Yesterday was certainly one to forget for us – it was our first double-digit Championship defeat since we lost by ten points to Derry in the qualifiers back in 2007 – and it was one in which, from our perspective, there was precious little to celebrate.
In such circumstances, it seems a bit daft to be talking about a Mayo Man of the Match at Fitzgerald Stadium. The object of this exercise, though, has always been to salute our best performers in the games we play, no matter how these games finish up.
One small bright spot from our perspective yesterday was the fact that Cillian O’Connor broke Colm Cooper’s all-time scoring record in the Championship. It’s wholly appropriate, then, that he’s been voted our MOTM from yesterday’s game.
Well done to Cillian, both for his display yesterday and for his landmark achievement in breaking the scoring record.
Anyone with a juvenile season ticket that can’t make Sunday and wants to keep their attendance up I will have someone to use it !
The juvenile tickets on tickets.ie are in section 301 which is likely to be far way from our 2!
Well done Cillian. That score he got where he had his back to goal and without looking fired over. It was a score of the highest order based on pure instinct, natural ability and pure talent. He never gave up until the last whistle and was easily our best player on the day
Well done to Cillian. Every score he gets from here on out is a record.
Cillian O’Connor was a rare bright spot from yesterday and congratulations to him for breaking Gooch’s record. We are blessed to have him and I wish him many successful years ahead in the Mayo jersey. I still can’t quite get my head around why were so flat and lifeless all over the field yesterday – I just hope they can recover something for Meath on Sunday and no doubt Cillian O’Connor will be central to that.
On the assumption that Kerry will manage to squees past Donegal and beat Meath in their final game, then a draw with Meath and a win over Donegal in MacHale Park will get us through. The group would then read, Kerry 6points, Mayo 3, Donegal 2, Meath 1 – so you see there’s hope for us yet.
Congratulations to Cillian, he’s some player and to be fair its some accomplishment to be the C’ship all time leading scorer. It was obvious that when he hit the cross bar and then missed the spotter it wasn’t going to be our day.
Lookit, if we’re honest, and as much as I love us been in the heat of it, we’ll be fortunate to make the semi’s. We just dont seem to have the strength and dept at the moment. The injuries are killing us and couple that with the young fellows who are just not ready to take the reins just yet. The team will be focused on Meath now and not look beyond them, but for us fans the reality is our destiny is not solely ours any more. I believe the scoring differential may come back to bite us but we will just have to wait and see.
It will be good to be back in Croke Park, a place that’s familiar to Mayo and they love playing there, so I would expect a very good performance.
Mayomchale – Donegal would also have 3 points in that scenario but we’d go through on head to head record.
Kerry won’t beat Donegal. They won’t have it anywhere near as easy as they did against us.
Donegal have a better keeper than us and they will have a better foothold in midfield than we had. Kerry are relying on winning the midfield battle in order to get the full forward line motoring. Donegal will nullify that the next day. Michael Murphy will do a job in midfield if needs be.
The one thing I will say in defence of the team is they played to the final whistle (some of it not too good) but they kept showing urgency right to the end. They actually looked like they believed the margin was bridgeable right to the finish.
Congratulations Cillian! A phenomenal achievement at such a young age. Plenty of miles to go too!
Ciaran brannigan ref for our match.
If that Cillian goal chance that nearly broke the goalposts had gone in you’d never know – it would only be 6 points and it might have sparked a revival. I agree with you Revellino they certainly kept going. Such a pity the goal chances didn’t go in.
There was power in that Cillian shot on goal alright. It was good to see that conviction.
I would like to know – if Donegal beat Kerry next week, how does that leave us?
To me, going on appearances, Donegal are the most formidable outfit in the group so far – power, pace, running, stifling attacks. We also know they’ll be very well tactically prepared. Kerry will have their work cut out. Not meaning to be negative here but wondering where we stand.
I would agree the lads kept plugging away. The Donie incident was 50 50 a penalty and he was able to cut through Kerry a few times so shows most teams are vulnerable to direct running. SOS introduction showed a natural and combatant midfielder is worth a lot and even though Donie has plenty of fight in him he’s not a natural fielder of a ball when put up against guys with long arms. SOS has the knack and it made a difference albeit he hit 2 unnecessary stray passes so maybe we don’t need him kick passing, just winning and laying off is fine with a few strong runs thrown in. We had as many goal chances as Kerry and if they didn’t find the net we could have ended only 5 or so down and not looking too bad for the systems failure. For next game SOS starts and we can compete. I also think Andy starts as has more smarts than Carr who will likely be a very good forward in the years ahead. The new lads still a bit to green and only subs appearances for them from now on unless Matthew ready to return. Diarmaid may also be ready for this one or Donegal.
It’s still a long shot but disagree With Brolly. Meath aren’t too different from Down or Armagh and we beat both. We improved for Galway but tired for last 20. On Sunday that accumulation of games was a significant factor especially our loose passing. Donegal are probably division one standard alright but if we can win playing fairly well against Meath they are beatable especially in a packed Castlebar. At that stage we could have a stronger panel. Dublin at their robotic high standard again this year but we’re one of the few teams able to make them look not invincible especially with our match ups.
The pain is easing.
I’m desperately grasping for reasons to be positive.
One comment from last week’s podcast review from limerick comes to mind: the point Barry Cullinane made suggesting that Mayo shouldn’t target the Kerry game at all and save our fire for the final two Super 8 matches. At the time I totally disagreed and felt we were well capable of taking Kerry on even when all factors and concerns were considered. I doubt Mayo adopted this mindset, at least not consciously, but I really hope that they did! Even if they did, there’s no way they wanted it to pan out the way it did. Given the performance against Galway, they had every reason to be confident going to Killarney.
I’m not totally buying the fatigue factor. James recently spoke about preferring more “games to training ratio” so with that logic fatigue cant be used as an excuse, unless he was just saying it to be upbeat. Mental fatigue, maybe, and granted the injury aspect is an important variable, and its reasonable to infer that certain other key players who played are carrying niggles. However, we had a good mix of younger players going well and for the most part they struggled the last day too. I think the occasion may have got to the entire team a bit too, just like it did to Tyrone in ’12. This bothers me more than anything. Everyone knows the Kerry machine is a powerful force, from their media generals to the “fortress” that is Killarney, to the perceived “hurt” they can always seem to muster and use as motivation. Kerry know how to motivate from within, how to rally the troops including the supporters and this is when they are categorically at their most dangerous. Teams need to be less naive when taking them on in such circumstances and at the very least try to make life difficult for them.
Hindsight is an easy thing and given the few weeks our team has had, I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. I suppose the most difficult thing to take is the absolute polar opposite performance yesterday to the one last week in Limerick. It’s hard to fathom that no matter what way you look at it.
Alas, as the week goes on, we’ll start to look forward to Croker next week.
If we beat Meath, then and only then will we have any interest to the following Donegal/Kerry Match….If we lose, I won’t be able to get out of Croke Park quick enough…. I think it will be the same for the Meath Supporter’s…. Donegal could beat Kerry, even though Kerry are the slightest of favorites…. We as Mayo Supporter’s will do our best as we always do, the Team we support most certainly will leave it all on the field, and we will I believe be still in the Championship, when Marty is having his party, and we will be listening to him as we head for the Toll Booth on the road Westwards!
?s the Mayo v MeAth game televised
Yes James it will be shown on RTE.
Thanks Liam
How about giving Brian Reape a go at this Meath team he is strong and skilful
Congrats Cillian, a brilliant achievement. In a year when we have been dogged with injuries Cillian s injury was the most damaging of all. Had he played v Ross we would never have found ourselves having to navigate the back door scenario. He has been a brilliant player and leader for us and even yesterday when things were going so badly he kept showing for the ball and caused Kerry problems.
Well done to Cillian, hope to see him add significantly to his total in the coming years.
Fantastic achievement for Cillian and County.
So well deserved and great 2 games since return from injury. Here’s to great games ahead this year and into the next few years too.
A great warrior. Congrats Cillian.
What is interesting to think about. Aidan never played full forward whilst being this lean and fit. This year he is really able to stop, turn and twist quickly. He did not have that agility and speed in his first step before.
Unfortunately we only have Seamus O’Shea who is a proper midfielder. But, if we got both of Matthew Ruane and Diarmuid back.
I do believe that Meath would not be able to cover Aidan at full forward and it would give him a rest. There is no Meath defender over 6 foot. If it goes badly for the first defender like Seamus Lavin (mismatch), then likely Meath have to bring Donal Keogan back on Aidan. Now, here is where I think it gets interesting. When Aidan played 14 before, he was very isolated as at the time we were dropping players back and Aidan had no layoff open. Now, Aidan would have Cillian, Fionn McDonagh and Darren Coen available as layoffs. Cillian and Darren can in that situation only be marked by the second and third best defender.
This is not going to happen but if our front 8 was something like:
Seamus O’Shea Matthew Ruane
Fionn McDonagh Kevin McLoughlin Diarmuid O’Connor
Darren Coen Aidan O’Shea Cillian O’Connor
Aidan to my eye is getting worn down game by game in midfield. He is around 100kg and explosive. That is not the kind of buiild built for stamina and recovery. The lighter players like Keith Higgins although much older can much better go week to week and recover. It was noticeable against Kerry that Aidan didn’t really have too many of those explosive high leaps. He didn’t have so many bursting runs.
The one thing that has been better is his handling and his agility. He has also developed a unique handpass hitting a low just above the ground long handpass low in between tacklers.
Maybe a win over Meath, and narrow defeat to Donegal in the last game would be best outcome for this year. One thing i wouldnt like to see is meeting Dublin in the semi-final because they will rip us a part. Big time. James Horan has learned nothing from the Roscommon game. I’m afraid like his previous stint as manager his tactics has never changed. Mayo had conceded 1-18 before he felt it was time to make a change in his back line…. My advice to him is get Steven Poucher in as his defensive coach right now.
can someone explain how the head to head will work if two teams end on the same points?
looking at the scores from Ros match on Doherty has scored 2pts over 5 matches and from what i can see is not getting on the breaks yet he is guaranteed his spot
Interesting article from McStay today, in particular Mayo’s mindset last Sunday. Donaghy also alluded to it last night on OTB. So Mayo took their mind off the job, knowing that they still had 2 games to go? Only problem with that is we now need Kerry to beat Donegal which I don’t think they will. Donegal will beat Kerry and will be under no pressure coming to C’bar. If we beat Meath and Donegal beat Kerry and we somehow beat Donegal we’ll almost certainly lose out on score difference. Unless The other possibility, is Donegal beat Kerry, and Kerry then go to Navan needing to win, pressure gets to them, lose, so Donegal and Mayo advance, stranger things have happened!!
It didn’t matter our attitude. We did not have the legs or personnel available to win that game.
Assuming that most teams have two tiers of players the elite top half of players and the solid good players.
We were missing Matthew Ruane, Diarmuid O’Connor and Paddy Durcan from the elite list.
All three play in the middle of the pitch where we were convincingly beaten.
All three are three of our quickest most mobile and younger players.
True JP, but maybe missing those players fed into the mindset last Sunday.
I said to the lads going down in the car to Killarney that I would be more confident if our game was a knock-out game, as opposed to a round robin game. Whatever it is about our lads, they only ever seem to bring the best out of themselves when it is a “last chance saloon” situation. Other times, we can be flat footed, slightly off the pace and look almost like a team that is still in pre-season mode. Look at the Roscommon semi-final game, the Galway and Dublin league games as examples and compare them to the Galway game in Limerick or even the Tyrone league game this year. We only ever seem to really bring it to the table when our backs are firmly pinned to the wall. This, allied to the very warm day, allied to four hard weeks in a row, allied to missing 3 certain starters, allied to an exceptionally brilliant Kerry performance (I would be surprised if we see them that good again this year) resulted in a sound beating for us.
As big as the winning margin was Kerry were fortunate that, through a combination of good luck and butchered chances, we didn’t hit the back of the net on at least two occasions. I counted three times in the first half alone, that when we ran straight at them, they were porous through the middle. Vaughan twice and McDonagh once had opened up their defense and goal chances were certainly on. I felt McDonagh (who was well off the pace and looked intimidated by his marker right from the off) should have drove on as another few strides, he would then have been clean through on goal and all sorts of possibilities could have opened up. I felt at the time that Vaughans penalty shout was a 50/50 at best, but it did show that Kerry were vulnerable to a running attack. Our problem in that regard was that our half forward line was sucked so far back the field, out of position, due to us getting cleaned out in midfield, it meant a solo runner had to carry the ball 50 m and Kerry were not going to let that happen too often.
I also feel that McLoughlin, who was so ineffective in the half forward line last Sunday, should have been withdrawn in to a sweeper role and go with 7 backs v the 6 Kerry forwards. This would have given Clarke another target for kick outs, would have given us another pair of legs/hands to help work the ball out of defense, would have been another body to reduce the space for Kerry forwards to run in to, would have cut off the supply of passes landing in front of Clifford and would have reduced the huge work rate and effort that the backs and midfielders had to do in that opening 25 minutes. Even if McLoughlin had switched for just 10 mins, it would have helped us to ride the storm. Plus, that in turn makes Kerry change their tactics.
Btw, in all the Clarke debate, not many have mentioned that we won 100% of our kick outs in the second half! Kerry, at that stage, were still pushing up in a zonal type press and on more than one occasion Clarke clipped a quick side-footer between two Kerry forwards to a Mayo back.
As regards Sunday and Meath, I feel we will bounce back,these lads don’t know any different. However, I firmly believe that Horan now must trust his squad and get, at least, 4 or 5 fresh faces in the starting fifteen. Put O’Donoghue, McCormack, Seamie and Tracey/Loftus/Boland in there from the start. Hold back the likes of Barrett, Boyle, Carr and McLoughlin for the final 20 minutes and look to finish strong with experience and pace on the field. We need to trust also our kicking game and believe that just because it malfunctioned once, that does not necessarily mean it will malfunction this weekend. We haven’t become a bad team overnight, yes we got badly clipped by a hugely motivated Kerry and were second best all day. But we are still in this fight. And fight we will. To the end.
Hon Mayo.
Agree Pebblesmeller, I thought Vaughan and Mc Donagh both had chances in the box, if they were cuter, could have won penalties. They should have cut inside and came across defenders running back towards the goal who would have tripped them due to the change of direction in their run. This would have made it easier for the ref to award a penalty as they were running down on goal and fouled in the process.
Pebbles – we’ve been crying out for Kevin to be deployed in a sweeper role all season and it hasnt happened yet. Unfortunately, I dont see Horan doing that; which is unfortunate. After the roscommon game, so many of us were crying out for the 2016/17 AIF templates that made us very hard to beat. No brainer stuff as far as I’m concerned – anyone can see that Kevin has been way off form this championship season bar a 10 min cameo after half time v Armagh.
On AOS, I think it’s inevitable that he will end up at 14 for Mayo over the coming years, with adaptability to play in front of the full back if and when required (like v Donaghy in 2017). With guys like Ruane and Diarmuid knocking about, they fit the bill of the mobile ‘box to box’ player. If Parsons does return next year and to anything close to his pre-in jury form then he too ticks the mobility box ahead of Aidan too. Aidan just turned 29. He has a good 4/5 years left in him if managed correctly but his pace will slow. He wont be cut out for the middle third but he could be a terrific option for us at 14. He would need time and supporters would need patience because you cant just turn into a full forward over the space of a few games. It would be need to be a thing where he would require a full league campaign in there to get used to it. I am sure someone of his intelligence would adapt fairly quickly. I know we tried him at 14 sporadically over the years with limited success but the problem with that is that you need the rest of the team used to and familiar with a player like him in the full forward role. If it’s done right, he would be a handful for any defence and it could be a very useful weapon for Mayo over the coming years. He is also an excellent tackler and as we all know….’the full forward line is the first line of defence’!
On full forwards. Darren Coen has been an excellent addition to us this year and looks in better shape now than he was two months ago but what he doesnt have is pace. he has many fine attributes. Can score. Has good hands and excellent vision. But he lacks pace. If anything, he is slow. I wonder is this something he can work on over the ‘off-season’.
Puckout and all, if Donegal beat Kerry, Kerry beat Meath and we beat Meath and Donegal is there a chance for us to advance?
What I mean is – does the head to head rule determine who goes through if teams end on equal points? ( And not scoring difference as a determinant?)
Crucial question here – in the above scenario, does the head to head rule favour Mayo advancing? I’d love to know.
Btw, it may indeed have been fortuitous for us to have taken the gamble and bet on the last two games as opposed to the first against Kerry. Maybe that is partly what happened, hard to fully know).
I agree with Pebblesmeller… we are unlikely to see Kerry play as well again this year. They were hugely motivated to beat Mayo last week, but could find themselves caught out against Donegal. Mayo were out on the feet from the last 15 minutes of the Galway game and this continued in Killarney on the hottest day of the year. That is the only explanation I can see for all the errors made by Mayo players, handling the ball on the ground, double hops, kicking the ball directly to opposition players… all down to mental fatigue…. It’s like when you’re exhausted in the morning and put your phone in the fridge and the butter in your handbag… sometimes your brain is just tired!
One possibility that I haven’t seen mentioned is that we go to Croke Park on Sunday and complete blitz Meath… They had a nightmare there in the Leinster Final and lost heavily to Donegal despite playing out of their skins for 60 minutes… That has to be demorilising! Backs against the wall… beat meath by more than 10 points, Donegal win by 1 and we win in Castlebar… we go through on a better score differential!
Just to answer Swallow Scoops question, if Donegal beat Kerry (and we win both matches) then there could be 3 teams on 4 points, so then score difference applies. Head to head only counts if there are 2 teams on same points.
Are Irish Rail putting on extra trains for the game on Sunday?
Swallow Swoops, in the case that 3 teams finish on the same poinces, I believe the points difference is the first port of call. If 2 teams are on the same points difference, it goes to head to head between those 2 teams.
Below from Wikipedia:
If only two teams are level on group points –
The team that won the head-to-head match is ranked first
If this game was a draw, score difference (total scored minus total conceded in all group games) is used to rank the teams
If score difference is identical, total scored is used to rank the teams
If still identical, a play-off is required
If three or more teams are level on group points, score difference is used to rank the teams.
Unfortunately, @Swallow Swoops if Donegal beat Kerry and we beat them it will go down to points.
Donegal beat (Meath & Kerry)
Kerry beat (Meath & Mayo)
Mayo beat (Meath & Donegal)
That leaves each team losing one of the heads to heads and so points difference will apply. At this stage, I think we need to target Donegal points difference and we need to come close if not exceed their winning margin over Meath.
Thoughts on starting team next week, obviously cant drop everyone who played poorly last week or it would just be Cillian surviving from last week :-). Just have to write it off as a bad day for a lot of them as we cant throw out the baby with the bathwater, i would make some changes based on the following 2 principles though…
– the venue, pick players suited to croke park, dynamic players who operate well on bigger pitches
– introduce pace, badly lacking it in both defence and attack last week
No point changing goalies again even though i have long been stating my reservations at the quality of clarkes restarts. Few lads really struggling especially in defence and HF line but as i said probably too late now for overhaul
With that in mind would go with…
Clarke
EoD
S Coen (To tag Newman)
Keegan (to tag Cillian O’Sullivan)
Durcan
Barrett
McCormack
SOS
AOS
Kevin (only because he is a croke park player!)
Higgins
McDonagh
Boland
COC
D Coen
Yes Bigmick you’re correct which is why the 10pt defeat will come back to haunt us if 3 teams finish level. So we need Kerry to beat Donegal and failing that Kerry to panic after losing to Donegal and lose in navan also. All assuming we win both our games!
…Vaughan, Doherty and Harrison all to drop out for me. Thats not to say i wouldnt start them v donegal
Paddy Durcan is unlikely to be fit for Meath game, Supermac – James Horan intimated this in his post-game audio for the podcast.
Dropping Harrison is very harsh. He was left on Clifford the last day because he’s our best marker. Geaney scored 1-2 despite being in terrible form so Barrett is more likely to be dropped.
Next weekend is huge. We need kerry to beat Donegal and win convincingly ourselves.
Donegal are a crafty team, I would not write them off to cause a surprise.
I think we have enough strength in depth to see off meath in the last quarter.
We are not great at pushing on, but I reckon Horan will have worked on this.
Dont know why there is so much doom and gloom around the place. We are still in the race, had no luck last Sunday, a defeat can pinpoint where we need to do work.
Injuries still a worry. Durcan and fully fit Keegan.
Refs seem to have it in for him, yellow card for nothing last Sunday, wheras others got away with far more serious infringements
@Wideball im a huge fan of Harrison, our toughest defender, but i would base it on the last few games, not just sunday. I just feel his confidence is a bit low at the minute after a few bad games on the spin, he is playing from the back now too which is a sign of a defender lacking in confidence so would have him sit the next one out. He wont be the last player to get a roasting off clifford, that kid is special. Would have a recharged Harrison starting again v Donegal though, as he is a perfect match for mcbrearty
Barrett lucky to survive too but as someone on here pointed out his best game in a mayo jersey was 2017 final at centerback so would like to try him at 6, and higgins in the hf line to give it a bit of drive.
Harrison will start on Sunday as he is our best option at FB. What were people expecting of Harrison one on one with Clifford? If he went and challenged for every kick in then Clifford would have added goals to his tally, all Harrison could do is stay goal side and prevent goals which is what he did. Damage was done further out the field with our inability to win ball in the middle. Tell me what full back could live with Clifford 1 on 1 with that amount of ball going in? Please don’t suggest Crowe as some have because AOS has more experience at full back than he does.
@Mayomad. Spot on with that post. I was situated behind the goals Kerry were attacking in the first half and all things considered Harrison did alright. The main problem was the amount of ball going in…If you want to stop that Kerry full forward line racking up a big score you have to limit their possession which we simply didn’t do.
Well done to Cillian Ó Connor breaking the record having played much less games then the Gooch.
I am not too sure about Donegal, I haven’t seen enough of them in the championship, will get a close up view in Croker next Sunday.
Mayo will need to put up a big winning score v Meath, hopefully Kerry can do Mayo a favour and beat Donegal.
Permutations…
If Donegal beat Kerry, by a point let’s say, then we’ll need a 20 point swing over the course of the two matches to overcome their score difference.
I’m going to assume that Kerry will then hit a score difference of at least +12, i.e. a minimum 3 point win over Meath in the last game.
That would have us at:
Donegal +10
Mayo -10 + whatever we beat Meath by.
If we can beat Donegal by 1 at home in the last game, that’s 2 points off the 20 difference needed, so we’d need to have an 18 point win over Meath.
Every point we could beat Donegal by, would lower the necessary winning margin over Meath by two points, but we’re still looking at needing a 10 point win over Meath followed by a 5 point win over Donegal, should they defeat Kerry.
Based off those numbers, it’s looking highly unlikely, so we’re really gonna need Kerry to scrape a win.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Tracey come in the next day. At least he would add a bit of badly needed pace to our forward line. Not much beteeen him and Boland but he’s a bit quicker I think. Jesus we looked slow the last day. Durcan will be a huge loss if not fit but a soft tissue injury will need more time so have to gamble we are still in it Sunday evening and save him for the last game hopefully. I wonder if Diarmuid or Ruane are near yet?
@HaunisExile… Sorry, you are correct! I forgot about the -10 we already had DOH!!!! In my defence, my brain is a bit fried!!
Ok so dare I say it, we will all be shouting for Kerry on Sunday… That will be painful 🙂
Ya need Kerry to get draw or better Haunis exile assuming we win
for me if we get to the Donegal game alive we need to take Paddy and Lee out of the defence and play them wide with AOS/SOS taking off Doherty and McLaughlin who are not delivering.
Our performance on the breaks this year has been a joke.
Play a sweeper at the back to give extra protection there.
Bigmick, FBDinashui and AMayoFan, thank you all! I’d have been racking my brain over that and ye’ve made it clear. For obvious reasons I’d prefer Kerry to overcome Donegal but I have an inkling it could go the other way. I think Donegal’s confidence is up this year but I say it mostly because I think they’re capable of grinding out a win and dictating a game on their terms. I’m not sure Kerry has developed that capability to control a game but I’m only speculating. Rochford also knows how to contain a Kerry attack (see Mayo v Kerry AI SF replay 2017).
However, I did make a comment here last week that I’d be curious to see how Donegal would react if under pressure, on the back foot, when they’d have to play with more abandon and less leisure to simply stifle and shut down an opposition attack as they did convincingly with Cavan, for example. I didn’t see their game v Tyrone and so I didn’t see if they used the tactic of shutting off and stifling the Tyrone attack while attacking aggressively themselves.
So now my new stance is this – I hope for Mayo to play well next week overcoming Meath and finding freshness from somewhere and Kerry to start like a whirlwind against Donegal racking up a big score straight off. And Donegal to wobble in this regard : ) And Horan to be inspired this week : ) Best wishes to everyone. I hope the lads are feeling better today body and bones.
It won’t be a surprise at all if Donegal win. They mark tighter than we did and Kerry won’t get the run of midfield against them that they got against us. This is how you beat Kerry – lord the midfield and stop ball going into the forwards. It’s quite simple really, and Donegal will do this and I expect it to work well for them.
It also wouldn’t be exactly panic stations for Kerry because they would be confident of beating Meath the next day so dropping a game to Donegal won’t bother them. Donegal will be a lot hungrier to win this game because they will want to avoid a do or die in Castlebar, so they’ll be going all out to win this one, I’d say. The need will be greater for Donegal and that’s why they’ll win.
When all is said and done, I don’t see the game in Castlebar meaning much in the end.
Good work there HaunisExile! Good to know what we’re working with.
(I do hope James puts fresh players on for as much of the game next week as possible/does major rotation in-game or has a strategy to slow the game down- I feel sorry for our players going through such a gruelling schedule of games some carrying niggles).
Congratulations to Cillian. He is a top professional and a great Leader of this Team. A great Mayo Man.
I agree totally with pebblesmeller, we need to start some of the younger guys from the start against Meath.
PACE killed us against Kerry. Our lads could mot keep up with the rampaging kerry half backs and half forwards. We urgently need pace in the back line.
I would bring in o Donoghue, Plunkett, Mc Cormack and Drake . Some of our backs need a break and maybe to come on later in the game if its still in the melting pot v Meath. We should be winning this game out the door .
I dont agree with shifting Aidan to FF but would start Seamus in the Middle alongside his brother.
This would give us more bite in Midfield but also have Kevin Mc and DOC cleaning up the breaking ball. There was no one doing this against Kerry. I said before we could have had 2 goals in the Kerry game and maybe 2 other appeals for penalties so were not that FAR off them.
Players need to show for Clarkes kick outs and win them also. Play to our Strengths if we play short or long go to the Man looking for the ball.
Pace is needed in Attack as well. The likes of Mc Donagh, Coen, Carr, Higgins and Jevin Mc have pace to burn lets use it. Get the ball in properly and accurately. Mix it up put Coen in on the small square and bomb it in . Use the ball and its one way of also conserving energy in a game it does not have to be all gut busting running so mix up both plays and tactics v Meath.
Meath will smell blood and let’s respect them but surely if we have any dreams of winning the All Ireland we have to put these teams away. Lets hope Mattie, Patrick and Diarmuid will be back vDonegal and along with Resting some of our Warriors we can regroup beat Donegal and keep going.
Mayo to beat Meath, speed to be injected, smarter plays required to move ball quickly to Coen, O Connor and Mc Donagh and take ALL chances.Best of luck to these fantastic Mayo Men.
Remember 51.
Onwards Mayo.
Living in Meath & they are very confident . They play Kerry on the sat of the bank holiday. Does this mean we play Donegal on the same date ?
I read over Kevin McStay article in Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/kevin-mcstay-mayo-can-only-be-judged-when-it-s-do-or-die-1.3957547 . In the article McStay makes the point
‘ And they seemed a little bit unbothered to me afterwards. Going around shaking hands like gentlemen, not looking particularly perturbed.”
I thought at the time it was ‘game face’ .. don’t give Kerry satisfaction of seeing our pain. What also struck me was the togetherness the team showed. Usually, when a game goes away as it did for us on Sunday you see the team break up. You see players fighting with each other … arguments ensuing .. finger-pointing blame. I for one didn’t any of that behaviour. The heads kept up and they kept plugging (albeit to little result). You know what, Mayo did go out to win on Sunday and we got well and truly knocked back on our arse. So what, learn, adapt and come back stronger. That what makes us great competitors. I rather find out about how we handle high press with our kicks out in Killarney rather than on knock-out day later! Though I wish hard lessons were less painful lol
Watch out Meath!
We got move on now, Meath are now in our crosshairs, and we most certainly are in theirs….Both beaten by a 9 & 10 point margins on Sunday last, not much you would think, but in the mind’s of most a World away from each other in terms of merit….It will be our fifth Match since the 22th of June, including beating Armagh who had beaten Monaghan in Clones by 9 point’s, beaten Galway we know how hard we have found Galway recently and Kerry who blitized us in Killarney, it’s an incredibly difficult road we found ourselves on …Meath have had it hard also, no doubt Donegal was tough last Sunday for them, but Clare who they beat by a point, while it was tough and a very good Match, it was a football match from beginning to end, our game’s V both Armagh and Galway, were both football games, but plenty was going on that you couldn’t describe as football, Galway ended up with just 12 men on the field…. The Injurys we have picked up both in terms of playing and training haven’t ?done us any favors… We need fresh Legs on Sunday, including SOS and Andy, both Veteran’s at this stage but both fresh, but both looked good.. ….I think that all the guy’s who came on in Killarney looked better than the Guy’s they replaced, …….Tracy, Boland, O Donoghue, SOS, Andy…… We have other guy’s there too like Caff who looks just the type of player who would keep the Meath full forward (his name escapes me) and most potent scorer quite, Drake, Louftus, Regan… When you weight up just how Hard this Road we have been on has been, I think that have little choice but to use our bench…. It’s a risk, but it’s a risk we have to take in my opinion….. Another thing that I would like to see done, like Kerry did, like most Teams do, is don’t name your REAL first 15 for the Official Programme, do a bit diversion Tatics, … There is no Penalty for it, not something that James Horan normally does, but you gotta be cute, who cares then if it get’s leaked to the Connacht Telegraph, getting the Better of Meath would be a huge result for Mayo next Sunday… Would we have it any other way?
Does anyone know if the date of the a the Donegal game has been finalised yet?
I know when the draw was made is was provisionally down for Sat/Sunday 03/04 August
The GAA can be very slow like this probably dictated by Sky/RTÉ
All going well on Sunday that we will still be in the mix come that weekend.
The truth is Harrison was roasted on Sunday last, but will improve for the game. And the full back line as a unit is a major worry.
Meath have every reason to be confident. They can put together a game strategy based on weaknesses in our game exploited by Kerry. So weve got things to fix.
I expect us to play with a lot more composure on Sunday. We are vastly more experienced than Meath, and have much more strenth in depth.
The fact that every point counts is a good thing for us. Sitting back on a one point lead is not an option.
I would love to see a bit more of James McCormick. Obviously putting his hand up in training, I think he can be another young star for us.
@ontheditch…How well do you think any fullvack would have done on Sunday with yhe amount of ball going into tgat Kerry full forward line. Harrison was far from the biggest problem we had on Sunday.
No disrespect to Horan but he reminds me of alot of what the Gaa stand for, very Conservative, not open to too much change et,
He will need to go for broke next Sunday v Meath,
I am a few questions,
What had happened to young O Donoghue the tigerish corner back,
Crowe a good fullback
Hate to say it but a few guys should be dropped for the Meath game, could help them, ie
McLouglin
S Coen, can’t cope when things are very fast around him
Doherty, not at the races
Barrett to move to centre back
Cillian Ó Connor to centre forward, as a stationery passer, or maybe Durcan, to cope with Harnan making runs up the pitch.
Andy Moran could also do a job at centre forward.
Harrison not powerful enough as a one on one full back against Newman.
Either way it will be hard to recover from the Kerry beating, one week to get it out of the system.
Maybe Aidan Ó Shea at full forward to keep Harnan well back defending, then midfield becomes an issue, Séamus Ó Shea needed for the full game.
Some interesting stats from the always excellent don’t foul (on twitter) for the first half of the game.
Mayo had 4 shots and scored 2 points from possessions directly off our own kickouts.
Kerry had 10 shots, scoring 8 points, from kickouts. 6 of those 10 shots, resulting in 5 points were from our own kickouts.
@walterwhite, I think a better full back like Philly McMahon Dublin, or Ronan McNamee (Tyrone), or Neil McGee Donegal would have gotten to some of the balls that went in, broke away some of them and given David Clifford a much more physical time. To answer your question just because a lot of ball is going in and good ball at that doesn’t give a freepass to the full back to let the full forward win uncontested every single ball. To my recollection it wasn’t until late in the second half a high ball was very well intercepted caught in the air by Brendan.
It simply has not been working at full back for Brendan Harrison. We do not have an alternative from our defenders or they would be in there.
We need to be looking at left field options like we did with Aidan in 2017 in the case of Donaghy.
I will put this out there. If one lays out the following full back criteria both physical, tactical and mental let’s see what Mayo squad player we come up with.
– Physically strong 6’1″ – 6’3″, tall but not so tall that it affects agility
– Physical toughness and aggression
– A good tackler, ability to shadow, the football intelligence when to go with his man, when to stay where he is
– Decent under a high ball
– Enough pace and agility to get to ball and get a fist in on it
– When in posession, does not give it away easily, can get away from tacklers to set the team off on counter attack
Diarmuid O’Connor only has one weakness there in that he can sometimes be a little bit rash when shadowing a player and foul. But that is when he is higher up the pitch and the fouls are sometimes tactical. Many of Diarmuids best moments at U21 and Senior have been back in his own square.
Diarmuid O’Connor matches up on Clifford better than any other player in our squad. He also matches up on Dean Rock better. He also matches up on Frank McBrearty better. He also matches up on Cathal McShane better. He also matches up on Mickey Newman better.
Unfortunately he is out injured, I’m just putting out there where we may have to end up going to solve our full back issue.
@walterwhite. Clifford is a super player and it will be interesting to see how other teams limit his effectiveness. I do think you need a sweeper type player playing in front of him and making it difficult to get ball to him. I cant remember any occasion where Harrison got to the ba first. But thats where a sweeper comes in. Dublin did it particularly we against AOS. Imo, Harrisson is our best fb option but needs support and not one on one against superstars
Meath ff capable of doing damage too but I reckon we will have a fix for it.
Specialist full backs have a specific tackle. They dive through the air and they get the hit on ball and man. If they miss the ball, they hit the man. It gives up a free sometimes, but it means that the full forward slowly gets physically broken up over time. Getting hit by Neil McGee flying through the air four times a half is pretty tiring.
It’s not that easy to pull off, takes the better full backs to be strong enough to do it and to get the timing right.
Reflecting on the game again, im baffled how and why Horan didn’t make a change in mid field before half time?
It was very obvious to everyone that Kerry were using that as their platform and to much success. They were scoring at ease….reminded me of the drubbing we got in the 80’s from Kerry, every time the Mayo keeper kicked it out, it was back over the bar before he got back to the goal post!
The game was gone from us by the time he put seamie in…and I would have subbed Donnie at that point too…he was not up to the tempo. Anyway…
The Game in Killarney is water under the bridge .. We don’t have any time to reflect on it anymore… We could have played brilliant in Killarney and got beaten by a single point, and as far as the upcoming Meath game is concerned we would still need to win in Croke Park…Meath coming gunning for Us….Now its Show Time!…
Clifford is nigh-on unmarkable. All you are really doing in man marking him, is trying to limit the damage he does when he gets the ball. No mean feat. He’s fast, agile, and has a great sense of awareness about him.
The only way to ensure that he doesn’t run amok, is to starve him of supply. You can’t allow Kerry to develop a platform to get ball into him. Midfield has to be won. That forces Kerry to try the longer, and lower percentage kick pass into him. He will get to them, but not as often.
Interesting to see how Donegal approach this issue.
@FDBinashui thanks for the dont foul stats. Disappointing to see there’s not anything on their website about this. Would be interesting to see the stats. Kerry still won the second half by a point but we blew some clear chances.
6pm – Sat Aug 3rd confirmed for our dual with Donegal.
Amayofan I.wouldnt take much notice of Kevin Mcstay. We saw how well Roscommon got on against us in the replay in Croke Park. To me anyway the injuries and run of games are killing us if we had all our lads back and fully fit we would have beat Kerry fair play to this Mayo team they have beaten Kerry in a national final and in an all Ireland semi final and have shown us that we can compete with and beat Kerry. Anyway we move on we owe Meath a beating we have to win and Horan has to get the team selection spot on
Mayo v Donegal is on Bank holiday Saturday. We need to stop talking nonsense about beating Meath by 10 points Meath were far better than Mayo were last Sunday They have had a really good year with the exception of the Dublin game and even in that they held the dubs to5 points in first half. They are improving rapidly, have no fear of us and a win over Mayo would be a major scalp for them. All we need to do is just win by any way and any margin and then sit back and hope Kerry beat Donegal. This arrogance about hammering Meath. Do we ever learn? Continually underestimating supposedly weaker teams such as Kildare, Roscommon and now Meath. I think our group of players have been fantastic but they have to go to the well again Sunday
Mister Mayor Completely agree with you after 20 min SOS should have gone to midfield with AOS and Lee.
Horan needs to be reacting not letting things fester especially against that crowd
Backdoorsam, maybe that 2017 replay experience with Roscommon against Mayo is exactly why McStay says that “Mayo remain a very dangerous team” . Remember that a lot of people had written them off on the eve of that game and just as now, in McStay’s words, they were “believed to be vulnerable”.
McStay as manager and Roscommon thought they were in with a reasonable shout the following day – as most people did going on the evidence of that drawn game. I believe the Roscommon management thought they were ready just to topple or as our asaleen said this week – ‘they’re definitely gone”. But that was isn’t what transpired as we know. I think Kevin and co suffered a rude awakening that day.
Anyway that is one scenario but I’d rather keep the feet on the ground and hope Horan is planning. I’m not sure the two cases are exactly the same.
However, I must admit it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the team didn’t particularly target the last game given the fuller picture of energy reserves, niggles, a Croke Park game and a home game. We won’t know til next week at least if they were looking at a bigger picture.
And I also seem to remember that Billy Joe said either on the podcast or on the Mayo News that Mayo either go all out or they really don’t – suggesting that they only have two gears. I know which gear we saw last Saturday. Lookit – it’s amusing to speculate but let’s not indulge this picture.
Correct to win just once.
I would take a 1 point win against Meath at his stage. Meath played very well against the Dubs but their shooting let them down. They played well against Donegal who only saw daylight towards the end of the match.
Seamie has to start. Himself and Aidan were discussing tactics when they took the pitch in Kilarney sunday and they were definately on the same wavelength. They are also brothers and would lay their lives on the line for each other.
Seamie simply has to start at the weekend.
mayo v donegal fixed for 6oc sat. 3rd aug.
I agree with you @Revellino
Back to indulging, why not indulge? isn’t it what we supporters do with football. We want more of it!
This is our first go around in the Super 8’s and I’ll be honest, after we were beat by Kildare last year, I switched off the football C’ship and didn’t care for the super 8’s. Even though I tuned out, of course I heard later that Kerry , Kerry! surprisingly crashed and burned in the super 8’s .
So here’s my point…I think Kerry learned a hard lesson from that first run in the Super 8’s. They learned that they must win their first game. IN doing so, you leave nothing to chance. Thats why they went hell for leather with intensity, they brought it and we weren’t up to it and weren’t ready for it.
Now, it could be that the mayo backroom team had already calculated that a loss to Kerry in the first game is not a disaster…and that we still have 2 games to play, win both and we make the semi final. But that may be a miscalculation and inexperience of the super 8 ranking on their part. Therefore, checkmate!
I appreciate what you are saying J P and in an ideal world we would have a specialist full back and Brendan Harrison could return to the corner where he is obviously better placed.
The point I was trying to make is this was far from our biggest issue on Sunday. The sheer amount of ball we lost from our own kickouts and sloppily turned over ball was our biggest problem.
It is impossible to win a game with no platform to win it. Unfortunately solving this is easier said than done. David Clarke is a brilliant goalie but at times his kicking is poor and we struggled terribly with Kerry’s press. Kicking long we were getting absolutely cleaned at midfield. To compound matters further our half forward line’s contribution was non existent.
We desperately need DOC or Mattie Ruaneback fit and in the middle of the field. Sheami does add physicality and fielding ability but himself and Aido together doesn’t give you enough mobility. Speaking of Aido..to me he looks like someone carrying a knock. He just doesn’t look at the level he was at in earlier games and I am not convinced it has to do with form. I could say the same for Leeroy,I don’t think he’s right either.
In a nutshell it is very difficult for us to compete without some of our top players. Combine that with some of the guys carrying knocks and others not performing and there was only going to be one result on Sunday.
I do hope we see the other side of the weekend still in with a shout…If nothing else it would be a shame for that game against Donegal to be a dead rubber. The best we can hope for is coming second at this point which would in all likelihood mean the dubs if we did make a semi…abd to be honest I would settle for that because if we were to fall at their hands I would rather it wasn’t in another final…anyhow that is all pure speculation, Meath is the next hurdle and there is no point looking any further ahead than that.
@FDBinashui, that kickouts info sums it up, basically any team at any level is quite f##k#d if you can’t win your own kickouts, drains a team and a goalie knowing that you can’t get the ball up the field.
Hard to rectify things in a week considering so many injuries, this is why Horan needs to be more adventurous than ever before.
Maybe time for a few rookies to be selected.
Well done Cillian
Meath look a well coached team, strong defensively and some dangerous forwards. They are learning from their games and will not fear Mayo.
This game needs us to step up, particularly in the middle third, if we just break even, then we are in bother, and will come down to very fine margins.
Question marks over Meaths kick out strategy and fitness levels, which we need to exploit. We need Cillian and Darren to score well, and at least another 2 forwards to step up, and keep a tight rein on O’Sullivan and Newman. There are plenty of open questions which means that we should not be overly confident of winning this match. Only if we win this, should we start to worry about Donegal.
It galls me that Meath are confident they can take us out…
Mister Mayor. Mayo winning the next two matches dosn’t guarntee a semi final spot. Afraid its really out of our hands unless we beat Meath by 20+points.
The one scenario that could arise is that if Donegal beat Kerry they may either take their foot off the gas or play a weakened team against Mayo knowing that they are already through. Galway did that last year against Monaghan in their final super 8 game which effectively sent Kerry packing. I wouldn’t put it past Donegal to do that as it would eliminate a serious challenger in Kerry should they meet them again in the final. Donegal would already have topped the group on the head to head rule having beaten Kerry so all is not lost yet!
Mikey do not underestimate Meaths fitness–no team has trained as hard as them.Midfield is their weakness & they are also very light.
I think Mayo didn’t play their A game against Kerry on Sunday last, it looked brutal stuff at times, Mayo midfield couldn’t catch a ball in the middle of the pitch, kick passes were atrocious, picking ball of the ground, Kicking the ball out over sideline 3 or 4 times & they were so far of the pace it looked very peculiar to say the least. Cillian’s scores saved the Mayo team total embarrassment on the day. It was very odd to say the least? Therefore I think they will be a different outfit the next day, they will be very eager to show what they can do now & i bet they will play brilliantly next Sunday against Meath, they have to. Don’t forget They have great spirit & James Horan & the whole crew will pull out all the stops On Sunday, Mayo to win by 2 or 3 points.
I don’t think so Liam.
We would still have to better the points difference of either Kerry or Donegal.
Donegal can beat Kerry and Kerry can still top the group if 3 teams end up on 4 points and Kerry have a superior points difference.
Donegal beating Kerry doesn’t mean Donegal will top the group.
The other ugly fact to remember is that we relegated Donegal last year with our draw in Ballybofey and there will be an added incentive there for them to beat us in Castlebar.
Calm down and see the positives:
James and company would have viewed the three super 8 matches coming on the back of our three previous weekends and the loss of key players. Durcan, Ruane, and D O’C.
Kerry at home, rested, riled by media and supporters about being bullied by Mayo in the league matches. No wonder they started like wild bucks in the savannah, another loss to Mayo at home would see them deported to Valencia island. Mayo would need to be at full strength and well rested especially with the high temperatures to compete with this tornado. The body language of the Mayo lads did not look down beat at the end – do expect a positive reaction this weekend.
Mayo to beat Meath and Kerry to beat Donegal.
The band wagon will roll on to Castlebar on 3 August the winner takes all. Mayo forever.
Concentrating on games 2 and 3 rather than game 1 which has been suggested by some people as the Mayo master plan is a nonsense when there is a distinct possibility that 3 teams could end up on the same points total and progression to the semis is decided on the scores difference rule.
As it stands getting to the semis is almost completely out of our hands unless we were to beat both Donegal and Meath by a wide margin.
Our only realistic path to the semis is if kerry either draws with or beat Donegal and we beat Meath and Donegal.
I forgot about the 3 teams being on 4 points each Revellino. I’ll be hoping for a Kerry win all day long if we beat Meath! However, if Donegal beat Kerry it will have been a hard fought one and it could be hard for them to rise to those levels again when they come calling to Castlebar. They may also feel they’ve done enough as Galway did last year with 2 wins. It would still be a big ask for Mayo to turn around the points difference though.
Jaysus I’m still fucking depressed about Saturday .Trying to built myself up for Sunday but it’s hard going.
Yes the 8’s rules are a bit of a disaster really.
Imagine beating a team in the 8’s, ending up on the same points and still not getting through.
It doesn’t add up.
The other grievance I have with it is.
This weekend Meath are still technically alive in the competition and will be hell bent on putting in a big show and winning.
Now.
If we beat Meath, Meath then have nothing to gain from their final match against Kerry. Kerry, if Meath are not interested in round 3 can run up a cricket score against them which on a points difference rule would definately put them through to the semi’s.
Kerry will know prior to their encounter with Donegal if Meath have any interest in round 3. They will know the result of our match. This could temper the intensity with which they play their match with Donegal.
The only incentive I see Kerry have of beating Donegal is to win all 3 games, top the group and avoid Dublin in the semis.
Unfortunately they will have the safety net of knowing they will be playing an unmotivated Meath if we beat Meath and they will reach the semis in any case.
Super 8’s are a shambles. Bring back the knock out 1/4 finals in Croker.
The championship structure as a whole is a complete an utter shambles.
It’s starts of with a knockout competition based on geography where teams of vastly different levels play each other for a trophy, but in fact it’s not a knockout because you can lose a game and go into another competition, the qualifiers.
Now ya earn the right to play in the super 8’s you need to win your qualifiers matches, ok that’s fair……but it’s not because if you’re lucky you may only have to play one game to reach the super 8’s, If unlucky you could have 4!
At least then it’s gets into the real knock out stuff, oh wait it’s not, the super 8’s are actually a league format where it’s mathematically possible to lose another two games and get through to an all Ireland semi!!!
Try explaining that to someone unfamiliar with GAA structures! All this for a competition that is essentially rigged as one team is sponsored by the sporting body and the country and gets every conceivable advantage going.
The Meath game is all that matters at this stage. Hoping for a good bounce back after last Sunday but Im worried that, if Mayos fatigue and injuries, give Meath any whiff of a victory, we’ll be in another dog fight for survival.
AOS plus Lee do not look fully fit to me, how much more can they give to the cause?
@Line ball… what a perfectly written piece… heads were not dropped… Considering Kerry were so superior imaging this if Cillian pointed the free, had scored the two goals we’re looking at a level game… considering many of our top performers at best palyed a 6/10. I agree I think we hammer Meath but i just worry if Donegal may be too streetwise for kerry. We shall see. UP MAYO NOW AND FOREVER MORE…. FOREVEVR MORE!!!
Do you know what the hilarious thing about next weekend is? If we lost to Meath and then Kerry beat Donegal (entirely possible), we would still be in with a shout of going through if we beat Donegal in the last match and Kerry also beat Meath. Would go to scoring difference between ourselves, Donegal and Meath.
Sums up the farce that is the super 8s
Seems to me Aido Lee Jason Kevin Mc all carrying slight injuries (on top of our players who are out). Aido has played every minute of championship and all League. It a warzone out around midfield. All the stuff he has to deal with on the field. The toll on their bodies is shocking and Sunday fast approaching. Not to mention players working/living in Dublin. Im sick to the teeth of the kerry mafia on the media too.
Ah ya the whole super 8s is indeed a shambles – it’s completely rigged towards the provincial champions and stronger counties. It wouldn’t have killed the GAA to give a 2 week break between the end of the qualifiers and the start of the super 8s to give every team a proper chance to recover.
As long as the 8’s are in existence it is safe to say that Dublin will contest, at a minimum, every AI semi final from here on out.
Even if by some horse fart of a chance, some team were to surprise Dublin and beat them in a Super 8’s game you can be certain it would never happen twice in the same year. It is now virtually impossible to knock Dublin out of the competition before the AI semi final stage.
Having remained unbeaten now in Leinster for 450 years, Dublin never have to worry about playing an energy sapping qualifier game either.
The other poor fluteens in the 8’s then have to watch as a fully energized Dublin kick in to action after arriving in to their group unchallenged. Watching the likes of Michael Darragh Mcauley bounding on to, more than likely, Croke Park, like Skippy the bush kangaroo. He annoys the shite out of me.
You cannot go down to warm up at the hill end either. Sure that’s for the Dubs and the bounding Michael Darragh. Isn’t it written in the John Horan Dublin Bible that “no peasent team shall trample the Hill end grass prior to the arrival of the Oligarchs”.
As the great John Horan has his slaves draw Caviar by the bucket to where his fat arse is planked, he ponders which hand he will present the Sam Maguire to the Dublin Captain with this year. His money train in motion, he belches contentedly knowing that his legacy is safe and his Gaa philandering’s will forever be immortalized in the Museum not 80 yards from where the great mans fat arse is planked.
So I raise a glass to fat arse.
The Big Cheese, The Big man on top, The Big Cahouna.
When Gaa matters appeared as warped as they might get, along came the great Dublin Saviour and started to fill in the graves of all the Counties who lay there, needing help.
Hip hip Fat Arse.
Best one yet Ravellino.
Great post Revellino .I have to agree with you about Michael Darragh .Something about his running style erkes me.it’s like his feet come so far up behind himself he might be close to kicking himself up his own hole but alas it never happenes I’m afraid .
@Revellino, the back door teams are seen somehow by the Gaa hierarchy as unworthy to win the All Ireland, the Super 8’s is a second opportunity to get the already defeated teams out of the race for Sam.
I say to all including the Mayo players enjoy the final 2 games in the Super’s, don’t over think things, no running this week, only all stretching and pool work, no tactics.
I am looking forward to Sunday’s double header.
We could be in for a goal feast.
Hi all, reading all the above posts, all worthy and some very entertaining that’s for sure. The permutations and combination’s are wrecking my head. The way I see it is, all we can do as loyal supporter’s is get behind our warriors old and young, beat Meath and Donegal, these are the two games we can have the control over, the other results in the group are out of our control and in the gift of the Gods. Had we not been plagued by injury, stretching back to 2018 with Tom Parsons, and all the other guys out this year, results against Roscommon and Kerry might have gone differently and we wouldn’t be where we are right now. Add to that a few of our lads are carrying slight injuries, plus some of our young guns are on their first year of senior championship football coming up against improving competition from other teams. Yet I think Mayo will not be found wanting in the next two games. I am optimistic for our prospects and feel we can reach the semi final stage. Our fate is in our hands!
Harrison did as well as could be expected marking Clifford and a number of his points were off quality ball in or layoffs. Was penalised harshly for a free in the first half also when it was a robust challenge on clifford as was Keegan on two occasions for soft frees. Midfield and our forwards were the real problem on Sunday. On 4 occasions in the first 15 minutes we coughed up soft ball in the forwards which gave Kerry defenders confidence and it should have been a one point game after 20 mins before the kick out woes started. Horan should have made the changes earlier here but also appeared to leave Coen on Stephen O Brien all day. He was arguably the most effective Kerry player on the day. As Kevin Mc had his worst day in a Mayo shirt that I can remember he may have had the legs to contain O Brien, as options for moving around other backs was limited. We are undoubtedly weakened by injuries and P Durkan is one of the main players to lead and set the tempo and was badly missed. I do believe that we have the personnel on the pitch and the bench to deal with Meath but we need to take action early if things not working. Also, switching things around as mentioned by putting Aiden in FF for short spells could upset this current Meath outfit and give them a bit of what they gave us with their big man in 2009. The only worry is that I am not convinced that Kerry are as good as we made them look and Donegal have the personnel with pace to run at them and really test their defense. Eitherway, we will be their again to roar our lads on as no doubt they will be hurting after the weekend and want to put things right themselves.
Agree fully Revellino and had to remind a few Kerry folk at the weekend that it was their own Sean Kelly who started giving all the cash to the Dubs…
Hilarious Revellino!! MDMcC irks me too. All arms, legs and hair shooting in every direction. Anyway that’s nothing to do with football.
Well said Denis. That’s all we can aim to do. Look after our own affairs and us support them in it.
He might be irksome but Michael Darragh McCauley shouldn’t have his Mother, his name etc. commented. Be denigrated as a cartoonish figure.
He has a non athletic running style, he wouldn’t feature as a club athlete, but I think it shows the hard work he put in to make it to this level.
He wasn’t particularly blessed with pace or grace.
Agreed, JP. Revellino – I’ve deleted that comment. This is a former Footballer of the Year that’s being lampooned. He deserves more respect.
Okay JP. I do see your point.
To be clear, my comment was only my feeble attempt at a bit of humour. I obviously don’t think MDMc is a giraffe. I only mentioned mother to paint the situation. My only goal was to try and create a bit of humour and certainly not to denigrate anyone.
Apologies if my comment upset you or anyone else.
Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows certain serious intelligent posters (who btw provide great analysis nearly daily) also inject well placed humour when needs be. Give them a break. See the funny side. Drives me mad the way people hop onto others to tell them off. Like my bloody 6 year old. I think majority of ill meaning posts/posters are dealt with by WJ before we even get to the read them. Let’s try and be more tolerant of others views or the way they express themselves and let the different personalities shine through. Rarely is there anything purposely hateful/offending on here and I understand why that is and the work it takes to keep it like this. Rant over.
No more ranting now Sinead, we need you on the correct wavelength for the weekend.
I deserve to have a comment deleted an odd time. It’s good for the environment and frees up some room in cyberspace.
WJ has been very fair to me over the years I’ve been posting.
Your a great Mayo fan and I hope your smiling Sunday evening. I hope we all are.
I read your story on the next thread about your father’s experience. Shocking.
Positive now into the weekend. We’ll need every good vibe that’s going.