Local musings on a Tuesday

Tuesday is now the day the locals hit the shelves, I remember it wasn’t so long ago the Western was the only one to hit the shelves on Tuesdays, we now have the Connaught (the only people who use that spelling) and the Mayo News out this morning.  The Mayo carry the story that Conor Mortimer is very doubtful to make Sunday’s game by JOM will give him as much time as he can. They also make mention to a challenge game last weekend where Mayo played the Cork footballers in a challenge which ended up in a draw. Ger Cafferkey lined out at full back,with Tom Cunniffee at centre half back and Barry Moran in full forward while

there'll be reading to do later

Also mention is the news that Ballina will have a capacity of 4,500 for the Derry game and if McHale Park is unavailable for use for the visit of Westmeath, either Ballina or the 3,000 capacity Charlestown will be used. While   Sean Rice calls it as he sees it for the weekend. While I haven’t had a chance to glance over the western and the Connaught just yet, I can report that there;s nothing new on their websites as of yet.

A little bit of action over the weekend

With the footballers out of action this weekend, and gearing up for the the visit of Derry to James Stephens Park, Ballina on Sunday, it was left to the hurlers to fly the flag in competition this weekend. But unfortunatly the hurlers lost out to the might of Louth on Sunday in the Keogh Shield a kind of third tear hurling competition.  RTE carried a brief report on the game which Mayo lost 0-13 to 0-12 with Stephen Broderick top scoring with six points for the small ballers.

Not missing the Keogh Sheild or the FBD

Conor Mortimer didn’t make it back from his broken nose to line out for DCU who lost out to Louth in the O’Byrne Cup final yesterday on a score of 1-17 to 1-10, in an entertaining encounter which was shown live on TG4. Who themselves have decided to show  Kerry v Donegal and Cork v Meath next Sunday as their live game. Staying in Munster UL with a couple of Mayo lads in the shape of  Kenneth O’Malley (great to see him back playing again), Enda Varley (scored 0-4, to go with the seven he hit the previous week) and I presume it was Seamus O’Shea (As far as I know, he’s in college down there ) went down to Cork in the McGrath Cup final.

Meanwhile in the club action, Killala bowed out of the All Ireland Junior Club Football Championship at the semi-final stage when they lost out by two points to English outfit John Mitchels. Is it a sign of the times already that an English club is proving it’s strength and the business end of an All Ireland series.

Mayo on You Tube

First off, kudos must be give to WJ over at Mayogaablog for his second nomination in the Irish blog awards for best sports blog. Two years in a row and a well deserved nod of recognition to the man. But last week when I was checking out the comings and goings on the gaaboard I saw that former Aussie resident and now firmly back domiciled in Breaffy I would guess Red and Green Sniper had comes across a little bit of history on you tube. (Not exculding, WJ’s fine archive).

I took  trove through the videos myself on the page and there are some great bits of history there. I picked out the Mayo ones of interest so if you want to have a look at them here they are.

James Nallen point v Ross in 1996

James Nallen goal v Kerry in 1996

Mayo v Galway 1996

Mayo v Roscommon 1996

Mayo v Kerry 1996

All Ireland final (if you dare to watch)

Drawn game part 1

Drawn game part 2

Replay game part 1

Replay game part 2

Some fonder times in 2004 against Galway

The famous WJ doc part 1, part 2, part 3

More on yesterday’s games

So with the FBD down and out for us for another year, it’s time to look forward to the the league and Derry in Ballina for us all now. Here’s a few more reports on the game from yesterday in the Independent and the Times .  Whilst our own Dublin based blogger WJ made his way back home for the day and took in the game and took some shots, his report is on his blog. Whilst if your all doubting the weather was as bad as you heard, sportsfile has a selection of shots from yesterdays game.