Major test for Sligo as they get Mayo in provincial arena
SLIGO’S Senior Gaelic footballers and their new manager Tony McEntee have been handed a daunting provincial challenge – they will face formidable holders Mayo in this summer’s Connacht GAA Senior Football Championship. Sligo are away for their quarter-final against their provincial neighbours, who have appeared in three of the last five All-Ireland finals, with this knockout game due to be played on the weekend of June 26-27. If perennial underdogs Sligo were to pull off an unlikely win – against a county relegated from last year’s National Football League top tier – they would again be on the road for a semi-final against their Division Four rivals Leitrim.
The other semi-final sees Roscommon host Galway, last year’s provincial finalists, who lost to Mayo by a point in the decider.
The altered campaign due to Covid-19 restrictions, recently revealed by the GAA, means there are no Qualifiers – which was also the case last year when losing counties had no back door.
The Tailteann Cup (tier 2 championship) for counties in Division Three and Division Four of the National Football League has also been put on ice until 2022.
New York and London are not taking part in this year’s provincial championship because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Sligo were forced to withdraw from last year’s competition due to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the camp, with confirmed cases and other players deemed as close contacts. Their last game in the Connacht SFC was in the 2019 campaign – a semi-final against Galway that Sligo, then managed by Paul Taylor, lost by 13 points, 3-11 to 0-7. Sligo last met Mayo in the Connacht SFC four years ago – that was a quarter-final at MacHale Park, Castlebar,
which Mayo won comfortably, 2-14 to 0-11. Kildare native Niall Carew was the Sligo boss at the time. He is now in charge of Carlow.
Twice in the last decade Sligo and Mayo have contested Connacht finals – there was a landslide loss for Sligo in the 2015 decider, 6-25 to 2-11, but a much closer affair in 2012, 0-12 to 0-10.
Sligo’s last victory over the green and red was in 2010. In that campaign the counties met in a quarter-final. Sligo beat Mayo by four points, 0-15 to 1-8, and followed that up with a semi-final defeat of Galway.
Mayo’s Nestor Cup capture last year was their 47th title but the first since 2015. They won five titles in succession between 2011 and 2015. Sligo have only won the trophy three times – 1928, 1975 and 2007.
Sligo’s game against Mayo later this year is one of the minimum of five games that the Tony McEntee-managed side will have. The county panel were permitted to return to collective outdoor training this week.
The National Football League is scheduled to begin in mid-May. Sligo are in Division Four North and will take on Leitrim, Antrim and Louth.
Last year the James Horan-managed Mayo made the drop to the National Football League’s second tier for the first time in 23 years. Mayo’s opponents in Division Two North will be Meath, Down and Westmeath.
The draw for this year’s Connacht SFC was made on Monday evening on RTÉ’s Six One News. Performing the draw was Tubbercurry’s John Murphy, Connacht GAA president.
Meanwhile, Gerry McGowan of Tourlestrane, now coach of the Clare Senior Gaelic footballers, has a Munster GAA SFC quarter-final against Kerry to look forward to. Clare will have home advantage for this tie – the winners take on champions Tipperary.