Photo: @MayoClub51
I know, it may seem faintly ludicrous to talk about a Mayo Man of the Match from last night’s rout by Dublin but, for the reasons I explained in this morning’s post, running the poll still make sense as it gave the opportunity to highlight those players who emerged best from the MacHale Park wreckage.
Chief amongst these was, of course, the lion-hearted Aidan O’Shea who battled away valiantly all night. Nominally named at centre-forward, he played everywhere from midfield to full-forward and over the seventy minutes he gave his all to hold back the blue tide that was engulfing us. And then, once it was all over, he stayed out on the pitch for ages signing autographs for the swarm of kids surrounding him, as the above photo shows.
Aidan attracted a whopping 55% vote in the MOTM poll, comfortably ahead of Keith Higgins on 9% and Jason Doherty on 8%, both of whom also gave good accounts of themselves on what was in every sense a difficult night for us. Well done to all of them.
Well done Aidan, totally deserved and what a prospect at full forward for the season to come
To be honest, I can’t see him staying at full forward. He’s badly needed either at midfield or at centre forward, where he was superb last year.
Where ever Aiden is played he gives an absolute 100%. [I don’t believe in this 110% lark – it’s only for those who do not understand the concept of percentage]. However I do not believe we can afford to play him other than at midfield. Referees nowadays do not go for the old type bulldozing centre forward and the rules allow defences to pull and drag them into ineffectiveness. If as some have suggested only two players were allowed tackle a forward he might have some chance but with three or more forget it. If we have an adequate midfield without him I would continue with him at full forward but we do not appear to have. At full forward he needs to use or deliver the ball faster and the latter demands that he have the supporting players close at hand. Most of all we need a management team who will decide what route they want to take with the team. It’s not like James Horan taking over the team when it needed complete rebuilding. This team needs tweaking to get the best from them. But one has to start from the core of the team and this means centre field for a start. Until that is settled nothing is settled. When it is positions 3, 6, 11 and 14 can be settled. Then comes the fine tuning.
Having looked at the RTE website the present position in the league tables is [if my sums are correct. At this hour???] [All teams with 5 games played].
Cork, 8 pts, plus 14 points, home to Mayo, away to Derry. Prediction min 10 pts.
Mayo, 6 pts, plus 4 points, away to Cork, home to Donegal. Prediction 8 pts.
Monagan, 6 pts, even scores, home to Kerry and to Dublin. Prediction 8? pts
Kerry 6 pts, minus 7 points, away to Monagan and Tyrone. Prediction 8 pts.
Dublin 5 pts, plus 15 points, home to Derry & away to Monagan. Prediction 9 pts.
Donegal 4 pts, minus 2 points, home to Tyrone, away to Mayo. Prediction 6/8 pts
Tyrone 4 pts, minus 4 points, away to Donegal, home to Kerry. Prediction 6/8 pts
Derry, 1 pt, minus 20 pts, away to Dublin, home to Cork, Prediction 1 pt. Gone to Div 2.
Key games as I see it apart from our own two are Donegal v Tyrone and Kerry v Tyrone. Depending on Kerry’s hunger Monagan could also scrape something from Kerry.
We could easily find ourselves and Donegal both on 6 pts fighting for survival on the final day unless we get a result in Cork and depending on Kerry beating Tyrone. Of course if Tyrone and Mayo finish level at the bottom we’re gone.
Novenas start tomorrow.
I’m not disputing for a second that Aidan o Shea does not give 100% when he is on the field but I do question what type of skills training he does off the field.
He has been woeful when forced onto his right foot lately and this is where he needs to do a lot of work.
As time goes on the cute defenders will just force him onto his right side.
Aidan one of the few players that showed a little but of pride on Saturday night. He never hid and kept putting the hits in throughout.
This squad are together long enough now to know that a performance like that is simply unacceptable. Any team can lose or be outclassed but there is no reason for the lack of intensity in front of a packed home game. I’m not going to go into the tactics [or lack thereof] now but even when we funnelled players back, we weren’t putting the hits in. It was purely getting bodies around the ball for the sake of it. The likes of Boyle, Keegan, Vaughan and Higgins will know this.
Tough pill to swallow this early in the year but now is the time for this kind of introspection.
To be honest, Im not buying into this aidan o’shea love-in. His most telling contribution of the night was when he took too much out of it trying to score his own goal, instead of releasing to Ronaldson for a certain goal. He done similar things when in possession out the field, choosing to take a solo and then another solo, allowing the Dublin players to get back and crowd us out. He wasn’t the only one, but he is the worst one for it. That was the difference between our attacks and Dublin’s. We say it was ponderous, but this soloing for the sake of it is slowing everything down, then when he does release it the guy getting it is surrounded. He has to come back or go laterally. When dubin were releasing the ball, it was done early, and the guy receiving it had space. That is the reason why their attacks worked and ours didn’t.
Pat Spillane wrote about a selfish streak in O’Shea at the start of the year, and said it needed addressing. I think he is right. He wants personal glory, and it is to the detriment of the team.
Have just got back from the West and only catching up with the anguished posts now.
AOS was our MOM but even he struggled big time. Basically we were beaten up a stick in every position. Even allowing for that a few things annoyed me particularly:
* Not tracking any (ANY) of the Dublin kickouts. We slaughtered them in this department last year.
* Not turning over anything of theirs and being turned over time and time again on ours.
* Not having a reliable free taker when COC is missing.
* Not having longer frees nailed down. Even on a bad day this can keep you in touch. See Bryan Sheehan yesterday – he doesn’t do it every day mind you.
Still, the benefit of league games is you just pick yourself up, dust yourself off…
It’s dog eat dog in Div 1 and that’s why every team is getting a turning over, including Dublin against Kerry, Kerry against Cork, Monaghan against us and so on. Most of those turned over have done well the following week. Why shouldn’t we?
We do have a threadbare panel at the moment as I have mentioned before. I think (I really hope) this could have been a factor. Long trip to and back from Derry, U21s playing 2 games, long injury list and so on.
I felt that Dillon looked fresher than others when he came on, mainly because he hasn’t been used much. Kirby too up to a point – he hasn’t really gone through the same training regime – and my Castlebar spies tell me he is really well regarded.
The results yesterday helped us. We should stay up and could make the semis. But would you want to play Dublin again this early?
AOS needs to go back to midfield with SOS.
Vaughan back to 6 and Mclaugh back to 10.
Pick either Omalley or Clarke in goal.
I would also try Parsons at 12 to have 3 outlets for kickouts, he also has enough athleticism to play there
With CO’C at 14 then let the rest of them fight it out for 11, 13, 15
On a brighter note, I believe Tom Parsons played a full game for his club the weekend and played well.
It is clear in Division 1 that if you are any way of your game which we clearly were you will get hammered out the gate.
Looking at our challengers this year in Connacht, Galway lost a second league game in a row and from talking to someone at the game are not up to it at all.
Roscommon are going well….0-24 is some scoring.
Very disappointed with Sat nights result and performance. We had the opportunity to have a championship paced game in March but just didn’t show. I blame the management. We have two very tough games left and defeat in either could cost us Div 1 status. We most certainly do not want to be going into Championship on the back of relegation.
I’m a firm believer in trying out new players and positional switches in the league provided that they form part of your plan for Championship. Are we to take it that one of the countries best midfielders is being moved to alleviate our problems at 14? Crazy decision by management.Play Kirby there and move Aidan back to where he plays best.
Our half back line was praised by all so why mess around with it. Drop Vaughan back there for the final two games and lets get a rhythm going for Championship.
Keane is a good addition to the full back line but Caff will work better on certain opposition but it’s great to have choice.
For me we still have problems at 11 and 14. Problems that should have been resolved before now. If Kirby is to fill the no 14 spot then start him for the remaining games. No 11 is up for grabs because nobody has been given a decent run there. Diarmud is just of the pace a little for senior football yet but will improve no doubt with time.
Rant over but I expect to see our Championship 15 line out against Cork as they will owe us one from the qtr finals last year. Here is hoping we make a game of it and win
Anne-Marie, you are tweeting about McGee’s analysis.
This is the same analyst who last week laid in to the Dubs: ‘haven’t a clue; Cluxton kick-out tactics dated; big names not effective; failure of so-called supersubs’.
And so on.
Catcol, I shouldn’t take it too personally nor should anyone else, but we do, because it bloody well hurts to see stuff like that written about a bunch of players that have served us so well.
And there is no denying there are elements of truth contained within, but as analysis goes, it’s pretty damn poor.
There’s only one answer to stuff like that, and it’s for our lads to he t out there and prove him wrong.
Lets put the cat among the pigeons here, popularity was never my forte… In Kerry,(once again why shouldn’t i use Kerry as an example, they are the most successful footballing county in the country), players think that playing for their County is the greatest honour they can receive. This I state as a result of observation and talking to Kerry people. In Mayo we seem to owe thanks to the players, just like at a wedding, we thank the the hotel for doing it’s job, etc; etc. You can now draw your own conclusions!!!
Agree Themaestro re o’shea great player and great effort but doesn’t let the ball off half early enough
In fairness Joe Mc, I would be inclined to think that most Mayo players who make the grade at county level are honoured and feel privileged to don the county jersey. They don’t get fuck all else out of it and have to put up with some amount horse shit to boot. That is the reason that we should support them through thick and thin.
I for one would have been far too ill disciplined and even if I had been fortunate enough to have the talent, I would not have been prepared to make the sacrifices that each and every man on the panel must make on a daily basis.
For that reason they have both my respect and admiration. I love to see them get the opportunity to get the best out of themselves because their time will pass quickly.
I think you feel the same way Joe Mc and sometimes your better off giving the pigeons a bit of peace and leave the cat alone for awhile.
I drew a conclusion : Never mind yer oul waffle bout how great de kerry boys are and how honoured they are to play for their county.
As if de Mayo boys weren’t!
Pure codswallop.
Brilliant Joe Mc !!…………..”…we thank the hotel for doing its job….” !!
Great analogy……and 100% true about the Kerry feeling that to be selected for one’s county is the ultimate honour.
But to be fair to Mayo players, I’d imagine for most it is also the ultimate honour…..Unless any player is frequently slipping and not giving an account of themselves, we shouldn’t take one nightmare outing, with little evidence of doggedness and commitment on the night, as indicative of a lesser respect for the jersey. And undoubtedly the Mayo fans hold all of their teams in the highest esteem, despite the “fucks sake” remarks on this blog about last Sat’s performance !!………..Year on year, we’re up for league and championship efforts, and so are our team……..
By the way, re the reference above to Pat Spillane’s remark on AOS, I hadn’t heard that, but agree with it. I’m not sure if it’s selfishness per-se on Aidan’s part at all (…..as opposed to fear that if he alone doesn’t do the bulldozing, deep-territory may not be gained, and possession may be lost), but if he could practice and perfect some earlier just-in-time offloads, it would be a lethal combo, and we’d get a lot more scores.
MartyK. He has the choice to take on a very difficult goal opportunity with little to shoot at or feed a guy standing unmarked on the edge of the square with no keeper – he goes with the former.
That is selfishness, simple as that.