Tuesday, 11 June 2013 12:57

John Maughan's appointment to the Irish Sports COuncil is in recognition of his contribution to Gaelic Football over many yearsFORMER Mayo player and manager John Maughan has been appointed to the board of the Irish Sports Council, The Connaught Telegraph has learned.

He was chosen to serve on the influential organisation by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar.

The appointment of the Crossmolina native, which took effect from May 8 last, was officially announced by the department on June 4 last.

Maughan, an employee of Mayo County Council, also served as senior football manager of Clare, Roscommon and Fermanagh.

He replaces former Offaly hurler Danny Owens and will serve for a five-year term.

A widely respected figure within the sport, he led his county to the 1996, 1997 and 2004 All-Ireland senior football finals.

He inspired Clare to win the Munster football title for only the second time in 1992. He managed NUI Galway in the Sigerson Cup.

His insight and knowledge of Gaelic football prompted RTÉ Radio Sport to employ him as an analyst for the past number of years.

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 14:26

Westport UnitedBallinasloe Town 2 Westport United 1 ... IT WAS not to be for Westport United.

Despite a heroic attempt to capture back-to-back Connaught Cup titles for the first time in the club’s history, disaster struck at the worst possible time.

A goal six minutes into injury time ensured Ballinasloe Town of a theatrical victory at sun-blessed Lecarrow on Sunday and denied United of their dream.

Former League of Ireland target man Liam Lynch struck the winner as the west Mayo side were left to bemoan their second half failure to exploit their territorial advantage.

Lynch underlined his experience and poaching skills by pouncing on a brilliant delivery from the left by the elusive Alan Duffy.

The decider, staged impeccably for the first time on the splendidly appointed new grounds of the Roscommon & District League, was brought to a standstill in the closing moments of normal time due to injuries incurred by United goalkeeper Gary Cunningham and Town substitute Shane Duffy in a clash inside the Westport penalty area The action was held up for eight minutes as both players received treatment. Cunningham  had a suspected broken arm and was removed tohospital by ambulance while Duffy was helped to the dugout with a painful leg.

Tuesday, 18 June 2013 11:06

Mayo 0-21 Roscommon 0-9 ..... TO win your opening two matches in the Connaught championship with 29 points to spare is open to two interpretations.

Either the standards of the opposition has dropped dramatically or Mayo are playing at a stratosphere their opponents are unable to reach.

We can excuse the poor quality of Galway, and while Roscommon too can be accused of bringing the game into disrepute with the poor quality of their performance, the weight of the evidence from both of Mayo’s games does suggest that James Horan’s men can match ability with ambition in their quest for an All-Ireland title.

Given the intensity Mayo are now bringing to their tackling game and considering their forwards now have accumulated a total of 29 points in their two outings, it might be unfair on either London or Leitrim to suggest the Connaught final is now a mere formality and a stepping stone for Mayo’s appearance in an All-Ireland quarterfinal, but the facts have to be faced - Mayo are so far ahead of the rest in Connaught that they can’t see the opposition when they take a glance over their shoulder.

Monday, 27 May 2013 11:13

Boxing coming to Breaffy House Sports ResortThey meet in  Breaffy House Sports Resort, Castlebar on Saturday, June 8 ,  on Assassin Promotion's value-for-money 14-fight show that also includes Irish champions PJ and Paddy McDonagh, Anthony Cacace and heavyweight star Hughie Fury.

Both Reynolds and Carmichael were top-class amateurs.

Reynolds competed at two world amateur championships - his rivals included David Haye - and as a professional, he's ranked among Ireland's top-five cruiserweights after just two fights.

Carmichael lost just 10 of more than 100 amateur bouts and his match with Reynolds gives the Belfast doorman the chance to give his career a boost after his early exit from 'Prizefighter' on Saturday night.

Carmichael took too long to figure out Welsh southpaw Hari Miles in front of the Sky Sports cameras and was edged out on points after a close fight.

Darren Cruise is another former 'Prizefighter' in action on the show.

He lost to JJ McDonagh in last year's 'Irish middleweights' event and the 23 year-old from Castlerea also faces local opposition.

Alan Donnellan comes from Limerick with a big-hitting reputation and their super-middleweight clash looks a make-or-break fight.

Kaz Evans and Charles Lane are the heads of Assassin Promotions and Evans said: "These are the sort of fights the fans want to see.

"They are 50-50 fights and because they are local derbies, both boxers will be giving 110 per cent to win.

"There's everything to fight for."

Gary Sweeney is another top talent in action on the show. He makes his professional debut having won silver at the European Youth championships in 2011 - and big brother Michael also boxes.

Tickets are available from  Breaffy House or call  087 6595567 or 094902203 or online at www.assassinboxing.co.uk

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 14:17

Castlebar Celtic 3 Peamount Unite 6 .. THE way she started the game, it wasn’t hard to see why Peamount striker Sara Lawlor had been named the Bus Éireann Women’s National League player of the year in a poll of the league’s players.

Lawlor set up the opening goal, scored by Julie Anne Russell, in the third minute before adding two of her own in the sixth and 14th minutes to give her side a commanding three goal lead with less than a quarter of an hour played.

It was tough to take for Celtic and their band of supporters on what was an emotional day in Milebush Park, where a cherry blossom tree was planted in the memory of former manager Jeremy Dee, who died tragically on November 18 last year, in a ceremony before the game.

Jeremy had been the driving force behind women’s soccer at Celtic Park and how proud he would have been to see his team respond so positively to such an early onslaught and make a game of it over the remaining 75 minutes.

After the third goal, Celtic – with jerseys displaying ‘Jeremy’ across the shoulders at the back – reshuffled and got a handle on the Peamount attack, in which Solene Barbance and Stephanie Roche aided Lawlor in mounting lightening-quick surges.

Tuesday, 18 June 2013 10:54

THE showpiece of the Gaelic football year is the provincial championship and the All-Ireland series. These are associated with the summer months but in Mayo’s case it is now odds-on that the summer months will have passed before they will taste their first real challenge as they bid to go one better than in 2012 by winning the All-Ireland title.

With the expected tough challenges by Galway and Roscommon never materalising, it is now left to either Leitrim or London to stop them winning their first three-in-a-row Connaught titles since 1950.

With due respects to either London or Leitrim, Mayo are not going to get any kind of meaningful challenge until they play in the quarterfinals in August, which by  time we will have entered the autumn season.

There is little James Horan and his team could have done about this as they can only beat what is put in front of them, and on Sunday last they did to Roscommon what they did the previous month to Galway. It just shows that the gulf between Mayo and the other counties in Connaught at this time is pretty big.

Although Mayo were pressed pretty hard by Roscommon in the first quarter (had 67 to 33 per cent of the possession), there was only one team in it for the  remainder of the game. Once Mayo saw off the early Roscommon onslaught, they upped the ante in the second quarter and by half time they had more or less clinched their place in the Connaught decider as they led by nine points, 0-13 to 0-4.

Tuesday, 14 May 2013 15:13

Sarah Rowe, Mayo, in action against Deirdre O' Reilly, right, and Aisling Barrett, Cork, in the national football league division one finalCork 0-14 Mayo 0-7 .... THE Mayo ladies Gaelic footballers’ bid to regain the national division one title came up short in Parnell Park, Dublin, on Saturday when they lost to their more experienced opponents, Cork.
While the Leesiders were the deserving winners, the Mayo side will have gained massive experience from this decider, especially the 10 or 11 players who were appearing in their first senior national final. This should stand to them greatly when they face arch rivals Galway in the Connaught championship final on July 14.
Unlike their brilliant performance against Monaghan in the semi-final, the Mayo girls never really got going against Cork. While they did have their fair share of possession, they just seemed to gift this back to their opponents more times than not. This,  along with their poor shooting, especially in the opening half when assisted by the very strong breeze, where they kicked 10 wides, proved to be their downfall.
However, they will have learned a lot from these mistakes and will become a much better team as a result.