Clubs take centre stageBALLINTUBBER begin the defence of their senior title on Sunday as the championship swings into action and club dreams come alive.
Complacency is what the holders must seek to avoid in their clash with Westport. For while the Covies are bottom of the league table, no journey by the best of teams to St Patrick’s Park is ever without worrying moments.
The champions and Castlebar Mitchels are, however, expected to survive the first round, the defeated finalists travelling to Aghamore with more apprehension than normal since emigration has begun to nibble at their core.
Knockmore go to Bangor Erris and are expected to be too good for emigration-hit Kiltane whose defenders Tony Gaughan and John Scanlon both starred for London last week.
No attraction, however, is greater that the battle at Charlestown between the local Sarsfields and neighbours Ballaghaderreen.
Reinvigorated Ballagh’ have been setting the pace in the league, and backboned by Mayo star Andy Moran, Barry Regan, and the Kilcullen brothers, James and David, they have nudged their way up among the contenders for the highest honours.
Time, to be sure, has lessened the old vitality with which Charlestown once roamed the county. Maturity and wisdom are now their chief characteristics.
And on their home ground the wily old Higgins brothers, Richard Haran, Enda Casey and Anthony Mulligan are still strong motivational material which Ballaghaderreen will find difficult to trump. They may do so, but it will be close.
John Maughan will tread warily on Garrymore turf. His Crossmolina, racked by injury and retirements, have been struggling to rise from the bottom of the league table, and the last place they would want for their first championship match is Garrymore¹s home ground.
They didn’t have Ciaran McDonald back for their bottom of the table clash with Charlestown. But he’ll be there for Sunday’s big joust, guiding and inspiring . . . an example for a host of young recruits.
Peadar Gardiner, Declan Keating, Gabriel Walsh, Joe Keane and Brian Benson are also likely to be in the line-out together with less mature members Stephen Duffy, Ronan Rochford, James Cafferkey, Mark Leonard and Ian Rowland.
But Garrymore’s belief on their home ground is greater than on any other.
They draw strength from the partisan attendance and reach a level of passion never lost on any visiting side.
They won’t win the championship this season, but led by marksman Jimmy Killeen and county star Enda Varley they could cause a few upsets.
Juniors can be proud of effort
IT is the poor relation, but in terms of spirit and honesty, there was a lot to commend the Connacht Junior Final on Friday evening.
It was tough and demanding, and only the fittest could have survived unscathed some of the bone-shaking tackles.
But though every ball was feverishly contested, it was a clean game, and on a gloriously sunny evening at Charlestown, free of rancour.
Mayo lost it by a point, but they lost no honour in defeat. They were well prepared and in with a shout right to the end. Colin Dempsey may regret the opportunity he missed from a free to send the match into extra time. But it was a daunting task for the full forward in what was the last kick of the game. And the way they were shaping up, Sligo might have won it anyhow.
They had that extra bit of balance, more initiative, and their use of the long ball — a welcome return to the mó díreach by both sides — was more rewarding mainly because they had bigger inside men to claim the high ball.
Mayo trailed from the beginning, but showed skill and boldness in fighting back. No sooner had Gary Gaughan worked the ball into the Mayo net than Darren Coen responded with a finer piece of skill at the other end.
Michael Conroy, who once showed similar potential for the Mayo seniors, caused most problems for Sligo up front, even though Coen and Dempsey were also sharp.
Colm Boyle was an impressive force at centre-back, and Dermot Costello and John Broderick did their stuff well, too.
At midfield Peter Collins and Alan Egan more than held their own especially in the first half where Egan picked up a lot of breaks before moving to the ‘40’ after the interval.
DOWN MEMORY LANE
The famous letter THEY were at their tether’s end and this, a brave, unprecedented move, was their last resort, a letter of complaint to their county board.
Signed by a number of players, the letter criticised the board’s handling of their league match in Tralee where the car driver was prevailed on to complete the team, and the county board secretary to tog out as first sub.
The fact that no formal training had been arranged for the county’s senior team, no challenge matches fixed, nothing done to encourage young players, was a big gripe.
Mayo in 1947 was mired in despair.
After drawing with the All-Ireland champions in the league the players cried out for help from their superiors. The time had come “when something must be done before football disappears completely in Mayo unwept, unhonoured and unsung,” they wrote.
The letter, penned by Sean Flanagan, Eamonn Mongey, Tom Langan, Padraig Carney and Liam Hastings, laid the blame for most of Mayo’s ills on the total indifference of the county board, and listed instances of neglect including the fact that selectors never attended away matches.
They called for a reduction in the number of selectors from fifteen or twenty down to five, for the arrangement of challenge games, for the training as a unit of selected teams and for the ending of petty squabbling.
“We as representatives of the four divisions in Mayo ask you to put aside petty jealousies and favouritism, to get together, stay together, and pull together, to pick a team, not of ‘historic’ players, nor of ‘friendly’ or ‘kindred’ players, but a team made up of the best 15 players available.
“We know you can do it, we not only ask you but we demand that you do this and do it here and now. If you do so, 1948 will be our year. If you don’t, then 1948 will echo the remarks heard from 1940 to 1947 “Beaten again! Mayo, God help us!”
Eamonn Mongey would later say that the county board took the letter seriously. New additions to the team came in the form of Sigerson Cup discoveries Pat and John McAndrew, Peter Quinn and Peter Solan. And from Donegal, where he was stationed as a garda, came Paddy Prendergast.
On June 13, 1948 that group of hopefuls set out on a momentous journey with a win over Leitrim by 4-9 to 1-2.
The team was: T Byrne; P Quinn, P Prendergast, S Flanagan; J Forde, P McAndrew, John Gilvarry; P Carney (0-4, two frees), E Mongey; W Kenny (1-3), T Langan, L Hastings; S Daly (1-1), P Solan (1-0), S Mulderrig (1-1).
Victories followed over Sligo and Galway before their meeting with Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final. Told in their hotel before the match that they had great courage in taking on the All-Ireland champions, Flanagan said he’d lay any money that Mayo would win by six points. As it turned out they won by ten.
They had reached the final . . . and the players were as good as their promise.
Just a thought …IN surmounting the rugged challenge of the Royal County after kicking eighteen wides, Kildare’s win was more impressive than Dublin’s over Laois. Their Leinster semi-final clash ought to be a match to remember.
