Memory of Yeats greats invoked as Sligo face Galway

JUST two provincial title successes in over 100 years and a mere three victories over Galway in the same period highlight the challenge that faces Sligo in their Connacht SFC opener against the Tribesmen in Pearse Stadium tomorrow. Jim O’Sullivan reports.

MICKEY KEARINS, Barnes Murphy and Eamon O’Hara are a select bunch. Only O’Hara would be known to younger followers, widely acclaimed for his skill and powers of leadership in Sligo’s extended run in the 2002 championship.

Kearins is recognised as one of the Yeats County’s all-time great players, while Murphy also belongs to the older generation. The latter were members of the team that won Sligo’s last Connacht title, in 1975, before running up against the emerging Kerry combination ruled the championship for the greater part of a decade.