Your county - Reflections on 2013 / Hopes for 2014

[macdanger2]

So how was 2013 for your county and what do you aspire to in 2014?

Mayo 2013:
Great win for the minors, brilliant to be in Croker for it
Great to be in Croke Park in August / September, hard to beat it
Another winnable All Ireland let slip
Happy to have retained Division 1 status
Good to have Horan stay on for one more year

Mayo 2014:
Uncover the next Gooch
Four in a row in Connacht
Finally win that elusive All Ireland (if Mayo don't win it, I'd fancy Donegal)
Castlebar to win the Club AI
Win one of the U-21 or Minor titles
Horan to stay on for the two-in-a-row

[Syferus]

2013

BRIGIDS BRIGIDS BRIGIDS BRIGIDS AI AI AI AI AI
Ahem. The Cross and Ballymun games will go down in Roscommon GAA folklore and even the crazy Connacht final takes nothing away from the year that Brigids' and Roscommon supporters' dream became reality. A Roscommon team climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand. Wonderful and unforgettable.

U21: Suffered a gutting loss in the Connacht final this year, themselves and Galway perhaps were the two best sides in the country this year.

Minors: Grew into men as the season lurched into August, finally sorting out their defence in the de-construction of a very fancied Kildare side in the AIQF. We played all the football against Tyrone and under the new black card rules would have absolutely got a second shot at Mayo in AI final. Hard not to love that minor team and how they responded this season. Plenty of very good individual prospects to boot.

Seniors: Got two games in the championship, losses against the losing AI finalists and losing AI semi-finalists respectively. Mayo far superior over that game but Tyrone were there to be taken if we had a little more belief. Overall Evans has cleared out the bad tidings that existed after 2012 and young players showed signs of adapting to senior.


2014

U21: We have a huge game against Mayo in March and we have perhaps our most talented panel in living memory at the grade in 2014. If it all comes together it could be a season to remember but we could just as easily be done in one.

Minors: The lads have to beat a good Leitrim team in Pairc Sean to return to the Connacht final for the bazilionth time in bazilion and one years. Fergie and Mark Dowd look to be on board again so with those bucks on the sideline we can be safe in knowing our lads will be well prepared and well-grounded.

Senior? Get the f**k out of D3.

[Rossfan]

2013
-fcuked up at U21 , got a lot out of a middlin minor team , Seniors - progress made from a low base but we blew it big time v Tyrone. St Brigid's are a club team and while it was great to see them win they're not my club so it was only a 2 day bandwagon for me ( unlike certain buickíns).
2014 - 
Seniors- Hope to get out of D3, Bate Layhtrum and give Mayowestros a run for their money in Connacht. Hopefully draw a new team if we end up in the Qualifiers and maybe get to Round 4 anyway.
U21s - all depends on our 1st game after which either we or them will be moaning over the lack of a back door  or proudly marching on. Too close to call but I wouldn't be so Syferian about how talented we are.
Minors - will be disappointed if we don't make the CF/AIQF. however we've had 2 poor U16 teams  while the Lathrums have had their best in a while so unless Fergie can improve them as he can we could have a very short campaign.

[cluaineois]

2013
Kings, Queens, princes and princesses of ulster football. not bad couldn't of dreamed of that at the start of the year. Throw in nfl div 3, beating caavan out of ulster can it get much better ?

2014
Build on 2013
all-star for Dessie Moen [even for the ability to wind up two tyronies at the same time] priceless

[Fuzzman]

2013
Happy we made it to the semis after a good long run of matches

2014
Heineken Cup

[larryin89]

2013...
            A fantastic year of Mayo GAA.

Minors, all Ireland champions, what more can ya do? Brilliant year, some great players, hopefully some will make it into the senior set up in the future and for a welcome change it's the ff line that excited us the most about this team.

Under 21... Was really disappointed to lose out to Galway in the opener in this grade, still believe it was an excellent side   Cillian, Coen, Regan,Adam Gallagher to name a few of the excellent players. Should be a second shot at 21 level, one game  and you're gone is bollix

Seniors. Despite not winning it when we could of taken advantage of a Dublin team that didn't play well on the day, it was a very enjoyable year as a supporter. The Donegal game was savage  we just kicked the shit ou of everything green n gold that day.

Hopes for 2014  have changed for me  my impulsive reaction to losing to Dublin was, that's it , we've had our chance now, we'll not got another chance like that but Horan and the panel have proven me wrong with my uninformed attitude, they are determined and have a lot of balls this set up and will give it a right good crack again. Would love to see a couple of new faces though esp up front, Horan has said he is on the look out and will have no problem in bringing in new players. In fact in a recent interview wit Mayo news, he said, " if a player that comes in is showing the same level as a current player, it's the current player that will be dropped" .

Minors should be a decent outfit,  have a good lump of last years squad still age , u 16 teams last year showing well, u 17 team beat Galway a few weeks ago down in Kerry but lost heavily to Kerry in the final of the tournament . ( Have a hunch for Kerry next year in minor grade, JoC factor and seems to be a lot of concentration on development in last couple of years down there)

Under 21 s, again I believe we should have a fantastic team, Adam Gallagher, Conor o Se, Evan Regan (I think is still age) , p. Durcan, some of this years minors like Irwin , docherty Conroy, hall etc , then you have diarmud o Conor too . 2012 minors were robbed in semi v Meath .
I predict we will win Connacht , which is so competitive at this grade it's unbelievable how Ross and Galway can't produce anything at senior level.

[seafoid]

Galway

Fuball

u21s won the all Ireland. Felt sorry for Kildare, lily Leinster champions put to the sword AGAIN. There is that bit of uaisleacht in the maroon fuball jersey and it's great to see it in front of the country.  Became aware of Kildare's atrocious all tournaments  record.
Seniors got tanked by les rhubarbes but did well in the QFs and stopped the rot. Not a bad year. I thought one QF win would be decent.
Was very disappointed that Mayo didn't win Sam this year and it was probably the defining event of the GAA year for me.

It was class to walk around the Ros side of Athlone in May and see the Brigids all Ireland champions posters. 

Hurling

Normal service resumed. Couldn't believe the Clare match. Should have listened to Mouview.
Was delira to see the cats put to the sword but it took a good while to get over the Clare match.  The ould lad said Mattie Kenny was a big problem. Need a few scoring forwards too. Which team turns up. Tlaithuileacht as well an issue. But Clare won the all Ireland FFS. They had a few different gameplans. Surely Galway could manage that.
Minors and u21s were shite but the county had an embarrassment of riches in those grades over the last 30 years.


2014
Fuball - would be good to get promoted to D1. Not ready to beat Mayo but I think we might win an all Ireland before they do. GAA is cruel.

Hurling -I hope big Joe wins the celtic cross some day.   Low expectations next year. But anything could happen. I

Can't wait.

And the GAAboard is the best place to follow the games. 

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

2013
All-Ireland runners up second year running
Longest run in division 1, 1996 and counting
Minor All-Ireland Champions
Castlebar Mitchels County and Connacht Champions first time for either in 20 years
Carnacon ladies Club All-Ireland Champions
3 in a row Mayo are Senior Connacht Champions

2014
National Football League Champions
Mayo Senior All-Ireland Champions
4 in a row Connacht Champions
Minor and U-21 Connacht Champions
Castlebar Mitchels All-Ireland Champions

[Aristo 60]

Reflections on 2013

Injuries and emigration. Wobbled Donegal.

Hopes for 2014

Martin Clarke et al return. Zero injuries Jan - Oct.

Winners NFL Division 2

Ulster Champions (beating Antrim by 1 point in a dour final with commentators spouting that neither team will have any real part to play in the quest for Sam)

All Ireland Senior Football Champions (beating the pick of Tyrone and Armagh by 18 points in the final - yes - the two counties are forced to amalgamate during the year as both county boards wilt under bank and creditor pressure following huge folly expenditure and over generous payments to managers and players alike - a bit like the GAA's answer to NAMA - put all the sh1te into one!)

15 All Stars

Pitch invasion

Discovery mourne mountains are made of solid gold

Better ask for health and happiness for all my loved ones too!

[ONeill]

2013:

A good year. NFL final and a kick of a ball (or Stevie not standing on one) from the title. Good win in Dublin. A bit of a back-to-earther against Donegal but proved to be the best of the pack chasing Mayo and Dublin.

2014:

A Dublin, Donegal or Mayo SFC scalp.

[Lone Shark]

Offaly Football

2013

Getting out of division 4 was critical, and to do that after losing two of the first three games showed a bit of character. Subsequent results proved that our half decent showing against Kildare in Croker was maybe a little closer to quarter decent, and the showing in the qualifiers was shameful. Still, you have to walk before you can run, and division four is a horrible place to play ball. Not that much difference between D2 and D3, so happy to be where we are now.

The minors were expected to be quite ordinary and that first round win over Meath was remarkable. We were then steamrollered in Newbridge but to even get that far was a surprise.

U21 was a big disappointment, on several levels. We weren't good enough to beat a Kildare/Longford/Dublin team, but there was no excuse for losing that match to Laois. The predictability of it was the real killer - we played a man who was one of our best wingforwards/wingbacks last year as a marker and he struggled. We played another excellent hardworking middle third guy as a sweeper, and he was terrible at it. We picked a lazy sod in the half forward line and he did nothing while his direct opponent kicked two points and set up loads more, and we picked a keeper who's a great soccer goalie but is proven to be dodgy under the high ball. We lost two goals to high balls into the small square.

All that and we lost by a point - unforgivable.

2014

I genuinely, genuinely believe that there is feck all between the eight counties in Division three, so a good run could go a long way. That said, if you told me we finished 6th and got some good games, maybe getting results in three out of seven, I wouldn't be too disappointed. It's vital that we stick with guys who are going to stay the course - the decision to refuse to sign sanction forms for any player who plays in the championship until the team is knocked out proper is the right step and should yield a committed team - no more of this crack of calling up half a dozen guys to the panel in May, that's not fair to them or to the guys that are already there.

The championship draw is a good one. The atmosphere in Pearse Park for a game that will be there for the taking for both teams should be good and it's been too long since we've had a game like that. In fact it'll be eight years since we've been involved in a tight, competitive Leinster championship tie by the time the summer rolls around. That's daft and I'd bank on the Longford lads not to hammer us, but to be very decent all the same.

Next year's under-21 team is just middling, wouldn't expect much. Kildare hammered them in 2011 at minor, so little or no chance of coming through a quarter final even if we did beat Wexford.

Minor team could be decent though if everyone is on board. We've got a horrible draw in that - away to Kilkenny, meaning that when everyone else gets a tough game to find out their best team, we learn nothing and then go into straight knockout, which is very unfair. Luck of the draw admittedly, but it snookered us in 2012 and probably will again. I think the teams who play Kilkenny in the first round have lost nine out of eleven games next time out, or something similar.

Offaly Hurling

2013

This can't keep happening. We can't keep coming close, doing 80% of the work and then collapsing. We played well for quarters 1, 2 and 4 vs Kilkenny, and for 1,2 and 3 vs Waterford. Four quarters in either of those games and who knows? The window is narrowing for this group of players, because there is little or nothing coming up behind. They need to make something happen next year.

For us, 1B is the right league. All five games we played last year were decided by four points or less, so how could you complain about that? It'd be nice to make a run in the quarters though and it would be doubly nice to do our bit to feck it up on Cork, who have gerrymandered the whole thing. The game against the Pavarottis down there would be a wonderful one to win. If anyone other than us wins it, I hope it's Wexford after they showed a bit of steel when the whole "restructuring" debacle was ongoing.

The under-21s were moderately competitive last year, but it was the last half decent year we're going to have at any underage grade for a while. Those outside the county have no idea quite how rotten things are at underage in Offaly, we're on a par with Meath and Westmeath right now and probably behind Carlow. I'd say others are queuing up to overtake us as well.

2014

We need to win a SHC game against a meaningful opponent. Beating Kilkenny in Nowlan Park would do the job nicely, but that's probably a tough ask. It's hard to see us getting a better draw than Waterford at home, but we've got to take advantage of whatever draw we get either way.

At underage, we need a revolution, anything less just won't do.

[T Fearon]

2013

8 goals against Leitrim (on a glorious summer's day by the Shannon) and hammering Wicklow in the qualifiers were the only highlights.

Lowpoints were just about every other game in the League (with the draw away to Derry the exception) and Championship, whereas the club went right through the season unbeaten until the very last game ,which was the Armagh Intermediate Championship Final.

2014

Can only get better, though Division 2 will be mighty tough, and please God we don't come up against any giant teams like Derry. Good buzz about with Mc Geeney's return and hopefully this will manifest itself in terms of results and a season of real progress will ensue.

[moysider]

2013 was almost a dream year for us. McDanger 2 has fairly evaluated it above.
The final was again a disappointment - not just because we lost, but how we managed the game.

2014 will be interesting to say the least.

Minor and U21, God only knows. Last year our U21s were supposed to be vintage but were a disappointment. There was little optimism about our minors and they went out and won the pot and played some great stuff along the way. There may even a couple of lads that may play senior in that squad.

The reality is that any year we get our act together in these grades we're a contender.

Seniors need to stay in Div.1 and probably need to win Connacht again to make the end game in August/September.
How we go will depend on a few things I think. First we need a bit of luck with injuries and if lads that were injured, or still in recovery this year, like Dillon, Moran X2 and Cillian hit their top form we would be in rude good health.

Some bridges may have to be mended after some of the shenadigans around last year's final. Horan's man management skills will be tested I suspect. Already one of our better young prospects has declined to be involved for 2014. Even if we progress to the business end there is widespread scepticism locally that we would be able nail it tactically - regardless of the oposition.

[mylestheslasher]

2013 was a great year for Cavan in which we really made tremendous strides at senior level ahead of schedule I would say. The seniors with a young team had a mixed league and finished mid table, usually struggling when the U21 players were not available. However they destroyed Armagh and beat horrible Fermanagh and were eventually beaten by Marty Duffy in the Ulster semi final in what most rank as one of the worst refereeing displays (for and against both teams) of the year. Another easier defeat of Fermanagh was followed by  the highlight of the season in a wonderful contest with Derry in Celtic park. Fantastic feeling leaving that game. Beating London with a strong last quarter put us in the business end of the championship for the first time since 97. Alas we didn't really "go for it" in the game with Kerry, giving them far too much respect and were deservedly beaten. Great Year none the less.

Our U21's won their 3rd Ulster in a row beating Patrick McBrearty in the Final. This was the best of our teams and it was a real pity we couldnt get over the line against Cork in the Semi final, losing by 1 point and missing a last minute free to get to injury time. But the good news is some players from that team look to have serious class and will be excellent senior players if they keep going.

The minor team was very young this year and not much was expected but I think they gave their all winning two tight games against Fermanagh and Armagh before eventually losing a game by a small margin against eventual winners Monaghan. Much of the team are minor again next year.


Next year will be a difficult one for our seniors. It will be hard to live up to last years highs and a tough away draw to Armagh does not help. Its a 50:50 on the face of it, we may need to try and make progress in the back door. However, top priority must be to get out of Div 3 in the league which again has handed us 4 away trips and none of them easy. I'm hoping for promotion - 2/3 wins in the championship and then to set up an assault on Ulster for 2015.

U21's have another strong team but got a horror draw in Ulster. They still have the players to do it though. I'd love them to go all the way but it is a huge ask.

I think our minors could do some damage in Ulster this year but again it is so hard to predict.

The future though, whether next year or not, is blue!

[seafoid]

I was listening to this the other day . It reminded me of Mayo.
The last week in September must have been so sickening.
But the Galway hurlers lost in 85 and 86 before doing the biz the next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDyMFP6yzfk