Mayo JFC champions Kilmeena had it all their own way in the Connacht Junior football final at Markievicz Park today. Sligo’s St Patricks were no match for the West Mayo outfit who galloped to a sixteen-point win, on a scoreline of 1-18 to 0-5.
I kept one ear on Midwest for some of the game but I wasn’t, I confess, tuned into it sufficiently to tell you too much about the contest. Kilmeena were, I know, on top from first to last and, going in 0-10 to 0-2 in front at half-time, they had the title pretty much in the bag at that early stage.
They made sure of landing provincial honours by keeping up the same tempo after the break. Niall Ryan’s goal shortly after the restart stretched their lead to double figures and the margin was a yawning sixteen points at the finish.
Today’s provincial title success is Kilmeena’s second at Junior level, having previously won it back in 2003. They now play the Leinster champions in the All-Ireland semi-final. Huge congrats to them on today’s win and the best of luck to them in the All-Ireland semis.
Match reports: Mayo Advertiser, Connaught Telegraph, Sligo Champion, Ocean FM, Irish Examiner.
Well done to Kilmeena. Are the Ryan’s any relation to Vinnie Ryan who played for Kilmeena in my day.
Congrats to Kilmeena!
Anybody know where we can watch Knockmore on tv/stream tomorrow?
It’s live on TG4, FW.
Well done Kilmeena. Watched the first half and Jack Carney kicked a couple of nice points.
Paul mannion out injured for kilmacud crokes so whoever wins tomorrow in Ballina will have a decent shot at the All Ireland.
@Willie Joe
Thanks! Should have been the first place I looked.TG4 do a great job.
God ..how bad are Knockmore….pretty toothless.
Pearces are dominant over Knockmore, better forwards and a clearer plan. I cannot see how Knockmore can get back into game with 20 minutes to go.
The wides are shocking
After watching that shambles let no claim that James Horan has better players available, in fact we should be in awe how well he is doing
Thank God that’s over… shocking stuff…
Orme may have put his hand up but if given the choice there would be more of the Pearces players that are inter County standard, Darren McHale was a big loss for Knockmore, had an impact when he came on but Pearces were deserving winners.
Well done Na Paiarsaigh the hunger they displayed was insane some of their long range scores were top class.hard luck Knockmore.
Pearses full value for the victory there. Huge credit to their manager for brave the move to put full forward in goals for the black card
Kmore had plenty of chances to win it so will be kicking themselves but can have no complaints, they played too negatively for long periods
People who were on here calling for Horan to be sacked and replaced by Dempsey might want to reconsider. Knockmore tactics in first half were crazy. Playing at home Knockmore should have attacked PP from the start and laid down a marker. The total opposite was the tactic. Their best two scoring forwards Orme and Naughton playing around d the middle of the field. Scoring plan was to balloon high ball into nu.ber 13 with 2 or 3 PP players marking him. No pressure on PP kickouts in first half and their backs allowed to stroll out with the ball uncontested. Shocking wides on top of that.
Why wasn’t Keith Ruttledge brought on earlier? Always chips in with scores.
It was clear in the warm up Pearses had a much bigger team. Knockmore struggled physically with 14 and 15. Orme was good apart from 1 or 2 wides. Might be an option for the Mayo half forward line.
More knockmore players played themselves off the mayo panel than on it.
Knockmore simply not good enough up front. Are there any pure scoring forwards in the county other than Conroy and ROD. Very disappointing forward displays this weekend from a Mayo perspective.
As a county we in general seem to struggle to produce scoring forwards
Ridiculous to make comparisons between a club team and inter county where one is picking from a parish and the other from the entire county. Surely it doesn’t need explaining.
Knockmore with 14 wides to Pearses 2. That’s fairly shocking. Pearses full value for the win.
Very frustrating to watch litterly kicked it away with so many shocking wides , how Carey wasn’t tied up sooner aswell was worrying to see from a management that are so highly thought of , ormne the only standout for knockmore and as wideball says he’s an option for half forward line good play maker with a burst of pace apart from that no real county form on display
Fair play to pearses
Unfortunately a poor showing again in connacht for the mayo winners
It’s time for the likes of Westport and ballina to step up at this stage, as it’s been a poor county championship since that castlebar side have regressed
Don’t see it happening but have we a better grunt midfielder at the moment to partner Mattie than Shane Mc Hale??. In heavy tight pitches for the upcoming league he could do a job i believe.
Come Summer age & fast pitches might come against him but till we blood someone else he might be our best option. Reape is worth bringing along too.
Not a lot of positives to take from that I’m afraid.
Orme obviously did well and would like to see him get a run out in the league.
I’d like to see Reape in as a back up to Robbie.
How desperately disappointing for knockmore to have their worst performance of the year in the Connaught final.
Wide after wide after wide…what a frustrating game to watch, especially after the poor showing by Mayo the other night!!!
Orme is definitely good enough to be a corner or wing forward option for Mayo, sure he kicked a few wides but he was Knockmore’s main scoring threat. Shane McHale is also good enough. Darren a threat when he came on despite all his injuries. Kevin Mc did well to pull the strings but on a heavy pitch he couldn’t be the main man for the full game, others need to pull strings too and not enough players doing that. Naughton looked good too but not sure if county standard.
Knockmore management should have sorted out the poor scoring percentage shots in 1st half and they didn’t.
Team unbalanced with stronger and weaker performers was also an issue. Pearces no 15 deserved MOM, very efficient forward play. Daly left Dempsey for dead near the end for a point so Pearces definitely had more county standard players.
Knockmore where unlucky, they just shot to many wides where pearses where unbelievably accurate, seemed like everything that shot went over, keran King was a big loss from a defensive point especially in the second half to, that’s football unfortunately.
I don’t believe that today’s management and playing performance by Knockmore is in any way relevant to the performance or the expectation of Mayo management, which I would still judge by last September All Ireland performance..Hard luck to Knockmore, today, but remember this, Knockmore have still won a double of last two County titles, they have the player’s that won those most recent County titles, no other club in Mayo has any player’s who have won any senior County title in the last two years. And despite today’s disappointing result and performance, we probably have to evaluate some Knockmore players by the height of the Connacht Club Final bar, but we haven’t been able to evaluate any other Mayo Club Player’s by the same bar in the last two years….So if our own minds as Mayo fan’s we exclude certain Knockmore players from concideration on today’s disappointing performance as possible Mayo players, our other players who we are including have not been tested at the highest Club level in Connacht for at least the last two years..And Mayo players have to come from some Mayo Club.. What it means is that Pearces of Roscommon were better than Knockmore today, worthy winner’s, hope they go on now and bring the Andy Merrigan Cup back across the Shannon… I wouldn’t really read too much into Mayo’s defeat on Friday v Galway in the Airdome, or evaluate the players,or the management that played on the night, I don’t think that one FBD game played in January is the barometer, where us Mayo fan’s can evaluate too much either.. I would have loved to see Mayo win, just to get another look at a game in the Airdome, which certainly seems to speed up the game, good fast playing surface, No wind, predictable bounce of the ball which is not always the case for outdoor matchs played in an Irish January, and less hold-ups due I believe to less injuries say in comparison to trying to play on a wet slippy pitch in poor weather conditions in Winter.. And makes I believe for more enjoyable games to watch, especially on a Winter’s evening..Congratulations to Padraig Pearce’s, worthy winner’s on the day.
Very poor show by Knockmore all round, from Management and players ,why cant Mayo players both County and Club score from play, must be very poor coaching being done, doesn’t look like anyone of the Knockmore players could improve the Mayo panel
As for solving county problems, Diarmaid might be freshened by leaving at midfield. At the very least capable of nullifying really good opposition midfielders. Shane McHale looks good although he’s been mentioned as a very good full back but that’s been a problem area too. Barrett was about 5’10” and O Hora similar but we haven’t had a natural 6’ plus full back in some time.
Also Kevin Mc at midfield is an option even though he might retire in a year or 2. Certainly a playmaker who could do serious damage with good forward runs in front of him. I think Diarmaid if he stays on starting 15 needs to be moved somewhere else, if not midfield could he be used as full back. Has physicality, good pace and buckets of experience. Aidan will want to come back and is a midfield option for the league with bad pitches to help keep us in Div 1. For summer harder to see a role bar FF or right corner.
The goalie shows the confidence to come out the field so he could play his way into the no 2 slot.
Orme has the strength for inter county and that’s a good starting point. Big lad and decent shooter. He’s also a good left footed free taker and we’re short of those.
Not a good day for knockmore players or management . Orme was trying to be everywhere. Young dempsey never turned up and got roasted for pace. How management didn’t try someone else to curb Carey is unbelievable. Wasted an abundance of chances. Left it behind them . Potential mayo players apart from Kevin mcgloughlin… hard to find. Orme has Potential but is not there yet. The keeper is probably worth having a look at. A big lack of pace around the team for intercounty level. An awful lot of recycling instead of going for it. Very disappointed
A bad day at the office. 27 shots wouldn’t indicate that team is too defensive though. Orme and Naughton are usually very reliable, just a wee bit off today. Those on here jumping to Horan’s defense might consider the choice of players that he has as a county manager. The fact that he keeps picking the same few lads in crunch games, is his perogative. King going off injured was a hammer blow for Knockmore defensively. They defense is very very small but they have to work with what they have got. Look it, Conor Loftus is ahead of Shane McHale, Jordan Flynn is ahead off Darren McHale and Fionan Duffy is now ahead of Orme in the pecking order.
Knockmore have no forwards. I think the standard in the Mayo senior club championship dropped this year again and we seen that today.
@the west is best
Id love to know how you think Duffy is ahead of Orme now in the pecking order.
Orme was chosen to play in the All Ireland final, Duffy made his first ever start in an experimental FBD game……..which Orme wasn’t available to play in.
The mind boggles.
I’d imagine Orme will get game time in the league. He looked frazzled at times in that second half with a few bad wides. Pearse’s kept pushing Knockmore to kick from the right side, majority of shots from there were wide.
Knockmore did not play well,no new players out their hand up simple as,in relation to O Mullin,he is registered as number thirty four with Geelong,whilst a big loss for Mayo I wish him all the best
Mullin was given that squad number about 5 or 6 weeks ago would not read that much into it, geelong pre season training has started already and are due back after Xmas break so unusual that oisin is still not in oz
PP the best team, but how the officials, standing only two metres away, missed the elbow into Orme’s jaw in the second half is beyond me.
@Corick+bridge, I wouldn’t read too much into that either, that number was issued back at the start of December, before the talk and rumours started. The numbers have to be registered with the AFL before a certain date so that the systems and lists can be updated for the new season. Geelong’s new rookies started training on the last week of November and their ‘Main List’ returned a week later. The full squad is due to return to pre-season training tomorrow. Whether tomorrow’s session includes Oisin for the first time remains to be seen.
Just heard the James Horan interview on Mid West. Mike Finnerty asked what the story is with Oisín, is he staying or going…
Horan’s response was it’s a difficult decision for him and his family, and he deserves privacy to make it.
There is nobody on here jumping to horan s defence. Just comments on what we saw which was very poor. I agree yew tree knockmore have no forwards and that was plain to be seen today.
Also great to hear JH say that Cillian is back training with the squad and that J Doc is fully fit and ready to go…a bit of positivity after slightly disappointing weekend.