EDITORIAL: Shocks aplenty as Mayo GAA championship gathers momentum

It’s been a summer to forget weather-wise, but at least the sun shone over the weekend as huge crowds turned out to watch the Mayo GAA championship across the county.
As it stands, just three teams are guaranteed a place in the knockout stages of the senior championship after two rounds with the two favourites for the competition, Westport and Ballina, safely through from Group Two. They were joined by Breaffy from Group One, who impressively defeated west Mayo rivals Ballintubber at Clogher on Sunday.
The five-time county champions are now in grave danger of not making the knockout stages for first time since they returned to the senior ranks back in 2008, and they will be relying on Breaffy beating Aghamore if they can get past Kilmeena in round three.
The other two groups are very delicately poised: Ballaghaderreen are strong favourites to advance after two wins, and they will be hoping to secure top spot in Group 3 when they face Claremorris in round 3, while Knockmore will be fancied to also advance if they can account for bottom-of-the-table Belmullet.

All to play for
In the final senior group, Group 4, it’s still all very much all to play for after Ballyhaunis had a shock victory over Charlestown and Garrymore and Castlebar Mitchels played out a draw under the lights in south Mayo on Saturday evening.
Mitchels play Ballyhaunis in the final round, while Charlestown face Garrymore. All of the final-round games will be played at neutral venues.
This year, after a rule change, the winners of all four groups will have home advantage for the quarter finals, so there will be a lot on the line when the eight senior games take place over the weekend of September 13, 14 and 15.
It will be intriguing to see how it plays out when Ballina Stephenities and Westport clash to see who will top their group. The two sides are, as previously mentioned, already in the quarter finals – but will they really want to show their hand knowing they could well clash in either the semi-final or the final later in the competition?
The Intermediate championship has thrown up some spectacular games already this season, none more so than that played in Crossmolina on Saturday evening, when the home side lost out to Moy Davitts on a scoreline of 2-17 to 5-13.
Both sides will be still strongly fancied to go deep in the competition, and both should advance from Group One. Davitts and Hollymount Carramore are both guaranteed places in the quarter finals from Group Two, but all four teams are still in the hunt from Group Three, with Parke/Keelogues/Crimlin playing Kilmaine and Ballinrobe facing Kiltane.

Intriguing
The final group is intriguing, as all four teams are sitting on two points, with The Neale set to play Islandeady and Burrishoole up against Ardnaree.
It’s still all to play in the three Junior groups, but there was a big surprise in Group Two when last year’s beaten county finalists Shrule/Glencorrib exited the championship after suffering their third defeat at the hands of Ardagh.
Mayo GAA fanatics certainly made the most of the weekend, with many making use of the staggered timing of the games to take in three or four of the games over the course of the weekend. Mayo GAA TV also showed three live games, so there was plenty of action to keep the faithful entertained.
The venues for all those final rounds of games are likely to be announced during the week by the county board, and the games will be eagerly anticipated by all the clubs still involved in the three competitions.