Photo: Mike Kelly (@kellymike87 via Twitter)
Debate on here has been squarely focused on off-field activity of late but the weekend brought a welcome return of some on-field action at club level within the county. Pretty interesting it was too.
Top billing in this respect obviously goes to Ballintubber’s astonishing tanking of Knockmore in yesterday’s senior championship semi-final at MacHale Park. When the North Mayo lads beat the then county champions by five points at the quarter-final stage last year, their cause was undoubtedly helped by Cillian O’Connor’s absence through injury. Yesterday, however, Cillian was back with a bang and his brothers weren’t far behind him too, with all four siblings raising green flags over the course of the hour. Knockmore simply walked into the propeller blades yesterday and a 9-11 to 2-12 final scoreline tells its own story. If you want more on this story, Colm Gannon’s match report in the Mayo Advertiser is here and there’s some video of the goal glut here.
The day’s opening match in McHale Park yesterday also produced a different kind of talking point. This was the horrendous colour clash between defending county champions Castlebar Mitchels and Garrymore, which led to utter confusion both on the pitch and off it during the first half of their senior championship semi-final.
Photo: Kevin McGinty (@Kevin_McGinty via Twitter)
Why such an obvious problem wasn’t sorted out prior to throw-in – indeed, prior to yesterday – isn’t clear but it’s just the latest example of something that the GAA has never taken seriously, even at national level. At least Mitchels had the good sense to switch their jerseys at the break and even though they had to survive a late Garrymore onslaught they also went on to win, by 1-14 to 1-11. Colm’s Gannon’s report on this one is here.
The destination of the Moclair Cup will now be decided on October 19th, and while Castlebar will go into this as defending champions the previous two times the clubs met at this stage resulted in wins for the Tubbermen. They’ll be looking to land a third county title then and their first since 2011 while Mitchels will be eyeing a 29th Moclair Cup success.
Elsewhere over the weekend, Hollymount-Carramore (still managed by Noel Connelly) overcame Belmullet on Saturday by 1-9 to 0-6 in their Intermediate semi-final replay and will now face Ballyhaunis in the decider next Sunday. Also on Saturday, Westport’s senior level sojourn ended and Ballina’s was maintained when the Stephenites prevailed in the relegation play-off at MacHale Park by 2-7 to 0-10. Colm Gannon’s wrap-up of the action in these and other matches played at the weekend is here.
Knockmore scored 2-12,this would be good enough to win most games but with the form the O’Connors were in Knockmore never stood a chance.With the form Diarmuid showed its easy see why James Horan threw him against Roscommon.Hopefully we’ll see plenty more of it in the Green and Red!!
It was an awesome display by Ballintubber. Many at the game couldn’t believe the quality from the Tubber team. Should be an intriguing final against Castlebar. Garrymore will be kicking themselves for not making more of their chances. Bad shot selections and 11 wides tells it’s own story.
Ballintubber played some great football, with long accurate foot passing, opening up the Knockmore full back line. The O Connor’s are fine footballers and Alan Dillon still has class.
Castlebar, for all their big names were nearly caught by Garrymore.
Danny Kirby, caught some great ball in mid field and Shane Nally did well also, I am sure Noel Conelly /Pat Holmes, had food for thought, after both games.
This fast, skill- full , foot -passing game that Ballintubber played yesterday is the traditional Mayo style of play and we should always play this game. It suits our type of players, skill full and athletic . We should never change from our own style of play.
Galway, ourselves ( and Kerry, of old) played the game in this manner.
This year Kerry, stooped to a new low , by their win at all cost approach, but it may come back to haunt them ,in the future. They will be found out.
In fairness Ed it would have been great if we had a “win at all cost approach”
I’ll take the next batch of Celtic crosses any way they come. More than willing to take the high moral ground after that but some work to be done first.
Great to see or hear of quality football being played effectively by Ballintubber. Just how many hat tricks has Cillian O’Connor got?
As for Mayo tradition, I see very little wrong with what we are doing, which includes a lot of foot passing too. Getting a full forward to be very effective would be a plus of course.
And as for winning a final, that’s the one we really have to learn. It’s bringing effectiveness on All Ireland day to bear that we have to work on – if we can get that far again, and why not? I heard people say and I said it myself (!) that Mayo would have beaten the pick of Kerry and Donegal. Yes, but could we have won playing poorly, kicking eleven wides, and just doing what needed to be done on the big day?
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Yes, it’s great to be up on the high moral ground with our 3 All-Irelands. How Kerry must envy us.
There’s no way I’d want our boys to win an All-Ireland by being anything other than gentlemanly and sporting at all times.
After all, it’s being skilful and athletic that really counts, not winning.
😀 Winning it by playing attractive football would be the icing on the cake, but I’m happy to have plain cake any day of the week.
Ballintubber did play some lovely football though. I felt a bit sorry for Knockmore to be honest – they were just incapable of defending at times – Ballintubber could have had five more, such was the amount of times there was a man free in front of goal. Shane McHale was a big loss to Knockmore. But it was a nice day out in the story of Mayo football watching the brothers O’Connor write themselves into table quiz history.
Ballintubber won’t have it as easy against Mitchels, who did what they had to do vs. Garrymore and not much more. I couldn’t help feeling that if Garrymore actually came out there with a bit of belief they might have caught Mitchels on the hop. Mind you, they got a heap of ball handed to them in the first half due to the colour clash (which the ref should never have allowed) and didn’t do a whole lot with it. Looking forward to the 19th where we should see a gritty, close contest.
As good as Ballintubber and the O’Connors were, the Knockmore defence and keeper were absolutely terrible. Very hard to see Castlebar give up that type of space.
I like the look of Ballintubber but Kirby and Moran, along with Walsh should win the midfield battle – very surprised at how Gibbons hasn’t regained any of his league form. It was actually his partner Broderick who looked the county player on Sunday. At the other end, Cillian and Dillon are in a different league to any of Castlebar’s forwards so I’m expecting it to be very tight like their last two final meetings.
Garry saw enough ball to win, their head down and run at the defence from way out the field tactic was a disaster. Made it easy for CBR to defend. They need to do some foot passing out the field. The amount of good runs I saw inside while the man on the ball 80 yards away was not looking up. Terrible, Horrible.
Cillian was awesome in that first half, utterly unmarkable. Diarmuid was class also, took a mighty point from the stand side in the first half. The final will be some battle. I hope it’s not a dour affair with each side attempting to cancel out the other as in previous encounters.
I wandered up to the Hollymount-Carramore v Belmullet game on the Saturday and was impressed by Stephen Coen in particular. He worked very hard until the end of the match and I thought he did especially well in the middle of the field winning a lot of ball. It was a difficult match to analyse due to the sending off in the first half and this really influenced it. Chris Barrett worked doggedly until the end.
@liberal role…good to hear about Stephen Coen…he has the ability to be developed into a full back IMO..
He could very well be, Mister Mayor. I definitely think he is a versatile player and appears to have a good attitude on the field. He’s an interesting one to watch out for in 2015….
Contrast in the 2 games, one was an entertaining freak, the other had shades of the sweeper system becoming the dominant approach. Ballintubber scored from all sorts…long diagonal balls, Mayo style opening opponent up the middle, a marauding wing back solo, a direct ball into a midfielder who rounded his man & shot & 2 brilliantly improvised goals by Cillian & a sub on for his 1st touch. Only 1 point from a free. The players to watch were lots of wing backs – both Castlebar’s (Durkan has serious pace), Moloney for Garrymore and the O’ Connor quartet. Nally for Garrymore(midfielder) looks the real deal with great decision making could be a no. 11 playmaker. Broderick midfielder also looked very good. Gibbons & Barry were both in & out but over the 70 both made significant impact. Feeney pretty good too. Dillon played the pulling strings role very well. McLoughlin played the 70 with brave resistance. Dillon & especially Cillian had some excellent Mayo style turnovers. Can flair win the final? I think so, too much quality. Expect Tubber to win (Castlebar were patchy.. the 2 losing teams about same standard) & make provincial final to meet impressive Corofin & thats one too early to call.
Diarmaid O Connor is the one to watch in 2015. The lad has a great attitude and is fearless. He’s an athlete, a skilful footballer and he’s surrounded by top players at club level who bring him on for progression to the next level. He has a great understanding with his brother Cillian who will be IMO the best forward that mayo could ever have.
Re – Colour clash.
There is a rule there alright. It’s that BOTH teams must change in event of clash. As Garrymore didn’t have a change the red decides neither would change.
Doesn’t that put a smile on your face now ?
Also who’s to say that clash could not occur again when both strips are changed.
Re – The weekend
Hup the Red & Black !!!!!!
Re: Colour of jerseys, according to the booklet from Mayo GAA, Castlebar’s colour is
Orange and Yellow. I must be getting colour blind if they wore those colours last Sunday. Both teams wear white as the 2nd colour. So according to this and as the rule both teams must change. So will they wear their normal colours or the white colours?.
As usual the GAA don’t have any brains. Quiet simple to sort out those problems, before the match the captains with the referee toss a coin and the losers than must change their colours. It doesn’t take rocket science to use common sense. From reports last Sunday both teams had not a second set of jerseys before the match started and lo and behold Santa arrived with a white set for Castlebar at half time. The person I blame for this fiasco is the referee.. He knew full well a week in advance that colours would clash and he should have informed “The County Board”,