, it was a pretty good achievement by Rochy and all concerned to stay up in Div 1.
WJ. That is ridiculous, how are the Dublin GAA getting away with it. To make it worse again theirs is a straight knockout competition so there are club players who have no championship football to look forward to as early as April.
When I see the ads on tv around February time for the club finals saying how the club is the foundation and most important aspect of the GAA, it makes my blood boil.
and there is no back door for the first round in Dublin. Boom one loss you are out
I think they have a B championship for the first round losers in Dublin
I think the way forward for inter county football is the same as rugby,the panal plays for the county,not the club,gives plenty of game time to club players, if someone really puts their hand up for the club they join the county panel,and get paid for their efforts,the gaa have plenty of revenue to look after the county set up,it was pathetic of the connaught council spokesman to say it would have created problems if new York had won thete is loads of money within the gaa to accommodate these situations.on the question of injured players taking part in matches,I would leave it up to management who have access to the medical information,so anything from outside the camp is only conjecture
@JP Ballina line out as followed :
David Clarke
David O’ Mahony , Padraig O’Hora , Stephen Mullins
Lorcan Healy , Sean Regan , Ger Caff
Alex Corduff , Jack Irwin
Evan Regan , Scott Kinivan , Rory Campion
Ciaran Treacey , Mikey Murray , Rory Tighe.
Jack Irwin Ballina is son of Gabriel former mayo goalie. He played for mayo minors last year.
Thanks for the teamsheet Crete.
This was in the Mayo News today:
INJURY UPDATE
MEANWHILE, six of Mayo’s 33-man championship squad played no part in their club’s championship matches last weekend. Tom Parsons, Seamus O’Shea, Chris Barrett, Andy Moran, Conor Loftus and Brian Reape were all absent due to a variety of knocks and niggles. Alan Dillon came on for the final twenty minutes of Ballintubber’s defeat to Hollymount/Carramore.
There was no mention of any serious injuries anyway so we’ll see how it goes.
NO. 5 for Ballinrobe was Conor Keane – not Sean Burke.
Sean Burke was ballinrobe captain andplayed at 11. The quick number 5 is conor Keane, first cousin of Rory Keane minor captain 2000 and micheal Keane who played in the all Ireland under 21 ,final 2001
@robe123 and Robert .
Thanks lads , wow that’s a fine lineage I remember watching Rory Keane in the All Ireland semi that year.
Conor is fine player like his cousins and I would certainly love to have that speed and skill in Ballina’s half back line!!!
As I recall Sean Burke is very good at taking his man on. I would have thought looking at him he was Mayo u21 type level. Wasnt he in or around a minor squad 7 years ago?
Corick Bridge,
Do you realise the state club rugby is in compared to 20 or so years ago? Dying on its feet, numbers wise, because of lack of finance/low attendances. The numbers playing the game is declining and players who are not selected for provincial academies are losing interest as they do not see a path forward for their game. The academy players are rarely available to clubs with this silly bloody B & I Cup getting preference.
Is this what you want for GAA club football? The wrong medicine is more likely to kill the patient than cure.
The best solution I can see is a provision that ALL counties designate at least one week per month for club games where ALL players are available to their clubs. As it is Dublin have a huge advantage in allowing Jim Gavin total control over football in the county from early May while they remain in the championship. But county managers will still try to prevent/discourage players from lining out with their clubs by pressurising the individual player.
Poor enough performance by Btubber, goals came at the right times for Holly/Carra, Twenty minutes from Alan Dillon was almost enough to turn the game on his own. O’Connor’s well shackled with Cillian double/treble marked throughout, older brother Padraig the best of the brothers on the day.