Friday evening is U17 Connacht Championship evening and, following their successful opener against Leitrim last week, our lads take on Roscommon tomorrow evening in Round 2 of the round-robin phase.
The match is fixed for Dr Hyde Park and throw-in is 7pm. It is, of course, an all-ticket match and tickets have to be purchased in advance, which you can do here.
Tickets for the game cost €10 and that the same charge if you want to stream the game online, which, when you think about it, kinda makes sense. Streaming details for the game are here.
There’s no team news as yet but that information should be available at some stage tomorrow.
Best of luck to the lads in tomorrow evening’s match.
A tenner is fairly steep for a minor game, whether you’re in the terrace or watching from home. Inflation be damned!
Eight points each at half-time. Mayo down to 14, though – straight red for James Maheady just before the break.
Some great scores from Mayo after a poor start. Will be tough to get anything after the red card however.
Good win. Took some grit to pull that one out.
0-16 to 1-11. Good win.
You’d take any win playing so long with 14 men. Mortimer looks a real tigerish corner back. MacMonagle very good at full back. Some poor shot selection up front but Hurley and Clarke are a dangerous inside duo.
Huge result in the circumstances!
Great result from the u17…fair play to them. Keep the foot on the pedal now lads…. well done.
The ref was very fussy for both sides.
Agreed Wide ball, both Clarke and Hurley took a while to settle tonight but they are real forwards that are hard to find. Impressed with Zac Collins when he came on believe his grandfather was a well known boxing referee. Seems like there is good competition for forward positions as Rory Conway didn’t get on tonight so filling you down Maheady spot for the next game shouldn’t be a problem.
Like the way this team is setup, move the ball well and every player is adapt with the foot pass. Wouldn’t mention our U20s
Based on our second half performance you wouldn’t have known we were down to 14 men. Clarke and Hurley outstanding and solid performances all over the field. A Connacht Final with Galway beckons
Don’t understand the round robin format , I thought it was one eliminated and two semis but commentary I’m sure mentioned a final spot for whoever finished top ?
Believe we play every team and only one team gets eliminated. Top 4 play in the semi final. Gives a great change for players to play multiple games in a Mayo shirts pity it not the same for the U20s level
Whoever tops the round robin group is in the final. Then a playoff between 2nd and 3rd to see who joins them
That’s how it was in 2019 anyway unless it’s been changed
Great win with 14 men. My streaming feed kept freezing. Very frustrating
Wide Ball, correct, that’s the format for this year.
For those on here who give out about Horan and Sheridan, try management of even a junior club team and then comment.
It wasn’t Sheridans fault that we conseeded 2 soft goals at the end.
My heart goes out to the goalie. Hope he puts it behind him and remember all the other team players make plenty of mistakes but the poor goalie is in a lonely place re mistakes.
Hurley wasn’t named on the starting team, where is he from
Jr
Claremorris
So many good young players came out of Claremorris to fade away. I wish the lad luck.
I don’t think Claremorris were in a final since 1978 and were roaring favourites but beaten by 1 point by Castlebar
I remember Yeats later listening to Tic Higgins on Mid West Radio talking about the game
As he went to his corner forward position he met his opponent Niall ó Shea who shook his hand and wished him a nice game.
Tic sald this young fellow is a dork an I will clean him out
The first ball that came in oShea sprinted past him and gave him an elbow in the face, oShea got man of the match.
Fair play to Tic for telling the tale, not winning a county final was his biggest regret he said.
Good win for Mayo tonight looking like a semi final/play off on the cards against Roscommon again but this time in Castlebar.
Galway looking like All-Ireland contender 7-31 in two games. The Connacht finalists has All-Ireland quarter finals this year.
God these formats are ridiculous, the obsession with play off s and finals in league format is a complete nonsense . You have a league format in your province to qualify two teams into qf yet you need to have a provincial final when the prize is the same for both sides . It’s the same with the national league , why bother with a final , top team should win the league, sin e .
@sean Burke I don’t mind it at minor level.
It’s good that all county minor players in Connacht get 4 games as a minimum. Thats enough time for young lads to develop and evolve their game substantially at an age where rapid development is very possible.
It a bit different at senior level where guys are far more established and the chances of finding a diamond in the rough are much smaller.
An u17 player could go from being not even in the panel at all 2 weeks before game one, to being brought in and dominating over 4 games to a point where the might be a top 3 player in the team by the end of game 4.
For example, I believe (without knowing much about the setup) that Niall Hurley has emerged from the pack in a big way over the first couple of games to be a key member of the team.
That how we will find and develop players for higher levels later on.
If our u17 team plays 6 or 7 championship games this year which seems likely, it will be much better for Mayo football longer term than if they’d been knocked out of the competition after one match.
I used to be obsessed with Mayo winning titles at underage level but now I’m far more interested in how well our players are developing at those age groups.
Yeah it’s nice to win minor titles. But Tommy Conroy and Ryan o D came through two of the worst Mayo minor teams to play championship football in many years, so it’s not the be all and end all.
Interesting to hear that about Niall Hurley. I’d seen or heard it somewhere before but can’t remember if it was here on the blog or on the match commentary.
Glancing at his history for over the years it’s even more surprising. Captained the dominant Claremorris u16 side hitting 9 points in the final against Mitchels, came on for the u18 final (along with 5 others from that u16 side, Rio Mortimer and Paul Gilmore even starting for the 18s) while still u16, back in 2019 coming on as a sub for a Claremorris u16 final against Davitts and scoring a goal, prominent in Mayo’s historic Kennedy Cup final appearance in ’19 too (notable one of the goals that beat them that day scored by Kevin Zefi now of Inter Milan) and looking to show very well in Coleman’s Connacht run only beaten by a very strong Jarlath’s team.
As a total outsider that only did a little googling out of curiosity it looks like the core of that minor team have been playing together fairly consistently, regardless of the code, since they were u12 or so and Niall a prominent figure throughout. That said, when you see Darragh Beirne hitting 5 points in that u16 final, playing in the u18 final too and not on the current minor panel (no idea if that’s injury, eligibility or simply selection related) it’s possibly still a very fair description.
Still a fan of seeing the lads doing well at underage though myself, at least when we can.
I’d have to imagine there’s nothing like some big game experience, be it success or failure, to help drive (at least some) folks on. Notable that Ryan had an incredible run at center forward helping his UL side to their first Sigerson final which I’d imagine didn’t do any harm together with his Irish Schoolboy caps in soccer before switching back to GAA for minor year. Tommy managed to win an All Ireland with Ballinrobe CS, where Oisín was prominent too. With both of the lads featuring well for the u20 side that were just pipped at the post in the final against a Jimmy Hyland inspired Kildare side. Tends to be a decent correlation between performing well underage (not necessarily All Ireland wins) and the lads pushing through to senior.