Photo: GAA.ie
Our injury crisis has taken a decided lurch for the worse with the news that Michael Conroy is today undergoing surgery for a shoulder injury picked up in a club match last Sunday. In what is proving to be – from an inter-county perspective – the most damaging club league campaign in living memory, the Davitts man has become the third Mayo player to suffer a serious injury on club duty in recent weeks, with at least half a dozen others picking up knocks of some sort. I’m all for club matches not being pushed to the margins but the toll this bloody league campaign is exacting on the county panel is getting beyond a joke at this stage.
It was Mickey C himself who alerted the world to his impending appointment with the surgeon when he tweeted the following last night:
I understand that the recovery time is likely to be three months, which means that the earliest we can reasonably expect to see him back in action is the All-Ireland quarter-final stage. And that’s if we get that far: progress in the championship is something we can never take for granted at the best of times but with another key performer sidelined for the Connacht campaign, getting back to Croke Park in August is even less of a gimme for us now.
All we can do now, I guess, is wish Mickey all the best and hope that his surgery and rehab go according to plan.
In other news, @MayoGAA announced this morning that, with Galway’s withdrawal from this year’s Connacht Junior football championship, the only two counties left standing – ourselves and Sligo – will face off in the final, which has now been fixed as the curtain raiser to the senior clash with Galway at Salthill on May 19th.
Get well soon Mickey
This of course will not help, himself and Andy are 2 that can and do win the ball on any given day
Yeah not good news. Still it offers someone else the chance to step in and make a claim.
Big blow – Conroy has made a huge impression since returning to the set up.
Let’s hope we’re not on the same injury curve as the Irish rugby team.
If there is one positive aspect, it might be that it changes the approach a bit from the predictable kicks to the corner where Mickey had to do the devil and all to get the ball and then try a wonder point from impossible angles, or get caught in traffic.
I wish Conroy a speedy recovery. No extra news about Barry Moran i guess that means good news?
Best wishes to Conroy, he was playing so well too.
Really need to act quickly now, Horan cant stall imo, bring Kiler in from London if its an option at all.
I hope Conroy has a straight forward op and rehab. While he could be back for a potential quarter final he is also a huge loss to Davitts for the club championship but hopefully that too will be put back because we have landed a big prize around the end of Sept. Good chance for the likes of Regan to step up now as he has the talent and as Catcol says this could lead to an alteration in our game plan which Galway and others mightn’t have been anticipating!
Good luck with the surgery Michael and get well soon.
I must agree with catcol – with Conroy missing management might try a different approach, in the forward line, or at the very least vary the play a bit and keep the opposition guessing. It’s all a bit predictable at the moment and this might explains the difficulty we’re having in scoring goals. As we know goals win matches and the way I see it, we’ll need to starting finding the net on a more regular bases if we hope to be still around for Michael when he get’s back !!
Agree with the above. I would love to see Kilcoyne and the likes of Harte drafted in but if it hasn’t happened before now, it’s hard to see it happen now. What would that say to the likes of Alan Murphy, Evan Regan etc. already on the panel? Mayo may have to take a different approach now but I don’t know what one. The big full forward has never worked for Mayo and they are not going to be able to change that approach in such a short period of time. Plus they don’t have a player that has good hands and is able to score as well. Time will tell what Horan does.
I hate to be the pessimist but I agree with what the poster ‘Diehard’ said a few weeks ago. This is rapidly beginning to look like this won’t be our year. Losing two key forwards from last year, an area we could ill afford to lose players, will seriously hurt us. Andy will not have the football played to get anywhere near the form he was in the last two years and Conroy will struggle to get back to his form of late. Even Barry Moran needs a lot of football to keep up his form, in my opinion. I do not see the forward talent there to see us through this recent blight of injuries and I would now really fear a Galway team, of which little has been heard of of late. Mayo teams thrive on confidence and it’s difficult to see a Mayo team beaten in Connacht go too far thereafter (as evidenced by every year they’ve been beaten in Connacht). I suppose the hope is that we grind out the results in Connacht and try get the injured players back for Croker but I don’t know are we that far ahead of the other Connacht teams to beat them missing key players.
Wishing him a speedy recovery anyway.
Kevin o brien had a successful appeal for the dubs, he’s available for league final what does that tell us???maybe Suarez didn’t bite ivanovic??!!!!! Or it’s good to be a dub??!!!
With players out for the medium/long term it seems obvious that we need reinforcements brought in. That means into the panel in the first place – its up to them to show that they should be in the team. If they do this it is logical that they should be selected and length of service or panel membership should not be a reason for selection.
Andy and Michael were our two best ball winners in the full forward line by a long way. Maybe Evan or Alan Murphy or somebody else can step up but, on the evidence so far, including the game time they have got so far, I still have to be convinced.
To say that the “big full forward” never worked for Mayo in the past ignores the fact that the small men were not all that successful either. We need to cast the net wider. Doing so will bring freshness to the scene and avoid a scenario where a lack of competition results in a fall of in performance all round. There are men out there who have experience to bring to what could otherwise be a very inexperienced full forward line and that could be a serious issue too.
Mickey C is a big loss, from what I saw in the league (on tv i admit) he was one of the few forwards who looked like and often did get a score from play.
I wish him all the best, and hopefully by the time he recovers we’ll still be in the knockout stages.
WJ….This is my first ever comment despite being an avid voyeur for the past two years. If only the senior set-up was as well run as this blog…..keep up the good work and let’s hope that we have a summer of comment and opinion ahead of us.
Very disappointed to hear the news. Wishing Michael a speedy recovery!!
Get well soon Mikey. You were playing great stuff.
Conroy a huge loss. In a strange way we are now in a place we prosper in…the pressure is off, the pack can see we have been shorn, Moran x 2, Conroy, maybe Dillon all doubtful or out short to medium term. So lets see what the panel will throw up, I still see a conservative hand being played anyway. Assuming Horan heeds the clamour for AOS to be returned to the middle, going on the past we will see McLoughlin, O Connor, Carolan, Varley, Doherty and one from Regan, Gallagher, Freeman or Murphy. Radical its not nor is it good enough but hey…stranger things have happened. George Jones died yesterday…RIP…he sang a song with a line… “miracles occur in the strangest of places…” …so George , take a peek down and put in a word… we need it.
Is it really radical to simply replace players , who have been injured?
Its just common sense surely.This is the one thing that annoys me about Horan.We lost Mort last year before cf,he was never replaced, if my memory serves me right we had evan regan injured at the same time ,then the loss of Andy at qf.He then drafted Murphy in who also got injured.Four out and four down.I dont understand the logic behind that.
Are we forgetting that Brian Gallagher (‘the real deal’) is also injured according to the Mayo News – ankle ligament damage which,they say, rules him out for the Galway game?
Agree with Sean Burke that Kilcoyne needs to be brought onto the panel. I think he is the real deal also, if fitness, attitude, knitting in, and avoidance of injury are all sorted. Admittedly, this is quite a long list.
I was 100% in favour of the line on Mortimer last year, but, let’s put it this way, if I was JH I would be open minded on the question in 2013.
It would be good if people on the site familarised themselves with a players status before they start calling for a players inclusion into the panel-Is Tom Parsons not in Wales and Kilcoyne in England?
Yes, Kilcoyne is in England. He hasn’t played club football since December either. I don’t know about Parsons though. Will Regan or the others step up to the plate, I don’t know, but hopefully.
Big deal if he’s in England , there’s airports in both Knock and Dublin too.
You mean sean to bring a guy from overseas 3 or 4 times a week (c/ship season, training and games )….I think-and it’s only my opinion,that the idea of it is pure madness
When Aiden was local and playing reasonable good football James Horan didnt see fit to use him so I doubt if he,ll do so now.Since Andy Moran got injuryed against Down how many new players have we tried at full forward other than the few usual Amigos. not many and the same will happen now in replacing Mickie Conroy. Its evident that James Horan has his core group of players and this is the pool he is taking from.He has tampered all season with positions that we seemed to be doing ok in and not dealt with the problem areas.When Pat Kilroy took over Dublin one of his first tasks was to move Brian Cullen out of centre half back because he was going awol and leaving the middle exposed . doe this sound familar to us folks.
We all going backwards in my opinion. Very few players can win their own ball in the scoring zone and the way our players have to work so hard to get a score is down to the system and style of play that this management structure has adopted.Just look a M Conroy has to work so hard and one unbelievable stat is the time we played Donegal, he is one of our best players to get a shot off yet he hadnt one shot for a point I think in the whole game. Our two wing forwards are retreating but they are not being followed by their markers as a result our full forward line is being doubled teamed and they have to come so far away from goal.I cant see us winning much with this type of approach and we were poxed to stay in division one
The logistics can be worked out for one player , no problem. Many guys have done it for club championship, a lot depends on who you’re working for over there.
Has Kilcoyne not said earlier on in the year, he’d love the call from Horan? I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere.
Let’s presume it can’t be done. My point is if your panel is down 3/4 forwards whom two of would of been starters for sure, do you not think they have to be replaced ?
That’s what frigtens me, its like let’s just put feeney in and maybe even lee keegan up front and leave our squad thin. I don’t understand the reluctance to add forwards to the squad.
So it seems James Horan has thrown the toys out of the pram and has succeeded in getting next weekends 1A and 1B fixtures called off.as a club player it is exceptionally frustrating to be constantly undermined by both the mayo senior management and the mayo county board.
Granted there are injuries but it is inconceivable that we are now entering a situation whereby should mayo do well this year that club players will possibly be forced to play football out in November.
Players will not play football if this persists.there are plenty of players who travel long distances to play with their club,myself included,and I can guarantee that many will transfer out of the county if they keep getting treated like this.where will the mayo senior team be in a few years with a failing club structure due to mismanagement and emigration?
There is more to mayo football than just the intercounty team.
Our annus horribulous gets worse.
Our top two full forwards now gone for Salthill, and a team that is showing no direction will probably be beaten.
Nonsense talk bringing in Killer – he’s not in the country, he hasn’t the hard training done. If things like that worked why bother training a team. We have the guts of 19/20 players that James seems to have confidence in. That’s all after a wasted league
Wishing Mikey a speedy recovery – he will be a huge loss over the coming months. Concerned that Horan will not take any real action on our forward line crisis and will continue with the same existing players on the panel who have not exactly impressed throughout the FBD and National Leagues. Following the AI Final we would have expected change, however, we saw no real effort to strengthen the forward line right from the ‘get go’ in January as there were no FBD trials given to any other of the stronger / more physical forwards who play for our clubs but who have not been part of the panel in recent times e.g. no forward player added from the county champions such as Barry Regan etc. These players may or may not have worked out, however, opportunities to make an impact should be been given. We are now left with a limited group and limited options with 3 weeks to go the Galway game.
I think that’s a bit OTT, Clubplayer – James can hardly be accused of having “thrown the toys out of the pram” and as Mayo manager he’s quite right to seek action about club fixtures (if this is what he’s done, I’ve no idea if it is or not) given the carnage wreaked on the county panel from club matches in recent weeks. I’d agree with you, though, that a proper balance is needed between club and county commitments – would a policy of resting county players for club league matches be a solution? I know that tends to be policy here in Dublin and I’d say it is elsewhere too.
That’s the policy in Kerry as well. Clubs have limited access to the county players once the panel has been decided.
That seems to be the most sensible option, even if it would annoy some of the clubs. At least it would avoid the ludicrous spate of injuries we’ve suffered over the past few weeks and it would also mean that club matches could go ahead. It wouldn’t be a perfect solution but I can’t see how the current situation is either.
Tere’s some merit in that.at least fixture lists could be adhered to then.however this constant chopping and changing of fixtures is not on.imo intercounty managers are given too much clout when it comes to these decisions.next weeks round is still 14 days from the galway game which is the time frame normally afforded to mayo before matches where no club action takes place.
Resting club players completely is not going to happen either,clubs won’t allow it.plus it hinders their preparation for their own championships..county board mandated that clubs at 3 “starred” games this year but this apparently is only to be applied over the summer months should mayo do well.this probably needs to be slightly increased and made more flexible as to when it can be applied.
Dubs had great win today and will be cocky now hope the league might tire them out
I am not sure how Mayo Co Board are handling the issue of calling off club games as the rules dictate a period of 13 days of club free competition only before inter county senior championship games only. Some counties where county success is seen as of importance allow a number league games without county players. Others institute a secondary competition to give club players regular games although these competitions are often not highly regarded. One way or another expecting players to combine training for the county with playing for their clubs [on successive days?] is a recipe for disaster. Kilkenny I understand have a policy of releasing players completely for week or so to for club competition and it seems to work fairly well for them. If county mentors were to work with clubs to ensure that club training standards were up to requirements this policy could well work for Mayo. If it meant that players fell back in standard because of a weeks break it certainly would not.
Injuries happen and i wouldn’t be blaming club fixtures for all of Mayos. For example take Tyrone today who lost O’Neill in the warm up. These things happen and you move on. Let’s be honest even without Conroy,Andy Moran Mayo should have too much for Galway.
Anyone watching league Sunday just now, they done a preview for championship.
It was horrible to watch and listen to in terms of Mayos chances. Only Ciaran Whelan gave them a sniff, Eamon o hara seemed to revel in delight in dismissing Mayos chances of even reaching provincial final.
Everyone is entitled to opinion but the disrespect shown to a county that have reached semi in 11 and a final in 12 is astounding.
Injuries happen-its all part of the game.i listened to Brolly tonight & it is hard to disagree with him. Talking about introducing new players to the panel is fine if those players have the dedication & work ethic of the rest of the panel.We had enough Prima Donnas playing for Mayo over the years.
Spot on jr!!! And managers too!!!!
Sean, the pundits are right about Mayo’s chances. Look at their recent performances – terrible. How can anyone realistically tip them for the All Ireland. Now isn’t this a terrible thing to say and I am a Mayo supporter for over 60 years. Such disrespect you might say; I say “a reality check”.
How did Mayo end up in the final last year? Do we not earn a bit of respect for knocking out the all Ireland champions two years on the trot with massive performances .
Anyways not going into this aul chesnut too much, Mayo won’t get the respect they deserve till they win Sam which is slightly unfair on this team and future teams but it seems to be the reality even with our own fanbase.
Bring on Galway and fook the begrudgers.
MO2013-We should be better than Galway; very foolish to write anybody off. Look what happened to Sligo a few years ago; they beat Mayo and Galway and there was only poor Roscommon to beat; they didn’t turn up and lost the Final which on their previous performances they should have won easily. We are only better than another team when we beat them. Look at what happened in Longford a few years ago!! Should have been easy.
Biggest problem for Mayo in the upcoming championship is not injuries but the expectations of another All Ireland final at least is on the cards. What happened it past championships matter little now and it’s best not to read much in the NFL. The fact is Mayo have the management and players to do well however anything happen including early unexpected exit.
Joe Mc says:
April 28, 2013 at 9:43 pm
MO2013-We should be better than Galway; very foolish to write anybody off. Look what happened to Sligo a few years ago; they beat Mayo and Galway and there was only poor Roscommon to beat; they didn’t turn up and lost the Final which on their previous performances they should have won easily
In fairness Mayo have moved on a fair bit since 2010 Galway haven’t. Sligo did beat Mayo,Galway and prob lost the run of themselves before facing Roscommon. In truth Roscommon are the same level as them and were delighted to play them instead of the big two.
Didn’t see the preview tonight. Thank God I didn’t if Brolly was on it. Whatever about the injury problems and the predictable approach in attack (so far I stress), it might be that psychologically Mayo are in a reasonable position:
*No pundits raving about them,
* and if this blog is anything to go by, the fans won’t be giving the players swelled heads in the lead up.
* They have a reasonable prep time between league ending and championship starting
This is exactly what you would want going to play Galway in an opening round. The heads should be right at least.
Best to be written off by the pundits for the team, management and supporters, keeps feet on the ground. Mayo will have to improve on league form to beat Galway in Salthill. Leaders on the field required for the 19th May. We have a lot to learn in this County on how to deal with the media. A number of yrs ago Down destroyed Tyrone’s full back line in a league match, prior to throw in in Ulster Championship game between the same counties, Mickey Harte moved the late Conor Mc Anallen to full back problem solved in full back area , Tyrone easily won the match. No one in Tyrone out side the squad knew this move was to take place. Mayo had a training camp in Belmullett the whole world knew it was to take place. Galway defeated Mayo in Tuam in 1990 (Mayo were in the All Ireland Final in 1989), Mayo were favourites going into the game. Alan Mullholland the current Galway manager was a member of that Galway team.
No twitter or facebook those times-So fukn what if people know….If a lad from Bangor Erris has a bagel in Bejing the whole world can know in seconds,so fukn what,it’s the way of the world.Give the lads some credit-Ya think they’re not focused on the Galway game ??…fuk sake
I watched the champioship preview last night on league Sunday and I thought it wasn’t too bad or direspectful. Brolly (who I am no fan of) I think called it well especially when talking of Mayo and Donegal, He said if we started taking our goal chances that we’d be hard to beat and seemed to hint that we would be in the mix in the summer and I am with him that if Donegal ( and it’s a big if) are injury free like last year they will be the team to beat in 2103.
I have to say Whelan who I was a storng critic as a player is probably the best pundit RTE have at the moment was pretty spot on about us that we could probably cope on Connacht without Andy , Barry and Conroy but this will probably hamper us from the quarter finals on and he is only echoing what is felt by most supporters on here.Jaralth Burns seemed to rate us as a good dogged outfit that will take some beating too.
On Eamonn O Hara we will have to give him a bit of lee way in that he has only just finished with Sligo and the loss to us last year is probably still raw in his mind so I don’t think he can judge us objectively. Marty was just looking for a controversial comment by asking him about us and he got the required answer he wanted. It would have been like askng Liam McHale to preview Meath in the 1997 championship whith his fellings on John McDermott akin to the hatred Sligo folk have towards Mayo football.
Agree fully with optmisteek, some Mayo folk don’t half bang on about shite that doesn’t make a bit of difference .
The more I think about the Galway game the more confident I become, we should kill them all day at midfield.
How many forwards should you have for panel. It should be nine at least for match day panel? (Thinkin on the spot here)
MgLoughlin, Dillon , COC, Varley, Docherty, Carolan, Freeman, E.Regan,R.Feeney, and maybe SOS could be considered at 11 too. Is Coen or Kirby on panel?
Is that our lot to pick from for Galway? Have I missed out some?
I’ve just watched the preview now, Crete Boom, and I’d share your take on it. I think we can be a bit too thin-skinned for our own good at times and on this occasion I felt the analysis of our chances was fair and to the point. I’d agree with you too about Ciaran Whelan as a pundit – I hope RTE use him more this year because unlike the other panto queens on The Sunday Game he concentrates on analysing the match in question and leaves his prejudices at the door when doing so.
Experts analysts? That’s up for debate, brolly being one that makes himself look like a bigger I—t with each year.
My take on Mayo 2013, even without Moran and conroy I think there is enough in the panel to beat Galway and whoever else to retain connaught. Mayo have a much harder edge to them than anyone in the province, I know Mayo could be beaten on a given day by anyone but they will be ready for Galway and are already a wounded animal if you take the injuries into mind, those injuries and the fact that they play the best teams in the country each spring is enough for me to say a Connaught title is well within their means. Add in the trainer that Kerry players rated very highly and it’s clear that Mayo will be right for Connaught.
It’s when we get out of Connaught and into Croke park that the loss of quality like andy Moran and really becomes evident, Moran even more so than conroy or Barry Moran because he is very involved with bringing others into the game, of all the players we have Cillian o connor, aiden o se, dillon, Higgins,Andy Moran, Boyle and Keegan are the ones we really need on the field.
Hopefully dillon and Higgins will be ok for summer.
The quarter final is a realistic target for Mayo, and the opposition in that game could be a straightforward team we would expect to beat. I think If we get a softish q final draw we will be lucky, after that I think more than luck is needed. Cork,Kerry,Tyrone,Kildare and Dublin are going to be hard to beat, especially without our best player.
Semi final loss in 2013.
The RTE analysis was in general spot on as is David’s view above. The bottom line is Andy Moran won’t play for Mayo this year, Conroy might be back for the August bank holiday but might not. Two big losses. As for bringing in new players they won’t have the S&C that is required at this level to survive unless they’re really talented and we don’t have any really talented prospects to bring in. Horan’s professional aproach will get us to the Q/F and maybe a S/F where the Ulster champs (if they win their Q/F) await. So a possible re-match with Donegal! The one clear aspect from last night’s analysis that apart from the dubs there’s alot of teams on the same level and the Dubs will buckle under the hype come August! As always for Mayo Hope springs eternal!
I agree Willie Joe about us being thin skinned lately but it is probably a cumulative thing from all the half assed stuff we have had to hear from Breheny , Mchugh , Tony Davis etc.. down through the years which makes any Mayo football man adopt a siege mentality as a default position. To be honest any time I read an article on us in the nationals or watch the Sunday game I find myself counting to ten to try and keep my temper under control before I have even fully comprehended what was being written/said. More and more I find myself reading this blog and the locals as outside of Newstalk it’s the only place I find any accurate analysis of Mayo( Iam sure we are not the only county that is afflicted in such a way).
Unfortunatley I think Whelan will have to stop being so professional and logical if he wants more airtime. Remember how quickly they sidelined Jason Ryan and Colm Parkinson when it became evident how far removed they were from the shock jock/ the manly old days were better brigade. It seems like a very cosy club with only Dessie Dolan) who despite his football talent was on a par wwith the boys for inane pointless cliched analysis ) making any inroads!
David while not as bullish as you about the Galway game I can’t find fault with you analysis on where we are for this championship and I think you might have got it spot on with a semi-final loss this year. Personally I think a semi-final loss would be a solid performance from us and at least would give us a strong base to build on to keep challenging but obviously I (and the rest of us) will never be satisfied till Sam comes home and visits us on a more regular basis than in the last 60 odd years.
“The bottom line is Andy Moran won’t play for us this year”
That seems very definate and maybe even inacurate at the same time.
The analysis thing with RTE , we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. re brolly though and if Mayo can get goals, he was pondering to our chances of retaining nestor not being in the mix up for Sam.
Saying over on GAA discussion board, Boyle and Regan got knocks of some kind the weekend.Ffs I hope its not serious.
I’d be of the opinion (have been for a long time!) that Horan has to do everything in his power to get Aiden Kilcoyne back on the panel. His is arguably the most talented forward in Mayo, as he showed in last last years Senior club championships, and forwards with natural, ball-winning talent, is exactly what we are missing right now.
If that doesn’t happen there’s huge pressure on Cillian O’Connor and Dillon get our scores from play.