At half-time in today’s All-Ireland quarter-final, we were well in the game.
We’d had plenty of the ball in the opening half and although we’d been rocked, yet again, by a Dublin goal, we’d fought back really well after that. We’d even had a goal disallowed ourselves, which I’m told TV replays confirmed was the right decision.
By the end of the third quarter, though, we were dealing with the aftermath of a metaphorical car crash. Just as Dublin had done to us in the 2019 semi-final, they hit us mercilessly after the break and well before the end we were routed.
By the finish, we’d suffered our worst Championship defeat since the 2006 All-Ireland final. Yes, it really was that bad.
In the game’s immediate aftermath, I have neither the energy nor the inclination to go through this in any kind of detail. Lord knows, we now have several long months to ruminate over all that.
Anyway, let’s have a quick look back on today and how it all went so horribly wrong for us.
We made one fairly well anticipated change in advance of throw-in, with Sam Callinan lining out instead of Jason Doherty. Dublin made four changes, which included leaving Jack McCaffrey and Ciaran Kilkenny on the bench, while Cormac Costello and Paul Mannion both started.
The opening quarter was cautious enough, with neither team willing to commit too much to attack. Fifteen minutes in we were a point to the good and full value for it, even if by then Colm Reape’s difficulties in getting his restarts away were apparent and Padraig O’Hora was already bailing water in attempting to keep tabs on Colm Basquel.
Then Dublin broke through for their first goal. Basquel expertly claimed a long ball in and had sufficient power and guile to get past two defenders and make space for his shot to the net.
We responded with what transpired to be our best period of the game. Over a ten-minute period, we banged over four points without reply to lead by two. It would have been three only Jordan Flynn’s effort from distance came up short.
It was after a Dublin pointed free that the disallowed goal happened. Jordan Flynn hit the deck as he bore down on goal and lifted the ball with his knees before burrowing past the flailing cover and smashing it to the net. The panel on RTÉ were content that the decision not to award the goal was correct and I’m not in any position to argue.
There was only one further score before the break. We’d missed a few chances to edge clear before this score came but when it did it was Dublin’s James McCarthy – what a game this venerable old war horse had today – who got it and the Dubs went in a point to the good.
We were well in it at this stage, despite our restart travails. Little did we know then what kind of whirlwind would hit us after the break.
Dublin scored straight from the throw-in and two further points followed in quick succession. Now four in arrears, we needed to get back into the game and fast.
Instead, disaster befell us. Sam Callinan was attempting to shepherd the ball out over the end-line and it would have been the correct thing to do but for the fact that Paul Mannion was lurking behind him. Quick as a flash he lifted the ball and seconds later Basquel was batting it into the net.
Killed, yet again, by Dublin goals, to which, yet again, we had no answer. Already we knew this was curtains for us.
From there to the finish was simply ghastly. The lads’ heads dropped visibly, basic skill execution went awry and, to add insult to injury, Eoghan McLaughlin hit the post with a yawning open goal at his mercy.
By now, I just wanted the pain to stop. It was obvious we were beaten and it was equally obvious that the longer the game went on the bigger the beating would be. In the end we shipped a twelve-point whipping, our worst Championship defeat in a generation.
There’s not a whole load more to say about the game right now. A year that promised so much careered completely out of control in recent weeks, culminating in today’s hammering. It’s a defeat that, I fear, will reverberate badly for a long time, as it undercuts so thoroughly any claims we might have to be a competitive force at the game’s top level.
It’s fairly clear that, as we survey the wreckage of today’s collapse, major change – in both tactics and playing personnel – will be required for next year. In that respect, this afternoon’s defeat marks an ending of sorts. We can only hope – because hope is all we’re left with – that in time it could help to usher in a new beginning for us.
Mayo: Colm Reape (0-1, ’45); Jack Coyne, David McBrien, Padraig O’Hora; Paddy Durcan (0-1), Stephen Coen, Eoghan McLaughlin; Matthew Ruane, Diarmuid O’Connor; Sam Callinan, Jack Carney, Jordan Flynn (0-1); Aidan O’Shea (0-1, free), Tommy Conroy (0-2), Ryan O’Donoghue (0-5, two frees). Subs: Enda Hession for O’Hora, Cillian O’Connor for O’Shea, Kevin McLoughlin for McLaughlin, Donnacha McHugh for Coen (blood), James Carr for Ruane, Jason Doherty for Callinan.
Our Final Whistle podcast from Croke Park is now up on Patreon. We’ve got expert post-game analysis on it from Billy Joe Padden, John Casey and Eamon O’Hara, as well as reaction to the defeat from Kevin McStay. The pod is available here.
Who was our MOTM against Dublin? Pick your top three performers
- Ryan O'Donoghue (20%, 443 Votes)
- Diarmuid O'Connor (19%, 437 Votes)
- Tommy Conroy (13%, 286 Votes)
- Paddy Durcan (11%, 237 Votes)
- Jordan Flynn (8%, 178 Votes)
- David McBrien (7%, 149 Votes)
- Aidan O'Shea (6%, 143 Votes)
- Sam Callinan (2%, 55 Votes)
- Padraig O'Hora (2%, 45 Votes)
- Jack Coyne (2%, 41 Votes)
- Colm Reape (1%, 33 Votes)
- Enda Hession (1%, 33 Votes)
- Stephen Coen (1%, 27 Votes)
- Eoghan McLaughlin (1%, 24 Votes)
- James Carr (1%, 20 Votes)
- Jason Doherty (1%, 19 Votes)
- Matthew Ruane (1%, 19 Votes)
- Jack Carney (1%, 18 Votes)
- Cillian O'Connor (1%, 14 Votes)
- Kevin McLoughlin (1%, 14 Votes)
- Donnacha McHugh (0%, 9 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,111
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Genuinely gutted for ye lads,
I know how quiet the car is heading home after a loss in Croke Park.
I’m sure it’s very tough especially on the little ones who don’t understand.
Unfortunately the seeds of today’s loss was sown in Limerick 2 weeks ago.
Mayo just looked exhausted in that 3rd quarter.
To behonest I’d be a but disappointed in the management that they didn’t envisage that and tried to be really tight just after HT.
Unfortunately some of the shot selections were costly too.
Dublin looked ravenous in that 2nd half but I still wonder about them.
They gave up chances that really should have been converted.
Anyway commiserations again and the sun will rise in the morning.
Utterly shocking second half performance. Dublin got their match ups sorted at half time and annihilated us as a result.
No point in really voting in that poll. Thanks WJ for putting it up but absolutely no value in it today.
The question has to be asked, have we improved in any way since last year? I think we have got worse.
No defensive shape whatsoever. No clinical cutting edge in attack. No game plan.
How can someone like Rory Gallagher go to Derry and completely transform them. Why did Jack O’Connor make a move for Paddy Tally? Look at the magic Mickey Harte is doing at Louth.
We played a forward at CB this year and asked him to do everything a CB should not do. No effort to play a sweeper. If Mayo don’t have the forwards to win games then why don’t we put a defensive system in place to stop the opposition?
It’s so frustrating to watch us and yet our manager spoke highly about the level of experience on the ticket. I saw nothing this year that gives me confidence for the next 3 years.
If we learned anything from those awful defeats in 2004 and 2006 is that Mayo always come back and we will again too even if it takes a while. I admire Donegal they come every 20 years get to a final and win it and arent seen again in a final for another 20 years (notwithstanding the final they lost to Kerry a few years back) and win again. Id settle for not getting to a final again until we are able to win the damn thing
Today felt very like 2019 when it marked the end of an era. That day told us that there was a transition due to come, with Messers. O’Shea, Vaughan, Parsons, Higgins, Boyle, Barrett coming to the end.
Problem with today is that we’ve done the transition. There won’t be wholesale changes because that process has been done and has been completed. McLoughlin and Doherty may go, but they weren’t mainstays this year anyway.
The problem is our lack of stand out players. I hope I’m not being insulting, Willie Joe, but I think a lot of our players are 7/10 8/10 players. The likes of Reape, Carney, Coyne, O’Hora,Coen, Callinan (though young) are all good inter county footballers but not the stars that we used to have, the players that used to produce 9/10 performances so frequently, win All Stars consistently. They’ve a good squad of them but not enough absolute stars.
Thus, I think we’ll be competitive for a few years but not in terms of an All Ireland. We are way off it. For us, we will live to rue 2021 for a long, long time.
Look, they will improve in time, I’m sure but they have a long way to go.
Thought Reape was in trouble all through. They pushed up and we found it so hard to get kick outs away, though we did well on breaking all for a good period in the first half. O’Hora was well beaten throughout. He’ll find it hard to come back now. That’s a roasting from Clifford last year and Basquel today. They’re hard to keep coming back from, though he has great mental strength.
We were well beaten in midfield. Mattie has lost form again, though Diarmuid tried hard all day in fairness to him.
Ah, it’s deflating. Dublin were awesome, McCarthy and Mannion turned it on when they had to. Biggest surprise was Basquel. Costello too was excellent. They, like Kerry, seemed to time their run to perfection.
McStay will learn from this but I genuinely don’t believe he has the players to win an All Ireland anyway. That said, the messing about with holding players off until the second half like he did for a lot of the year and the messing about with centre back has to stop. Start with a strong spine to the team next year and go from there. Select a centre back and go from there. I don’t agree with it being a good year. It’s the lack of consistency that’s maddening. Mayo always produced performances in the past, always rose to the big occasion. That’s completely gone and we’re back to the inconsistent levels we had many years ago where they could be brilliant one week and awful the next. It’s so disheartening to see. They’ve a lot of work to do to try get the support levels back because I think the belief and faith in this team isn’t there at this moment in time and will only dissipate more after today.
Today was tough, that’s all we can say.
Two final points
Great to see the blog and comments from it mentioned in the match programme today and in a positive sense too.
I do feel the future of football is bleak. The first game today was awful, as was the Armagh/Monaghan match yesterday. This defensive football is a curse on the game. In fairness to both teams, they try to play football. Dublin were always going to go defensive once they went up by 6 or 7. The maddening thing is how we were so bad at it in Limerick which completely messed up the season.
Anyway. Life goes on.
Thank you, West Kerry. Commiserations gratefully accepted tonight. I also think it is hard on the small ones. Indeed, one might say there are small ones inside all of us who are hurting a bit tonight. We do look up to our heroes. I know I see some of these Mayo players in that light and it is hard to see them lose. But such is the journey of sport. Kudos to those Mayo supporters who have followed the team for a very long time (even decades). It takes strength and that makes me feel better that you’ve been showing up all this time.
The problem with Mayo or indeed any county in west of Ireland and indeed others is the club structure .
It’s not good enough to compete with money -bags Dublin .
Money buys success ,look at J p McManus at Limerick ,pumped in millions ,and hey presto ,on 4 in a row .
No team from west will win again for years if at all .
Hard luck to our lads. That was a tough defeat. Time to rest and feel the hurt and let it bring new fire next year.
Thanks for your effort through the year. A new team is being crafted and I’ll always believe in Mayo.
Well done Dublin. Great team work today.
Maigheo go deo
? At the beginning of the season would we have taken a league title,bate Galway and get to a 1/4 final,?admittedly we didn’t exactly die with our boots on today. If (only speculating)today was Kev, Mac,s last day and J. Doc’s, a thousand thank yous and the best of luck to both men.
We were for sure well beaten today and If we are really honest with ourselves we are an average championship squad blowing hot and cold and I cannot see that changing for a while, sadly we just don’t have enough top quality footballers in Mayo. The Kerry game was a one off and then Louth/Cork kinda showed us where we’re really at, you need goals and big scoring threats in these big games but it’s just not there in this Mayo squad. I’m hoping that McStay & Co. can at least lay the foundation to develop a squad of players that are capable of competing at the top in the c’ship and that can one day deliver success.
However, come Jan we’ll all be at it again as if today never happened and I guess that’s the beauty of the GAA & especially Mayo.
It’s always best to reflect on these defeats a week or so after the event and not when it’s raw like now …. but it’s really yuk, it hurts and and my thoughts are with the whole squad because I know they are really hurting.
It’s the hope & belief that kills us always and we are a county that will never stop believing because we can …
Up Mayo !!!
If there’s one thing about this new format that should change, it’s at least a two week break between games once it’s into knockout stages.
Today was a lesson for up and coming newcomers to panel. We have good footballers but Dub and Kerry highlighted the levels required for stardom.
Lesson for the management two. CHB is absolutely pivotal in any team. McBrien, to me, is the only potential CHB to meet the requirements and give us leadership. Carney Jordan Hession McHugh and others have higher levels to attain and they may very well.
Obsession with and references to Galway are absolute jibberish. We have our own house to focus on
Mayo’s best ever modern performance was the 2017 final and, as a Dub, they were the better team and drove Dublin to the wall. They are a fair distance from that standard now but not as far as some supporters believe. I think the likes of Cillian and Aidan need to step aside now and let the younger lads come through.
4 players who were really poor during the 10 minute after half time were Stephen Coen, Matty Ruane, Jack Carney and Eoghan McLaughlin.Gave Reape no options for kickouts on the Dublin press and left the centre wide open.Management very poor on the day too
I tend to agree WJ. This defeat is a major setback in every sense and has done severe damage to us psychologically that won’t go away easily if ever.
Most of us felt we should have won an All Ireland in the last 10 years and 2021 was probably the easiest opportunity. Today feels like any remnant of a dream of winning it has finally vanished.
With all the talk about expensive county set ups and inter County coaches, Cian O’Neill, Kieran Donaghy, Rochford and Buckley, Kevin Walsh, Mark McHugh, Paddy Tally.
The most impressive of the lot has been Vinny Corey and his brother!!!!
23rd minute Mayo leading 0-8 to 1-3. Rest of the match outscored 1-14 to 0-3 and it could have been worse than that.
Three games in 14 days was no way helpful against a rested Dublin but Mayo only have themselves to blame for that be blowing a great chance to top the group after beating Kerry.
Played 14 league and championship games this year winning 7,drawing 2 and losing 4. Season highlights two wins against Galway and winning in Kilarney. The lowlights losing to Roscommon at home a week after winning a national title, letting a 6 point lead slip against Cork and today’s trimming.
In the words of Johnny Logan what’s a another year?
The bottom line is we don’t have enough top players and no management team would have won it today.
That said mgt must be looked at. When the job came up I posted here that the least of the options I wanted was the McStay one primarily because of the thripe Donegal played under Rochford and the fact that Kerry didn’t want Buckley. Today they took Aido off who was needed in the square and to win long kickouts. Then they start Stephen Coen at CB who doesn’t have the pace for Croker and Dublin knew that and just went down the middle. He was anonymous and yet they leave him on until he gets injured.
They start Sam Callinan at half forward when he is a defender. The biggest indictment is they don’t have a system. Make it up as you go along.
And finally it seems the meltdown in Limerick came back to haunt them as they seemed to run out of steam with the extra match.
We won the League that none of the top teams were too worried about. It reminded me of McStays first stint with the Rossies. Started well but downhill after.
Let’s face it we were poor after the League Final
Peter Canavan ripping mayo defensive shape to bits. It’s a terrible reflection on things.
The analysis has been brutal on the Sunday Game.
They didn’t show some of the key moments in the Mayo game, showed Clifford kicking a free from the D and how are you supposed to get hard hitting and honest analysis from Colm Cooper(Kerry), Cora Staunton(Mayo) and Peter Canavan who’s 2 sons were playing. There are loads of pundits who are impartial out there
Big Mike, aren’t they unreal. Such a limited pool. But got a system and plans in place and player buy in.
Fair flips to them
Wow Mayomagic that’s a hard read. I knew things were bad today but getting outscored by 1-14 to 0-03 after the 23rd minute is so nothing else. I’d love to know of just one area of our play that someone can point out that has improved in 2023 and that they can back up. Just one will do please?
Good post mayomagic. looking at the champ results in isolation it’s much more akin to a mayo team of the 90s/00s than the 2010s – inconsistency the order of the day
I think we’re hamstrung going forward with the new system too as winning Connacht now doesn’t guarantee a quarter against a back door team, where we could maybe hope for a favourable draw and use momentum from there
It’s difficult to see us topping a round robin group any time soon given our inconsistency – in the top 16 teams in the country truthfully there’s only a handful we’d confidently put the house on beating anymore…
But like other posters above, I think – second half collapse today aside – it was a fairly decent year all told given the squad we have. I don’t think too many current players would make the team from 2013-17, and there’s a case that – for the most part – we’re making best use of a squad containing a fair amount of limited enough players at the real top level. We don’t have too many putting their hands up to make a Kerry or Dublin 15 in all honesty. Our club scene has been poor enough also the last few years. That’s not to say there aren’t some gems coming through all the time. But nowhere to near the same extent as ten years back
We’ve benefitted hugely – taken very much for granted – from full player buy in and commitment the last decade, but you’d have to wonder with our chances of an all ireland drifting further away, will some players be more inclined to head away or pursue other interests. Basically you’d hope the wheels don’t fall off completely, as we have seen with some other counties. But it’s hard to get away from the fact two quarter exits in a row now feels like a bit of a potential watershed moment of sorts… After making semis every year bar one between 2011 and 2021
Yet hope springs eternal and you won’t feel the year whizzing by and sure no doubt the optimism will be back in full flow come January 🙂
In the meantime roll on the club championship – lets hope they see sense and get it up and running early August
Good analysis by Mcstay Brigade.
Playing a lad at corner back with no pace
In croker is an absolute disaster
Terrible decision
Would have been well up at HT otherwise
Completely outclassed today especailly in 2nd half. Dubs were awesome and were miles ahead in physicality/speed/teamwork or maybe we were tired after playing 3 weeks in a row-burnout?
Hard to know where we go from here? Need two midfielders for sure and scoring forwards if they exist!
I think we will loose a few lads like Kevin Mc and Doherty, Aiden- great servant’s for sure!
Unfortunately, we are a long way from Sam and not a patch on the 2017 team! As fans we are devastated tonight but remember our players are amateurs and no doubt will be devastated as we are! However, we must keep supporting the cause! Not easy but we are a proud and will get up on the ‘horse’ again le cunadh De!
Mhuigeo Abu!
I’ve spoken before about counties adapting. Under the last set up we heard about learnings. You can make up yer own minds what we did with those learnings.
When JOC was brought back to kerry the issues were in defence. He took a really big and brave step to bring in a northern man to sort out their defence. Year one….. How many goals did they concede…. This year, they got beaten by us in killarney…. Mid field got eaten by their own supporters.. Who was mom yesterday… DOC
Joyce came to Galway… Wanted to traditional football, tried it, got hockied, saw the issues brought in defensive man and they worked the whole league this year on a defensive structure. OK, that went belly up….but they adapted to what was needed….
Donegal, under jimmy…. Tyrone in 21….. They all read what’s going on and adapt to what’s winning….
We all agree that defensive stuff is puke to watch but I dunno about ye but listening to the first half today being the best display of football this year is no consolation to us now…
I said on here before I was on the floor after 2021. Some of the loudest voices on here had a cut at my comments questioning my and others loyalty to mayo saying we should stay home. I’m absolutely sick tonight again. Not really because Dublin beat us, it’s because we never learn….
We try the nice guy football every year and the media build us up and we fall for it..
What will probably happen now is we will go defensive 5 or 6 years too late. No offense to anyone involved in the backroom staff but I really think a change in attitude is needed. Fair play to Kevin for being positive tonight but no leading manager in world sport should accept that as a good year. We have proven the doubters right again….
All Ireland winners need to be involved with our teams, at all levels. We need a bit of bite back. Those young defenders have nothing to be ashamed of tonight. The system was blown apart.
I’ll probably get torn to shreds for this aswell but I think on here we should cut out some of the excuses for loses, picking mom when we lose, blaming refs, that kind of stuff. It’s OK to have high expectations, but sticking the knife in to other supporters because we call out a few things isn’t going to help..
WJ thanks again for hosting. To our kerry posters, I’d like to see you go all the way again this year.
If Doherty and mcloughlin did go that would mean the last of any player born in the 80s playing for the county!
Feeling old yet?!
a few will retire after that game, Aiden O shea should not be one of them, he had a good game today, was involved in most scores in first half, he was replaced too early, he should have been left on edge of square and proper ball put into him,, he won all ball put into him in first half, you cant expect him to run all day , use a man to the best of his abilities
Can I ask for people not to personalise today’s defeat against management or any players.
Just a few random thoughts from me…Can we please now stop talking about Mayo and All Ireland’s in the foreseeable future. It’s not going to happen. The golden age of Mayo football of recent vintage has ended, and how those players under Horan, never won an All Ireland, I’ll never know.
The current Mayo team/panel is way off that standard. We lost three Championship games this year to Roscommon, Cork and Dublin. Any team that does that, deserves to go no further. I’d ask the question, are the likes of Roscommon, Cork, Armagh,etc now the standard that Mayo are at ?
As a supporters base, we need to accept where we are , and stop making excuses. After we lost to Roscommon, we blamed the wet weather and fatigue from the League final, and assured ourselves that we would be a better, fresher team with a 6 week break.
After struggling to beat Louth, we blamed the hot day for a below par performance.
Cork was a complete collapse and today was the latest in a series of them.
We need to accept that Mayo, are not the force they were under Horan and Rochford, and not a lot of sign that we’re even close.
The quicker that some people on here accept that, the easier it will be to accept.
Watching Sunday game copper spoke of fatigue, I’d like to think it was a factor but it wasn’t fatigue that gave awaw the goals it was lack off proper defensive set up especially the first.
Can’t understand why we didn’t have a sweeper or why we went man to man.
Really that fall with management, fatigue may have got us in the end but we setup to fail.
We don’t have the player now to go toe to toe with Dubs, Rosscomon got a draw out of them, tactics all wrong today
100% spot on Observer 2
Very disappointing.3 games in 14 days simply too much .Nobody played well today so I will not vote in poll. No offence intended ,Willie Joe. I expect the 2 semifinals to be one sided affairs.Roll on 2024
just remember Dublin scored 5,. 20 something against Louth,, we struggled to hold on and beat them by a point, the written was on the wall. if anyone saw it,
That’s a bit one sided, observer2. Mayo were the best team throughout the league playing the best teams. They followed up the Ross defeat by beating the All Ireland champions away by 5 points. They are also beat last year’s finalists in their back yard in a winner takes all game. The comments about the 2017 team are irrelevant because there is also no team as good as Dublin 2017.
The question is whether we have the panel to compete with Kerry and Dublin in 2024. My opinion is that we are very close. We badly need Bob Touhy to come in next year and nail down a mid field spot. We need to find a centre back and at least one wing forward. But the team is much better than that awful 2nd half showing.
I think calls for aido and cillian to step aside are premature – cillian plagued by injury since early 2021, he still has a role to play if he can get a run of fitness and aido even though today wasn’t his best (still done somethings well) he has had a good season and they are both still relatively young.
The problem with Mayo is lack of attacking plan – we reach the 45’ time and time again and turn back – no penetration at all for years since the peak of our running game. We have good forwards but no plan.
Also lack of defensive plan and people knowing their roles. That comes back to coaching. Drilling systems into Players over and over in training until it’s engrained and automatic. They have to be convinced it will work too and buy in. I’m not advocating to be like Derry but they are an average team (4/5 very good players) who excel in a system of play (not enough to win an all Ireland but fair play to them). I’m a long term Rochford fan so was surprised by the lack of a plan this season but i will give management and coaches benefit of the doubt to learn from the wreckage. But playing forwards at chb is not a runner going forward.
The win against Kerry in Killarney and the league final and championship wins over Galway give some grounds for optimism. I don’t buy for 1 minute that we only won those games because the opposition were so bad. You make your own luck good or bad.
Its hard to pick the bones out of everything tonight but I think in Mcbrien Coyne and Callinan we have a back line. I would play Diarmuid at 6 with Paddy and Enda either side in the half back line.
Jordan has been fine but is sorely missed in midfield so I would play him there. Mattie has played his best football alongside Jordan so I wouldn’t be giving up on him yet.
Tommy and Ryan are easy picks. Cillian if he can get any sort of luck with injuries picks himself. Aido and James Carr offer forward options.
The gaping hole is the half forward line for me. We don’t have enough scoring options and that is the area of most concern. Jason Doc and Kevin Mc have been great servants but the cupboard looks bare. Ryan could play there maybe but I can’t think of others. Diarmuid could play at 11 with Paddy at 6 but we’re beginning to rob Peter to pay Paul.
If I were Kevin Mcstay I would be trying to find a new half forward line. The rest of the team is OK.
Hard to argue with a lot of that, Observer2.
The form line since the league hasn’t been good at all. Lost to Roscommon. Lost to Cork. And I’m positive that we would have lost to Galway last week only for all their injuries. A good display against Kerry on the surface but being honest Kerry never turned up that day. They were miles off it for whatever reason.
Hard to know will some of the old stagers come back again. Often they were so close to to being champions that it motivated lads to keep going but truthfully we look a long way of an All-Ireland now. Beaten out the gate by a Dublin side that are a good bit off their best from a few years ago.
Well that’s the end of Year 1 of the re-build.
Won the National League and a real mixed bag in the new format Championship.
As supporters, we should back the squad and management. We are also entitled to expect next year to be much better Championship wise.
There’s plenty of time for management to plan a more balanced route and better on-field structures.
We will probably lose another couple of players and maybe see one or two less familiar faces come into the wider squad.
It was a bad day today but there are better days to come. Onwards and upwards!
@Mind the House, agree 100% with all of that. Also, lunacy to expect or think Aidan or Cillian should call it a day. They absolutely have at least one more year in them.
Anyone who thinks Cillian should step aside wants examining. He has had a rotten run with injuries.
He has just turned 31 and remember Andy Moran was 33 when he won Player of the Year in 2017 after career threatening injuries when many thought he was past his sell by date.
Reality is, the more things change they stay the same.
Championship structures and the likes, Kerry and Dublin are miles ahead of everyone else, fact.
Dublin back in 2005, had four teams of excellence players like Mccarthy, Fitzsimmons, Connolly. They were not allowed play hurling after 16 years of age.
The result, 8 All Irelands in 13 years. Until we tweek our own coaching and development and start training 80 lads like Dublin dud 18 years ago we ain’t gonna win an All Ireland.
There us hope Dublin only have two of these development teams left.
As others on here have said, we need footballers who are athletes too.
On the evidence of the weekend there us a last kick in Dublin. I think they’ll shade it.
Alot of talk about Galway. Reality, they got to a final last year without meeting Dublin and Kerry. Another fact Kerry made the final after Dublin had a poor first half in the semi. Had it gone to extra time Dublin would have won.
Every niw and again, a Tyrone, Donegal or Cork come along when Kerry/Dublin have an off year. I’m I wrong? I don’t think so
I think winning the league and beating Kerry papered over some of the cracks in our defence.
How oHora was left on so long beggar’s believe.
When Dublin got the first 2 points in the second half we needed a distraction,a row or a fake injury.
Hard to blame Reape kicking out to a beaten midfield.
DoC went missing for long periods as did Ryan o Donohue
Sad to see Aiden on the line.
We need defenders that defend first.
Hope Dublin win it now.
Well having spent the entire season until last Sunday playing Conor Louftus at CHB playmaking/sweeping role, Kevin McStay abandoned it last Sunday. Several on this blog have complained about its effectiveness especially at defending. Hard to disagree, and I certainly dont blame Conor Louftus in any way, Conor was playing according to instructions. But in the absence of using Conor Louftus at CHB what effective Plan B was there for a sweeping role?..Conor Louftus played midfield in the 2020 Christmas All Ireland Final, and played CHF in many matchs, we were taking on serious water today at CHF and at midfield I just wonder would Conor have been a replacement option there, because we needed to change things up those positions. Mayo players were obviously playing on instructions, dont lose the ball recycle, recycle, recycle. I feel that despite the quality of forwards we have, Tommy Conroy, Ryan O Donague, James Carr we have coached the spontaneity out of ourselves. Mayo had some quality possession even the early part of the second half but we send nothing into either Tommy Conroy, Ryan O Donague or Aiden O Shea who were all going well enough if any decent ball came their way. I felt that Mayo were recycling away too much , neither gambling on sending the ball long to our full forward line, nor running hard at the Dublin defence to try to win a free or something. I also taught that James Carr should have been brought on alot sooner with instructions to go for things, not recycle , we needed a spark from somewhere .Even if Im right in my analysis and many might disagree with me , Dublin were far better than us today, but not 12 points if we got a few things right that we obviously got wrong.
Don’t understand people wanting Diarmuid to play at 6?
We’ve plenty natural defenders who could play there. Put Diarmuid midfield or 11 where we don’t have many options.
It will be an interesting remainder of this decade kickhams man.
Ominous enough if Kerry win it this year as it’s hard to see Dublin getting any better the next few seasons at least – still they are Dublin I guess and if anyone can pull talent from nowhere… They looked a beaten docket in 2009, two years later were champions
The new format makes upsets less likely really. Could a Tyrone 2021 event feasibly happen in this format? All round it’s very hard to see a juggernaut team coming suddenly out of the pack a la Tyrone in the 00s.
And given their tradition, age profile and talent available very hard to see Kerry falling away any time soon.
@Wide Ball
I’ve always thought Diarmuid should gave been at 11. He played there last year in the early league games including one in Croke Park and was outstanding. Bizarrely he was moved back to wing forward afterwards by Horan which baffled me.
He will begin to slow down a bit and would be great number 6 in my opinion when the time us right.
I hope Mcstay plays him at 11 next season and leaves him there. You’re right. We have defensive options. Paddy at 6 and Enda and Eoghan Mc either side would be fine.
@mind the house
Totally agree with both of your posts on Cillian
and Jorden/Matthew midfield partnership was the most successful, Matthew asked to be a defensive MF , that he is not , we are not using his strengths
We need to look at bringing in a playmaker
On another note. What a player James McCarthy is and I hope continues to be for a while yet.
An absolute warrior and I don’t remember seeing many better.
Still in shock. It went so wrong so quickly. Despair was tempting me, but the joy of the League final, Killarney, last week’s great escape in Salthill and other glorious days stopped me falling. I agree with swallow swoops, when they stand together, ready to do battle for Mayo, it feels as if they are the best of us and are our heroes.When they do well I walk a little bit taller and on days like today (and probably tomorrow at work here in Dublin) I’ll feel some kind of embarrassment and maybe even momentary shame but that’s alright, I don’t want to be from any other county, I dont want to follow any other team and I don’t want any other heroes. I expect the management and team to have the courage to come back next year so the least I can do is have it too. Mayo forever. When do we go again?
Still can not understand O Shea being subbed at that stage of game ?
Agreed Km79. Surely the obvious change was take off a half forward and move Conroy out to try get him involved.
Good posts from McStay brigade and Observer2. I think we need to stop kidding ourselves about winning All Irelands. We simply are not near that level. As one wise Dub said on the blog we were at the peak of our powers in 2017 and this present team is nowhere near that. I have no doubt but that we will improve and have lots of good players but not great players. If Sam C hadn’t started today there would have been uproar, yet he made a dreadful error for second goal. If P O Hora hadn’t started it would be said that we had no experience in full back line. He didn’t have a good game, was subbed early by Hession who didn’t have a great game either. I am not in any way shape or form having a go at these players, all very willing and talented but are enough of our players really top class. Tommy and Ryan were excellent in the first half but the sign of a good team as Dublin are they shut these lads down and Tommy especially had no impact in the second half. As supporters we tend to get incredibly optimistic based on one or two results trotting out that Dublin had played nobody and there was nothing to fear in Kerry etc. Whether we like it or not those counties time their runs and just because they don’t take the league seriously or aren’t tuned in for the early stages of the championship means nothing. Then we start to blame the management. Only decision I would question today was taking Aiden off too early and not kicking a few high ones in to the square. A lot of Mayo lads had little influence on the game after the first 25 minutes so any number of them could be subbed. It has not been a bad season, developing a number of players, winning the league, beating Kerry and Galway, but as regards winning an AI we are miles away from that. If Jason or Kev Mc retire they should do so with all our gratitude and suggesting Cillian or Aiden go is nonsense. Both still have much to offer.
Well done Dubs. Just to echo the praise for McCarthy. A legendary player, a real joy to watch. A true freak of nature. God dammit.
Hope Cillian stays given he was plagued by injury. Although the achilles is a hard one to return from, but if he’s fit next year I hope he’s still with us.
Unfathomable that Carney isn’t played at midfield. He’ll simply never be a half forward. Ever. Doesn’t have the creativity or line-breaking ability for HF. Really poor from management in that regard. He should have been hooked early today.
A real tough day for the Ballina bucks. Swannee isn’t a FB line player. Never will be. Ever. That’s three bad doings now in Croker for him in McCurry, Clifford, and today. Management need to learn.
Aido had a great year, but the Croker problem yet again apparent today for him in a very serious way. Did some good things but he can’t seem to really impact a game there V the Dubs. Still no score against them from play. And at 34 next year, it’s not going to get any easier for him is it. Yet I doubt he’ll retire.
There’ll be some tough decisions for McStay next year. But really looking forward to seeing more of the likes Bob Touhy, Sean Morahan (bring this lad in immediately), and Sam Callinan. Sam made a rookie mistake today but he won’t make it again. I do see positives for the future. Though it will take several years and it might not happen during McStay’s tenure. That’s not a swipe at Kevin, it’s just that it’s clear now it’s going to take time.
As I said, I saw this coming. Not to sound like a broken record, but no score in the final 20 against an average enough Cork side, and no score for 30 minutes in Salthill. Good night Irene.
Here’s hoping Derry become the new Northern bogie team for Kerry hahaha!!! Sorry, couldn’t resist…
He was gassed Km79 and not making any impact. Correct decision.
Paddy Andrews couldn’t believe Aido was taken off. He said he should have been kept in at FF for the full game. As a Dub he was delighted to see him coming off as the 3 inside forwards were causing Dubs problems. Lee Keegan was critical of him coming off too. It was a huge mistake and to say he was gassed is a cop out.
@Sticks, in your earlier post you wanted him playing both at midfield and at FF!!!! Come on… That would be some magic trick.
Carney went into the game injured and was having zero impact
Ruane was absolutely woeful again
O Donoghue was having at best the same impact as O Shea in the Ff line. O Shea was occupying two defenders at a time of nothing else .
I fully expected Cillian to come on at HT for Carney and Rod to move out to centre forward .
I was astonished to see O Shea taken off . It definitely gave the Dubs a lift.
Any of the 3 names above could have gone before him (with a rejig of positions)
I have been following Mayo for 45 plus years ( Born in 1962) and Mayo fans are either over the moon or in deep depression after Mayo games. Actually not much different than the fans of many counties. Have a look at many of the Kerry fans blogs in the aftermath of the Mayo Kerry game in Killarney this year. The reality is that we are not that far away from Kerry or Dublin. We peaked too early this year and had one week to prepare for the Dublin game.. which was not ideal. I am a fan of James Horn and the way he allowed our team to play with abandon . Having said that I think that we have to move with the times and play with a sweeper. We are all down tonight but the sun will rise tomorrow and so will Mayo football. I could never understand why Mayo fans were so confidant in the final of 2021 against Tyrone. We were very fortunate to get extra time in the Dublin Game and Tyrone were after beating Kerry in their Semi Final . We had not won a final for 70 years and Tyrone had won 3 in the last 20 years. I always thought that Tyrone should have been favorite’s especially with Cillian been injured . Up Mayo
@Sticks for the Reek, not sure that I agree that its Stephen Rochford call all this recycling. Stephen Rochford played good quality offensive football with Mayo and indeed Corofin not too long ago. Actually Mayo played allot of reasonably high quality football in the the first half, especially in comparison to the fare on show Derry v Cork, but with natural inside forwards of the quality of Ryan O Donaghue, Tommy Conroy and James Carr , and indeed Aiden O Shea to win possession and feed them inside forwards, we are not doing ourselves any favours, endlessly recycling. When you lose the ball after a bout of holding possession against a team like Dublin after they have time to set their defence, and because Dublin are good enough to counter at pace its far worse than to lose the ball if we had sent in a good long kicked ball to our full forward line, because we wouldnt have our entire team spread out the width of Croke Park 80 meters from our own goal and a Murchen, or McCarty, or Fenton leading a ferocious counter attack immediately (Armagh they definitely aint) . The first goal Dublin got , there was an element of speculation to it, The kicked ball was won and Basquell spun and finished to the net, massive goal , the risk for Dublin in that position was if it didnt work out like that, Mayo would regain possession but we would win the ball back in our own full back line 140 meters from the Dublin goal with 14 Dublin players between the ball and the Dublin goal, Mayo several times lost the ball today after periods of recycling and when Dublin won it back in those circumstances the counter attack was easy for them. We use so much physical energy recycling, the Mayo crowd lose emotional energy and get frustrated. I think we should do far less of it.
Fair enough Leantimes but we’ll differ on Rochford and I’m basing my thoughts on Donegal and what a few supporters in Donegal told me. Maybe he changed his philosophy to try and fit in with the Donegal approach. What I can’t understand is why McStay when he was on RTE he was an advocate of quick ball in to Aido but that seemed to go out the window in the last few matches similar to Donegal not sending high ball in to Michael Murphy. I wonder why.
I said it before – Basquel now a top player for Dublin. I hope Dublin go on to win it out, and that great warrior James McCarthy goes on to collect his record making 9th AI medal along with Cluxton. Time to knock Pat Spillane off his perch. Dublin always such a joy to watch.
That substitution to bring on Cillian, a guy with exceptional skill required either Jack Carney or Aido subbed off. Not a snowball’s chance Ryan would be hooked and Tommy couldn’t be marked by them in 1st half. Carney wasn’t dominant today but only his 2nd season, he’s for now ahead of Tuohy (who would’ve been found out in S&C stakes today’s cauldron) in the pecking order. McHugh also needs another off season or 2 of S&C and he could be a great player possibly even a midfield if he does bulk up. Regarding new faces, they take 2 seasons bar superstars like a Clifford but we have Plunkett and McCormack to call on as well. In forwards I think Towey is an option but short in stature , Fionn got no game time today but he hasn’t shown star quality. The club championship is now important to try and find hidden talents, we saw Basquel come of age today, have we some similar players? Before the match I’d have said our subs match or exceed theirs and would still think that if Kilkenny started. Jack McC is a shadow of his old self speed wise. It was more about their experience (and our albeit self inflicted 3 games no break) in the 1st 15 of the 2nd half especially in those crunch minutes after half time when the pulled clear and we started to rack up poor options in attack giving them ever more oxygen.
@Sticks for the Reek, ..I just dont think it suits our DNA , endless recycling. It was the endless recycling of the Dubs that finally was their own undoing versus Mayo two years ago. They got it right today.
Didn’t vote for anyone give it to the mayo fan’s
A few snakes in the grass this evening.
Vipers too……..
This loss was set up with the dreadful loss vs Cork then having to beat Galway last week and then try to take out a rested Dublin team at home. They need to take care of business along the way and stop making it so hard on themselves every year. The focus is not beating Kerry or Galway in the preliminaries it is winning the All Ireland…Lee Keegan said it today on tv that when they beat Dublin in 2021 they probably got too excited and weren’t ready for Tyrone in the finals.
Sympathies to the squad and to all concerned. Fully agree with McStay’s Brigade that this defensive football is a curse on the game. I watched the Derry Cork game with someone unfamiliar with Gaelic Football – after a prolonged period of Cork hand passing the ball backwards and laterally he wondered if points were being awarded for length of time in possession!
@Leantimes – spot on about endless recycling. The Dubs came out in the second half and had 1-4 on the board quickly. Why Aiden was taken off is frustrating. Minimal or no high ball played into him. McShane did it to us in 2021. It can be done – football does not have to be all tactics and keep ball.
Sin a bhfuil anois but whilst I like to be optimistic it I do not believe this was a successful year. The League is just an after thought competition. Huge injuries and shocking weather beat Galway. They will be really pissed off because with a full complement they would have given the Dubs a run yesterday. We beat Louth but it could have gone the other way. I dont know what happened with Cork but maybe there was a virus in the camp.
Yes we have bedded down a few new players but surely that is what it is all about. Management did take risks through the year. Some were overplayed. Putting Aiden up front was brilliant and it did work – but he did not get the feed which he deserved as his confidence rose game by game. Having said all that fair play to James McCarthy – a great warrior. We beat ourselves at the end of the day – both on and off the pitch.
Very disappointing today, but in fairness we’ve seen it before, 3 games in 3 weeks isn’t manageable, happened in 2019 and again against Roscommon this year. Still think all in all it was a good year, none of us expected a run this year and the team gave us great days against Kerry twice, Tyrone and Galway the last day out. It’s tough to take but we do have some great players and will be back, just missed the energy today for that 3rd quarter push. Another thing we should always be proud of is how we always go to play the game the way it should be played. And thanks to the lads for all they give, it’s easy for us to sit on the sidelines and give out. This is year one of four, lessons learned and all that.
#mayo4abitofarebuild
We need to move away from our current approach, we don’t kick the ball enough. We will never win an AI handpassing up the field
My questions would be for management :
1. Why were we so inconsistent all year ?
2. How do we struggle so badly v defensive teams / lateral passing ?
3 .why did we go with a forward as a centre Back for most of the season when it was clearly not working ?
4 . we have no scoring threat in the half forward line , what can be done to develop this ?
5 ,Did we peak to early with the league ?
6. Why can we not close out a lead ?
7. Big one for me – would be do we need to change/ develop our playing style ? Our game play is essentially creating mayhem v teams with our attacking play. Do we need to focus on a defensive structure ?
8 what can be done to develop our midfield ? We were cleaned out 3 games in a row.
9.is there too many big egos within the management team ? Is it working?
3 points in the last 55 minutes of football says it all. Our forward play and ability to get scores has collapsed in the championship outside the Kerry game.
10 points v Ross
14 points v Louth
1-11 v Cork
1-10 v Galway
11 points v Dublin.
That type of scoring won’t win you many games at this level.
I give MOTM to Delia on the bridge between Kilcock and Maynooth. She played a blinder as always!
On Aidan being taken off – from TV looked like once that second goal went in Dublin had us and could drop 2 men back to completely cut off high ball in. Other than Hail Mary’s being pumped in it looked like the 2nd goal we shipped meant that wasnt going to be an option. Didn’t look like there was any realistic plan b going forwards but it was always going to be tough.
That open goal going off the post a sickner – looks like Eoghan taking that on his left was his only option but that’s a skills point as hit it properly on the right and it must go in.
Applying that to our season – we were not able to protect a 5 and a 6 point lead when we had them, and as soon as we shipped 3 points in 2nd half it was clear that a goal would have been fatal. Protecting ourselves from goals at key times hasn’t happened. That type of management is something that will have to be worked on.
In terms of the general defensive plans – we had a clear plan re chb that was tried and mgmt had to abandon it for Galway and Dublin. Obviously changing approach at this stage in season was going to be tough and hopefully there’s time for a new plan.
Very sobering reading turnip head
Since Andy’s goal v Dublin in 2013 I can’t recall any player scoring a goal against them in champ except Lee – a defender. Again pretty bleak reading
Some very odd comments here earlier this year about Dessie and ‘desperation” bringing back mannion, jack and cluxton… Certainly not ageing well now… you pick your best players and that’s it. Although I understand there’ll always be an element of wishful thinking at play, fair enough
To think Con was mediocre and Kilkenny didn’t even start yesterday 🙁 both a serious break for us…
They could have 14 schoolboys out there though but I wouldn’t discount James McCarthy carrying every one of them on his back to a final, what a man.
That’s it in a nutshell Turnip Head. The scoring rate is truly appalling considering we have players like Tommy Conroy and ROD on the field. If it was one game you could say ok, things will get better, but in 5 games out of 6. No one seems willing to ask the hard questions as to why this has happened. Could you imagine the uproar in Kerry if that was their scoring return.
The gas thing is had we been 4 or 5 down at HT it may have suited us better
For some reason mayo the last few seasons only truly come alive when written off or faced with adversity. Had we played this game after the cork game we’d have been far more equipped for it (still wouldn’t have won) but there was way too much hype during the week and this never seems to end well. We’d probably beat whoever we play if there was a game next week now!!
Hard to understand it but this team just does not handle expectation well at all (2013-17 team mainly thrived off any circumstances) it’s a big one for the mgmt team to address
I think its time management visited Foxford woollen mills and commisioned our very own version of the blanket. Man to man isnt the way to go against the Dubs obviously. The Mayo blankek wont be pretty but who cares if its pretty effective
Sooo dissapointing obviously our guys were totally exhausted from the Galway game and dubs had 2 weeks off but still was a shocking fall in 2nd half . We have no complaints though dubs far better I’d say they will win Sam now .
I will still be cheering our guys on next year as always .
Try not to be harsh on our guys I know it’s hard not to be after such a collapse but the joy they bring when we are going well is something else.
Loads said we wouldn’t even be competitive at all this year so give the lads a break it’s more management I’m shocked by tbh .
Was not our day at all yesterday for sure but I’ve no doubt we will come again next year
@km79
Why do you consider AOS to be untouchable. He laid off a few nice assists in first half but I don’t think its unfair to expect a bit more from him at this stage. You need speed and scores at that stage in croker, and Aido supplies neither and hasn’t done in croke Park for a long time. Would kerry/dublin/tyrone persist for years with a player who wasn’t impacting things?
Swanee had another tough day in hq, he is many things but a man marker he ain’t. He got destroyed by clifford and mccurry there previously, its either hb or nowhere for o’hora I’m afraid
The GAA do need to make the competition fair by giving the preliminary winners a two week break. We would have lost by much less being actually fresh enough to play the game.
Tyrone also got unexpectedly smashed.
Monaghan could deal with it as Armagh attack slowly.
Derry Cork was really a 4pt hammering in the second half.
I’ll post something positive later about the future, we need it.
Man to man isn’t the way to go against anyone anymore. You saw it on the other side when the Mayo forwards were on islands with their markers they had them beat up a stick when any sort of decent ball came in. There was plenty of chance to do this throughout, but slightly hesitant when pressure was put on out the field by Dublin.
Mayo needed a sweeper after 5 minutes it was very very evident and we didn’t do it. Legs went as well not helping second half, peaking too early has far more of a role here than a 3 week run. But a long story short is that we need to seriously work on defending in a unit, which shouldn’t take 2 years to do (Derry progression and Cork progression) and we need to work on breaking down these blankets. Get some coaches in from the club scene, Mayo club football is riddled with good defensive and attacking coaches. Our last 5 county champions (Tubber x 2, Knockmore x 2 and Westport last year) all played with a seriously organised defensive system.
Good few inaccuracies in here with all the emotion. @liberal, O’Shea has scored from play against Dublin. I don’t understand your point but might as well not make things up.
@ciaran, Cillian has scored a goal from play against the Dubs, again not sure what the point was but let’s get the facts correct.
@supermac, who says he is untouchable? He contributes more than others but tactically Mayo don’t use him to his strengths. They tried yesterday and it worked a few times in the first half but we can’t win enough ball at midfield and then deliver it quickly enough. We badly need ball winners and good foot passers in that area of the field.
Feel absolutely deflated this morning and didn’t enjoy yesterday one bit. I’m not talking just about losing because I felt that way all day. Maybe it’s because I’ve got too many miles in the legs but I honestly didn’t have any energy for the trek to Dublin after all the games so far this year. Since the 14th of January yesterday was the team’s 16th game I think and I’ve been at 12 of them and I’m exhausted tbh. Considering there was a period of 6 weeks without a game it’s farcical that we have had to play on so many consecutive weekends. We won the fecking league and were duly punished by having to play championship a week later and then nothing for 6 weeks until a barrage of games culminating in 3 games in 14 days. A trip to Limerick (apparently halfway between Cork and Mayo) followed by a massive away clash in Galway and finally another slog to Dublin where the wheels finally came off. This is no way to treat intercounty players and if this sounds like making excuses then so be it but if I’m out on my feet without having kicked a ball imagine what the players are feeling like. I no longer watch Sunday game or listen to so called pundits unless they’re on our podcast where at least they are held to task to view games objectively. Too often a game is viewed as a contest between 2 teams on an even footing but that’s not so. Two weeks ago Dublin had a canter against Sligo while we had a tough one with Cork, then last week they had their feet up while Mayo had to go to Salthill and play another of the favourites and now one week later its Dublin as usual the only team in the country to get a home quarter final. I know people will say it’s our own fault for not getting a result against Cork, fair enough but we got a result in the league final and we’re still punished. This new format sucks as far as I am concerned and from reading the above comments I suggest people lay off on the slagging of players and management and instead call for an even playing field for every team.
Sorry about the rant but it really passes me off the way some counties and fans are treated.
We need a rebuild I am afraid.
Some old ,great servants will have to go.
Our backs as a unit are not up to it, a little inexperience in the FBL
Midfield a big worry as is the fact that RoD was out of the game after 10 minutes.
Felt sorry for Reape trying to find a free man, he did well in the circumstances.
Line very slow to take off oHora.
Ok GBXI make it the last 7 championship games against them so. Still not reading well sadly
What’s the point? No forward has scored a goal from play in 7 meetings against an All Ireland rival. You don’t see any sort of relevance in that no?
And not trying to pick an argument with you as youre by far one of the better, more reasoned posters around here
but I personally thing its a damning stat
I know we have to be able to beat anyone to win the AI but to be fair we got bad luck with the draws this year. In Connacht we got a hard draw and then getting Galway and Dublin when easier draws were possibly.
We done OK in the first half, we really should have gone in at half time in front. To be honest, I did not expect the collapse in the first 10 minutes of the second half, it was shocking. We gave up completely after the second goal, we couldn’t handle the heat that Dublin put on, our heads dropped and the one team you can’t allow the heads to drop against is Dublin, they just pile on the pressure, relentless stuff.
As supporters, and this is very hard to say, but I think we all need to admit that we’re not currently in a position to win an All Ireland. To put it bluntly, we’re not good enough. That said, with a few adjustments and a bit more tactical nous on the line, I think we can put ourselves into a position to compete again. Two tame quarter final exits in a row is not good enough.
Things to do in 2024:
-Develop a kick out strategy. Reape came under serious pressure yesterday, he really had no outlet to kick to. Needs a lot of work.
-Develop an effective midfield partnership. We lack a dominant midfielder. When the heat came on Reape’s kick outs yesterday, he did not have a reliable outlet in the centre to aim for. Gone are the days when Tom Parsons or Seamus O’Shea would claim a clean catch that would lift the crowd and relieve the pressure. Carney, Touhy, Flynn should be tried here next year.
-Find a reliable number 6 who holds the centre. Paddy Durcan.
-Keep Aidan on the edge of the square. Aidan done alright yesterday, one of our better players, set up lots in the first half, keep him in there and he’ll free up space for our other attackers.
-Forget about the League, stay up, try out new tactics, work on weaknesses, develop systems of play. We should not be playing samba football in February. Develop our training system so that we are fit and flying from June to July. Anything outside that is pointless. Look at Dublin and Kerry today, people were writing them off a couple of months ago. poor league, no hunger, over the hill, only have one player etc, who’s laughing now, not us.
-Kick the ball. This lateral nonsense of holding the ball on our own 65 when we need to chase the game needs to stop. We were 7 points down yesterday and we must have held the ball for three or four minutes at one stage on our own 65m line, kick it in, we have ball winners in there!
Dublin were fantastic in the first 10 minutes of the second half yesterday, they really rolled back the years. I think they’ll go on and win the All Ireland. That said, it may be the last kick from them, they’re like a wounded animal this year, the last two semi final defeats really hurt them and they’re on a mission to win the All Ireland back. I fully expect it to be a Dublin V Kerry final, Dublin to nick it after a replay.
We’ll be back, as supporters we need to rest up and reduce expectations for a couple of years. The Mayo for Sam stuff needs to be put on Ice for a year or two, opposition supporters are just using that phrase to hammer us with now. Let’s try and bring through some of our Minors from 2022/23, the next U20 coaching role is crucial, we badly need to be doing better in this grade. Enjoy the Club Championship and the winter. Up Mayo.
Personally, I don’t care who ends up putting the ball in the net. If a back scores, the forward will likely have to create the chance, like O’Shea and Moran did for Keegan’s goals. On the general point of scores from play I think Mayo have been poor the past two seasons. Last year there was some excuse with Horan probably being a tired voice but the performance yesterday is very worrying. Tactically it looks like we got it all wrong, made a horror decision of starting O’Hora instead of Hession, and then had no clear plan for winning our kick outs. Maybe it’s a sound bite but it reads like McStay is putting a lot of blame on Reape. I think Reape’s kick outs are average but that definitely wasn’t his fault. We couldn’t handle the press. It’s sad how similar it was to 2019.
I don’t understand how people can put the blame on Reape or even suggest it. How was Stephen Cluxton able to get his kick outs off when mayo did a high press? Because simply put the movement of the outfield players was far better than Mayo. Additionally I can’t remember the last time one of our midfielders lorded it around the middle in the air. What is a goalie meant to do when his 2 midfielders offer no Ariel presence and our movement off the ball is average at best.
If McStay is suggesting that it’s Reape’s fault then he has a very short memory because Reape was the soul reason we won that league final. We don’t have a kick out strategy and that fault lies at the feet of the manager.
Looking on the positive side Dublin hammered us by 8 points in 2015. We made it to back to back AI finals the following two years.
Same thing happened in 2019 and we made it back to finals in 20 and 21, beating Dublin in the process.
Things can change fast so I wouldn’t be writing off 2024 as a rebuilding year at all.
I still think reape is a great goalie can’t blame him for the goals going in it’s a team effort our defence was all over the place. Management need to re group and re think our plans for next year serious questions over their tactics yesterday tbh
Peaked fitness in the league. This is the track record for manager. Beaten fair and square,but feel for the players. Another interesting point the minor manager resinged this week..A hour later Mayo Co Board asked for nomination for the U20 post. How interesting.
How did we beat Kerry and Galway in championship if our fitness peaked during the league?
Management deserve some criticism for yesterday but I don’t know why people keep making that same point about fitness.
I agree with Leantimes, I dislike the recycling. I think that was our main mistake in the match, recycling for so long in the first half, playing down the clock.
It’s not a fair criticism, I know, as hindsight is perfect vision. If we had gone for the jugular early, Dublin would be spinning. They put their money on the second half to win the game. How would they be coming from behind? We rarely see it with their full strength team. We could have seen it yesterday.
I really believe the final scoreline flattered Dublin. If Callinan had just booted the ball out of play and then McLaughlin hits the net then its a completely different game. Once the 2nd goal went in it allowed Dublin to pull all 15 players back behind the ball and just break at speed when we made a mistake by trying to force the final pass.
We had so many chances to chip away at the scoreboard with points and at least keep it respectable but from 25 minutes before the end they were trying to force the goals that just were never going to happen, especially after the baffling decision to take off O’Shea and then start playing the ball into the full-forward line!
The fitness issue is a non-runner in my opinion. They are as fit as anyone out there but when the head goes down then everything else drops too. The more you have to chase a game and try to force the issue the more mistakes are going to be made and any half decent team will punish those mistakes by just picking off points at will.
It’s not all doom & gloom today. We lost by ten against Dublin in 2019 and came back to play in the next two All-Ireland finals when everyone, our own supporters included, thought the team were dead and buried and heading back to late 2000’s levels.
Other than Jason Doherty and Kevin McLoughlin I personally don’t see any retirements coming Mayo’s way. They have 6-9 months now to come up with a plan for what to do against a blanket defence. Get those players taking shots form further out than 20 meters! Go to club games this Summer and you will see they are more than capable of doing it, it’s just coached out of them at intercounty level. Kicking from distance is how Kerry get by the blanket and we need to do the same. Maybe start trying to set up a blanket of our own as well might not be the worst idea!
The league next year is all about working on their game plan. Relegation to Division 2 didn’t do us any harm a few years ago and it certainly hasn’t done Dublin any harm this year. For long term gain it might mean short term pain in the Spring months once we can see some improvement in the team and their gameplan.
The world hasn’t ended, life goes on and there’s plenty football to see this weekend around the county!
Indeed a worry Onemoreyear. We really need to analyse how we have exited the last 3 minor championships after taking really bad beatings in the final matches of the 2021,2022 and 2023 seasons. The same at under 20 level unfortunately. We really do need to bring in new voices for these up and coming lads. My worry is that the CB have set a closing date of the end of August for applications. That pretty much rules out every club manager in Mayo as they can hardly walk from there club roles a week before the start of the club championship. Had the CB taken this into account, possibly?
@Way Out West, you’ve captured it all well there in fairness. For me though, there is something not quite right at the moment in our set up, and I can’t put my finger on it yet!!
We would have been much closer (but lost) if the GAA actually had a fair schedule.
Tyrone, Mayo and Cork all died a death in the second half of their games.
Monaghan did fine, but their game against Armagh involved long periods of tapping the ball around midfield under no pressure conserving energy.
A preliminary winner will not beat the top three teams on this schedule.
“We got a tough lesson today but I’ve to look at this in the overall,” said McStay. “It hasn’t been a bad season for us. We’ll take plenty of lessons from it.
“We had three or four young players in our backline. This will be a great day out for them when they look back at it in 10 years. They’ll learn an awful lot from it.
“That’s the way we have to look at it. We’re here for a longer haul than just having a crack in one single season. We’ll go back, rest, meet and see what the overall picture is.
“In an overall sense, not a bad year for us but today it ends disappointingly.”
Callinan and Coyne will really love looking back on today in 10 years time….. Sounds like blame deflection on young lads who were left with no protection in front of them all year
JP we can’t blame the schedule, we knew what had to be done to get our weeks off.
I know some are saying we are not the force we were but we still won the league, and we beat Kerry only a few weeks ago and now everyone has them in for all Ireland because they beat a poor Tyrone team, we can’t be that far off it, this is not the first time we have got destroyed in second half, we don’t need to press the whole time especially when are midfield is getting cleaned. We may not have won yesterday but I don’t think we should be 10 points off the Dubs if we used some common sense.
But shouldn’t be there some proper incentive for topping the group JP?
Ourselves Galway and Tyrone got exactly what we deserved imo, messing up on the final weekend
Was in our hands against a D2 team to top the group
Personally I’d scrap the prelims altogether though
Same old story. Dreadful collapse in the second half. Those teams playing in Division 2 aren’t bad after all. Perhaps the 3 games in a row had a telling effect on us. Dublin sussed everything at half time and upped the ante and ran straight up the middle at us. Colm Basquel is a serious player and Mayo did not make preparations for dealing with him. He was the man of the match against Sligo. And it’s all of 7 years since he destroyed Castlebar, who were favourites, with a similar left footed goal.
Will enjoy the 3 matches left and it should be a good final between the aristocrats of the game.
Is it true we only scored one point from play in the last 50 mins? After similar scoring droughts in the 2 games before that, this was coming.
If that was a Jack McCaffrey going off or a Paul Mannion which may of been there last game in croker no Mayo supporter would have booed him off and if they did they are a disgrace to their county!Dublin just show time and time again why they are the most disliked support in the county!Have a bit of respect for a GAA legend because we would of shown it to yours,it was the fact that the game was well and truly over aswell if you don’t want to clap don’t but don’t boo off a legend to the GAA.At least Kerry fans have a bit of class!
The jeering of Aiden O Shea off the pitch tells you all you need to know about Dublin Suppourters!Embarassing.
The thing that annoyed me most was the manner of the goals conceded. So avoidable and we’ve been down this road before.
The first one should be meat and drink for any defender. Keep goalside of your man and the worst outcome should be a forward mark. Rewind to McShane 2021.
The second was poor also. Callinan has to be aware of whats around him but a bit of communication from keeper to defender and the danger would have been averted. Stick it behind for a 45 or boot it out for a sideline.
Again goals have cost us. If Dublin had carved us open fair enough but the goals were soft.
I’ve said before we need to be more aggressive in our defending. Clear out man and ball and ask questions later.
The clues were there for us. We beat Galway twice and Kerry without conceding a goal (with a bit of luck to be fair)
Mind the House at all costs.
Mike Kelly and Aah Not Again, I like those posts and needed to read them this morning.
Mike, I agree with pretty much everything you say in your post about yesterday’s game and about the year ahead.
By the way, isn’t it interesting that Colm Basquel, who had a great game yesterday, must have felt very differently in 2021 Mayo v Dublin? I’ll remember him black carded sitting on the bench in extra time as Mayo ran wild. Dublin were out to set the record straight yesterday and played to their many strengths.
I’m not going to give in on our heroes now. I’m going to keep the faith. Though let’s ditch the piddling around (recycling as a tactic) and let’s &€?!** learn to kick from outside the D.
I’m fed up of hearing about Dublin’s great support, when in truth, they only sing when they’re winning.
We haven’t had our arses handed to us like that in a long, long time. We simply had no ideas or way to play our way back into it. Keeping play and the ball, wide out the flanks and opening up the middle only works when someone breaks into that middle space and carries a threat, but we rarely did that. Playing McLoughlin at 11 to carry a central running threat never really worked and we stopped playing direct ball into their full back line too.
Against Dublin you need everything to be 95% to 98% perfect with your game. You need to be +80% clincal in front of goal and you need the Dubs’ radar to be slightly off. In that first half we dropped 2 efforts short to Cluxton and kicked two terrible, terrible wides. That’s self defeating against them, end of story. Yes, they missed some in the first half too, but they can afford to miss because they will own alot more of the ball and create many more scoring chances than us. We needed 3 points off those 4 efforts. We got a big fat ZERO. Despite the scoreline at half time I was worried because we had adjusted to Scully and Con after those opening 15 mins, had them on the rack at the back, had a variety in our play, bounced back from conceeding a goal, COULD have got the disallowed goal ourselves, but yet we were not the 4 or 5 points ahead that we should have been. For me, it was curtains then. I’d seen this film too many times before, on much bigger occasions than yesterday, and I know how it ends.
It felt almost like Dublin were just weighing us up in those opening 35 mins. Sparring and jabbing at us. Seeing what we were at, positionally, tactically. Seeing what our new boys were like, which side are they weak on etc. Then, at half time they sat in the dressing room and said “right, this is what the Mayo lads are doing here, here and here. This is what we will do in the second half here, here and here. Let’s get out there and finish this early and we’ll be back in quick to use all the hot water in the showers, and leave none for them”.
And that’s what they did.
It was training practice for them.
Let yesterdays result put to bed for once and for all the myth of the Dublin/Mayo rivalry being a great one. It’s not. It’s a one sided fixture where the Dubs get a relatively good workout against us to see just where they are. The end result has almost always been the same. In fact, since 1985 in Championship football in 13 games, including replays, we have beaten them only twice. That’s not a rivalry. That’s a period of dominance by Dublin over us with the 2 blips being the exception, not the norm. Yes there have been 2 or 3 truly great, era defining games, and close games, but at the edn of the day we have only beaten them 15% of the time, and that was in semi finals. That’s an 85% failure rate.
Not criticisning our players or management, and I still feel we have great days ahead. But, those days are further down the line now.
@Pebblesmeller: Not that I’d take issue with most of your post, but Mayo have beaten Dublin three times since then- 2006, 2012, 2021.
I honestly think the term major setback is over the facts. If we said at start of season , we would have a brand new goalie, a new full back line , all under 23, half back Conor loftus, and Donnacha McHugh got a lot of game time , Jack Carney full first season on half forward , and then said we would win a national league and get to QF. I would have been happy and probably not believing. Yesterday I think the youth showed , callinan error. ( in front of 20K dubs, what 20 year old wouldn’t ) reape got spooked, runners there he was just that few seconds slow. I think overall we made progress, who really was thinking we would win an All Ireland in year one . Only thing if we could have limited yesterdays loss it would have been a great year one .
Pebblesmeller – I’ve deleted from your comment that abusive reference to the city which I and so many others from all parts of the country and, indeed, the world, call home. That was completely uncalled for, as, of course, was the classless booing of Aidan by some of the Dublin fans at Croke Park yesterday.
Fail to top the group you more than likely lose. Three of last years 4 semi finalists back in the semis in 2023. We shot ourselves in the foot by losing to Armagh which prevented us from more than likely joining the other three. Padraic Joyce needs to have a long hard look at his failings in 2023. Also note that Galway’s failings did indeed impact on Mayo as low and behold we had to play Mayo and Joyce playing injured players which he has form for. Galway and Mayo have only themselves to blame and in all fairness both management teams need to get it right in 2024 or perhaps its time for a change. Playing a rested Dublin with a panel that could afford multiple AI winners on the bench a week after a gruelling “Connacht Final” was never going to end well for the winner. A load of shite in 2023 really lads and lassies.
ExileInCork while I admire your optimism. I for sure never thought we’d win the all ireland this year, especially after seeing Kerry against Tyrone the day before. But getting bet out the gate, scoring 3 points in over 40 minutes of football or something? It’s something you’d associate with a division 2 team against a top team, not the league champions.
@ It Means Nothing to Me, of course, 2006. How could I forget? But I did.
3 in 14 games so, 21% win rate, or, 79% failure rate. Depends on your viewpoint.
David , absolutely agree yesterdays performance was a tough lesson, but I have seen enough this year to see progress which is what u want in a four year plan.This is a game of inches, I think the callinan goal knocked some of the younger guys, who knows if Flynn’s goal counted. One major issue I have , we persevere all year with loftus , and then business end of the season we ditch the plan , which is too late for a plan b. Another year S&C in touhy and Donnacha McHugh , and current crop , lot to look forward to .
Just one thing on O’Shea I noticed watching the game back, he looked a little rattled coming off. He was involved in heavy collision with Mick Fitz in the midfield and came off second best.
We will have to look again at the S and C our players are doing. Very noticable how the Dublin players had the power in their legs which meant they were much faster over the first 3-8 meters both going for the ball and when they had the ball. We seem to be training or picking players who would be good runners over 200-400 meters. A S and C coach with a gymnastic background is what we need.
@southmayo
I respectfully disagree, while dublin ran the legs of us yesterday in 3rd quarter s&c is not our issue, we are generally the market leaders in that regard.
Someone said it on here yesterday but we always pick ‘athletes over footballers’ and that has been true for years now. Fergal Boland a case in point, he’s not 6’2 and 14st so he is not getting a sniff.
In dublin or kerry ALL forwards are expected to kick scores from play, all of them are expected to be 2 footed. These skills just are not respected in mayo and that goes right down to club level and grassroots level
Agreed Southmayo Exile. We pick players who can run all day but who aren’t explosive. Only Tommy Conroy, Durcan and maybe Hession seem to have that out and out pace over the first few yards.
Its that kind of pace that’s needed in the modern game, its the only way to beat the blanket too.
Very disappointed today guys. Over after the 1-4 blitz, is the middle third the prob as I’ve been hearing we don’t have the glue if you like of a creative no 11..a paudie Clifford type.. We have tall rangy players but are we lacking a player who can spot a pass quick, just a bit of composure on the pigskin… But the way defences funnel back it ain’t easy. But sure the good people of mayo will be back