It was three wins out of four for teams from the county who were involved in club Championship action over the weekend. The Neale and Kilmaine both had big wins yesterday, while MacHale Rovers qualified for the LGFA Junior final today. Ballintubber lost out to Corofin this afternoon but they went down fighting.
Let’s start, for a change, with the ladies.
I only realised that MacHale Rovers were playing today when I saw the score updates starting to come in this afternoon. They were in action against Edendork from Tyrone in the All-Ireland club JFC semi-final and they came away from the Tyrone venue with a handsome 4-12 to 1-13 win.
Rachel Kearns, who weighed in with 1-9, was the main scorer for the Mayo team while Sinead Walsh contributed 2-1 to the eight-point win. MacHale Rovers now go forward to the All-Ireland JFC decider against Cork’s Donoughmore. Match report on today’s game is here.
Onto the lads.
Yesterday was a good one for South Mayo clubs. At Markievicz Park The Neale were much too strong for Sligo club Geevagh in the Connacht IFC semi-final. Three goals early in the second half saw The Neale power past their Sligo opponents to win by 4-13 to 1-11. They now play Oughterard of Galway in the Connacht final.
At MacHale Park, meanwhile, Kilmaine had a facile win yesterday over Roscommon’s Ballinameen in the Connacht JFC semi-final. Kilmaine won out by 3-20 to 0-6 to qualify for next Saturday’s provincial decider where they’ll meet St. Michael’s of Sligo.
And so to the weekend’s main event.
Ballintubber squared off at Tuam Stadium today against Galway and All-Ireland champions Corofin. It proved to be a close-fought encounter, in which Corofin led by a point at the break and then went on to stretch that lead to six before Ballintubber cut the gap back to a single point. The champions had the final say, however, to emerge from the contest with a two-point win, on a scoreline of 1-10 to 0-11.
Here are video highlights of today’s game.
Watch all the Full-Time Highlights of @BallintubberCLG v @CorofinGAA in the Connacht SFC Semi-Final here on GAANOW. pic.twitter.com/SZfreqElJe
— The GAA (@officialgaa) November 10, 2019
Match reports on today’s game – Connaught Telegraph, RTÉ, Irish Times, The 42.
I thought the ref was very poor and gave soft frees to Corofin all game and Ballintubber had to work hard for frees.
Usual story, Mayomagic. Favourite gets all the 50:50 decisions and most of the 60:40 and 70:30 ones too.
Nevertheless, Corofin were that bit sharper in attack, kicked better and moved better for most of the match. They used the field better whereas ‘Tubber were inclined to bunch, mostly up the left wing and as a result Ciaran Gavin got little opportunity. Just after he was taken off ‘Tubber got a scoreable free on the right where they had to go short which cost them. Tubber were also too slow in the build up of attacks. The difference in pace of Corofin’s attack after ‘Tubber got to one point illustrated the difference as did the loose larking which led to Corofin’s goal.
Corofin were worthy winners on the day, ref or no ref.
Credit to Corofin they are the best club team of all time,not taking away from them whatsoever.
But the standard of refereeing is atrocious and will obviously be worse next year with new rules to try to enforce!!favourites should not get the benefit of tight calls,as I said previously the call for steps cost us the goal..last free of first half was a blatant dive,and he took a minute to kick it..(hop ball)last free to put Corofin two up was a dive also….
Ballintubber did not get those soft frees and in a very tight game them kinda calls made a huge difference
Tubber competed manfully in midfield and in defence, but Corofin had that bit more composure and class in final 3rd. Ref made a horrendous call in lead up to goal but the warnings were there…Liam Silke waltzed in unmarked a number of times in first half, and you can’t continue to let that happen.
You have failed in any of your posts to mention the clothes line on Kieran Fitzgerald in the first half Tomthumb, did the ref do that. As I have said many times on here, the better team always wins, Corofin were the better team. I do believe they are not at the level of previous years though.
Yes big mike indeed it was a free if I’m not mistaken,I also seem to remember a clothes line tackle on Bryan Walsh in the second half..my basic point is that the referee and marginal calls make a difference in close games and in my opinion the Ballintubber team didn’t get any of them tight decisions..not corofins fault and good luck to them they are a fantastic team
The issue, Big Mike, is the standard of refereeing. The fact of missing a clothes line tackle, no matter on who, merely proves the point. If Corofin or any other Galway club were underdogs the same problem would exist to their disadvantage and you would probably be complaining about it. I am aware that referees have regular training sessions in the Connacht C of E but it does not seem to be doing much for standards.
I agree totally Andy d …standard of refereeing is poor and wait till next year when the sin bin and offensive mark comes into operation….will be chaos Mark my words..
We should be making the job of a referee easier not more difficult
The issue for me actually is that on a lot of online forums, this one included, when a team loses, a lot of the comments are about the ref.
Its not just Mayo, its Galway, Kerry, everywhere.
Sure there are Galway hurling fans and Mayo football fans that would have you believe they each would have a hatful of all Irelands in the last 20 years, if it wasn’t for those pesky men in black.
Dublin, Corofin, Kilkenny(10 years ago) dominance has zero to do with refs. How many times have we read comments about Dublin Joe, Maurice Deegan, Conor Lane etc and that’s just from the top counties. If we highlighted the guys that kicked the wides as often it wouldn’t be acceptable.
P.S. I am neither a Ref or a Corofin fan.
Big Mike,
I’m not Ballintubber fan or a ref either. But look at the facts or videos of past games to see how refs often made a bags of things. How often have Dublin suffered bad decisions in recent years? How can a ref be part of the Dublin training regime and still ref an All Ireland Final involving them? Why do Dublin bring in an outside ref when there are presumably lots of refs in Dublin?
I’m coming around to the idea of two refs for senior championship matches. Most proposals for two refs tend to suggest one ref for each half of the field. My suggestion is that the refs should split responsibility for different aspects of the rules. One of the most criticised aspect of refereeing is about the tendency to miss out on the steps taken in the lead up the big scores. Witness Dublin’s goal in this years final replay. Yesterday’s ref was very particular in some instances but completely missed out at other times when it did matter. Why not have a ref paying particular attention to steps?
Corofin were the better team, their quick accurate kick passing was continually putting Tubber under pressure whereas Tubber attacks were slow,congested and too much aimless back and forth passing. Tubber never threatened the Corofin goal. That being said Tubber were well organized in defence [with a few lapses] and deserve a lot of credit for the comeback. To go further Tubber will need to be more creative on offense
and not be so dependent on Cillians frees for scores.
Any decisions yet on the connacht club finals on Saturday? Times etc.
Kilmaine are on at 3pm and The Neale are at 5pm. Big night for both clubs. I’d expect kilmaine to win with a few to spare but much harder to call the neale match. Oughterard are a very good side. Will Mayo Gaa TV be streaming the games? I have not seen anything advertised
The Neale v Oughterard throws in at 5 on Saturday in MacHale Park. I presume the Kilmaine game will precede it but can’t see confirmation anywhere.
As far as I know, Southpaw, Mayo GAA TV don’t hold the rights for these matches (as they’re not Mayo GAA matches) and, if so, they wouldn’t be in a position to stream them.
Connacht council should stream these provincial games, they would get plenty of punters
I’d say there were less than 200 supporters at the Junior semi, including kids, 15 euro a pop for a junior mismatch on it’s own…crazy.
I have seen where the same referee who did last Sundays game between Corofin and Ballintubber is named as the referee for Connacht Final. Surly after some of the decisions he made last Sunday, no way would I let him referee this final. My gut feeling says it wont be any different the next day.
Who is the referee you refer to True Grit ?
Best wishes to both neighbouring clubs kilmaine and the Neale on Saturday. Time that the local rivalry is left aside and that both set of supporters give the teams their best support. Both clubs in connacht finals for the very first time, a truly great achievement for both clubs. Both teams will depend on their younger players to carry them through but with the weather and pitch conditions deteriorating, the young guns could struggle. Pat Kelly for kilmaine would love to win a connacht medal with his club, a great servant of kilmaine and mayo. The Neale will not be under any pressure, they have been underdogs in every championship game this year (bar last weekend v geevagh) and have the cuteness and ability to give it a good shot. Kilmaine to win with a bit to spare, the Neale will be close and are good at winning very tight games.