JUNIOR PRIZE
GETTING back to the Connacht Gold Intermediate Football Championship was Owenmore Gaels’ main goal this year.
They’ve achieved that and, with a group bolstered by talented up and coming players, they can focus on re-establishing themselves in Sligo GAA’s second tier in 2024.
But right now Owenmore Gaels are on the cusp of something wonderful. This Saturday they have the opportunity to secure a first provincial title – they take on Mayo’s Lahardane MacHales in the AIB Connacht GAA Club Junior Football Championship final at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar (1.30pm start). Owenmore Gaels progressed to the decider thanks to a comeback win over Glenfarne-Kiltyclogher on the weekend before last. This isn’t their first foray into Connacht – last year they were Sligo’s representatives (although not as champions) and lost a semi-final to Roscommon side St Ronan’s at Dr Hyde Park. Their Connacht Gold Junior ‘A’ Football Championship success – Ballymote were beaten in last month’s decider – eased the sting of relegation from Division Two of the Furey’s Coaches Senior Football League. Lahardane MacHales qualified for this weekend’s final thanks to a 5-3 penalty shoot-out defeat of Galway’s Menlough in a recent semi-final that went to extra-time and then spot-kicks.
The winners progressed despite trailing at half-time, 1-5 to 0-3, and not scoring from play until the 43rd minute.
But the Gary Mullen-managed Owenmore Gaels should be wary of the Mayo club as they’ve have previously shattered Sligo hopes in a provincial decider.
Lahardane MacHales, then managed by John Maughan, defeated Ballymote by four points, 1-15 to 3-5, in the 2017 final at MacHale Park. Sligo senior player Mark Walsh and his younger brother Dillon, who
OWENMORE Gaels are bidding to become only the third Sligo club to win the AIB Connacht
GAA Club Junior Football Championship title. St John’s were the first Sligo winners, taking the honours in 1999, in what was the second year of the competition. Easkey were crowned champions in 2018 – the Sea Blues would later reach the All-Ireland final in that 2018-2019 campaign. Three Sligo clubs have been runnersup in the AIB Connacht GAA Club
JFC – Ballymote (2017), St Michael’s (2019) and St Patrick’s (2021).
Clubs from Mayo have won 13 titles, followed by Galway clubs
(7) and those from Roscommon (2). Elsin were Leitrim’s only
finalists.
scored the winning point for the Sligo U-20s in this year’s Connacht GAA U-20 Football Championship final defeat of Galway at Tuam Stadium, are among the players to watch for Owenmore Gaels. Dillon Walsh, who has thankfully recovered from a serious illness (meningitis) earlier this year, also helped Summerhill College secure provincial honours.
There are four Walsh brothers playing for Owenmore Gaels – the other siblings are Aaron and Joseph. Mark, who won an Allianz Football League Division Four title with Tony McEntee’s Sligo on April 1 at Croke Park, says that it is a special feeling to experience success at club level. He said: “There’s a real buzz about the place since our win against Glenfarne-Kiltyclogher.
“If we can win it would really put the club on the [Connacht] map – we saw what Easkey did a few years ago when they went on to be champions. “We want to try to push on as a club and a Connacht title would be a great boost.”
Walsh hailed the impact of freetaker Aaron Mullen, a teenager who
The number of Sligo clubs that have reached the final of the AIB Connacht GAA Club JFC. was part of the Sligo Minor (U-17) panel last year. Mullen was ice-cool in the county final, kicking six frees, and he supplied 0-8 from frees in the Connacht semi-final.
“Aaron [Mullen] has been brilliant for us – if we work hard and win a free then we can rely on Aaron to step up. Daire Callaghan [also 18] is another one of the younger lads who’ve come into the team.”
Walsh, at 22, is still young himself yet his ability that secured a county call up means he has assumed the responsibility of a veteran.
He added: “We’ll be underdogs but it is great to be representing Sligo in a Connacht final.
“I think we were good enough to get out of Junior ‘A’ level in the last few years but it didn’t happen for us until this year.
“We’ve a good bunch of lads there and they’ve been working very hard for this.”
RESULTS
Played on Saturday, November 25
Sligo U-20 ‘B’ Football Championship
FIXTURES
Friday, December 1
Saturday, December 2