65 thoughts on “This weekend’s club championship fixtures”

1. Brilliant initiative from Ballinrobe

2. Ya thats class, fair play to them. Hope all the County lads come through the weekend injury free. Any tubber boys know if cillian is starting or set to feature? Lots of games in the qualifiers this wkend too. I wonder will Kildare employ a blanket on the Dubs? I still think O’Gara is a massive loss for them..Brogan cant do the dirty work and if Connolly were to get injured or suspended etc, i would’t fear them half as much!.

3. Agree about Ogara being a big loss but the one player the Dubs can’t do without is Flynn. On one hand would love to see Kildare make a game of it but on the other hand I’d like to see Dublin coast through and learn nothing from the game.

4. Doubt Cillian will be used this weekend ‘Tubber are through anyhow

5. Ya Flynn is something else alright, McCauley seems to have gone off the boil a little bit, but that could all change very soon. Whether we like it or a not a “Quilt” is the only system to beat them (the blanket is too light) Derry and Donegal really nullified their attacking game in recent times. I wonder are Noel and Pat playing a cute (but dangerous) game? Are they hoping to rely on our experience and talent to get us through the next 2 games without deploying a blanket? And then if we get through to the semi bring 13 men behind the ball and suffocate the Dubs?? With Gavin expecting us to play the usual man on man system? Would be interesting if thats how it played out…

6. Well it’s winner takes all in Ballina on Sat evening for my beloved Stephenites vs Ballagh. Ballagh are favourites as we (Ballina) are without are two main attackers in Sean Regan and Evan Regan who are injured but I still give us a chance with Alex Corduff continuing to bring his great form in midfield to his move to full forward this year. I don’t think our young midfield star Jack Irwin is available either although hopefully he will be fully fit for the Mayo minors Sat week.
   Unfortunately a wedding means I will miss this game but hopefully I will be getting happy texts late Sat evening and a quarter final place if it happened would be a great turnaround for a young Ballina team that was in a relegation playoff last year!!!

7. Juan I was thinking the same. It all depends on who we get in the qtrs on when we’ll show our hand.

8. I’m not too sure if it’s simply a matter of showing our hand or not. That’s assuming the planners are in a position of some dominance which the jury is out on,I think it’s fair to say. It seems to me that the Donegal type football requires a full commitment to it and any dabbling is a naievty. I’m hoping! that whatever recipe we employ against whatever systems are encountered will bring us our desired results. A one point surplus in each case will suffice thank you!

9. Create Boom

   A fella told me a couple of weeks ago that
   Corduff was playing great stuff for na Stiofanai in his new berth at FF.
   Appearantly has the strength as well as he used play in midfield.
   Wonder if he’d be good enough to get a call
   to the Mayo panel, down the line?
   Have you seen him play much?

10. A fine footballer is the Stioffanaigh full forward and a yet finer player he ll be in time down the line. Wasn’t he part of that minor team beaten in Longford in a replay against Tyrone or Derry a few years ago.A OS and Kv Keane also?

11. Great initiative to stream the Ballibrobe – Aughamore game. Would watch that before most Inter county games.

12. Inbetweener,

    Corduff was not on the 2008 minor team beaten in the replay but was on the 2009 team beaten by Armagh in the final.
    He certainly has the ability to become a Mayo regular.

13. Your usual impeccable recall of facts is off on this occasion, Andy D – Alex Corduff played minor in both 2008 and 2009. He got one of the goals down in Limerick we day we thumped Kerry down there in the semi-final replay. That 2008 team gave us Robbie Hennelly, Kevin Keane, Shane McHale, Shane Nally (where did he go to?) and Cathal Freeman as well as AOS. The 2009 vintage produced the likes of Danny Kirby, Darren Coen and a young man by the name of Cillian O’Connor.

14. Inbetweener your right about the jury being out and about the Donegal style of play having to be played every game for it to work seamlessly but I think it will be more of a high bred of that system.
    Any team that have won an All Ireland have done it by adapting styles of play rather than copying them.
    I have my doubts about the two lads tactical nous but surely they are more knowledgeable than any of us on here.????

15. anyone know is Andy Moran for for the ballina game ??

    Also why is David drake not getting a look into with mayo ?

    He’s been in the squad two years and has only got a couple of minutes league action ..
    What’s the story ??

16. You’re right of course, Willie Joe, he wore No 15 in the replay in Longford which I was at .

17. Searching old programmes in relation to the question of Alex Corduff’s minor record with Mayo I came on the programmes for the 2006 U21 campaign and it brought home to me the remarkable contribution that team has made to Mayo football. Of course I was aware that it is making a remarkable contribution but when i realized that 13 of the 15 who lined out in that final all played Senior for a substantial period it struck home. Nine of the fifteen are still involved [Caff, Higgins, Barrett, Cunniffe, Boyle, S O’Shea, B. Moran, Ronaldson & Conroy] Ken O’Malley and sub Enda Varley were involved up until recently while Trevor Howley, Aiden Campbell and Aiden Kilcoyne were Mayo senior players over a good number of years. Alan Feeney, another sub, also made a contribution for a few years
    Of the Tyrone team who they beat in the semifinal only the names of Justin McMahon and Colm Cavanagh ring loudly with me while ten of the Cork team [Ken O’Halloran, Ray Carey, Michael Sheils, Eoin Cadogan, Alan O’Connor, Patrick Kelly, Fintan Gould, Paul Kerrigan, Daniel Goulding and John Hayes] have a familiar ring to them. This surely must be a record, both for the Mayo team and for two U21 finalists.
    Anybody able to suggest otherwise?

18. Interestingly Willie Joe all the 3 you named on the 09 minor team were actually on the 2010 team aswell. Really left it behind us in semi that year (2010) vs Tyrone 🙁 I remember Cillian was out of this world, scored a sideline or two iirc

    2008 was some year though, lost to a super Tyrone team after replay. Anyone remember Kyle Coney that day? And a Peckering or something corner back? Honestly thought Coney would be one of the best in the country at senior level by now

19. The 1973 U21 final of Kerry 2-13 Mayo 0-13 threw up the following fellas. Paudi Mahoney, Paidi Se, Jimmy Deenihsn, Ger O Keeffe, Ger Power, Tim Kennelly, John Long, Micky Ned Sullivan, John Egan, Mikey Sheehy, Paudie Lynch and Martin Ferris. Couple of stone of gold Celtic crosses in there.

20. Remarkable that was,in Ennis..I think. What was the Mayo team?

21. Kyle Coney has performed much better than perceived. Overshadowed by Sean Cavanagh, long spells where I assume injury has kept him out. But if he was in a top four side injury free he would be a house hold name. Coney is completely two footed and can break left or right to beat defenders. Did he have a trial spell in Australia?
    Another good footballer up North is Caolan Mooney. Wasted in a turgid bland Down team.

22. I think Cooney got involved in the political situation in the north

23. This is a football blog not a political blog.

24. He’s fine JP but hardly a world beater. He was one of the best minors I have seen. Just an observation. Our own best player (and captain I think?) from that season never even got a senior championship cap- it happens

    Apologies for veering off topic but on the county scene has there ever been a more uneventful weekend of GAA Championship, and well over a month into this year’s edition? If you enjoy watching Derry v Donegal clashes or Dublin massacres good luck to you but I’d rather the Fair City omnibus myself!

    Thank God for the club action!

    the GAA really need to condense the Championship in general, it is getting farcical.

    At least if they played 8 back door games today, like previous seasons, there’d be a bit of craic

    This A/B sh1te drives me daft

    Rant over :p

25. Donegal – Derry will be a decent game I reckon.

26. Think it’ll be a snoozefest (although I actually enjoyed Donegal Tyrone after thinking similar beforehand)

    The problem here though is I’d imagine Donegal could hammer them. They look very sharp this year

27. Clarke out with injury for ballina. Moran doesn’t start for Ballagh

28. Not looking too bad for Derry after 25mins. Draw

29. HT. 5 pts each .. blanket game! Tud tud tud !

30. Credit to Derry they’ve kept the score down anyway! Typical ulster scoreline

    I’m enjoying the novel live Mayo match though- Aghamore v ballinrobe. Anyone else watching?

31. Watched it too, Ciaran – I went the whole hog and streamed it to the TV via the Mac Mini. A novel experience for sure! Great win for Aghamore – they went into this one needing a win to avoid getting dragged into a relegation play-off but they’ve come out of it with a place in the quarter-finals.

32. Yeah it was mighty WJ!

    Indeed, delighted for Aghamore

    Tubber put up a nice win too- Plunkett 2-4 from play!

33. Pathetic from derry

34. They did alright. Looks like they’ll still be the team to beat when the play-offs get going.

35. Claremorris 0-9 Castlebar Mitchell’s 2-16,Tom Cunniffe off injured,looked like hamstring

36. Dillon and cillian came on in 2nd half for ballintubber today.heard Andy came on in 2nd half for ballagh to.any other updates on injuries?

37. Also gibbons was outstanding for ballintubber to

38. Is the draw for mayo club qtr finals known

39. why was Clarke not playing tonight for ballina ?

40. John Cuffe,

    According to the Sunday Independent Handbook of Gaelic Games Tim Kennelly did not play in the 1973 U21 Final. He did play in the ’75 final. This book unfortunately gives only initials instead of first names but if Paidi Sé did play in 73 it was as a forward and he also seems to have played in the 75 & 76 finals [as a defender] which would have been four years at U21. There are a lot of O’Shea’s in Kerry but with Paidi it is very possible. And I don’t think that Martin Ferris won a Senior All Ireland, maybe as a sub, but he certainly did not play, even as a sub.
    The Mayo team [from the same source] was S Langan; P Cunningham, S Reilly, J O’Mahony; G Feeney, C Moynihan, J Culkin; R McNicholas, G Farragher; M Gannon, T Webb, R Bell; E Ralph, S McGrath, E Flannery. Subs used: S Barrett, S Weir. From my memory, Reilly, O’Mahony, Feeney, Moynihan, Farragher, Webb & Bell went on to be regular Mayo seniors for longer or shorter periods. Most of that team were back to win after a replay v Antrim in ’74. Ivan Heffernan replaced Langan and A Durkin replaced Cunningham in defence, M Flannery, JP Kean, M Maloney, D McGrath & M Higgins replaced R McNicholas, M Gannon, E Ralph, S McGrath & E Flannery. Jimmy Burke [who was a minor in ’74 was a sub]..

41. Anyone know how much game time Cillian, Dillon and Moran got last night? Great to see them all back playing before the Connacht final.

42. Derry were utterly mismanaged last night. There are clear vunerabilities in that Donegal defence and yet McIver couldn’t combine OBoyle, Bradley and Lynch into a little forward unit that could exploit it. He left OBoyle isolated. Bradley was out around the middle of the pitch. Lynch seemed to be wide on the wing at times. Eventually OBoyle and Bradley taken off when Derry still had time to get the draw. Derrys lateral handpassing in the middle of the pitch is tactically ridiculous.

43. Yeah, I watched that ulster semi yesterday evening and it seemed in the last ten minutes they really had donegal on the ropes….they just couldn’t shake them off. they started shlobbering then and it broke up the tempo of the game. it might have been their chance.

44. Joe Brolly has our defensive frailties as a headline again. Severe headline but the cold seasonal and even match by match stats show he is correct. We either face facts and correct it in a direct linear manner or keep kidding ourselves with this strategy.of “pressure the passer”.
    When Horan dismissed Donaghys damage as being a problem of poor tackle pressure further out on David Moran I highlighted that that is statistically impossible to prevent a team kicking ball to the large target area available to a Donaghy or Murphy. We need linear directly applied in the target zone for goals solutions. Pressure the passer is just a given in 2015.

45. Gettin back to the topic of the club c/ship,it was good to see that most of the injured county lads back on the pitch.Cod-Dillon got 25 mins,Cillian 10 mins and both looked sharp.Dont know how long Andy spent on the pitch,but I believe he got some game time.

46. Thanks Andy D. Yes Paidi was the guy, injured earlier but brought back for the final. Ferris was part of AI senior winning squad. Mayo were missing Joe Collins Lacken for that final. Had a brilliant semi final v Tyrone and one Micky Harte. Sad to note that the half forward line of M Gannon, R Bell and T Webb no longer with us. Gone too is G Feeney and I think one more. So sad, so young.

47. I agree with Brolly our backs are great footballers but very naive defenders. Vaughan does not hold the centre but is great going forward. Where are our McGees ? Who would fear getting a wallop from any of our backs bar Boyle
    we need a defensive system to suit the players .it can be done

48. Seamus Reilly would be another one of that team that has died. So sad. thats a third of the starting team.They would be only 60 now.

49. Three Ard na Rea players on that team…S Langan, J Culkin, E Ralph. Sadly also E Ralph deceased recently v much before his time…a stylish flying type forward!

50. I always argued, and took stick for it, that our forwards are as good as any and as efficient as most. The problem, as I see it, that there is too much expected of our forwards because we nearly always concede big scores. Therefore when we rack up 2-15 or 3-18 and still lose, the perception is that our forwards miss scoreable chances and therefore we lose. We nearly always score match winning totals but don’t always win the match. If we have learned anything from the modern game, and our suffering at the hands of it, it is that forwards win you games, but defenses win you titles.

51. Meath v West Meath a breath of fresh air

52. Agree 100% with Brollys article. Have said it for years that man for man defending does not win you all Ireland’s. Before anyone argues – no kerry and dublin do not defend man for man either. Pebbles is right, we score more than enough to win most games, and I also feel personnel-wise our defenders are as good as any of the top sides and better than some of the other contenders. However the defensive system employed is more important than the individual defenders and this cumulatively means we have the weakest defence of all the top contenders.
    Agree with the poster above too btw – let’s leave the politics out of discussions here.

53. Inbetweener the mention of Ralph RIP reminded me of many childhood memories in his parents shop. An institution of old Ardnaree.
    Dubs v Kildare poor bar the great points from distance by Kilkenny

54. Brolly basically copies Jim mcguinness article from 2 weeks ago in the times
    He gets paid for this folks

55. Jesus we were mentioned more by brolly today than dublin or kildare!! All valid points of course. If i was a multi-millionare i would actually pay Jim McGuinness 3-4 million to take over if we fail to win it this year. I actually think he would get us over the line in one season. We have everything required, just need a shrewd defensive system and belief. Obviously i hope pat and noel can do it and hope they have a master plan for August.

56. To me it seems that the likes of Brolly, McGuinness and co are wishing us on to winning the damn thing and like most of us on here are not being critical but urging and indeed trying to help us do it.
    As already stated many times we have the players we just need the tweaks to give us the winning method.
    MaighEo Abu

57. We have been given the master plan for August by McGuinness & Brolly.
    It’s now just a question of whether we implement it.
    No excuses anymore for the ‘shit defending’.
    If we keep the ‘shit defending’ up for another season then we’ll thoroughly deserve what follows.
    If however we keep the opposition score down then I believe we’ll be in business.
    I also believe we have excellent strengths in transitioning quickly from defense to attack and are very well equipped to play this new style.
    Our problems lie in the other direction … transitioning quickly from attack to defense … we are behind the other contenders in this area with an inferior plan, inferior awareness & an inferior work rate in the middle third.
    Over to management.

58. very disappointed in Kildare they let Dublin play you don’t do that against the dubs hope Mayo have good season.

59. Hello, it is unlikely that Jim McGuinnes wishes to give us a game plan to win the All Ireland. Who wouldn’t want a stronger defence? The Management have seen the analysis. Yes they took a laid back view of it in the Dublin League game. This will stand Mayo in good stead in the expected Semi v Dublin. I am happy to leave the system to the players and Management.

    Alan Freeman seemed to have good game.
    Also i would like Hennelly to be in goal for the Sligo game as Clarke must be considered an injury risk and it would be nice to give Rob some time. If D O’C was on bench his wrist might not be too bad? Alan Dillon was good it seems and so we are spoiled for choice with Shane McHale etc back. No reason for anything but optimism. We will set the Country on fire this year.

60. Our transition into attack still needs a lot of work. Count how many accurate 40 yard plus foot passes into the forwards by our midfield, half forwards and defence. Not all that many. We should be setting up McGloughlin, Keith Higgins and Diarmuid OConnor to do this. Instead far too often there is individual type play. We are still a team who are picking players to play positions, training players to play positions and even talking about players playing positions. We are completely unprepared in terms of the basics of passer, target and runner. When you look at Donegal or Dublin it is hard to pick out exactly what position many players are playing. It’s a fluid team moves based game. People have roles in attack and roles in defence. Defence can be easily solveable.
    The problem I see as well as our defence is that the counter attack is not a well drilled team based system. This will be even harder to correct, very hard to get individual instincts out of players. Very hard mid career to get guys to let the ball in first time and to keep their heads up.

61. Again, watching Diblin today you de have to admire what it is that has them in their present pretty unassailable form…..and it looks simple!
    (1) Goalie finds his man. Not just his doing but much depends on the receivers making themselves available and having the ability and willingness to do so. It’s a handier and more certain possession than what accrues from letting the ball down the middle…you might not have big catchers and the onward play from such possession is more penetrating in essence . This is cos already fellas are thinking and moving in a concerted fashion . It is their preferred way of obtaining restart possession. More fluidity follows from there . Often wonderful midfield play can result in uncertain benefit to a side. I regret to say this because one can be accused of discarding a major facet of the game . Then again u can mix the two!
    (2) Moving ball forward! If it’s through hands it’s done with accuracy pace and seldom on your own …coop effort. If it’s a kick it’s measured right weight and finds its man who is always in front and first touch is clinical to an embassasing degree….how often do others fail and how much practice does this take?
    (3) And so on to the finish! The qualities required to get so far are the same qualities that ensure the ball ends up in the net or between the posts…accuracy, pace, patience and timing!

    I really and truelly think I have the blueprint here. All I need are the proper chaps to execute the business and this year I do believe we have them! Come on Mayo ta feck!

62. Dubs are class team but the lack of a proper test could count against them.

63. Bang on,Cait, they’re like a bull in a china shop in Leinster and will get a Tyrone or the like and cruise through the quarterfinal. IMO, If Mayo keep focussed they will get a shot in the semi and that’s the best place to knock Dublin out.

    It’s great to hear that Mchale and co are back in action, now let’s hope that all stay healthy

64. I think we need Clarke in acts as a sweeper in games , especially with our shaky full back line

    Kerry exploited it with long diagonal balls last year , anyone have any idea what injury he has ?

    Is Shane Mchale back in the Panal does anyone know ?

65. Joe Brolly is spot on but it’s nothing new. Plenty of us shave been saying this for 2 years now… It’s simple. You clog up the defensive centre as soon as you los possession. One extra defende as a sweeper isn’t enough.

    We have an outlet man up front who can win like by ball too..AOS and Cillan ain’t a bad sidekick!!