Photo: Western People
It’s big ball stuff on a wall-to-wall basis right now but it’d be remiss not to give a mention to the county’s U21 hurlers who have a huge day ahead of them tomorrow. This comes in the form of the All-Ireland U21 B final against Meath at the cathedral of hurling, Semple Stadium in Thurles, where throw-in is set for 3pm. It’s the curtain-raiser to tomorrow evening’s U21 A final between Waterford and Galway and it’ll be broadcast live on TG4.
Meath are sure to be a tough nut to crack tomorrow. The Royals ended our hopes in this competition last year at the semi-final stage and while they lost last year’s decider to Wicklow they got revenge on the Garden County in this year’s quarter-final, thumping them by 1-22 to 0-12. The young Royals then racked up another big score in seeing off Kerry, by 1-21 to 1-12, in the semi-final.
Our lads have played three games to reach this year’s Richie McElligot Cup decider. The first one was a Connacht final against Roscommon, which we won decisively by 3-20 to 1-8, and this was followed by a narrow 0-8 to 0-6 quarter-final win over Kildare at Newbridge early in August. Then it was the Rossies again in the semi-final last month at MacHale Park, which was a far tighter contest that was eventually won courtesy of an injury-time point from Zac O’Toole on a scoreline of 0-13 to 2-6.
A few points are noteworthy about our bunch of young hurlers. The first is that All-Ireland hurling honours are nothing new to them as many of the team that’ll line out in Thurles tomorrow already have Minor C medals in their possession. As a group, they’re used to excelling at national level and it’s great to see this level of performance being maintained at U21.
The second is that, for a number of the lads, the All-Ireland medal count is becoming an impressive one. As well as those Minor honours that most of the lads have, six of tomorrow’s panel also featured in the senior hurling squad that won the Nicky Rackard Cup earlier in the summer. In addition, three of these lads – Aghamore duo David Kenny and Fergal Boland as well as Morgan Lyons from Ballyhaunis – won U21 medals with the footballers back in May. Three All-Ireland medals bagged in one year sure would be one hell of an achievement.
In this regard there’s a good feature on David Kenny on the GAA website today – here. The Aghamore player also featured in a quickfire question piece in this week’s Mayo News – here.
By the way, in case you think I’ve suddenly become an expert in underage hurling within the county, think again – the bulk of that info above comes from my reading of the excellent preview of tomorrow’s final by Mark Higgins in this week’s Western People. If you want to get some good in-depth background on the team ahead of tomorrow’s decider then you should get your hands on the paper.
Best of luck to the lads tomorrow as they aim for further hurling glory with the county.
Keep it going lads, ye can do this!
Great memories for me 1967 v Westmeath!
Maigheo Abu
I wish the hurlers the very best. It must be difficult being hurlers in mayo at the best of tims but this week even more so.
A few years ago I was one of the ‘Mayo 4’ at a Christy Ring QF in Arklow (2 were mothers and I and another man had traveled from Dublin). In a local paper a player was quoted ‘There may only have been 4 but they made a lot of noise’
If I was in Ireland I’d be there to cheer. Bring the cheer and the Green and Red to support them.
Best of luck Mayo hurlers. I have read Fergal Boland is going for his 3rd All Ireland this year having already bagged the u-21 football and Rackard cup win. What an achievement.
From what I read, Yew Tree, the three of them – Fergal, David Kenny (good Aghamore lads, both!) and Morgan Lyons – are looking to win their third All-Ireland medals of the year tomorrow. I’m not sure about the other two but David also has a minor medal from 2013, which is pretty phenomenal going.
Kenny and boland are also still in the running for a senior club double too with Aghamore and Tooreen!
Best of luck to all the squad tomorrow, they deserve our support!
Best of luck to the Mayo hurlers, it would be great to get another AllIreland into the county just before the big show on the 18th. Well done to be even in the position to challenge given the small numbers playing the game in Mayo, the likes of these showings will grow the game in the county. Hup Mayo
Go Mayo…set a marker for the rest to follow…Maigheo go deo…super achievements by our hurlers and each and every team that stands up for us…makes me feel a lot of pride…Thank you Mayo men and women…
Up the hurling,win tomorrow,and set us up for the eighteenth
The very best of luck to David and the lads today.
Ye’ve brought hurling to an almighty
level in the county. So proud of ye.
Jaysus Paddy Power only have Meath at 1/10! They must be serious operators at this level. It’s a wonder they’re not in the “A” Championship with Kerry, who they beat?
I hope the odds are more down to the names than form though. Am tempted to back Mayo for the craic, under 21 B hurling is surely anything but predictable. You’d never know ha
Good lluck lads!
Hard luck lads, you put it up to them but in the last 5 mins they pulled away. you do desreve credit for the way you’ve represented your county and the very best for the future.
MaighEo Abú
Hard luck guys
Hold yere heads high. Gave it the very best.
Thanks for giving us great hurling in Mayo.
Tough ending after a great performance. They did the county proud. Good also to see a decent number of supporters there; we had almost as many as Galway. I wasn’t impressed by the Waterford supporters who stood chatting as they came in and blocked my view while ignoring B Final. A little respect needed for weaker counties!
Well done Mayo u21. Fought back bravely to level the match after an early goal. Indeed levelled it on a couple of occasions. Overtaken at the end by a stronger team. Mayo represented well today.