Back in 2011, we made it to the All-Ireland semi-final for the first time in five years. It was in that year too that the inaugural Mayo GAA Blog pre-match meet-up at Bowe’s pub in Fleet Street took place.
The meet-ups have continued to take place – either before semi-finals or finals (or both) – in the years since then. They’ve always drawn a decent attendance of Mayo GAA supporters up in the capital on the eve of big matches involving us.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that pints in Bowe’s the night before a big match has become part of the fabric of the Mayo GAA experience for many people. As a result I’m happy to confirm that the next such gathering will take place this coming Saturday night (19th August) ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final match against Kerry.
Throw-in time for the match the following day is, of course, 3.30pm. Throw-in at Bowe’s this night week will be 9pm or thereabouts. If you fancy a bit of football-related chat with some like-minded souls then you could do worse than to drop by at some point that evening.
HI i would be delighted to join ye for a chat and a pint ,it would be a great experience for me if its anything like this blog it should very interesting
Come on Mayo
what strip will the teams be wearing for the match? away?
Dammit, going to miss this again, the Mrs has booked a night out already, so I’ll have to mind the childers and sit this out one.
Will you providing grub on the night Willie joe ?
I will in me hole, Mayoman!
Centerfield – I suppose it’ll be the red and black number the lads wore against them down in Tralee. Nice jersey if it is. They usually wear that mainly blue jersey against us so I guess they’ll do so again.
Jesus .WJ . .can’t invite us up and not throw on a few auld cocktail sausages ,!!!!
A few ham sandwiches even with a dolop of Mayo!
I was seriously considering making the trip from the west coast a day early to meet up for a few pints Saturday night , but jasus I thought there would be cocktail sausages too!!
???
Feck them questions marks are meant to be emojis
Somebody give us a live feed in Facebook or something so us Mayo fans on the States side of the Atlantic can be there in spirit, please?!?!?! Maigh Eo Abú!!!!
Fekkin savages WJ.. let them put their money where the mouth is now and take care of you for the night…a small payment for the great website!! Bring your own sausages lads …
Your going to a semifinal lads not a day on the bog!! It’s far from cocktail sausages ye’s were reared. Mind you a few hang sandwiches sound nice Willie Joe.
Thanks Willie Joe. Would be no harm to get them outta the green and gold
Samadges ffs….will tell get it right and a few biled eggs in the bean tin…
Eating is cheating lads and there’s to be no interruptions with samadges or the like .. there’s serious discussions to be had about who is to mark Donaghy 🙂 Not sure what plan is yet..will try and make it this year if I can
Roscommon must have a very good under 17 team? Serious win today over a Kerry team that have been all conquering at under 18/17/16 in recent years. All Ireland u17 final against Tyrone for them now.
Open a tab for WJ in Bowes lads!! I’ll have to give this one a miss unfortunately, I’ve only got a day visa…
I’m flying for this one and couldn’t convince herindoors that it was necessary to be in Dublin for Saturday evening too.
Sickened as it should be a great night. Of memory serves me right the Rochford crest used to adorn one of the mirrors behind the bar in Bowes. Could be another sign!
I’d go but I’d be afraid I’d be starstruck upon meeting you Willie joe
What’s the number of the bus from Doohoma to that place do ya know …WJ? I might be able to make it meself.
Some thought this. When Dillon , Andy and D Clarke started playing for Mayo…u-16… the likes of Loftis Diarmuid Harrison and Cpen and maybe a few more were still in nappies . It’s a stark reminder of what fellas give to football ……and still cpntinue to do so.
As Larry Duff mentioned above, Roscommon beat Kerry 2-15 to 1-13 in today`s All Ireland U-17 semi Final in Ennis.
Lets hope we can send their Seniors packing next weekend.
Barry moran for sweeper
Moran in midfield for kerry is a bigger concern than Donaghy. Probably the best fielder of a ball in the country. Will need aido with this fella
Hopping on the train for the hurling this morning. Looking forward to being in Croke Park for a big game and not be close to fainting!!
Lots of talk and concern over donaghy, he’s not the only weapon they have. I hope Rochford isn’t looking to this forum for advice!
SR admitted Mayo got a lot of criticism after draw with Ros and we see that criticism didn’t do any harm. With this in mind and also WJ’s rules I would be interested in peoples views on the following:
If Kerry are winning 60% of kickouts how will Mayo manage their ‘running game’ if they are kept busy defending deep?
Who were Higgins and Vaughan marking the last day and who the next day?
What will Mayo do if David Moran starts to dominate midfield for the last 20 minutes?
What will management do if Barrett is getting caught for pace like he did by Danny Cummins a few years ago.
Why has Nally who was one of Mayo’s most consistent players of the last two league’s only got about 10 mins of championship football to date?
If Donaghy only comes on as sub for last 20 like in 2014 draw how will a tired Mayo team plan cope?
Likely outcome if Mayo aren’t able to use running game like last day:
– Give ball to Aiden O Shea he runs as far as he can and then is bottled up so starts twisting and turning like last year and we know outcome of that.
– kick to corners. COC is beaten for pace so not a good option . Moran wins race to sideline and gets ball but is puffing for air and is not able to take on his man so he gets turned over.
Barry Moran has bit kicked a ball for mayo all year
Hardly kicked one full stop for 3 months
Wasn’t even in the 26 last week
Not an option for the biggest game of the year
I’d be more worried about geaney and jod than donaghy. I think the key thing with donaghy is not to jump with him for 50/50s and to be on the ground waiting for him when he lands. The ball will travel 50 yards or so and we can have him swarmed when he lands. I can only see Keegan or Vaughan being put on him. I don’t think anyone else would be powerful enough for him.
I think harrison is good match up for geaney and then probably Barrett on jod. We’d need them to get huge protection from half back line or they’ll be exposed due to the quality of the ball that Kerry deliver. Although Kerry’s half forwards are mostly just workers they can all kick points so will need to be watched as well.
I’d be tempted to start Higgins and Mc loughlin wing forwards with a role to intermittently sweep and run straight and hard at the Kerry defence when we get the ball. I think the way we will break Kerry down is to have numbers flooding through the middle at pace, similar to what we did vs rossies.
The kick outs will be huge. Kerry will undoubtedly target Clarke’s and we should similarly target Kelly’s. We should push right up and slow Moran down if he catches the ball so that we can protect the defence. Moran is a huge threat in my opinion. I would have aos on him for everyone of their kick outs as I think he’d clean parsons or sos due to his fielding ability.
On an unrelated matter, there’s a good article about mayo tourism in the Irish times today. The article and the tourism videos embedded in it would make you fierce proud to be from this great county.
cod, yes I agree geaney is a big threat, keegan is the full back line is wasted, look at the drawn ros game in the second half he never featured after a serious contribution in the first,. the problem is we fear ther forwards more than they fear ours. most of our scores are coming from our defenders, keegan to the half forward line and go for them,
Very good points raised Cod. Everyone agrees the winning of midfield is crucial as is the transition from pushing up on their kickouts to getting back to form a blanket. This balance is hugely important because as we know if you push up too far and they get in behind us then it’s a straight run down the middle. If we defend to much we will have no outlet to the forwards. The exact same applies for them however and this where I belive players like Murphy for kerry and Keith and Doherty for us will be hugely important. Half forwards come midfielders collecting dirty ball around the middle and running directly at and past the first defensive line will be hugely decisive with half backs running in off the shoulder. In fairness I believe AOS has shown a huge improvement in laying off the ball to support players this year.. we need him to run at and attract defenders that is the only way we can make space. Of course it won’t always work out and looks bad when he looses the ball but when it works the space he creates is like no one else in GAA at the moment and the big lad never gets the credit for it. Will Geaney, JOD and Donaghy all start at the same time? I don’t think so.. why! because they don’t track back aswell as other players especially JOD who hates the rough and tumble of the game and been dragged all over the field. Donaghy dosn’t have the pace and fouls repeatedly something the supporters can bring to the attention of the ref. So I believe Donaghy will start ahead of JOD and Barret won’t start for us but this will keep changing right up to throw in. Andy going to the corner as opposed to JOD going to the corner! what’s the difference apart from the speed at which it is done…good defenders will push them out. The most important things is that he holds onto possession and recycles.. that we are patient and get a score. I expect this to be a niggly dour game.. lots of cards.. lots off the ball stuff aided and abetted by an inconsistent irrational referee. This game will be the making or breaking of both managers and will be a defensive cagey affair as a result. Rochfords tactics to be the difference in the end. Fingers crossed one week away.
Yes Kerry’s full forward line is a big threat but they are still only scoring 1 goal per game. We have scored 12 in 7 games. They also play more workers in their half line than out and out scorers. Now I’m not advocating attack attack attack but we don’t tend to play well when we’re overly conservative. Our greatest strength is our hard running with support players which is also a weakness for Kerry.
On the ref, he’s currently probably the worst ref on Ireland.hes consistently bad in every game though. Kerry have always been better at playing the ref and this needs to be addressed
Great to see Waterford in a final…a novel pairing without Galway.
This time next week will we be celebrating? I have a feeling we will 🙂
Never want to be pessimistic but take the last game out of the equation and our form has been diabolical this year. You cant just dismiss that as a nothing in your complete analysis comparing both sides,kerry made light work of both cork and galway ,we didnt and lost to Galway also.
I understand its a new show in town now for semi.final ,I still dont get the ott optimism . Kerry are capable of getting a foothold in midfield and Donaghy could be in and around there not ff , Moran and fat hole are magnificent fielders.
Heart will always say Mayo and I will shout and believe on the day so dont start with the hang your headin shame line but head says Kerry by 7/8 points.
Agree with yew tree , I just have a feeling Mayo will do it against Kerry!!
Good man Sean Burke and 79 …you tell it in different ways …two shades of green and red….. how many are there at all? …increasing by the day! One would think there was a family of Donaghys turning out for Kerry next week… but no harm done …the game hadn’t started yet and we re only the rabble. And you know it often happens that such a player turns out in the end to be anonymous on the day….wouldn’t surprise me a bit. He ll need to be watched no more/less than any of the others and I feel that our fellas in his vicinity won’t be standing around picking their noses while he skips around free to play ball with his friends…. And he ll be remembered too for his pull on AOS in the square in McHale in that league game….
In other words Mayo will draw on whatever they will to get their gander up for this game…..They have much to draw on and let’s face it they’ve never had so much to focus their intentions since they ve come to be recognised as a top team. Before,it was touch and go but now I reckon it’s full speed ahead for this team…time for tipping around is long passed.
They know that themselves. Before, it was a case of c’est la vie but now we can safely bypass and out fox the oracles and stand triumphant at the final whistle. There’s going to be no divine intervention required here but just brains, blood and guts, born bred and reared in the great county of Mayo.
So now, you may step aside Kerry, for we have a big strong message to deliver to your doorstep from 3.30 on ….next Sunday! You’ve had your day now lay down your arms or else!!!!
Sean Burke – Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I am more of a glass half full person. No point going around worrying we will get beat….where is the fun in that?
I think Mayo will bring the ferocious tacking and intensity we saw against Roscommon…if we do we have a great chance..
One week to go,We need a big support to travel on sunday.Bring your flag and your shouting voice with you and dont stop supporting the team until the final whistle.IT WILL BE A DEFINING MATCH FOR MAYO.it could be the last time we see .alan dillon , andy moran ,david clarke, keith higgins,colm boyle , chris barrett and seamus o shea don the mayo jersey, SO anybody who is still undecided about going should give it one last shot and travel to support.I think we had low support numbers for the replay versus ros. I think we will beat kerry
May as well be optimistic. Mayo are still a good team though we were probably flattered by Roscommon the last day. Moran and Geaney are the 2 best Kerry players. JOD was fairly anonymous against Galway and Donaghy is showing signs of age. I would worry about how easy teams were finding it to run through the middle of Mayo all through the championship. I’m fairly confident that management will have noticed and planned accordingly. I imagine that they will have also worked on improving the kick out strategy as we will never meet a midfield like Roscommon again.
I rewatched the Kerry Galway game. After 53 mins Galway should have been leading.
Then they took off Gareth Bradshaw n Michael Daly. Kerrys bench made an impact and Galways didnt.
But there was definitely a clear vulnerability with Kerry to the running game.
Paul Geaney as I have stated the agile long armed Brendan Harrison should pick him up.
James ODonoghue, Patrick Durcan on a marking and attacking role could really make life uncomfortable for JOD.
Just back from that all Munster semi. Great to see Waterford blast into the final.
Was on the Hill, where Cork outnumbered Waterford by about 4 to 1. Couldn’t believe it, but when Waterford got a grip the Cork crowd went silent, and well before the 4th goal, they left in droves.
We’ll all need to be at the top of our game next week!
When analysing previous games I’d be taking more notice of how we performed against Cork compared to how Kerry performed against them. I wouldn’t be rating Kerry based on their performance against Galway as Kerry often under perform in quarter-finals. In saying that both Galway and Cork created a lot of goal chances against them, so for us we really need to convert chances like that.
This game could be one of our last big opportunities to beat them as they still have not brought through many of their young players yet, which you’d expect them to do in the coming years. So maybe the last chance saloon type situation that we are in might just drive us on to get the win. We should use Westport’s win over Kenmare as our inspiration. Stay in the game and drive on coming near the end of the match. Kerry will try to blitz us early in the game so we need to be ready for that.
Sean, ”tis hard to argue with a lot of your points although I would be very surprised if we will be beat by 7/8 points.
Reasons to be positive
1. We played very well in the last game.
2. We have a full panel to choose from.
3. We have some of the best players in the country including the best player in the country.
4. Our big players, aido, lee, cilllian etc are playing well.
5. We are not playing the greatest Kerry team of all time.
Reasons to be negative
1. Roscommon were very poor the last day.
2. Our form this year has been patchey at best.
3. We don’t seem to have a constant decernable game plan.
4. Some of our more promising subs have not seen enough game time to make a judgement on wether they are up to it.
5. Some of our starters are in the twilight of their career.
Now I’m def a glass half full type of guy and I would say that if we play to our potential we are a better team than Kerry. I cannot see Kerry beating Dublin if they meet them in the final. Saying that Eamonn fitz is a very good manager and I think Rochford needs to up his game to get to his level. I would not to be in his shoes though because he has some tough decisions to make over the next 7 days.
Fair play to anyone who could watch that Galway v Kerry game. It was pretty poor stuff on the day. with Kerry in third gear against a Galway team who had played their AI in June yet again this year. I was looking forward to it on the day and then I found it hard to focus on it, too boring Fact is the Kerry team we will meet next Sunday will bear no resemblance to that shadow boxing bout. There is a place in the AI final up for grabs and both teams know that. The real championship starts in August. This is a massive game for Kerry, and they would choose any other county ahead of us for a semi final.
Awk dont mind me come the day ill be full of bravado and lots of optimism . For now I like to see how good the opposition is and they are very good, remember watching the munster final and it was 43 mins in till.kerry had a.wide and if I remember correctly had 16 scores got, fooking hell like that is phenomenal accuracy.
Fair play to Waterford, a county like ourselves with passionate supporters who have not tasted success since 1959. From our perspective Sean Burke makes sense. We have not been great all year and people who were critical are now going ott because we produced one good performance v Ross. Kerry are deserved favourites and it will take a super performance to beat them. Am cautiously optimistic, but reality and history point to Kerry. Heres hoping that by this time next week the critics are not out in force with the I told you so, Rochford has no idea, and didnt I always tell you he is not up to county standard. Would be much nicer reading positive stuff abouy a great performance and qualifying for another final This team have been wonderful all we need is 2 more big performances. Up Mayo
I see the Yerra machine is beginning to crank up with Spillane coming out to say that he is worried ahead of the Mayo game, particularly for the Kerry back line. For a man who has repeatedly spoken out about our weaknesses in our forward line, it’s ironic that this particular yarn gets spun when there is an agenda at play. Good man Pat – criticise your own county’s defenders in the hope that they will be sore, revved up and gunning to prove him wrong next Sunday !! More cute hoorism expected throughout the week!
I can absolutely guarantee you that there will be posters on here this time next week going “let’s keep level heads, I know we beat Kerry but it wasn’t that great of a Kerry team”
“That Kerry team wasn’t that great, Dublin/Tyrone will be a different prospect”
“We might get away playing that way against Kerry but you won’t against…..”
It’s called the “Mayo GAA Blog effect”. The last team you played was shite, the next one is infinitely better, but then you beat them and they become shite and so on and so forth until your right.
The other anomaly the Blog has spawned is the “Richie Feeney effect” where the longer your on the bench the better you become. In fairness to Shane Nally, he seems to have proved that one correct.
Mark my words, Mayo will beat Kerry next Sunday.
Purely as a diversion to avoid thinking about the Kerry game – anyone want to have a go at picking the Mayo 2020 team (just for fun)? For all the talk about an ageing team I was surprised how many of the current team will probably still be playing in 2020 Championship. Those living in the county probably have a better handle on the players who might might be 19 to 22 now that could be county players in 3 years.
Mayo 2020
Flanagan
Akram
B Harrison
O Donaghue
Nally
Coen
Durkan
Keegan
Kirby
Boland
A O’Shea
D O’Connor
Loftus
C O Connor
B Reape
subs
C Hanley
Plunkett
Ruane
Cinniffe
McLaughlin
That’s not an officially sanctioned Mayo GAA Blog effect, Liam! I kinda know what you mean, though. I’d add that it’s also a social media effect, where commentary on events can often sway widely between extremes. Opinions expressed on the blog aren’t unusual in that respect but neither are they immune to more wider trends on the internet.
Irwin, hall and Gallagher would have to be included in that team somewhere.
Bit harsh there Liam. Sure we can only give opinion on form , kerrys form is far superior to ours and.they won the league with an impressive win against the Dubs too. Of course we.are capable of beating Kerry but so many things will have to go right on the day though.
People who are fond of dismissing the old GAA sayings like “kerry wont fear Mayo ” is all well and grand but you mark.my words Kerry never fear Mayo and have that hex on us where they will swagger onto the pitch with a belief they will.not let Mayo beat them. We are forever as a collective making that mistake of underestimating the Kerry factor. Its massive , they sit top of the roll of honour because of it. They are hard bastards by nature , tis often overlooked because of the silky skills up.front.
Given up on Regan? Prendergast…and Jack. Haven’t had a Jack play for Mayo yet…..the missing link!
Is Tom the commonest name going back?? Too late for such an enquiry?
Not everyone has to share the same opinion, my head says Kerry will win by 3-4 points on Sunday. But that won’t stop me roaring my head off for 70mins. Kerry turn it on in semis simple as. We tend to follow a super performance with a more tame/flatter one. Like tipp after Tyrone last year, or Tyrone after donegal 2013. We grinded out wins on both those occasions, but we won’t get away with that against Kerry, IF we play in a similar pattern.
I’m not one of those who’ll be queuing up after a potential loss to Kerry, to write a fancy spiel saying I told you so, etc etc…a stopped clock and all that. I’d die for this team and will stick by them through thick and thin. I fully believe we’re well capable of beating them, just feel we’ll lose out next Sunday, but I pray to God I’m wrong.
Other than praying to god, Im similar to you dunphy.
Ah boys o boys will ye come on …….! that’s the ould attitude that’s been hanging around for I don’t know how long any more and the muck ain’t gettin any thinner. Couldn’t have that goin out on the pitch in a few days time. Chins up and breath through your lungs …in and out And in and out.. ye ll need them for all that shouting you’re going to do!