View from the Hill

View from the Hill

We welcome Dublin fan Neil Franklin into our guest spot as we build up to the big match on Sunday.

I don’t know what my real attitude towards Mayo football is. I’ve never been excited by it in the way that I was excited by Down’s early 90s flair and swagger, or Galway’s late 90s version of the same qualities. I’ve never admired it in the way I admired Tyrone or Armagh’s defiance, I’ve never feared it in the way I feared Meath and Kerry. For a long time it barely registered on my radar. When it did, it came with baggage weighing it down, and it generally made for an uncomfortable watch.

On the day that Mayo demolished Donegal in the 2013 All-Ireland quarter-final, I began reading Keith Duggan’s book “House Of Pain”, finishing it three weeks later, the day before Mayo beat Tyrone in the All-Ireland semi-final. The aim of that book may not be to fill people from other counties with pity for Mayo, but unfortunately that is the inevitable outcome of reading it. Everybody wants Mayo to win an All-Ireland. The truth is, we want you to get it over with so we can stop feeling guilty about cheering against you.

But I’m also jealous of Mayo in some ways. That may sound strange coming from somebody from a county with 24 All-Ireland titles against Mayo’s mere three but to me, it’s rational. Kind of.

I’m jealous of what it must feel like to have a whole county unite and go into the Lion’s den and face Hill 16 and 50,000 Dubs in their own backyard. Jealous of being from a county where GAA is part of the fabric of everyday life in a way that it will never be in Dublin. Jealous of being part of a people and a cause in a way that we will never know. Jealous of being an underdog. Jealous of the chase.

Mayo people want to end the chase, and go back to being a normal county unencumbered by the nation’s pity and “God help us” tags. The chase can only be worthwhile if the prize is won.

Hill 16 - Dublin only?

Hill 16 – Dublin only?

The only insight I can gather into what it must feel like to be a Mayo person as Sam Maguire comes into view in the distance and then disappears yet again is from being a Liverpool fan in April 2014 as 24 years without a League championship promised to end in a glorious climax, and then blew up in a manner that left me feeling despairing, bitter, yet empty. It’s not the same though. Liverpool FC is a basically a television-inspired, one way love affair for me, not much more real than Taylor Swift or Jessica Alba. Mayo football to Mayo people is not that and never will be.

Dublin’s chase, the longest in the county’s history, lasted 16 years, exactly one quarter of the current length of Mayo’s.

Winning in 2011 was great. The manner of it was better, coming from behind as underdogs to overhaul your greatest rivals and beat them in the championship for the first time in 34 years.

I knew then and I know now that that was as good as it could ever get following the Dublin football team. The 2013 semi-final came damn close, but again, that was Kerry. Kerry are the one county who will always be able to waken even the most sated Dub from his well-fed sloth and turn them into a ravenous, bloodthirsty animal again.

I didn’t particularly enjoy the final. September 22nd of two years ago almost felt too perfect and ultimately, it could only disappoint. Closer to the shortest day than the longest, in most years it would have been the hottest day of the year, although perhaps not in that glorious summer of 2013.

I stood beside Donegal, Derry, Armagh and Tyrone people in previous years as they experienced the agonising final minutes before their first All-Irelands, so I’ve seen and even felt what it brings out in people. Being in opposition to that is a strange, conflicted feeling. There was a different kind of tension in the air in 2013 to 2011. I felt our tension and I felt Mayo’s tension as a group of Mayo supporters stood near me on Hill 16.

As Cillian O’Connor lined up that last free, it was difficult to know what to think. I didn’t know what I wanted to happen. Probably for one more play to be allowed and for Mayo to get a draw. That was not to be.

When Joe McQuillan blew the whistle from Stephen Cluxton’s kickout, there were celebrations, flares, flags and blue smoke, but it wasn’t like 2011. There was real disappointment and real emotion in close vicinity and it was hard not to feel some of it.

It’s hard not to laugh at Kerry and Kilkenny people who tell me they know disappointment too. Sure. They don’t even know what it felt like to be a Dublin supporter during our barren spell. Never mind Mayo, never mind counties who have never won the All-Ireland such as Monaghan.

Dublin people perhaps know more disappointment than Kerry or Kilkenny, but it’s still different for us. Winning does strange things to you. Winning when you have an almost obscene population and money advantage, and now talent advantage over virtually every county, as Dublin have, does even stranger things. Dublin should be winning and are winning. You find yourself becoming apathetic, bored almost, as the latest hapless victim lines up to be squashed like a bug. Every match in the cavernous new Croke Park, metaphorical tumbleweed blowing around the place, Dublin people fattened on success, some too bored by the sheer inevitability of it all to even bother clapping never mind cheering, the match day experience usually as stale as a loaf that left Oul’ Mr. Brennan’s factory a fortnight ago.

As a kid growing up, for me Dublin’s year generally revolved around one day – often the last Sunday in July, Leinster final day, sometimes earlier, in which case it would be the unofficial but real Leinster final day, when we would inevitably meet Meath. That day would determine whether the year was a success or a failure.

All this time we in Dublin would have considered Mayo not much more than a joke, a team that might have an outside chance of sneaking through to make up the numbers in the All-Ireland final in those triennial years when Connacht teams got the “soft” draw of the Ulster champions in the semi-final.

The things began to change. The GAA decided to give teams a second chance and rivalries and certainties blurred. Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Armagh and London came onto Dublin’s horizon. Kerry returned to it. And then, later, came Mayo. Respect wasn’t something that came naturally to Dublin people when they thought of Mayo. Mayo have had to earn Dublin’s respect.

The 2013 final was the apex of what is mainly a modern rivalry, but it is pockmarked by the far apart yet symmetrical semi-final meetings of 1955 and 1985 to which this year’s edition is the latest descendant. Both took place in the midst of decades in which Ireland was blighted by emigration and both ended in draws. The circle turns again.

1955 was a key year in Dublin GAA history. It was the first year of what we now know as “The Dubs”, the first time a Dublin football team made up entirely of Dubliners, most of them St. Vincent’s men, won a Leinster title. With Kevin Heffernan starring, a 20 point humiliation of Meath led to an All-Ireland semi-final meeting with an ageing Mayo team trying one more time to get back to the summit they had reached in 1950 and 1951. Although famous names such as Tom Langan, Paddy Prendergast and Sean Flanagan were still there, they were shorn of their star forward Padraic Carney, who had left for the USA the previous year to pursue his medical career. In rain and thunder and lightning that made conditions almost unplayable, the teams drew 1-4 to 0-7, Dublin eventually drawing level late on through Nicky Maher.

The replay went ahead in much better weather as the second part of a double-bill with Kerry and Cavan, who were also replaying their semi-final. This time Dublin took the initiative early and would never really lose it after Ollie Freaney’s first half goal cancelled out Jimmy Curran’s effort. Despite Curran’s efforts in hitting every score of Mayo’s 1-7 tally, Dublin’s 1-8 was enough to win by a single point. They would lose the final to Kerry, the first chapter in a storied rivalry which has rarely relented ever since.

The 1955 Clash

The 1955 Clash

1985 is remembered mainly for two things – Padraig Brogan’s screamer of a goal in front of Hill 16 and John Finn having his jaw broken.  A whole other article could probably be written about that, but we won’t go there …

The drawn game of 1985 was significant in that it marked the first, tentative step towards Mayo being a genuine national force in the game since the corresponding semi-final 30 years earlier. An eight point replay defeat turned out to be their lot, but the genesis of the 1989 final team was there in those matches. Again, Dublin lost the final to you-know-who. In fact all four Dublin-Mayo semi-finals since 1955 have seen the winner go on to lose the final.

The semi-final of 2006 was the day the modern day rivalry of Dublin and Mayo really began. Before the match had even started, farcical scenes almost reminiscent of a Benny Hill Show sketch had the crowd laughing and shouting angrily in equal measure.

Mayo weren’t the first team to warm up in front of Hill 16 in an All-Ireland semi-final. Tyrone did likewise in 1984, and subsequently were made to pay in a comprehensive beating.

But that was a Dublin team who were reigning All-Ireland champions and were never going to be undermined by such nonsense. In 2006 Mayo knew that while they weren’t a champion team, neither was it a champion team they were facing, but one with a soft underbelly which could be exposed. While it would be fatuous to claim it genuinely affected the result, Dublin having their territory claimed undoubtedly rattled them. It was the ridiculous prelude to the sublime as the game of the year and possibly the decade ensued.

It was Mayo’s day of blond ambition. Conor Mortimer led the way, but Ciaran McDonald’s contribution is undoubtedly the more enduring.

Like Mayo football as a whole, McDonald had to earn people’s respect. Now considered an almost mythical, mystical figure of Mayo football, a diffident, avant-garde, mysterious leftfield genius,  it’s hard to believe that for a long time he was treated as a bit of joke figure. A flash harry, a “Swedish Maid”, as Joe Brolly once called him. That changed in 2004, shortly after Brolly made those comments during a Connacht championship clash with Galway. Mayo made the All-Ireland final where, despite McDonald’s not inconsiderable efforts, they were no match for Kerry, but skewered All-Ireland champions Tyrone along the way. That day McDonald made sure nobody would ever fail to take him seriously again.

Elverys beats Arnotts once again.

Elverys beats Arnotts once again.

His performance in that semi-final against Dublin in 2006 seemed as extraordinary at the time as that Mayo team was ordinary, and a look back at the video confirms first impressions didn’t lie. McDonald controlled that game like a matador. In the midst of a Dublin whirlwind, he was like a Gaelic football equivalent of Maradona at the 1986 World Cup, controlling everything, dictating the tempo almost nonchalantly. And at the end, delivering the exquisite coup de grace.

But in truth, that 2006 semi-final was a battle to be runners-up to one of the best Kerry teams ever.

Things had moved on significantly by the time the 2012 semi-final came around, with a sprinkling of survivors on both sides peppering two largely new, and better teams, even if the match didn’t quite attain the all-time classic status of six years before. The flair of McDonald may not have iced Mayo’s cake this time, but it was clear that their power and pace were the framework of a more formidable overall unit.

In saying that, the Dublin of 2012 were not the Dublin of 2011, or 2013, feeling the hangover of All-Ireland success, Pat Gilroy unable to rouse them like he had been a year earlier. It was only the prospect of a humiliation that did so, but the roar when it came threatened to engulf Mayo. That last 20 minutes was one of the most devastating bursts of football that this Dublin team have produced, and had Bernard Brogan slotted a gilt-edged chance past David Clarke with five minutes left, the result would likely have gone the other way. He didn’t, Mayo advanced to another losing final and Brogan stored his disappointment up for 2013 when he would face a different Mayo goalkeeper.

The record shows that Mayo have always troubled Dublin. In those five times the counties have crossed paths since 1955,  on the initial day there have been two draws, two Mayo wins, and a solitary Dublin win by one point, Dublin’s 1955 and 1985 replay wins coming by one and eight points respectively.

Which leads us to Sunday.

Dublin at times have looked unstoppable this year, and the league rout in Castlebar in March was one of those occasions. But lately, they’ve been looking vulnerable. Stephen Cluxton has been doing a fair impression of Iker Casillas at last year’s World Cup. Paul Flynn appears hampered by injury. Michael Darragh McAuley’s engine appears to be running on ordinary rather than premium at the moment.

Mayo people would be foolish to take any of that at face value. This is a champion Dublin team with the ability to explode.

Mayo’s early season form is now forgotten, their performance against Donegal as complete as any they’ve put in since 2011. James Horan did a superb job in his four years, but perhaps the fresh voices of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes, who have won an All-Ireland under-21 title with many of this team, and a fresh role for Aidan O’Shea, can make the difference.

“Miles on the clock”, say the detractors, given that those under-21 players of 2006 are all around the 30 mark now. But if this was a Kerry team, it would be classed as vast experience, and that’s what it deserves to be classed as. Both teams have that experience and a superb, free flowing style at their best, and it’s as tantalising a clash as has been played in the football championship since the great Kerry and Tyrone teams of the last decade met in their two All-Ireland finals.

It’s rare to have a great atmosphere at Croke Park these days. League and Leinster championship matches there are usually a depressing prospect.

Sunday will be different. It’ll be full on and then some. Semi-finals generally provide the best atmosphere of any match in a given year, as Croke Park is filled with supporters from the competing counties rather than the large proportion of neutrals that attend the final. And for Dubs it yet again it provides the prospect of a moment which is exclusive to the patrons on Hill 16 (we’re like the good folk at Augusta, just noiser and with a more colourful vocabulary). Five times in the new Croke Park Dublin have lost semi-finals. On each of those occasions, at the final whistle, the roar that went up from the other three sides of the stadium has been incredible and genuinely spine tingling. Eerily quiet around you, the rest of Croke Park becomes deafening, a wall of noise that Phil Spector couldn’t reproduce. Horrible yet beautiful at the same time.

Few counties have a Dublin diaspora like Mayo. The pubs will fill with them from Saturday evening, and as I wait at my Dublin bus stop on the main road in from the West on Sunday morning, cars and buses zooming past with their green and red flags will signal the main invasion.

green and red Mayo car

Not this photo again lads!?

Whereas in previous decades, Dublin supporters used to wait for the last Sunday in July, it’s now the last Sunday in August we wait for as the day when the real business begins. This is the type of day you wait all year for. But for both teams it’s only a bridge to September. For Mayo, the chase will continue past Sunday, either way.

The big dog versus the underdog.

Every underdog surely has his day eventually.

Maybe.

Neil Franklin loves hurling (especially the golden 90s era), soccer (especially Liverpool), darts, poetry, wine and song. If he had a paper cut he would bleed blue. Follow him on twitter at @hill16bhoy

2015 All Ireland Semi-Final – Mayo v Dublin

2015 All Ireland Semi-Final – Mayo v Dublin

Your essential match weekend guide!

On a week like this, it has been hard to turn our thoughts to the game ahead, and for the remainder of the week and beyond they will undoubtedly remain with the family and friends of the late Darragh Doherty.

But this is a massive occasion for our county and on Sunday, more than ever, this Mayo team will be looking to do him and themselves proud as we face into an All-Ireland semi-final for the fifth year running.  Truly these are glory days for and this Sunday versus the mighty Dubs, while it will undoubtedly be laced with poignancy has the potential to be the biggest and loudest day we have ever witnessed in Croke Park to date.

 

Mayo GAA crest

   Vs   Dublin GAA crest

If there was ever a day to stand up and be counted as supporters, this is it.

If there was ever a day to empty your lungs in support of our boys, THIS IS IT.

It’s time for us to play our part once again. The Dubs are loud; and in all likelihood, we will be outnumbered. We need to work harder. Let no silence fall during this game. If we lead, we cheer. If we fall behind, we cheer louder. Be the best Mayo supporters we can be. Bring the colour, and bring the noise. It’s time to be the 16th man.

Mayo fans celebrate 25/8/2013

Being The 16th (And 17th) Man

As is now customary, here is our usual round-up of info on how to get there. We noticed that the sound people in the Western People have taken a leaf from our book this week and done their own essential matchday guide and we are very flattered altogether but we’ve a bit more info below that might be useful. If you have any other info you think people should know, get in touch.

Getting there

Driving

As we always say, leave on time … leave yourself plenty of time for the breakfast in Rathowen!

  • The Longford Marathon takes place in Longford (unsurprisingly), on Sunday, and Main Street in Longford will remain closed from 10-4pm. The N4/N5 bypass will remain open, but with potentially heavier volumes of traffic.
  • Don’t forget your change for the toll bridge. When nerves are fraught it may just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Many a marriage has run into difficulty under the e-toll sign in Enfield. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
  • Don’t forget either to stop into Feerick’s in Rathowen for a hearty breakfast. In what is now a match day tradition Mid West Radio will be broadcasting on the morning of the game.

 Parking

  • Mater Car Park: Sunday’s special offer is available at the Mater Car Park; the closest official car park to the stadium, with all day parking available for only €10 and it can be booked online here. Fans are advised to book early for this weekend to avoid disappointment.
  • Q-Park: Park for up to 24 hours on match-day in Q-Park Clerys for only €8. Or park in Q-Park Usher’s Quay for €4 upon presentation of a match day ticket.  The Match-Day offer is for GAA matches only and does not cover concerts or other events in Croke Park.
  • Park Rite: All day parking on event days is available at Park Rite locations across the city centre for €5 for match day patrons upon production of your match ticket. Locations and pre-booking here.
  • Clonliffe College: The Clonliffe College car park is situated 5 minutes from Croke Park Stadium. Parking is available for just €10 on match days. The car park has 2000 spaces, including 100 disabled spaces and is accessible via Drumcondra Road Lower.
Mayo car green and red ford fiesta

If this is your car, leave early. Like, now.

Buses

treacy's coaches

 

Here are some bus companies that will be travelling to the match on Sunday. If you know of any more, please let us know and we will add them in here. Call to book your seat in advance if you haven’t already, we don’t want to see any of you lot thumbing up the N5.

 

 

  • Gillespie Coaches 087 2441440 Crossmolina > Ballina > Foxford > Swinford.
  • Barrett Coaches 097 83544 Belmullet > Bangor Erris 8am > Crossmolina 8.25am > Ballina 8.40am > Foxford 8.50am.
  • Michael Moran Bus Hire 087 2330097 Westport > Castlebar.
  • Fred Queenan Bus Hire 086 8656449
  • Treacy Coaches Bus Hire Ballina  096 22563
  • Lavin Coaches Kiltimagh 086 8676737
  • Michael Griffin Bus Hire 094 9252156 Swnford Leaving the Gateway Hotel @8am

Trains

Mayo supporters train to Mayo matchIrish Rail have announced extra services to Dublin to cover the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Semi-Final on Sunday 30th August. There will be three extra trains with one departing from Ballina and the other two from Westport. Booking on www.irishrail.ie is essential to secure your train ticket.

The following additional services have been added to accommodate supporters travelling to/from the match:

 

  • 08:25hrs Wesport – Dublin
  • 08:45hrs Wesport – Dublin
  • 09:05hrs Ballina – Dublin
  • 18:20hrs Dublin – Westport
  • 19:10hrs Dublin – Ballina
  • 19:20hrs Dublin – Westport

To book these services please click on this link, but do so soon as they are expected to sell out.

For extra matchday fun, when you reserve your seat you can opt to have your name displayed overhead. We wonder how many Willie Joe Paddens will be travelling this weekend …

Reserved seating Irish rail "not your seat"

Best use of the reserved seating function we’ve seen yet

train-7-630x472

Just pray this name doesn’t appear beside yours

Other Stuff

Tickets

Ticket demand for the semi final match between Mayo and Dublin are at All-Ireland final levels! Anyone with a season tickets that was lucky enough to avail of the offer to buy 4 extra “bring a friend” tickets on their account were very lucky as this offer sold out in less than 24 hours! Tickets on ticketmaster and from Supervalu also sold out within days. All the clubs in Mayo will be struggling to cater for all the tickets requested and will only be able to issue about 80% of tickets ordered. Hopefully there will be more allocated to clubs later in the week in the second allocation.

Anyone without tickets on the day of the match could try the Croke Park ticket offices. One is located on Dorset Street upper and another is located on the North Circular Road opposite Gills Pub. Otherwise, if you do find yourself with a spare ticket and no takers (a highly unlikely scenario!) you could give us a shout as we have been inundated with messages looking for tickets.

Pre Match Meet-Up

Traditonally, Willie Joe over on Mayo GAA Blog organises the now-customary pre-semi Saturday night meet-up in Bowes pub on Fleet Street. As a mark of respect, however, given the week that’s in it, it will not be going ahead this year. Here’s hoping we have a pre-final meetup to look forward to instead, however.

On the day, because of the crowd volumes, it’s unlikely that there will be access to our usual haunt in the Croke Park Hotel for ticket-holders other than those who are in the Hogan Stand, so there will be no Club ’51 pre-match meet-up on the day.

Social Stuff 

  • Everleigh Garden on Harcourt Street (who once famously refused entry to Aidan O’Shea – sorry lads, too funny not bring up) are offering free entry with a Mayo jersey this weekend and also have competitions galore over on their Facebook and Instagram pages.
  • DTwo nightclub, also on Harcourt St are offering free entry with county colours before midnight and are having a pre-match party on Saturday night featuring Wesht of Ireland “gyp-hop”band The Latchikos (they’re class). Mention to Steven on the night that you’re part of Club ’51 and he says he’ll look after you (whatever that means – we reckon it definitely means a few free pints. Right Steven?)
  • If you don’t want a sore head for Sunday Willie Joe over on Mayo GAA blog has details of two great sporting events, one on each side of the river in this post.

Season Ticket Holders Lounge

The season ticket holders lounge is a new initiative from Croke Park for season ticket holders. You can pre-purchase dinner vouchers through the “Special Purchases” section in your season ticket account. You have until midday today (Wednesday 26th August) to avail of the offer. The adult menu costs €15 and U-16 menu costs €10.

“We are continuing our new offering for Season Tickets Holders for this All Ireland Football Championship Semi Finals in the form of a Season Ticket Lounge at Section 401. This is an area with tables exclusively reserved for Season Ticket holders who avail of this Special Purchase option. Service time is from when stiles open until the start of the second match.”

season ticket 401 carvery ticket

Match previews

    • For those of you at home on Sunday, the Sky Sports panel preview the All-Ireland SFC semi-final between Dublin and Mayo live on Sky Sports 3 on Sunday 30th August at 3.30pm: Mayo v Dublin preview
    • The Mayo News have their usual pre-match podcast online, featuring Sports Editor Mike Finnerty, Mayo ladies footballer Fiona McHale, and Castlebar Mitchels manager Declan O’Reilly with host Rob Murphy.
    • MidWest Radio will have their traditional pre-match preview show on Thursday night from 10pm.
    • And Off The Ball have an interview with Pearce Hanley on life down under:

Can’t make the game? No problem! 

Mayo Movie World in Moneen, Castlebar are showing the match for free in HD – drop into the cinema to book your ticket.

Mayo Movie world are showing the 2015 All-Ireland Semi-final

Replay Details (!!)

If (god forbid!) the game ends in stalemate and there is a replay, this will be held in Croke Park (yes, in Croke Park) on the evening of Saturday 5th September.

#13forNo13

You will probably have seen this online already, but if not, former Mayo great David Brady has suggested that Mayo supporters in Croke Park on Sunday pay tribute to the late Darragh Doherty, who wore the no.13 jersey, by way of a massive round of applause in the 13th minute of the game. The idea has been widely shared and supported and in a reminder that  solidarity transcends sporting rivalry within the GAA family, most of the Dublin  supporters’ groups have also come on board to lend their support to the initiative.

Darragh Doherty Mayo GAA

Please share and spread the word to all Mayo supporters who may not be online, and let us raise the roof for our fallen brother.

 Bring the Noise …

What more can we say? Bring your flags, (even one flag per car makes a MASSIVE difference) your voices, your hearts and souls and let’s bring that infamous Mayo Roar back to Croke Park. This is it!

Maigh Eo Abú!

Mayo v Dublin All Ireland Semi Final 2015 Match Programe

mayo v dublin all ireland semi final 2015 match programme

 

Elvery’s Pre Match Promotional Advertisment

Here’s the advertisment from Elvery’s the week before the match which Mayo Club 51 took part in filming. #SpineTingling

Mayo v Derry pre-match gathering – Croke Park Hotel

Mayo v Derry pre-match gathering – Croke Park Hotel

It’s starting to feel like the summer is truly upon us, what with all these trips to Croke Park so early in the year. The weekend is just around the corner too and with it comes the anticipation of another cracking day of football in the capital as Mayo take on Derry in the first of the Allianz National Football League semi-finals.

Mayo v Derry throws in at 2pm and it’s set to be a very different game from the lacklustre occasion we witnessed in MacHale Park last Sunday, given that Derry will most likely bring their first team this time. For those of you who are truly insatiable, Dublin take on Cork in the second semi which throws in at 4pm – a fixture that will hold all the more interest for us should the first game go our way.

Mayo Fans @ Mayo v Derry

In what is fast becoming a familiar pre-match tradition, Club ’51 will be convening across the road in the Jury’s Croke Park Hotel from 12pm. Come join us, say hello and have a cupán tae or a pint before the game. If the day is fine, look for us out the back where you’ll see the flags!

This is the first knockout game of the year, so we’re expecting a high turnout and a good atmosphere, and Club ’51 will be continuing our quest to turn Croke Park into a Sea of Green and Red – but we need your help! If you’re making the trip, be sure and bring a flag and let’s get some colour into those stands.

And most important of all, let’s stand tall and get behind our team on Sunday. It’s up to us, in the crowd to create the atmosphere, so let’s play our part and make ourselves heard – especially if things aren’t going our way. So stock up on the honey and lemon, raise your voices and let’s bring back the Mayo Roar.

See you all on Sunday -Maigh Eo Abú!

 

Dublin v Mayo pre-game get-together – Jury’s Croke Park Hotel

Dublin v Mayo pre-game get-together – Jury’s Croke Park Hotel

It’s been a quiet few days for the Mayo faithful as we’ve been basking in the warm glow of the win against the Rebels last Sunday week, but now it’s time to turn our sights towards the one we’ve all been waiting for as the Green and Red take to the capital to face Dublin in Round 6 of the Allianz National Football League. The game throws in at 7pm on Saturday 29th March, and there can be no doubt that this is the Big One, to date at least, of this year’s league campaign as we face the Boys in Blue for the first time since last year’s stinging final defeat.

Photo by Michael Maye

Photo by Michael Maye

For those of us exiled in the Smoke, it’s a welcome break from the travels, and for those of you visiting, well, you always have a good time in the capital, don’t you?

Debate is already sizzling about this one – do Mayo need to grab this game by the scruff of the neck and take it to the Dubs, in the process laying down a strong marker for the year ahead and giving ourselves a welcome psychological boost? A win will leave us in an excellent position, with potentially a play-off spot to look forward to. Or in the grand scheme of things, does a win against the Dubs in March really mean anything, when there is a far bigger prize to play for later in the year?

Whatever your school of thought, this fixture holds all the promise of and ingredients for an epic clash, and Club ’51 will as usual be there in the thick of the action. We’ll be convening in the main bar of Jury’s Croke Park Hotel (at the back of the Hogan Stand) from late afternoon, 4.30pm or so (we like to make a day of it), everyone is welcome to come along and we look forward to seeing a good crew there.

This is a big game, and we want to make a big impact both on the pitch and off. Holding the game in Croke Park, while the obvious thing to do, ensures that this is essentially a home game for the Dubs (despite their protests) but it’s our ground too, and a ground with which we’re very familiar. Last summer, Mayo supporters brought a sea of green and red to Croke Park, and this Saturday night, we want to bring it back. We’d like to show Dublin and indeed the rest of the country that this Mayo team and its supporters are back with a bang, and that we’re in it for the long haul again this year. So if you’re making the trip east, pack a flag, or a banner and hold them high before the game, and let’s together make some noise and get behind our team on Saturday night.

After the game, as there’s a large Mayo contingent staying there, there’ll be a few drinks in the Skylon Hotel in Drumcondra. We look forward to seeing you all there!

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