Mayo opened their inter-county year in the novel surroundings of the Air Dome in the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence this evening. Their FBD League semi-final against Galway was a helter-skelter affair on the very fast all-weather surface but it was the more inventive Tribesmen who stayed the distance better, winning by four points.
We’d named an extremely experimental side last night but we still had time to make one change to the starting fifteen ahead of throw-in. For the umpteenth time, James Carr was hooked from the team he’d been named in, this time giving way to Justin Healy as the Cill Chomain man became the sixth player in the starting fifteen to make his debut at Senior level for the county.
The new men were to the fore early on. After Fergal Boland squirmed through the cover before palming over for the night’s opening score, debutant Sam Callinan raided forward to double our lead. Galway were soon back on terms but then newbie Fionnan Duffy swung over a free from the left to edge us back in front.
Padraig O’Hora’s black card on ten minutes altered the tenor of the contest. We were a point to the good when he went off and Galway were one up by the time he came back on. While this of itself didn’t represent a major swing in the game, Galway had taken the initiative in that period and they never really lost it thereafter.
By half-time Galway were leading by ten points to seven and at this stage in the game they were already looking the livelier of the two teams. We were struggling to make headway in the forwards, with attacks repeatedly turning raggedy and breaking down.
We were lucky that Galway’s shooting wasn’t hectic – they had five wides in that opening half – but in the windless Dome that kind of profligacy couldn’t be expected to continue all night. It didn’t.
We obviously needed to shake things up for the second half and Ryan O’Donoghue’s introduction definitely had that effect. He came on for Jack Mahon, with Paddy Heneghan and Rory Brickenden also coming on as Justin Healy and Michael Plunkett were withdrawn.
Ryan immediately gave us greater purpose in the forward line. He was a great outlet for ball pumped in early and the trickery we all know and love from him gave us a cutting edge inside that we hadn’t had before.
Soon the gap was down to one but, despite our greater urgency going forward, we still lacked the kind of cohesion we need to unpick the hard-working Galway defence.
Too often, we came at them in the same way and our running game became more and more predictable as the evening wore on. Allied to this our ball handling under pressure was below par, enabling the Galway backs to turn us over and take the game to us.
There was still just the single point in it at the second water break. From then to the finish, though, we faded fairly badly and they, in contrast, grew in confidence. We’d have needed a goal in the fourth quarter to snatch something from the game but it was Galway who came closest to a three-pointer when sub Shane Walsh squared it for the in-rushing Dylan Canny but his effort saw the ball cannon back off the post.
Our final attack summed up our lack of invention in attack tonight. Three points down and the game tipping into injury time, we handpassed from wide out on the right to as far out on the left, without a hint of anyone trying to work a score. Eventually Galway broke and stole the game’s final point, as they won by 0-17 to 0-13.
This was, of course, no more than a pre-season kickout, one in which we were missing the bulk of our first team. In that regard, it would be unwise to read too much into the manner of our defeat tonight.
That said, the one-dimensional nature of what is now an entirely predictable running game was once more laid bare for all to see. If this is the template we stick to rigidly in 2022, we could be in for a tough time of it this year.
Players who did well for us tonight included Fergal Boland, debutant Sam Callinan – who already looks well up for action at this level – and the irrepressible Ryan O’Donoghue. Paddy Durcan was a prominent presence while Conor O’Shea put in a decent shift at midfield.
So that’s our 2022 FBD campaign done and dusted, with three weeks to prepare before we take on Donegal in the first round of the National League. It’s then we’ll get a more accurate fix on how we’re starting to shape up this year.
Mayo: Rory Byrne; Donncha McHugh, Padraig O’Hora, Sam Callinan (0-1); Paddy Durcan, Michael Plunkett, Eoghan McLaughlin; Conor O’Shea, Jordan Flynn; Fergal Boland (0-2), Diarmuid O’Connor, Frank Irwin (0-1); Justin Healy, Fionnan Duffy (0-4, frees), Jack Mahon. Subs: Ryan O’Donoghue (0-5, four frees) for Mahon, Rory Brickenden for Plunkett, Paddy Heneghan for Healy, Conor Loftus for Duffy, Ruairi Keane for McHugh, Stephen Coen for Durcan, Matthew Ruane for Irwin, Darren Coen for Callinan.
Heres hoping we discover some new forwards and midfield this year. Our backs are good enough to win an all Ireland.
Backs, defence including goalkeeper good enough to win an all ireland. How many goal chances had Galway.
We never seemed to play with purpose, combined with loose passing and coughinbg up possession easily.
Lots to work on… No harm to find that out in early January. League survival in div 1 will be an achievement
Shame we “hadn’t” Fergal Boland last season!, will he shine all spring and get splinters for the summer?
Bad play, bad camera work, bad commentary, bad result
Well the commentators seemed very confused as to the score at times.
Interesting game, was quite competitive. Galway always had the advantage, named, played and finished with a strong team.
JH is dammed if he tries new players and same if he sticks to type. We’re a fickle bunch.
We’ve a few problem areas, every team does.
D1 will be difficult and different, it’s a series of hard matches, personally all I want to see is consistency and progress, no matter what championship is all that matters. What did G learn by playing a full team on the 7th of Jan….that they beat a weak Mayo team by a few points in ideal conditions.
It’s 2022, a new year for Mayo, FBD is meaningless. Some guys will develop.
F Boland is very underrated. He deserves a place at all wing forward for the league.
Either way, it’s good to be back.
It seems from some of the comments,
that other than,
tightening up the defense,
Magicing up another top class goalie,
Finding two or three midfielders
and
discovering about 3 or 4 top notch forwards
as well as another 4 cameramen
We should be good to go.
How come we are always in a rebuilding stage.?
When is this thing we are rebuilding going to be finished.
For anyone up early tomorrow (Saturday),both Rachel Kearns-Geelong and Aileen Kilroy-North Melbourne, are named to start in the AWFL. 6.10am start. Live on the AWFL app (it’s free).
Mayo13BG Galway started with 5 complete newcomers and brought on a few kids also. We can’t just say they had a full team to suit our thought process when they didn’t
Very impressed by Callinan who is but a kid himself. Not too much else to be positive on but we won’t lose the head yet at this early stage
Mayo13BG that was not a full Galway Team.
No Sean Kelly, Sean Mulkerrins, Peter Cooke, Tom Flynn, John Daly. Keeper, full back, midfielder, wing forward playing senior for Galway for the first time.
Eoin Finnerty and Michael Daly from Mountbellew not joining the panel this year. The Galway team this year will be completely different to last year.
@stephenite, G had all their main protagonists, we did not. They were better overall and deserved to win.
Callinan was very good.
Every Mayo game is analysed like Freud.
I wouldn’t read too much into FBD on the 7th January. ‘Our own Sligo Home’ is the song, where our Choir will have to hit the right notes.. If it’s a calm day with a slight wind from the north, we might just be able to hear Daniel O Donnell singing the ‘Hills of Donegal’.. It’s not that far as ‘Crow’ flies., Of course Daniel has the voice of an Angel.
Good to get the Newbies a run out…
Missed the first 10 mins but Galway deserved their win …
Knifes out for Horan already… ffs
Poor performance against a well organised Galway side. Galway had great intensity and they brought a shield around the defence very well when necessary. We were incapable of piercing that shield.
In spite of the narrative of some in the comments, Galway had as many regulars missing as we did.
They’ve massively improved their conditioning and look very solid in fairness to them. No doubt Mayo will improve over the coming months but Galway will too, which will make for an interesting championship clash.
Is there an all-Ireland in this Mayo team? Not a hope. Are we as bad as some think? No.
We’ll probably retain our Div 1 status and make an all-ireland quarter final.
Good to have a game to watch all the same!
Enjoyable game fast and furious. After paying for the four games was hoping Mayo would reach the final. Same old trend though gallop up the field end up in a bottleneck and loose possession.We need more long range shooters. Boland’s scores were excellent we need more like him. This is where it all begins. Long season ahead.
Mother of god some of the comments on here are quite amusing as one comment said we dissect each match like Freud it’s litterly a black or white mentality with us if we win were brilliant if we lose we’re useless no grey area whatsoever a bit of realism has to be used as in it was an fbd glorified challenge match in which its sole purpose is to give new young guys a run out we hafnt been in a fbd final since 2012 and we were beaten by Leitrim only a couple of years ago no disrespect intended and AvB games are probably more of an advantage but yes we have absolutely plenty to improve on and hopefully over the league that will happen and survival in division 1 is the first priority ,absolutely hate losing to Galway in any grade but they were bulling for that game ever since the draw ,their intensity was very high and it made us make mistakes and we did lose shape after the last quarter when a lot of rotation happened but a bit of perspective is needed and through the league will be needed as well and and as for the comment, is there an all Ireland in Mayo ?not a hope ,shur we might as well just pack it in so if that’s the case anyway rant over
Entertaining game, Galway much the better team. Didn’t like that arena. Very tight pitch from what I could see of it, which doesn’t suit us. Nor will Sligo or Carrick – madness playing in those venues.
All we are looking for is to find a few new quality players. On that basis the night was a success: Callinan looks like a real find, and Henaghan and McHugh looked good too. None of the new forwards impressed; maybe Irwin a small bit. Our mentality is tending towards recycling mania. MacLaughlin made a tremendous run at a critical stage, burned three Galwegians, laid it off, great, goal on. Except it wasn’t, because we went backwards immediately, and then turned over the ball.
Don’t know why Livingstone didn’t get a run.
To be honest, I found McLaughlin’s repeated solo runs from half back a bit depressing. This is a tactic of Horans that has failed time and time again at the highest level. I think eoghan is a very good player for Mayo, but we can utilise his ability to better effect than bursting his arse soloing to the opposition 50m arc, before turning back exhausted and laying a hand pass off to a static half forward who really can do very little with the ball at that stage, with oppoaition defenders surrounding him.
Hard for any new inside forwards to shine in that style of play.
Galway looked really well organised in defence.
We were very predictable in our play, taking to long to transition from defence to attack.
ROD was very good when he came on, but once Galway doubled up on him, we needed another plan.
Early days but a lot to work on.
No imagination in our attack whatsoever. As Willie Joe said if that’s our plan for 2022 it could be a tricky year for us.
Eff me, we’ve just watched Galway playing Mayo, indoors, in January, and literally anyone in the world could tune in?! Feels like progress to me and anyone moaning about the commentary or camera angle etc would want to have a good hard look at themselves…..now, having said that, 10 quid for the privilege was overly steep. Half that? Meh, fair enough. The result doesn’t really bother me, FBD never does, but what I am intrigued by is this rumour that Oisín isn’t quite signed sealed and delivered door
Can anyone shed any light?
Thought Sam Callinan was very good and Duffy was lively. ROD looks like our best player.
Those are the only positives I took from the game. Where are our new midfielders coming through? Jack Carney from Kilmeena looked like he would break in this year. Hard to know what the story is considering close contacts etc but still disappointing. No sign of Enda Hession either.
Diarmuid O’Connor looked miles off the pace, hoping all the years of football haven’t caught up to him.
https://www.thesun.ie/sport/gaa-football/8168575/kevin-mcloughlin-mayo-oisin-mullin-afl/amp/
This article with Kevin Mc from yesterday seems to indicate he is gone
I think I heard one of the commentators say Shane McGowan was on the field in the second half, but alas, no fairy tale ending for Mayo! On a more serious note Callinan looks a real prospect. Boland also put in a good shift and hopefully will see much more game time this year.
My first view of the inside of the Dome. Presumably Horan is hoping to uncover one or two additions and Sam Callinan was the one I was looking forward to seeing after the Club Championship and he didn’t disappoint. Too early in the year to read much into the result and Donegal in 3 weeks time will give us a better idea of where we are.
Maybe it’s just me and age catching up but did anyone else find it hard to see both goal posts and the ball when hit high against the white backdrop? Maybe orange posts and ball would help especially with televised games. Overall though the Dome proved its worth.
First comment on the article says our backs are good enough to win an All Ireland….after an fbd game with an experimental side on the 7th January. Will we ever learn. Can we make a new rule this year that we’ll only discuss a potential all Ireland win if we make the last 8 this year.
Heard somewhere that Hession has to have a hip operation.
A classic injured from overtraining young fellas, all to common nowadays in GAA
Shane Walsh was the difference yesterday fair play to Galway they always produce magic scoring forwards. I dont want to be too hard on McDonald but there is no evidence he is improving our forward play our forwards last night looked like they never met before and our half forward line were atrocious in last years final. When Horan calls it a day be it 2022 or 23 id like to see Peter Canavan brought in as forwards coach if he’d have us
Running the ball out of defence for 2022 it looks like with very little kicking game. Teams will be so ready for us.
It’s early days yet, I am hoping that J.H is not showing any change of tactics this early, Galway had their big players, Walsh etc and man he is in in good form, but with his usual fatal flaw, selfish, there will probably be one or two knockmore lads to come in hopefully later on, Tommy Conroy also, it was easy enough for Galway to smother ROG last night, for the rest of our forwards were not a threat, add Conroy to that full forward line, might not be not so easy for defence
Year 4 for James on his second stint, year 3 for PJ.
Both slightly under pressure this year as there us always some other top coach waiting their turn to get in the top job.
Joyce needed this win more than Horan as the pressure on him from within Galway has really cranked up . Two Connacht final defeats to Mayo, an unmerciful league hammering in Tuam, and relegation to Div 2 means he is in last chance saloon.
He has Galway back training since October, you can see the physicality difference in some of the younger lads last night. Our fitness levels were better , having said all that it was a run out on astro in a pre season game. Joyce needs promotion and a Connacht title this year, anything less won’t suffice.
What does James Horan need to achieve to please you Mayo support? Is it Sam or bust?
You could have peak Ciaran mcdonald, Colm Cooper and Bernard brogan playing together in that Mayo full forward line and scores would still be hard work and space limited with the way we move the ball from defence to attack.
Good points there Tuamstar, putting a lot of it in perspective. I’d say we Mayo folk were hoping to see a newbie forward cause Galway a lot of trouble, and that didn’t happen, but they didn’t get great chances either. Galway gkeeper impressed me, so that’s a plus for Galway!!
Larry Duff, I agree re Eoghan, but in the example I gave, he had created a scoring opportunity, a chance to drive forward, goal even, but the recycling mania took over.
I’m not knocking our running game. We were able to adapt to pretty much every eventuality against Dublin, don’t forget.
Best wishes to all for 2022. Thanks a million for the continued work keeping the blog going, it’s looked like a difficult few months.
Last night’s game….was the FBD league, so let’s not overthink things here. Ryan looked very lively, Paddy D had a good game and I enjoyed Callinan’s confidence to kick an early score. Eoghan McLoughlin’s running was another highlight, and with a set of forwards on the same wavelength would have done more damage. So positives to take, especially versus what seemed a strong Galway selection. I wouldn’t go jumping to conclusions til we see how the league goes. It’s going to be a tough run of games and with staying up being a priority it’s hard to see much experimentation.
Tuamstar asks a good question-what does success for 2022 look like? A decent league and an Ireland semi would seem about par, based purely on the relative strength of our squad versus others. We’re strong as anyone in the half backs, one midfielder and the full forward line but weaker than others at goalkeeper, full back, second midfielder and the half forwards.
But after the last decade it’s hard to see many being happy with that.
Can’t understand people saying our defense is OK, we conseed far too many goals
In order to develop a kicking game we have to prioritise playing such a style in matches.
Justin Healy and Fionan Duffy operate like that at club level with those out the pitch seeking them on the kickpass for their run.
I would like to see the u20 lads go back and train with the u20 squad until their are out of the championship.
Physically these lads are not developed enough to train and play county senior football at the top level.
We have a habit of bringing in lads too young to the senior panel and by the time they are 22-23 they are gone.
There are plenty of lads over 20 on the panel now that need games in the league – o’donoghue, Coyne, King, Carney, Orme, Hession, Duffy, Callaghan, Healy, Boland, McStay, Fionn McDonagh, thr Morans, Briciketen, O Brien from Ballaghadereen etc
JP, James Horan isn’t trying to develop a kicking game, in his two spells as Mayo manager when has he ever tried to play a kicking game? People who think we are subbenly going to start playing an open kicking game are deluded, its not going to happen. Horan has his style of play and he will stick to it, I’m not knocking it, its been very successful and has transformed Mayo football. People thinking we will see something different this year will be disappointed, maybe some of the faces will change but the system will remain.
@Mayomad, I think it undersells us to say the running game has been very successful.
We have the competitive resources to be aiming at winning finals.
Every team that beat us in finals had a superior kicking game. The running game hasn’t got the job done. The closest we came to winning in 2017 had a mix of a running and kicking game.
I agree with JP that the running game is not enough to win the ultimate prize.
I’m not asking for Horan to start from scratch with a new game plan or anything. But it would be nice to see some variation in our style of play? Maybe make us more difficult to adapt to playing against.
Eg – we could say to the team (who are all intelligent and capable young lads) – ok for the third quarter of the game we are going to employ a completely different game plan to try unsettle the opposition. Mix and match with some rehearsed plays for a few min when the opportunity presents itself?
Also – the bench has always been too “same same” under Horan, with the players coming on just similar version of what is already playing, but generally inferior.
Some one like Conor mcstay or Fergal Boland, playmaker types, should always have a role to play in the 26 on any given day, just to have a point of difference if things aren’t going to plan.
I think Horan can improve dramatically in some of these areas.
Some very gloomy posters already,but we have players like Robbie,EOD,B Harrison,Lee,S Coen,J Kelly,Mattie,K McL,D McHale,J Carr,T Conroy,Hopefully COC,AndJason,A Orme,I probably have left our a few but I don’t think that we are too far away,all the best everyone
It’s not gloomy. It’s simply pointing to the situation where in year 4 of a year 4 year mgmt team we see no evidence that a kicking game is part of the teams make up.
Then, in last year’s final it was a weakness in our tactics.
Pointing towards playing personnel, we’ve shuffled those deckchairs in previous seasons, without a kicking game we won’t beat upper half of division one teams.
Our game simply has to evolve. Paddy Durcan and Eoghan McLaughlin bombing up the pitch with the ball is death to the weaker less athletic teams but it’s been tried and tested at the top level and has ultimately come up short. Sam Callinan racing up from corner back to pick off scores is not going add much to us in the long-term. It didn’t help us last night either that midfield seemed out of the game for stretches, that link play between defense and attack was missing. Mixing up the play and focusing on a quicker transition will make a difference. I thought Rochford’s teams were always well-prepared in that regard.
Some interesting discussion here re potentially changing our style. I agree with JP though I think there are several ways to skin a cat.
I would have fully agreed with the hard running from deep strategy we adopted for most of the past decade as for most of that time we had ordinary inside forward line and a phenomenal half back line so it was the right way to go.
However our ff line could very well be our strongest line next year with COC,Tommy, Rod so we need to adopt a gameplan that gets plentiful quick ball into them to make hay.
I think I heard Paul galvin say last year he would hate to be a forward for mayo because you are getting crowded our of it with your own midfielders and defenders.
The main reason tyrone won the all Ireland last year was their versatility, they prefer a hard running game but they were more than happy to go quick and direct for their big scores (mcshane goal,harte mark etc)
That’s the main reason I was so pissed off after the final, mayos strategy lacked any variety, the same old tried and trusted running into trouble. No hint of a plan b. I’d say tyrone couldn’t believe how mayo played on their terms
Any word on eoghan o donoghue lads,is he in this year? Along with kieran King the outstanding defender in the sfc last year
Long term viewer of the blog and first time poster.
I have to say the negativity around an FBD game from some posters is making me reconsider reading content here anymore.
Kilmeena are 0-10 to 0-2 up on St Patrick’s at half-time in the Connacht JFC final.
Not an expert but there was a decent amount of diagonal ball going into to Ryan until Galway sussed it, so more a case of having an adaptable kicking game rather than us not having one at all? Also, there were some great long balls that went in for the final that sadly weren’t converted
They say a New Year brings many a change.
I would like to see slot of new things tried this year in including new personnel.
I don’t want to see attacking defenders as the main threat, it’s very simple when defenders attack than there are holes left to exploit by the opposition.
Things may have become stale, a new voice / direction could make all the difference.
Disappointing not to see Cathal Slattery, Conor Diskin, and Colm Moran in the 26 yesterday as they are alot better than some of the forwards that lined out last night.Thought Fergal Boland did alright though, Would like to see the Enda Hession and Tommy Conroy in the half forward line for the League and a full forward line of Aidan Orme, Cillian O’Connor and Ryan O’Donoghue.Any word of when Cillian might make a return??
Thought we kicked a lot of ball into the full forward last night. First half up until o’horas black card almost everything went in towards Healy, in the left corner. At that point the correct decision was to go more possession based. A lot of this came from durcan, and he choose to kick on a number of occasions where he could have ran on. Paddy was one of the players I felt carried the ball into the tackle too much last year. Healy very much looked like a man unused to this level though. None of the new forwards who started look ready to make an impact this year. They’ll benefit from game time, Duffy’s frees probably make him the most likely to get that time. Long term I wouldn’t dismiss these lads outright but as regards this year I think we should probably put our hopes more on improvement from lads who were there last year such as Orme, Darren McHale and maybe towey.
Second half again we kicked loads into O’Donoghue. His better movement made a huge difference here. Once Galway figured this out though we were absolutely clueless. Not entirely surprising though given the amount of changes by that stage.
Of the newbies, callinan looked very impressive. Definitely one to keep an eye on. Football wise he could be this year’s breakout but I heard he’s still in secondary school and with the earlier season this year, are the big games going to clash with the leaving cert?
McHugh also liked someone to persist with for this year. As others have mentioned, the camera made it difficult to fully judge but he looked like an actual corner back and not a half back shoved in there. I don’t know anything about him tbh but would like to see how he holds up.
Rory Byrne did nothing to suggest he should be there ahead of Robbie. Lost far too many kick outs last night.
O’Shea was solid in midfield but got burned for pace once or twice, which suggests that he’s not the answer there long term.
Boland was good but he’s not what we’re missing in the half forward line. He’s not as physical as diarmuid and not as good a carrier as Kevin mcloughlin. Ultimately this is why he’ll lose out.
Second half it got very difficult to keep track of who was on the pitch and where they were playing. I’ve no idea who number 17 was but physically he looked the most likely of the newbies to make an impact this year.
Finally on oisin Mullin, imo whether we have him for this year or not will be decided by covid
Sam Callinan is a natural attacking half back. I can see, and i hope im wrong, mayo converting him to a corner back similar to Oisín, and maybe with similar final scenario.
The modern game is very flexible, i have no issues with backs coming forward and taking calculated risks. Forwards have a defensive responsibility too. Its 15 v 15, some one to one match ups, but fluidity in movement.
Big win for Kilmeena: they’ve just beaten Sligo’s St Patricks by 1-18 to 0-5 in the Connacht JFC final. A tilt at an All-Ireland title now awaits them.
@Sean Kilroy
I fully agree with you,alongside some reasoned criticism on here we have a lad saying Bernard Brogan,the Gooch and Ciaran McD wouldn’t be able to do any damage against an experimental Galway team in a preseason kick about.
Another genius insisting Peter Canavan come and be our coach….
I presume there’s more but that’s all I could take.
These posters are doing themselves or anybody around them no favours getting so wound up about an fdb game in January.
We talk about players showing maturity and experience on the pitch, some posters would want to have a good look at themselves, show some maturity and a bit of cop on.For the love of god have some perspective and a bit of awareness, lads scrutinising a Covid depleted fbd game like it’s an All Ireland.I used to get wound up when other counties would laugh at some of our so called supporters,I’m beginning to see what they were laughing at now.
FrostTHammer – I agree with that. You’d swear we never kick pass the ball looking at some comments here. Cillian O’Connor was in the form of his life during 2020/early 2021. We were playing to his strengths too by kicking the ball into him. Ryan and Tommy picked up the slack when he got injured last year. There was a huge difference last night when Ryan came, suddenly more ball was sticking and Ryan made things happen when he got possession.
Ryan is an all star quality forward however. People need to relax expecting every newcomer to be at that level straight from their debut.
@FW
100% right
I cant believe what im reading. You would swear that some lads who weren’t picked have been cast aside and wont get a chance to be selected this year. Between covid, sigerson, club championship, injurys etc.. there is plenty of reasons why these lads didn’t feature.
Interesting that Joyce notes Galway have been preparing for the game since early December (reference below)
https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2022/0108/1272555-horan-mayo-trying-a-different-set-up-on-a-few-things/
I know for a fact Mayo do not have as much prep done as Galway do at this stage of the year and its likely some of the regular players we will see in league and championship are only back or coming back training this week.
People would also want to remember that with the exception of sean kelly and john daly most of Galway’s starting 15 featured last night.
@FW, there maybe some posters here me included that feel it’s past time for a full change.
Change in playing style, coaching style etc.
Agree with some posters on here regarding the quick ball going in,almost every ball went in quick before O hora got the black,obviously we had to hang on to it a play a bit more possession once we went down a man.Start of the 2nd half nearly everything was played in quick too with great success until Ryan was snuffed out and kind of double marked.Do you think Galway would have the luxury of double marking Ryan with Tommy and Cillian sniffing around in there? I doubt it!
I’d like to see from Mayo this year a mix of the running game and quick ball in,I think we saw a tiny snippet of that last night although not entirely successful and of course you can’t base anything on a preseason game with 6 debutants and a load of first teamers missing
@Mayo88
I understand that,I don’t think a manager should stay more than 3 or 4 years but be careful what you wish for.I think some supporters have got a bit complacent and think we’ll always be in finals,we won’t.
Also you want a change,when? before the league? before the championship?
Congrats to Kilmeena. Anybody know who / what province they are meeting in the Semi final?
Does anybody know what the admission arrangements for tomorrows senior final is? Is it ticket only or open house?
Regards last night v Galway, anybody expecting cohesive football from such an ad hoc Mayo team must be living in cloud cuckoo land. Considering that while Galway also had a quota of newbies on the field the fact hat they started six regular forwards and also introduced Shane Walsh puts a major perspective on things. That they are so anxious for a win over Mayo also puts their ambitions in perspective. The report that some Galway players are opting out for they year is also a good indicator of their overall team outlook.
Finally: A nu poster wants Peter Canavan as a Mayo forwards coach. Why? He has dipped his toe in the coaching water without doing anything exceptional and without staying too long in any position.
Andy D, Kilmeena playing the Leinster champions. Leinster final next weekend, Kilcullen (Kildare) v Clonbullogue (Offaly).
Knockmore game ticket only- now sold out.
Sorry now lads but Andy D.
“Galway started 6 regular forwards”
One of them had never played before for Galway at any level.
“Ad Hoc Mayo”
O’Hora, Eoghan McLoughlin, Durcan, Plunkett all started All Ireland Finals and Semis in the last 6 months. That’s 4 of the 6 backs last night.
According to RTE Radio 1 today Cillian is back in training
I would try Cillian and Boland in half forwards line.Cillian at 11 probably
Grainne Uaile, thanks for that little snippet: ) Great news to hear.
Andy D Peter Canavan coached his two sons all his life and one of them won an all ireland medal against who else but good ol Mayo last September and he has another son just as good coming up. Prople also laughed on here too when it was suggested Jack O’Connor take over Mayo but no one will laugh in September when Kerry wins Sam. Maybe some people on here are happy to see Mayo continue to choke in finals but im not. Pure maddness if we keep on doing the same thing every year
As has been established already AndyD, Galway were hardly at full strength, they had 7 of the starters from when we beat them in June. And 3 of those 6 forwards have very little championship experience contrary to what you say.
They did have a bit more experience though which is why I’m not reading much into it. The 3 most experienced players on show were DOC Comer and Conroy. The latter two had excellent first halves and diarmuid was quiet and that probably accounted for the 3 point lead alone
In his post-match interview last might Horan stated that COC was back training but that the medics probably won’t have him playing for a whilst yet. DOC is closer to playing based on what Horan said.
Then he was asked the key question as to Mullin. His reply was a 1-liner that ‘it’s a difficult one for him and his family’-……….certainly I’m none the wiser.
Where did you hear that interview @spotlight? Is there a link?
1989
Cillian at half forward ?? No way he hasn’t the pace to cover that position and why would you take away your best scorer and goal poacher away from Full forward,madness one of the only problems with Cillian is he goes too deep when Mayo go out of games, we need him as close as possible to the goal, just look at what he done here against Tipperary and Dublin last year at full forward , I don’t even like when he was playing corner forward when Andy was Full forward cause he just doesn’t have that pace to get into the goal scoring chances he gets when he’s Full Forward.Lee Keegan might be our best player ever, but Cillian is our most important player, the main reason why we didn’t beat Tyrone.
@Glorydays
Peter Canavan lives in the North,has no affiliation to Mayo,is currently coaching a girls club underage team, has no serious intercounty managerial creditials and if he’s looking to take over a team it would probably be Tyrone (or a smaller team in the north like Fermanagh as he did without any success,not one of their biggest rivals)
People certainly did laugh at the prospect of Jack o Connor coming to Mayo because it would never happen for any amount of logistical reasons and it’d never work out,it’s pub talk nonsense.You bizarrely seem to be equating that with him going back to his home county for a third time to win Sam,something he made no secret about hiding (rather disrespectfully) whilst in charge of kildare.
Seriously, I get that there’s still a September hangover in some but even accounting for that you’d have to question some people’s thought process and versions of reality.
WideBall- heard it on mid-west this afternoon. Mike Finnerty asked the questions- it was basically the standard post – match interview. You might get it on the mid-west app under the ‘playback’ section.
Has anyone picked up of WJ point – James Carr hooked from the team before a ball is even thrown in.
Is someone like James Carr our plan B option where on all-ireland final day the high ball is driven in and he is strong and agile enough to get it and bury it?. But from what we have seen over the last two years, he is a man woefully short of confidence at inter-county level and doesn’t know whether to stick or twist anytime he gets the ball. And therefore, he needs working on starting with actually giving him a game.
I suspect that is what WJ is saying; and also pointing a finger at James Horan and asking ‘what the hell do you think you are doing?’ (to put it mildly).
Dessie Farrell has announced that Stephen Cluxton will not be involved with Dublin for 2022.. in a Irish Independent report, I suppose it confirms what we already knew.. I would like to wish Stephen all the best in his retirement, no doubt about it, the most influential player of the 21st Century and one of the greatest players of all time.
@TheLondonEye
James Carr wasn’t in the match day panel.
https://connachtgaa.ie/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2022/01/Mayo-Galway-FBD.pdf
James Carr is one of those players that’s definitely not fulfilling he’s potential as he’s in and out of the team shur it cant be easy to regain any bit of confidence when that’s happening he has the physicality and nos where the posts are maby his pace is lacking it would be great to see himself get plenty of game time in the league , it’s abit funny how the mullin saga is dragging on when it looks like he’s staying around it’s a wonder they hafnt come out and officially said so and put things to bed either way but he would shurly be down under by now and in pre season training
James Carr also seems to pick up a lot of injuries unfortunately. there’s also a huge number of people who have covid or are isolating as close contacts, so there could be several reasons for absences other than not being picked by management.
Some lads are always injured. There isn’t a dressing room in Ireland at club or county level without a couple of lads who always seem to be carrying a knock of some kind. Lads who can’t get any momentum in their football as they seem to always get some setback just when it looks like they are hitting form.
James carr is that guy for Mayo, so far in his career anyway.
There’s one or two others not far behind him – Harrison is one in the last few years especially
What is wrong with Mayo footballers both Club and County, none of them can kick a score from play. Maybe its the coaching. From what I see so far from Knockmore none of their players are going to improved the County panel.
Reaper not the answer to our goalkeeper problem.
What did Reape do wrong? A lot of other knockmore players who were touted as potential Mayo players this year have done their chances no good at all today.
Orme best for knockmore and even he has a couple of very bad wides