Mayo Minor girls set for another tilt at Connacht

HOW bizarre it was that the Mayo Minors won four games by a combined margin of 57 points only to see their season ended by a Galway team that they’d beaten in Dunmore a few weeks previously. 

Mayo made one of the all-time great comebacks in the second half of that Connacht final. But not even that was enough to compensate for a devastating first half from Galway, who were duly crowned Connacht champions.

How good were that Mayo team? So good that eight of that panel - Róisín Dyar, Riona Jordan, Charlie Reilly Benson, Siomha McNulty, Bree Hession, Suzanne Tuohy, Sarah Carney and Kayla Doherty - were called up to the Mayo seniors within months.

How good are they this year? Well they’ve six of the team that started the Connacht final, for starters, plus nine of the U-16 team that got to last year’s All-Ireland A final.

The format for this year’s Connacht championship remains the same. The five counties will compete in a round-robin group, with the top two contesting a do-or-die provincial final.

Mayo are highly likely to clear the first hurdle with feet to spare when Leitrim come to Charlestown this Wednesday.

Despite carrying knocks to Eimear Collins (ACL), Larissa Kelly (hamstring), Kate Brennan (ankle), Lucy Molloy (ankle), Sarah Dempsey and Ava Mai Casey (hand), Mayo will boast a strong team of proven winners under the unseasonal spring sunshine.

Brennan - if available - will feature prominently at wing-back as team captain, as will All-Ireland school title winners Emma Higgins, Ashleagh Sammon, Isobel Phillips (Claremorris), Lily Hession (Hollymount) and Anna Roche (Davitts). Kayla Doherty - who featured in all but one of the Mayo seniors’ Division 1 games - will have progressed leaps and bounds from being blooded at senior intercounty level.

Hannah Breslin (Knockmore), Anna Mai Regan (Kilmovee Shamrocks) and Kate Morrison (Louisburgh), who did not feature for the Mayo U-14s or U-16s, have also been added to a panel that features representatives from 18 clubs.

Mayo are again managed by Burrishoole’s Brian McLoughlin, who takes the team for a second season alongside brother-and-sister Tom and Michelle McGing and new additions Hannah Davison (Female Liaison Officer) and Lahardane native John McDonnell (coach).

“We’re so grateful that the parents are fully behind it, making our job so easy,” McLoughlin told The Mayo News.

The 2025 Mayo Minor girls football team is as follows: Sarah Heaney, Muireann Nolan (Balla), Mailaidh Lavelle (Belmullet), Doireann Guilfoyle, Grace McDonnell (Burrishoole), Cliodhna Dowling, Shauna Heneghan (Carnacon), Castlebar Mitchels (Lucy Molloy), Cliona Cullean, Ava Mai Casey (Charlestown), Emma Higgins, Ashleagh Sammon, Isobel Phillips (Claremorris), Anna Roche (Davitts), Lily Hession (Hollymount), Emer Collins, Bairbre Moffat, Caoilfhionn Tighe (Kilmoremoy), Anna Mai Regan (Kilmovee Shamrocks), Hannah Breslin, Sarah Dempsey (Knockmore), Kate Morrison (Louisburgh), Kayla Doherty (MacHale Rovers), Kate Byrne (Moy Davitts), Rhona Brennan (Swinford Kilasser), Kate Brennan, Kayla Hughes, Ali Hughes (The Neale), Larissa Kelly, Aoife Meaney (Westport).

FIXTURE

CONNACHT LGFA MINOR CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 1

MAYO V LEITRIM

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, FR O’HARA PARK, CHARLESTOWN AT 7PM.