The draws for the 2015 provincial championships have just taken place and, in case you haven’t seen the Connacht one yet, we’re on the Galway/New York/Leitrim side of things. It’s the Tribesmen’s turn to hit the Big Apple next May and the winners of that one (definitely Galway) have been drawn to play Leitrim in the quarter-final. The winners from that (almost definitely Galway) play us and if that’s how it pans out, it’ll be in Salthill.
The other side of the draw sees Roscommon travelling to Ruislip to play London with the winners facing Sligo in the semi-final. That’s a handy run to the final for the Rossies, you’d have to say.
Full details on tonight’s draws are available from the GAA’s Twitter account – here.
Looking forward to it already. Probably mid June which could suit Mayo’s championship build up. Wouldn’ t have liked a mid May opener.
Bit worried about playing a Galway team in Salthill stone cold and untested in mid June that will have two “games” under their belt if you can call New York a game but then again it will give Mayo a two months rest from the end of the league sometime in April so maybe that’s no bad thing
What is the benefit of taking NY out or the quarter finals and putting them in a preliminary round? Given that leaves just two ‘quarter’ finals it seems bizarre to play a prelim game. That means that two teams, this year Galway and NY, would need to win four games to win Connacht while two other teams (this year Mayo and Sligo) only need to play two games to win. I don’t see any good reason for this.
When will we have dates?
Well on the plus side , if we beat Galway, we will have a had a game in Salthill before the connacht final which would be in salthill too if ross get through. (is that right, cant see any other alt if its ross)
@diehard,
Master fixtures list for the full year is usually out around November with dates and venues confirmed in December. We will need to get replay venues confirmed too, as Croke Park said we knew about Limerick venue 6 months previously.
Donegal will have to play Tyrone, Armagh and then either Down or Derry to get to a provincial final. Roscommon will have to beat London and Sligo to do the same thing. Its a nailed on Cork v Kerry Munster final and The Dubs will steamroll through Leinster yet again. The provincial system as it stands is well past its sell by date. The Championship is almost irrelevant until the August bank holiday weekend. A spin to Salthill in June will be a good day out though.
Yes, where would a Mayo V Roscommon final be played. Cant be the Hyde and it cant be Castlebar due to some silly agreement we signed up to.
Anybody for Limerick?!!!!!!!
Either that or a second trip to Pearse Stadium in one summer.
Lets ask Liam O’ Neill.
There’s no good reason for any of the current championship structure, if you ask me. It’s outdated, it’s a mess, it’s grossly unbalanced and unfair, and it’s high time it was revamped with the long-term aim of making the Championship competitive across the board. We can talk about provincial pride all we like, but tell that to the likes of Leitrim or Carlow.
Anyway, we go again. Off to draughty auld Pearse Stadium we go, and while it looks like it could well be the Rossies, I don’t want to call it much further than that at this point.
I predict we will be one of the last teams to enter the 2015 championship. The guts of EIGHT months from now.
If we get through Galway and that’s a big if and its Roscommon then final will be on Castlebar. We played them thus year away and does not matter that it would be a final, we played them in 2011 final in the Hyde .
I dont think so Steve, im not 100% but hyde is not deemed fit to hold finals last two years so they pulled out of the alt home/away arrangement for finals , that arrangement for finals now oly includes ourselves and Galway.
Surly should not matter this year anyway since it’s our turn to be home v Roscommin Sean? Wouldn’t be fair in my opinion.
Anyway we will need to be at our best to beat Galway first. League title worth a real go this year considering our long wait to enter the championship ?
Does Cillian O’Connor stand suspended for the Galway game 2015?
Should go for league this year full tilt.try one or two new players each game but go for it full bore and win the shagging thing.who knows what will come after.
That unfair if that’s true I don’t blame cillian kicking out at him at the way he was treated against Kerry in replay.
Cillian may miss a game In the league or fbd from his red card I think. I hope for 2 things in 2015, Number 1 is that Mayo win league and/or Sam and 2. Is that “untested” is dropped as a buzzword.
I can see Mayo winning Connaught again, Roscommon may make a run but Mayo are just too strong when they want to be. Dublin, cakewalk through Leinster. Armagh prolly the team in ulster, mcgeeney will have the hopping. Kerry, Tom Walsh and gooch will be there and eager so they’ll Win Munster
Quarters at this stage
Mayo, Dublin, Kerry, Armagh, cork, Tyrone, maybe donegal and maybe Roscommon.
Winner will come from the first 4 teams I named
why is cillian o connor not starting at full foward, sniper should always be in front of the goals. “A high ball into the full foward line ,four hands go up for it , two bring it down”. invariably it will be the tallest man between full back and full foward who wins the ball, but we dont need reminding of that.cillian should be our target man at full foward.
County Board should appeal his sending off as his vision must have been impaired following his collision with Aidan O Shea.
I’d be more inclined to think that we should use the same route as Kerry do in the League, do enough to survive, unearth a few players. If we do make a semi-final maybe go all out then but do our best to stay under the radar. Last year all the talk was about a Mayo v Dublin final from early in the year. Let Kerry be hyped up next year. Everything fell into place for them lovely this year, they were written off all year, which they thrive on and they ended up as champions. They kept their cards very close to their chest, like not bringing on Kieran Donaghy against Galway but keeping the surprise element for us, which we fell for. We need to try to be a bit cuter and craftier this year. We have to try and learn from our mistakes of the past.
Can’t understand people sayin we need to win the league next year. No we don’t. We need to blood new players and stay in division 1. That will do me perfectly. Early season defeats in feb and march are utterly meaningless come September. FFS most of the Kerry players are still on holidays for the first few league games! 2 or 3 league victories, then we keep our powder dry and a low profile until late June. I don’t want to see mayo developing “Kildare syndrome” next season. Beating everybody in Feb and March, then watching the real action in August and September on our TVs at home. We were always a championship team under Horan, whilst we were actually a decent league side under John o Mahoney. I know which one I’d prefer.
Its a crazy situation where Galway would have 2 games played before they play Mayo. Looking foward to 2015.
Anne Marie,
Championship may be a mess but what is the alternative? Champions League format is usually suggested but what does that offer the weaker teams? A Quarter final spot perhaps but who remembers who the quarter finalists or even semi finalists in the Champions League, FA Cup or whatever were in any year? The weaker teams may rarely win but a Provincial title is something for them to aim at and a win is their All Ireland. Leitrim in ’94, Sligo in ’07, Westmeath and Laos in ’03 & ’04 will not be forgotten. The other alternative of a secondary competition was tried [ All Ireland B and Tommy Murphy Cup] and totally disdained by those same weaker counties. And try to replace the local rivalry of a Leitrim/Roscommon or Sligo Connacht match with a Leitrim v anybody else outside Connacht game and see what the reaction will be in terms of attendance and interest.
In the hypothetical situation that it is a Mayo Roscommon Connacht Final – by no means a certainty – it would have to be a neutral venue, as Sligo and Leitrim get a neutral venue because their grounds are not capable of hosting a Connacht Final. Neither now is the Hyde. But expect the Connacht Council to say the Hyde will be capable of hosting Connacht Finals from 2016 on, now that the ownership is resolved and upgrade had been approved. Thus in the event that Mayo and Ros meet, you’d have to think McHale would be agreed knowing that next time round the Hyde would be ready.
Sligo would be at home to Roscommon why is everyone writting the yeatsmen off? Bit soon to make any predictions as it’s not known yet how both Galway and Mayo will fair under new management.
The current structure of the championship is what it is regardless the best 8 will likely reach the last 8 while the likes of leitrim carlow would struggle for wins in any type of format they need to improve much like Clare,tipp did this year.
I am not saying we need or should win the league….why is everybody so insecure that we need to keep “under the radar” next year? This year nobody was too put out within the county at the Derry defeat as the NY trip was only 7 days after a possible league final. Next year will be totally different with our very long wait until the the middle of June.
Important tweet there by club mayo dublin that if mayo go into qualifiers it will be the tougher B side of the qualifiers. More incentive to win connnacht.
I think the current format is unfair to counties in Ulster. Donegal and Tyrone have to plan for a very tough first round game, nothing new there for teams from that province. The logistic challenge of a first round trip to London or NY can be the first round task facing a Connaught team. There is also the greater threat the of injuries and fatigue from a hard local campaign. That is why I really respect Donegal on winning three Ulster titles in four years while winning the AI and on meeting Kerry in the AI not getting caught in the headlights on conceding an early goal.
@berry what game wereyou watching,
Hi Roger,
I wonder what the tougher B side is. Frankly I see us getting to a quarter either way. It would be a major step back if we didn’t.
But the side we are in at the moment (if we were to win in Connacht) takes us through to meet someone tough in the 1/4s, Then Dublin in the semis and then whoever wins that will probably meet Kerry in the final. That’s pretty tough as well I think.
Maybe going through the qualifiers might not be a bad alternative. With a big big squad there a lot of g would get game time. I don’t know now. Depends a lot on the players, management and working out the combinations etc.
How did Laos get in to the Leinster championship in the first place?
Laos in Leinster championship!! Cambodia and Vietnam next.
They’ll go into Leinster if they know what’s good for them. Sure isn’t Liam O’Neill over at the Asian Gaelic Games tournament at the minute, laying down the law in this respect!
Amsterdam actually played in the Leinster championship last week, a proud day for all involved in European GAA.
JPM if we lose against galway/Leitrim/NY then we would have 2 qualifiers most likely against ulster before we hit croker at all, that could be tough
I can’t believe I missed a junket ….
I believe that retired centre forward from Beijing Gaels is the Laos manager, Sum Ting Wong
The A & B side’s of the draw is;
A: London, Roscommon, Sligo, Offaly, Longford, Laois, Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Waterford, Tipperary, Cork, Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh, Antrim.
B: Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Louth, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow, Meath, Clare, Limerick, Kerry, Donegal, Tyrone, Armagh, Derry, Down
If we didn’t need enough incentive already following this autumn’s failure to seize our golden opportunity, then it’s the thought of ending up in that qualifier group B. Unless the new management team can inject some fresh talent and impetus into the squad, I fear that we will end up falling victim to an up and coming Galway outfit who will be hell bent on beating us out the gates of Pearse stadium next June. Lets just hope our lads can keep that hunger and drive and energy going for another year.
Dave, I think he has a first cousin (of strong Belmullet heritage) named Wen Samm Suun!
Galway Connsught Champions 2015. mayo players need a year to recover and early exit from championship for 2015 likely. James Horan will return as manager in 2017 to try and finish the job in the tradition of mayo managers having a second go at it. o mahoney maughan homes……