The minors aren’t the only lads in action next Sunday at Markievicz Park, of course, as, barring a replay (which I think is most unlikely), we’ll get to find out in the match that takes place after the minor game who our opponents will be in the Connacht final on July 19th. Galway, say Paddy Power, quoting the same odds they did for us prior to the throw-in at McHale Park last Saturday. (The poll on the site here is of the same mind: it’s currently showing 91% support for a Galway victory).
Although I don’t think Galway will beat Sligo out the gate in the way that we did to the poor old Rossies (by the way, I was well impressed by the Rossies’ supporters the last day, large numbers of whom waited stoically for the final whistle before departing – some left before the end, to be sure, but the vast bulk of them were there till the bitter end), you’d have to think, Markievicz Park and Kevin Walsh notwithstanding, that they’ll have close on ten points to spare on their hosts. After all, they do have revenge for 2007 to sort out (as do we, lads, as do we).
Anyways, there is some news about Sunday’s match, in the form of the announcement last night of Sligo’s team. Here it is:
Sligo (Connacht SFC v Galway, 28/6/2009): Phillip Greene; Charlie Harrison (captain), Noel McGuire, Ross Donovan; Michael McNamara, Neil Ewing, Jonathan Davey; Tony Taylor, Eugene Mullen; Eamon O’Hara, Alan Costello, Sean Davey; David Kelly, Mark Breheny, Adrian Marren.
There’s little in the way of insightful comment that I can contribute in relation to the above line-up: the match thread on gaaboard.com is probably the best place to head to for that. The only two points I would note is that ex-Mayo player, Alan Costello, makes his championship debut for the Magpies at centre-forward. Alan, who I think last lined out for us in this league match against Cork back in 2006, has been playing for the Yeatsmen since the start of the year but this is his first championship start for them. (Who was the last Mayo inter-county player to appear for another county, by the way? Didn’t Padraig Brogan have a very brief sojourn in Donegal at some point in the Nineties?) The other point worth noting is that this team contains eight of the side that started against us in last year’s one-sided semi-final, which, I guess, is one more reason to think that the Herrin Chokers won’t face too much bother getting a result on Sunday.
didnt one of our boys play for Limerick….cant for the life of me remember his name….he had a run out against galway in the FBD league decider( which we won by 10 pts) in Garrymore a few years ago…Maurice was the 1st name…..Im sure you’ll come up with the surname WJ!!
Maurice Horan played for Limerick brother of GAA writer Liam.
Spot on ontheroad! Dont think we have lost too many quality players to other counties…AFL teams is another story…any word on one of our finest???
Beat me to it there, ontheroad – I just googled Maurice Mayo Limerick football or something like that and his name came up.
I haven’t heard anything of late about how things are going Down Under – he’s probably watching with interest to see how Tadhg Kenneally is getting on!
Checked out the brisban lions web site. Pierce has played 2 games this season, scored no Goals. He is playing as a half back. From what i gather he is not yet established in the first team.
Former Mayo men who played successfully for other counties include John Nallen, Galway (All-Ireland final of 1959),Meath and Cavan. In addition he won 2 Railway cup medals, a Connacht title with Mayo along with a league title. Dan O Neill and Seamie O Donnell won league and Connacht medals with Mayo but won an unlikely All Ireland with Louth in 1957. John Gibbons and Eddie McGuire played successfully for Mayo and Meath. Sean Kilbride an All Ireland minor winner with Mayo plus a long senior career finally threw in his lot with the Rossies. I suppose if I was bad enough count in Pat Lindsay and Dermot Early both Mayo born men, Lindsay from Geesala but I think the Rossies have had enough for a week!
Thanks for that, ontheroad – now, what about inter-county “foreigners” who have played for us? The two I can think of are Offaly’s Sean Lowry and Galway’s Tomas Tierney. There must be a few others in this list too.
This week isn’t the time to be hard on the Rossies alright – someone should have told James Horan!
Two good ones all right. Add on Brian O Reilly ex Clare, Tom O Reilly ex Monaghan, Ray Niland ex Galway, Martin Carney ex Donegal, Enda Sheehy ex Dublin, Michael Begley ex Clare. We lost the great Jimmy Duggan ex Claremorris to Galway.
I should have got Tom Reilly and Martin Carney – they were both players I saw at first hand on many occasions.
I think they’re still sore in Claremorris about Jimmy Duggan’s defection to Galway!