The minors, now under the direction of new manager Enda Gilvarry, make their first Connacht championship appearance of the year this coming Saturday (22nd) when they take on Leitrim in a preliminary round tie that’s been fixed for McHale Park that evening where throw-in has been set for 5.30pm.
Details of the starting team and subs for Saturday were announced earlier on today and are as follows:
Mayo (Connacht MFC v Leitrim, 22/6/2013): Marc Mulligan (Claremorris); Eddie Doran (Achill), Seamus Cunniffe (Ballaghaderreen), David Kenny (Aghamore); Ronan Finn (Claremorris), Stephen Coen (Captain, Hollymount/Carramore), Michael Hall (Breaffy); Val Roughneen (Balla), Diarmuid O’Connor (Ballintubber); Brian Walsh (Ballintubber), Conor Loftus (Crossmolina), Cian Hanley (Ballaghaderreen); Tommy Conroy (Kiltane), Liam Irwin (Breaffy), Darragh Doherty (Kilmaine). Subs: Mathew Flanagan (Balla), Stephen Brennan (Claremorris), Sean Conlon (Castlebar Mitchels), Hugh Cafferty (Crossmolina), Mathew Ruane (Breaffy), Padraig Prendergast (Louisburgh), Michael Plunkett (Ballintubber), Stephen Burke (Ballinrobe), Conor Byrne (Moy Davitts).
Best of luck to Enda and his charges in that one.
Tommy conroy one to watch very talented lets get behind the team and show them our support
No player from Castlebar Mitchels or Ballina Stephenites on the team, just one sub from the Mitchels. Is gaelic football dying in the big towns ?
Mayo need the big towns driving the county teams!! I was only saying this to a friend b4 the game last Sunday. Ballina n c’bar should have more, ESP the latter. But take places like claremorris…ballyhappiness…( part from Higgins) when did we get a telly decent snr intercounty player from either town….. Nestor springs to mind . But wouldn’t u think claremorris wud regularly feature in county teams ?! It doesn’t… And with colmans there too.
Just leads onto the situation re : our underage teams. It’s well time we won a Connacht minor title and rectify the dismal record at u21 over the past4 years.
Ps: best of luck to the minors!!!
Not expecting much from our minors this year. We lost to 2nd string Mayo by 10 points in the league and will do well to get within 6 pts on Saturday night.
@ all the way ,
I wouldn’t worry too much about Ballina and Castlebar with Castlebar challenging reguarly at U21 level and Ballina won a county minor title a couple of years ago with the likes of Sean Regan , Evan Regan and Padraig O’ Hora already making an impact on the Stephenites senior team.
Good luck to the minors I belive young Ruane from Breaffy is just 16 and is a monster of a young fella of Aian O’ Shea standards. Watch out for Conor Byrne from Moy davits on the bench he’s a fine talent.
Good to see lads from outside the big towns getting a shot. Its easy to concentrate on quality on a grand scale. Its harder to go to clubs with small turn overs and take out a gem. That might be the guy who does it for you. At minor the small clubs seem to be well represented but that dies off at senior. What happens to good lads at senior level playing for Lahardane, Ballycastle and a host of clubs like them. My other fear is around a group that is put together as a development squad at 16 and then brought all the way through to U21 hence to senior. Often lads who are late developers are cast aside never to be given a chance at 21 to 25. Once in it seems hard to be left out. Once out or not given a chance at 18 they never get a chance again or at best ten minutes against some IT on a shite Feb night. Could be wrong, somebody will probably pick out some guy who defied the odds. Ricey McMenamin from Tyrone is one as far as I know and I think Pat Fallon from Mayo was another who didn’t get many under age chances.
Good points John
I know the standard is to get guys when they are young and encourage them to push through to make the grade at Senior but there should be alternative routes.
Loads of fellas across the country e.g. on the current Kerry team (and past ones) who never made it at underage but have plenty of Celtic Crosses dangling now.
Are you having a laugh saying there should be more fellas from castlebar and ballina on the team?! I’m fairly certain any lad from those two clubs in particular who are good enough are on the panel. The two biggest clubs in the county would be the least likely to have let any hidden talents slip through the net. Why should the big towns be driving the county team? There is plenty of talent all over mayo, not just the big towns. I’m delighted to see a fairly even spread of players from all regions of the county on this team. “Unfashionable” clubs like achill, kiltane and louisburgh are represented and are just as likely to produce the next big thing as ballina and castlebar. Best of luck to the lads this weekend
No problem with what clubs players come from, so long as its fair and transparent.
Lovely to see an Achill man on the panel.
Best of luck to all involved.
Hey Aussie Exile – I didn’t say there should be more lads from Ballina or Castlebar on the minor team. I was merely asking the question as to whether gaelic football was in decline
in the towns with maybe more lads playing soccer or rugby.
I’m delighted to see lads from all over the county and from ‘unfashionable’ clubs get their chance. In my opinion the only basis for selection should be ability and not location. Enda Gilvarry would have played for Ballina Stephenites so favouritism ( which bedeviled many Mayo teams in the past ) doesn’t seem to be in operation which is good.
We are all Mayo men and I’m all for the best Mayo team hitting the field and if that means 15 lads from wherever, that’s fine by me.
Yes good luck to the lads wherever they are from.
The elephant in the room is that Mayo have not gone well at minor grade in terms of winning All Irelands. This may be connected to the fact that Colleges football is poor enough in Mayo with them seldom reaching the All Ireland.
I know other counties poor too but Roscommon won in 2006 and Tipperary have als won.
True Roscommon draws from a lot of schools (Castlerea,Roscommon CBS,Athlone CC, St.Aloysius,and many more but only AthloneCC and Roscommon play A football)
Surely Mayo should be doing better. Is there the same professional approach as there is now at Senior level?Just asking the question?
How many minor all irelands have Kerry won in the past 20 years?
How many senior all irelands have Kerry won in the past 20 years?
There is no correlation between minor and senior success.
Development is what is all important and have a pathway to senior where all the core skills and S&C are developed properly AND anyone with a resonable amount of talent is brought into the system and not missed out on.
Trophies at underage level are an added bonus if you are doing all the above and get the cannisters as well.
Put it another way, would you have swapped the Rossies minor all ireland win and what they’ve experienced at senior since, for our middling minor record and our experience at senior since? I know which one I’d take.
All the Rossie experience seemed to add was more lads available to be the guest of honour at Centra openings, they havent progressed at all at senior level due to it.
Similarly Galway and their U-21 success.
Dont get me wrong, I wouldnt turn it down but its the overall development thats most important.
eastcorkexile All Ireland minor title may have escaped us but it’s more than middling record. Connacht titles in 2008,2009,2010 did well in the All Ireland series all those years and lreally should have reached the All Ireland final last year as well. All those good minor team will supply plenty of good senior players O’Connor for example has already made the step up.
How many senior all irelands have Kerry won in the past 20 years? answer would be six
Kerry have won the odd munster minor titles but it’s at U-21 level where they had the most success. Between 1990 to 1999 Kerry reached 7 U-21 All Ireland finals winning 4 it’s the lack of underage success lately that should worry Kerry.
@ Eastcorkexile
Jaysus i don’t know. How many chance would Roscommon get at winning All Ireland title? sure even your own crowd have only won one All Ireland in the last 20 years. I think supporters are prepared to wait (apart from Kerry who want success every year) for progress at senior level.
Over the last 7 or so years Mayo have done very well at underage level, 3 in row Connacht minor titles,four in a row U-21 Connacht titles and now it’s no surprise that Mayo are now about to win three in row Senior Connacht titles.
Theres no full proof plan imho as regards bringing underage success to senior level. There are many examples of good 21 teams coming through , sure we only have to look at the obvious 2006 Mayo 21s , there are ten (i think*) on the senior panel from that 21 team.
Galway would be an example of how it doesn’t always work, winning 21 titles in 02 and 05 throw in a minor title in 07 and they have had no positive impact in senior set up as such.
We have a mighty blend at the moment and without pointing out stuff everyone on here knows, we still have Cillian/Coen/ still 21 years old, AOS 22, and then you have players like Conor o Se, Adam Gallagher who look like they’ll make the breakthrough soon along with Evan Regan who is also on the senior panel.
My point is you don’t have to have successful teams , obviously its an added bonus but if we have 2/3 players coming in off minor and 21s every year making the breakthrough , we will be all right for at least the next 5/6 years in my estimate.
We have an anchor in midfield in AOS and he should last at least another 5/6 years there probably ending his days on the edge of the square, there are lots of positives to be had and i certainly believe we had a great under 21 team this year, i still not sure why we didnt perform v Galway , lots of factors maybe , for another debate perhaps.
The future is bright, it’s green and red.
I herd a sports writer from tuam on the radio recently(carney) I think.he said,in 1970 galway beat Kerry in minor final 2years later the same teams met in under 21 final almost the same lineups in both games galway won again.no senior success for that group of galway players but ai medals for Kerry players numbered in the high 40s,winning minor and u21 title’s is great but not a must .I think our under age players have learned so much without winning in last few years
IMO you still need to win the odd Minor or U-21 Connacht title, going 3,4 years without winning Connacht underage title doesn’t help the senior set up in the long run. It’s time for minors to change that this summer.
Sorry All The Way I misunderstood your post thought you were saying that there were players from ballina and castlebar not selected on the team this year that should have been!
Great to all the clubs across mayo being represented on the minor team, for to long it was this so and so,s son from the big towns and i include my own town the mullet in that….There was manys a great footballer from the smaller clubs that never got a chance from every corner the county to go for a trial and i,m sure a lot will agree with me on that…………………Good luck to our minors this even, i,ll be there to shout our young men on, ….c,mon muigh eo.
Dont think justification of failure at minor level does any team any good.really think we should be doing better not saying we get players off teams.
And being mean spirited to Roscommon over 2006 is pathetic.
Fact is we have notdelivered at All Ireland level in minor.
No problem Aussie Exile!
Boyle sports odds, Mayo 1/33 Leitrim 25/1
Result just in mayo 1-15 Leitrim 1-5 great win
Went almost the same as the league game 1-13 to 0-3 that was. Galway away the big test and the loser will be out of the championship.
It has the makings of a cracker next weekend. I assume it will be the curtain raiser to the Galway v Tipp qualifier in Pearse Stadium?
Good in one way I suppose to kill two birds with the one stone but if it wasn’t for the senior game it would probably be in Tuam and be a better game.
The wind has a tendency to ruin a lot of games in Pearse.
This will be a really tight game.
Roscommon play Sligo tomorrow in minors, Roscommon were 2/5 and then all of a sudden went to 1/4 in a space of an hour. I found that interesting, thought i’d share, (really need to get out more)
Crete Boom says: ”Watch out for Conor Byrne from Moy davits on the bench he’s a fine talent.”
Fair play to ya, score three points when coming on.