Less than a week before Christmas in an eerily empty Croke Park, Mayo battled hard in this Covid-era All-Ireland final but ultimately they came up five points short against perennial champions Dublin. In this episode of the Mayo News football podcast we bring you the story of this year’s decider and how it was won … and lost.
Rob Murphy and I get the show going with some initial thoughts on the game and then it’s over to Mayo News duo Edwin McGreal and Ger Flanagan at Croke Park for the in-game section. We hear post-match reaction from Dessie Farrell and James Horan, followed by analysis from Billy Joe Padden in discussion with Mayo News sports editor Mike Finnerty.
Colm Keys of the Irish Independent, RTÉ’s Kevin McStay and Sky Sports’ Paul Earley then join Mike for a post-match forum. Finally it’s back to Rob and me to pull down the shutters on the podcast for the year as we wrap up the 50th episode in 2020.
This latest episode of the Mayo News football podcast is now online and is available to listen to on iTunes, SoundCloud, Podomatic and Spotify. 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.
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Had reason to drive from killiney to kimmage today, a journey of about half an hour, and on the way passed several gaa clubs and many houses.
I was amazed to find not one Dublin flag flying anywhere….familiarity breeds contempt I suppose.
And for what it’s worth, the view here is that mayo had the winning of it, had they taken their chances and not kicked so many balls into the keepers hands.
Some thoughts on what needs to happen next year.
1. bring someone in to work specifically on the FB line, sweeper and Keeper to try to reduce the goal concession rate.Someone who has played there before. Massive work needed in this area.
2. I would bring in a dozen lads who play for their clubs in corner or full back and hope that one or two come through.
3. Would bring 3 new keepers into squad as understudies to Clarke.
4. Would reach out to Pearce Hanley and see if he would come back for 4-5 months. he’s still only 32.Likewise his brother has too much talent to not be in the squad.
5. need to look at options across the county for midfield.
We’ve a couple of year window where we still have some of the old team and a big push is needed
@centrefield…and MAKE SURE OISIN MULLIN STAYS. He goes then we can forget about it. Seriously.
absolutely Mayonaze
The most important thing that Mayo GAA need to do this winter is to keep Oisin Mullin playing Gaelic Football. For a 20 year old, he was the one player that dragged us back into the game after the 1st Dublin goal. He showed real leadership and fight. If we lose him to the AFL we may as well kiss goodbye to our chances of winning an All Ireland soon. He has skill, pace and power that can’t be tought, a natural athlete if there was ever one. We can’t have a situation like what happened with P. Hanley back in 2007. Our best players must be kept, no matter what. Money and jobs should not be an issue for a county the size if Mayo. For what it’s worth, we are not that far off Dublin, a few tweaks and we can push them all the way again.
Mayo let it happen once with Hanley which cost us two All Irelands. It simply cannot be allowed happen again and I will not buy the old mantra of it being an amateur game etc…top counties know how hold onto top players.
Look it. We will probably get to the final again next year. Have a Dublin referee and a Dublin linesman and a Dublin fella anchoring the Sunday game and a Mayo man in the commentary box saying how great this Dublin team is. It won’t be a level playing field. That’s for sure.
There’s fellas there in blue shirts with 6, 7, 8 Celtic crosses on their mantelpieces but they’ve never won an All Ireland and like ourselves they’ve never experienced what it’s like to win an All Ireland on a level pitch in a fair contest with a neutral referee at a neutral venue. They may as well throw their medals in the bin.
Contrast Cluxtons “eulogy” yesterday with John Connollys victory speech from 1980 for Galway hurlers. The difference being Galway won an All Ireland that day. Dublin won nothing yesterday.
I think we had the winning of yesterday’s game well within our own hands. The simplicity of the way we conceded those 2 goals was the most disappointing aspect of the match.
For a team in transition with several rookies we have loads to look forward too.
Some work needed on the full back line.
The Key now is to prepare well for the upcoming season, work on cutting down the mistakes and maybe find another two or three high calibre players.
We are so close and plenty of reason for optimism for the future. Our improvement over the past 6 months has been phenomenal. We need to improve again.
This final was a bonus opportunity. We didn’t really expect to be in the final this year. The re-building programme has been accelerated. This is a positive. We just need to be patient and let it develop.
James Horan hit nail on head
Ran out of Juice
No bench means no All Ireland
Need 30 athletes to compete with Dublin
We have 10 players at best at required standard. Need to be patient and start building again. James Horan knows what to do to but will need 3years or more
Not sure if that’s possible with fans unrealistic view of where Mayo really are
We should all be grateful and privileged to have had a superb bunch of players over the last 10 years but next chapter needs to start now
The most important thing we need to look at first is our athletic fitness.
We need a fitness level that we can play for 80 minutes or more.
In the second half our lads ran out of steam totally.
I don’t know if it’s possible to get to that level considering a number of our players are away all week. Fantastic achievement to get to Croker again all the same.
We’ll be back stronger and better next year please God. WELL DONE ALL
Also I want to add, did anyone think it was extremely strange that The Late Late Show had a host of artists and bands from Dublin, performing songs about Dublin and romanticizing Dublin the night before an all Ireland with Dublin?
Can’t imagine it influenced the game too much if at all but one has to wonder what was Tubridy’s motive…
The podcast makes sobering listening when the stats and game are analysed we were well off Dublin and we were along way iff beating them. Osin Mullen was fantastic yesterday but on the other side of the coin he was marking Con O Callaghan who put in a MOM performance. Was Osin played in wrong position. In relation to whether he goes to Australia or not he should do what is best for his life and be supported in that.
Over the years many great players were let slip through the net by Mayo who might have made a difference. Padraig Brogan,Tony Morley, Kevin O Neill spring to mind for example. Its just the way it is. .
In four of their last six All-Ireland finals the opposition’s first score has been a goal
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/james-horan-takes-positives-but-mayo-s-old-sins-came-back-to-haunt-them-1.4442021?mode=amp
I’ve just read Brolly in the Sindo. While I rarely respect his opinions, he has a germ of a point that I’m sure Horan & co are already thinking about.
I look forward to lots of work being put into Coen, Carr, Flynn & co so that when the opportunity ones again, the minder in the last 20 mins will be even more ruthless and that these guys cans be match winners.
As a Dub I always respect the opposition , more so Mayo who have always run us the closest. Up to the second water break there was nothing in it but we pulled away towards the end.
It must be annoying for Mayo to read Pat Spillane spouting that Kerry or Donegal would have beaten Dublin last night. He should respect that Mayo were in the final on merit . Not sure how the all Ireland falls in 2021 but if by chance u play Kerry remind them u are the better team!
Oh its hard to take another loss 24hrs on. Cannot even imagine how the players and the families are feeling. Just read a brilliant piece of writing on facebook from John P. Kean on Brolly’s latest attack. I hope all the bloggers here read it.
Mayo can’t expect darren coen and James Carr to come off the bench and win the game for us when james Horan has only used them for a few minutes over the whole championship
At the beginning of October I did not think we would be in an AI in December. Well done once again. I always wonder why we move AO’S and DO’C to midfield for the throw in. To me is says the lads picked at centrefield are not good enough.They rarely win a throw in and on Saturday lost both. The first led to a goal in 13 seconds. The second led to Dublin holding on to the ball for nearly 3 minutes while they were down to 14. For the first throw in I would be fairly confident that the selected midfielders would have performed better in tracking the breakaway.
We have a huge problem finding out and out defenders for the full back line. A few years ago our defense was our strength.but now we leak like a sieve. Going forward OM should be tried at midfield, move LK to half back line and trawl the county for specialist full backs.
But it was a better year than I expected. Disappointed Eoghan McLoughlin had an under par performance but for me he was the find of the year.
Good point Sleepwalker.Its too much to expect.
Harrison and Docherty really missed. That’s our issue in any given year we will have guys not right with injuries…we just dont have the cover in a small population.
We don’t have the resources.Still we get close and one of these days it might happen.
My god, just read that piece from Joe Brolly. What planet is he on exactly? There is no need for that vitriol whatsoever!!!! Fair play to the Mayo boys and James Horan for all their efforts, there really are no words. It is what it is now….
Oisin Mullin has had a phenomenal season for us and I would hate to see him leaving for the AFL. However this would be for purely selfish reasons and if the lad doesn’t need to go for work reasons, but simply wants to get on a plane and experience living in a different country where he gets paid for his sporting commitment then more power to him and I wish him every success. He is an amateur player in an amateur sport and owes absolutely none of us of Mayo GAA anything. Nor do we have any claim on him and to suggest otherwise and start putting that kind of pressure on the lad at such a young age is unfair. I hope he has the sense to make his decision, should it arise, in his own best interests and no-one else’s, including Mayo GAA’s.
Pearce Hanley also had every right to leave and build a successful career and there is absolutely no guarantee that had he been here we would have won anything. He does not deserve to be criticised for his decision and if he didn’t want to commit to Mayo GAA, that was his call. Seeing the chorus of tweets begging him to come home a few years ago was embarrassing. If he’d wanted to be here to help the cause, he would have been here.
It’ll take more than Oisin Mullin staying in Mayo for us or any other county to win an All-Ireland in the next five years.
– From Podcasts to Poems and predictions this is one goldmine of information for Mayo GAA.
– Thank you WJ for the massive amount of work you put in to keep this show on the road.
-Thanks to all the Mayo players, JH and the management team.
– As for the celebrity loser wannabe Journalist the first thing you need to do is get your facts right. If you had the actual facts about your favourite team it would blow your theory out of the water,
– I want to record my thanks to those Mayo players who are brilliant supporters of local charities and who have done many good deeds behind the scenes.
– Finally congrats to Galway U20’s and happy Christmas to WJ and all the bloggers.
Forgot to say as well, thanks Willie Joe and crew for the blog, podcasts etc….top job
Agree with those who say Mayo had the winning of this game-they really had. Dublin had 2 goal chances and took them. It was a marked improvement on Tipp display in that respect. The like of Dublin will always get goal chances. We keep moving Aiden to midfield for throw ins-it appears we had no strategy at all here and this is not pointing the finger at Aiden. Lots to be hopeful about though. If ref had done his job and given cooper his BC, then maybe Fitzsimons thinks twice about his illegal hit on Lee and if he doesnt think twice and the ref is doing his job, he’d have got his red card and that would be Dubs down to 13-so frustrating. It is no coincidence that all of Dublins worst performances have come against Mayo in recent years. As for Spillane and brolly well what a pair of gobshites.
You are right Anne Maire but it always intrigues me why no Dubliners are prised away to the NFL. After all they comprise 25% of the nation’s population surely one or more should make the grade. Is the love of the game a strong enough pull to keep them in the amateur ranks and mainly western seaboard players head down under??
Dublin are almost unbeatable in the war of stamina attrition that is 70 min matches.
There will be no splitting Dublin.
There’s no cash or population to help other counties.
When basketball has a team dominating with a tactic, they always change the rules.
Go back to 60 min matches.
Frankly it’s fairly obviously unhealthy of a longer term lifestyle to train to repeatedly sprint for 70 min matches. Soccer whilst 90mond does not have the same speed per minute in terms of 80%+ efforts.
With that rule change you give smaller counties in lower divisions more hope and more chance of winning. Also reduce the subs back to 4.
“Stamina , attrition ” conditioning , fitness etc etc .
So everyone agrees it’s not some majestic citog , dummy soloing and hitting outrageous points from 50 yards out the sideline .
My point is it’s not gifted individualism but why do these Dublin teams have this step up in sheer athleticism, I’d try to argue Dublin players are monitored from academy squads at underage level , looked after and developed far better but I’ve no real hard facts other than what you hear .
Make it semi professional, it’s the only way we can level the playing field .
Seán Burke they definetly are handpicked and fed up and individually coached and serious S&C programmes. Just look at Con Ó Callaghan as an example he played against Diarmuid and Conor Loftus etc at U21 level and look and the strength and bulk and skills he gained in 2 to 3 yrs.
I’ll probably be shot for saying this but after saturday’s match I don’t think there’s that much between Dublin and ourselves. The big difference is the bench and the fact that we have quite a few new lads this year.
I have a feeling we will close that gap in the next year or so. I cannot see them getting any better and their energy and enthusiasm will eventually run down. They have been very lucky with injuries as well. That might run out too.
We need to really stick at it now like never before and our day will come and maybe sooner and more dramatically that we might think. Our legendary resilience could in the end be the trump card!