Mayo’s inter-county year ended last month at the All-Ireland semi-final stage. With the 2019 championship now over it’s time to place the county’s performances this year in context, which is what we do in this latest episode of the Mayo News football podcast.
Co-hosting this season review podcast episode, Rob Murphy and I look back on an eventful year for the Green and Red. We reminisce on how it started out with that novel FBD League penalty shoot-out against Leitrim, then progressed to the high of the League final win over Kerry and the low of the defeat in Connacht to Roscommon, followed by a long and winding road through the qualifiers and the Super Eights before that semi-final defeat to eventual champions Dublin.
Rob then chats with Mayo News columnist Billy Joe Padden who looks back on the All-Ireland final and considers Mayo’s year in the context of Dublin’s five-in-a-row, as well as where it leaves James Horan’s team in the greater scheme of things.
Next, Mayo News duo Mike Finnerty and Edwin McGreal drill into the detail, going through the panel player-by-player to take stock on how the county is fixed as the focus turns towards 2020. Wrapping up this episode, we turn the focus back onto the ongoing club action, with Mayo News reporter Ger Flanagan joining Mike to review all the club championship ties that are down for decision this coming weekend.
This latest episode of the Mayo News football podcast is now online and is available to listen to on iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify and Podomatic. You can also listen to it directly on the Mayo News website as well as here on the blog, using the SoundCloud player below or the one on the panel on the right.
The Mayo News football podcast is proudly sponsored by J Streicher. “When it absolutely, positively has to be financed on Wall St.” Visit our website at www.jstreicher.eu.
Looking forward to a listen here, handy for the commute.
And btw, I dont know who said it, but i agree, if we had drawn with a 14 man dub team and were then hammered in the replay, we’d be slaughtered to the GAA intelligencia. Make no mistake Dublin had a very comfortable win, and on another day Diarmo would have buried that goal chance and the route would have been on. Kerry are ahead of us in that they made the final, but they are way overrated and so is Clifford, by the way. He’s miles off Maurice Fitz.
Anyway, Up Mayo and here’s to a successful 2020 campaign. it wont be long now.
What would Clifford need to do so that you don’t consider him overrated? I don’t ever remember someone being this impressive in their first 2 years out of minor.
Clifford is still U20 remember. Over the two finals – he played ‘poor’ – only scored 5 points from play was fouled for about 5 more plus a penalty. If we had a player of that ability in the full forward line with Andy – I have no doubt we would have won at least 2 all Ireland.
crazy talk re: Clifford,
He is fully living up to the hype, huge pressure on him in his 1st 2 senior seasons and he has delivered in spades,and yet he still has improving to do. He will go on to become one of the greats, i have no doubt.
We would kill for a forward like that
Scratching my head at the Clifford comment, he’s head and shoulders above anything we have up front, and if we’d had had anyone of his caliber over the past 30 years we’d have won at least one Sam.
We need to accept that for a few years at least that Nestor rather than Sam will be our benchmark, IMO.
have to say I don’t see Clifford as overrated at all. He’s an exceptional talent and a very clever footballer. He’ll only get better with experience as long as he can keep his head on his shoulders.
People live in the moment…if Clifford isn’t scoring 8-10 points per game, people claim he is overrated. It’s tunnel vision mentality. What we would give to have a young player of that calibe in this county.
If anyone wants to see how skillful David Clifford is watch Kerrys 2nd Score in the All Ireland final drawn game.he picks up a ball on the ground real quick on the turn, then solos on his left foot ,then onto his the right foot, left foot again, quick shimmy and strikes it with real ease with a hook kick of his right foot.A joy to watch!! His sideline in Killarney in July was won of the best strikes of a ball I have witnessed, up there with McDonalds outside of the boot point v Galway in 2004 and Maurice Fitzs in Thurles in 2001.You really have to study Clifford more South Mayo exile.Clifford is a freak, if anthin I thought he was starved of possesion in the 2nd half of the replay.
We need a plan in the forwards next year. Darren coen is natural scorer and if not injured he should have started against Dublin. True he did not set the world alight in 2 previous outings but how on earth will he improve unless he gets game time. Expose him to what Dublin bring. Next year he would have been all the better for it. Though he may not have coped with the dubs the experience would have been invaluable . Same goes for others too. Id gladly take few lean championship years to prepare for lifting Sam. If u wanna make an omelette u gotta break an egg ….
agreed 100% spectre,
the onus for the next few years (at minor & u 20 as well as senior) has to be to cultivate and coach marquee forwards. identify the raw talents, the matchwinners who are always thinking about a score as their first instinct.
James carr would be a perfect example, here we have a strong,2 footed player with an eye for goals and points. He is not perfect and has some bad habits but these can be worked on by trusting and coaching him.
Its a scandal that Darren coen is only now making his mark at intercounty at the age of 27, again a forward who’s first instinct is to make a year and bang it over the bar, Exactly what we missed in 2012/2014 all irelands. He was a revelation this summer, any yet you always knew that when it came to the crunch he would be dropped as soon as he performed poorly.
We need to identify, nurture and coach our most natural forward talents. We know longer can rely on Andy to paper over the cracks in this position
TH – I agree with you 100% – Clifford is class. It is Mister Mayor who thinks he is over rated. Someone commented earlier – and I agree – James needs to bring more experience into our backroom team. Look at Kerry backroom – Keely – goalkeeping coach. Tommy Griffin plus Maurice Fitzgerald as selectors and of course Donie Buckley. Plenty of experience there.
Supermac…. I don’t think you can call it a scandal that DC is only breaking through now. And it is certainly not because of coaching. Darren has put the work in this year hence why he is where he is.
Sorry South Mayo exile, yes I meant it for Mister Mayor.
I agree Darren Coen should be getting more game time ,but probably needs another hard winter of S and C.He also needs to get better at beating his man before taking his shot, hes tends to shoot on sight without even going past his marker.He was poor when he came up against Jason Foley in Killarney and was stood up a few times and just took wild shots from low % areas. Needs to be getting his shots off inside the D.You rarely see Con, Clifford and Mannion take these pot shots on.Liam Irwin, Neil Douglus and Jack Irwin are probably the best strikers in the club scene in Mayo but can’t make the County panel.
It’s hard measure up to the likes of mannion and con o callaghan. They have it all. Power pace. And can play in nearly any forward position. But we have good forwards in the county. Harness what we have and go from there. Proper coaching is key.
Supermac – Darren Coen was on the panel in 2013. He started, and scored a goal, in that year’s Connacht final but for whatever reason he dropped down the pecking order as that year went on and wasn’t on the match day 26 for the final.
Would like to see a team along the following lines tried out
Goalkeeper (trial 5-6 lads)
ODonoghue
Harrison
Barrett
Coen (sweeper full league)
Hanley
Boyle
Mclaughlin
AOS
Ruane
Keegan
Irwin
Durcan
Carr
DO’C
There a lot of talent there if we can just get a decent run with injuries and the right system in place
Spectre the only way to counteract those lads is to protect your goal. if you stop goals going in the points total you need to get to will likely be manageable.
Look at the Dubs there almost impossible to get through. Players are swamped if they get anywhere near their goal if that doesn’t work they’re then fouled.
Mayo completely too add hoc in the way they defend. The defence and goalkeeper are the starting point if we’re to win an all ireland. A defensive framework needs to be put in place and Horan likely needs to have someone with him who solely works on this someone who has played in the FB line preferably.
Agree totally with Centerfield. Too much man to man defence and too many times a defender is isolated against a top quallity forward. We saw it with Keegan against O Callaghan, Higgins against Roscommon, Higgins against Costello in the the league and teams like Armagh and Down getting multiple goal scoring chances.
Kerry defended against the goal well but we saw what happened when everybody stayed with their man at the beginning of the second half. Mayo have good defenders but need a better defensive structure and we need a specialist coaching this sector.
No matter how well you play you are at risk if you give up multiple goal scoring chances
In the 2 times we played Dublin this year they probably had about a dozen goal scoring chances
After this year smart teams will send Keegans man to full forward, as Murphy did for Donegal.
We need a plan in place to make a switch and not wait until a goal is scored. Lee is a great player but unfair to isolate him against a bigger man in the box.Remember McStay moved Smith in to the full forward line in 2017 to take Lees running game away[ He had scored 1-3 in the first half]
Forwards will score if they get good ball, put the defence under pressure and can manouver for good shots.
Kerry have great forwards and under pressure with poor ball supply shot 30 percent in the second half.
If we did that the narrative would be Mayo dont have the forwards.
Centerfield yes I get ur point. We gotta be more efficient in attack also. What kills mayo is that when we are on top in a game we don’t ram home that advantage and it drains the team.
Great pod lads. Here our thoughts on the club action the weekend here in Ah Ref towers
https://soundcloud.com/bcrfm/ah-ref-and-enda-mac-show-14th-sep
Centerfield – Who would you like to see as goalkeeper next year ?
who would you like to see tried out in terms of 5/6 keepers?
In fairness we have been crying out for a better defensive structure for years!!! It finally happened in 2016 when we kept the dubs to 9 points…gifting them two OG’s cost us an All Ireland.
Get the defence right first. That’s what McGuinness did with a Donegal team with less talent than ours. But they won. We didnt. I know which I’d prefer!
Forwards?
James Carr – a superstar in the making – needs working on
Cillian – proven at the very highest level. We forget that our lads have been there and done that. Not an AI of course but if they have faults, it’s at the very highest level they have been exposed.
Diarmuid – Much as above, but with added mobility and defensive capabilities.
Darren Coen – I echo what posters have been saying. S&C needed big time
Ciarán Tracey – exciting prospect I feel who has got a lot of experience this year. More S&C.
Fionn MacDonagh – has had a very good first year. More scores needed – all through the game.
James Durcan – I’ve been a great fan, but he needs to progress more. More scores and S&C. Pace to burn.
Cian Hanley – Will be interesting to see how he fares for Ballagh.
Evan Regan – not sure really.
Kevin Mac – See Cillian
Jason Doc – get back soon Doc.
Ryan O’Donoghue – I’ve talked him up on the basis of U20 in 2018. If he progresses from that – explosive!
Conor Diskin – great prospect, but 2019 didn’t seem to work out – from a scoring perspective anyway
Brian Reape – not sure
I think overall that list is impressive, but O’Donoghue apart, I have no newbie on the horizon. Maybe posters can update me!
What about Tommy Conroe The Neale Liam Irwin Breaffy
Catcol, add in Liam Irwin breaffy, Gary Boylan belmullet , tommy Conroy Kilmaine. All worth developing, and all forwards.
My thinking is that for all the ball that we win we don’t have enough economy in attack. We get turned over too many times and leads to scores at the other end. I could not count how many times we got turned over and punished. Turnovers are killers. And that works both ways. Were very good at turning over but not good enough and punishing opposition.
Catcol what about Jack Reilly from Charlestown , he destroyed Claremorris in the 2nd half in the last round of the championship marked by James McCormack.Can kick off both feet ,very reliable left footed free taker.Reilly, Neil Douglas , Gary Boylan and Liam Irwin best forwards in Club scene at the moment.
Theres no Tommy Conroy from Kilmaine……
Tommy conroy from the neale. Aiden o Sullivan from the neale us another nice footballer playing very well. Not sure of his age . He was in the trials that horan held last year.
Tommy Conroy The Neale
I’ve seen David Clifford live once and believe me he is in no way overrated. He is 2 footed, strong, clever and is still under 20. He is the real deal
Catcol keep an eye out for Sean Regan from Ballina Stephenites has pace to burn and is built like a tank and knows where the posts are he’s worth a look he’s easily Ballina’s best forward, imagine him on the 40
With Liam Irwin at full forward running at teams their power and accuracy could unlock a lot of defences let see how they get on with their clubs this weekend
Thanks all for those suggestions which I have stored in my (failing) memory bank. Sean Regan seems just the ticket Backdoorsam. Are you reading these important posts James?