Ahead of the start of their respective Championship campaigns, details of the county’s U17 and U20 panels have been published by Mayo GAA.
The U20s are in action first – they take on defending provincial champions Sligo in the Connacht semi-final this night week – and here’s their 2023 playing panel:
More details on the U20 set-up for this year are here.
Sligo opened their Connacht U20 campaign this evening, by the way, and they did so with an 0-15 to 1-8 preliminary round win over Roscommon. We face the Yeats County in the Connacht semi-final next Wednesday and the winners from that game play Galway in the final the following Wednesday.
The U17s, meanwhile, have a round-robin Connacht campaign to look forward to, with a series of Friday evening matches that get going on Friday week. That evening we’re away to Roscommon in Round 1.
Here’s the U17 playing panel for 2023:
Further details on the U17 set-up are here.
The best of luck to both of these underage Mayo squads this year.
Best of luck to all involved. Plenty of talent throughout the county.be interesting to Sam and Bob at U20.
Ah ref has very good review pod out as well at minute for those into pods. Mark Ronaldson the guest. Always find him to be very insightful.
Best of luck to both teams
Interesting to see Sam Callinan and Bob Tuohy in the U20 panel. It suggests that they might sit out the Ross game
Interesting to see the spread of clubs. No Ballintubber or ballyhaunis in either panel..only one Breaffy ,Charlestown and Crossmolina. Just 2 from knockmore. Balla Mitchels Claremorris the two Davitts and Ballina all well represented. Is this a sign of who will be in ascendancy in Mayo club football in the coming years!
If Sam Callinan, Bob Tuohy play on Sunday it will rule them out of the U20 championship semi final on Wednesday. I presume an agreement has been reached between McStay and Sheridan?
“The Ulster U20FC semi-final between Derry and Donegal has been brought forward to this Saturday at Owenbeg following criticism of the fixtures schedule from Rory Gallagher.
The local derby was originally fixed for next Wednesday, April 12, but with the Derry seniors beginning their Ulster SFC defence against Fermanagh at Brewster Park three days later, the Ulster Council has agreed to a change of date. It means that the five U20 players – Lachlan Murray, Matthew Downey, Niall O’Donnell, Eoin McEvoy, and Mark Doherty – in Rory Gallagher’s senior squad are now eligible to play in both games.
Speaking after Derry’s Allianz Football League Division 2 final loss to Dublin last Sunday, Gallagher hit out at the Ulster Council for rejecting the Oak Leafers’ initial request to bring the U20 game forward by a week.”
https://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/327223
Proper order too
I heard that Donegal threatened legal action and got their way
Our senior defence is wide open down the middle and needs repairing
If we stick with Loftus @ chb we need a stopper/sweeper behind him,oHora comes to mind.A forward will need to be sacrificed.
I notice Bob Tuohy and Sam Callinan are named on the U20 panel. What is the situation regarding players on the senior panel and eligibility for underage grades? Is it just a matter of playing as many games as you’re selected for?
Has to be a 7 day interval as far as I know.
It Means Nothing to Me – Mayomagic has it right, if the two lads play any part against Roscommon on Sunday then they’re ineligible to line out in the U20 Championship. Once their involvement in the U20 Championship is over, there’s nothing to stop them playing at Senior level again but the rule doesn’t allow playing first at Senior level and then ay U20 in the same season.
@Willie Joe: Careful there. Sounds like you’re describing the old rule.
New rule is a rolling 7 day window (the issues during the week with Derry was the interpretation of what specifically constituted the week for this rule – did it reset on a specific day or was it a rolling count, where HQ had gone with the latter to Rory’s frustration as that hadn’t been outlined at the beginning of the year) where you can jump between the two grades freely, just not playing the two within the same 7 day window.
The way the Connacht Championship lines up for our Senior and 20s makes it all but one or the other for us sadly with no gaps to benefit much from the new system. Hopefully becomes more relevant for us later in the championship.
@JR you’re right. We’ve been far too open down the centre of defence. On another day Galway would have buried two goals past us. As BJP said in Mayo News this week on the topic of not playing well, ‘you’re going to get caught at some stage’.
Playing Loftus at 6 is risky. I’m not convinced of it yet. It may work in time. I agree with you it requires a ‘sitter’ behind him. The proof is in the amount of goal chances we have coughed up. I just don’t think we have a settled back 7 yet to win an All Ireland. Lots of good players but several have only made cameo appearances, McLaughlin and Plunkett. Durcan is only just back. McBrien went off injured. Callinan and Coyne are both effectively in their rookie seasons. We have a keeper who has never played championship. Most championship winning sides have a more settled defensive unit. I really like what management have done so far. They can’t be faulted for injuries etc. I just think losing Keegan and Mullin and expecting us to win the next season will be a stretch too far. I’d absolutely love to be proven wrong.
Thanks, TsuDhoNim – that I did not know! Now that row up in Ulster makes a whole load more sense, though, as you say, the scheduling of our matches means it’s of no help to us.
Thanks for the explanations, much clearer now.
I think Callinan will play on Sunday and Tuohy will only get a run if badly needed. It is a great position to be in that we have 2 x U20s who are pushing for places in our senior team.
Mayonaze – we’ve won the league with a ‘rookie’ set of backs. Those six or seven players have been constants for the past eight weeks and have had massive big game experience playing against the best in the business. At the start of the league we were slotting in O’Hora, couldn’t wait for him to come back, now he’s fighting for his place. Ditto Eoghan MacLaughlin, and Michael Plunkett. Point is, we have a settled back line, and the old regulars are having to sit it out at the moment. Going in to Croker on Sunday, I said to myself, my God, one to four, have they ever played in Croke Park? Well, now they have.
Would agree with that Catcol. In the past we’ve had very experienced goalkeepers + backs, yet weren’t good enough to win Sam.
The question should be are they good enough, not are they experienced enough.
Tricky one with Sam and Bob and the u20s .
I’d imagine Mcstay will chat with the 2 boys and it will ultimately be his call . Both important part of the Senior panel now, plus while important to the u20 team , I’m presuming they haven’t trained much with the rest of the squad so hard on other lads to parachute them in .
We’ll know more tomorrow evening, hopefully
I can’t see the two lads playing tbh
Some chance for this game against Sligo but the Connacht final is the Wednesday before the potential Galway game, and you’d be taking a massive risk allowing them play in that. Particularly when we appear to have a few niggly injuries in the fullback line
As they said on the football pod for lads at under 20
with a choice between under 20 or senior there is only one winner. I’d be surprised if Callinan doesn’t start against Roscommon and Tuohy doesn’t make an appearance from the bench.
These squad announcements are going to be some fun, when the championship starts – well, this week.
Here, from the Examiner, is what John Kiely thinks:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-41110420.html
For the goals and those saying Loftus is a potential liability, can someone explain what he should have done differently at CHB?
First chance – Galway break through the press, Kelly plays it inside to Finnerty who lays it off to Maher.
Second chance – Heaney gets inside Loftus and onto the handpass, the Galway forwards managed to bring our full back line out the field leaving space behind.
Third chance – Tierney chance, ball turned over in midfield after Ruane ran across Diarmuid and Galway turned the ball over. Quick ball in to Tierney.
Fourth chance – Tierney claims the mark, quick ball again to a Comer mark who turns inside Durcan, Mayo players were poor as they switched off expecting the mark to be called.
Still It’s 4 goal chances, how many goal chances had we? There is something a miss. Loftus is directing play around him, and he’s doing ok at that outside of one fumbled ball early on. Imo we need a physical entity at CHB. A guy who can hold up and stand up/slow down physical players coming through the centre.
Do you know any other county playing a similar system, Small was a tower of strength for dublin
Ontheditch – In the first half the Galway corner back pulled down Jack Carney off the ball who was likely through for a goal chance but instead it resulted in a free and no card. In the second half James Carr shot was saved which was a clear goal chance. Tommy was through only to be fouled before he got a shot off which would have 100% been a goal chance if it wasn’t for the foul. Jack Coyne point could have been a goal chance but he took the safe option.
Mayo got into position as much as Galway did only Galway were smarter with their fouls.
I think we could have found our lucky general in Kevin Mcstay. I think we will beat Roscommon easily. PLEASE LET the powers that be let Sam and Bob play with the under 20 team. It is their one chance to win a connacht and under 20 all-ireland. We have plenty of players in Mayo than to deprive the under 20 team of their services.
@MayoMayo1
The first two chances are caused a little earlier in the moves. In both cases we got hands on the man deep in the Galway half. It’s deeply ingrained in our players to push up when this. It’s even ingrained in us as supporters, even rewatching it I react to getting hands on the man similar to how I’d react to someone being put through one on one.
It seems like an easy fix but it’s not. The problem is that while we can left open when it goes wrong, we have a gotten a lot of joy out of it in past, and will in the future almost certainly get big scores from it.
@MayoMayo1:
1st chance – Nothing specifically to do with Conor. You’d have hoped for Ryan to have more pressure on Kelly (bounced off him attempting a big hit/turnover when he might have just shadowed and pressed – lowish risk/high reward so I’m fine with that ‘failure’), a little more pressure on Finnerty fielding the kick (Jack a yard closer by the time Finnerty secures it and sets himself) and then more pressure from Mattie on Maher’s run and shot.
2nd chance – He had to put Heaney under more pressure there. In a perfect world your cover can win the footrace ahead of a forward and snuff out the problem, just getting ahead of them for a second kills the chance. Someone fast like Heaney? You’d be happy enough disrupting him with a shoulder if you can line it up cleanly (looked to be a couple of opportunities where the charge was on, though very easy to say in hindsight) or else just distracting him and making it awkward enough he isn’t taking clean ball to get the quick snapshot off without more pressure. Not nearly enough pressure applied there.
3rd chance – I’d say overall good defending there. Unfortunate situation with Diarmuid/Mattie coming into contact. Paddy covered the run well and had Tierney under a lot of pressure getting the shot away.
4th chance – Comer one before the mark/Cooke one. Ok kick from Reape poorly contested and taken easily around the middle. When the ball comes in to Comer Conor was well out of where you’d hope he’d be covering at that point and looked to be jogging towards the ball rather than busting a gut to get into position to cover inside Paddy (unlikely he’d have gotten there…. but I’d be unhappy not seeing him try if I was Donie). Paddy went for the push and missed so opened things up for Comer. Thankfully Diarmuid had busted a gut to cover and between he and Colm they shut the door.
5th chance – Everyone fell asleep from the mark. Poor one. Bob Tuohy probably the most culpable for Cooke drifting past him with Eoghan Mc probably next in line (especially being fresher as subs you’d hope they’d be staying tuned in) but you could pick out a multitude to lay blame on for this one, including Conor.
2nd and 4th he’ll definitely be getting an earful at a video session. A few slips and fumbles early in the first half wouldn’t have helped to settle folks either so might account for the goal chances being viewed in a harsher context.
Not one of his better days. A lot of sloppy stuff there that you’d hope can be improved on quickly/easily. Nothing there that would have you overly worried on either structure or personnel. That said…. a continuing trend so folks will worry.
Lee has a piece on rte.ie he’s obviously having fun with Kevin Mc re the number of steps Kevin takes, but tbh I’d rather he plants seeds in refs mind about players other than Mayo! Maybe mention how did number 19 for Dublin get away with so many fouls after being booked but never got sent off! Or how John Small goes in overly hard and often times late when tackling but rarely gets pulled up on it.. Lord knows the retired Dublin players highlighted Lee on a number occasions that we just knew Lee was being watched right from the get go..
It’s fine margins in big games, so I hope someone has a chat with Lee and says don’t be highlighting our lads dark arts!!!
Lots of talk regarding Loftus at 6 .
Personally I think he is doing OK and will start at 6 v Rossies.
What about this line up for Rossies
Just thinking outside the box a wee bit .
Reape
Coyne McBrien Hession
Paddy Coen Sam
Mattie Diarmuid
Flynn Carney Loftus
Tommy Aiden Ryan .
All 3 Half Forwards can contest kickouts.
All can score and know defensive set up.
Just throwing it out there !!
Goal chances will be harder come by in the much more confined McHale pk. Passing movements fractionally off or well defended limited our chances at goal.
Good to see panel of 26 will be announced. Bad weather nit a help for either team. Likely to be a close one imo.
I’d say with Eoin McLaughlin and O’Hora nearing full fitness McStay is taking this opportunity of the Roscommon game to get minutes into their legs, while also allowing Callinan and Tuohy a run out to help the U20s. Risky, but looking at the bigger picture he’s giving lads football time and greatly helping the U20s.
Having had a few days to digest our league win I believe we can hold the victory in a truer light. I feel we robbed Galway of a win at the start of the campaign, but then Armagh (allied to a shocking ref display) robbed us of a win up North. Donegal were a shambles and Kerry fell off the bus. Despite all that, we can be happy that the players and management are bedding in nicely. New faces, a couple of positional switches, a more positive vibe around the camp (and certainly more positive and uplifting in our dealings with supporters and the media) and we took the chance to set our new style of play in motion in a competitive environment. The fact that other teams around us were not at our level is not our fault and we were certainly the best team in the league. We topped the league, were top scorers and won it outright. Nothing beats winning momentum! Now the next test is to see whether we can bring that style of play and positivity into championship and see where it takes us.
For me, there are a couple of signs that would worry me.
From a defensive shape point of view we are too open in behind our 6 and in front of our 3. It’s one thing going man-on-man when you have generational talents like Barrett, Higgins, Keegan and Boyle but it is a totally different ball game when you are blooding young inexperinced recruits. Maybe McStay and his management team have weighed up the risk v reward side of it, and have decided that it is worth the risk. Or maybe we will see a little adjustment in our defensive shape when we are on the retreat. Time will tell but I feel that hole willbe filled as we go through the Spring/Summer.
The fact that we only scored a single point from play in the second half v Galway, and that it was a corner back who scored it, should have an amber light flashing up on the dash for McStay. Our first 4 attacks of the second half yielded zero. Not even a shot at goal. Stats would show that if we were functioning really efficiently then we should have got 3 shots off and scored twice from those 4 attacks. Zero is not good. Nor is the fact that we went for so long between our 6th point and our 7th. There were a couple of long periods where we went scoreless and that too would pose a problem in the white heat of an All Ireland semi final.
But isn’t that a great place to be? Having won an NFL division one title while still having much to improve upon. Our back 4 now have an experience of Croke Park on a relatively big day, we’ve finally put to bed the goalkeeping debate, we have found a way to keep O’Shea effective through the full 75/80 minutes of the game, with Conroy and Cillian to come back in competition for places in the front 6 has never been as intense, with O’Hora and McLaughlin back we now have 8 or 9 to fill out our back 6 and we have possibly the most athletic middle 8 in the country.
Big test now is to see how it all fares in championship. That will be different gravy.
Donie Vaughan often the forgotten CHB.
@ my ball I’d prefer Loftus play sweeper from your position than at 6.
Having lads playing underage for Mayo and also was fortunate myself, its the one chance in a lifetime you get to do something very special with your peer group at your own age group…..lads that you have played with and against at club in the county from u12’s up….i do agree that senior is priority for Mayo however are we now relying on two U20 players to secure a win vs Roscommon at the expense of losing both playing what now is a U20 Connacht semi final in McHale Park next Wednesday vs a good Sligo side …..and then a crack at Galway in a final the week after? I have watched most the U20’s games so far this year and they have a good squad however will greatly benefit from the experience and added strength of Tuohy and Callinan if they are permitted to play…Also why name them in the U20 squad if they are not available?
Good post Pebbles.
Agree with a lot, but I have noticed that there are passages of play where we don’t appear to be doing a lot, scores are not flying in and we are ‘idling’ in motoring terms. But, across the league, the opposition haven’t really been hurting us. Galway came back at us, got to a point, and we promptly tagged on further points. We’re controlling games it seems to me – our athleticism is hurting teams. Then we are able to carve out more opportunities. We really were in complete control for the last ten minutes or so. Only Ryan’s sloppiness gave Galway an opening. Indeed sloppiness was our biggest issue I felt, Eoghan, Diarmaid I think, and Ryan’s pass got us into some trouble, but these were unforced errors.
Isn’t it remarkable that the only game we have had to chase, down the closing stretch, was the opener against Galway?
Ontheditch… think Loftus will be at 6 ..
Just looking at different options as not awful impressed with one of our half forward line the last day .
Hope McBrien will be OK.
Cillian and Enda should be big additions to the squad
I don’t think we will either of the ui20 lads on Sunday
If we go into the game with the right frame of mind I think we will have enough to overcome Roscommon.
They don’t have a surprise element after 2019
If Hession,oHora and Cillian are fit they need game time
Hopefully we have a plan to shore up our defence.
@pebble good post. So u think all out Sunday or give a bit of game time to lads as there are bigger days ahead?
I’m probably going to be wrong but I’ve a feeling we might see some surprises in the team selection.
In goals, I think we might see a change, and we take an almost modern soccer like approach and have different goalies for each competition
I also think we could go with a more hard running James Horan -esque team. We’ve seen from the league what the Rossies gameplan will be, hang on to our coattails, finish strong and try to nick it. They won’t be too perturbed to be 7 or 8 points down at half time, but were we bang in 3 or 4 goals in the first half it may break them. If we don’t then maybe we can drain them enough to blunt their finish.
If this site had a like option, id have hit it for Pebblesmeller and TsuDoNim’s above comments…great posts that reflect my thinking.
Im certainly not convinced by Loftus at 6, and it seems a lot of other fans are the same. People say he’s there to play a John Daly/Quarter Back role as he is a good kick passer, but im not seeing him kick pass or split defenses open, all im seeing is hand passes or a side ways no pressure kick pass. I just don’t see why a natural born forward, who never played as a back in his life, is put in one of the most important defensive positions on the pitch?. I would start Conor at HF and let him help out in defense, and start Sam at CHB. The lad is good enough, and has played there most of his life.
Personally I think Sam should be playing against Roscommon, but if the lad himself wants to play U20 then more power to him.
Conor Meaney,Rio Mortimer the only survivors from the All Ireland finalist U17 team from last year.
@my ball. The two wing half forwards could rotate as sweepers but they do that work anyway. And let’s face it they are all able to do the basics as Margie described. Fionn got through a lot of good work before fading out of game. Inclined to run into blind avenues occasionally but I would be pleased with the effort he puts in. I wouldn’t switch Carney, as he is great quick distributor, great vision and come out and catch a good ball in midfield. ROD is a sharpshooter, short incisive passer, much more suited to corner forward imo. Both were slightly off the boil last day but overall worth their weight in gold. Toss of a coin between Loftus and Fionn in hf line. But management know best. Management know best as long as there is no stubborness setting in.
@mayomagic: Tom Lydon was involved last year too and looked a tidy, classy forward in some of his cameos off the bench. Made a couple of dazzling runs down left flanks taking multiple defenders on, and beating them, so excited to see how he’ll get on this year.
McStay has built his defense around Loftus, so I do not see that changing. I think he’s played him every game at 6, with exception of Tyrone game where went mad and played him at 5 with Coen 6.
Can’t see the U20s starting, it wouldn’t make sense to at this point.
I’d expect very little change someone for Callinan and then if McBrien was hurt someone for him.
@TsuDhoNim fair enough. Was checking the All Ireland final program squad of 24 and see on page 33 that Tom Lydon was indeed part of the additional panel members.
I think this current management team will be more conservative in selection for the Championship but will also be driven by game and training form. Also, with all the potential games, he will want a strong bench to finish games. They will want to keep the winning habit going too.
Remember Roscommon conceded the least in the League and finished very strong in nearly all their games.
With all that in mind is this a likely 26 for Sunday?
1. Reape
2. Coyne
3. McBrien (If passed fit)
4. Callinan
5. Durcan
6. Loftus
7. Coen
8. Ruane
9. D O’Connor
10. McDonagh
11. Carney
12. Flynn
13. Conroy
14. A O’Shea
15. O’Donoghue
16. Byrne or Hennelly
17. Hession
18. O’Hora
20. Plunkett
22. Doherty
21. E. McLoughlin
22. Tuohy
23. McHale
24. C O’Connor
25. Carr
26. Orme or Towey or McStay.
I think the other lads are carrying knocks.
Callanan will play seniors, especially if McBrien is injured. It’s not even a debate, I can’t believe people are suggesting he should sit out a Connacht senior championship match over an u20 game!
Blame the GAA for their silly rules. Tuohy is probably marginal anyway for game time on merit in the seniors so he might play for the u20 team.
Interesting to see the 2 panels named. Is the Clarke lad on the minor side from Moy Davitts a brother of Ronan?
What age is Ciaran MacDonalds son he must not be too far off u17 now?
Some good forward talent on that u20 team but the player I’m most looking forward to seeing develop is Sean Morahan.
@TsuDhoNim, I’d agree with your viewing of the goal chances. I think if you’re McStay though you have clearly set out your stall to have someone very comfortable on the ball at six. He is still learning that position so there is obviously a risk/reward scenario that McStay and co have weighed up. For all the negativity around his performance I thought he still did a lot very well. People saying he didn’t kick much but Galway play a double sweeper, might even be better described as a 15 man sweeper, so where could he kick it too? Felt mayo knew they would need to be patient with ball in hand against Galway.
I sometimes think people lose any kind of perspective that we are six months with this management. They are making changes, new full back line, Loftus at half back, Diarmuid at midfield, O’Shea inside. We played a Galway team four years in under Joyce and beat them in a league final and got great experience for a very young defence.
MayoMayo1 in fairness Loftus has being playing 6 for a while with Crossmolina, and has 12/13 inter-county games played there this season.
Agree on Galway point, ya couldn’t be kicking much in there, but we weren’t kicking much in the other games either, bar some the earlier rounds with opposition completely off the pace. Our best kick passes to the full forward line have come from Aidan.
Mikey3, Sam will play senior this year, but doubt it be this weekend.