Treble secured for Mayo teams at SFAI national finals

The Mayo Schoolboys/Girls and Youths AFL had a day to remember at the SFAI Inter-League Finals in Evergreen, Co Kilkenny last Saturday as they won three national titles.

First up the Mayo U15 girls facing Galway in the Cup Final. Mayo were most unfortunate to concede an own goal from a corner in the opening five minutes but soon recovered from that to really grow into the game. Around the 20-minute mark, Mayo could have had an equaliser first when Ciara Kearney was just too high with a well driven shot and then, moments later, when Doireann Lynch brought a good save from the Galway ‘keeper.

They were punished almost immediately Galway doubled their lead when a poor touch on the edge of the Mayo box presented a golden opportunity to the striker who finished calmly.

Mayo halved the deficit right away with a stunning long-range strike by Lynch and on 28 minutes they were back on level terms. A sublime half-volleyed pass from Siofra McGuinness in the centre circle found Katie Hughes with radar like accuracy and Katie showed great composure to score against the fast coming ‘keeper with a deft touch of the outside of her left foot, a super goal in both its creation and execution.

The second half opened with Aoibhinn McNamara becoming more and more prominent up the Mayo left wing although her first chance was turning a Lynch corner just over the bar. McGuinness released McNamara up the left and her cross caused lots of bother before being cleared away under a lot of pressure from attacking Mayo bodies.

At the other end of the pitch Amy Doherty’s astute reading and covering was stopping a lot of the Galway attacks at source. Aoibhinn McGreal in the Mayo goal did have to race from her box on one occasion and clear the ball to a teammate.

Mayo went very close on 58 minutes when another McNamara cross hit the stanchion of the goal but six minutes later Mayo had a huge let-off in what was probably the pivotal moment of the game. A central Galway attack caused huge confusion in the Mayo defence with Chloe Fahey eventually coming to the rescue at the expense of a corner. The dangerous in swinging corner was well defended before Mayo put together the move that would ultimately lead to the decisive winning goal.

Superb tenacious play by McNamara in the left-hand corner was carried on into the box by Riona Moynihan and aided by pressure from Kearney saw the ball hurriedly half cleared only to Lynch on the edge of the box and she fired it back into the net for her second goal of the game.

There were four minutes of normal time left but Mayo kept the ball in the Galway half for the remainder of the game with Kearney testing the ‘keeper again with a long-range free kick. The final whistle sounded and Mayo had won a classic game 3-2.

An ecstatic Mayo manager Sinead Mulhern was quick to downplay the fact that this was her second consecutive Inter League Cup triumph having won with the Mayo U16s last year and indeed only for a Cup semi-final defeat two years ago she could well have had a three in a row Cup success. No wonder her supporters in her club Kilmurry refer to her as “she only does Cups”. Sinead thanked all her coaching staff namely Emma Gibbons, Kian Flanagan, Martin McGreal, Amy Cummins and Kayla Doherty who all contributed lots during the season. Sinead also thanked Head Coach John Flanagan and all at the Mayo Schoolboys/Girls League. Finally, she lauded this group of girls who have been a pleasure to work with.

The U13 boys were then up facing Waterford in the Bowl Final. In a similar scenario to the girls earlier, the lads had to recover from a 2-0 deficit. Mayo’s opening goal was a masterclass from the training ground manual of their wily manager Gabby Downes. Check it out on YouTube as it’s proving quite a hit!

It certainly inspired the young Mayo lads because when the final whistle sounded, they had edged 3-2 in front courtesy of a brace of goals from Cillian Keating and another by Callum Costello. A terrific achievement by this squad and their management team as Gabby also guided a boys’ team to Inter-League glory last year.

Last of the three teams up was the Mayo U12 girls who faced Kerry in the Bowl Final. Mayo came out of the traps the stronger team and went ahead early in the first half with a well worked goal scored by Westport United’s Violet O’ Malley. Mayo continued to dominate the half and reached half-time worthy of the lead.

Kerry made several changes and began to get more of a footing which resulted in an equaliser midway through the second half. Mayo responded well and continued to make penetrating passes through the Kerry defence but the attacking players ran foul of the linesman’s flag on more than a few occasions.

The match went into extra-time and within minutes, the Mayo midfield and attack found the right wavelength and Castlebar Celtic’s Lexi Murphy scored two goals in quick succession. Kerry scored again to bring some tension to the final minutes but the Mayo win remained the likely outcome and so it proved on a 3-2 scoreline.

Manager Mike McGeough spoke after the game about the cohesion of the squad, and the way that the players had really progressed both technically and tactically in their first season together.

Mike was quick to talk about the future for the group and is already looking ahead and expecting more days like today. “These players have great attitudes and are eager to learn and improve, it bodes really well for the future”.

Final word to long serving Head Coach of the Mayo Girls League Talent Programme, John Flanagan. “It makes it so easy to do my job given the extremely high quality of coaching staff that we have from U12 up to U16.

“Days like today where both our Girls’ sides won Inter-Leagues makes me feel very privileged to be involved as our U4s also won their Inter League a while back.

“I am extremely proud of the work that has been done with the girls across the various age brackets at Mayo level for a long number of years now”.