Good to see Tommy C back featuring in totw.

Yeah that's great to see Tommy C back and going well for his club .

Darragh reilly was Parkes best player on the day, extremely unlucky to miss out.
Simon cloherty got the important score but Reilly had at least 1-5 and was basically unmarkable when Parke actually kicked it in to him.
Darragh Joyce for islandeady was also outstanding

Brian Reape is like a soccer striker. He's actually stronger on goals than points. I've often thought he'd be a Kevin McManamon goal threat from the bench for us.

Crossmolina looked fit yesterday in defeating Ballyhaunis . Very strong running .dark horses maybe

@James Fleming: Not sure if "dark horses" sits too well on the current bookies favourites for the competition.

Some showings in the campaign so far given just how young the side is. Experience and youth alike all flying for them.

I was thinking the same thing Tsu, Crossmolina are way past ‘dark horses’ now. Gotta say they’ve been so impressive in how they’ve improved and matured since last season’s intermediate success. Conor Loftus looks better than he ever was. Jordan is just so strong in the middle and provided he keeps control of his emotions he’s huge for them. Coggins & Co and McDeane. They are on a roll. On top of this, Westport, Ballina and Breaffy have stuttered their way to QF’s so it’s understandable that the bookies have CDR as favourites. The next inform team are Ballagh. Ballintubber and Knockmore are dangerous. Really interesting to see how this plays out. A fun exciting championship even if the standard in many games has been very average.

I think that's two out of three weeks Fenton Kelly has been named in the half forwards in the team of the week. I wouldn't have him down as an intercounty half forward from what I have seen, but our scores from the half back line have really dried up in recent years. Especially last year when we were missing Paddy Durcan and Eoghan McLaughlin.

Cross will win county I think they just have so much talent , confidence and momentum now . It's hard to see past them .

Great to see Conor Loftus back flying is well .

Interesting to see how Hollymounts appeal goes. Hard to see it succeed as would create a problematic precedent going forward.

Hopefully moy davitts for intermediate title

You cant predict club winners, it's too tight one injury or suspension at this level is difference and thats the beauty of this competition

If the weather is bad for some matches it will help some clubs that are more comfortable under the old rules. Good weather helps high scoring teams like Crossmolina, Kiltane and Moy Davitts.

@WJ do you do a Junior Team of the week?

We don't Bonni - we make every effort to get across all the Senior and Intermediate matches but adding Junior to the mix simply isn't feasible.

2 from parke and they had to score 6 mins into injury time or face a relegation play off and no one from islaneady ????

Parke have a habit now of being strong in the league and weaker in the championship.

The New Departure And 2 from Kiltane

Castlebar out of both competitions for 2025 is probably the story of the championship so far. not many would have predicted that at the start . Each round from here in will take on its own story, the lack of competitive football for the majority of players involved with senior and to a lesser extent intermediate is not really doing the task of developing a strong county team any favours.

Significant Castlebar not in relegation trouble in either grade.

To be honest at the beginning of the senior championship I had Castlebar as the team to beat. Was very impressed with them during the league despite them missing 4/5 key players on J1 or with the county. The fact that they didn’t get out of senior group is genuinely a shock. Kevin’s first year in charge has not been ideal but it’s a trend that was there before his time too. I’d argue that Castlebar have the most talent in the county at underage but how it’s not pulling though is surprising. They aren’t associated with the same “town” issues that Claremorris and Westport get branded with, but it looks like they aren’t ending up down that track.

For me, I think we have to give massive credit to the more rural clubs in the county. The ability of Ballintubber, and Knockmore to be constantly competitive given the lack of underage numbers and to an extent quality is excellent. In fairness Crossmolina deserve credit too as they are now building a serious team off 1 minor team. Westport, Castlebar and Claremorris have a lot of soul searching to do. Based on their underage talent over the last decade, let’s be honest those 3 clubs should be in the semi final of senior every year. But they aren’t. Why? Clearly club culture remains hugely significant for players and can never be underestimated.

Provisional dates have being released by Connacht Council for Connacht championship 2026

Ireland like Castlebar Mitchels

Not near as many titles

Do all mayo county players get sponsored a car? Just wondering

Green and Red - knockmore is a very big parish with 5 national schools. Their numbers at underage would not be far off Ballina.

You're miles off the mark @Just for thought. Garracloon N.S has about 9 local kids in total. Cloghans N.S. has even less, maybe 7 or 8 kids in total. Shraheen N.S. has closed. Numbers are dropping rapidly in all the schools. Amalgamation is on the horizon and a lot sooner than many may expect. No new houses getting built, equals no young families, equals no kids for the clubs. Same in every rural area of North Mayo. Unless Knockmore village develops into a town, then numbers playing will only go one way and that's not up. Knockmore is no different to Ballycastle, Cooneal, Kilfian, Lacken, Killala, Kiltane, Kilcommon, Ballycroy. It's all very sad to witness as a native of North Mayo.

Think I shared here earlier in year the numbers registered by clubs at under 12 Knockmore were 25th or 26th on the list with 24, closer in munber to Islandeady, Bonniconlon, Davitts and Tourmakeady than Ballina.
The big towns numbers are on the up with most rural clubs sadly going as west is best says, in the other direction. At same age group players by club:
Westport - 73
Castlebar - 56
Claremorris - 46
Burrishoole - 44
Ballina - 42
Balla - 38
Bellmullet - 36
Ballinrobe - 35
Breaffy and Crossmolina - 34

West in best - Looking online there are 475 pupils enrolled in knockmore’s 5 national schools.

Just a thought, irrelevant figure for the GAA club given Rehins which is one of those included in that figure is predominantly Ballina Stephenites gven its proximity to the town and the town boys school having closed down and accounts for 234 of those. Those figures are also over a year out of date with Garracloon and Cloghans approximately half the numbers recorded currently after last years 6th class leavers.
Other rural clubs are going the same way.
The key figures for clubs is those registered on Foireann which i have given above.

It's sad to see but thats the way things are going and planning laws/government strategy mean its not changing anytime soon.

Our national population stats would suggest there's no shortage of people in most rural territories, but it seems we're adapting an American/Australian model of demographics, whereby, people are being kettled into urban conurbations. Pre-famine population levels are expected before 2030, which, according to conventional wisdom was 8 million.