Another weekend, another storm roaring in off the Atlantic.

Will Storm Dennis prove as disruptive to fixtures over the next two days as Ciara was last weekend? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

This weekend’s a rest one for the lads in the National League and so, from a Mayo perspective, the matches of interest involve the women’s footballers as well as the county’s hurlers. Weather permitting, both these teams are scheduled to be in League action on Sunday.

Let’s start with the women. Their League campaign this year has already been disrupted by the adverse weather, with last Sunday’s Division One clash with Waterford called off due to the wild winds.

It’s not clear as yet whether or not Sunday’s rearranged tie against the Deise will meet the same fate. As things stand, the refixed match is set to go ahead that afternoon at Swinford Amenity Park, where throw-in has been set for 2.30pm.

The Mayo team for this match was named earlier today. Here it is:

Mayo (LGFA NFL Division One v Waterford, 16/2/2020): Aisling Tarpey (Foxrock/Cabinteely); Nicola O’Malley (Westport), Noirin Moran (Westport), Danielle Caldwell (Castlebar Mitchels); Kathryn Sullivan (Castlebar Mitchels), Ciara McManamon (Burrishoole), Ciara Whyte (Kilmoremoy); Alannah Duffy (Hollymount), Sinead Cafferkey (Kilmovee Shamrocks); Fiona Doherty (Bohola Moy Davitts), Maria Reilly (Kiltane), Lisa Cafferkey (Kilmovee Shamrocks); Jennifer Cawley (Burrishoole), Rachel Kearns (CL MacHale Rovers), Amy Halligan (The Neale).

The team picked for Sunday shows six changes from the side that started against Dublin the weekend before last. Into the first fifteen come Aisling Tarpey in goals, as well as Noirin Moran, Ciara McManamon, Maria Reilly, Jennifer Cawley and Amy Halligan. Out go Laura Brennan, Saoirse Lally, Roisin Durkin, Clodagh McManamon, Dayna Flynn and Natasha Gaughan.

A preview of all this weekend’s LGFA League action, including our match with Waterford, is here.

Mayo LGFA made a short video available online this week, which shows what game day looks like for the Mayo Senior team. You’ll find that here.

The other big match this weekend involves the county’s hurlers. And what a crunch fixture this is too, a game that will, to all intents and purposes, decide whether it’s ourselves or the Garden County that will survive in Division 2A this year.

Both our lads and Wicklow are seriously out of their comfort zone in this Division and they’re both destined to come off second-best in all their other matches. Only one team gets relegated from the Division 2A, though, so our meeting with the mountainy lads at MacHale Park on Sunday (throw-in 1pm) gives us a shot at survival.

While it’s not exactly a winner takes all game, the victorious team on Sunday will almost certainly earn the right to hurl at this level once more next spring. If that’s our lads then further searching contests surely lie in store in 2021 but you’d have to think that hurling against teams of this quality year after year has to be of positive benefit. That’s the theory at any rate.

Best of luck to both Mayo teams in action this weekend.

Finally, there’s club action on this weekend too, with the opening shots set to be fired in the Sweeney, O’Mara, Kelly and Centenary Cups. Full fixtures details on these are here.