Photo: Connacht GAA
Our lads don’t take the field until Sunday but Round 1 of the pre-season Connacht FBD League gets going tonight. This year, the FBD returns to its roots, with the third-level colleges not involved so it’s four rounds of inter-county matches, followed by a final (scheduled for next month) between the top two.
This evening’s matches see Sligo host Galway in Tourlestane while Leitrim entertain Roscommon at their new Centre of Excellence in Annaduff. Both matches throw in under lights – and, one assumes, in windy conditions – at 7pm. UPDATE: The Sligo/Galway game has now been switched to the Connacht Centre of Excellence at Bekan. Throw-in time remains 7pm.
Galway have, as you’d expect, named an experimental line-up for this evening’s game. Four players who featured in last year’s All-Ireland U21 final get starts for the seniors tonight – full details here. Sligo, under new manager Cathal Corey, give senior debuts to six players – details here.
Roscommon, meanwhile, have named a 24-man panel for their trip to play Leitrim this evening. The full list is here. I can’t find any details on Leitrim’s team for this fixture.
Closer to home, this week’s edition of the Mayo News (paper and digital formats) has plenty of GAA coverage ahead of the start of our FBD League campaign at the weekend so you might want to check that out. Included in this week’s paper is an in-depth interview by Mike Finnerty with Stephen Rochford and some of this will also feature in the first episode for 2018 of the Mayo News football podcast, which goes online later on this evening.
Unfortunately Mayo Gaa TV will not be showing any of the FBD games according to Liam Horan.
I think Sligo will win. Adrian Marren and Pat Hughes I expect to do a lot of damage, Pat Hughes will be too strong for Sean Andy O’Ceallaigh.
The Roscommon team looks strong, they should win handy. Roscommon do not have Andy Glennon of Glaveys onboard, he has not committed!! A bad blow for them, he is for sure in their top six forwards.
Galway game has been changed to Bekan with a 7pm throw in Willie, just in the last few minutes..
Thanks, Tuamstar, just saw that now as well. I’ll stick an update on the post now.
Any idea of dates times and locations of mayos fbd games? Seems like the best kept secret to me and have to find something to do in January so trying to plan 🙂
WJ. Just saw on Twitter Mayo v Galway on Sunday is off due to pitch damage.
Nothing from official Mayo GAA to say the Galway game is off. Would be unusual for a game to be cancelled this far out and is there no other venue in Mayo capable of holding the tie? If not, send it to Galway.
I saw that too, Nephin, but the claim that the match has been cancelled is not from an official source so I don’t think any definite conclusions can be made from it.
Half time:
Galway 1-7.
Sligo 0-5.
Full-time scores from tonight’s FBD League Round 1 games: Galway 1-12 Sligo 0-11 (match report here), Roscommon 2-14 Leitrim 1-3.
They’re bringing us to Salthill in April, bring them to Ballina on Sunday!!
Mayo Mark – where else could they bring us in April
Tuam
There are plenty of good grounds around the county to stage Sundays game. Eleanor didn’t affect everywhere.
Looking forward to following the green an red again..
Sorry for posting that Wj , I see that tweet has now been deleted.
No need to apologise, Nephin – I saw it myself and was wondering what the story was on it. I guess if there was anything solid to the story it would have been confirmed quickly enough but it now looks like the first bit of #mayogaa fake news of 2018!
Mayo Mark – Was at u21 game in Tuam last year, it’s not fit to hold a national league game.
Meant to send my best wishes to all that follow Mayo, I hope your team remain injure free and I look forward to out battles against ye in 2018, there should be plenty of bite to those games and that’s exactly what both teams need if we are to be in the final reckoning.
I hope that all supporters navigate the many journeys in safety and that ye secure sufficient points to hold your division one status. Mayo can boast with confidence that they are by some distance the best supporters in Ireland, I only wish that our supporters welcomed our players onto the field with the same gusto that the Mayo team are greeted by their tribes in the stands, hats off.
Dublin are the team to beat but I am absolutely convinced that they are beatable, they are a great team but have been very fortunate in a number of semis and finals over the past three years regarding split decisions from officials. I’m not for one moment taking from their victories as I genuinely admire their team. I’m just making the point that they could have very easily lost in any of the last three years if a fifty fifty call went the other way, that’s how tight it has been between the top teams.
Anyway the 2nd of September looks like the day that this years Titans will look each other in the eye, clinch their jaws and go for it. Whether I’m sitting on hard plastic or soft leather I will be shouting for what I think will be a western team doing battle for Grail. Then again we might have two western teams and wouldn’t that be something to look forward to. I wish ye good fortune and victory against all but The Kingdom and should we faulter I hope ye succeed.
God bless and happy 2018 to you all, Ciarraí Abú.
Anyone notice how the national media treat round ups from all provinces? Connacht teams invariably last. Rossies and Galway were QF teams last year; Leinster is a joke but invariably gets top billing. Mirrors ‘national’ view of the province in all respects.
The Roscommon result is just the kind of one sided affair with a sexy scoreline that will get some of the Rossies going early in the year with their talks of world domination again.
Ah sure at least its consistent
It’s petty Catcol but it always bugs me. It has been that way for as long as I remember.
Champions last 3 years:
Ulster: Monaghan, Tyrone, Tyrone
Munster: Kerry, Kerry, Kerry
Leinster: Dublin, Dublin, Dublin
Connacht: Mayo, Galway, Roscommon
One of those stands out, but sure Connacht is poor and uncompetetive, eh?
Mayo get no respect outside our own county and supporters but nothing is new there. I see the new Offaly manager referenced the Kerry and Dublin way of doing things.
We have to accept until we win an All Ireland we are. Or going to be taken seriously and will be an abject if mockery for many but sure who cares
Mayo Galway in the FDB not being moved from Castlebar if the latest tweet from Connacht GAA is anything to go by.
link to Tweet here:
https://twitter.com/ConnachtGAA/status/948935104386293760
You are right yew_tree regarding respect. People outside the county will ask us a very simple question – since Mayo last won the all-Ireland how many time have Kerry and Dublin won it. That is how we will be judged if we consider ourselves a top footballing county.
Mayo have the respect of their own fans, what kerry or dublin think is of no concern. What is of concern is that our young lads coming up can blend in with the current group and finally bring Sam to Mayo. All due respect to Gamechanger
Agreed about Mayo’s lack of respect outside the county- it never ceases to amaze me how people from minnow footballing counties seem to think that they have carte blanche to mock our team. The national media do it a lot as well-the county side and its players are routinely mocked and have their character questioned despite being the only side in the past few years to put it up to an all-conquering Dublin team. People from Leinster counties feel safe to deride our team, despite all of those teams having given up on competing with Dublin in the last decade or so.
This will continue as long as our trophy cabinet remains unadorned by Sam. Haters gonna hate.
When you think about it, 2017 wasn’t a bad year at all for Mayo football, with Westport winning the All-Ireland intermediate club title, Carnacon winning the senior ladies’ All-Ireland, Ballinrobe CS winning the schools’ Senior, Andy the Footballer of the Year, two county senior sides getting to All-Ireland finals. Despite our disappointments in September, Mayo football isn’t in a bad state overall, notwithstanding some challenges at underage. But we will get no credit for this.
The only answer is to stick the chest out and to ignore the naysayers; we are Mayo and we are in this together.