Cork named their team for Sunday a short while ago and unsurprisingly they’ve gone with the same fifteen who started in the Round 4A qualifier win over Sligo last weekend. Here’s the Leesiders’ starting team and subs for Croke Park:
Cork (All-Ireland SFC quarter-final v Mayo, 3/8/2014): Ken O’Halloran (Bishopstown); James Loughrey (Mallow), Eoin Cadogan (Douglas), Noel Galvin (Ballincollig); Michael Shields (St. Finbarr’s), Thomas Clancy (Clonakilty), Brian O’Driscoll (Tadhg MacCárthaigh); Ian Maguire (St. Finbarr’s), Aidan Walsh (Kanturk); Paul Kerrigan (Nemo Rangers), Mark Collins (Castlehaven), Colm O’Driscoll (Tadhg MacCárthaigh); Colm O’Neill (Ballyclough), Brian Hurley (Castlehaven), Donal Óg Hodnett (O’Donovan Rossa). Subs: David Hanrahan (Douglas), Damien Cahalane (Castlehaven), Jamie O’Sullivan (Bishopstown), Seán Kiely (Ballincollig), Fintan Goold (Macroom), Patrick Kelly (Ballincollig), Daniel Goulding (Éire Óg), John Hayes (Carbery Rangers), Barry O’Driscoll (Nemo Rangers), John O’Rourke (Carbery Rangers), Donncha O’Connor (Ballydesmond).
We last played Cork in the League back in March and their team for Sunday contains nine of the side that started that game in MacHale Park – O’Halloran, Shields, Cadogan, Clancy, Walsh, Kerrigan, O’Driscoll, O’Neill, Hurley – are in Sunday’s fifteen, while another starter from then, Donncha O’Connor, is listed in the subs for Croke Park. With the likes of Goold, Kelly, Goulding and Hayes also listed among the replacements, you’d have to say that they’ll have a tasty enough bench the next day.
Our most recent championship clash with the Leesiders was, of course, that memorable quarter-final win we recorded over them back in 2011. It’s all change for the Donkey Ayters since then, with only four of Sunday’s team – Shields, Cadogan, Walsh and Kerrigan – having started for them in that one, though four other starters from 2011 – Goold, Kelly, Goulding and O’Connor – are still in their match-day 26 for Sunday.
We’re due to name our team around lunchtime tomorrow.
A couple of years ago when Barcelona were destroying before and after them 4 and 5 nil people were talking about a dominance that couldn’t possibly be broken, then Bayern Munich decided they would be more efficient in every aspect of the game and blew them away.
As Mayo fans hope is very important but I hope Dublin were that Barcelona and Mayo are the new Munich and on Sunday we will see the a no fuss, professional and efficient performance to take care of business. It’s an incredible level of consistency Horan has brought to Mayo since year 1. We are now firmly on the front row of the grid. Mayo have upped there performance from the previous year starting on August bank holiday each time. Huge credit to all involved.
Holidays were booked to come home this weekend since January, something not many others can do. Can’t wait.
2 backs and 6 forwards on the bench? Dineen and Clancy dropped completely? Kelly on the bench again? Rumour has it Andrew O’Sullivan walked from panel
I’d be amazed if we didn’t win this handy to be honest. Cork have been atrocious, manager looks out of his depth and morale appears very low.
In all seriousness we should be winning this with plenty to spare if we have any ambitions to go one further this year. Roll on Sunday now
Plenty of natural talent on the cork team and on the bench, would not get too cocky , but expect a win for us. Will be interesting to see mayo team from mid field up. Wouldn’t mind seeing the 2 to o Shea’s in mid field and gibbons at 11 , coc, Kevin mc,Dillon,Doherty , freeman back at 14 , think Andy better off bench
Tread carefully…I believe there is a kick left in Cork this year and it will come Sunday. Mayo need to be on too of their game. Cork were dark horses for Sam before the Munster final remember
Anybody else colourblind, I am and cannot tell the difference between green and red, both look the same, white jerseys, strip or black shorts on either would be a big help.
Me too! I meant to do a piece on this during the week but never got to it. I can’t understand why there isn’t a change of strip for matches between the counties, as there is when we play Kerry. I find it almost impossible to tell the two strips apart in the heat of battle.
Can’t believe they haven’t started Gould. Sligo won the midfield battle against that team, I guess its good for us though!
Willie Joe and Co…ye’d have a fair job with a pregnancy testing kit
Yes it is a problem , especially if it’s wet and there’s surely some players with the same problem. You’d sometimes see a lad, make a pass and say it was class if it was to one of ours. We’re Connacht champions , so wear green and red, Qualifer wears provincial colours. If there’s a clash.
Surprised they are starting Maguire at mid field ahead of Goold who did very well when he came on v Sligo. Backs look vulnerable enough hence their reason for deploying two extra men there last week. Forwards have lots of potential, hopefully we can starve them of possession
Surprised that Goold is not on the team, he caught some fine ball when he came on against Sligo.
There is no doubt that Cork have serious talent, but I am confident that we can win because we have gained serious experience over the last three years, winning 5 of the last 6 chmapionship matches in AI series, excluding the finals. I questioned whether the team had the motivation to give it one more lash, what I saw in the connnacht final indicates to me that they are serious about one more year. While Horan has been criticised for his tactics on occasions, I still see developments in how we play, and the fact that COC is fully fit and has further progressed means that we are a serious outfit. We need players to build on his connacht final performance, but that has not been an issue in the past. This gives me confidence that we will turn up on Sunday.
There are more questions over Cork, if they can overcome these and/or get a good start, then game on. They fell apart against us in the league, and repeated this collapse in the league final. They struggled versus Tipp, who Galway beat comfortably, and were blown away by Kerry. They do not appear to be a team buying into what the management want, and when the pressure comes on, I have not seen many players stepping up to lead, they have lost a core group of their leaders over the last few year. While they may have been working on a defensive strategy, they did not use it much in the league games, and if Mayo do turn up, then Cork will need to up their intensity big time on where they have been to date. Walsh is a leader, Kerrigan will work hard and O’Neill is a serious scoring forward, do they have it in them to restore pride after their earlier performance? probably, do they have the experience to drive on if the game is tight? time will tell.
With all these questions over Cork, Mayo are justifiable favorites (including with most pundits), and a win by 4 – 5 points would set us up nicely for a crack at Kerry (or possibly Galway!). Bonus territory would be if we could keep Cork goalless, and a “new” forward stepping up to the plate in terms of scoring, as we will need more than COC scoring to get to the promised land! Defeat will spell the end for this squad of players and management, I think (and hope) that this will be sufficient motivation to carry the day on Sunday.
Never liked our current jersies where is our green above red band for our home jersey. Who decided the red jersey as our alternate? It should be the all white colours of Connacht far easier for players to pick out. It was good enough in 1951.
This is just Cubby trying to play mind games again, Goold will start unless he has completely loss the plot.
Its getting a bit tiresome all this lack of confidence displayed by some of our supporters. Every game its nearly the same thing “theres a kick in (insert name of opposition here who have been playing shite up to meeting us) them yet”, “I’d fear them”. Christ some of ye have been living in fear for the past 4 years, I dont know how you get out of bed in the morning.
Its as simple as this for me, they only way we will lose to Cork is if we are completely off our game or go in half cocked without the level of intensity needed. That is possible but without that Cork dont have a chance, they just don’t have the weapons or the sideline to beat us. We’ve been at the top table for the past 3 years and deservedly so. Without being cocky we should accept the fact that we are one of the top teams in the country, Cork are not and therefore we should be confident of beating them. People need to be analysing the football and not just forming opinions based on historical performances or “feelings in their bones”.
We hear that inter county football is a professional sport in all but name, and it is. The results at this stage of the competition are in direct parallel with some other professional sports where the best team generally wins. The results since 2011 bear this out, even our “shock” win over Cork wasn’t really a shock if you analyzed it in depth. Problem is, to be fair, most people perhaps don’t have the luxury of watching a lot of games and are relying on the media, which is an awful way to form an opinion as the majority of them haven’t a clue.
Kerry on the other hand, will be a completley different proposition. Say one thing about Kerry people, they know their football. They have been awfully quiet since about 2011 (I know they beat us that year but they still didnt think they had a great team), they are sticking their heads up now and that to me means they have found a good team. Personally I think Fitzmaurice is probably the third best manager in the country behind Jim Gavin and Jimmy McGuinness (I think JH is 4th), what he did in the Clare game having Murphy following Podge Collins was genius, simple enough but not many do it (mark the sweeper and you then end up having an extra attacker). I see hes following James Horans trick v Galway of having an extra midfielder at 11. Galway then have hobsons choice as they did against us, have the CHB following the 11 out around midfield on occasion and leave a big hole in the middle or sit and defend and let the opposition win everything around midfield.
Well finally the weekend is here and the match approaches. We truly are a spoilt lot that can count on our lads to give us at least one run out in Croker each year, they and the management are a credit to their clubs and themselves. We should be very very proud. I met a few of them on the New York trip and they are lovely lads, no bullshut airs or graces about them, just playing a game they love and trying to be the best they can. It’s very easy for some posters to say “it’s Sam or nothing, anything less is a failure”, or “it’s the last chance this side has of winning, it must be this year!” That’s all total bollox. Utter rubbish. What are we going to do, pull out of intercounty championship football if we don’t win this year? Never send a team out again? We’ll win it when we are good enough to win it and I believe that this is the year we finally discover if the wait was worth while.
The last 2 years I desperately wanted to win Sam for me, for purely selfish reasons, for the euphoria that I assume would follow the victory. Now, I just want them to win it for themselves. They are the ones that are putting in the heavy shifting, the long miles, the lung bursting training and sacrificing so much of their own lives (they do have one that doesn’t involve football you know) in pursuit of their dream. If effort and determination alone could win Sam Maguire then we would be going for 3 in a row but sadly it ain’t that simple. Lady luck has to smile your way a little and you have to have all your ducks in a row, ready for off. Then it is all about performing on the day and once the players cross that white line and the ball is thrown in, it is up to them to do their stuff.
I’ve no doubt they will, again, on Sunday.
Hon Mayo.
I think there’ll be at least two changes to that Cork team before 4pm on Sunday. I’d expect Goold to start in the middle and wouldn’t be surprised if Goulding starts as well.
east cork exile, my sentiments exactly. I couldn’t agree more.
I am half expecting a few raised eyebrows when the team is announced today, I don’t know why but maybe because of the delay in actually making the team public. I think Horan might pull a surprise as there is a lot of talk regarding how well the young lads are going in training, S. Coen and D.O’Connor in particular are meant to be flying. Having a fully fit squad means that Horan “might” give an indication to what he feels is his strongest team, although, I hope he doesn’t reveal his hand too early yet. Keep the big shock for down the road.
Pebblesmeller, yes I’m hearing that there is one change to the forwards that will have people, well, talking anyway.
I had heard previously that JH was keeping something in reserve but I didnt buy into it as I dont think its possible to just throw a player in at this level of the competition and for it to work. It used to 10 years ago but things have moved on. But then again hes the man who has won 4 connacht senior titles as manager of mayo, created the most consistent team in the country over the past 4 years whereas I’m a lad behind a desk who tries to keep a gang of U-13s between the white lines for an hour on Monday nights, so tis fairly clear which of the two of us knows more about it.
Pebblesmeller I get the exact same feeling!
And I have a particular feeling Vaughan will either start or see game time up the forwards.
In fairness if Cunniffe is fit, we have 7 outstanding backs and I fully believe each one should be starting, like we did in last years AIF although I’d put Donie or Chris up front ahead of KH!
I may be way off and it would be an interesting move for sure but I have a strange feeling either Vaughan or Barry will be given the 14 shirt, the other 8/9 with the rest unchanged (so Cunniffe for Andy or Dillon being the personnel change).
East Cork Exile, brilliant post!!
I’m of the exact same opinion, why on earth are we fearing Cork? They are playing atrocious, morale couldn’t be much lower and they’ve selected a very questionable team with a few lads clearly not up to top intercounty standard ( a certain full-back stands out here). The manager doesn’t seem to have a clue
We’ve won a provincial final handy vs a fellow quarter-final team and have made last two AIF’s in a row
Have a bit of confidence lads, this is a superb Mayo team and I’ve never had more faith in a Mayo side before. All this negativity- “Cork have a push in them”, what exactly makes ye so sure of that? They’ve been awful in 3 matches now, I’d love to know how they’ll suddenly improve so much in one week
Believe
Why are we fearing Cork? I don’t know about fearing, but here’s some stats that should motivate us:
AIF 1989 – Cork by 5
AISF 1993 – Cork by 20!! – a day of shame and infamy
AISF 1999 – Cork by 6 (and we had at least 2 marquee forwards)
League Final 2010 – Cork by 8 and it should have been 12
League Final 2012 – Cork by 5 and they outmuscled us big time
So, our record ain’t great and the most recent knock out match was in Cork’s favour which I don’t see mentioned much. As Darragh O’Shea put it, Kerry had it too easy against Cork, who he felt couldn’t really be that bad. Sligo was a match that just had to be won.
They have talent, don’t really know about the manager, but they will have motivation big time and will be hurting about being written off by just about everyone against (as they will see it) losers.
And even if “Cork have a big push in them” do prople not think that we are going to push back!!!
As Johnny Giles says, “you can’t turn on and off good form like a tap”. You are either settled and playing well or you are not. We are, they are not, so it’s all down to Sunday.
Championship is championship lads. Reputations are forgotten once whistle goes. I do expect us to win but expect cork to be better.
It would be interesting to see Vaughan at ff but think time for experiments is over.
As it stands 1 -12 is fine. The ff line as ever still is not right. I would like to see coc, freeman and Sweeney. Three clever forwards who will trouble any full back line.
Best of luck lads.
Is it Sunday yet………?
I agree with east cork exile, and pebblesmeller, I have been saying this for a while, anyway wait for sunday
I’ve long enjoyed the excitement/fun/despair/self-searching comments that are posted on this site but it’s the first time I’ve decided to join in the conversation.
Why? Because I’m a Mayo Fan. A Proud one. Proud of the team and the supporters who push year after year to become better and better.
In sport, I support and cheer all manner of teams and individuals. What better team in any sport to follow than Mayo. A team consistently at the top table, consistently striving for success, but with the ability to take defeat and come back again. Success and joy have already been delivered many times by this county team … The ultimate prize will inevitably happen, but (echoing many others who’ve posted here), we should be proud and enthusiastic in support of a great sporting team who continue to drag us on a great sporting odyssey.
I’ve lived most of my life outside Mayo and yet, as time progresses, I feel even more drawn to this team and their journey. What better sporting journey could a sports fan want to be part of?
No reason for fear on Sunday. Mayo forever.
It’s not about fear against Cork. As WJ pointed out in a piece earlier they have something like 47 AI football titles to their name between minor, U-21, Club and Senior. So really I don’t fear them – but I do respect them.
Also this idea that we have been performing fantastically this year is not something I agree with personally. I thought we were exceptionally poor in the latter stages of the League and were very lucky to come out of the Hyde and not be in the back door.
And I think we beat nothing in the Connacht final as Galway came into the match already beaten in their own heads. We never got out of second gear really in that game. And we still conceded 16 points and we should have shipped at least 1 goal and probably 2.
So overall I hope this Mayo team has been underachieving and holding back somewhat and that this Sunday they will prove that point. But I won’t underestimate the opposition either as Cork are a Div1 team with a proven record against us throughout history.
It seems we are unchanged for the match against Cork according to Twitter.
Cork backs whatever their future potential are inexperienced. Breaking them down in 1st half could still be a challenge with 2 sweepers. Midfield we have an edge especially with our subs bench but assume they’ll try to spoil & break the ball so McLoughlin & Doherty & AOS important. Link man Collins looks like a real talent, maybe better than Paddy Kelly and Kerrigan & their FF line give us a lot to worry about. We need to be really tight down the middle on the break as that’s where they made hay on the run with Sligo. Maybe management have thought about K McLoughlin & J Doherty picking up Collins on any breaks. Perferably Keegan or Boyle marking Kerrigan who has great pace. Happy Goulding is not starting as he’s in top 3 free takers in Country & talented from play too. They have serious forward talent on the bench though they mightn’t all be too fit apart from Hayes at the minute. If we get 4 or 5 point lead they’ll have to open up & play further up which would I think play more into Mayo hands. AOS CHF is definitely an asset as extra kickout option & link man. Don’t think they can cover all our kickout options and we can probably win a good few of theirs. Most of our panel inprovements are in the forwards so if their backs are as weak as previous years I think our 15 is more balanced (providing forwards continue to improve) & favourites tag justified.