We’ve named our starting team and subs for tomorrow evening’s Connacht U17 football Championship Round 1 clash with Leitrim. The match throws in at James Stephens Park at 7pm tomorrow evening and here’s the full match panel (of 34 players) we’ve named for it.
Mayo (Connacht U17 Championship v Leitrim, 22/4/2022): David Dolan (Balla); Rio Mortimer (Claremorris), John MacMonagle (Castlebar Mitchels), Lorcan Silke (Westport); Liam Maloney (Cill Chomáin), Colm McHale (Bohola Moy Davitts), Paul Gilmore (Claremorris); Jack Keane (Hollymount/Carramore), Luke Feeney (Ballina Stephenites); Cathal Keaveney (Parke/Keelogues/Crimlin), Dylan Gallagher (Davitts), Diarmuid Duffy (Ballinrobe, joint captain); James Maheady (Crossmolina Deel Rovers), Ronan Clarke (Bohola Moy Davitts, joint captain), Niall Hurley (Claremorris). Subs: Conor Meaney (Westport), Conor Lydon (Garrymore), Eavan Cosgrove (Kiltimagh), Oliver Armstrong (Knockmore), Rory Conway (Ballycroy), Tom Lydon (The Neale), Oisín Cronin (Balla), Seán O’Dowd (Kilmovee Shamrocks), Dara Hurley (Claremorris), Jack Prendergast (Ballintubber), Luca Duggan (Ballina Stephenites), James Noonan (Westport), Zac Collins (Islandeady), Ciaran Murphy (Westport), Patrick Flannelly (Castlebar Mitchels), Conor Kelly (Kilmeena), John Finn (Mayo Gaels), Darragh Hoban (Westport), Adam Boukioud (Bohola Moy Davitts).
Tomorrow evening’s game is the start of the round-robin phase of this year’s U17 provincial Championship and Mayo are in action in the competition on each of the next four Friday evenings. Oisín McGovern has a good piece in this week’s Mayo News featuring U17 manager Seán Deane and his hopes for the campaign – that’s here.
Tickets for tomorrow evening’s game are available to purchase here. The match is also being streamed live by Connacht GAA (€10 PPV) – link for that here.
Best of luck to Seán and the lads as their major Minor adventures over the coming weeks get underway.
Rio Mortimer?
Is there a connection with Conor, Kenneth, Trevor there?
Yes Rio is Kenny”s son. Plays with Claremorris and was part of the U16 and U18 county A title winning teams last year. Claremorris very strong at underage in last few years and now reflected in the U17 county squad and narrowly missed out retaining their U18 title recently losing narrowly in the county semi to Moy Davitts who went on to secure that title.
That’s some spread with 12 clubs represented in the first 15, and a further 10 clubs in the fairly extensive subs list. 22 clubs from 34 players is some going.
Best of luck to the lads.
When Dylan Gallagher was 8 I told him I’d be watching him playing for mayo in time to come. Looking forward to seeing him and also hear good things about Tom Lydon and Conor Lydon both on the subs.
Well if Rio is half as good as his dad, we’ll have a great corner back in time to come.
Thanks for all the info wj. Lets hope they gel well together and play a watchable brand of football.
There has been a lot of talk about Ronan Clarke as a standout player at this age group at full forward. Hopefully it’s true! Great to see a good spread of clubs alright. I wonder if many of these guys are still u16?
Larry duff
Ronan clarke is a special special player and was a talented soccer player aswell
That inside forward line as a whole looks very dangerous
Diarmuid duffy was midfield last year so i am surprised to see him moved this year but one to watch for sure
Midfield is very physically strong
Lorcan silke started for the minors last year as did 2 of the inside forwards clarke and maheady+Wing forward duffy
Thought personally paul gilmore would be more suited to a wing forward position but lets see how he gets on
Rio mortimer is under 16 as is evan cosgrove
It’s hard to believe that there is not a single player from the Belmullet or Kiltane clubs on the U-17 or U-20 squads.
Best of luck to the U17s against Leitrim and please, please, please, win or lose, let us see an adventurous, exciting, direct brand of football and no more of that woeful stuff that we had to endure watching the U20’s.
@carraig dubh it’s entirety believable that there is no player from kiltane on the panel. They have been toiling away in B & C championships at underage level in north Mayo for some time now, and I think are even amalgamated with Ballycroy at most underage grades.
The recent podcast that was shared here a few months back about the demographics of national school children in Mayo painted a pretty stark picture of the future prospects for clubs like kiltane.
There’s a young lad from neighbouring Kilcommon on the starting 15 and a Conway lad from Ballycroy in the subs (a famous Ballycroy footballing name actually, it’s fantastic to see a Ballycroy player on a Mayo minor team it’s a rare sight in recent years) so I doubt there is any anti Erris conspiracy at play here in fairness.
@ larry duff I think because a team is playing B and C championship could be more to do with numbers of players instead of the quality of players maybe mayo football isn’t looking enough at lower levels including in adult teams and that is part of our problems.
In fact as referenced above claremorris have the highest (4) representatives on the panel and they were playing u17 b last year and were in fact bet in the final by Eastern Gaels. Surprised there is no one from that Gaels team as they seemed to have some smashing forwards and as far as I’m aware some of the claremorris 4 lads were not even starting on that team
Good luck to the U17s tonight, forward line for once looks exciting especially the full forward line. Ronan Clarke stood out last year and expecting a lot from him. Hopefully we play a good brand of football and get the ball in early to him and he will do damage.I saw a U16 team sheet form a end of 2021 tournament win only 1 of the 6 defenders remain so hopefully they have a settle unit now. Looking forward to seeing Colm Mchale at Centre half back younger brother of Cian from our U20s.
Great to see the strong representation from all over the County. This panel has been traning since April 2021..when sport restared post covid shut down, and since then all this group played divisional county U16 cup and county U16 tournaments through to end 2021 with the U16 academy before Sean Deane’s managment team took them over in Jan 2022. Also the robin this year guarntees the lads a min of 5 championship games over next 2 months which is much better than knockout at this age….plently to look forward to as it looks like the Connacht U17 championship will be very competitive judging on the Colleges games at this age group over the winter.
@blondie
Erris st pats are the club from kiltane and Ballycroy and there is a lad on the panel from their team.
I’m normally the first to put the boot into Mayo underage setups for picking lads from the same clubs, but I don’t think we can complain too much looking at the spread of clubs on this occasion.
And of course there will be less players from clubs in B and C competitions. If castlebar Mitchell’s for example have 300 young lads in their catchment at a given
Age group and a rural club like kiltane has 20 or 25 in the same age group, but each club only has one team the kids can play on, what does that say about how it’s all structured?
I have long felt that we need another gaa club in the town of castlebar, and probably Westport too. Hundreds of kids in these towns that might be slower developers are not getting opportunity to play underage football and are lost to other sports. There are 6 gaa clubs in Tralee and two in castlebar. Is Tralee theee times the size of castlebar though? No it isn’t. Likewise Killarney has about 5 gaa clubs.
@blonde11. This is a 2022 U17 age group lads playing 17b or C last year are mostly overage. Claremorris won the U16A last year so it is reflected in their selections. Moy Davitts have 3 players on the panel and all 3 where part of the spine of their recent U18A win. The actual management has strong Kiltane, Coll Chomain and Belmullet connections so if the players where there they would have been selected. Also would like to point out the Shea O Donoghue “Ryan’s younger brother” Bellmullet was also part of the U20 panel this year
Was surprised that Owen Mchale wasn’t involved but this may have been down to the player himself. The only player that I was surprised wasn’t part the the U17 panel was Peter Gallagher Mayo Gael’s “Adams younger brother” who had a great year for St Colman’s senior team this year.
Agree Mayo Messi – I believe Owen McHale withdrew from the u20 panel for some reason this year.
You mentioned Mayo Gaels – why was Ethan Henry not involved? I can’t believe he wasn’t considered good enough. He was centre half forward on the intermediate county champions just a few months ago. Was an All Stat at national level as an u17 three years ago.
How could he have fallen so far back to not even make the Mayo u20 panel this year then?
I’ve never seen a more low key build up to a Mayo/Galway championship game in my life.
@larryduff. Ethan Henry was with the panel at the games but not the match day panel. Mind-boggling. Senior team announced cillian starts Ryan 11 and Oisín 3 unless I’ve been sent a fake line-up
I belive Henry is injured. Was with u20 panel v galway.was there on bench.
Interesting game from the minors. Plenty of positives to take away, some great individual performances, and plenty to work on too. 3rd quarter there was a lot of silly mistakes, handling errors and poor distribution at a time Leitrim were busting a gut to get back into the game that Deane will hope to iron out of them before next week. That said, when you’ve slipped 7 or 8 clear it’s hard to keep the foot to the floor so very understandable stuff.
My first look at Rio Mortimer and he lived up to the reputation. Some incredible interceptions. Seldom see defending look so exciting and looks an outstanding prospect for the future. Never would have guessed he was giving up a year to others, hardy fella along with all the skill.
Ronan Clarke another that lived up to the hype. Real touch of class at times. A couple of misses he’ll be kicking himself over but kicking into an awkward wind it’s to be expected. The link up play between he and Niall Hurley, who was exceptional at times – Hurley looked to be the one who’d open the defense in the first half, was a joy to watch.
Cathal Keaveney and Diarmuid Duffy covered every blade of grass in Ballina. Powerful work by both causing headaches for Leitrim at both ends of the pitch. Very impressive stuff. Along with John MacMonagle at the back who seemed to turn up with the ball every time it entered the Mayo third late in the second half. Subs made a nice impact off the bench too which I’d imagine will delight management, Lydon probably the pick of the bunch there.
Got opened up through the middle and gave up a lot of primary and secondary ball in the middle more often than they’d have liked but only after they’d taken the foot off the gas. Did more than enough to win the game well and nice to see some flashes of brilliance across the field, definitely potential there. Look forward to seeing how they go against the likes of Galway and Roscommon.
@tsudhonim thanks for the minor report. I didn’t get to see it. Do you know was it Lydon from the neale (as opposed to Lydon from garrymore) who came on as sub? I heard good things about him
@No doubt, both came on and both did well but one of the two made some fantastic bursts down the left flank that caught the eye a little more. Right place at the right time type of thing, but had the talent to make it count.
I think it was Tom from The Neale… but my memory could be skewed from the commentary meandering off about Tommy Conroy after one of Tom’s possessions making the name more memorable for me. Both certainly looked there or thereabouts and running the bench didn’t look to weaken us at all so imagine plenty of competition for places on the remaining games.
Good stuff. Thanks
Was second guessing myself so went back and checked the video. It was Tom alright.
One incredible passage where he went past about four of them on a mazy run down the left touchline before cutting inside past another one or two. Type of stuff that inspires a team. Ended up hitting the shot off balance with his right, missing it a little to the right, rather than laying it off to Clarke so technically the wrong call but he did exceptionally well to get us out of defense never mind creating the chance in the manner he did. Says a lot when the instant comparison from the commentary was Conroy.
Was nice to see Ronan give him a congratulatory slap for the amazing run and decent effort rather than moaning about not getting the pass. Seemed like solid leadership there too (from both he and Duffy at different times) which was nice to see.