Connacht Club Championships 2018

[Rossfan]

Fíordhta v An Spidéal Tuam 1.30 next Sunday.

[Duine Eile]

Was in Galway today. What's Liam Mellows' catchment area? Seems big to me. Rahoon as far as where?

The city is a bit of a free for all when it comes to GAA clubs, Tadhg Haran plays hurling for Mellows and football for Salthill even though St. James would be the football team on the east side covering th same area as Mellows. Plenty of overlap between Salthill and St Michaels too, or poaching some might call it!

[GalwayBayBoy]

Was in Galway today. What's Liam Mellows' catchment area? Seems big to me. Rahoon as far as where?

No Rahoon is covered by Rahoon/Newcastle in hurling and St Micheal's in football. Mellows would be Renmore and Mervue on the east side and into the city centre through Bohermore/Ballybane and into Woodquay in the centre. Vast majority of the players would be Renmore/Mervue I imagine. One of their best players is Tadgh Haran though. He's from Salthill but they are only junior in hurling so if you are good hurler from there or a few other places in the city you probably have to transfer to one of the other city clubs playing at a higher level.

[seafoid]

Was in Galway today. What's Liam Mellows' catchment area? Seems big to me. Rahoon as far as where?

No Rahoon is covered by Rahoon/Newcastle in hurling and St Micheal's in football. Mellows would be Renmore and Mervue on the east side and into the city centre through Bohermore/Ballybane and into Woodquay in the centre. Vast majority of the players would be Renmore/Mervue I imagine. One of their best players is Tadgh Haran though. He's from Salthill but they are only junior in hurling so if you are good hurler from there or a few other places in the city you probably have to transfer to one of the other city clubs playing at a higher level.

I presume  Liam Mellowes are named after Dún uí Mhaolíosa, the Army barracks in Renmore

[Blowitupref]

Junior final half time, the Sligo champions in control. Easkey 1-8 Clonbur 0-2

[Orchard park]

Good to see Sligo football this strong

[Blowitupref]

15 mins to play. Easkey 1-10 Clonbur 1-5

[Blowitupref]

Full time Easkey 1-11 Clonbur 1-10. Some comeback by the Galway men, 1-8 without reply then Easkey kicked the winner in the 3rd minute of injury time. First Sligo Connacht Junior winner since St Johns in 1999.

[An Fhairche Abu]

Congrats to Easkey, best of luck in the Junior All Ireland semi final.
Fairly gutting way to lose on the last kick of the game for the Clonbur lads having got all the way back to a draw score.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Sounded like a mental game. Easkey 11 points up and Clonbur kick 1-8 without reply and Easkey then kick the winning point with the last kick of the match. Tough on Clonbur losing two finals this year.

[sligoman2]

Sounded like a mental game. Easkey 11 points up and Clonbur kick 1-8 without reply and Easkey then kick the winning point with the last kick of the match.

Great comeback by Clonbur I thought Easkey had blown it, then according to ocean fm McKenna scored an believeable point against the wind from almost the sideline.  Hard luck Clonbur but great to see some silverware coming to sligo.  I'd say there will be some pints sank in Easkey tonight.

[GaillimhIarthair]

Congrats to Easkey, best of luck in the Junior All Ireland semi final.
Fairly gutting way to lose on the last kick of the game for the Clonbur lads having got all the way back to a draw score.

Hard to the Clonbur lads, sounded like a great comeback and just undone by a wonderful score to win it for Easkey.  Tough few for that panel of players. 

[Owenmoresider]

Congrats to Easkey on the win, they looked to have blown it from such a good position but credit to them for digging it out at the end. Connacht titles are rare so it's good to see them do it, hopefully they can give the All-Ireland a rattle now.

Good to see Sligo football this strong

In reality it isn't. Obviously the game took a slightly different course after you posted but in any case it isn't. Easkey are an anomaly in that they were in Junior to start with, they were senior two years ago and a bit unlucky to get relegated, and then last year it went badly wrong on them and they went down again. They coasted through the Junior and even though we put it up to them in the final they never really looked like being beaten. If they were in intermediate this year they could easily have reached the last four if not more, were near the top of Division 2 in the league this year.

So Easkey's win is great news but it doesn't mean that we are on the up as a whole. Next year it'll be ourselves or St Michael's coming out of the county and neither will offer the same challenge as Easkey have. Shamrock Gaels did win their first round tie but were well beaten by Fuerty, and Tourlestrane failed at the first hurdle once again, a bit unlucky it being the Mayo champions each time but if it was Corofin....The overall standard of club football in Sligo is imo far poorer than it was over a decade ago, back then you had a few teams that could be competitive in Connacht, Harps beat Corofin and Ballagh, Curry beat Ballina and were close v Caltra and Brigids, indeed Calry beat Breaffy in intermediate too. Teams like Coolera and indeed Easkey were stronger as well, the town had Mary's and John's who could be brilliant or brutal year on year but at least were contenders, and even smaller clubs like Bunninadden, Ballymote, Castleconnor asked plenty of questions of the leading teams on their day. And while the present Tourlestrane team are the best team in the county by a distance, I'm not convinced that team is better than the one of O'Hara, McGowan, Durkin etc. of that era. I'd be interested in Mano and sligoman2's thoughts on that though.

[stephenite]

Great to see Easkey win, they were always a go to challenge game for us at underage (and likewise for them I'm sure).

Good old Muredeachs stock on the line too

[Blowitupref]

Half time in the intermediate Connacht final An Spideal 1-9 Fuerty 0-7.  First score of the game was a Spideal goal in the 1st minute. Fuerty down to 14 straight red