We’re back in Connacht Championship action next Sunday. Our provincial semi-final clash with Leitrim throws in at MacHale Park at 2pm that afternoon and Longford’s Fergal Kelly is reffing it. The match will be broadcast live on RTÉ.
Our recent Championship meetings with Leitrim have been like waiting for the proverbial bus to arrive, in that having not met them for years in Connacht we’re now set to play them for the second time in a provincial SFC clash in just eight months.
We won last November’s game at Carrick-on-Shannon handily enough. To be honest, we’ve generally had an easy enough time playing them in the Championship down through the years as a quick shifty at the results archive shows.
We’ve played them just thirty times in Connacht, winning 24 of those, while we drew with them three times and also lost on three occasions – in 1959, 1976 and 1994. We’ve posted an aggregate score of 85-295 against them, conceding 20-190.
We’ve never lost a Championship match against them on home turf and it would be a shock of fairly seismic proportions were we to do so on Sunday. Our respective form lines this year suggest such an outcome is extremely unlikely.
Leitrim were in Division Four North this year along with Antrim, Louth and Sligo. They lost all of the three games they played.
In the first round they lost to Sligo at Markievicz Park by 2-19 to 0-18. A week later they went under by 0-19 to 0-10 to Louth at Carrick. In Round 3, however, they only lost to Antrim up at Corrigan Park by the bare minimum in a high-scoring 2-17 to 1-19 encounter.
That was, all told, a disappointing League campaign for them, given that Leitrim had been operating in Division Three last year, playing against the likes of Cork, Derry, Down, Offaly and Tipperary. They found that company too hot to handle, though, and, along with Louth, they ended up making the drop to the basement division for this year.
They’ve found the going tough in Connacht too, with their most recent win being over New York, after extra-time at Gaelic Park, back in 2018. They beat London in Ruislip the year before that but you have to go back as far as 2011 for the most recent time they’ve got the better of any of the ‘home’ counties in the province. They defeated Sligo that year by 2-11 to 0-11 in the first round before then falling heavily to Roscommon in the semi-final.
We’re obviously huge favourites to win on Sunday and we’re very likely to do just that. That’s my view at any rate but what do the rest of you think?
Will we beat Leitrim?
- Yes (82%, 450 Votes)
- No (18%, 101 Votes)
Total Voters: 551
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What attendance is allowed for Sunday?
It’s hard to imagine any circumstance where we could lose at the weekend.
We’re in a no win situation. Fulfilling a fixture.
The only positive is the hunger that might be there from lads trying to get a starting jersey for the Connacht final.
I’d nearly like to see Horan benching our 3 or 4 most important players to avoid any more injuries before the Connacht final.
I’m sure Leitrim will try as hard as they can but they won’t have any belief or confidence in causing the upset.
I don’t expect any complacency or sympathy from Mayo at the weekend. Anything other than a sizeable winning margin will be a disappointment.
Yeah, id be resting Aido, Lee, Paddy, and Mattie.Id seriously consider resting Tommy Conroy too, because if anything were to happen him, we’d be down our two best forwards for Galway. I know players want to play, and its good for confidence but with no back door, we have to box extremely clever now.
A few squad players should be coming in for this one, no point expecting them to win or change a game in a Connacht final if they haven’t played in weeks. If JH doesn’t “trust” certain players to do a job against Leitrim, then he cannot expect them to do a job against Galway.
I agree with Mayo Dunphy I’d bring in the likes of James Carr Padraig O’Hora Eoin O’Donoghue, young Towey and Conor O She’s If they can’t get a start against Leitrim they are as well to go back to their clubs and forget about it. No need to have our bigger players out against Leitrim with all due respect to Leitrim.
Plenty of posters setting us up to be disappointed on Sunday evening, no matter what the outcome of the game is going to be. Being disrespectful to Leitrim, while telling everybody its advice given “with all due respect” ?
Didnt realise how popular the blog is in Leitrim. 26 votes for a Leitrim win!
I’d agree with comments on the team for Sunday. No point showing the hand for the connacht final – the quality of the opposition makes this a glorified challenge game. (I’ll leave out the “due respect” here PJ).
We’re going to win regardless of what team we put out – give fringe players a chance to show what they’re capable of with a view for giving us more options against Galway.
Certainly don’t mean to be disrespectful to Leitrim or their supporters. their team trains as hard as anyone and puts in as much effort as anyone but the reality is Leitrim lost all their games in Division 4 north against the likes of Antrim Sligo and Louth so unfortunately for them it doesn’t look like they’ll pull off the shock of the year on Sunday and no matter how we dress it up Mayo have a very strong panel and should be able to rest some key players and still have enough to win.
Couldn’t disagree more with the above posts. Playing together brings on good habits I.e knowing where each other is on the pitch. Knowing where too and when to run when the likes of paddy k.mac or Lee is coming forward with the ball. These are the lads that the newbies need to be playing with. Definitely after half time or there abouts run the bench. Not much good to the likes of Darren Mchale to be getting ball played to him by lads that realistically won’t start against Galway and then when the time comes he’s making the wrong decisions when needed. No training like matches. These sequences of play don’t just happen it’s a knowledge of playing together that develops good play.
Leitrim vote up to 29 now.
Word is there will be an enforced change in our full back line and our injuries will not have cleared up. Pay respect to Leitrim and remember London in 2011 and Cork v Kerry last year.
Midwest saying earlier some tickets will go on sale online,don’t have any other details
Fair point Richie but the quality of opposition will make that null and void. An A v B game would get the patterns correct against tougher opposition.
Give leitrim full respect and annihilate them. Then go into final rearing to go and bring down the tribesmen.
Mayo news saying the limited tickets that go on sale will be sold in pods of 4.
Dont ask me the Logistics of that
Resting? Are ye mad, it’s a knock out competition with at most 3 more games. Play our best possible team and go as hard as possible
Wherever the votes for Leitrim in the poll are coming from I doubt if it’s from Leitrim supporters. I have good connections in Leitrim GAA grassroots and whatever you may say about them they are realistic and not expecting a win on Sunday. I reckon it’s Galway and Rossie supporters who are hoping for luck on Sunday, not that it matters to the Rossies but they would like to see Mayo lose. Almost as much as they would like to see a Rossie win as they know that a Rossie win just means the defeat is coming. They learned that one day a few years ago when they drew with Mayo in a Croke Park Quarter final. The replay was rather decisive.
News not good on injuries.
Andy D, we have had a few chastening experiences in Croke Park as well, losing by a single point to the Dubs, in 3 All Ireland finals, a sickening experience for me leaving Croke Park several times, moral victories I’ve had enough of.. Doubt if any Rossie fan felt worse than thousands of Mayo fans fans on many occasions.. We have had many fantastic day’s, but it’s past time we crossed that line.
I received a text saying 462 tickets are distributed to the clubs in Mayo. I assume there’s going to be 3,000 allowed in.
Good to see Keith Higgins make the hurling
team of the week with all the big guns that were playing last weekend. No galway player on it.
Jr, what’s the bad news on injuries?
well done Keith, and speedy recovery to Cathal Freeman. Really hope they make the final and he is able to play. If we’re allowed in and we make it I’m definitely going to make the trip to Croker for that
A corner back with a shoulder injury and others not recovering as quickly as hoped
Jr – hold off on the inside stories, please. Nothing has been confirmed on that yet and I don’t want any announcements being made here until such time as it (or isn’t).
Yes W J but I think the GAA shoot themselves in the foot with their PR. Naming teams so late in the week and not naming subs, what do we expect the national correspondents to write about. Every county is the same. On the Radio in the morning you hear about cricket but nothing about Gaa. If we are not careful we will become irrelevant. All County panels should be named, do they not get a small stipend from the Government. We could learn a lot from rugby on the PR stakes. Refs as in Rugby should explain their decisions and it is not rocket science to have neutral province refs for semies and finals. When I say neutral I do not mean from a different province but still from the parish next door as in 96
Saw him driving this morning and didn’t see a sling on him
There’s twice the chance that the Royals beat the Dubs, than Leitrim beat Mayo.
Then again, twice nothing is nothing.
I don’t disagree with any of that, Jr. My point is a narrower one, which simply relates to posting comments about unconfirmed stories, the policy on which should be clear to all who comment here.
If Mayo to win an All Ireland within the next few years the most important match is next Tuesday at u20 versus Galway. The current team are within a few points of a winning Sam type level. But, what we need to see is that there is another mini tranche of players who will soon be pushing for the 15/26/34. Combined with at least one player where you think “Jese he’s a future top elite level player. “. The peak of the team over the next few years in my view will be when Aidan and Cillian are close to the end and if we can manage to embed more players from each u20 team each year.
Horan needs to give the fringe player plenty of game time against Leitrim. That was our downfall last year. Expecting Darren Coen and Carr to come off the bench and win us the All Ireland when they had played about 5 minutes of game time all year. Its a perfect opportunity to get game time in for O’Hora, E O’Donoghue, J. Carr, D.Coen, F. Boland, D. McHale, Orme.
WJ
On JP’s point above…..how do we look at U20 level.We always get a good return on those players in Mayo…however I haven’t a clue what is at that level currently
3,750 will be the crowd allowed this weekend. There is a few injuries but all apart from Cillian O’Connor all should be fine for the Connacht final. Leitrim are the same level as Sligo I do not expect competitive contest.
Players getting plenty of game time against Leitrim won’t mean anything against galway or Dublin.
The U20s will be missing Enda Hession now. Jack Carney is probably the standout player in midfield. Luke Jennings goalkeeper, Owen McHale and Oisín Tunney in defence, Jack Mahon and Frank Irwin probably playing in the forwards.
Agree with the post from JP about the importance of next weeks u20 match against Galway in Tuam. It’s clear as day that mayo (like all successful counties) benefit hugely from successful u20 teams. The list of names from such teams is endless. Very little being said about either Galway or Mayo at this level so very hard to call that game either way. Anyone know how many tickets will be available for that game and when are they likely to go on sale?
Hopefully James Horan will go with Loftus and Flynn in midfield for Sunday. They deserve a chance to impress as a pairing. James sees great things in them, so maybe try both together in the middle.
I’m in the same boat as yourself there, Pat – I’d defer to JP on it as he has a good handle on emerging talent. I know that the U20s get a mention in the new episode of the podcast, which will be online later tonight so there should be some useful info on them there.
I would be giving fringe players gametime rather than risking any further injuries to key players. The fringe players areunderstudies to the first fifteen and also provide us with strength in depth. If you regard the dubs bench as fringe players look at the role they have played. Also good for their confidence. Players like Brickenden grow with every bit of game time they get
Leitrim preview episode of the podcast is online now.
Senior clubs got 12 tickets for sundays game , intermediate clubs 10 tickets and junior clubs 8 tickets.
Tickets cost 40 euro and no stand tickets.
I am older than most on the forum. I remember Leitrim beating us and Sligo in 1976, that defeat put Mayo football back for years, I think we won the all Ireland u21 in 74 and minor in 71. Take no team for granted, bring on subs when you have the game won.
Can someone please explain to me, what is meant by the MayoNews.ie saying that “tickets will be sold in pods of 4 ,through Ticketmaster”. I, unfortunately, have a limited IQ, so my little brain cannot compute what they mean.
As the Connacht Council ,or, Mayo Gaa have no information on there website/twitter fed, I’m reliant on the good folk of the Mayogaablog to enlighten me further.
Thanks in advance,
Paddyjoejohntom
Plus, I failed leaving cert, Ordinary level Maths, so I need someone to explain to me, in simple terms as possible, what message the MayoNews.ie are trying to get across .
Thanks in advance
Paddyjoejohntom
40 euro ?????????
Got my ticket via my club – €30 not €40. Goes to show its important to keep your club membership as this is the basis for a strong county team. The grassroots is so important. When my club won a junior title and then an intermediate title this was as good as any all ireland. Not ashamed to say that tears were shed.
Dont know what the Galway standard at U20 is this year but I would expect its decent enough giving we won the AI last year. Think Mayo ran us close last year if my memory is correct. I will tune in on Tuesday maybe its on TG4?