After all the anticipation of being back in another All-Ireland final comes the crushing disappointment of yet another defeat for Mayo in a Sam Maguire decider. Tyrone were full value for their five-point win but their road to glory was aided by a below-par Mayo performance on the big day.
In this episode of the Mayo News football podcast we seek to make sense of Mayo’s latest All-Ireland final loss. Host Rob Murphy and John Gunnigan of the Mayo GAA Blog open the show with some reflections on the day after which we get the post-match thoughts of Edwin McGreal of the Mayo News, with whom Rob caught up soon after the final whistle had sounded.
The post-game analysis continues as Mayo News sports editor Mike Finnerty chats with Colm Keys of the Irish Independent and Shane McGrath of the Irish Daily Mail, before then getting the views of podcast regulars Billy Joe Padden and Paul Earley, both of whom were on duty for Sky Sports at Croke Park.
This 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.
The Mayo News football podcast has its own Twitter presence, @MayoPodcast, so if you’re a Twitter user you should follow us there to make sure you get the latest podcast-related updates, including new episodes.
You can also subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice and can do that here.
The Mayo News football podcast is produced and edited by Ger Duffy Media. The show is sponsored by Ceramic City and Swinford Motors, two fine Mayo businesses with whom we’re proud to be associated this year, all the way to the All-Ireland final.
Thank you guys. That was a good review with some therapeutic benefits from hearing your discussion and reactions.
I’m happy to hear there will be a further podcast to look at things when the dust settles a little.
I will listen tomorrow when I feel like leaving the house. Thank you for all this. I really don’t know where you got the wherewithal to produce this. Ye are some Mayo men.
That prob sounds strange! I like to listen to podcasts on the way to work or on my walk.
Two things:
1) Do ye remember teams saying they didn’t play their best or were flat after losing to Mayo? That they had an off-day? The Dublin camp said this after the AI Final 2016. Kerry may have said it in 2017. It was amusing. We didn’t let them play.
I can’t help but think of this regarding our performance yesterday. I believe we were flat because Tyrone didn’t let us play (marked our key men out of it, counteracted our strengths). They were prepared for us.
2) Having listened to the podcast, I wonder did Mayo management pay heed to aspects of the Kerry-Tyrone game very much at all?
OR, crucially, given the short two-week turnaround, did they gamble and just decide to play their own game, backing themselves, not studying Tyrone strategy?
A person wanting to take stock of the Tyrone semi-final would have noted turnovers as crucial, need for support runners, the likelihood that Morgan would have a bigger game next time, the danger of goals, the oxygen-giving swagger of McShane, to name some aspects only.
Personally, I think it would have been tempting to study Tyrone in-depth and nullify details of their tactics.
I guess I wonder did James et al gamble and, given the short timeframe, think their best chance of WINNING the game come from playing their own high-octane game and imposing it on Tyrone, rather than making precise tactical adjustments based on Tyrone’s SF game.
…(sorry, just to finish point 2)…
… with the result that we made the wrong choice. That it would have been better to examine Tyrone’s weak points more precisely, and win there, instead of relying on imposing our own game as our only option.
Excellent analysis from Earley and Billie joe, firm but fair
Don’t think now is the time for any real analysis.
Its too raw. Long walk out of Croke Park with that numb empty feeling.
So close and yet so far. Lady luck again left us at a crucial time. Feel so sorry for the players who give so much. I’m in Mayo now and still the flags fly high. Fuck all half arsed lazy commentary about us. The only ones I care about are here on this blog and a few others. I don’t want a pat on the head. We tried and 30 other counties weren’t there. Still proud to be a Mayoman.
@swallow swoops
On point 2) above that is the most disappointing aspect of the day for me,the fact we seem to only have 1 style of play, ie the hard running attacking from deep style. No variety whatsoever
Tyrones 2 goals came from 2 fantastic kick passes, do you ever see that from us? Tyrone had lots of variety in their play, go long at times, attack in numbers other times, stretch the field wide other times
Horan only has plan a, which is fine for blowing away teams with lesser conditioning and fitness but won’t work against the top guns.
Its like nobody was watching the Tyrone kerry game and learned that you can’t be running blindly into those Tyrone central channels, they will turn you over every single time
Just such a brainless performance all around, Tyrone just played smarter footballer
Just home from Dublin now and it feels like Christmas has been cancelled but Fcuk it I’m going to leave up the car flag and the house flag for another few days. I’m looking forward to following the club and going to the FBD in January. The personnel May come and go but there will always be a Mayo team to support. Thank you for this blog Willie Joe it’s an important tool in our mental well-being after another final defeat like the Samaritans and Pieta house rolled into one, it’s only a Matter of time before Revelinio comes on with a rhyme to lift our spirits. We go again we’ve no choice
Supermac, I know how you feel. I get the sense Horan has been trying to perfect that heavy metal style with the team all year.
We are still in any early stage of development with that young team (year 2) so it is really good progress to have a team with that powerful weapon to them already in year 2. It’s Horan’s choice as a primary weapon.
But it is still early days so we are not multifaceted yet.
I think Horan and management might have gambled to impose their own game on a tricky Tyrone team because they might have thought the short two weeks gave no better option.
I do feel there are a few aspects to the loss yesterday and the idea of ‘a no-show’ or ‘complete systems failure’ or ‘another Mayo bottle-job’ or just another ‘lamentable defeat in a string of heartbreaking defeats’ is a hold-all label that perhaps does not truly translate what transpired in reality. I feel that anyway.
And perhaps it would be more healing for us to get a sense of what did go into the defeat. There are a few factors I feel.
Got home late last night amazing how things change in one 12 hour stint going from joyous excitement to numbing pain. I feel for the players and Management Today. It’s gut wrenching. Tyrone played better on the day but They are no world beaters. We threw his one away and We know it. Goals win games. We could not score a goal with 4 chances. Tyrone scored 2 from 3 chances. I also agree Management did not learn from the Kerry v Tyrone game. Substitutions were made too late in the game. You must be Ruthless at this level if you are not performing you must be replaced imeadiately. There can’t be any loyalties to anyone. Our fast running game would have exposed Tyrone yet curiously yesterday We never implemented it. We seemed to cautious and played right into Tyrones Red hands. There was no Plan B. Management must be questioned. Why was Ciarán Mc Donald sitting amongst the players when Mattie was red carded? I know the Players sacrafice a hell of a lot for months and months to get to AI Finals but surely us Fans deserve better. To loose is a killer but to go down without the typical Mayo fight suggests All was not well. Hopefully Management take a good look at themselves over the coming months. Tactics are as important as having the right players to implement them.
@swallow…in short, do what they always do? Yes
All I can say is thank God for work on monday morning. Need something to take my mind off this now! Thanks for running the blog Willie Joe. I think you likely put more work than the whole team put together!
Anyone know when the 2022 Fbd fixtures will be out ?
Great podcast again gents. I’m going to miss the regular pods during the winter months here in Canada. Without question best coverage of Mayo Gaa and my favourite podcast, I listen to alot of audio !
Hopefully ye have a few for the club scene.
Mayo will be back.
Excellent Podcast, no sentiment..
Look we need another marquee forward in the mold of Cillian O Connor. Ryan O Donughue is not the finished article, and neither is Loftus, they still have time to develop however now they have real major baggage. Tyrone had these lads dragged out the pitch there yesterday.
I think a sports Physchologist is needed urgently. I don’t feel like these lads should be let sweat this by themselves all winter long.
We hopefully will get Cillian back next year. My question would be is he the same Cillian?? In order for us to be real contenders we need another two or three lads in that forward line who can win dirty high 5050 balls turn and strike with a 90% scoring rate.
Kavanagh on the Sunday game said there was multiple times where Tyrone left a space behind the back when they counter attacked forward, we never kicked it in high from a turnover once. They was no one up there who could catch it, O Se did catch a ball but he can’t turn or pull up on his man to shoot and score anymore particularly against the top five teams.
We need at least one lad who can win the high ball and cause mayhem in front of goal. I would consider playing Matty Ruane in a more forward role possibly half forward. Maybe there is another Midfielder who can fill this role.
We need a backup free taker who can score off the ground, not from the hand. What was scoring return from 45s this year??
We also need to stop relying on our half back line constantly having to sprint forward to aid our attack. It leaves us way to open at the back, we get sucker punched way to often.
O Se and a few others are not at the standard anymore, what a servant O Se has been my heart goes out to the lad, but he is done. Maybe he is carrying an injury, whatever it was, he was way off the mark this year.
I think we need to introduce a new keeper. Again the position just give me the jitters yesterday. We are way to suspect under the high diagonal ball.
Tyrone were the better team yesterday, but I believe Kerry or Dublin would have put them to the sword if they had another chance at them.
We are not far off the mark. We need to create more balance in our setup. I love Horanball however it has its faults and we get burnt by it way to often in my opinion it should be just another weapon in our arsenal to be used if needed i.e plan b or c. We need a better balance to how we play. Tyrone rarely took the ball in contact, I feel we have similar type players, let’s take a leaf out of their book next year.
Finally shooting, lord is it nerves, is it pressure, bad shot selection, why does it look like certain forward players just half kick in hope? It either sprays off the boot or lands short. We need lads who are comfortable off both feet and won’t think twice from 35 to forty yards. I would rather it go wide than to drop short.
Never have Mayo had a Gooch or a Canavan, why is it in Mayo a football county of our size, why hasn’t a player of this caliber ever been developed. Is it got something to do with how young lads are trained. Or is just baggage caused by been defeated in now 13 final appearances. Let’s include replays!!
The main thing now is not to fade away into obscurity and allow Galway to ease into another All Ireland rubbing our noses in it. I think Horan should be given another year. If it doesn’t work out I think that Ciaran McDonald should be given an opportunity perhaps with someone of note (all Ireland winner) alongside him. I am seriously interested in what Tomas O Se brings to the Ofally setup next year.
Management needs to be ruthless, it so upsetting that this team has not lived up to its potential but we need to move forward, the spirit over the last 10 years has been wonderful let’s keep it going.
No players positions should be safe next year, they need to be earned. I don’t believe the bullshit Brolly puts out there, but we have to create a better more positive winning fortress Mayo culture within the group. I do believe individualism and anything that’s could be deemed negative to the team on news or social media within the group needs to be stopped. Players should be held accountable if they are found at fault.
Look the whole country thinks where bottlers that just makes my blood boil. Let’s just start with that for motivation. I’m sick off people going on about poor Mayo how unlucky we have been over the years, your so close. Management have to drill this into players heads. Fucking Dubs fans calling us losers or worse on a massive poster outside Croker on Saturday. Hang that in the dressing room for motivation. It’s time to get angry, fuck what other people think, we are the only ones who can change or destiny. It’s a tall order but we gotta make it happen. Tiocaigh ar Lá!!! But we got to make it happen!!
It will all be analysed in depth but look it lads we had our fucking chances . They scored 2 fucking goals and we don’t convert our own penalty . So we can go on all day and night about match ups and not performing but we had our chances we did take them and Tyrone took theirs .
Mayomaningalway that’s the core of it. Didn’t take chances and that lifts the opposition, kills your momentum plus the second goal may not have happened if we’re not chasing the game
Was it Billy Joe who said on the podcast it comes down to big moments? If we score the penalty and McShane doesn’t get a goal it’s a completely different 2nd half water break. We would have been 2 or 3 points up and Tyrone would have been scoreless since half time.
All of a sudden our subs are coming on just to keep the game ticking over, not trying to force points from 50 yards out.
Cant remember who said it, but it felt exactly like 1997.
Just completely underperformed on the day and missed/squandered enough chances to win 3 games
A relation of mine who recently turned 88 (and who was present at both the 50 & 51 Finals) watched the final with his 2 grandsons. They recently moved back to Mayo from the UK where they were born and are 2 of the biggest Mayo supporters you’d ever meet. Felt very bad for him as he very well may not be around next year, but that’s life
As a Galway fan I am gutted for Mayo. Very disappointing day in so many ways. Joe Brolly wrote that the game was over before it began. Perhaps, I could paraphrase that and say that too many thought that Mayo had won the game before it began.
I was taken aback by the level of expectation that Mayo supporters and the media had of this team in the final. Not unusual when it comes to Mayo, you might say, but this year it was particularly surprising.
I know from Galway being in finals (too long ago, unfortunately) that there is always a sense of excitement and confidence in a county. But it is always tempered by a healthy dose of reality and perspective. This, I feel,was dangerously lacking in Mayo over the past few weeks.
There were no brakes applied to the rolling and growing hype that surrounded this team. I heard no one speak or write that Tyrone had a chance of winning this match. And these precariously high expectations were impossible to dampen.
This was beyond a favourite’s tag. And this attitude is bound to influence a team. They don’t live in a bubble. There is no way this team were mentally attuned to the challenge ahead. And, I believe this is what cost Mayo this All-Ireland.
Please don’t think I am hopping on the bandwagon after the team lost. This is something I was saying for the past two weeks since the Tyrone/Kerry match. It’s curious that this angle of Mayo’s demise has not been mentioned on mainstream media.
Tyrone were deserved winners on Saturday. But some pundits are already discussing them taking on the Dublin mantle. Let’s get a grip of reality on that debate!
Being the fancied side never rests easy with Mayo. Mayo are at their best when their backs are to the wall and little is expected as they showed against ourselves and more importantly against Dublin. They played football in the Dublin game that was both exhilarating and breathtaking. But on Saturday all that flash and brilliance had, sadly, all but disappeared. I felt the team believed the hype and just had to turn up. Unfortunately, Tyrone were the only team to turn up on the day.
The very disappointing thing is that this game was there for the taking. If only one of those missed opportunities had been secured! That spark could have rekindled the Mayo magic and who knows what could have happened. But what we saw on Saturday was far from what Mayo are capable of.
Sports fans have a lot to thank Mayo for. They have been the saviours of the football championship over the past number of years. It would have been a very barren landscape without their presence. I thank them for all the entertainment they have provided us with.
If they could only go and win it! They owe it to themselves.
Tuam Star 2021 . I wouldn’t agree it you regarding the fans expectations and hype in the county which I think are alluding to as the cause we lost the match in Saturday. I was confident we would win this one that was based on having won all our games were in both league and championship granted you can argue about some of the opposition but we did have momentum. We beat Galway in an Connaught Final coming from 6 points down at half time . Beating the Dubs in an All Ireland semi final . All without the players who had recently retired . No Cillian O Connor and no Oisin Mullin for the semi . So yes I was confident while it can be argued how well Tyrone played in their semi in the same breath you argue that Kerry were quite poor in some aspects of their game and still lost by a point .
I don’t think we could have being accused of building much hype last year or putting too much expectations on the team and we still lost the final .
With regards to Tyrone fans expectations it was said from 2 different pundits that up in Tyrone their fans were extremely confident of winning . There was also someone from Newstalk that went to the streets of Tyrone to get their thoughts on game and they as well came across as being being confident they would do the job and yet with this expectation Tyrone still performed .
Donegal still beat us after all the hype and expectations before our final with them . I recall how it made national coverage about a disagreement on where to hold the home coming and not a ball thrown in . I don’t personally believe that the hype and confidence among supporters cost us the game that to me is utter nonsense .
The majority of pundits had this as a 50:50 match Tuamstar, thereby giving Tyrone equal chance, so unless you don’t listen to the media or read the news then you’re clearly trolling.
Not trolling. Just offering an opinion. Disagree that the majority of pundits give it as 50:50. Really feel there was a definite media slant in the Mayo direction. For example, all of the pundits in the Indo on Saturday, bar one, gave it to Mayo. Albeit by a small margin. Look, as I said this is my opinion. I just think that this team were not mentally prepared for this final. And I do feel the mood in the county as well as in the media had an influence. I would dearly have loved for Mayo to win this. The sad thing is, and no disrespect to Tyrone, but this could and should have been Mayo’s day. But instead they produced one of their worst displays in a final in years. Very disappointing.
TuamStar 2021 – I added the ‘2021’ bit to your handle as there’s already another TuamStar who is a long-standing contributor here on the blog. Can you either make sure you use the 2021 suffix when you post or else pick a new handle? Thanks.
Will do that Willie Joe. Will change handle to avoid confusion. Thanks for letting me post.
New handle, Willie Joe.
Laziest analysis comes from Galway and Dublin fans. Blame Mayo’s failings in this final (and past ones as well) on hype, overconfidence and high expectation amongst us as supporters.
Absolute rubbish. As most posters have stated here since Saturday evening, the reasons why we lost is primarily down to missed scoring opportunities, conceding two preventable goals and too many players playing below their normal standards. And may I add, Tyrone’s homework on our key players and execution of their game plan.
‘In seven final appearances in 10 seasons Mayo have managed to score 3 goals.
And more damning is conceding 12 goals in total in those same finals’.
This is what one poster wrote here on the blog on September 15th at 2.27AM.
Whether that blogger Dave Johnson couldn’t sleep or was in a different time zone,
he hit the nail on the head right there.
How indeed could we possibly win those finals with a 9 goal deficit to make up,
that’s a whopping 27 points ?
We cannot make up that deficit and we didn’t.
Last Saturday it was 2 goals to nil …. a 6 points deficit.
Again we were unable to make up the deficit.
Our psychological traumas are caused by goals .
Big depression when we concede one & big depression when we miss one.
We will not be winning the All Ireland until we score more goals than the opposition on the day of the AIF.
All of our future matches should be analysed on the number of goal chances created & conceded.
We are just too sloppy at the important stuff.
We are like a robber continually trying to break down the front door.
All the other robbers are coming in the back door, the windows & the skylight.