Well into December and still the club action continues. This weekend sees both Connacht semi-finals and finals being contested – here’s a quick run-down on what’s on.
Let’s start with Tooreen. On Saturday they make the short trip up the road to the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence where they face Moycullen of Galway in the Connacht Intermediate hurling Championship final. The game gets underway in Bekan at 12.15pm and match tickets are available to purchase here.
Also on Saturday, Mayo Gaels are up against Naomh Anna of Galway in the Connacht IFC semi-final. That game is fixed for Pearse Stadium, throw-in is 1.30pm and match tickets are available to purchase here.
At the same time that afternoon, incidentally, the Connacht SFC semi-final is on at Dr Hyde Park. That’s between Roscommon’s Padraig Pearse’s and Mountbellew/Moylough of Galway, with the winners set to face Knockmore in the decider early in the New Year. That game is being streamed live on a PPV basis by Connacht GAA – details here.
On Sunday, meanwhile, the Castlebar Mitchels’ women footballers (pictured above) are in the LGFA Connacht Intermediate Championship final. Their opponents are Tourlestrane of Sligo and the game is scheduled for Swinford Amenity Park where throw-in on Sunday afternoon is 1pm. There’s a livestream available for this one too, also on a PPV basis – details here.
The best of luck to all three teams from the county in action this weekend.
Who has been selected as Young Footballer of the Year? Oisin? I have tried most avenues but can’t find out.
It’s being announced tonight, along with FOTY and the football All-Stars, on RTÉ at 7pm.
I see ahref has posted sigerson panels for all college teams if anyone wants to keep tabs on our 3rd level performers, its always a high standard.
NUIG could potentially put out a full forward line of Tommy Conroy (The neale), Matthew Tierney (Galway) and Jamie brennan (Donegal). Thats a formidable forward line by any standard
UL have a serious panel too. Sean Powter, David Clifford, Stefan Okunbor and several Mayo players – Jack Coyne, Eoghan McLaughlin, Connell Dempsey, Luke Tunney, Paul Towey, Conor Igoe and Jack Mahon. Will be interesting to see how many make the starting team.
Thanks WJ for giving the Mitchels women a shout out.
Supermac where do I find those panels
@aPebblesmeller, You mentioned some fitness tests the Mayo panel did. Out of interest what were they?
Three All Stars for Mayo. Ryan O Donoghue, Lee Keegan and Matthew Ruane. Tyrone won 8,kerry 3 and 1 for Dublin.
Oisin Mullin wins YFOTY for the second successive year, emulating the O’Connor brothers. Lee missed out on FOTY to Tyrone’s Kieran McGeary.
@jrb the ahfef account on twitter posted all the sigerson panels.
As wide ball suggested UL will be of particular interest to mayo fans with the large representation there, will be interesting to see how Jack coyne in particular fares
Fair enough outcome.
It’s a striking fact that we didn’t even have a half forward nomination. Management team have work to do.
…no big surprises on the allstars.
Thought kilkenny could count himself lucky to get one this year but agree with the rest of them.
McGeary was my pick for player of the year too.
Well done to all recipients. Particularly happy for ROD who went back and done the business for his club too
Anyone get a hint from Oisins interview with Des Cahill that Australia is not a done deal yet.
Yeah fair team. Hoped Paddy would get one instead of Tom O’Sullivan. 3 is generous for Kerry given how poor Tipp and Cork were. Mayo had to beat Galway and Dublin who are miles ahead of those two teams. Delighted for ROD. Barely missed Cillian because of him.
Imagine Mayo winning 6 YPOTY, 2 POTY awards plus what 25 All Stars in 10 years and not winning an All Ireland. My God!!!
Congratulations to all Mayo’s All Star winner’s, especially Lee Keegan 5 time All Star award winner.. I think that leaves Leroy the most All Star award winning Gaelic Footballer in the province of Connacht, and definitely the greatest player from the province of all time.. Well deserved wins as well for Mathew Ruane and Ryan O Donoghue as well.. Paddy Durcan again must be counted very unlucky not to win an All Star and Padraig O Hora and Stephen Coen .. Oisin Mullen well done on a second YPotY award.. The All Stars just by their nature always seem to leave one of the very best and most deserving of player’s out.. This time I think Brian Fenton of Dublin is the most notable absentee.. Does anyone really think that there was a better midfielder on view anywhere else in this year’s league or championship?, not for me anyway.. No player nominated for Mayo in the half foward line.. food for taught.
Tom in Laois, I’d say that interview was done a few weeks ago. Oisin was named as number 34 in the Geelong squad. Now , saying that, if you go onto the Geelong website today, there is no player listed at 34. Coincidence or me clutching at straws, hopeing there’s being a dramatic U-turn in the last few days, we’ll have to wait and see.
Fenton didn’t have a great year by his own high standards. He didn’t have a better year than the 2 award winners ..
Fair enough team after that
GBXI-In no way to take away from the great year that Ryan has had,I can’t agree with you that we barely missed Cillian.In my opinion he was absolutely sorely missed in the All-Ireland final which was crying out for the leadership and complete organisation of attack/defence of our forward unit that Cillian brings to the table whenever he plays.A catastrophic loss to us in the final
In my opinion Ryan played better from play in this year’s final than Cillian played in any final.
Paudie Clifford with one of the softest all stars in recent memory.
Two Munster championship blow outs where a junior B player would have looked good if they had a Kerry jersey on both days, and then a pretty ordinary effort in the only game that mattered against Tyrone.
@JP, not me boss, you must have me mixed up with another Pebblesmeller?
Wouldn’t agree with that @Liberal role in the tie. Cillian got 2 points from play and 2 marks in the 2020 final. 3 from play in the 2017 final. Scored the last minute equaliser in 16.
Ryan got 1 point from play against Tyrone, although he set up a couple of goal chances that were missed. Ryan still deserved an All Star of course, was brilliant against Dublin especially.
Fair points @Wide Ball.
What tips the scales for me was one single moment: Ryan’s pass to O’Shea. Absolute magic. Something out of nothing. Cillian has played well in finals, but hasn’t shown that type of invention. Ryan created a potential match-winning opportunity. Out of nothing. So for me that will always trump scoring a few points. It’s operating at a different level.
Liberal, I have to disagree about Cillian not showing invention-his career (so far) is littered with examples.His brain works quicker than most,and I think Ryan has learned so much from playing with Cillian-hopefully we’ll see the benefits next year.
O for a muse of fire.
Congrats to Tooreen. Connaught champs again after a 4 pt.win.
Mayo Gaels in an arm wrestle with the Connemara men. 1pt.up approaching h.t.
By the sounds of things Mountbellew were shafted at the finish
What a golden opportunity for Knockmore to win Connacht now though
Mayo Gaels game gone to extra time. They had a winning goal ruled out for a square ball just before full time.
Hard luck to Mayo Gaels, Naomh Anna had that bit more in the tank in extra-time. 3-12 to 1-14 is some shooting for a game played in mid-December.
Tooreen are something else – those lads like to win, and win, and win. What a run this has been for them.
Not at all surprised about Padraig pearses winning. They have a load of Roscommon senior players and a massive parish that goes right into edge of athlone. Couldnt understand people saying it was going to be an easy win for Mountbellew.
I think they will beat Knockmore too most likely
Very much depends on who was giving you your “sounds of things “@Ciaran
Disgraceful scenes by Mountbellew Moylough at full time today, players that charged at Jerome Henry should be suspended and Club should be fined. Who the hell would want to be a referee, a thankless Job.
I believe some of Jerome Henry’s desicions today were terrible, most notably failing to give a clear advanced Mark to Mountbellew in added time with the game level.
Having said that the behaviour of a few Mountbellew lads at the end was appalling, and long bans will be coming.
@Larry Duff Edge of Ballinasloe I think Pearses are not Athlone.
Will be a while before Galway have a club side as good as Corofin again if ever again, all other Galway reps are much more beatable as proved today. I think Knockmore will edge on Connacht final and it may take extra time to win as really nothing between these sides
From the radio it sounds like Mayo Gaels were denied a perfectly good goal at the end of normal time in their intermediate semi final against the Galway champions. If allowed – the game would not have gone to extra time.
I didn’t hear of any reports of Mayo Gaels players surrounding the ref and pushing the ref after the game.
If the GAA don’t start clamping down on physical and verbal abuse of referees – there will be no games as there will be no refs left.
Very poor refereeing from Jerome Henry in the MM v Pearses game. He gave some very dubious decisions against MM down the stretch with a series of bad calls but the mark one was a horrendous call. That likely puts MM a point up in injury time and they can set up to defend the kick out. Instead the ball is cleared down the pitch and Pearses score. That non call pretty much decided the game. That said you can’t have players chasing refs around after the final whistle. Even if they feel like they’ve been shafted.
Did you see the mark not given at the end 2 hops? Farcical
Would have been a tap over for McHugh to win the game
Wouldn’t write off Galway club football based on that. Mbellew have been a decade trying to win the county championship, their performance against corofin was exceptional. no doubt there was heavy celebrations afterwards. Covid disruption then meant this game was put back two weeks so not ideal again
Anyhow, while pearses will be no pushover, it’s a golden opportunity for Knockmore.
Disappointing end for mayo Gaels also, mayo clubs have struggled a bit in the intermediate of recent so would have been nice to get over the line in that one.
Great to see tooreen win another Connacht title also. Kilkenny winners gone so could be a semi against Naas. Need to make hay either this season or over the next couple of seasons before Galway are made cut their senior championship teams
Joe Brolly published an article last week claiming there is no issue with refs getting abuse in the GAA and he didn’t know what Mayo FG TD Alan Dillon was on about when he recently raised concerns about it.
Apparently Joe rang up David Gough who told him “I don’t get much abuse Joe” and that was enough to make Joes mind up.
Laughable column in light of what happened today. I really don’t know what planet Brolly is on. Is it a politically dig at Dillon I wonder?
I agree with you Larry, but the problem is that the more oxygen people give to Brolly and his comments and his articles, whatever the subject matter, the more he thrives. He gets off on causing controversy, and on it being all about him.
In my opinion he’s not worthy of mention on this forum, or any other serious and genuine forum either.
Some referees need to start upping their game, are we happy enough to allow players sacrifice so much only for their efforts to be cancelled out by poor officiating, not good enough, and I’d rather lose a few poor referees than lose players who become disillusioned.
To me the forward mark should be scrapped. Very hard to execute ,especially this time of the year,trying to secure a ball resembling a bar of soap,maybe under pressure and still try to shoot one hand up in the air to claim it…I didn’t see the circumstances of yesterday’s contentious one but most ,if not all games are not decided by one or two decisions . Equally no player goes through a full game without a few regrets or mistakes.
Sometimes a look in the mirror, rather than looking to blame a third party for their wors is what’s needed.
I’d go as far as saying the mark non-call yesterday was up there with one of the worst decisions I’ve actually seen in a match
He must have just had complete brain freeze. Not good enough at that level
Agree with Viper, what an absolute kick in the gut for lads training all year. The decision literally cost them the game
Scenes at the end were obviously appalling but there’s no way Henry should get a big game again anytime soon
Larry Duff, did you not read in the same paper, same page where 15yr old assaulted referee.
Was at the mayo gaels game in Galway and have to say the disallowed goal at the end was the right decision by the leitrim ref and there wasn’t many complaints from mayo gaels lads. Should never have got to that as mayo gaels forward should have punched it over the bar when bearing down on goal but he opted to punch it across to John Gallagher who went to palm the ball into the net but hit the crossbar and their corner forward palmed it into the net from rebound. Rule states that in this instance the forward can’t be in the square at time ball rebounds from crossbar which he was at the time as he was on the goalline practically.They will rue this missed chance over the winter as it was game over after that incident. The Galway lads got an early goal in extra time and had the stronger bench and fitness in extra time that carried them through.
There were two elements that could deny the mark. Bear in mind this is in real time and the referee cannot always have a good view.
1. Is the ball kicked from outside the 45. I don’t want to hear about ” its way outside the 45″. The referee has to see that in real time.
2. Does the player make a clean catch or drop it.
Again, the referee has to see that in real time.
Was the player fouled? Again, not easy to see in real time if it’s a foul or two players colliding bodies contesting a ball.
On video replay my view is the player is fouled, my view is it was a mark. Three words, On Video Replay.
It’s not the kind of decision miss to surround a ref over.
Jamesie – was at the Mayo Gaels match on Saturday. Referee made a terrible decision in disallowing the Mayo Gaels goal. Hughes (the wing back) pass the ball across the goals for the inrushing John Gallagher to palm the ball to the net. Gallagher hit the crossbar but caught the rebound and, despite the brave efforts of the goalkeeper, managed to kick the ball to the net. That’s a perfectly valid goal – Gallagher was outside the square when the pass was made and there was no other Mayo Gaels forward in the square. The referee consulted the umpires and, to be honest, after some confustion appeared to take the safe option of extra time. Lettermore were estatic at the decision – Mayo Gaels were shocked!! It may well have been the case that the umpires thought another player was in the square – however , if so it was a bad mistake to make.