Messages

To be honest when I tuned in to TG4 yesterday I was amazed to see Liam Devanney as the ref. Anytime I have seen Devanney in action in club games in Mayo he is blatantly biased towards the home team and overall is a poor ref. Any marginal calls yesterday went to St Bridgets. I take the various points about referring being a tough job but there has to be a certain standard especially for a big game like this.

Corofin had chances at the end to force extra time but no one wanted to take the responsibility. Best of luck to Bridgets against the London champs.

Looks like Conor Mort to Parnells.

[small]

That's a big honour for a small country club like ourselves.

Small? Wesport to Ballyglass is a fair stretch and ye have been know to extend yer borders on occasion 

[the odds on that one are long enough]

I dont know about that, it is one of the toughest things to do to win back to back titles, and in your only your 4th year playing senior after winning it for the first time in 100 years surely the odds on that one are long enough.

If you are offering to lay Ballintubber with those long odds I'll gladly snap your hand off

Gimmi a break StoneWall, most of those stats are from league games and we all know a lot of senior teams dont take the league seriously so its not a very accurate measurement IMO.

Anyway the big stats speak for themselves, as in Ballina have won 36 Mayo Senior Football Championships so they are the Goliath in the equation.

As Tyrone proved in the last ten years you don't have to have a history to be successful. League games or not winning is a great habit that breeds confidence and ye certainly have that winning culture at present. Correct me if I'm wrong but did ye not beat Ballina in the quarters last year? 36 titles in one hundreds years won't mean a thing once the ball is thrown in at the weekend (is the game Saturday or Sunday?).

Ballintubber have won 1 in the last 100 years so expecting 2 titles in a row is ambitious

I'd have thought that yer main goal at the beginning of the year was back to back titles with ambitions for Connacht?

Ballina are coming good at the right time and I think we could struggle with a couple of injuries so it kills me to give them the nod to be in the final.

The poor mouth card isn't going to work anymore abbeysider  . I was reading in the Mayo News that ye have won 40 of yer last 43 league and championship games. That's some record and winning culture. I expect it to continue until next February.

Senior final
Knockmore V Ballintubber

Intermediate final
Burrishoole V Parke (you can never rely on Davitts )

Junior final
The Neale V Ardnaree

I didn't think fishing season had opened yet Mike?!?! 

Peter Forde was captain in 1992 and followed by Kevin Beirne in 1993 according to wikipedia!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ford_(Gaelic_footballer)

So the correct list is:

1981 - Martin Carney
1985 - Henry Gavin
1988 - Dermot Flanagan
1989 - Jimmy Browne
1992 - Peter Forde
1993 - Kevin Beirne
1996 - Noel Connelly
1997 - Noel Connelly
1999 - Kenneth Mortimer
2004 - Fergal Costello/Gary Ruane
2006 - David Heaney
2009 - Trevor Mortimer
2011 - Alan Dillon

The following were the teams if it triggers anyone's memory...

FINAL: Roscommon 0-8 Mayo 1-12 (Hyde Park, 24/7/1988). MAYO: E Lavin; J Browne, M Collins, D Kearney; F Noone, D Flanagan (0-2 from frees), J Finn; TJ Kilgallon (0-1), S Maher; M Butler (0-1, a free), L McHale (0-1), N Durcan (0-1); T Reilly (1-1), T Morgan, M Carney (0-4). Subs: J Burke (0-1) for Morgan, WJ Padden for Carney.

Was it Frank Noone or Denis Kearney?

FINAL: Roscommon 0-7 Mayo 1-5 (Hyde Park, 25/7/1993). MAYO: G Irwin; K Beirne, K Cahill, D Flanagan; A McGarry, P Holmes, J Finn; L McHale, S Maher; K O'Neill (0-3, one a free), K Staunton (0-1), T Morley; N Durcan, R Dempsey (1-1), PJ Loftus. Subs: TJ Kilgallon for Finn, A Finnerty for Loftus, T Tierney for Morley.

Looks like Peter Butler played no part in 1993.

TJ Kilgallon one of the years?

I can't recall if he did or not. Dermot Flanagan also crossed my mind as being a winning captain. I'll have to go to the attic for the old programmes!

I think 1993 might have been Peter Butler (Knockmore won the county championship in '92) but he was injured, not sure who deputised.

I think Ballina won the championship in '87 so I presume it was a townie who was captain in '88 - McStay? Browne? McHale?

I thought it may have been Peter Butler in 1993 but not sure. I didn't think Mayo ever used the county champions captaincy rule?

Can anyone fill in the missing Mayo Connacht final winning captains?

1981 - Martin Carney
1985 - Henry Gavin
1988 -
1989 - Jimmy Browne
1992 - Kevin Beirne
1993 -
1996 - Noel Connelly
1997 - Noel Connelly
1999 - Kenneth Mortimer
2004 - Fergal Costello/Gary Ruane
2006 - David Heaney
2009 - Trevor Mortimer
2011 - Alan Dillon

[The whole thing smacks of a shambles and a story being made up as we are going along.

I have to agree Barney I have felt for the past few months that the management have been taking a very ad hoc approach and there is definitely an element of making it up as they go along. We've been leaking goals all during the league, challenge games and against London but nothing has been done to rectify this. The only area that is anyway settled is the forwards where we know that at least four starters i.e. Dillon, Moran, Doherty and Freeman. Lads being brought in, others being dropped (I see from the Mayo News that Cathal Hallinan is the latest to be let go). Geraghty, Mortimer and Ronaldson seem to have been brought in on the strength of Shrule/Glencorrib beating Ballintubber in a league game!

For what it's worth my starting team against Galway would be:

Clarke
Cunniffe
Cafferkey
Higgins
R Feeney
Vaughan
McLoughlin
McGarrity
Kilcullen
Moran
A O'Shea
Dillon
T Mortimer (Paul Galvin/Brian Dooher role)
Freeman
Doherty

The half back line would be my biggest worry. I selected Vaughan as I can't think of any one else besides Howley but he's not an option given past experiences. Both wing backs should be told to remain at home and defend.

Delighted to see Danny Geraghty starting in midfield - was excellent for Ballintubber there last year.

Is Ray Geraghty not U-21 this year. As far as I can remember he was on the minor team in 2008? He seems to have gone off the scene altogether, injured, emigrated?

Not too sure about Shane Nally midfield, didn't work out at all last year.

Jesus that was a team badly caught between two eras. Guys like Irwin, Finn, Maher, Fitzmaurice and Beirne going out with K Mort, Cahill, Holmes, Golding and Loftus coming in.

You have to remember there was a time when it was harder to get off the Mayo team than on it! Played a league game against Tony Morley once, over a pint afterwards I asked him was he still involved with Mayo. He sighed and said he was. He reckoned he'd spent the previous two seasons trying to get dropped (missing training, boozing etc.) but hadn't succeeded!

Setanta are showing highlights this evening at 5 and 8. Also showing tomorrow evening at 5:30.

http://www.setanta.com/ie/TV-Listings/