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Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Sligo upset the odds
Sligo showed that their league form was no flash in the pan when they scored a convincing win over a fancied Mayo team in Markievicz Park on Saturday last.
I didn’t get to the Sligo venue, I opted instead to watch both of Saturday’s games on television.
The two Division Three teams upset the odds.
Louth, ironically the only team Roscommon beat in the league, turned in a marvellous display to beat a fancied Kildare by six points, 122 to 1-16.
The first-half of the Sligo v Mayo game was very scrappy. The standard of football was poor, but the game was rescued by a fantastic secondhalf display by Sligo.
Mayo didn’t seem to have recovered from the league final defeat and many of the players didn’t seem to want to know.
Sligo opted to play against the strong wind that blew straight down the field from the town goals. Mayo had the better of the opening exchanges.
Big full-forward Alan Freeman was doing a good imitation of Asiake Ó hAilpín as he cleaned out Noel McGuire in the early exchanges.
He had 1-1 scored by the sixth minute. The goal came from a penalty after he was fouled himself.
The Mayo forwards were finding wide gaps in the Sligo defence and it looked as if the favourites would build up a big lead by half-time.
Then Sligo brought back Eamon O’Hara to play as a sweeper in front of the fullback line.
Charlie Harrison and Ross O’Donovan are two brilliant corner-backs and with both playing superbly the threat of the Mayo full-forward line was soon defused.
Sligo hit their first point after 11 minutes when Colm McGee pointed a free and the home team grew in confidence from there to half time. Mayo went nine minutes without a score until Conor Mortimer hit a point from play in the 13th minute.
Sligo always seemed to have the knack of answering a Mayo score with a score at the other end and they hit three unanswered points from McGee, Breheny (free) and an inspirational point from wing-half back Johnny Davey.
Conor Mortimer kept Mayo in the game with two points that sandwiched a Mark Breheny free. Mayo led by 1-4 to 0-5 at half-time.
The second-half belonged to Sligo. They outscored Mayo by 0-10 to 0-4.
They won every battle all over the field and Mayo looked a beaten team long before the end.
Mayo’s day was summed up when Conor Mortimer was put through near the end and he kicked the ball harmlessly wide of the left post when it looked easier to score.
Sligo played with a hunger and an amazing workrate that had Mayo reeling. The two Mayo midfielders were taken off as Tony Taylor and Stephen Gilmartin completely dominated this sector.
Sligo grew in confidence and should probably have won by more than four points in the end.
The two corner-backs already mentioned were superb. Newcomer Keelan Cawley had a fine game at right half back, while little Johnny Davey was once again outstanding at left half back.
Talk about big men! Johnny must be one of the smallest and lightest players in the game but he has the courage and heart of a lion. Johnny lives in the heart of soccer territory in Sligo town but his first love was always Gaelic football.
He is now the only player from Sligo town on the team and he is certainly an inspiration to Sligo.
Taylor and Gilmartin continue to improve in the middle of the field and they completely dominated the second-half on Saturday.
Taylor kicked a fantastic point from a distance at a crucial stage of the second half to level the scores.
Alan Costello was outstanding at centre-half forward. Here is a player who was discarded by the Mayo selectors. It is no wonder that he was snapped up by Sligo.
He really rubbed the Mayo noses in it on Saturday.
He was on the ball all day and he kicked some great points from play.
Mark Breheny was not as menacing as usual but he still made a handsome contribution to the game.
David Kelly showed that he is a corner-forward of real class. O’Hara is O’Hara, as tough and committed as ever.
He is a great leader on the field. Mayo lacked leaders on Saturday.
Sligo now play Galway in Pearse Stadium and it would be hard to bet against them on the evidence of this display.
This is a better team than the one that won the Connacht championship in 2007. I still think Galway will win the Connacht title but Sligo will push them all the way.
Louth amassed the huge total of 1-22 in beating the Lily Whites by six points.
In the process they kicked some fantastic points and it wouldn’t surprise me if the Wee County men get to the Leinster final. It certainly will be an interesting championship.
I am writing this on Saturday night so I don’t know the outcome of the games on Sunday. I am certainly looking forward to them.
Politics and the GAA
Historians of another era could hardly ever have envisaged a great-grandson of Eamonn De Valera playing in the Connacht senior football championship.
That happened this year in Ruislip when Eamonn Ó Cuiv lined out at full-back for London against Roscommon. It raises the question about GAA players and politics.
There was a time when a prominent footballer or hurler was a great catch for a political party.
Nowadays it tends to be television presenters and pop stars. In the 1940s and 1950s, several star players were coaxed to join a political party and contest a General Election.
The late Jack Mahon told a story at Seán Purcell’s funeral. Seán was a shy self effacing person but he was once persuaded to run for Fine Gael against Mick Donnellan, who was the Clann na Talún candidate. The latter was very popular and it would take a very strong opposition candidate to take a seat from him.
Seán Purcell’s campaign didn’t go so well and Mick Donnellan once again headed the poll. In fact Seán was lucky to save his deposit.
As the crowd was dwindling away from the hall in Tuam where the count had taken place, a little old lady shuffled up to a despondent Seán Purcell.
“Seáneen, a ghrá”, she said, “it’s an awful pity you never played a biteen of football.”
Mick Donnellan’s son, John, who was a prominent member of the Galway three-in-a-row team, 19641966, held a seat in Dáil Éireann for a number of years for Fine Gael.
In Roscommon, the two best known TD’s were Jack McQuillan and Dr. Hugh Gibbons of the 1943-1944 team. County chairman at the time, Dan O’Rourke, also served in the Dáil for a number of years.
Arguably the most successful player politician was Cork’s Jack Lynch. The former Taoiseach won six AllIreland medals in a row. No other player in the history of the GAA has ever achieved that distinction.
The Kilkenny hurlers might do it next year, that is if they win the five on the trot this year.
Lynch won All-Ireland hurling medals in 1941, ‘42, ‘43, and ‘44 and a football medal in 1945 and hurling again in 1946.
His party colleague, John Wilson, won an All-Ireland medal with Cavan in 1947 in the famous Polo Grounds final against Kerry.
Henry Kenny, father of the present Fine Gael leader Enda, won an All-Ireland medal with Mayo in 1936.
He held a Dáil seat for Fine Gael for several years. Seán Flanagan, who was a Fianna Fáil TD for a long number of years, won All-Ireland medals with Mayo in 1950 and ‘51. He was captain on both occasions.
The present Mayo manager John O’Mahony is a sitting TD for Fine Gael, keeping up the Mayo tradition of a link between the GAA and politics. Jimmy Deenihan, the Kerry Fine Gael TD, was left-corner back on the great Kerry teams of the 1970s winning All-Ireland medals in 1975, ‘78, ‘79, ‘80 and ‘81.
He was captain in 1981. He wasn’t on the team that was beaten by Offaly in the 1982 final. The former Wexford manager and player Tony Dempsey also spent a short spell in the Dáil.
Des Foley, who played for Dublin in the late 1950s, was a Fianna Fáil TD for a number of years. As far as I can recall, he didn’t win a senior All-Ireland with Dublin but he won All-Ireland minor medals in 1956 and ‘58. He might have been a sub on the 1958 senior team.
There is a respectable amount of All-Ireland medals in Dáil Éireann. I am sure there are many, many more that I cannot recall right now, but somehow I get the impression that success on the playing fields is no longer a guarantee of a seat in Dáil Éireann.
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