Connacht Championship 2013.

rich dublin wrote: id love to see rory gallagher in charge for next year!

I'm sure you would!

Considering it, though, you'd have a crack at getting him. Of the counties relatively close to him, Monaghan, Cavan, Derry, Tyrone. Fermanagh, Leitrim, Meath and Westmeath all seem to be sorted at least for another year. Even Alan Mulholland in Galway will probably be there again in 2014, as will Paul Grimley in Armagh.

Down will be available, but I don't think they'll look outside the county, while McGuinness could well leave Donegal if they win 2 in a row. Would Rory fancy a poisoned chalice of replacing a legend? Doubtful.

That leaves Antrim is a possibility, and yourselves. Of course, he may be content with remaining the most high profile and arguably best assistant in Ireland.

that was my thoughts exactly TC i think there is an opportunity to get him in depending on what happens with donegal and mcguiness this year but i think he would add so much to the sligo set up. in fairness we do have a really strong core group of players who with the right person at the helm can be moulded into something worthwhile

big news in lietrim with players being dropped from he county setup for breaching discipline i presume its for drinking!! now with london to play to reach a provincial final this really is unforgivable! why bother train all year to mess it up when there is a huge goal in front of u? boxty mate have you heard much in relation to this?

Roscommon will creep nervously into McHale Park on Sunday as roaring outsiders against Mayo in the 1st. of the Connacht semi-finals with the winners stonewall certainties to lift the Nestor Cup next month. The Sheepstealers have nothing to lose, but by the law of averages, the gaping chasm in league positions and their own ability to self-implode I'm expecting a trimming of about 10 points for the men in Primrose and Blue.
They haven't beaten Mayo in the c/ship in Castlebar since Tony McManus virtually wrested victory from the "Rhubarbs" single-handedly in 1986.

Mayo will be without the influential Cillian O'Connor, but such is the depth of their current squad they are able to juggle a little and move seamlessly along. Richie Feeney may in fact start on the 40' flanked by McLoughlin and Dillon. Their choice and subsequent performance of a freetaker will indicate a level of their ability to progress further in pursuit of the Holy Grail having escaped from Connacht.

It won't be pretty, Mannion, Kilbride and Cregg will make things awkward for 50/55 minutes but it's Mayo doing hand-stands to close it out.

Paddy Joe Burke is a Rossie fan with a positive attitude, I hate to see him disappointed......

Ros starting 15 no word on the Mayo one as of yet..


D O'Malley; N Collins,N Carty,S McDermott; D Keenan,N Daly,C Daly;K Higgins,M Finneran;C Devaney, K Mannion,C Cregg;D Smith,S Kilbride,D O'Gara


Donie Shine,Ian Kilbride,Donal Ward and few others out injured look like light weight half back line the two Dalys haven't played much senior championship football either has Collins in the full back line. 

Hard to see anything other than straight forward Mayo win.

Something to boost all followers of Roscommon as Sunday approaches. 70 years since that memorable occasion.
4.20 mins into the video brings the great man on live....

JIMMY MURRAY, who died during the week, was one of those select few footballers who could be genuinely described as legendary. He was, for a start, the captain and star player on the Roscommon team of the 1940s whose rise from the junior ranks to double All-Ireland senior triumph is one of the great stories in football history.
Roscommon's 1940 junior All-Ireland final win over Westmeath presaged the greatest period in the county's history. They defeated Cavan to win the Sam Maguire in 1943 and a tremendous Kerry team to make it two in-a-row.
Their diminutive centre half-forward was the driving force behind this remarkable run. Football was a lot rougher in those days and contemporary accounts stress Murray's ability to overcome the physical punishment he was often subjected to. The most famous story about him involves his being taken off due to a facial wound as Roscommon led by six points in the closing stages of the 1946 All-Ireland final against Kerry, supposedly so he'd look presentable while receiving the Sam Maguire.
In Murray's absence, Kerry scored two goals to draw the match and went on to win a replay which football fans from that era rated as the greatest game ever. The hyperbole may well be true because there was something larger than life about a side which caught the imagination to such an extent that a record crowd of 79,247 attended the 1944 final. This achievement becomes even more astounding when you consider that the final took place during the Emergency, when transport restrictions forced many spectators to bike and walk their way to Dublin.
Even in retirement, Murray continued to be a central figure in Roscommon football and the county's minor team made sure to call into his Knockcroghery pub after they won last year's All-Ireland. The eponymous premises was without doubt the greatest GAA pub in the country. As a young reporter starting out in Roscommon, I was lucky enough to meet Jimmy there and get a tour of the vast array of memorabilia he'd collected, including both the famous visitors' book which contained the signatures of a horde of stars from all parts of the country and the match ball from the 1943 final.
When the premises was gutted by fire some years ago the ball survived the blaze while many of the players whose names had been in the old book made the trip to South Roscommon specifically to inscribe them in a new volume. Such was the respect the man inspired. Inside that pub, you experienced the feeling of community which is so important to the GAA. In Murray's, the whole Association felt like one club.
The local was as important to Murray as the national. He steered his home club St Patrick's to six county titles in the eight years between 1942 and 1949. And I recall him on the sideline in Ballyforan in the late '80s at a county semi-final, kicking every ball as St Dominic's, the club which superceded St Patrick's, put it up to the great Clann na nGael.
He was renowned as the best passer of the ball in his day and also for his speed and elusiveness. When Roscommon were in trouble it brought out the best in him. He scored a goal and a point to bring them level in the drawn 1943 final after his team-mates had started nervously in Cavan. And he dropped back to pick up the breaks from midfield and inspire the late scoring blitz which undid Kerry in 1944.
Jimmy Murray was both a great footballer and a supremely decent man who lived 90 very full years. It would be nice to suppose his last thoughts were that the deeds of the minor team meant Roscommon football was in safe hands. That would have made him very happy.

Jimmy Murray was both a great footballer and a supremely decent man who lived 90 very full years. (From previous post).

I posted the above purely out of respect for the late Jamesie Murray, for a finer gentleman you couldn't meet.

On the evening of the '94 Connacht Final, such was the excitement, exuberance and downright fool-hardiness, that I had provisionally arranged to meet my brothers-in-law in Knockcroghery, should the day go our way. Ignoring  location, Boxty Beág agus mise struck for the appointment.
By 7 bells Murray's was heaving, the Rossies behaving like they'd won themselves and the back-slapping and hi-jinx knew no bounds.

As we fought our way in, through a throng of well-wishers, courtesy of a local no doubt, the great man blocked our passage with the following:

Boxty a chara (presenting a tumbler of whiskey) a mighty day for you and yours. The big man (BIL) is up the back. For the umpteenth time we signed the famous register, the log of legends as they say, but this time with the addition Connacht champions....

RIP Jamesie, one of, if not, the very finest.

Jimmy Murray was an outstanding footballer, and will be getting an honourable mention on Monday when I select my No.11 on Hoganstand's greatest team of all-time.  Unfortunately, I'll probably be the only one to mention him, given that Paul Galvin and Brian Dooher are currently both out-polling Sean O'Neill in the race for RHF 

Jimmy Murray was rated the 51st greatest footballer of all time in the Independent list published in 2009.  If only the Rossies had someone like him, or Gerry O'Malley, Bill Carlos, Dermot Earley, Danny Murray Harry Keegan or Tony McManus for tomorrow's battle.  I don't expect Mayo to have it as easy as they did against Galway, but i do expect them to win fairly comfortably.

I saw your vote for O'Hare, and the administrator even gave you a special mention, saying how good it was to see you taking part (yes, seriously, it was like the return of the prodigal grandfather).  I also mentioned O'Hare, but ultimately went for Tony Scullion over him and Sean Flanagan for that spot.

So far the 'Greatest Team of All Time' reads as:

Cluxton, Marc O'Se, Darren Fay, Scullion, Tomas O'Se, Moynihan, Martin O'Connell, Jack O'Shea, Dara O'Se.  Dooher or Galvin will be number 10, and I can't wait to see Alan Brogan & Ciaran McDonald out-poll Purcell on Monday.

Who's voting for these positions?

Excluded this far are Enda Colleran, John O'Keeffe, Tom O'Hare, Sean Murphy, Gerry O'Malley, Martin Newell and Brian Mullins.
The goal-keeping spot is a moot point (I'd have gone with Furlong possibly)....

Anyway, to today's fare.....Abysmal performance from Roscommon. Out thought and out-fought, it was clearly a gulf in class.
Mayo looked slick and had a great breath of point-takers. The 2 bullocks in midfield have put in a tough Spring campaign, given they stayed bursting forward for the 70 mins. Seamie O'Sé made a couple of mighty catches and for big men they're handy with ball in hand. Andy Moran brings a lot to the attack, he'll hardly start the Connacht final and should be fitter and stronger by the time the need is greater...

Should we get over Landhan  it's uphill. That said, Mayo will have a big shout in the Sam celebrations and who could begrudge them.

Hi guys,

Tactical analysis of Mayo's win over Roscommon now up
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Emmet

Two comments i'd take of that emmet

1)Mayo however are better served slaughtering a team of Roscommon’s level than being drawn into a close contest by an inferior opponent.


Sligo are seen around the same level as Roscommon they got within a few scores of Mayo last year that close contest brought Mayo on it remains to be seen where this 2nd slaughtering will bring them.


2) The failure was mostly down to talent
I remember your analysis on St Brigids AI win Mannion,Kilbride have plenty of talent as does number of the underage players that have beaten Mayo. Going into that game without their best scoring forward and three defenders didn't help and in fairness Mayo are a side that are primed for another All Ireland run only Dublin,Cork,Kerry,Donegal will be a match for them.

So here we are, Connacht Final Day. I suppose my memory will automatically slip back to the Final of '94, as mentioned above, when we were rank outsiders and it is truly a fond memory.

It doesn't stand with the Connacht Final performance of 1958 however in my book. That day we played our greatest ever football, in the old ground in Roscommon. Facing the might of Galway, powered by Jack Mahon, Mattie Mac, Frank Eivers, Frank Stockwell and the mighty Sean Purcell we performed like no other.

Josie Murray, Tony Hayden, Jimmy O'Donnell, Cathal Flynn, Noel Blessing and the legendary Packy McGarty were outstanding. It's a well known fact that we suffered from poor refeering on the day (acknowleged all round). Shy of 60 years later on, I can still see the late Boxty Mór and my Uncle Jim carry The Legend around the park....

I wish London all the very best, they're there on merit, having beaten what was foreningththem. You cannot ask for better, given the way Croke Park have treated them vis a vis challenge games. They're battle hardied (sort of) but will show fight and no little flair. Any team that can rack up 2-10 against the FBD champions in the Hyde aren't slow-coaches... So it's GO LONDON....

Of course I'm boiling here, we'd have had a mighty chance to progress had we reached up to and beyond the Connacht Final, but that's for the long winters nights.

I've chosen a Frank Sinatra number for all Leitrim fans tonight....I love the line "Regrets I've had a few"

Open to correction but wasn't 1994 the last time Mayo were going for three in row Connacht titles. I wonder how much the heat wave in Ireland will play a part in tomorrows game? plenty of 20 plus point wins predicted will be a huge shock to those predictors if Mayo only win by 10 or less..

Hi guys,

Tactical take on today's game now up
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Emmet

PS: I love you too Boxty.

Mayo were sloppy and mistake-ridden, which is what you would have expected from them in this game. They also won it comfortably, and that too was to be expected.

In terms of analysing Mayo, or trying to identify anything of interest in their performance, this game was always going to be a waste of time.

All analysis can be confined simply to this: Mayo did exactly what you would have expected them to, and their injury crisis has virtually cleared up. Nothing else to report.

The disallowed goal cost London dearly.... 

Hard to know what to make of it all. Emmet is correct in highlighting Cillian O'Connor's role in bringing some structure to the Mayo attack, good to see both Moran and himself back playing, but nothing learned here.

Stiffer days ahead for the Rhubarbs.

Expected non-contest. I thought London should have got penalty the penalty Mayo got Feeney should have been pulled up for steps and the London goal should have stood, So the scoreline should have been Mayo 4-11 London 2-10.