Can Mayo win the CRC?

I really believe they can, i believe other counties such as Fermanagh, Monghan, Sligo, Louth etc want to get over to the west coast and copy there blue print.

Is anyone on the board knowledgeable of mayo hurling? Im considering going down for a weekend to pick up a club championship game just to see (i'll tell the misus its for a special week end).

Really wouldnt mind some insight, when the CRC was set up i wouldnt have given Mayo a hope in h**l of winning it but now i feel confident predicting them to win.

Any insight or views welcome?

Keith Higgins is a serious hurler and will be interseting to see how much he can give to them this year. Under Pete Finnerty Mayo have come on leaps and bounds and implementing a good solid hurling infastructure in the county over the last no of years should see them operating at a reasonable enough standard in the years to come. Between themselves and Kerry for the CRC

North Side Gael wrote:I really believe they can, i believe other counties such as Fermanagh, Monghan, Sligo, Louth etc want to get over to the west coast and copy there blue print.

Is anyone on the board knowledgeable of mayo hurling? Im considering going down for a weekend to pick up a club championship game just to see (i'll tell the misus its for a special week end).

Really wouldnt mind some insight, when the CRC was set up i wouldnt have given Mayo a hope in h**l of winning it but now i feel confident predicting them to win.

Any insight or views welcome?

Here now NSG, we cant have you running down the Sligo hurlers

They've been very sucessfull as of late, with the Rackard CUp last year, and already Division 4 winners in 2009

And I could have sworn that big blue thing behind my parents house was the west coast???

Fair play to Mayo, its great to see

Fair enough black and white your probably right the sligo hurlers are coming on well also and probably if not for the stupid relegation promotion system yous would be in the crc also. It wasnt so much running them down as it was saying about how well mayo are doing. I was down watching sligo last year had some craic with their supporters too good bunch of lads, but then again sligo and antrim have a lot in common being the nearly boys . But sure sligo are surely changing and hopefully antrim the same.

North Side Gael wrote:Fair enough black and white your probably right the sligo hurlers are coming on well also and probably if not for the stupid relegation promotion system yous would be in the crc also. It wasnt so much running them down as it was saying about how well mayo are doing. I was down watching sligo last year had some craic with their supporters too good bunch of lads, but then again sligo and antrim have a lot in common being the nearly boys . But sure sligo are surely changing and hopefully antrim the same.

The strides made have been impressive alright, especially when you consider that we never have more than 4 or 5 hurling clubs in the county at any given time (some clubs enter a team one year, then don't the next) - but I think we've a long way to go before I'd like to see us coming up against Antrim.
The best thing currently is that the majority of the panel is very young, and should be around for a few years. Hopefully when we win Rackard again this year we won't have the play-off the week after the final!
The biggest problem is that the county board has little or no interest in promoting hurling. Clubs with players on the county team have huge trouble getting football matches altered if there's a clash with the hurling, and there is little effort being made with the kids either (other than the sterling efforts of Cumann na mBunscoil)

agreed b&w,, sligo lads have improved alot with little or no help from the county board, a few years back they implemeted a schools program where youngsters goth to play hurling i was one of the lucky ones, i loved it was great and fell in love with the sport, when i cam out of NS, there was no club for me to play with i had to play with tubber for a few years underage before playing with tourlestrane at senior level... i played U16 and minor for sligo for a few years it shoulds how poor we where when i can honestly say i had 3 years at under 16 level and 4 at minor level!!!!! interestingly i was top scorer every year at under 16, while i never scored with the hurl!!!!!!

i know all these lads, they put in huge effort it really is a credit to them, i met them last year the night before the final in croker, they where taking a tour of the ground, seeing the dresssing rooms that sort of thing i was finishing work in there and i met, davy collary and fiacra coyne and a few other lads great bunch and i hope they go on to more success. at the time i was playing we only had 4 senior clubs, Tubbercurry, naoimh Eoin, calry and Tourlestrane. and to be honest at that time TUBBERCURRY were winning there 9 in a row so really nobody eles mattered.

at the same time though Mayo only had really 4 clubs, Ballyhaunis, Tooreen, Belmullet and Ballina, every year it was either Ballyhaunis or tooreen who won, very few other teams in mayo at that time and anyother ones there where not up to much.

think hurling in connaught has come on alot and i hope it continues to make progress.

one thing the Gaa has done is the coaches scheme where coaches from strong hurling countys come to the weeker countys to coach the younger players, sligo have Offaly this year and by all accounts its going well, so well done to the GAA on that one anyway