Photo: @MayoGAA
It’s down to the final four in both the Senior and Intermediate football championships following another jam-packed weekend of club action. Here’s a quick rundown on all the weekend’s results.
The SFC quarter-finals were played out in two double-headers at McHale Park, with Breaffy facing Westport and Ballintubber taking on Moy Davitts yesterday evening while this afternoon it was Castlebar against Claremorris followed by Ballaghaderreen against Garrymore.
I stayed put up in the capital myself this weekend but I still got to see a good bit of the Senior action by tuning into the Mayo GAA TV live streaming service, which covered all four games from MacHale Park. That was the best value tenner I’ve spent in a while.
I didn’t, to be honest, see all that much of the Breaffy/Westport game as I was occupied with other stuff here for all of the first half and a bit of the second. By the time I logged on Breaffy’s half-time lead was gone and so too was Matthew Ruane on a red, with James Horan’s young Covies seemingly circling for the kill.
But they failed to finish the job. Breaffy only scored two second half points – both from placed balls – but that proved enough for them on the evening, as they prevailed by the minimum margin. The winner for Breaffy came courtesy of this long-range free from Robbie Hennelly:
We’re LIVE now from MacHale Park as we bring you todays two @ConnachtGold @MayoGAA SFC quarter finals… Tune in now! pic.twitter.com/sTnB4VVgRh
— Mid West Radio (@radiomidwest) September 23, 2018
Last night’s second game proved a bit one-sided, with Ballintubber beating Moy Davitts at their ease. The underdogs started brightly in this one, the lively Brian Reape causing all manner of trouble to the Tubber backline early on, but as the opening half progressed Ballintubber asserted control and two goals before the break effectively killed off Moy Davitts’ challenge.
Alan Plunkett got the first, claiming a knock-down from a long ball punted in and planting it firmly past the ‘keeper, while Alan Dillon bagged the second soccer-style. Ballintubber’s recovery from that jittery start was aided by strong midfield dominance, where Jason Gibbons was in majestic form, full of running and the scorer of three cracking points.
Ballintubber won by twelve at the finish but they won’t, one assumes, have things quite their own way next time out. That’s because their semi-final opponents will be Castlebar Mitchels who this afternoon blew away Claremorris in the day’s opening fixture at MacHale Park.
Playing into the Albany end with the wind at their backs, Mitchels gave their opponents a harsh lesson in point-taking in a totally lopsided first half. Ten points went over the posts at that end before Claremorris got off the mark at all but when they did it was a green flag they raised, Conor Diskin connecting with a long ball in and flicking it to the net.
The second half was a pedestrian affair. A second Claremorris goal – a converted penalty – helped to keep the final scoreline in respectable territory from their point of view but this was in every sense a hugely comfortable win for the defending champions.
Ballaghaderreen’s victory over Garrymore in this afternoon’s second fixture at MacHale Park was a more hard-fought affair but goals – three of them – scored at crucial times helped to see them home. Ballagh’ hit the net twice – both times from Darragh Kelly – in the first half but a hard-working Garrymore side were still well in it at the break, trailing by three but with the wind behind them for the second half.
Shortly after the resumption, however, they shipped another major. Cian Hanley gathered the ball close to goal out on the right and was able to skip by a few challenges before poking the ball home. The South Mayo side battled back again after this latest set-back but to no avail, as Ballagh’ held out for a three-point win.
So it’s Castlebar Mitchels against Ballintubber and Breaffy against Ballaghaderreen in the Moclair Cup semi-finals. These ties will be played under the MacHale Park lights on Saturday week (6th October), with the Breaffy/Ballaghaderreen match throwing in at 6pm and the Castlebar/Ballintubber one getting going at 7.30pm. Both matches will also be streamed live by Mayo GAA TV.
Wrapping up the Senior action, both Knockmore and my own home club Aghamore escaped to safety in this weekend’s relegation play-offs. Aghamore – as they’d done twelve months ago – condemned Davitts to a relegation final play-off when they beat them yesterday in Ballyhaunis by 2-11 to 1-8. Knockmore, meanwhile, saw off Crossmolina at Ballina this afternoon by 1-12 to 0-7 in the other relegation avoider.
The race for the Intermediate championship has also been whittled down to the final four. The Neale were the first club into this year’s semi-finals when they edged by Parke by 0-15 to 0-13 yesterday afternoon at Claremorris. They were joined this afternoon by Burrishoole (1-15 to 1-5 winners over Ballinrobe at Breaffy), Belmullet (who thumped Swinford by 5-16 to 1-5 at Ballina) and Kiltimagh (who beat Louisburgh by 0-13 to 1-6 at Islandeady).
The IFC semi-finals will also be staged as a MacHale Park double-header the weekend after next. Both games will be played on Sunday, 7th October, with The Neale taking on Burrishoole at 1pm while Belmullet will be up against Kiltimagh at 2.30pm. These two semi-finals will also be streamed live on Mayo GAA TV.
Just to complete the list on the Intermediate side, Shrule/Glencorrib beat Mayo Gaels by 2-20 to 0-16 in yesterday’s relegation play-off semi-final while Bonniconlon beat Castlebar Mitchels B this afternoon by 0-14 to 0-8 in the other IFC relegation avoider.
Here’s the full list of the weekend’s SFC and IFC results:
SENIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarter-finals
- Breaffy 0-11 Westport 0-10
- Ballintubber 2-17 Moy Davitts 0-11
- Castlebar Mitchels 1-20 Claremorris 2-9
- Ballaghaderreen 3-11 Garrymore 0-18
Relegation play-offs
- Aghamore 2-11 Davitts 1-8
- Knockmore 1-12 Crossmolina Deel Rovers 0-7
INTERMEDIATE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarter-finals
- The Neale 0-15 Parke/Keelogues/Crimlin 0-13
- Burrishoole 1-15 Ballinrobe 1-5
- Belmullet 5-16 Swinford 1-5
- Kiltimagh 0-13 Louisburgh 1-6
Relegation play-offs
- Shrule/Glencorrib 2-20 Mayo Gaels 0-16
- Bonniconlon 0-14 Castlebar Mitchels B 0-8
Finally, don’t forget that there’ll be a new episode of the Mayo News football podcast online on Tuesday morning, reviewing all of the weekend’s SFC and IFC action. This is the first of two podcast episodes planned for the coming week with a second one a few days later previewing next weekend’s Junior football final. Spoiled rotten, the lot of you are.
Willie Joe once again the coverage you show is top drawer. Nobody out there comes close. Well done again. Can’t wait for the podcast.
Thought today’s games were a bit of a damp squib. I speak as a neutral who travelled the guts of 100 miles to see them. No doubt for Ballagh’ and Garrymore fans it was an exciting outing but as a neutral I thought the standard was very low with too many errors, misplaced passes and wides kicked, even allowing for the strong wind. But there were some promising performers, particularly Diskin, Hanley and Kuba Callaghan when he came on. My thought at half time in Ballagh v Garrymore was that Mitchel’s would beat the pick of them
There are a number of Forwards that need to be looked at in Mayo at present, there is a very strong case for holding County Trials at the moment with the abundance of young talent in the County. The Laois manager John Sugrue is holding a trial competition in Laois at the moment breaking it up into 4 regions to find potential talent, I think the same should happen in Mayo.Its impossible to know who our 6 best forwards in the County are at present.
Brian Reape
James Durcan
Conor Diskin
Colm Moran
Darren Coen
Fionn McDonagh
Jack Reilly
Evan Regan
Conor O’Shea
Ciaran Treacy
Conor Loftus
Fergal Boland
Cian Hanley
Darren Coen
Neil Douglas
Ryan O’Donoghue
James Carr
Adam Gallagher
Eoghan Lavin
@TH ya can easily take 6 off that list won’t name them
Agreed with Aiden. If we get two from that list who can better our current forwards we will be doing well. Some of those listed have been tried before, sometimes more than once, and found wanting. Some are current panel members who deserve to hold their place and some are under question. Some others are too young to merit a senior panel place yet.
Best game of the Weekend was Breaffy and Westport really hard fought encounter, Westport will rue their missed chances big time. Fionn McDonagh could come through. Brian O Malley looks a really steady player, strong and composed. Kilkelly will be a fine player.
Castlebar look ever so dominant all round great side play collectively as a unit and are very composed. Patrick Durcan and James Durcan really leading the line for them this year.
Ballintubber look the best placed team to stop them – they have the core players to go toe to toe. Brian Reape was excellent he has a big future strong powerful and can score.
Only got to one Intermiediate game The Neale and Parke. A very entertaining game. The Neale probably deserving winners, Tommy conroy was excellent for them and Ronan Carolan was excellent for Parke he looks a real talent. The Neale will be hard stopped they have a lot of momentum now.
The Mayo GAA TV coverage really is a godsend for us out of the country.
Great value for money and a pretty professional set up. Shame they lost transmission at the end of the Breaffy Westport game, but these things happen.
To think back to the years when you’d have to call someone at home just to get a rough idea on who might have won, now we have this service.
The games themselves weren’t great, bar the 2nd half of the Breaffy Westport game and the Ballag’ game in patches.
Expecting a couple of tight battles in the semis. Castlebar clearly the team to beat, but would expect Ballintubber to really put it up to them.
The Belmullet Kiltimagh intermediate semi should be a cracker.
Roll on 6/7th October
I got 4 games in over the weekend. The double header in Castlebar on Saturday and the Mitchells Claremorris game Sunday followed by KIlti and Louisburgh.
Have to say Padraic Prendergast was the stand out player. He drove Louisburgh forward. Kicked a few big scores and almost single handily beat Kilti before being harshly sent off.
Colm Moran was excellent against Breaffy and Brian Reape had his moments against the tubber. He did seem to gas out at the end of the first half which was strange. Both Reape and Moran are scoring forwards and warrant a look at in the spring. Eoghan Lavin also has a sweet left peg. looking forward to seeing himself and Cillian Finn again in the semi final.
I was at the double header Saturday evening in castlebar.
In westport castlebar game conor o shea was the stand out player for breaffy. Breaffy are a huge side but lack forwards & thats what will catch them. Westport will feel disappointed with the result as they had 5 or 6 great chances with 10 -15 mins to go to close game out. Colm Moran was the stand out forward. Keegan was somewhat disappointing and he never seems to convert county in to club form. i couldn’t understand james horan decision to leave wesports number 14 on for the whole game and then he bought on shane scott 3 mins in to injury time. (very strange).
In the Ballintubber Moy Davitts match the 1st 20mins was end to end which was very easy on the eye. I thought i was in for another Moy Davitts classic but 2 fortunate ballintubber goals killed the game particularly the 1 before half time. Gibbons was unreal for tubber and inflicted the most pain on the moy men.(pity he cannot transfer club form to county )Cillian and Diarmuid where quiet enough & will have to up there game big time if they are to trouble castlebar.
It has been a roller coaster 18 months for moy davitts who have some fine young players coming up. They where also missing 4 of last years team that won the intermediate title but will really need to work on there strength and conditioning to trouble the big boys of Mayo football but no doubt they have forwards and ability.
Saw 3 games. The Neale should really have had this game wrapped up early with a number of clearcut goal chances spurned by Connolly and Conroy (both of whom played very well). Also the Neale gave away a lot of ball far too easily especially early in the second half. PKC tactic of pumping hign balls into the full forward just did not work with Micheál Varley well able to handle them. To be fair PKC never gave up and could have snatched a late equaliser only for the efforts of Cillian McHugh in breaking down a number of attacks near the end.
Ballinrobe Burrishoole showed the best and worst of both teams. Ballinrobe scored 1.5 with just two points in the 2nd half. They could have had 4 or 5 goals – very worrying for Burrishoole! Ballinrobe backs were excellent and a lot of the Burrishoole scores came near the end when Ballinrobe were totally deflated having missed goal after goal chance. Poor skills on display with Jason Doc and the Borrishoole no 14 (McManamon?) the only exceptions – very polished.
Ballaghderreen vrs Garry. I can only say I cannot see how Garry lost this game. Throughout the field they appeared to me to be the far better team. The fact that I cannot highlight any individual Garry player just explains what a good club they are. For Ballaghderreen Cuba Callaghan looked real good when he came on. Young Slattery looked very good. Cant see Balllagh troubling anyone else this year. If Garry were to discover a few really good forwards they would trouble a lot of teams.
Senior Championship so Far
The good
Senior
Ballagh through to a county semi and the right side of the draw
Moy Davitts a breath of fresh air with there style of football no blanket required here
All county lads back playing with there clubs & dieing for the cause (colm boyle Aido durcan andy etc)
The west mayo dominance castlebar breaffy tubber in to county semis
Mayo TV coverage unreal for the exiles
Pitches are in good nick
Good crowds at games
Standard of football is good enough on a par with club football in dublin
Saturday evenings double headers. Just grand fits in nicely with a few beers after
The Bad
North Mayo decline knockmore & cross in a relegation play off ballina just about missing out on relegation playoff
The distinct lack of forward on view. eg Breaffy main scorer was hennelly
Refs unable to keep up with play. no ideas what is a black or yellow card giving county players special attention no idea of advantage rule inconsistency of decision making etc
The national anthem farce. Most games i have been at its like an episode of father ted getting the national anthem going. Indeed only for someone in the crowd for 2 games i was at there would have been no rendition at all.
County board officials collecting at gates with no proper ticketing system or controls
Games being held in McHale Park. No real atmosphere
Castlebar support very poor for a big town team
The Garry goalie had a nightmare first 20 mins with his kickouts. Overall, the standard of the 4 senior games was average at best. Castlebar/Ballintubber could be a dour struggle with both teams knowing each other inside out. No outstanding performances from players on the periphery of the county team. A lot of players did OK – but you would be hoping to see a bit more from players with ambitions of playing with the county. Seamus Cunniffe hardly touched the ball for Ballagh and Garry could have scored 3-4 goals as they walked through the Ballagh defence several times. Was very disappointed with some player been mentioned here as possible county players – they were miles off it.
Just want to point out that Tom Parsons it seems did his final surgery and seems to be recovering well.
A unique man that we are lucky to have!!
New departure some good stuff there but of course no hope of the ‘bad’ being dealt with. Refs one of the main problems but I see a lot of younger refs being ignored. Is it a case of the old boys club with reffing as well. A number of refs I know would be willing and have time for more courses, training weekends, trips to croke park etc.. Whilst I feel the game, especially at club level, is great to watch it is being held up by bad reffing which is making players, coaches and supporters angry. The lack of consistency is evident from one incident to the next and from one ref to the next. McHale Park athmospehere is brutal – much prefer Breaffy.
Sinabhuil
I feel your frustration with refs
There is definitely a click who seems to get all the big games.
The inconsistency between 1 ref and the other is obvious to see.
i know Managers in clubs who pulled there hair out when they here certain refs are reffing games
A bigger concern if the reffing of underage games. Any of these games i been at the reffing has been of particular low standard with some awful clowns reffing the games.
These clowns have being referring games since i was playing underage in the 80’s.
The county board are responsible but hey most of these refs are delegates to the county board.
There should be an official grading of refs which should be publish on the county board website.
Any ref that constantly receiving bad ratings should be removed from the panel & the refs receiving positive ratings should be giving more of the bigger games. Reward the positive dont reward the negatives simple as
Re referees, have watched garryowen McMahon a few times referee a number of under age games recently, really excellent referee.
That’s very impressive clubman51, 4 games – I got a mere one in. On my weekend of all things midwest radio, I caught the J Horan interview post the Westport defeat. Never easy to be gather ones thoughts immediately after a defeat, but the lads put him plenty of direct questions around the county job/vacancy and I have to say he answered them really well – he definitely wants the gig, he was measured and complimentary to all parties involved included the co board, he comes across with authority and dignity in equal measure but most of all he has already answered that most annoying of questions which will face any Mayo manager next year around the chase for Sam – its all about improving every day, that’s it nothing less or more. It might be boring but its precisely the right answer today tomorrow, next year.
Horan comments ‘re the Mayo job were exactly what we needed to hear. Very measured,well thought out and intelligent There’s a good article in the examiner with his comments…Can’t post link.
Regarding refs – who in their right mind would be a ref for €30 a game. Give up your evening/Sunday afternoon – drive to a match – get abused even if you do an excellent job – and drive home again for €30. Most people with any bit of sanity will never ref a game – a thankless job. Having said that there are some very poor refs out there. There are also a lot of players/managers/supporters shouting at referees and they don’t even know the rules of the game.
Can anyone tell me what color card one should get for kicking the ball away when the goalkeeper is trying to take a kick out. It happened at the end of the breaffy Westport game and it really is awful to see. Surely it should be black at least, is there a more cynical act in the game?
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/gaa/james-horan-breaks-silence-on-why-he-wants-to-be-mayo-manager-again-871087.html
Horan’s comments, just give him the bloody job!!!!
wasn’t at any of the games over the weekend as I live outside County, but judging from comments here no new players have emerged, just the same old players that have been tried and in most cases failed being mentioned even the established County men don’t appear to be putting in star performances and most games appear to have been of poor standard . Not looking good for new Manager
Reading what j horan had to say he never uses the word manager its always a coach.
When he left in 2014 he mentioned in an artical you need somebody with you to manage things off the field so you could give all your time to coaching the team.
I think k mcstay was thinking the same in his departing statment.
Think it should be tried this time round would suit the team the coach and the county board.
The die seems to be cast now insofar as it’s either James or Michael, my preference is for the former, for a variety of reasons.
However for those that are insisting we try out the youngsters, I do think Horan is the better of the 2 to blend youth and experience. I’ve perhaps referenced this article before but it’s worth reading again:
http://spailpin.blogspot.com/2011/05/mayo-championship-preview-2011.html
As indeed is much of what the same blogger has to say. One of my one personal favourites is here:
http://spailpin.blogspot.com/2006/02/green-above-red.html
Educational and entertaining, with a great writing style. Who’d have ever thought you’d be able to read about how a CB official and Dr Bunsen Honeydew might have collaborated on the colour of an away jersey?.
NiallMc 1983
During my playing days I played in goal back in the days when the kick out following a score was taken from the (then) 21 yard line. During a Senior League Division 1 game against a team which will remain nameless I placed the ball on the 21 and prepared for such a kick out. As I reversed back a few paces and surveyed the landscape the opposition full forward ( who had just scored a point) rushed in and kicked the ball over the bar again. He then protested his innocence and claimed to the referee who had his back to the play that the score should stand!!
I believe Horan can bring through the youth we have on offer in Mayo, if you look at the players he’s brought through from the current group who have challenged for All Ireland’s year after year he done a brilliant job in developing them, watching the club championships the past few weeks players he can develop that can have a real impact like
Brian Reape
Colm Moran
Conor Diskin
Ronan Carolan
Eoghan Lavin
Ryan O Donoghue
I would be very optimistic we have the talent in our county if we get the right manager
FDBinashui,brilliant,would not be surprised if someone uses a statement like that to explain their reasoning for manager