I know that this might not interest everyone but it’s practice here on the blog to celebrate standout performances on good days as well as bad. Yesterday was, for sure, one of the latter.
Darren Coen has enjoyed a fruitful time since his recall to the county panel following James Horan’s reappointment as manager. Yesterday against Roscommon he led the inside line very well, bagging five points from play.
Darren wins the Man of the Match poll for yesterday’s game with 41% of the vote. Well done to him. Details of how the poll went are below.
Super performance.
Darren had a great game. I can understand why he was taken off though as he was struggling at the time. I don’t know why Regan was taken off, he was doing better the Doherty, Mcloughlin or O’Connor.
Great performance by Darren watched the game back in full again yes we threw it away even considing the goals blame management players it’s not going to change the result the end of the day it came down to our lack of a free taker and yes I think we will be in the super 8s a month is a long time in football management and players will regroup I really love the way the fans follow the team but I think we one of the worst when we lose you got look at the bigger picture is it that we get rid of the management and get rid of players these guys are amateurs who got to go to work in the county god god sake give them a break
Move on
James horan scored about 2 out of 10 in management ratings for sat . That’s the truth , he put in a ridiculously poor performance . I don’t get the whole cillian thing anyway , he togged and came on for tubber a few weeks ago , did he get injured since (never been mentioned ) , or was he been held back for Galway game with a completely stupid underestimating of ros (yep I think the latter is the truth ) but that will never be admitted to though of course .
Fair play Seán, glad someone stood up and said this. So many things wrong on Saturday night with the way the team set up, reaction to what was happening on the pitch from the line, lack of a plan for free taking, to our overall attitude for the game. Horan and his backroom team now need to show that they are up for the job as huge amount of issues to address through the qualifiers.
Fair play to Darren. As well as kicking five great scores, he linked play very effectively. The real shame was that many of those around him weren’t on form to capitalise.
The coverage (for want of a better word) on the Sunday Game seems to be exercising a lot of people. We’re being heavily criticised and dismissed. Some of that criticism is pretty fair and has to be taken on the chin, more of it is purely for attention and is designed for entertainment as opposed to serious analysis.
I would suggest we as supporters simply grimace and keep our powder dry. What do we care? Focus on getting behind the lads rather than worrying about the perception about us from the outside. We had a piss poor performance but we know there’s more in us. There bloody has to be, and we need to find it quickly.
I imagine the players and management are disgusted. They know better than anyone where they need to get to. I suppose we now need to trust that they’ll work it out.
Malachy Clerkin in the Irish Times is really grim reading this morning. I get the sense some of our ‘neutral’ fan base are simply losing patience with us.
Darren Coen has the ability to push on to be a consistent player. Still looks like he can gain a few % of fitness and that is good. No disrespect to Darren but this is first proper full modern season. He will be gaining and gaining every month. I always thought he was a fairly sharp freetaker for Hollymount. Could be wise to put him on the frees.
Sean I appreciate the point on JH but he is what he is and we know how he plays it since the last time no sweepers etc.
That won’t change. We also know that he is slow to react to what happens on the pitch. For e.g semi in Croke park in 2014 when Donaghy came on and went inside. Limerick and Cormac Reilly should have never happened if we controlled what we can control.
Knowing all this the majority wanted him back last year. I remember “the messiah returns being posted here” when it was announced…..
Even when Rochford was there it felt like fans wanted Horan.
It’s madness to think he will change given the fact that none of his utterances while he was on the outside indicated that his thoughts on the game has changed.
Remember he won the league in March. This is one game. This team recovered from similar in the past remember 2017. Also he has major injuries just now ie Cillian OConnor.
We have to stay the course with the guy we all wanted and keep the faith in our collective opinion of last year. Willie Joe I believe you ran a poll on the management choices and from what i remember it was 80% for JH.
Mayo have no Plan B. They press to the opposition fifty yard area and slow hand pass from sideline to sideline.
We have a very good target man in Darren Coen, a confident shooter as indeed is Fergal Boland. We were destroyed tactically on saturday but obvious mistakes in selection and substitutions cost us the chance to test Galway.
James Horan’s back up team seemed to have nothing to offer on saturday evening.
Reported in post match official info to press.
James Horan reported that Cillian O’Connor (ankle), Seamie O’Shea (ankle), Fionn McDonagh (quad), and Donie Vaughan (hamstring), all of whom missed Saturday’s game, are five to six days away from being fully right.
Not getting carried away buy that surely lifts us right back up a level for the qualifiers.
I happen to speak to a panel member sat night and I have no concerns about them lifting themselves for the qualifiers , I wouldn’t be shocked at all if we navigated our way through to the super 8s .Still think horan put in a bad shift its alright saying he has his ways and won’t change but surely you have to adapt during the course of a game if it’s going wrong and have to have a concrete plan for free kicks
Sean you are 100% right thats it makes sense to change but he never does
I have sympathy for neither players nor management after Sat night – they were collectively the masters of their own downfall. The same failings that have existed since Horan’s first stint (and some beyond that) are still there. Sadly, I thought they may have been eradicated.
Specifically I’m talking about Hennelly’s very unreliable and unstable temperament in the heat of battle, Horan’s defensive gameplan (Regan and AOS were the only 2 men back for one Ros attack), our inability to take long range points (notable exception to MOTM Darren Coen), poor decision making at crucial points (Andy taking the shot that was always going to blocked down when Loftus was free right behind him), and the thorny old subject of free taking (McLoughlin didn’t want to take that free, he knows himself he’s very unreliable).
A bad day all round, even though effort was good, execution was poor. Hopefully the players have the stomach for the qualifiers, at the moment I can’t say I do.
We should be carrying at least two of the young specialist freetakers. Dublin were carrying Dean Rock until he bulked up and produced more from play. Ross Egan, Killian Kilkelly, David Stenson and there are a few others. Even if they were to sub on and cover the frees in the last 20 mins.
Pat – that poll was 75/25, with the choice a straight one between James Horan and Mike Solan. Details here.
Well deserved Darren Coen, can we please dispel a few myths
1) We do NOT have the best panel in Ireland, total rubbish to be making such a claim. Dublin have the proven best panel in Ireland.
2) The long term injured players aside from COC will NOT make much of a difference. SOS great servant has at best 20 mins to add and the longer he is out the more difficult it will be for him to make any contribution. Expecting Tom P to play inter-county football this summer is not realistic.
3) The vast majority of Mayo supporters and all of the local media are NOT the culprits when its comes to this Mayo4Sam rubbish. That is more the national media looking for a bit of excitement because Dublin are so boring and a couple of knob heads from Mayo that should know better.
4) Winning the league was NOT bad, in fact it was very good as a national title no matter how insignificant was important to nail down
5) Utterances from former players/managers should NOT have any impact on current Mayo players, if it does then they are not being properly managed/prepared.
6) Finally we ARE in my humble opinion in a better place than when we lost to Galway last year in that we have started some of the re-build, let’s go with the younger ones now for the qualifiers and see how far we go. We know how far the older guys can bring us which is far but not far enough.
Most likely backdoor opponents barring upsets
Louth or Antrim (too close to call)
Down
Leitrim
Derry
Offaly
Monaghan
Kildare
Westmeath
I’m sure there will be one or two upsets but that’s an indication of what we will be up against in the qualifiers.
I’d expect Kildare to get past Longford at the second time of asking Albanyend, but definitely not guaranteed. Roll on the draw on the 10th – odd sort of in limbo feeling at the moment.
If we get to the super 8s, does that mean we will be playing 6 games in 6 weekend in a row
I’ll have a post up shortly, MayoCamp, with details of the schedule facing us if we manage to stay afloat until then.
Mayonaze – as I mentioned in a comment yesterday, my understanding is that James Carr was injured for Saturday’s game so didn’t feature in the 26 for that reason.
Maith thu Darren Coen, great to see a natural instinctive forward who first thought everytime is to beat his man and find the posts. Our motm by a country mile the other night
Malachy Clerkin has a pretty good summation of things this morning really, as beloved as this team is its gets harder and harder to accept them repeatedly showing the same failings
Was a bad night at the office for Horan the more you think about it…
His in game management still seems to be lacking, for all our supposed squad strength he only made 3 subsitutes (excluding B/C sub) on the night despite so many under performances on the pitch. Rossies got far more out of their bench with cunningham timing his changes perfectly. Then the first 2 guys whipped were Coen and Regan, 2 of the better performers on the night – which would lead you to believe the subs were pre-planned regardless.
Secondly, while going man to man in fullback line without any protection from half back line is admirable, its also incredibly naive and will cost you when there are quality forwards like Cox, Cregg etc. Fullback line needs protecting in the modern game especially when you have a 34 year old cornerback
Thirdly, we are back again to the seemingly endless goalkeeper debate, Clarke v Hennelly.
At this stage we have seen loads of case evidence for both, both have very obvious strengths and very obvious weaknesses (ie Clarke is the better all round keeper but Hennelly offers more variety in his kickouts). It seems criminal that we didnt properly try an option c Shlingermann etc in the league or FBD, Otherwise this saga will roll on and on.
We should navigate the first few rounds of qualifiers without much fuss, its after Ulster semi final stage when things could get spicy, any of the defeated ulster semi finalists could cause us problems
Onwards and upwards
Darren well deserving of MOTM ..Thought he was sluggish enough looking when taken off .. Very disappointed today , listening to shite from my Rossie work mates but took the bull by the horns and congratulated them first thing this morning on what was a deserved win … Agree with Sean , persisting with Hennelly taking frees was daft .. Who was plan B if he got injured and had to go off .. Look it , we’ve been here before and all we as supporters can do is get over the loss and get behind the lads in our usual huge numbers and get behind the lads
Round 2 Qualifiers – 22nd June – Beaten Semi Finalist V Round 1 Winner.
Round 3 Qualifiers – 29th June – Round 2 Winner V Round 2 Winner.
Round 4 Qualifiers – 6th & 7th July Round 3 Winners V Beaten Provential Finalists.
Super 8s are on 13/14 July, 20/21 July and 3/4th August.
Semi Final is 10th & 11th August
I had just landed in Malaga Airport when my son rang with the bad news and the only
comfort that I could take from it was that it would be a lot worse if it was Galway
Look it is not the end of the world and the extra matches will benefit the young players
We are league champions, have a good panel of players and management will learn from this.
This is not where we intended to be but that’s sport.
Get back on the horse win a few game and just see where this brings us.
There are a lot of teams out there that won’t want to meet us
Well done Darren…any many Mayo fans were not long ago questioning his inclusion. Tired or not, there were others that should have been taken off.
Horan in game management was poor. 18 wides and had we something similar against New York…forward play a major concern still.
On the plus side, things appear to be looking up at underage level with the right structures and coaching now in place.
People on here giving out about Horan I must admit I wasn’t impressed with his tactics or late substitutions on Saturday but the players have to stand up and take responsibility too Horan can’t be blamed for forwards and goalkeeper not being able to kick reasonably scorable frees or hitting 15 wides I’ve often stated on this blog we need a forwards coach but that’s not going to happen Horan is his own man and he alone runs the show I’m open to correction on that but that’s the way I see it. Unless Horan turns this season around I can’t see him staying 4 years but it’s time the players stood up and took responsibility. I’d love to see Horan drop a few of the older lads and go with youth so what if we don’t make the Super 8’s I’d rather us go down fighting with young players than squeezing the last bit of football out of some of the stalwarts and still getting nowhere
Would love to see some ruthlessness from horan in selection in first few rounds of qualifiers, will likely be div 3 or 4 teams so its low-risk. Go on form and merit, not blind loyalty to the his old soldiers.
Next day out i would like to see…(yes i have gone for keegan at cornerback :-p !!)
Shlingermann
O’Donoghue
Harrison
Keegan
Durcan
Barrett
McCormack
Ruane
AOS
McDonagh
Diarmuid O’Connor
Boland
McLoughlin
D Coen
Carr
We got a shock with this result, I suppose. I thought we’d be able to provide a robust challenge to Roscommon, something fit for purpose, but we misfired. Misfiring is not what we factored in at this stage of the game. Our challenge was inadequate from early in the game and that one point loss is not something to take comfort from because we just did not fire at all (with the exception of D Coen).
Unfortunately we are in the qualifiers…again : )
However, I don’t think it’s that disastrous provided that we see the lads – and management- deliver a good, convincing performance soon. We just need to see that they can deliver the goods. And do it consistently. They yoyoed with the Galway and Dublin performances in the League too and I’d put the no-show against Ros in that category.
I said on this blog after our depressing defeat to Galway in the League that I would withhold judgement on this team until the end of July if we get that far. Nothing has changed my mind on that since, including the League win.
I felt after those Galway and Dublin losses we needed a longer string of games to get a true picture of this team and where they are at.
As opposed to having expectations of the team I feel it makes sense to get a proper picture of what they really actually are before we can establish expectations. Otherwise we are set for emotional turmoil, ups and downs.
For what it’s worth I’m not down on our veteran players. There are not too many of them on the team. They *can* do a job and a broad panel is and always was needed for the All-Ireland series.
Let’s move forward steady as she goes and let’s keep our expectations in check. We don’t know what entity of a team we’re dealing with, in my opinion, until we get run of games and see a picture that helps us know. Let’s hope we get the chance.
All – just for info, there’s been a sharp increase in first-timers commenting on here since the game on Saturday evening. There’s been an equally high increase in unacceptable comments being posted.
In order to stop the rubbish from making it onto the site, I’ve decided to quarantine newcomers in moderation for longer. I’ve no choice here, as too many troublemakers are now popping up and I don’t want the healthy debate that exists to be compromised in any way.
For any newbies who want to join the discussion and have legitimate points to make, your comment will, once I’ve had the chance to review it (which may take time as this isn’t my full-time job), make it to the site providing it’s within the house rules (details on which are here). If, however, you come on with all guns blazing and, for example, try to post personal abuse about named players your comment will go straight into the bin. It’s a bin that’s filling rapidly right now.
I remember the poll…. I also remember that James Horan said that he had numerous ” CV”s of prominent GAA coaches in his Email inbox, all eager to work with him!.
Maybe put Clarke back in goal ..put Doherty in the full forward line ..move Kevin out to half forward line.use our bench earlier .when lads are not playing well.think would help.
Was there any indication given of how serious Carrs injury was? Great to hear SOS, COC, McDonagh and Vaughan are all due back. Rotation will be very much key for us. Last year by the time Kildare came around we were out on our feet. We blooded in plenty of new lads during the league, time to throw them into the heat of championship. Hopefully we recover well from this bad defeat and hopefully we can avoid MacHale Park as much as possible during the qualifiers!
Was Colm Boyle injured for Sat evening?
I thought he was worth a run for the last 20 mins at least.
He’d put a stop to some Rossie gallops.
And where is young Reilly from Charlestown. One of the best free takers in the county who also scores well from play. Didn’t get the time he deserved in the League, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was not interested.