Photo: MichaelMaye.com
With every successive game he plays for the county, Diarmuid O’Connor moves ever closer to being our main man. Yesterday up in Clones he put in another storming display, notching 1-1 from play and racking up a serious amount of box-to-box mileage.
It comes as no surprise, then, that yesterday’s performance wins him his third successive Man of the Match award. Diarmuid claimed 47% of the votes in this week’s MOTM poll, comfortably ahead of Colm Boyle (17%), Ger Cafferkey (9%) and Robbie Hennelly (7%).
Congrats, again, to Diarmuid on winning this week’s award and congrats too to Colm, Ger, Robbie and indeed to all the other lads who played their part in yesterday’s stirring victory over Monaghan.
Congrats and well done Diarmuid, keep up the great work!
Is that the first ever three in a row of MOTM?
Doubt it. Kevin Keane got several last year and Jason Gibbons the year before. No sure if either had 3 in a row.
And both Aido and Cillian may have gotten 3 in a row in recent championships.
It is, JP – we’ve had back-to-back awards before (Kevin Keane and Aidan O’Shea last year) but never a three-in-a-row before now.
Well done to Diarmuid. He has fast become such an essential cog in the machine.
Diarmuud, Conor L, Ml Hall won’t be available next Sunday will they? Under 21 is on the Saturday after I think. Good that the injuries are clearing up so senior panel is under less pressure. It’s very important too that u 21s find some success. After all that’s the minor all Ireland winners.
Speaking of Kevin Keane – has he recovered from injury yet?.
Would be nice to have him available for next weekend.
well done Diarmuid. Its incredible that 2 lads from the same house are so good, I wonder if Cillians words of advice as an older brother have had this effect? Anyway, its great to have these type operators in a Mayo jersey. Another fella that the newer panel players should try to emulate is Colm Boyle, a class act. I watched the tape of the league semi win over kerry of a few years back, colm took darren o sulliven down as he was headed for the Mayo goal, he gave up the free and i think got a yellow card, his first move after the take down was to offer the hand to darren o sullivan who accepted it and shook. True sportsmen and how it should be played.
Great to see excellence on the pitch being lauded like this.Well done Diarmaid…You are some example!
On the other hand what does one say of the new calibre of thuggery as exhibited by one Mr Magee and others?Shame is the word that comes to mind and there’s only one way to ban it from the game……v bold corner for an extended period!!
The great thing here it the DOC is only three games back from injury, he is nowhere near his best yet. Come summer on the firm pitches he is going to be flying.
dave that league semi win over kerry was a real seminal moment from this team , things really took off after that , notwithstanding donaghys madness it was a great performance from us to beat them that day , would like to watch it again myself
Donaghy challenge was high but might technically only be yellow as non strike offense whereas O’ Mahony came running into McCloone from a distance and bounced him with a chest. At the extreme end of physical provocation and deserves a ban if the rules allow.
Intent and premeditation!! Of course it’s not new…just more on show than in former times and continues to be condoned and deemed manly by many!!
Shuffly Deck says:
March 8, 2016 at 11:41 am
Donaghy challenge was high but might technically only be yellow as non strike offense whereas O’ Mahony came running into McCloone from a distance and bounced him with a chest. At the extreme end of physical provocation and deserves a ban if the rules allow.
Ya O Mahony really annoys me and to think he is a guard.
Hope Kevin MC give him the run around the next day .
Does the Donegal v Kerry game make any oft those who last week were calling for Mayo players to “man up” and retaliate for fouls revise their opinions? What we saw on TV was the inevitable result of that tactic and it will be interesting to see what the reaction of the authorities will be. If it involved two northern teams action would be taken for less but the question is whether action will be taken when the “aristocrats” of the game are involved.
For my part my opinion is that the only reaction to foul play is a redoubled determination to win the next ball – and the one after that.
Andy, what should we do if Donahy levels diarmuid or gibbons? And the ref stands there like they when Kerry are involved ! my idea would be, don’t start a fight but be prepared to finish one.
Mayo U21s had the replay of North west cup to play v Donegal but apparently pulled out. Sligo filled in and were hammered by Donegal at weekend.
Any reason why Mayo pulled out?surely that final replay would be better than any challenge and good preparation before the Connacht championship on March 19th
Kerry will come to play football. Mayo will also come to play football. The fans will arrive to see football. My opinion is that if a game is turning cynical the ref should call 5 minute recess. Let both teams go to either end of the field and chill out. Let captains and management have a team talk about whats important then get back to the football. There could have been a hatfull of red cards in trallee and no one wants to see that.
Discipline is the order of the day. The players need to concentrate on the next ball. The next challenge. League football is now like championship. The intensity levels are high. The truth is when it comes to intensity and strength mayo are right up there with the best of them. A monaghan supporter said to me in clones that we must be feeding the players well as they look like giants. Controlled aggression is ok by me. Aiden put his arm in and it was unfortunate how it turned out for him. He will have big influence on sunday.
Mayo will win on sunday. Our defending is good and actually has structure to it like never before. Fair play to management who in a short space of time are turning mayo into a team thats hard to break down. That is important. Its also important to turn more of our possession into scores or at least attempts for scores. Id rather the ball go wide than turn it over soft or give it to their goalie. The ball must go dead. We cant afford the likes of Darren o Sullivan running at us at speed after us giving them back possession. More quality defending a bit more improvement up front will see us through. Aiden could move out to wing half forward to offer us another option at kickouts.
I enjoy reading the mayo news reviews of the game. They gave a good account of the stats from sunday.
First post. Great website WJ, gets me through many a working hour!
Just looking ahead to Next weekend what would be the best results for Mayo in order to avoid relegation.
Obviously we want Mayo to beat Kerry moving us to 4 pts and ahead of them on the H2H rule.
But in the Monaghan v Cork game what would be the preferred result for Mayo?
Do we want a Cork win to drag Monaghan back into the relegation battle or are we hoping that Cork lose and are cut a drift. I believe Cork still have to play Down so you would imagine they will pick up 2 points there.
Dave, Who got red cards in Tralee? Players who retaliated to fouls. As Seamus O’Shea got a black card for retaliation in the Dublin replay last summer. I don’t have any stats but would bet that most red cards are given for retaliation which suits the original offender just fine.
welcome behindenemylines. My thinking is that after our slow start staying in division survival is number 1. We must win remaining games as depending on other results can be disastrous. I think if we stick with our own plan we can win our remaining games.
I do not think that the U21 game on Saturday week justifies keeping Diarmuid in cold storage v Kerry. While not justifying overconfidence if we cannot comfortably beat Leitrim in the U21 we will not be at the races at all.
As aggressive and as hard and as fast as you can make it.Thats what we look for.Im sure we can have that without the thuggery and cynicism if the authorities wish to do their necessary and give it to us.
Nice suggestion there Toughnup.,..t’would give us all a breather. And I agree, football it ll be on Sunday but we ll be having to move that ball smarter and faster!!!
I think we will have enough pts to survive, the only place I think we can get caught is H2H against Cork. Down are gone but the final relegation place will be decided on the final day.
Regarding retaliation fouls etc, the ref cant see everything thats going on so linesmen and umpires must step up and draw attention to infringements which is not happening enough. Things may come to the stage where the ref will require video replays of incidents to make a judgement.
Agreed Toughnup we need to concentrate on winning our own games. I believe we will beat Kerry and it seems everyone will beat Down. I wouldn’t be so confident on beaten Roscommon though, not that I rate them very highly but I just feel the game will mean a lot more to them than Mayo. Therefore I think Mayo will finish on 6 points so unfortunately will need some favours from other teams to survive.
inbetweener behindenemylines
Do ye both agree we actually have made great strides on defending? More of the same and bit more cuteness up front we will survive handy.
I think it’s only fair that Diarmuid concentrate on u21 for now. These other u21 lads deserve a chance to do well and they need him to be available to them for some training. They are the future of Mayo football and a bit of success would do wonders for their development as players. Of course he will be a loss against Kerry but it’s an opportunity for other lads to show us what they’re made of.
thought we defended well against Dublin but unfortunately we are still prone to conceding soft goals. For example against Donegal we were leading and conceded a goal from our own kick out which changed the game was criminal.
But all in all there has been an improvement in each game so hopefully that will continue. If we stay up Id imagine the management team will be very happy with the league campaign, a lot of new players have been looked at . Ideal scenario I presume would be to be sitting on 6 points going into the last game and maybe they could have a look at some of the Mitchels lads to see what they can offer. The likes of Ger McDonagh, Donie Newcome, Danny Kirby and Neil Douglas.
Is diarmuid as good as cillian great time for both players.
AndyD Leitrim U21s beat Roscommon in the Hastings cup back in January and they won the Connacht minor league two years. Still Mayo have the pick of two very good minor teams in 2013,14 and should win by a bit to spare.
I think Galway will come out of the other side of the draw. The rossies are injury hit and Sligo won’t put up much of a test.
AndyD, I agree entirely. No disrespect to the Leitrim Under 21’s, or indeed to our own Under 21’s, but Diarmuid O’Connor has been to date, in my opinion, the most consistently excellent player in the country so far during the National League. I don’t think that we can afford not to have him on the team next Sunday against Kerry.
behindenemylines.
According to stats we gave away possession 17 times without getting a shot off. It has been big problem of ours. As i eluded to in an earlier post the ball needs to go dead preferably by scoring kicking a wide. We dont like wides but there better than conceding soft possession and being turned around and being caught out of shape running towards you own goal, Jim Mcguinness identified that in his structure. Hard to break down and work to get key shooters into position to do so….
Toughnup ;Defence is good enough but how do we quantify ‘a bit’ ? Otherwise I go along with all you say!
Inbetweener i think if we give away less possession and get more shots off i think it would be a nice bit of improvement lol ah but the young guys are trying hard and some have had alot of injuries. The experience they gain now in more intense league will benefit them greatly. i enjoy your posts also my friend…..
Andy,
Donahy floored Michael Murphy last Sunday, he is not a very savory player and he got no card or warning, he will try it next Sunday and our bucks have to expect it and know how to put manners on him without getting booked themselves. Seamus was very foolish last summer, that weasel that he threw to the ground wasn’t worth even looking at, but seamie took the bait you talk about. My thing is that we have to defend ourselves from physical and verbal attacks from these bigger guns, maybe by returning the verbal or giving Boyler style hits to anyone that looks for it ? Either way, Mayo have to stand their ground and even more so if the referee is too scared to do his job. I expect Kerry to try and influence the referee the next day, Donahy especially
It will be one interesting game.
Well done, once again Diarmuid . A class act and so proud he wears the Green and Red. Also hats off to Pebblesmeller( I believe it was him ) who has been saying here for years, that he would be even better than Cillian . Some task we might say, but seems well on the way already. He has it all and even at a young age , seems able for the hard hits too, which will be needed at this level.
Our boys lined up and applauded kerry as champions on to the pitch in the first game
the league last year. Not an easy thing to do considering what had happened in
Limerick.
But that`s what REAL men do. They then went on to claim the points in the game.
Going out there to settle old scores,to me, is counter productive. Players need to
keep their focus at all times. Let`s not ever encourage them here to do otherwise.
Diarmuid is turning into on of our most important players….his name would nearly be the first you have on the team sheet and that’s saying something for a 21 year old. Onwards and upwards.
Piece in the independent about familiarity breeding contempt. I’m inclined to agree with it a bit. Every time Mayo/Donegal/Dublin/Kerry meet, cards will fly.
And I’ve no doubt it will be the same this weekend. Each of these 4 teams want to lay down markers with each other every time they meet, they are the 4 elite teams in the country.
Wonder would cilian be back for the league is ended or would it be too soon. Agree with comments the diarmuid is better.
Diarmuid may edge it around the field but Cillian is a scoring machine, his accuracy is unbelivable, I actually think he is still under rated outside of Mayo. If Brogan or Gooch scored two hat tricks in two matches you would never hear the end of it. We are lucky too have them both.
I notice no Kerry player has been cited from last Sunday. McGee from Donegal gets a one match ban. No surprise on Kerry the so called football purists getting away again.
John o Keefe is more of an asset to Kerry now than when he was playin!The powers-that-be in Croke Park are Kerry hoors!Like in Blackjack…the dealer always wins
Well done Diarmuid. Colm would have won the MOTM award hands down for the display he gave. Try as I might I just could not resist. I find it hard to keep track of him up and down the field. He is intelligent on the ball just like his older sibbling, and his movement of the ball is timely and accurate. Doing the simple things well is what it is all about. I would not compare the 2 brothers any more than I would compare oranges and apples
Many seem upset about Donaghy but I actually think Murphy is worse for both mouthing and cynical fouls, body checks and all that. He should have way more black cards and not a single GAA player has yet been black carded for abusing the ref in a televised game.
Here are rules 4 and 5 neither implemented…
4 To use abusive or provocative language or gestures to players
5 To remonstrate in an aggressive manner with a match official.
No. 4 a ref or official might need very good hearing but no. 5 (s)he just needs some bottle to be the first to do it. Players like Murphy and Donaghy should be warned the first time they mouth and carded the 2nd.
Both these players have been on the receiving end too (Donaghy in AI final) but still doesn’t justify their own behaviour.
GAA need trial by television for the guys provoking the retaliation. The game has gotten more cynical year on year and each time there’s an outcry (e.g. Tiernan McCann dive) the players ease off and soon find a new way to be cynical. Kerry were very cynical in Limerick and got away with it so yes they are in the top 2 or 3 worst in that regard (Tyrone may have fallen off the no. 1 slot after last years debacle).
Jasus lads ease up,, when is the last time a Kerry player had a sanction of significance overturned ?? In the last few years we have played games aginst teams that’d had players sanctioned for blatant infringements and were freed to play against us in major championship games.
Kerry learn faster than most and if guys are pushing the limit to a new edge like Tyrone in the last decade and Donegad in this one than you either adapt or fade away, Kerry find the margin and learn. It is up to the officials to make the call, Kerry know where the edge is and they have skirted it on occasion as by God have Mayo and Dublin to be honest. Yeah ! that’s the edge right there. When your team win, its yeah they were dead right and when they lose the forensic exanimation of the calls are put on public display for the opinions of all and ultinate taste altered digestion.
I don’t believe we will have any of that shit on Sunday, there will be an edge ar both teams are wearing the wrong shoes on a cliff edge but wevwill both survive hopfully. on a side note, we have played Dublin, Roscommon, Down and donegal and strangely this was the first time this nasty edge appeared. Coincidence I’m sure !!
Anyway outside of the growling, anyplace in Castlebar that any of you good folk would recommend next Saturday night for a pint with the good GAA people of Mayo.
Gamechanger10,
More to the point is when did a Kerry player have a sanction of significance imposed? Maybe my memory is faulty but the last I can recall was Galvin for knocking the notebook from the refs hand. It’s no coincidence that Donaghy was among the instigators last Sunday. He has been throwing his considerable weight around for some time now. Not that I’m putting all the blame on Kerry but, while Donegal were continually badgering the ref v Mayo [it took four minutes to take a penalty as they argued], it was not so physical. Yes, I agree ye are good at playing on the edge but it’s very easy to go over the edge, esp. when the pushing and shoving starts. Then the only question is how far do we have to fall. And arguing about who started pushing and shoving is a bit pointless if you’re lying at the bottom of a cliff.
Game changer , Mick Byrnes pub , a gaa mad house and I’d hazard a guess even more so as its the weekend before Mitchell’s take to Croker for the biggest day in the club calendar.
@gamechanger. ..ye got away with murder last Sunday and no retrospective suspensions..speaks volumes..yes mick Byrnes is the best spot for beers this sat night..
Some good points there Gamechanger. I blame Tyrone and I always will, for the cynical stuff. The hard man has always been a part of the game, everywhere except in Mayo. Tyrone were like us at one stage and they learned the error of their ways. I am expecting a good game of football on Sunday that could go either way. Please be there at noon as the Mayo v Wicklow hurling game is on. This should be a great contest so dont miss it.
Gamechanger, you said there were no incidents in Kerry`s previous games???
I seem to remember seeing a bit of wrestling, shirt grabbing, pushing and shoving against Roscommon when Kerry realised in the last 5 mins that the Rossies had them beaten.