GAA
22 July 1998

Fitzpatrick nominated for Mayo GAA job

FORMER county footballer, Billy Fitzpatrick, has been nominated for the post as Mayo senior team manager, writes Sports Editor, John Melvin.

Fitzpatrick, who currently manages Garrymore senior football team, brought Mayo to two junior All-Ireland titles as team manager.

A holder of several senior championship medals with Garrymore he has accepted the nomination by latter to the County Board by Davitts GAA club.

Meanwhile John Maughan has also indicated his willingness to stay on for another year at least.

There was some doubt about Maughan's availability due to commitments with the army which might curtail his input into Mayo's winter league programme which commences in October.

Both nominees will be interviewed by a select committee of the County Board which will include former chairman, Paddy Muldoon and Mick Higgins.

A recommendation will then be made to a full County Board after the interviews are held on Monday night August 10th.

McHale Park to close until spring

By John Melvin

Castlebar Mitchels are to close down McHale Park, Castlebar in a bid to finally solve the serious drainage problem at the county grounds.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the club Executive where the green light was given to a £35,000 drainage operation at the pitch. Club chairman Mick Byrne said the pitch would be closed down until next spring.

Despite a massive investment programme at McHale Park, which included a new stand and the installation of seating all round the grounds, the pitch itself has failed on occasions to stand up to the rigours of winter. The drainage programme will be financed through profits from a County Board draw.

Mr. Byrne said: "I know it will cost us a National League game but we are hoping the County Board will look kindly on our request to have two games at McHale Park next year."

Meanwhile Mr Byrne said there as a lot of concern in the club over recent performance by a number of teams. "The senior team is going through a difficult year and we were really plagued by injuries ,but they are a young team and I have no doubt they will bounce back next year", he said.

"No time off" threat central to 'Garry's' plans!

By Jonathan Mullin

Sunday's clash between Garrymore and Claremorris throw up the fascinating Father v Son battle between Garrymore manager Billy Fitzpatrick and Claremorris hot-shot Brendan Fitzpatrick.

Brendan has been Claremorris' chief attacking outlet throughout the campaign but former Mayo great Billy has revealed his secret plan for son Brendan.

"I'm in Garrymore on Sunday so somebody will have to look after our pub in Claremorris. Brendan must stay behind and that's that!", laughed Billy.

Both Billy and Brendan, revealed the elder, know each other like the back of their hands so Sunday's encounter will rely heavily on the mind games.

This weekend's Senior championship sees a number of brotherly duos on the lookout for a place in the semi-finals. Ray and Declan Dempsey will be prominent figures for reigning champions Knockmore in their first championship outing against Crossmolina on Sunday.

Likewise Shane and Fergus Sweeney will be hoping that Michael Moffat's side can overturn their local rivals.

Crossmolina will not be short of sibling power either. Thomas Nallen returns from injury to accompany Mayo centre half-back James. Ciaran McDonald and brother Donal both play in the forward division for the Deel Rovers.

Hollymount were a side always steeped in family tradition and retain three sets of brothers for Sunday's tie against the fancied Ballina. Mike and Noel Jennings, Jarlath and Ardil Jennings, Noel and Ray Connelly have all been Hollymount stalwarts through the years and will be hoping that Sunday's encounter in James Stephen's Park will be another step towards a return of the glory days. Paul and Brian McStay and David Brady and Minor captain Ger, create the family link for the hosts.

Minor captain of 1995, Sean Roughneen will play with brother Vinny, will line out for Swinford's crunch tie with Kiltane. The Bangor-Erris men have the services of Ciaran Carey and Sean Carey (and cousin Damien). T.J. and Danny McHugh will form an integral part of the Garrymore full-forward line where, in defence, Pat and Ger Hession line out.

PW Racing in Claremorris have revised their betting on the Howley Distribution Senior Football Championship and reigning champs Knockmore are joint favourites to retain the Paddy Moclair Cup at 5/2. Ballina Stephenites share favouritism with Mick Moffat's crew.

Crossmolina stay unchanged at 4/1 after a mediocre display at Balla; Hollymount join them at 4's, Garrymore wait at 9/2; Kiltane are many people's idea of good value at 7/1 (from 8's); you can have 16/1 about Claremorris while Swinford are the rags at 20/1. Individual match betting looks like this: Kiltane 4/6, Swinford 11/8, draw 10/1. Garrymore 4/6, Claremorris 5/4, 9/1 the draw. Ballina 4/6, Hollymount 11/8, draw 10/1. Knockmore 1/1, Crossmolina 1/1, 9/1 draw. PW Racing can be contacted at (094) 71307.

National title for Castlebar athlete

Congratulations to David Gordon, Castlebar Athletic Club, who took first place in the boys under-14 Triple Jump at the All-Ireland Track & Field Championships held recently in Tullamore, with a jump of 11.02m. David also won a bronze medal in the Long Jump.

Also competing in the championships were Andrew Verity (Boys under-13 200m) and Jordan Verity (Boys under-15 Discus) who acquitted themselves well in their events.

Ciara grabs third place in International meet

Ciara McDermott, Ballina Athletic Club, finished 3rd in the Girls Intermediate 3,000 metre Walk in the Home Countries International Secondary Schools Athletics Championships held at Ayr, Scotland, yesterday.

Teams from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales competed. This was a marvellous performance by the 13 year old Ballina girl as the age limit for the Intermediate events is 17 years.

Athletes from the Ballina club enjoyed further success at the All-Ireland B.L.O.E. relay Championships held in Galway yesterday when the Boys under-18 teams finished 2nd in the 4 x 400 metre relay and 3rd in the 4 x 100 metre relay. The team members were Daniel Kilgallon, Paul Munnelly, Brian Gardiner, Martin Conroy and Michael Gardiner.

Galway.perhaps not the finished article . . .

Jonathan Mullin's sideline view

On Sunday's evidence, Galway appear not to be quite the finished article we thought they were and the weekend's entertaining Connaught Final has raised certain doubts about the Tribesmen.

They will, of course, be strong favourites to overcome Roscommon in the replay on Saturday week, and while they have a favourites chance of doing so against a refreshingly committed Ros, the Nestor Cup may be the extent of their capabilities. The case against them going any further is strong:

EXHIBIT A: Mayo, despite their attacking frailties, showed on numerous occasions that the Galway defence are no impregnable unit. David Nestor had a couple of goal chances while Ciaran McDonald was another who saw the whites of Martin McNamara's eyes.

Roscommon did likewise in the first half of Sunday's game, requiring three top class saves (two from point blank and a follow up) to maintain an interval lead. Such fragility will be ruthlessly exposed should Galway make it to Croker.

EXHIBIT B: The midfield sector; the most important area of the field, and Galway were well and truly beaten at centre-field on Sunday. Kevin Walsh was adequate while Sean O'Domhnaill never got to grips with the game. Boyle's Tom Ryan was the game's outstanding centre man and with Ryan, Gerry Keane and prominent centre half-forward Fergal O'Donnell in good form, the breaks fell in favour of the Ros. (Keane can consider himself unfortunate to be substituted, especially when Jason Neary lasted a mere 40 seconds.)

EXHIBIT C: On the subject of Galway's defence, at vital stages of the second half, they stood off and let the Roscommon forwards ply their trade with some success. The half-back line of Galway will be hoping to much better in Saturday week's replay (Dr. Hyde Park, 5 p.m.).

EXHIBIT D: Even taking into account the inclement weather conditions, a total of seventeen wides from a surprisingly subdued Galway forward line is hardly the stuff from which All-Ireland champions are made.

EXHIBIT E: However, the piece of evidence that will worry John O'Mahoney most is that when the going got tough for Galway, through those twenty lean minutes of scoreless action, the tough never got going. Galway seemed to have no natural leaders on Sunday, in direct contrast to Roscommon for whom heroes grew out of sweat and blood.

Despite all this, I believe that Galway will go on and win the Nestor Cup in Saturday week's replay. Surely the conditions cannot possibly be as poor and if Galway were to get a dry ball, I'd expect their forwards to perform considerably better.

Roscommon are good, providing a battle between the most under-rated side in Connaught and the most over-rated, and, accordingly, they will take heart from Sunday. But Galway's chances of success in Croker, should they get over the Roscommon challenge, have dimmed somewhat in my view.

Despite the highly favourable impression they created with victories over Mayo and Leitrim, I'll respect John O'Mahoney ten times as much as I currently do, if he can pull off an All-Ireland win with Galway this year. I don't believe it can happen.

Connaught Telegraph - News & Sport - July 1998