TG4 Connacht Senior Championship Final Preview

Yet despite their victory, shock or no shock, in the semi final, the Yeats County will once again probably carry the underdogs tag into their clash with the defending Champions that are the Red and Green of Mayo. Having claimed the recent Connacht Minor Crown, Mayo would have every right to go in as favorites if not firm ones at that!

In terms of History everything points to a Mayo victory, they are the current Senior Champions, have won 4 All Ireland Senior Titles, all of which were before Sligo ever learned the way to Croke Park, two other Connacht Senior Titles, a host of All Stars awards and a list as long as your arm of underage provincial titles. With that wealth of experience and the fact that Sligo are only in their second year at Senior Level, both the Dog on the Street and the Monkey in the Zoo would find it hard to part with a few cents backing Sligo.

Mind you the Yeats Ladies do go into this encounter with one very big advantage over their opponents, a big Championship game and victory under their belts only 2 weeks ago. After all it’s a whopping 13 weeks since Mayo completed their League campaign. In fact one could say it’s even longer than 13 weeks as they had already been eliminated from the League before the Leagues Final Round.

As Mayo Manager Michael Ryder put it, “we (Mayo) find ourselves more or less a sitting duck for our final opponents” referring of course to the fact that their semi final against Leitrim had bitten the dust. That said they still find themselves as Minor Champions, a competition Sligo didn’t compete in this year and haven’t played in a final of since 2005.

As already stated going on the law of averages Mayo will have to start favorites despite Sligo’s win over Galway but like Galway will be forewarned of Paddy Henry’s comment prior to the Galway game “we’ll give it one hell of a shot this time”. So far that shot has proved lethal. Could it mean a new home for the CBE Cup on Sunday night and another name added to the roll of honor? Roll on 3pm Sunday 6th July, Mc Hale Park, Castlebar!!