Details of all the second round fixtures in the Senior, Intermediate and Junior championships were confirmed by Mayo GAA earlier on today. The Round 2 matches take place the weekend after next, with games on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. The full list of fixtures is here.
It was also confirmed today that four matches, three Senior and one Intermediate, will be streamed live on Mayo GAA TV. These are as follows:
- Friday 1st September: Garrymore v The Neale (8pm)
- Saturday 2nd September: Bohola Moy Davitts v Crossmolina Deel Rovers (3.30pm); Charlestown Sarsfields v Claremorris (6pm)
- Sunday 3rd September: Ballina Stephenites v Mayo Gaels (1pm)
Seen a lot of criticism for Claremorris gaa in one of the local papers this morning. While yes the town should be doing better considering the size of it, I believe a lot of the criticism is extremely harsh. Claremorris are consistently a senior team and haven’t dropped to Intermediate in recent times like other big towns such as Ballyhaunis and Ballinrobe. Claremorris got to the quarter final stages last year.
This year Claremorris are attempting to integrate Paul Gilmore, Niall and Dara Hurley into their side from the succesfull minor team, and have had to do this with no time or suitable preparation. Between commitments to the Mayo U20 side, injuries, leaving certs, and admirably allowing the young lads to focus on being a minor player before a senior player, all three players only made their debuts at the weekend. And these lads are 17! Fair enough if they had won 10 minor titles in a row like some people are attempting to claim, but their record in underage has been strong but overrated. If you look at the county minor A champions over the last decade, Claremorris have won three titles, but two have been in the last three years, with the majority of these players still aged between 17-20.
Furthermore, Claremorris’ other title, came in 2015. Remarkably, they won the final against Breaffy by 14 points, yet had no players represented on that years mayo minor team. Therefore, perhaps they had a very good team without any standout elite talents.
To top it all off, they were missing their best player, Conor Diskin, to injury at the weekend. Talisman forward James Shaughnessy remarkably and admirably played the game the same evening of the wake of his grandmother. Midfielder David O’Reilly and former minor captain Darragh Joyce were injured and didnt play.
While the senior record is poor and they haven’t been a true power or consistently great team in the last decade, I believe these lads playing an amateur sport at club level deserve a break, while also believing these young lads will come good in the coming years. They still have even more talent coming through in the pipeline through Darragh Beirne and Rio Mortimer, who are still too young to even play senior football.
That’s not a bad point retrocut. Claremorris consistency at senior level is understated but they have never really looked like breaking into the top bracket of 6 or 7 clubs that are true contenders at any point in recent times either.
I think that the biggest criticism from the broader Mayo gaa public of claremorris is that there has not been an established senior intercounty player produced from the club in over 30 years. By that I mean someone that has firmly established themselves as a championship starter for Mayo over a season or two.
However it will be very disappointing if at least one of the five 17-18 year olds you mentioned does not have a long and productive career as a Mayo intercounty footballer.
Mark Maloney Claremorris 19 years old centre forward is one for the future and can kick a point too
Hard to give off too much about Claremorris when Westport have struggled for so long and they are an amalgamated club already with Aughagower. Sure when you leave Westport’s new ground in Kilmeena and drive south, you drive and drive and drive until you eventually hit the Galway border, without going close to another Mayo parish. It’s a big enough area to field 4 or 5 adult teams. Time for the people of Aughagower go it alone.
The west is best
Claremorris parish is big enough ,its by no means small , it goes right out to Knock and Kiltimagh. They also get players from the Crossboyne parish that just borders the edge of town which is a Garrymore parish.
https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/kilcolman2/
https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/crossboyne2/
Claremorris is a a head scratcher. South Mayo in general though should be flourishing. Its proximity to Galway City is one reason as a lot of people work there but can live at home. Ballinrobe have one of the largest national schools in the county. St Colmans College in Claremorris has always been a great footballing nursery. Ballinrobe CBS won the B All Ireland in 2017 which included Oisin Mullin. That was a team so good that they could have won the A that year if they had been in that grade.
Next year will be 30 years since a south mayo club won the Moclair Cup (Hollymount). Also interesting to note the management teams of the u17 and u29s don’t contain any south mayo native.
Oh I agree Sam Og that Claremorris should be doing far better. With the population increasing rapidly in South Mayo, the Moclair Cup will be a regular visitor in the years ahead. Ballinrobe and Claremorris will both rise to the very top in the years ahead. It’s a numbers game in many ways and both will have the numbers.
Only 5 South Mayo players in Kevin McStays 2023 panel.
Ballinrobe may have a big primary school but The Neale , kilmaine , Hollymount, and even Tourmakedy ( partry ) are only a few miles out the road so not a huge parish .
Lots of good work going into South Mayo underage teams like Claremorris , Ballinrobe, The Neale etc . Fair play to the clubs and volunteers on the ground .
The Neale actually have a big parish with Cong ,Cross and The Neale combined
@my ball. It’s true. Is James McCormick back in action? Very unlucky with injuries.
And where did it go wrong for Diskin, such an exciting talent when he first came on the scene
Are young guys dropping out before making it to senior grade?
I suppose the frustration with Claremorris is that their underage structure is so strong relative to other towns like Ballyhanius and Ballinrobe that are struggling at those grades. I’d guess that claremorris have won 5 of the last 10 county minor championships which is an amazing return but it has never filtered through fully to senior. On the flip side you see Castlebar and Westport bringing in minor lads more comfortably than claremorris.
Yes it’s good that Claremorris are still senior but they should be wondering how they are not closer to winning a county title then just focusing on staying up. It’s a mystery where all the good underage players go. If they get a good link between minor and senior then they can become a real for us in the years to come.
Yes there is something broken there that needs to be fixed. All it takes, maybe is to produce one outstanding footballer. The ‘Keegan’ influence in Westport is immense. Highly respected role model in every way. It would be great to see Claremorris turn the corner. Mick Conaughton is the stand out player I remember from Claremorris and I’m going back awhile.
Re Claremorris, the raw talent is obviously there, perhaps the County board should invest some resources to develop GAA in the town.
I’d argue if there is a place where the county board need to invest it is in the rural clubs.
Harsh reality is that the CB never invest in the clubs rather the clubs invest in the CB. The net result is incompetent people running the CB that have now laced Mayo GAA with millions of debt, a football pitch in ruins and no possible way of developing a centre of excellence without digging a bigger hole.
If mayo want to be serious at winning the major honours then I think the CB is the first place where change is needed.
At the minute it’s clubs that are investing in the county board via the debt on MacHale Park. Unsustainable and unfair.
Club Championship review pod is now up on Patreon.
Lots of talk about Claremorris an understandably so but what the hell has happened to Charlestown and Kiltimagh? Charlestown underage seem to be putting in the effort and their lgfa setup is definitely paying dividends but the men………thats a different story. Was talking to family and friends who live in Charlestown and were at the game in Westport and they point to a lack of fitness, motivation and effort. After the eague there’s no excuse for fitness. Start of the championship and you’re playing the champions should be all the motivation needed. As regards effort, if you’re not fit and not motivated then you won’t put in the effort.
As for Kiltimagh, the club looks like a basket-case with some of the anecdotal stuff coming out barely credible. The pool of competitive clubs in East Mayo seems to be shrinking rapidly.
Could Jason Gibbons give McStay a year or 2 , before the emergence of a ball winning scoring midfielder emerges in Mayo football.He seems the best we have got at club level at present.
He could well match the likes of Paul Conroy ,Brian Kennedy or Conor Glass in the air.
That 10 minutes after half time against Dublin we failed to win Colm Reapes kickouts when Dublin put the squeeze on.We need more ball winners out the middle when the opposition teams press up.
Looks like there’s six one-side games in Senior next weekend. Hard to see where any shock is going to come from – Maybe there’s a reaction from Balla at Home to Breaffy.
Ballintubber even without Cillian shouldn’t find it too easy against Belmullet.
Charlestwon vs Claremorris is anybody’s guess, either team could win well depending on how organised and up for it they are.
Just to note Charlestown have been down a lot of key players, so they are much better than the Westport game suggests.
If Belmullet can beat Garrymore they can beat Ballintubber without Cillian O’Connor.
Ballintubber aren’t the team they were. I wouldn’t rule out Belmullet or even Garrymore overturning them.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvhcmnbNIRs/?igshid=MmU2YjMzNjRlOQ%3D%3D
Came across this clip lately, its about Castlegar gaa hurling club in Galway , but it very much relates to the Claremorris situation at Senior level.
People on here talk of South Mayo not performing, well look at East Mayo, Swinford and Kiltmagh struggling to perform, Charlestown and Ballagh a poor shadow of their past, Balyyhaunis and Aughamore just Intermediate teams at best ,whats wrong in the East>????.
Not sure who all these key players are that Charlestown are missing JP other than Paul Towey.