Mayo club championship to be one to savour
Ballina Stephenites' Stephen Mullins lifts the Paddy Moclair Cup as his team celebrates winning last year's Connacht Gold Mayo SFC final. Picture: INPHO/Tom Maher
Excitement always reaches a peak when the Mayo Club Championships come around, but the introduction of the new rules has generated a greater buzz than ever.
Not since the 2020 championships, when football was brought back after no activity in sport during the early days of Covid, has there been such a universally joyous feeling for the peak of the club football season.
Group 1 of the Mayo Junior Championship got underway last weekend and the other two groups, as well as the senior and intermediate championships, begin in earnest this (Friday) evening.
There are subplots aplenty in the across senior, intermediate and junior, and here are some of the key ones we believe will shape the stories of this year’s championship.
Ballina Stephenites will look to make it three Moclair Cups on the spin this year after retaining their title in facile fashion after a one-sided victory over Knockmore. There may be new rules for all, but Ballina remain the team everyone wants to beat.
Knockmore, the 2020 and 2021 champions, will hope to go one step further this year and Ray Dempsey, who oversaw those successes, is back at the helm along with a certain Joe Brolly.
Will this be the year Breaffy finally make the breakthrough? They won the Division 1 League final in MacHale Park last month and Sean Deane, a man tipped for the Mayo senior job, will hope they can reach the promised land after five final defeats.
Another man linked with the Mayo job has been Andy Moran, who made a stunning comeback to help Ballaghaderreen win the Division 2 title. Surprise semi-finalists last year, it would be no shock should they reach another final.
Castlebar Mitchels have endured a barren run, not reaching a final since completing their own three-in-a-row in 2017. Kevin Filan takes charge of a side bristling with young talent, and you never write Mitchels off.
The same can be said for 2022 champions Westport. Beaten the past two years by Breaffy in the quarter-finals, the Coveys have not gone away, and they will be confident of adding a second Moclair Cup.
New kids on the block Crossmolina are just that, with their talented minors making the jump to senior league football like a fish to water. The Mayo, Connacht and All-Ireland intermediate champions will be a team no want will want to face, and their Round 2 game against Ballina Stephenites has all the makings of a classic.
Ballintubber have fallen slightly behind the big guns, but their pedigree is to be respected while Claremorris have another crop of young talent that can make a breakthrough.
The intermediate race is as ultra-competitive as ever, and half the field will feel they have a genuine chance of winning the Sweeney Cup.
Moy Davitts were left heartbroken by Crossmolina after a dramatic defeat in the final replay and they will be chomping at the bit to return to the senior grade for the first time since 2020.
2023 runners-up Ballinrobe will know that just because you get to a final and lose doesn’t mean you win the next year. After losing to Kilmeena in the 2023 final, Crossmolina defeated them last year in a semi-final that Ballinrobe kicked away. Eoin Hughes, who guided the Neale to the Sweeney Cup in 2019, is the man the Robesiders have turned to on this occasion and he has a talented squad at his disposal.
Speaking of Kilmeena, they were relegated from senior last year after a meteoric rise since winning junior in 2021. They won intermediate two years later and now under the tutelage of Damien Egan, they will hope they return to senior quickly.
Davitts will also feel hard done by last year after being pipped by Moy Davitts and they are strong again. Hollymount-Carramore and The Neale will also fancy their chances.
There is plenty to savour, and we will have you all covered for the championship. See next week’s for full coverage of all the senior, intermediate and junior games.
