Make or break weekend for three of Sligo’s county teams
Liam Maloney is looking forward to the three fixtures that could very well define the 2021 campaigns for Sligo’s Gaelic footballers, Ladies Footballers and hurlers
WITH normal times on the horizon – at last – there’s a potentially glorious weekend in store for Sligo as three inter-county adult sides are on the brink of greatness.
The Sligo Senior Gaelic footballers can win a national title, the county’s hurlers can secure a second successive promotion and the Ladies Footballers are one victory away from progressing to a national decider.
Not bad, eh? Given the truncated GAA inter-county campaign, a shortened pre-season and the strange times that have engulfed all aspects of Irish life (because of Covid-19), 2021 could yet turn out to be a seismically brilliant one for Sligo sport – and that’s before we find out how well Sligo Rovers could do in the top half of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.
That’s three big games this weekend that Sligo supporters can attend, albeit in limited numbers.
If a full season was going to be a baptism of fire for new Sligo Senior Gaelic football team manager Tony McEntee, a compacted calendar – with just a minimum of five games – was always going to offer harsher obstacles. It would be unreasonable to think that the Armagh native would have all the answers in his first term, even with his winning credentials from Crossmaglen Rangers to lean on. Indeed, one could argue that he only became a fully fledged Sligo manager on the Sunday before last – when he sat through a superb first-half display and then wondered where his team disappeared to as they lost by 10 points to Louth. Welcome to the Land of Frustrations, Tony.
Despite their failings against both Antrim and Louth, there is a still a decent side trying to reveal itself and it is mainly a young panel, too, with almost half of the panel only six years on from the Minor
(U-18) grade.
Don’t bet on Sligo over-celebrating if Sunday yields the Allianz Football League Division Four Shield. Beating Wexford, who’ve lost their two Division 4 South games by a point, will merely put Sligo in a better place to take on Mayo, a daunting challenge at the best of times (and these aren’t the best of times for Sligo). Still, it would be brilliant if Tourlestrane forward Liam Gaughan can get minutes on the pitch against Wexford, having had injury issues in recent months, and several onlookers, especially those from Castleconnor and Knockmore, would relish a start for attacker Peter Naughton, whose 35 scores helped deliver a Mayo SFC title for Knockmore last year.
Sligo’s Senior hurlers continue to make waves, something they’ve been doing for several seasons. While the joust with Offaly next month in the Christy Ring Cup is a game that will enthuse Sligo’s hurling fraternity, particularly Paddy Galvin, an Offaly native who has become part of Markievicz Park folklore, a bigger and more important picture is for Sligo to be steadily climbing up the Allianz Hurling League tiers. Capturing the Division 3A title, a year on from winning Division 3B, is indicative of the work being put in at all levels of Sligo hurling.
Beating Tyrone will secure AHL honours, with an added safety net – a round five fixture against Monaghan on June 19 – should things go pearshaped in Omagh this Saturday.
Sligo Ladies Footballers have not only become competitive again, they’ve found out how to win games. Anthony Brennan, who took over in January, had a major task at the outset – inspire a group of players who found winning so elusive last year. In Sunday’s Lidl NFL Division Three semi-final, Kildare could prove to be the type of formidable opposition that Down, Fermanagh and Roscommon (the three teams that Sligo have beaten so far) were not.
But the key thing is that Sligo have put themselves in a terrific position, with the possibility of reaching the Division Three final, after such a horrible 2020.
Meanwhile, Castleconnor’s Barry Judge, one of Sligo’s leading referees, takes charge of Saturday’s
AFL Fivision Three relegation play-off between Cavan and Wicklow. This game takes place at Navan’s Páirc Tailteann.
Gerry McGowan, the former Sligo player and joint-manager of Tourlestrane’s epic five-in-a-row, is the coach of the Clare team that takes on Mayo in Sunday’s Allianz Football League Division Two semi-final.
The winner of this game at Cusack Park, Ennis, will be promoted to Division One for 2022 along with the other semi-final winners, either Kildare or Meath.
Mayo will be Sligo’s opponents later this month in the Connacht GAA Senior Football Championship semi-final at Markievicz Park.