Make no mistake, Crossmolina are contenders. That's a statement result.

Hollymount carra and moy davitts sounded like a cracker too

Cross need huge work defensively.

As do ballina perhaps after conceding 3.20 ?

That Ballina Cross game sounds like it was a free for all, with all out attack from both sides.
And after this result today Cross will be a match for anyone..m

Don’t count out belmullet, dark horses

@The Deel Rover To me Ballina aren't a contender this year. Cross are being talked about one, defensively they aren't there. Anyone with an ounce of coaching ability will look at them and see how to get at them. That isn't a slight, some a very obvious observation. In knockout championship you will never outscore a leaky defense.

That could be the case but I have been reading and hearing that since the start of the intermediate championship last year , yet we went on to win the all ireland . Ballina were hot favourites to win today, and the bookies definitely didn't have us as a contender to win as we were 40-1 with them only a few months ago.

Intermediate all Ireland Deel rover, I think most would agree ye probably underachieved in previous years and should have been up to senior before now.

Yes , i know it was the intermediate all ireland gozmobobs , I mentioned intermediate in my post.

Still wouldn't write off Ballina . But Kobe is some talent . Fair play to Cross .

For the first time in years I got to a game and this was it. It was thoroughly enjoyable. See sawed and looked like Ballina were pulling away. But Cross really dug in and ran them ragged in final ten minutes. Fantastic win and a great game. Fair play to both teams. They didn't hold back.
Hope I'll get to see a few more now. Weekends are my busy time but that was good. Kobe, Maheady and Loftus were a joy to watch for Crossmolina but there was plenty of talent on both sides. Thanks lads. Maigheo abú

Definitely Ballina aren't gone anywhere and will learn from.today but O Horas legs aren't what they were , too much dependence on Regan, Feeneys no firing but yet Thornton, Irwin and Murray are monsters around middle, best keeper in the county and Sam, Collins and Golden are solid .
Maybe Mcstay in fullforward line would add some scores but need more inside .

- The Westport v Knockmore game was a terse one marred by erratic refereeing. How what looked like a stone wall penalty turned into a free IN being one example. As someone in the crowd said the actual square must be very small. !!.
- Listened to Ballina v Cross which sounded like a rip roaring one.

Top class game in Crossmolina, despite, imo, a fussy conductor,
Hugely impressed by Koby (this guy is different gravy)
Cross. put some great moves together, which is also true of Ballina.
Both, will hopefully adorn the latter stages of the championship.
Great attendance, atmosphere and excitement.
Thank you all.

Olive, don't forget the Westport Breach that was ignored with 5 to go as well. Westport popped over a free instead of Knockmore having a gimme free for the breach to put them further ahead with a few minutes to go. Was some very odd calls.

Olive

some very interesting calls in fairness. A clear thump to the head on a knockmore man was deemed a dive and Westport looked like they should have had a peno. Not to mention a clear breach of the 3 up rule near the end that would have put Knockmore 4 up instead a free awarded to Westport down the far end. Strange strange stuff.

Draw probably a fair result.

Crossmolina are a really enjoyable team to watch. What impressed me about their younger players in Flynn and Deane, they are very skilled with the ball and comfortable in possession. They play heads up football. There’s not many lads who have the talent of a KMcDonald either. You might get 1 of them every 10 or 20 years. I’d go as far back as Pearse Hanley in terms of tall athletic player who has pace and skill in equal measure

Another player who is in incredible shape is Conor Loftus. His frame is really powerful, his football skills are immense and he’s playing to a standard few in Mayo club football are at.

The overall vibe I'm getting off the first two rounds.
1. Several teams have taken to the new rules and have the forwards to capitalize.
2. There's emerging a close to clear picture that we're going to be better off choosing high ceiling young players ahead of some last season panellists.
3. There's players need looking at again due to the new rules. Adam Barrett is simply a 2 pt scorer. If he was able to commit I'd only see his game improve with senior SnC. He's over six foot so well able to develop.
4. Surely we can find one fielder from the various options from each club?

I would not get carried away with Cross Molina.
Great win for them and a bright future.
However look how Ballintubber dealt with a young Claremorris team.
Interesting that Andy was at the Neale game.
Neither Aiden or Cillian played well at the weekend.
Will Andy be brave enough to bring in new forwards and use the older guys as subs.
A lot of our forwards are work horses, no place for them in the full forward line in the new rules.

Our weekend round-up pod is up now on Patreon. It's an absolute beast, weighing in at an hour and 38 minutes. Add to that the two 30-minute pods from Friday night and last night, that makes over two and a half hours of podcast coverage of the weekend's club action, all online before the weekend is over. Sure where else would you get it?

@jr Ballina could not put game to bed.Crossmolina good young team quality players and did not fear a team that never won outside Mayo!

If you haven't seen already, go to Mayo Gaa Instagram page and watch the highlights and rejoice in a superb football match and the talent thats actually within the county

Oh and can someone do the county a favour and cut up Patrick Leddys Cavan passport and replace with a new shiny Mayo one

Watched four of the senior games. The ones in Breaffy and Claremorris were not good (Ballintubber the only one of the four teams who were half decent). The game in Knockmore was only ok but thankfully the standard in Crossmolina yesterday was really good. A brilliant match with some excellent performances from both teams. Loftus looks better than I’ve seen him and someone mentioned Clarke still being the best in the county? Can’t disagree with that.

Dissapointing for Ballina yesterday but they will learn from it and they will still be in the mix .

Cross have a good chance . Great to see Conor Loftus back flying fit .

@WJ thankfully you would get it nowhere else.

It’s interesting how we view games. From an entertainment perspective hands down Ballina and Cross was the highlight. One of the most entertaining games I’ve ever seen. But that doesn’t mean it was the best standard. If you look at Crossmolinas first goal (I think), they catch a kick out (brilliant field) and run straight down the middle of the Ballina defence. No CB and no FB. Great entertainment. Brutal defending. Ballina’s 4th goal, if it happened at U14 level you would lose the head at the defence for not dealing with it. But……great entertainment. The game lost all structure and shape imo which made for an enjoyable watch. We love chaos football in mayo but it doesn’t mean the quality was outstanding.

From watching the Knockmore game, it seemed a quicker game from TV but never easy to call. Some of the score taking was brilliant from both teams slightly ruined by some very strange calls, especially the Westport breech near the end (which seemed to be communicated into the ref too) and resulted in a vital 3 point swing in Westports favour.

Truth being told with the stakes so high Breaffy and Castlebar was never going to be a great game. But still two teams that will have it all to play for last round.

Conor Loftus looked a few lbs stronger no? Just looked to have good weight on to break tackles.

Very true Green&Red, Similarly in the Saturday night game in Ardnaree there was a lot of very basic mistakes, but entertainment wise it was still a great spectacle.
The Ballina v GarryMore game is likely to be very like the Breaffy v Castlebar game.

Our Podcast Club Stars Senior Team of the Week is out now. Details in the post I've just put up - all constructive feedback on the selection welcome!

JP I would agree with that on Conor Loftus. The definition of muscle in his legs looks to my untrained eye to have increased which would give greater power to burst through players.

The three best established senior players I watched over the weekend were Plunkett, Diarmuid and Conor Loftus - all of that minor/u21 team

Crossmolina v Ballina was an excellent game of football. It literally had everything from brilliant scores , great high fielding and great saves .

I still think Ballina will be there or there about to win county.very strong around middle.
Downside for them they very reliant on Evan Regan for the scores.

Crossmolina have a good team a good mix of experience and youth.however need to tighten up at the back.

Did Diarmuid operate as centre back for Ballintubber?

South Mayo Football in Free Fall
Beaten the weekend
Claremorris
Davitts - Well Beaten
Hollymount
Mayo Gaels- Well Beaten
The Neale
Ballinrobe

Whats going on highly density areas with tradition in football

JP - Diarmuid if memory serves me had 6 on his back. I felt he played somewhere between 6 and deep lying midfield. When fit DOC just oozes class. One kickout he just knocked down to himself and off he goes. Plunkett seemed to be more involved in the attacking end of the play.

Not to enrage Ballintubber fans but I would have a concern for them. I felt their attack on Sat lacked a variety of scoring options plus some of their leading lights seemed to be struggling with injuries. They had a solid win against a very poor Claremorris team

The New Departure - South Mayo in general is an enigma. It’s 31 years since a south mayo club won the Moclair Cup. The area probably has more clubs than other parts of the county. Many clubs are small and near each other but then you take Claremorris the 4th latest town in the county who have not won a county since the 1970s….it’s difficult to figure out.