Today was already a bad day for Galway, with the news this morning that Michael Meehan has taken an indefinite break from the county’s senior football panel due to his ongoing and unremitting injury problems, but the county’s sensational Connacht U21 semi-final defeat to Leitrim this afternoon makes it a whole load worse.
Lest it be forgotten, Galway went into this tie at Páirc Seán as the reigning All-Ireland champions at this level and the young Tribesmen led by three points at the break, looking on course at that stage to record a routine win. The home side kept plugging away, though, and they got their reward through a late, late Niall Brady winner to win out by 0-9 to 0-8 and claim their place in the final for the first time in sixteen years. Match report from The Score is here.
In the day’s other Connacht semi-final, Roscommon made it five U21 provincial final appearances in a row (getting past us on the way in four of those, in case we need reminding) when they edged out Sligo by 1-12 to 1-10 at Markievicz Park. The Rossies were seven points clear with ten minutes to go but they had to survive a brave, late comeback from the Magpies before finally securing their slot in the decider. The Score also have a match report on this one – here.
In the Connacht minor football league, meanwhile, our lads suffered a narrow defeat to Longford this afternoon. In a match played at Pearse Park, the minors were edged out by a single point, losing by 1-11 to 2-7 but it looked as if they’d snatched a win at the death when they got their second goal four minutes into injury time. Direct from the kickout, though, Longford goaled at the other end to win by a point. Details of the Mayo team that lined out today (from @MayoGAA, from where I got those match details too) are here.
Delighted for Leitrim. Fair play to them. Sligo gave the Rossies a much tougher test than we did too.
Major surprise for Leitrim – and an even bigger one for Galway, I suspect. As far as I know Leitrim had only one senior panellist on their U21 team but fair play to them for keeping the flag flying.
I read elsewhere that Leitrim had seven senior panelists. Still a remarkable result against the odds, they outfought Galway and wanted it more by the sounds of it.
Sligo gave Mayo minors a good test in 2012 they must have some good players coming through.
Not one player from Knockmore or Stephenites? Wtf?
And a laden called Shairoze Akram…. well holy god!
No racism, please.
Don’t think its fair to judge a player based on him having a non Irish name. I never seen this lad play but by all accounts he is a very exciting prospect, still u17 I think, and I’m pretty sure the same lad was at Aussie rules trials earlier this year with Stephen Coen. I think its fantastic to see players from non traditional gaa backgrounds playing for mayo at inter county level.
Also great to see 2 lads from Kilfian, one of mayos smallest clubs, on the panel. As for the lack of Ballina and knockmore players, well I have seen plenty of players from Ballina especially over the years on county underage teams and it was plain obvious that some of them were not good enough. Many clubs from around mayo have legitimate claims that they have had players good enough for county underage panels that were overlooked for selection down the years, but Ballina and knockmore were not 2 of them. It’s probably an experimental panel at this stage anyway, plus Gilavarry is a Ballina clubman so if any of the players from that area are good enough they will surely be involved come championship time.
Mister Mayor, I’m no prude or do-gooder but I’d ask you to withdraw your ‘laden’ comment which should be beyond anyone that contributes to this fine blog and considers themselves a supporter of Mayo football.
Mister Mayor – I would agree with the other comments above – I’m sure you didn’t intend for your last post to be as distasteful as it reads – but it does come across that way.
I agree as well as well sat the. 29th seems fair away.
I think you misunderstand my comment lads, i think it’s brilliant that we have that lad on the panel. Times are indeed changing….I’ve neve heard of him before is he a good prospect?
My main point is the lack of apparent participation from two of the largest clubs in Mayo, again, times are changing indeed.
Btw, that was meant to read “…a ladeen called…” Not a laden called ( effin auto spellchecker). Why some who probably didn’t even bother to look at the team sheet, would even read that as racist is beyond me.
Btw, it is in no way intended to be racist, I think it’s brilliant in this day and age that the GAA might appeal to all races and religions.
Thanks for that, Mister Mayor – I’m sure it wasn’t intended as a racist comment and as you’ve said it’s great that the GAA appeals to people of all backgrounds nowadays. I think we can put this one to bed now.
Jaysus lads take it easy on poor Mister Mayor; we soon won’t be able to look sideways and I’m sure he has that “ladeen ” statement Binned forever!????
Sound job Mister Mayor – been a victim of gremlins manys-a-time myself.
I first came on this young lad when Nathy’s won a B Colleges or something last year. Only 16 I think and Kennelly had him at the Aussie Rules trials in DCU, so he can’t be bad! Hope to see him in the minor championship this year.
+1
Shairoze Akram stood out in the Ted Webb cup last summer big talent. Poor spelling of our town Ballaghaderreen by the Mayogaa twitter account.
I wonder how many lads from last year’s minor team/panel are involved with this year’s team?
That’s the great thing about GAA and it’s good to see that all are welcome no matter what their religion or cultural background, hope this lad does well and that our national game becomes an attraction to all.
About 8 panelists as far as I know. The keeper Flanagan, full back Cunniffe, Conlan at wing back, Cian Hanley up front all were starters last year. Think there were a few subs from last year also underage this season too
A young black lad played for a Longford club as a minor. He was a pleasure to watch, great hands, a fantastic swerve and great speed. He got so much racial abuse that he packed up altogether. To me that is criminal and nobody cared!!!
A team from England, consisting of Asian and black kids, played in the All Ireland Féile competition and they won it. They had never played Gaelic football before in their lives and didn’t know a thing about it. They played a highly fancied Northern team in the final and beat them. One of the defeated team said, “we just couldn’t catch them.” Any talent like that we should be proud to nurture !!!
You could be on to something there Joe – and those lads wouldn’t care about the course 🙂
Thanks Mac, that’s a good sprinkling of experience so. Hopefully they’ll have a good year again in 2014. The minors played some great football last year so it’d be great to see that continue for the year ahead.
That should read curse, of course 🙂
Looking forward to watching Cian Hanley this year. He was having a great run last year until he broke his collarbone and if he sticks around is without a doubt one for the future. Like his brother, a serious talent.
Joe Mc, I saw that program on TV and I thought it was terrific. Not only did the school involved coach these young lads from scratch but the discipline, work ethic and teamwork instilled in the young boys helped keep some of them in school and out of juvenile detention centres. It was amazing to see the parents of these kids being interviewed, from Pakistani, Caribbean and Indian backgrounds, talking about the GAA and the support they were giving the young lads.
The curse(course!)of the predictive text Mc!
Is Cian, Pearse’s brother? I thought he was different family? Must have been thinking of someone else.
He’s a brother, for sure, Mick.
Fionan Duffy from Crossmolina also was a panellist last year.
Young Akram seems is a highly talented young man, apparently had trials for soccer over in England. Great to see him getting on the Mayo team, hopefull now he will inspire other mayo kids from non-irish backgrounds to take up/stay with football in the county.
An interesting Article here, following on from our recent discussion in relation to our underage structures:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/leitrims-grassroots-toil-now-bearing-fruit-30118784.html
Just to add to the above, Longford minors beat us too last Saturday.