It’s been another hectic weekend of action on the club front, following which some issues in the Senior, Intermediate and Junior Championships are already decided while others won’t be until Round 3 is concluded in a fortnight’s time. This weekend also saw the LGFA club Championships move one step closer to their conclusion.
Starting with the men’s matches and diving first into the SFC, here’s how things are standing in the four groups after two rounds of games.
In Group 1, Ballintubber lead the way on four points. They beat Davitts today by 2-15 to 2-8, a result that more or less guarantees them a place in the play-offs. Ballina Stephenites got the better of Claremorris by 2-14 to 1-9 in the other Group 1 game this afternoon – that was the one streamed on Mayo GAA TV. Wins for Ballintubber and Stephenites in Round 3 will see both of them in the quarter-finals and that outcome would also send Davitts into the relegation play-offs.
In Group 2, the only issue decided so far is that Aghamore – pointless after two defeats from two starts – are already in the relegation play-offs. Champions Knockmore, beaten by 2-4 to 1-4 in atrocious weather at Belmullet yesterday (the photo above was taken at Tallagh after the game), sit behind leaders Belmullet and Charlestown Sarsfields, winners by 2-13 to 4-5 over Aghamore on Friday night, in the table. The Erris lads will book their place in the quarters if they beat Aghamore and so too will the winners of the Knockmore/Charlestown game.
In Group 3, Westport are already through and Balla are already in the relegation play-offs. Westport ground out an 0-11 to 1-6 win over Castlebar Mitchels yesterday while Ballaghaderreen got the better of Balla by 3-10 to 1-15. The second quarter-final slot is a straight shootout between Mitchels and Ballagh’ who meet in Round 3.
In Group 4, things are even more clear-cut. Both Breaffy and Garrymore are already through, with both of them recording their second wins in this campaign today. Breaffy enjoyed a 1-15 to 0-9 win at Kiltane, while Garrymore hammered neighbours The Neale by 1-21 to 0-8. The losers of the Round 3 tie between The Neale and Kiltane will have to contest the relegation play-offs.
In the Intermediate Championship, the position after Round 2 is as follows:
In Group 1, Parke continued their good form, beating Bohola Moy Davitts today by 4-11 to 0-19. Bonniconlon edged out Swinford by 2-11 to 1-13 in the day’s other game. Parke lead the table on four points, with Moy Davitts and Bonniconlon on two, while Swinford have yet to get off the mark.
In Group 2, it’s Mayo Gaels who lead the way. They got their second win on the spin by beating Burrishoole yesterday by 1-12 to 1-8, while Hollymount/Carramore got off the mark today with a 1-13 to 0-9 win over Lahardane. It’s Mayo Gaels on four points, Holly/Carra and Burrishoole on two and Lahardane with none.
In Group 3, Louisburgh clipped Kilmaine’s wings yesterday, winning out by 1-13 to 1-10. Kiltimagh, despite a leaky backline that saw them concede three majors, got the better of Ardnaree by 0-14 to 3-4. Louisburgh head the group on four points, Kiltimagh and Kiltane have two each and Ardnaree have none.
In Group 4, Crossmolina Deel Rovers are making the running, helped by yesterday’s narrow 0-14 to 0-13 win over Mitchels’ second string. Ballyhaunis beat Ballinrobe by 1-11 to 0-7 today so it’s Crossmolina on four points, Mitchels and Ballyhaunis on two and Ballinrobe have none.
In the Junior Championship the Round 2 results were as follows:
Group 1: Ardagh 0-13 Tourmakeady 0-9 and Kilmeena 3-18 Kilfian 0-3. Kilmeena and Ardagh are on four points, the other two are have none.
Group 2: Cill Chomain 2-9 Kilmovee Shamrocks 0-6 and Achill w/o Lacken Sarsfields. Achill and Cill Chomain are on three points, Kilmovee are on two and Lacken have none.
Group 3: Eastern Gaels 3-10 Moygownagh 2-6 and Shrule/Glencorrib 0-19 Ballycastle 0-9. Shrule lead the way on four, with two each for Ballycastle and Eastern Gaels, with Moygownagh on none.
Group 4: Killala 3-9 Ballycroy 1-14. In this three-team group, Islandeady (one match played) and Killala (two matches) both have two points, while Ballycroy have no points after one match.
Onto the LGFA where the weekend’s results are as follows:
- Senior Championship semi-finals: Knockmore 4-10 Westport 3-3 and Carnacon 3-19 Moy Davitts 2-6
- Senior Championship Shield semi-finals: Burrishoole 3-15 Kilmovee Shamrocks 2-10 and Hollymount 5-10 Kilmoremoy 2011
- Intermediate Championship semi-finals: Louisburgh 7-11 MacHale Rovers 2-4 and Castlebar Mitchels 2-8 Charlestown 0-2
- Intermediate Championship Shield semi-finals: results unavailable
- Junior A Championship semi-finals: St Brigid’s 5-13 Ballyhaunis 2-9 and Davitts 0-11 Aghamore 0-5
- Junior A Championship Shield semi-finals: Breaffy 2-12 Parke 3-6 and The Neale 3-14 Tourmakeady 3-6
So Lacken gave a W/O in the end to Achill. Wonder how that will play out with Cill Chomain due to play them in final round and potentially scoring difference to come into play?
Comprehensive round up Willie Joe, thanks very much.
WJ: thank you for the summary.
Note small correction needed on the Castlebar Mitchels scoreline (should be 1-06).
Thanks, My Left Foot, I’ve corrected that scoreline error now.
Willie Joe, with these scorelines and results you are really spoiling us…
Thanks a million.
Thanks for all those results WJ. The picture at the top pretty much tells us what conditions were like for the Knockmore Belmullet tussle.
The conditions in Tallagh were the same for both teams well done Bemullet. Eoin O Donoghue is a class act.
Matches thick and fast in October, can’t get to them all, but the mayo gaa TV is working well, some nice ties to look forward to
Charlestown v knockmore
Mitchell v ballaghaderren
Breaffy v garrymore
Neale v kiltane
Ardagh v kilmeena
Parke are impressive. Two seriously good wins so far. They must have some really talented players coming through.
Had meant to post about the Louisburgh Kilmaine game earlier. Oisin Mullin’s class was evident to see. Really carried the game to Louisburgh with a show of power and strength and great ball carrying. Joe Dawson was tasked with marking Oisin and didn’t do a bad job on him at all. Def think he is one James Horan should give a chance to. Great all round team effort by Louisburgh and only for Kilmaine getting a goal towards the end made it tighter than it should have been. Great to see Kevin Gibbons coming on in the last few minutes after recovering from a broken ankle and the ever youthful Alan Moran gave a fine display on his fortieth birthday. Louisburgh’s bogey team Kiltimagh are up next.. a lot of football to be played yet but if they keep getting results they could go up. Come on the black and amber
Ballaghdereen v Mitchell’s is a winner take all?
Should Mitchell’s be favourites?
Draw is fine for Mitchells. If Ballagh win theyre through
The winner of this will come into the quarters very battle hardened as a result, it could prove a momentum changer for them – the knockouts are essentially a brand new competition
The likes of Westport, Breaffy, Btubber and Garrymore who all sailed through the groups might be that slight bit more vulnerable in their quarters (certainly Breaffy and Garrymore are completely untested and their round 3 clash will probably be more shadow-boxing than anything)
With intermediate if you can eke through the group at all then anything can happen from the quarters. All about momentum then
So little between as much as 9 or 10 of the sides in it
There often can be fine enough margins between topping the group and going into the relegation playoffs
Wouldnt mind seeing the Gaels or Louisburgh back in senior again, Holly/Carra, Haunis, Crossmolina were all there relatively recently
Wasnt all that long ago Ballinrobe were well and truly holding their own in senior, for a town club their decline has been sobering
Guaranteed to be in relegation group now – and while they probably should be fine, anything can happen in Winter ball
Goal for Castlebar Mitchels should have been the score to kick them on at home to Westport but the covies were not knocked out of their rhythm. Westport got the better of the midfield battle with an industrious display from McDonagh(my man of match, ably assisted by Scott.
Lee Keegan was always a safe pair of hands., and Kevin Keane is a battle hardened club footballer.
Mitchels have their work cut out to overcome Ballagh
Good man Toe To Hand. Thanks for the report
Ciaran… agree Ballinrobe may be in trouble but from what I hear alot of good work being done at underage. They don’t have a huge pick with hollymount, the Neale, Kilmaine parishes not from the town.. Intermediate is where they will be for the next few years at best
Fair play to louisburgh man Alan Moran , still driving the team on at 40. Great role model for the younger bucks
I wouldn’t go overboard on Ballinrobe either. They were very close to beating Balla in the semi final last year. Balla ended up winning the intermediate then.
Ballinrobe have a lot of injuries
We will hear a lot of bull here about players that should get a run on the county team based on club performance. Remember we have a very competitive senior club championship vi’s a vi’s other counties often mentioned here like Meath. When is the last time a Meath club was in a Leinster final and John MC Dermot left a junior club to join Skryne to progress his career. By all means look outside the senior championship but be aware of the jump in standard junior club to intercounty senior.
@Jr, that’s why it’s important to have a really good scouting network in place, just because we have a very competitive senior club championship does not mean there are players playing for Junior or Intermediate clubs who wouldn’t turn out equally as good or even better if they were given the same development opportunities as players from the senior clubs.
We need to stop treating the Junior and Intermediate clubs as if they are the “Leitrims” in an All-Ireland context because of the risk of allowing natural ballers slip through the net, penalized simply for being born in a certain area.
But you need scouts who are able to spot a players future potential with the right development and sometimes the focus is nearly always on forwards and midfielders and possibly not enough attention on spotting good defenders.
We will simply never know how many players have slipped through the net in Mayo but I think it’s fair to say many have, they were simply never given the chance.
So we need to find a better system to cast the net as far and wide as possible.
Viper hard to disagree. Perhaps an East West and North South competition without the the senior clubs and the winning division to play the county champions as a preparation for the Connaught club championship.
According to midwestradio.ie Liam Moffat has tonight resigned from his position as C.B. chairman.
Bolt from the blue surely….if true.
It’s true alright, 2 hops – he’s not standing for re-election at Convention but will remain in the position until then.
See that, 2 hops.
I’d love to believe it’s anything other than bad news.
Thought Moffat was quite good.
Disappointing.
Ya Horan’s Brigade I would have liked to see him get a run at it post covid but let’s hope for a progressive successor.
Not sure why Liam Moffatt is standing down but mabye the fact that he is spending 15-20 hours a week of his free time trying to improve Mayo gaa without any pay and only getting abuse and criticism – he said to himself why should I bother doing this.
Of course some of the people who abuse these volunteers will say they should be honoured to be in such high positions within Mayo gaa. The same people would not go within an asses roar of taking on any of these jobs.
@Jr, but you are correct in your general point of course that it’s impossible to jump straight from a junior club straight into the Mayo senior team regardless of how good you are.
If you think back to when Crossmolina won the All-Ireland the West Mayo team at the time made up of the three Junior clubs of Kilmeena, Achill and Islandeady were a match for them and some would say unlucky not to have beaten them.
So I believe there are players out there who are slipping through the net and unless we start looking at regional team competitions that will continue to be the case, it’s finding room in the calendar is the problem. It’s doable though.
Very sorry to hear that Liam Moffat is standing down from the Chair of the Mayo GAA County Board, in my opinion one of the more impressive officer’s of the County Board!
Yes, sorry to hear Liam is stepping down as well. Listened to his recent interview on Midwest and thought he spoke very well and answered all the queries that were put to him very well. I would say he was barely 2 years in the position.
Will his successor have to be voted in or will someone be asked to step in to the position to complete the term ?
Yeah, have to agree with others, it is a shame he is stepping away.
Is it sheer coincidence or does Liam Moffat’s resignation has anything to do with the review of mayo’s senior performance this year? Was there a fallout or difference in opinion…little do we know about the power imbalances that exist between management and the board. Who is answering to who??
Driveit – that sounds like idle speculation to me. Like every other debate that happens here I want any discussion that occurs on this topic on the blog to be grounded in facts rather than conjecture. All the more so as this ventures into Mayo GAA politics, which is a subject everyone needs to be wary about before making any comment at all.
‘Citing business and personal reasons’, according to a Co. Board statement quoted in the Examiner.
A real pity, what a forward thinking and intelligent chairperson we had in Liam Moffat but as previously mentioned why would he bother when it’s constant criticism from people who think they know it all.
It will inevitably lead to the usual rubbish speculation around Mayo GAA that something is up, further than the truth it could not be.
Thanks Liam for everything, you were a good one
@Revellino, I think it’s inevitable clubs will be sent nomination forms in the coming weeks which will need to be returned to the County Secretary no later than four weeks before the next convention.
A shock for sure, esespecially the timing of the resignation, considering that a decision on the Lough Lannagh project seems imminent. Couple that with the All Ireland loss, and the manner of the loss.
We really are in a bad place.
Listened to Liam Moffatt Michael D. McAndrew, thought he spoke well. Only noticed one small deviation in what he said regarding anyone stepping down when he said, “to “our knowledge” nobody has left the management team”, which is a little different than saying “There’s no truth in the rumour that anybody is stepping down” which he is reported to have said last week.
I think last weeks answer was too definitive given that no review has taken place yet because we just don’t know what will happen after that.
Liam Moffatt stepping down a huge huge loss. O f course with the abuse the County Board gets from people who haven’t a clue it is hard to blame him. If fans are not happy with the County Board get nominated , elected and give it a go. I know club members who are best at criticism be it of Club Manager, Club Players, County underage Manager County Senior Manager etc. but they will not attend the Club AGM in case they would be asked to do anything in the club.
Liam Moffatt stepping down a huge huge loss. O f course with the abuse the County Board gets from people who haven’t a clue it is hard to blame him. If fans are not happy with the County Board get nominated , elected and give it a go. I know club members who are best at criticism be it of Club Manager, Club Players, County underage Manager County Senior Manager etc. but they will not attend the Club AGM in case they would be asked to do anything in the club.
its not good news re Liam Moffat. So the person leading the review of the senior team performance announces he is going to resign a few days later. Where does that leave the review? who will be next chair?
Best of luck to Liam Moffat – I guess it is not an easy decision to decide to not put your name forward for reelection. I think he was doing a good job. Communication has improved, there seems to be a better structure been put in place. They may not look like big things but will stand to us in the long term. – considering his first year was all about Covid and this year was lock down for the first 5 or 6 months he hadnt much opportunity to take on some other projects.
Going to be interesting to see who puts names forward for chairman. I presume the vice chair will run. Seamus Touhy ran against Liam Moffat-will he go again? There are other officers who i think will be interested but might want to check the lay of the land first. Maybe a former Chairman may be interested.
Just reading Michael Gallaghers article in Mayo News. He writes “He is coming to the end of his second year of his five year terms”. For a man who put his name forward for election last year I would expect that he would have a better understanding of how officers are elected. The Chairmans terms is one year and then you go for reelection. THere is no such thing as a 5 year term. No chairman is put in place for 5 years. I accept that most officers go into the role with an aim of staying for five years but if clubs/Executive think change is needed you can be replaced at the AGM. I accept I am been pedantic!
The review is an exercise in keeping the county board happy. The real will be within the team and its management. If they want to change management they don’t need a review to do it. A lot of county boards have lost good managers by insisting the are reinterviewed for the job by people who probably never played much football. Best wishes to Liam
@On the one road, no a former chairperson cannot run again if they have already served for five years, so for example Mike Connelly could never be the chairperson again because he has already served in that position for five years.
However if Liam Moffat decided to come back at some point in the future and was elected as chairperson he would only be permitted to do so for a maximum of three years as he will already have served two.
While you are correct to say that nobody is elected for five years it is unusual for someone to step down after a relatively short period of time and especially considering that Covid hampered a large portion of that time.
One of the reasons voting takes place annually is precisely for situations like this because, usually a sitting member is unopposed and they are reelected as a formality if they have no desire to resign.
It would be a farcical situation if a different Chairperson was elected every year or if the sitting chairperson was opposed annually.
As I said last night what will happen now is nomination forms will be sent to clubs and those forms must be received by clubs no later than six weeks before the next convention and received back to the County Secretary no later than four weeks before the next convention so I’d expect those nomination forms to be heading the way of the clubs in the next couple of weeks.
The worry is that no matter who takes his place, nothing will change within the politics of Mayo Gaa. It’s a real shame, especially given we’re one of the top counties. Do the clubs hold all the power perhaps? I don’t know, but something has to change.
But my feeling is that all the problems will be brushed under the red and green carpet.
Viper – that topic is off-limits here, for reasons I’ve articulated before. You weren’t, I know, a contributor here in late 2019 but if you look back to what occurred on the blog then you’ll see what I mean. It’s for the same reason I’d prefer discussions here to remain focused on on-field issues.
A sad day for Mayo GAA and probably a canary in the mine of a growing problem in the GAA nationally. Mayo GAA inc. is a small to medium business that would probably have 10-12 full time staff based on their turnover if it was a regular firm. Instead of that we have 1 full time paid employee and half a dozen part time people doing 20-30 hours per week voluntarily to keep the ship a float. Liam Moffatt brought a structure, governance and vision to the role that was severely needed after the shambolic previous administrations.
The reality is that the type of person who Mayo need as chairman will know what’s involved and run a mile from it, which will mean the only people going for it are the ones who probably shouldn’t get it. People are looking at the pressure, time, dedication and commitment that is required for these roles and choosing to stay with their clubs instead. We are sailing into some choppy waters in Mayo at the moment…
I believe that he done a good job in the circumstances with covid, he was a breath of fresh air,the best of luck to him in the future
Ok @Willie Joe no problem, sorry I wasn’t aware.
No worries, Viper, you weren’t to know. Anyone who was active here then will know how poisonous that whole debate became. I’ve no desire to see any of that old stuff reheated here again.
I took a delve back in time to October 2019, to the time just before Liam Moffat was elected to the Chair of the Mayo County Board via the archives on the Mayo GAA Blog, and had a good read of allot what was being said at the time… It was a torrid time on the Blog…I don’t know how Willie Joe, managed to negotiate the choppy waters of opinion, counter opinion, conspiracy theories by interested posters on this Blog..I think it’s fair to say that the waters of the administration of Mayo GAA have calmed somewhat in comparison to October 2019 at least in terms of public perception..The Chair of the Mayo County Board would always have been a difficult ship to steer, too many people with various sometimes irreconcilable views to please, and some things that had been said and leaked, couldn’t be unsaid, or as it happens unwritten… No doubt about it, but it was a very difficult and probably thankless task to take over when he did, and if the travails of the County Board and interested other’s wasn’t enough to be starting off with, in his first few months, then like the rest of us Liam was faced with the Covid pandemic which had huge concequences for every sporting body, who depends so much on fans paying trough the turnstiles.. So I think that we should thank Liam for his contribution in his time in the Mayo chair.. I do hope that the review into the All Ireland final, ticketing and other issues goes ahead.
@Evidently Binghamstown, I think everyone who puts their name forward does so with the best of intentions but when you think about it properly you have to ask yourself whether any future nominees know exactly what the “state of affairs” are before they put their hand up to be nominated and I think it’s very important that clubs think long and hard about it before they throw someone into the lions den.
I have no idea why Liam Moffat is stepping down but I will say that the failure to fill the full time position of Operations and Finance Manager is bound to have increased his already significant work load.
There are some here who have mentioned that no suitable candidates were found but I have to say when I read the duties and responsibilities and the T’s+C’s of the role and what the reported remuneration package was then I am not surprised that it is proving difficult to fill this role.
But the main focus still needs to be on winning the All-Ireland in 2022 because winning an All-Ireland is what will lift all ships in Mayo and people shouldn’t ever lose sight of that.
short interview by chairman Liam Moffat
https://www.midwestradio.ie/index.php/sport/51616-listen-liam-moffatt-on-his-decision-to-step-down-as-mayo-gaa-chairman
sounds like a defeated man unfortunately. i wonder if we will ever find out the whole story
anyway, bets wishes to liam in the future
He sounded upbeat to me and made it clear there is nothing more to it than personal and business reasons .
Who would be favourite to take the reins?
very disapointed to hear Liam is stepping down as chairman but I can understand his reasons ive often gone to him for physio and he works long hours and im sure his day job and the chairman job means he doesn’t get to spend much time with his family. I wish him well.
Anyone know the rest of the dates for the county championships? 3rd round, 1/4 finals, semi finals and finals ? And no, there not on the Mayo Gaa website.
Round 3 is the weekend after next, Stephen. I’m not sure after that.
I listened to that Liam Moffat interview; at face value there is nothing in it beyond personal and business reasons. As others have pointed out the workload must be phenomenal. All that said, he’ll be a big loss. I met him once – on campus at DCU a few years back, when he had no involvement with officialdom – and he really impressed me.
[Deleted].
James Fleming have you ever been at a club AGM. It is difficult to get people to take any job. I don’t think our lack of final wins are down to our county board. Now they have made big blunders eg bringing back John ó Mahony when his eye was on politics and Mickey Moran and Rochford were treated badly. The seem to treat our players well, perhaps some players have too much say, would not happen with Kilkenny hurlers.
James – that’s such a disappointing and unbecoming comment from someone of your experience.
I’m sorry to hear that Liam Moffat has decided not to continue but I completely understand. The role of county chair has become almost undoable. It has become at least the equivalent of CEO of a medium sized businesses but with complications. The GAA is a unique organisation and the county board is a very unusual structure. Not necessarily everyone on the board has the chairman’s best interests at heart at all times. Some may see themselves as rivals, others are from rival clubs with perhaps history and others may be completely unsuited to their roles.. And then you are answerable to club delegates, not all of whom are blessed with the skills of diplomacy. And this is a voluntary role……..that consumes enormous amounts of time and energy. Not easy for a man with a young family and a business to run.
This is a great challenge for the GAA but for now it is Mayo’s problem and I hope we get someone with the time, energy and skills to do the job.
Best wishes Liam…..a good and decent man.
Willie Joe has any body got a list of Mayo managers over the years. I think a man called Carney trained them to win an All Ireland. His wife moved to Meath after his death. She played Bridge and in a draw for partners no one wanted to draw her. She got on great with me as I talked mayo football with her. I think Martin was her nephew. If I made a mistake she would say anyone could make that mistake, the magic of Mayo football
Looking in from the outside it looks like our senior team have been very well looked after by our county board over the last 10 years and never wanted for anything.
Certainly looking at the cost of running the senior team – it looks like they have been well looked after. I would have no issue with this spending on the county teams either.
Sorry Willie Joe apologies
@diehard, In this day and age people like Liam Moffat should no longer be expected to work for nothing and it’s a simple as that.
How are we supposed to ever get youthful drive, energy and all that brings with it onto the board if the roles predominantly suit retirees who could look at problems and solutions in a completely different way than much younger people would if we expect them to work for nothing.
Would anyone work in Croke Park for free, no they wouldn’t.
@Southmayo, that’s a good point re the team, the professionalism, by and large, that they’ve shown, and the support they’ve been given by Mayo Gaa to try and achieve their ultimate goal.
When I think over the last decade, with all its trials and tribulations, on the one hand it’s straight out of the Mayo Gaa 101 guide book, and not in a good sense. But there can be no doubt that our team have worked within a high performance environment by virtue of (a) their development and, for the most part, (b) their performances.
I maintain that the final piece of the puzzle is mental, and that includes lack of ruthlessness, and a failure to learn from past mistakes, glaring mistakes. But this is within the power of the management team and the panel, and ought to have been overcome even with the County Board that we’ve had, and despite the problems therein.
@Liberal role in the tie, just curious how you believe it’s within the power of the players and the management when it is a repetitive theme going all the way back to 2012 ?
Personally I don’t believe it is in their own power at all but I do believe there are solutions, but they’ll have to be willing to swallow some pride in the process to help them over the line, and when I say they, I mean management as well, otherwise we are destined to continue losing finals we ought to be winning.
It doesn’t cost any money to make logical decisions when you see you are being cleaned out at midfield and you have one of the biggest midfield men in the country standing all alone at full forward and not even making proper use of him in there.
We are on the road a decade and we allowed a goal keeper to beat us, he beat us because he was able to go long and seen we took no action to negate their midfield. We also were too slow to sort the McCurry mismatch.
So if we spent another 10 million on the team, what odds would it make. Decisions are free.
You’ve just proved your own point Viper, ie that there are solutions, and the ones you list can only be within the power of management and players.
@Liberal role in the tie, my point is they cannot do it all alone, I’m sure after every final loss the players and management have a little word with themselves, but it’s clear it’s time someone else had a word with them to assist both management and players to get the best out of themselves.
We know our players and management have much more than what we were given v Tyrone but there comes a point when helpful intervention is needed to get the best out of all concerned, so it’s up to them, continue as they are or swallow a bit of pride and take the help which will be offered.
That’s the tricky part, will they accept that.
@Liberal role in the tie, so it’s not quite as simple as people might think because there is a fine line between offering help to someone and not giving them the impression you are telling them what to do.
Pride will always be the longest distance between two people as they say.
JR.
The man you mentioned is Jackie Carney. He scored a goal in the 36 final and trained the team in 50/51 as far as I know. He was Martin’s uncle and I think he was born in Lahardane. He is certainly buried there in Addergoole cemetery. I have visited his grave on several occasions.
Viper- who are you ,come out with this plan you say you have, the midfieldfielder you mentioned, was never a middle man against the top 4 teams, going back to 2013, he was not a no 14 also, against the top teams, he scored 1 goal from that position v Donegal, who by the way are not a top 4 team, if they were they would have won Ulster this year against limited opposition . That midfielder should not have started v Tyrone , after the semi final v Dublin, at the back was his position this year , no goals v Dublin, Mayo won , goals v Tyrone Mayo lost. This player was always a back imo , he looked a back to me at least, other people say he was a no 11, they were proved wrong alas, just a few names of players where they should be positioned, T.C. @13. ROD.@ 11. D.oConner @10. EOD @ 2 . AOS between 3 and 6 . The first goal v Tyrone should never have happened, for the reason it happened in the past, i would dearly love to see your plan ,Mayo win on points again. You dont need a blueprint to sort this out, it could be done silent and sharpish ,and should have been done years ago , go back to 2016 vTyrone the McEentee wall ,Tyrone scored 9 points in that game, the ref. gave them 3 for good measure. in the final Dublin scored 9 points 5 in one half and 4 in the other half, Mayo scored 15 points , and 2 goals scored by Mayo players, a draw. Thats my plan, lets have yours , there are other things to be said but not on here. Part 1 of any plan is -cut out the secrecy.. and never trust a runaway horse… slan
I’m all for helpful intervention Viper, and I agree it’s needed. I’m sure they got intervention of sorts prior to this final too, but yet again no cigar. But if someone can come in and help, then by all means. We’ve had psychologists before remember. We’ve had proven winners on board, ie McEntee and Buckley etc etc.
I think James now too is perhaps feeling the pressure. That’s clear from quite a number of questionable decisions in finals. Like the players, he’s fine up to the final, but then, things unravel. I always thought James could instill belief in this team, belief to win the final. It may still happen but I think we all feel its more hope than anything else at this stage. But i genuinely see no alternative.
McEntee proved his worth in 2016, v Tyrone and Dublin, he might be back again one never knows, he is not too far away, i dont think there is anybody around at the present time to replace James Horan . There is a man who i rate but he is as far away, as Mayo are from winning Sam Maguire, a fair distance i would say.. slan
Everyone knows v Tyrone this year was the one to grab , it was a golden opportunity. Mayo nor tyrone might not see a final for donkeys , there is no guarantee at all . Let’s hope we get back again but I just have this thing in my head we could be looking back on 2021 for a few years yet . So many teams open to big improvements come next summer most notably the big two .
@Sean, I don’t see many teams open to big improvements at all. Maybe Dublin will get a bounce off being beaten and come back with renewed energy. Looking at the Kerry team, there are 3 or 4 players who look past it. David Clifford can only do so much. Tyrone will be thereabouts again but I don’t see any big improvements with them.
Agreed on 2021 being a golden opportunity however.
@Liberal role in the tie, of course we had absolutely but nobody is saying we should have won every final and when Dublin were at their peak even if you had six teams at Dublin’s level only one of them would ever have won it.
In terms of coaching, in my opinion not holding on to Buckley was the greatest ever mistake made by Mayo in the last decade.
Many people credit James Horan for bringing Mayo football back to a competitive place and right they should, but in my opinion Buckley’s influence should never be forgotten and he should never have been allowed to leave.
A huge mistake and that was something the County Board should never have allowed happen.
When you get people of Buckley’s quality on board you do not let them go and I have to say his absence is noticeable.
These are the type of decisions which contribute to losing a few percent here and there which can make the difference.
Whatever it takes, Buckley must be brought back.
Donie Buckley was in Mayo for 6 years. How much more could he have offered in reality?
@Wide Ball, it’s not about how much more he could have offered, it’s about the percentages lost in his absence, that’s the way we should also measure things.
If we were to rate Buckley at 100% and his successor was 80% then regardless of whether Buckley could give any more or not there is a drop of 20% so the answer to what more could he do now is 20%.
There is a lot more to Buckley than meets the eye, very intelligent individual.
Why is Buckley rated so highly? He joined at the beginning of the 2013 season when we were already in the top 2/3 in the country. He left in 2018 after Kildare beat us in newbridge. What did he do that McDonald/Burke didn’t do in the last 2 years?
Our tackling success rate and turnovers seem to have dropped , I could be wrong but perhaps there is statistics available somewhere that we could compare the two era’s. But I still dont think buckley is the missing link . We dont score enough, scoring seems to be the forgotten aspect to Gaelic football in mayo . Mayo football culture is different to other top teams in that sense . James Horan would pull david Clifford for staying inside ,even if it meant he scored 3-3 but was at fault for a point by losing his man once in the game . Something not right with that mindset . jason docherty was a scoring forward when he started out ,it was grinded out into a different type of player , an effective one mind but I just strongly believe you need to give natural scoring forwards a little bit of freedom to attack . ( look at cillians free that came off the post was 16 or 17 , not a forward inside to collect it ,dropped straight into Dublin players hands ) why was that , too much bloody emphasis on setting up for after the free , attack man attack , take it now .
@Sick as a parrot, the point about AOS coming out was to help Ruane when he was clearly in bother.
Who do you think Brian Kennedy, Conn Kilpatrick and Niall Morgan preferred to see in midfield, AOS or Loftus ?
You would have to say Loftus, right, so the point is not whether AOS is a top midfielder or not, his primary role would be use his height advantage and physicality to totally disrupt Brian Kennedy and Conn Kilpatrick and simultaneously force Morgan into a rethink.
Brian Kennedy and Conn Kilpatrick are not the greatest midfielders in Ireland but they were very effective as long as Morgan was allowed to pick them out with ease.
I’m not going to say now AOS shouldn’t have started because I always believed he would, one thing I will say though and for purely tactical reasons AOS should not be captain, for the simple reason that there should never be a doubt of your captain being benched or subbed, for a team like Tyrone that’s oxygen. Lee Keegan should get the captains armband.
I had believed AOS would start at full forward as I didn’t expect we would have been so overrun at midfield so I’m not going to try and be wise after the event but start at full forward on the proviso that there was a forward plan or structure built around that to play with width and get fast ball into the forward unit but it became clear as the game went on that there was no real plan to the forward structure at all, yes we created a few goal scoring chances but we did not persist at getting quick ball in which led to the chances to begin with.
If you have a look at the clip of Canavan’s goal from 2005 and the simplicity of it because it was planned, the role of Mulligan there is what is what I had envisaged for AOS on the day and if we had managed to get to half time with a 3 or 4 point lead then we would have been able to shore up the midfield and defense and I think we would have ran riot in the second half with our counter attacking football.
Then we were playing on our terms, didn’t happen.
So that was my view before the game and I’m not going to change it now to suit any narrative, what I thought the tactics would be didn’t come to pass and while we are all entitled to a view we have to respect the manager who sets the team up so it’s easy for us to say afterwards why did this man start.
However, where a manager of any team comes under scrutiny is when in game action is not taken quick enough to quench a clear and obvious fire and it’s a very difficult question for any manager to answer because he cannot say “what fire” because it will seem that he cannot see what everyone else can see.
But these are not questions any manager should ever be asked or expected to answer in public but they do need to be asked in any review process because if they are not then no lessons would ever be learnt.
But the people asking the questions need to know what they are talking about and be very tactically aware.
A review should be private but every minute detail must be looked at for it to have any benefit at all.
My plan is a logistical one which is still being worked on and will be for the benefit of Mayo GAA regardless of who the manager is so it has nothing to do with ousting anyone or anything like that, it’s not a replacement of anything or anyone, it’s beneficial add-ons targeting the real issue, getting the team over the line should that opportunity arise again but obviously Mayo GAA and the management team will need to agree on it first and there will need to be player buy in also.
This is what a planned goal is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN_mP7zBRIM
@Wide Ball, he’s highly rated because he’s bloody good at what he does, he’s really a professional coach with decades of experience and because of that would be on a different level to McDonald and Burke.
And as @Sean Burke hinted on our tackling success rate and turnovers seem to have dropped, it was very noticeable against Tyrone and is definitely waning which is bad news, all adding to damage on the scoreboard.
Of course Buckley is not the missing link but his departure has weakened us of that there’s no doubt and when you have Buckley you should do everything to keep him.
I have no doubt that Peter Keane would still be in a job and Kerry would be All-Ireland champions had Keane’s pride not influenced his decision making regarding Buckley.
Buckley’s intelligence can often make anyone above him feel a bit threatened even though he’s a quiet reserved man.
The Tyrone game was a disaster in most areas. There was nothing wrong with our tackling/turnover rate against Dublin in the semi final or Galway before that. In fact it was one of the main reasons we won those games. It was O’Hora, Ryan O’Donoghue and Tommy Conroy leading the charge too. They didn’t spend any time under Buckley.
Kerry didn’t win an All Ireland during either of Buckley’s terms there. I just always wonder why he gets so much credit? Who were our coaches/selectors in 2011/12? That’s when Keegan, Boyle, Vaughan, McLoughlin, Cillian, O’Sheas x2 went from promising young players to established seniors.
@Wide Ball, Buckley can only do his own job as a link in a chain but if other links are weaker you can hardly blame Buckley for that.
If everyone done their job as good as Buckley does his then life would be very easy.
But at the end of the day we are dealing with human beings and no matter how well conditioned they are or how much skill they have it’s the decisions they make which can either have a positive or a negative outcome.
So we could go into all sorts of deep analysis of why Mayo lost to Tyrone but the heart of the defeat whether we looked at goals conceded, chances missed, careless passes, initial match-ups, sideline calls or the lack of them, it all comes down to one simple thing at the end of the day, poor decision making and no matter how much skill you have if your decision making is poor you’ll soon look average or poor and that’s more or less what happened against Tyrone.
Poor decision making both on and off the pitch is why we lost against Tyrone and thats not the fault of the Buckley’s of this world.
So while Mayo have no issue with strength and conditioning I would have to question how mentally prepared we were, it is probably going to be the hardest issue to solve but until we acknowledge that it is a serious issue and tackle it head on then it doesn’t matter what players we find.
Saying that young lads don’t have the baggage simply isn’t true, haven’t the likes of Conroy been brought up on watching Mayo lose finals, it buries itself in the psyche.
So whatever about the millions spent on strength and conditioning, if money isn’t spent on don’t everything possible to solve the physiological issues then what is the point.
We have wasted a great opportunity over the last decade of not tackling this head on, perhaps it’s because it can be a bit of a taboo subject in the eyes of some.
But you must invest in the best in the business, people with proven track records.
If David Clifford was born in Mayo, he wouldn’t be the same David Clifford we see for Kerry, I’m not sure everyone understands that.