Right, the votes are in and the result is a clear one. Roscommon’s Enda Smith was, of course, the main man in yesterday’s game but the player from our ranks that you’ve voted as our MOTM is Diarmuid O’Connor.
The Ballintubber player tops the poll with 21% of the vote. Diarmuid battled manfully all day yesterday and it certainly wasn’t due to any shortcomings in his performance that we ended up losing to the Rossies.
Others who featured prominently in the poll were team captain Paddy Durcan (13%) and Aidan O’Shea (9%), as well as Jack Coyne, Donnacha McHugh and Conor Loftus (all on 7%). Well done to them and well done in particular to Diarmuid, our MOTM from yesterday’s game.
Couldn’t be anyone else really. Some engine
The one man we can’t do without IMO. Warrior.
Agreed.Always turns up. A class apart. What an inspirational player we have for our young lads.
Our most important player. Well done Doc
A class act alqqys gives it his all as well as his brother cillian who is certainly not finished after his injury coming back to his previous injury form !
Well done Diarmuid fully deserved. Does anyone think roscommon should be worried that they didn’t score a point from play until the 60th minute. A penalty, frees and volleyed goal up to that stage. Maybe it’s not seen as a problem given the weather condition.
Roscommon is not our problem full stop.
Oh I think Roscommon will have to play a bit more attacking versus Galway… but if they can match that type of defending it will be very difficult to break them down. In one way Im looking forward to it.. really for Roscommon they have to defeat Galway for yesterday deserved victory to be any good… truthfully if yesterday’s match had a clock like in women’s football, each half would be an hour long.
A
DOC has been some player for Mayo over the years as has his brother. The notion that Mayo can spend years rebuilding just doesn’t cut it with me. It’s now or never with the O’Connors, AOS, Paddy Durkan, Ruane etc. 1st year bounce with new management, no obvious team on the rise, it has to be 2023.
Fair play to the RTE pod today highlighting the soft frees Ross got (I’m not making excuses btw), ref letting a lot go for them and nothing for us.
Disappointed with Horan and Boyler saying that Mayo got soft frees in the league final. You’d absolutely NEVER hear other non-Mayo pundits say that about their own county. It does get into the referees psyche.
I wish our ex-county men would wear the jersey a bit more in their analysis and stand up for us.
Well done Diarmuid, you tried to win it yourself. You give that Mayo jersey every ounce of energy every game.
I dislike complaining about the ref but to see Diarmuid O C, who seems a mild mannered, level headed guy, bounce the ball off the ground in frustration at the refs decision..it says a lot.
Enjoy the break lads. Football means so much to us in Mayo, we appreciate all the dedication & effort. But loosing a game of football is a 1st world problem.
Continued success.
Who are the warriors to call on when the chips are down ?, can any of the players really lift the team on their own?, I’m talking about a Lee Keegan or Keith Higgins type.
Many here on this blog have been around a fair while now, I just cannot see how any team can go from scoring long range points v Galway in the league final to some players not shooting at all close to goal or missing from 30 yards.
Where was the power that was in evidence all through the league?
Did the pressure get to management yesterday ?
I am one of those around since 1985 and there is another lad on here from the same territory.I posted on here earlier about the crazy inconsistency’s in referees.I met the same inter county referee out this evening and he was at total loss to explain most decisions today and reluctantly agreed with me that most decisions are complete lotteries.again not the reason we lost but mother of god
Just dawned on me, that there is another benefit to our defeat yesterday, apart from the much needed break, for rest, recuperation, mental rest, s and c, hopefully, recovery for our injured players and the time now available for our management to address and solve our obvious shortcomings. In addition, it will take the spotlight of us after all the hype generated by the media, pundits and some of our fans who all got a bit carried away by our League performances. I think it will allow us to stay under the radar, reduce the level of expectation and lessen the pressure on the players-we all know that we perform better as underdogs. However, I still think that we are a year or two away from being realistic Sam contenders.
Switch Mattie Ruane to the half forward line and Jack Carney to midfield. Carney is the better fielder and Ruane a better scorer. S Coen got caught for pace once or twice . Aidan O Shea more as Number 13 rather than a Number 14. He will draw two defenders away from the edge of the square and he is accurate shooting from the right hand side of the posts. Start Cillian or have as first sub. Tommy Conroy better on the Half Forward line. Ryan O Donoghue yet to recover his form. He is working hard but the scores from play have dried up. Other teams have learned how defend after having analyzed our early league games. Hession, Carr. Mc Brien. Walsh, and a few more all needed.
It it me or do we always blame the reff when we loose tight games .
The reff made a few bad decisions but we were poor and roscommon were the best team on the day .
If we had roscommon forwards we would have won .
By the time May 21st comes along we’ll have been forgotten about. Good! Teams will know nothing of us. Our league performances will be a distant memory. On the other hand we’ll know a lot about the first two seeds and know what is to be done. And we can practically name the first seeds: Dublin, Kerry, possibly Tyrone.
Question arises now: is it advantageous to top the group? Will pool winners be kept apart in QF draw?
Mayo88, agreed having warriors to step up and lift their colleagues is so important. Keegan is gone but the outstanding player from last county championship was O Hora. He has the personality and never-say-die attitude that was needed last Sunday.
Can’t see the point in criticising Boyle and Horan for saying Mayo got soft frees in league final and praising RTE for saying Roscommon got soft frees on Sunday. Look back at both games. We definitely got some handy ones in league final. Roscommon definitely got soft ones against us on Sunday. Those analysts represented their county with distinction when they played. They no longer play for Mayo so should call it as it is. Far better to do that than appear on another podcast and suggest that Mayo would be easily too good for Roscommon as another ex player did. (Not for the first time either). Congrats to Diarmaid. Worked tirelessly as always. Interesting point made there by O SULLIVAN about switching Carney and Ruane. Could see the logic in that. Both have been relatively quiet in last few games. But both have a lot to offer going forward. Could be a fair few lower division teams in last 16. One from Connacht, one from Munster, Westmeath and possibly at least one other depending on how Leinster and Ulster provincials go.Looks like the real championship will start with the preliminary quarter finals.While home matches are seen as a positive for many teams, I am beginning to wonder about Mayo. Lost their last two in Castlebar and seem to do well on the road.
We need to do something different in our middle 8, I would leave DOC at midfield, but switch the Carney/Flynn/Ruane roles up and see how we go, also think we need to get ROD playing at CHF, he could pull the strings from there, he’s wasted in the corner.
@Soprano – In Ruane`s current form i`m not even sure he should start in the half forward line, he is losing the midfield battle in the air and on the ground and having 1-2 brainfarts per game. He might be better suited with the less pressure of coming off the bench and making an impact from midfield / half forward, it might help him rebuild some confidence and hopefully get back to the level we know he is at.
@JKEL88, ok!!. Who’s in if he’s on the bench? Apart from DOC we were poor right though the middle on Sunday, with Aido just about hold the fort up front.
Agreed with @to win just once
Would far rather Horan and Boyles mature analysis to the type of bluster yer man was pumping out on otb last week, talking about a mayo galway sellout in 3 weeks time, he has form for that type of guff too and it does mayo and the accusation of hype no credit.
I always dread his media appearances
To the victor goes the spoils but let’s be honest about Sundays result. We bet ourselves. In a period of dominance in that first half, with the wind at our backs, we got ZERO from 7 shots at goal.
Firstly Coen hits the crossbar from a LEFT footed shot! The wrong man in the right position but what the hell was he doing using his LEFT foot when his right is ropey enough to begin with? Secondly, a terrible hand pass over the top from O’Donohue to Conroy butchered what would have been a certain goal. Add in five very poor wides from shots in the scoring zone and that tells a truer story of how we got beaten by a team that didn’t score a point from play until the 60th minute, had a very dubious penalty awarded them and had another goal as a result of a rebounded effort coming straight back to Smith for a tap in.
Had we opened up a 5 or 6 point lead, which we certainly should have, then Roscommon would never have gotten back into it because their plan of time wasting, diving, feigning injury and head clutching would not have worked in chasing down a lead. Instead, we left them dangling, hanging on and we gave them a chance to get back into it. A chance they duly took. For sure, they had a ref who was colour blind, biased beyond belief towards Roscommon, erred technically in many calls especially when it came to card colours, displayed inconsistency in his calls that unfairly punished Mayo (eg, Mayo player down but he refused to stop play – Rosmommon player down and play stopped for 90 secs). To the extent that I’d be shocked if Mooney hadn’t a Roscommon jersey underneath his top because it was as poor a performance from a supposed competent ref as I have seen since Cormac Reilly in Limerick in 2014. Even at all that, we still have no one to blame only ourselves for the defeat.
I mentioned in a posting in the build up to the game that there were worrying signs from the Galway game in that our only score from play in that second half came from a back (Coyne) and cetainly we are not as fluid in the final third as we were. Yesterday we lacked another gear and our intensity levels seemed a little off. An interesting stat from a metric of Mayos season so far could point to management taking a different view on things. In the TBT count (tackles/blocks/turnovers) our average for the league was 87 per game. On Sunday it was 43! Almost half of what we were achieving throughout the league. That signifies a huge dropoff in intensity and work rate. Maybe management took a different view to the rest of us in that they wanted the league final victory more than a Connacht 1/4 final victory. And if one of those two games had to be risked, then they would risk the Roscommon game and look to use the 6 week break if we lost? Time will tell. One thing is for sure though, we haven’t become a poor team overnight.
Soprano – It really depends what management`s priorities are over the next few week`s. If they are happy with the risk / reward we were getting earlier in the league from our current set up at the back then we will play a more natural forward in the half forward line. If they want to shore up at the back then we might need to play someone who will be sweeping back.
Ruane has played nearly every minute under McStay and is yet to find form with the exception of the donegal game, a few weeks rest might do him the world of good but if he is not in our top 2 midfielders at present im not sure why people think his form is good enough to get into our half forward line.
The strain of having our midfielders doing the graft work at CHB may be beginning to tell. I also think it’s a bridge too far for Loftus, essentially a half forward, to do the job. With Eoghan McLaughlin back, we have choices for this position. Free Loftus up to half forward line or impact sub.
Many of our young lads will be tied up in college exams for the month of may. The break from football is good for them.
I hope management do in fact take a few keen learnings from the match.. for me being there and then watching it again since, I felt Coen got exposed for pace in the full back line.. and that’s ok, let’s just remember that the next time we lose people in the full back line.. the more I’ve watched Mayo the more I think DOC should perhaps start at 15 and just go where he wants.. as that’s just the way he plays anyway so let him do it with the freedom he needs.. but crucially it will then perhaps give certency to say Mattie.. DOC is very experienced so he would know when to maybe drop deep and when to push up.. the issue is obviously on their kick outs we could be giving up handy balls short if a man doesnt track DOC.. iv definitely felt that we haven’t been kicking the ball in to Aido as much as were so if DOC is 15 and out, this will create space inside if DOCs man tracks.. if he doesn’t track DOC it will leave us with an extra body so we need to use it to build runners off the shoulder..
Overall, now that I’ve settled, I think we dominated Roscommon in the first half.. we should have been several points up and as someone noted above this would have changed Roscommons approach re time wasting.. this clearly really pissed lads off.. overall, we don’t need dramatic changes, just need to get firing a bit better.. as they say, hunger is a good sauce!!!
It took 8 games to win the league.
It will take 7 I think if we were to get to an AI final. We have plenty of time to get well rested and will have a few changes to Sundays starting line up the next time we line out.
Hession, McBrien, Callinan, Carr, Cillian with even another couple of possible switches like McHale or Touhy.
With a couple of positional changes around the middle 8 on top of that, our rest of championship team could look alot different to what we saw on Sunday.
I don’t think we need to be at full tilt to come out of the group of 4 and I believe we’ll be using those 3 games to sharpen up for the knockout stages.
We manoeuvred the block of league games very nicely and while we’ll have tougher games ahead I believe we will have all the energy back for the big stuff.
The batteries were low on Sunday.
Good points, Pebblesmeller and GAAObsessed.
The road to the destination we want starts in 6 weeks. Thats reality.
Realistically beating Galway in Salthill would be hard after beating them twice this year already.As it evolves our injury list is a problem and could well get worse now we can get guys back to full strenght and take a tilt at the trophy we really all want.
Thats won in the 9 weeks between May 22nd and July 31st.
We are a different outfit with Hession, McBrien, Callinan (maybe at 6)? maybe Touhy also can make a difference.
I think we have leaders in this new squad and they will get better.We lost plenty with Leeroy too remember 2016, 2017 it happens.Mayo are a rollercoaster!
McStay and his team are the right personnel for the job.This will come right we need to get to the final 8 thats the next goal i would be confident that we will and Sunday is not a true reflection of our prospects.
I’d wonder if McStay will be for changing though… as he’s spoken so strongly about the importance of Loftus at 6, how they’re delighted with him there. Does McStay have it in him to adapt now?? Time will tell. We have time. But they’ve invested a lot into the Loftus experiment and it’s hard to see him just binning that after one bad loss. Like any new manager, McStay will want to back himself and not be swayed by public opinion, especially given his experience at this stage in his life and managerial career. I hope he has a vision but can also adapt when needed and not be too blinkered by stubbornness like previous Mayo managers…
Good article by Jim McGuinness in the Irish Times today. Worth a read.
Diarmuid having a very good year so far.
The break may be good for Mayo but I’m not so sure. In their first year, management could have done with building a winning habit and the confidence that goes with it. Look at how Galway improved by winning games last year. Not great against Mayo but got over the line and by the time the All Ireland final came around they were playing at a completely different level altogether. Mayo have lost all league momentum now and will have to start afresh in the group stages. Maybe the injuries will clear up but Hession and McBrien at this early stage in their career have awful records on this front and are becoming unreliable. Eoghan Mc heading in that direction too.
I have to agree with people questioning how McStay comes on instead of Towey in a game where you need scores. At least Towey never lacks the confidence to shoot – Ryan could do with getting this back. Speaking of Ryan, he absolutely has to be moved to centre forward. That allows Carney to go to the wing and Fionn to the bench. Ryan’s form – as mentioned after the last game is very worrying. That pass to Tommy – my God!
Lots of questions for the management. Why didn’t Cillian start given the need to build up a lead? Why did we not press like mad in the first have when we had the wind? Why not play O’Hora instead of Coen who is so much suited to those types of conditions?
Well done Diarmuid. Never stops going and giving the hard yards. Back to near his best.
Interesting one I hadn’t realised in the Examiner today. With our third seeding, we knew our next game will be May 20/21 or May 27/28. And that it will be away to one of the provincial champions.
However, I hadn’t thought, but of course it does include Roscommon if they win the Connacht SFC. Imagine heading to the wide open spaces of the Hyde on a dry day with a full-house.
And hopefully a full squad to pick from. Although we seem to pick up more injuries in hard training games and challenges than in competitive matches, so a clean bill of health is never guaranteed.
But that would be the test I’d like to see next up, lads getting back on the horse with fresh legs and proper game plans against our neighbours again.
I thought Mayo very predictable in their play just like under Horan. Carry, pass, carry, pass…run into cover, lose ball..start defending …and over and over again..Management should have changed style to defend, quick breaks and shoot. This required forwards in position to receive pass. AOS not good enough for this style of play.
There’s a new podcast episode up on Patreon – Mike, Colm Boyle and Colm Keys reviewing Sunday’s defeat to Roscommon.
Very good post liberal, the examiner pod, possibly the best national one on GAA is well worth a listen, as well as reading the Jim McGuinness article: https://www.youtube.com/live/CXtJH4G7s2I?feature=share
Player fatigue is understandable after last week, and while I thought we would win by 5+, I did state a loss was very possible. We have an experienced management team in place. and a lot of money being spent, but we did not look very adaptable Sunday or in other games when we came under pressure.
We definitely have the players to be serious title challengers this year, as McStay says Horan has done the bulk of the transition work already.
While losing Connacht is a big blow to Management who had bigged up its importance, they have ample time to stock take and push on as the Stephenites men would say #FTTGOV
The template on how to beat Mayo is obvious now and we really need to work out how to overcome it. We have been beaten or nearly beaten in each of the below games by our opposition crowding the middle channel and forcing us to the wings or back out to the 45. Teams know that we do not have enough quality kickers to score from distance and if we don’t score a goal, we have very little chance of winning the match. This tactic also reduces Aidan O’Shea’s influence on the game and means that putting him on the edge of the square is also a waste because it is too crowded and balls kicked in are generally just turned over.
Tyrone 2021
Galway 2022
Kildare 2022
Roscommon 2023
Hard to know how to overcome this with our current team.
I wonder when the draw is made could Mayo end up in the group with Connacht final winners, or is there a Rule in place stating they must be in groups containing Munster, Ulster and Leinster winners only ?
Hey @ Mayo88 – Mayo can end end up with Connacht final winners
Pebbles, don’t know if you are checking back on your posts but you are on the money here.
100% on analysis of key incidents in the game, but where the Rossies did shine was in winning primary possession, and scooping up most of the breaking ball.
By default management accorded higher priority to the league final because they went for it and had very little in the tank for the following match. James Horan on Paul Rouse’s podcast said he would prefer a victory in Connaught, but that’s easy to say of course.
Catcol, the opposition’s winning of primary possession and dominating midfield remind me of Tyrone’s tactics against us in the All Ireland Final 2021.
On earlier comment about coen shooting with his left foot.the chance came on his left hand side.in fairness he struck it well and a couple of inches lower we would be saying what a brilliant finish.it probably would have altered the structure of the game.some suggestion on examiner podcast that mayo weren’t really up for this game but James Horan disputed this.very hard to figure out where we are at.alot of weaknesses were shown up on Sunday
Catcol, McStay also said from outset Connacht was priority: “We weren’t in the Connacht final this year and that’s where we have to begin. I’ve always argued that the provincial championship is the best base camp for Mayo going into the All-Ireland.”
https://www.balls.ie/gaa/mcstay-emphasises-importance-of-connacht-campaign-for-driving-mayo-on-521750
Re Connacht Championship for Mayo,.. best possible outcome win it without injuries,.. second best outcome, lose to Roscommon without any injuries.. Worst possible outcome, lose to Galway having beaten Roscommon with injuries. ..We can now rest under the radar …
Better ending up with Connacht champions than away to other provincial winners.
Six weeks and we will have summer playing conditions
Worst worst possible outcome for Mayo, beat Roscommon after extra time and penalties and pick up a few injuries.. and then lose to Galway after extra time and penalties and few more injuries.. Oddly enough Mayo will be in a better position than the loser of Roscommon/Galway in two weeks time.
Few interesting comments on midfield. It was an area we lost in that game and didn’t seem to address or correct. We needed to change personnel or our kick out strategy. Thinking off the first item and someone hinted at this already couldn’t Diarmuid/Mattie have been rotated with Jack/Jordan. These seem very inter changeable players – could it or should it be an option going forward ? I prefer Jordan in midfield to be honest though. Mattie has a lot of strengths but midfield aerial command is not his biggest ..
@ Pebblesmeller
as always on the money.
Pebblesmeller says:
April 11, 2023 at 11:02 am
To the victor goes the spoils but let’s be honest about Sundays result. We bet ourselves. In a period of dominance in that first half, with the wind at our backs, we got ZERO from 7 shots at goal.
Firstly Coen hits the crossbar from a LEFT footed shot! The wrong man in the right position but what the hell was he doing using his LEFT foot when his right is ropey enough to begin with? Secondly, a terrible hand pass over the top from O’Donohue to Conroy butchered what would have been a certain goal. Add in five very poor wides from shots in the scoring zone and that tells a truer story of how we got beaten by a team that didn’t score a point from play until the 60th minute, had a very dubious penalty awarded them and had another goal as a result of a rebounded effort coming straight back to Smith for a tap in.
Had we opened up a 5 or 6 point lead, which we certainly should have, then Roscommon would never have gotten back into it because their plan of time wasting, diving, feigning injury and head clutching would not have worked in chasing down a lead. Instead, we left them dangling, hanging on and we gave them a chance to get back into it. A chance they duly took. For sure, they had a ref who was colour blind, biased beyond belief towards Roscommon, erred technically in many calls especially when it came to card colours, displayed inconsistency in his calls that unfairly punished Mayo (eg, Mayo player down but he refused to stop play – Rosmommon player down and play stopped for 90 secs). To the extent that I’d be shocked if Mooney hadn’t a Roscommon jersey underneath his top because it was as poor a performance from a supposed competent ref as I have seen since Cormac Reilly in Limerick in 2014. Even at all that, we still have no one to blame only ourselves for the defeat.
I mentioned in a posting in the build up to the game that there were worrying signs from the Galway game in that our only score from play in that second half came from a back (Coyne) and cetainly we are not as fluid in the final third as we were. Yesterday we lacked another gear and our intensity levels seemed a little off. An interesting stat from a metric of Mayos season so far could point to management taking a different view on things. In the TBT count (tackles/blocks/turnovers) our average for the league was 87 per game. On Sunday it was 43! Almost half of what we were achieving throughout the league. That signifies a huge dropoff in intensity and work rate. Maybe management took a different view to the rest of us in that they wanted the league final victory more than a Connacht 1/4 final victory. And if one of those two games had to be risked, then they would risk the Roscommon game and look to use the 6 week break if we lost? Time will tell. One thing is for sure though, we haven’t become a poor team overnight.
One other point, I thought Diarmuid Murtagh was man of the match – not Enda Smith. Diarmuid scored two crucial absolute worldies from play plus his first point from a free was miles out against a strong wind.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2023/0411/1376399-championship-permutations-field-for-sam-taking-shape/
Good outline on who can be in for Sam etc.
Diarmuid O’Connor matched the intensity that Roscommon brought.
These are some of the probabilities for our group
Group 1:
Munster champ – Kerry
Connacht runner up – Sligo
Mayo
4th seed – Westmeath, Louth, Cork, Kildare are most likely.
Group 2:
Connacht champ – Galway or Roscommon
Munster runner up – Clare or Limerick
Mayo
4th seed – Westmeath, Louth, Cork, Kildare are most likely.
Group 3:
Leinster champ – Dublin
Ulster runner up – ? (Armagh, Cavan or Donegal most likely. Tyrone would be tough)
Mayo
4th seed – Westmeath, Louth, Cork, Kildare are most likely.
Group 4:
Ulster champ – Tyrone favourites, but hard to predict
Leinster runner up – Meath or Louth
Mayo
4th seed – Westmeath, Louth, Cork, Kildare are most likely.
First game will be away to a provincial winner
Second game at home to 2nd seed
Third game vs a 4th seed in Croke Park.
The Dublin group will probably end up being the one to avoid. Although with 3 teams qualifying it’s not the end of the world! Whatever happens our 3rd game will be in Croke Park vs a 4th seed and a win there will qualify us from the group.
@joemamas, @Pebblesmeller
“Firstly Coen hits the crossbar from a LEFT footed shot! The wrong man in the right position but what the hell was he doing using his LEFT foot when his right is ropey enough to begin with?”
He had to take that shot on with his left because of the angle he was running towards goal at, and those insults towards him are totally unnecessary. It’s just typical of some “fans” to vilify a player instead of praising or encouraging them, especially after getting into that position and being inches away from scoring a cracker.
Very useful wide ball thank you and a lot of eork. Just one observation where are Derry? They could take Ulster sgain. Presumably its seeded for quarters so if we dont win group Dublin and Kerry are more likely quarters opponents…
If Derry don’t make an ulster final (Tyrone are on their side of the draw) they will almost certainly be 3rd seeds. So can’t be in our group unless they get to an ulster final.
Agreed 45Mayo, and I’m a critic of Coen. It was a courageous and technically excellent shot, just two inches too high.
I was at the match in Sunday. Lucky to have a good dry
Seat in the stand. But the frustration I had with the over and back passing mostly by Roscommon, in the first half
Was just awful. The ref is under instructions now to stop the game for all head injuries. I definitely think that this needs to be looked at again. Five times in the first half
Roscommon players went down holding their heads when clearly, there was no contact with heads at all. Shocking to pay 30€ to see this cod acting.Also it is
About time that the time keeping is completely taken
Away from the referees , as it is clear that most of them
Are not even capable of doing this. 1 minute injury time
In the first half was a joke.
Great work there wide ball we should be coming into the league section fresh and maybe with fresh ideas
The games should serve as ‘sharpners up’ and if we can’t beat 4th seed, we’ve no business being in the competition anyway
Players carrying knocks should get back to match fitness.
Can’t believe the criticism of Coens shot. I’d say even if he scored some would have found fault. A man who captained Mayo to AI success twice ( Yes captained Mayo to AI success) plus captained a Sigerson winning team, and rated by all Mayo senior managers in the last number of years. Yet the criticism he gets is amazing. Meanwhile the lads who don’t play continue to move up the pecking order !!!
Good post there wideball and that’s as clear an explanation as I’ve seen anywhere. Looks like if we avoid group 3 above we should at least make the preliminary quarter final. But that could be a tricky game against a Derry/Armagh etc depending on the draw.
I also thought Coen did exactly the right thing by shooting on the spot with a well executed left foot shot – just not destined for the net unfortunately. So many of our forwards recycled the ball while in scoring positions and emerge unscathed from criticism – Coen took the responsibility and our “hurlers on the ditch have a go at him” – wise up fans!
He had to have a crack at it, and fair play to him he did. He could have taken soft option to point, but he’d the courage to back himself.
As Gretzky said “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take”.
@on the ditch.
Are you sure a win over the 4th seed ensures we get out of the group ?
Unlikely, but lets just say.
1 beats 2
1 beats 3
4 beats 1
4 beats 2
2 beats 3
3 beats 4.
Leaves 1 on 2 wins.
Leaves 2 on 1 win.
Leaves 3 on 1 win.
Leaves 4 on 2 wins.
The above scenario sees us beating the 4th seeds.
If ourselves and seed 2 end up with one win apiece, and seed 2’s win is over us, who comes out of the group.
Is it the higher seed, is it the head to head or is it on score difference.
Hi believe that Coen is an outstanding player,he gets very unfair criticism
As others have said unreal coen is getting critized for his shot at least he went for it he was actually very unlucky to have not gone in I actually couldn’t believe it didn’t go in as was sure it was going to !
Give the guy a break if it had gone in you would all be praising him least he took on the responsibility and was not afraid to try go for it !
@rev. The probability is that team 4 will be considerably weaker and unlikely to win any match. That’s been presumptuous and youre right..if team 4 can’t beat team 3, they are unlikely to beat teams 1 or 2. as there is advantage to winning the group
3 of the seed 2 teams are going to be weak,the exception will be the Ulster seed 2
There seems to be a mystery as to the exact layout of the All Ireland Series.
Sure HQ will be looking for certain teams in certain groups, probably same for Quarter finals, you can be sure the Dubs and Kerry won’t meet before the semi final or more likely in the final if they both progress.
Why are Counties letting Croker away with having a neutral venue for the Dubs being Croke Park ?, Probably afraid as Funding may be used to frighten them.
@Mayo88 agree re funding, you could not make it up.
The groups will still retain the due format for ’23:
Munster v Connaught and Leinster v Ulster
So, if Kerry and Dublin progress right through, they will meet in final.
In a way there was no way Mayo could continue at the pace they set during the league. You should be quite satisfied – beat Galway in league final, and now have a 5/6 week break. I also think people forget it’s an inexperienced team, and will take time to match up against seasoned performers in the “white heat”..
Management will surely have learned the value of having natural scorers starting. Running at different angles is fine. But the time comes when boot should meet leather – in this respect players like Ciaran Murtagh and Cillian O’Connor are still worth weight in gold.
Joe Biden will be a big boost for Mayo too..
Did not vote as I could not pick a POTM.
Agree Diarmuid put in a big shift. He was playing centrefield and most posters agree we were cleaned out by better fielding opposition. What conclusion to draw from that.
IMO Mattie Ruane had the best engine in the squad up to 3 games ago but something has happened there. Hope rest period sorts him. He is essential.
I won’t look at much football for the summer. Too much tippey tapey play and time wasting.
Never know what is a foul. I thought a tackle has to be on the ball with open hand. Yet when a player gets caught up he is held but ref calls him for over carrying when he has moved no where.
Maybe my interpretation is wrong. It’s a sad game to watch.
Good work Wideball. Are you sure we would have 4th seeds in Croker? That makes that match very winnable- compared to Mullingar, Navan, Drogheda or Ardee God help us.
Are group winners kept apart for QF draw?
Just watched the full game back and a few things struck me
Firstly Diarmaid gave 100% start to finish and deserved our MOM.
The ref was nowhere near as bad as we thought. Certainly nothing like Limerick 2016 or Croker 2009 vs Meath, we were not robbbed this time. My main frsutration was that he gave 2 throw ups against Aido that both had minimal contact. The other issue was failing to deal with the constant feigning of injury. Ros deserved winners but I never saw so much time wasting from early on in a game. The GAA should also put a clock on the goalie to get it out within 20 seconds. Although I must acknowledge it’s a long time since I’ve seen such heroic defending by a team, start to finish Ros worked like dogs while keeping their discipline.
I thought our guys fought really hard to get back in it and were unlucky at 2 crucial times for a free on Enda Smith that wasn’t (there was a foul by Paddy but 30 yards farther back but nothing when Smith went into contact). And there was an unnecessary free by Coyne for a push which I hope he gets spoken to about because it was at a crucial time and no need to be so blatant.
If we play Ros again later we can expect a similar never say die attitude from them so it’s important we bring the same. I think a team only needs to be a small bit off it for the opposition to have their day. Luck also played a part, the penalty looked like it could be a case but not sure if Loftus made contact but the 2nd one was a lucky ricochet to a well positioned player, a team might typically get one in 5 of those ricochet’s come your way for a goal.
The final thing I’d say is our team did not play badly apart from blind alleys near the end but it was hard to see where the openings were, Ros closed it down so well. On a dry day without wind and a big pitch I think we’d have hauled them back in. Fionn McDonagh in particular put in a huge shift, only 2 players in FF line I thought below their best but still contributed. Only other criticism is not tracking men for kickouts as well as we normally would. And management could have moved Aido out on a wet day to try and horse it in the middle at least for part of the game.
A few complained about not playing Cillian from the start for the long range shooting in the 1st half but we didn’t know who would win the toss. The point could be made that Cillian would do more damage than Tommy in their current form and should be preferred but that’s hindsight now.
On stats side we conceed 2 points in 1st half and 2 points for the 1st 25 mins of the 2nd half.
Like some I think the break could do us good, we come in fresh, time will tell but we have 3 games to get it right.
@Shuffy Deck, great analysis! I agree with every word!
I can’t understand the criticism of Coen for his effort against the bar-he was unlucky. For me, we butchered two better goal chances-Tommy fisted wide, with Aido and I think someone else, free straight in front of goal and then Ryan’s bad pass to set up Tommy.
Wide ball. Possibly for Derry to get seed 1,2,or 4. Impossible to be seed 3.
Seed 3 and 4 is based purely on league positions. Derry can’t get seed 3 because of where they finished in the league
@Charlie that is for quarter finals, Semie final is an open draw according to the Irish Times
one more year – Mayo are seed 3, loser of Ros v Galway will be seed 3. I’m assuming Dublin and Kerry reach provincial finals so they won’t be seed 3.
After that, Tyrone and Monaghan are ranked higher than Derry, but are on the same side in ulster draw. That means 1 of them should make an ulster final with the other two being 3rd seeds.
The more I think about it, Armagh or Donegal could end up as 4th seeds if they fail to make an ulster final from the other side of the draw.
I watched the game back last night and while Roscommon did bottle up alot of our our attacks there was also long periods of catastrophic play from them .obviously our first two goal chances and then after their penalty we had numerous chances as they were all over the place defensively.also a 15 minute period in second half when they couldn’t get out of their own half .if Roscommon had lost they would have had serious questions about their goalkeeper.after Aidan o Sheas point Niall daly runs back in his penalty area and throws himself on the ground with no one anywhere near him in an obvious attempt to kill momentum.on second viewing it looks a bit different and the opportunities were there for mayo
A pretty abysmal performance. Diarmuid was probably our MOM alright, but he was half of a midfield that got absolutely cleaned out of primary possession. He tried his best (as always), but unfortunately for us, he wasn’t at his best. He will have better days for Mayo in 2023.
There’s no point dressing this up. Mayo were atrociously bad on Sunday. Ten points scored says everything. Along with losing what seemed like every contested kickout, we were second to every breaking ball and looked leggy all over the park. Tommy Conroy and Ryan O’Donoghue were shadows of themselves. Aidan gave everything but Ros bottled him up. And for the last 10 minutes, we had a classic Mayo meltdown; player after player walking into traffic rather than taking on a shot. Even though Cillian scored a peach from the wing, it never occurred to us to work him into a similar position again when that was the obvious solution to our scoring drought.
The referee’s display was irrelevant. He was terrible, but that’s no excuse. Sean Rice’s old saying about serious teams always being prepared to beat 16 men is as true as it ever was.
And Ros? This was their All-Ireland. They were better than Mayo all day long, took their chances, kept possession superbly, and gave an absolute masterclass in time-wasting. People can cry about the simulated head injuries all they want. Ros did what they had to do to win. They won’t be the last opponents to take that route against us either. Mayo can either sharpen up their shooting, toughen up in winning primary possession and ramp up the intensity on breaking ball, or else we’ll be limping out of the championship at the first knockout fence, just like last year.
1985 if you watch it again ,when o shea kicked the point there was contact with the head on the follow through, accidentally off course. Daly got up but then went down..Probably a little dazed so I wouldn’t be too harsh. Made absolutely no difference to Mayos display or lack of.
Martin brehony has an article today about the game now being played by robots and it’s all about sticking to the system.i would have to agree with him about the extremely boring nature of most games now.the crowd become disengaged because for long periods nothing is happening.any excitement is now only to be found in the last few minutes.yes mayo were very poor but alot of Roscommons play was also very poor.i honestly believe that people are not going to continue to pay good money to watch this over and back across the field rubbish.a game that is now a cross between rugby and basketball
Daly was no where near o Shea on that incident from what I saw
@DavyJ – I agree Roscommon were by far the better team last Sunday 1-26 and executed their game plan very well, they out thought us, bullied us and beat us in nearly every match up. Davy Burke has them well drilled and in a great position to make at least an all Ireland 1/4 final later this year. However, their win against us last Sunday will mean absolutely nothing unless they can get over the line in the semi final v Galway and claim number 1 or number 2 seeds for the round robin.
@45Mayo, to win just once and John Martin,
I see now that if I criticise a player I am no longer a “fan”, just a “hurler on the ditch”! I get it. Only Red and Green tinted glasses allowed here anymore is it?
Firstly, I’m pretty damn sure that there are not too many supporters on here who have travelled as far or spent as much time, money and emotion as me in the cause of supporting Mayo. So I don’t take kindly to the inference that I am a “hurler on the ditch” just because I find fault with the actions of a Mayo player. I have coached and managed teams for over 13 years to a fairly high level and have been to every Mayo game in Croke Park (league & championship) since the 1985 AISF v Dublin.
Secondly, if it was a technically excellent shot then it would have gone in, wouldn’t it?
Thirdly, nowhere did I villify Coen, and his performance as captain of underage teams has absolutely nothing to do with his decision to use his left foot in that situation. So stop obfuscating the point.
Fourthly, while his shooting has improved in the last few seasons it is still very hit and miss for a modern day wing back, and I am not the only one in the stand that winces whenever he goes to take a shot on.
So, I stand by my point because it is factually based, doesn’t villify or insult the player as a person as had been alleged, and, is a fair comment.
And in all that is one of the reasons why we still wait for Sam Maguire. Everyone wants to kiss their asses, pose for selfies and never criticise or fault find in a Mayo players performance. Do you not think that his miss would have been brought up in the video analysis session they did in the days since the Roscommon defeat?
Paidi O’Shea was one of the greatest players of all time. Never conceeded a point from play in any of the 8 All Ireland finals he won as a player. Then he managed Kerry to an AIF victory in 1997 after a relative famine period for Kerry. Yet, he was lambasted to such an extent by his own people that he called Kerry supporters “fuckin’ savages”. The demands and expectations were so high that the supporters would not contemplate defeats or poor performances. That’s the difference between them and us. So keep posing for the selfies and shouting down anyone who raises a legitmate critic. That All Ireland will be further and further down the road.
If Mayo cant come out of the Group stages with at least two wins no matter who is in the group then we will have to accept the fact that we are just not good enough.
In fairness Pebbles, there’s so many things you can criticize about the Mayo performance but Coen’s missed goal chance is near the bottom. I said it was technically excellent because he hit it true and sweet with power that flew past the keeper but was nothing more than two inches too high. You can hit a shot technically well and miss. You can also hit it poorly and score (like Enda Smith’s penalty – he was just lucky Reape went the wrong way) and of course he had to shoot off his left or else keep carrying it and fist it over because the angle to shoot off his right was being closed down.
“Never criticise or fault find in a Mayo players performance” – have you read this blog after a loss?! There’s so much criticism and that is definitely not why we haven’t won an All Ireland. There are many different reasons but it is easy to jump to the simplistic ones after a loss. I’d be very confident Mayo will go further than Ross in the championship this year and they have every chance of winning it out if everyone stays fit and the right players hit form.
A big part of the whole interest in Mayo football is that they haven’t won it in so long.
@1985 I was lucky enough to be seated in a nice pub/restaurant, with a plate of mash and sausages, and there were 2 tv’s on side by side.
On one you had Arsenal v Liverpool, and the other Mayo v Ros.
Aside from the obvious professional aspect, I can tell you the contrast was telling. Imo, creativity must be a prime component of any field game, and must be rewarded.
There is too much slogging in Gaa. Players jostling, pushing one another, when introduced as subs. Tribal warfare.. I agree, it’s a hard watch –
Alot of people saying that we misfired because we were up to speed so early in the league.
I’m not sure I’m buying that. Weren’t Roscommon up to speed early in the league as well.
If anything can be blamed it would have to be the short turnaround we had from the league final.
We had too many changes made to a tired team for Sunday’s game. We were tired and disjointed. We will be fit and rearing to go again in the group stage. I have no doubts about that.
Revellino I’d say getting up mentally a factor but also tactics on the line cost us dearly.
Well looking at the weather it’s beyond horrendous in Mayo, Biblical bad…if we won last Sunday, every chance we would be training this week, and imagine the risk of injuries as well as damage to the pitch. As it is I think Mayo have a week off!
U20 update: Due to the bad weather the Connacht GAA U20 semi final between Mayo and Sligo is now taking place in the COE Bekan at 6:30pm
Mayo dodged a good few bullets – strategically better placed now than flogging ourselves over the remaining Connacht games. You dont have to win all battles as long as you win the war – still waiting for that I guess but that has to be the aim.
Appreciation
I really think we need to show more appreciation for these players of ours. And indeed of other counties.
Lost in the schmozzle of “winning isn’t everything ,winning is the only thing “ is the fact they are amateur players with professional expectations heaped upon them.
Were they professionals then some of the critical comments might be ok. I say “might”
But the fact that they are a young amateur team with jobs and young families seems to hold no truck with (admittedly rare)posters writing critical comments (to the point of absurdity)
Context is thrown to the wind. The facts of having just played 8 national league games and winning a national final. Meh. The fact of having contested and won a pre season series of three games. Double meh. The fact that it’s a new management team …I don’t know how many mehs that is?
No. These keyboard warriors want to name and shame. And yet they don’t use their own names.Why not?The question answers itself.They want to name and point out individual deficiencies of individual players. They want almost perfection and anything less” wouldn’t be tolerated”in Kerry or Dublin. But last I checked they don’t win all their games either. In fact neither do premiere league or NFL or any team.
We have had as perfect a start to a new management as we could reasonably expect.We only lost one game in the league and that was largely on the back of enforced changes.We won the league final against the number two or three seeded team for Sam and then just seven days later we are asked to play a championship game that we wanted to win and that management said we prepared well for.
Anyone who knows anything about football knew that this could go sideways.That it had the potential to do so. Management and the team did not underestimate Roscommon.They knew this was a serious challenge and they did their best to prepare.As the Roscommon players themselves have indicated, they had this game targeted back last November.They were going to be ready.
So you have one team who have to shift focus really quickly and another who were focused on this game for 6 months.
Some of the critics on here are the same critics who were underestimating Roscommon,even to the point of derision.But Roscommon had taken notable scalps in the league,have brilliant forwards, a good defensive system, and imo are reaching a new level of maturity. Physically they are much stronger than prior Ross teams.We could always count on Enda Smith being neutralized by our man markers.But this did not happen and he won MOTM. He’s exceptional if he’s allowed to play.
Neither was the context of missing two of our primary ball carriers Hession and Callinan helpful to our cause. They move the ball down the line with speed and efficiency creating scoring opportunities.Or missing James Carr who is a good long range shooter.
Now you could say that Cillian might have started or come on sooner and fair enough-that was called for. There are other points that could be made in a positive yet critical manner.
We were not sharp on Sunday and neither was our tackling anything like what it has been. I don’t know exactly why this was but I’ve a fair idea. Our fight was as strong as our fatigued brains and bodies would allow.
No one is making excuses. But context is everything.That and a little respect for the brilliant amateur players of Roscommon.
Give respect.Get respect.
It is not the players or the management who are “letting anyone down” but rather the keyboard warriors hiding behind fake names who for all anyone knows might not want the best for the team at all !!
In terms of criticism be general, be gentle, be reasonable and be discrete.Otherwise you are no different than those talking about the “Mayo hype machine”which TBH was thrown away from this site five or six years ago yet we still get tarred with that particular brush. And you wouldn’t want your derisory comments about Roscommon appearing on their dressing room wall ? Or would you ?
Let’s be better than some in RTE, and others who would not wish us well. Let’s be respectful of all these amateur players who are exemplary in so many ways.This website too is so exemplary on so many levels that we should honor that fact also.
I expect us to make it through the group stages and “We”, “We will be ready “Do you hear that everyone ?
Maigh Eo go deo.
I’m nearly afraid now to post a random post after all the biting but I don’t know has it been mentioned already. Did anyone take any notice of i think it was wingback stack who lost his boot in the 1st half and was so regimental in minding the house he wouldn’t retrieve the boot and played on for possibly 3 minutes with only one boot and must have received the ball 5 or 6 times in that period. He was pleading with the linesman to stop play but was told it wouldn’t be happening. It was comical watching it but put me thinking of how these lads toe the line(pun intended) and are so afraid to be caught out.
Well said GBXI and Food4thought – “Our fight was as strong as our fatigued brains and bodies would allow” “Give respect. Get respect” Hear hear.