Mayo supporters are still coming down gently off the high from Saturday night, when the county qualified for its second All-Ireland final appearance in successive years and its sixth in ten years, ending Dublin’s long unbeaten run in the Championship in the process.
In this episode of the Mayo News football podcast we take another look back at Saturday night, both the match itself and the major talking points that arose from this seismic encounter. Rob Murphy hosts the show and he’s joined by Edwin McGreal of the Mayo News and by me.
We reflect back on a memorable night for the county at HQ and the impact that so many Mayo players had on the contest, in many cases cameos that only became apparent on a second viewing of the game. We touch on the mood within the county and the sense of pride and optimism that flows from this result.
The discussion then moves on to the more controversial aspects of Saturday night, focusing in particular on the injury suffered by Eoghan McLaughlin. We discuss the hit itself, how the match officials handled the incident and the subsequent reaction to it, both in terms of what was said about it in the media and the reaction of some fans to this.
We then hear some post-game audio from Lee Keegan which leads to a discussion about the Westport man’s huge contribution to the team. Ed closes out the episode with some thoughts on Robbie Hennelly’s performance on Saturday night, reflecting on his Breaffy clubmate’s fortitude as he landed the score that took the match to extra-time.
This episode of the Mayo News football podcast is now online and is available to listen to on iTunes, SoundCloud, Podomatic and Spotify. You can also listen to it directly on the Mayo News website as well as here on the blog using the SoundCloud player below or the one on the panel on the right.
The Mayo News football podcast has its own Twitter presence, @MayoPodcast, so if you’re a Twitter user you should follow us there to make sure you get the latest podcast-related updates, including new episodes.
You can also subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice and can do that here.
The Mayo News football podcast is produced and edited by Ger Duffy Media. The show is sponsored by Ceramic City and Swinford Motors, two fine Mayo businesses with whom we’re proud to be associated this year, all the way to the All-Ireland final.
With respect to Willie Joe, IMO it’s not about McStay “being in our corner”, it’s about him calling out foul play where he sees it, whether it involves a Mayo player or not. A lot of people have the impression that where Dublin are concerned, he dances on the head of a pin and doesn’t call out instances of flagrantly over-aggressive tackling, even when the tv replays categorically show foul play there and then. This has happened on several occasions and IMO it’s a dereliction of duty as a pundit. (I get that he eventually recanted his fair tackle point of view on this occasion).
There’s a lot more I could say about this, but out of respect for the rules of the house I’ll leave it there.
The completion of your book may come in a few weeks Willie Joe.
I’m guessing the final chapter could be told on the Saturday night after the All Ireland.
Jesus I would love a part in convincing the guys that they are well equipped to win the All Ireland.
Fair point re the shoulder challenge. As mentioned it’s not about wanting over sanitise the physical side of the game, but putting players in situations where they are wide open to serious injury even if a shoulder charge is effected legally, is simply not on (especially when there’s an obvious physical mismatch involved). Not saying shoulder charges need to be removed, but in situations where one player is effectively static and another can come careering in with massive momentum, that scenario must have caused countless bad injuries over the years. So hopefully there’ll be some positive to come in future that’s rooted in that shocking negative for Eoghan.
Hmmm. I think the criticisms of McStay were justified. He was trying too hard to appear impartial and ended up overcompensating. It would be one thing if it was a one-off, but it’s not the first time with him, I’m afraid. Not going to go on about it, but I don’t think the podcast fully explored exactly why he was being criticised after the match, and it wasn’t just Mayo people who were saying it.
Thanks lads…still buzzing with happiness. Thought Carr was fantastic…yes, he missed the two shots but he had the confidence to take them and he also did unnerve the Dubs, as you said. he is big, bold and can do anything. I look forward to seeing him in the final and know he will let rip if he sees half a chance.
Hession was incredible and so exciting…
When you look at the others who could/shoule be there…Cillian, Oisin, Jason, Harrison (delighted to see him at the end)…we are developing some fierce competition for places…bring it on. Believe and never stop believing. We are the team…amazing Mayo…team, spirit, talent…class!!
Bring it on.
Enjoy Mayo men, women and children…these are glory days…
Maigheo go deo!
I know I’m a bit late to the game with this one but I Just want to add my congratulations to the team and management for the performance on Saturday night. Certainly at half time I thought it was all over and business as usual in the capital. But as they showed against Galway these lads are made of stern stuff and the second half performance was a fabulous display of bravery, guts, determination and resilience. High credit too to James Horan and the management team for helping build this self belief. Like everyone else I hope these men can go on and win it now for themselves especially as much as for the rest of us supporters watching on.
People in general don’t react unless there’s good reason for doing so.
It’s why in McStay’s case so many were incensed with his reaction to the tackle.
Even after it was shown on the big screen he still continued to call it more or less as a shoulder to shoulder tackle.
I couldn’t help thinking at the time, if it were an O’Sea or a Whelan in that position and it was one of their team players that receive that hit, neither of them would be slow in calling it out.
That said, I have great time for him, especially on panel discussions when so often he’s a lone voice among the Kerry and Dublin hacks…and that I’d imagine is no easy task.
Thank you WJ Et al for this non stop flow of beautiful information. It’s simply a wonder.
Btw:I really admire Joanne Cantwell and think she is amazing and does a great job. She’s fantastic. Sharp and smooth and kind and incisive.
I may be a little sensitive about this stuff but I recently noticed a couple of little things. When our players were “warming down “ hard ( proper work out) post Leitrim game and post Galway game she was looking at the players and turning to the camera and kind of smirking and laughing and said “this is where we’re at”
The way she said it was derisive almost as in “ you’re wasting your time dudes” It came back to me Saturday when we saw the fitness levels of our team.
But it also lacked a bit of insight.Mayo like most other teams who did not break protocol did not have the proper time to get ready for the season. This was a crafty way to get fitness levels sky high , quickly.
At half time on Saturday she literally said “Dublin are well on their way to the final” In retrospect it was inconceivable to her that the script could be thrown out.
I say this to make a point and that is that arrogance gets in the ether. If there isn’t a sustained and systematic effort by successful teams and their supporters to stay humble then eventually as Oisin McConville correctly stated “ the medals start to get heavy”
Jim Gavin made certain that no one of his team or staff approached games or teams with an arrogant attitude.
This permeated most of the Dublin GAA. It was part of his process. With his retirement it seems to have vanished into the ether.
This Dublin on Saturday with its arrogance is not unfamiliar to us middle aged ones. That is what they’ve been like forever. Gavin was unique.
The flip side of arrogance is humility. Being humble is your only protection against arrogance and a fall.
We ourselves would do well to approach the final from a humble place. We can be proud of what just happened , it is history now. It is legend. But we have to “ come down “ to that place where we again have nothing, are nothing. And if we do that then in three weeks and three days we can give another epic performance.
And then ,as Joanne said at half time Saturday
“ who knows what will happen to the men of the west”
Great podcast. Really enjoyed it.
Had rewatched the game tonight and have to agree, I hadn’t realised the absolute amount of work Ryan got through. An unreal young fella.
As regards the horrendous tackle, I had to watch it over to see where the contact was made.
It didn’t look good when you get to see it properly. Shocking actually.
As much as it looks like it, nobody can come out (on the public airwaves anyway), and say that the exact point of contact was intentional. It certainly did turn out to be a horrendous and dangerous tackle, but you won’t see any commentator or analyst say that it was intentional. They simply cannot. In fact all the people I’ve heard comment on the tackle on the public airwaves, said that they would be sure that small got the tackle wrong, didn’t intend to hit where he did, but should have received a red card if the ref or linesman were clear as to where the contact was made.
To let the game continue was an absolute disgrace though.
Some people said that these officials shouldn’t get big games in the future, they shouldn’t really get games at any level in the future. The welfare of a player at a junior b club is as important as the welfare of a county player so unless they could explain why they let the play go on (which they cannot), they should be sidelined.
Anyway I hope Eoghan is recovering well at this stage. He’s a big reason why we’re still on this journey. Speedy and full recovery to him.
If we could win the final it would feel like winning 2 all Ireland’s in the one year. Saturdays win over Dublin was as good as any all Ireland to me. It was epic.
Another great Podcast gents. Great listening listened to while out for a cycle here in the rocky mountain’s, western Canada. Thankfully we’ve gotten a break from the forest fire smoke . Looking forward to the next one.
RTE commentary is always BS , mute an put on Midwest .
@Food4thought, When Joanne made that point the meaning of it was that Mayo are so dominant they are out doing extra runs after the game.
Thought Joanne was better when she started. Now she cuts across any point that gets remotely controversial.
Cora is the best analyst of the panel for our games.
Having watched the match several times over had to come on to shout out for Stephen Coens performance. I thought it was his best in a Mayo Jersey, nothing to fancy, but his link play and vision were superb.
I agree with another wide, it was Stephen Coens best performance for the seniors since he started playing. I hope he keeps it up now..
Well said Revellino
Lane was poor, as was his amigo Deegan for the Small topic. Time to move on, new game to focus on and we can’t change what happened or didn’t happen.
I watched the match back last night, 1st half was about containment and they try take scores on the break, we did the former well but not the latter. The latter has to improve, 4 pts from 38 minutes isn’t fantastic.
The defence was so well so that it forced Dublin to run and run with low percentage shots from Scully etc at the end of a 90+ second period of possession.
One crucial move by Con in the Canal end was blocked by Diarmuid, Con fisted a point. The amount of goals have scored this way over the years…
S Coen was fantastic all match, Mr Steady.
Ryan was also immense.
We got so much right last week but have to improve all over again. We can’t let the game potentially get away to come back. A final is different.
Can we win the final, absolutely, Dublin are better than Kerry or Tyrone.
It’s nothing to do with Mayo deserving to win, Tyr or Ker also want to win, the medal means as much to them as it will to us.
Keegan needs to nullify S O’Se. No better man to so that.
Nice few weeks ahead to think and consider the final.
I think everyone needs to start moving on from the incidents and issues with the last game and focus our energies elsewhere. For sure, we can still bask in the glow if we want, but time to put the concerns about the commentators and officiating of the game to bed.
We won, and we won playing poorly for a long period of time. But now all our energies should be focused on getting behind the team who have to face either Kerry or Tyrone in just over three weeks.
Hello, Thank you for all the comments. Will have to rewatch the game with them in mind. I agree with Foodforthoughtvabout the need to ‘reset’. I am happy that, that team and James Horan will do. We the Supporters might not.
Apologies in advance but do not think that Mr McStay is a good co-commentator or whatever the title is. Like us all he needs to say less, unless you are Revellino.
I think it is enough just to marvel at all the players. The joy and the pain are at the extreme end of the spectrum. Bye for now. Ciaran + 2.
I don’t understand the determination to defend McStay on the podcast. I don’t think there was a pile on anywhere regarding the matter. There was justified criticism of how he spoke. Didn’t see any personal abuse towards him on here or twitter. Maybe there was, I didn’t see it.
To make my final point on this. He gets it wrong on Mayo a lot, maybe in his attempts to appear unbiased. Fitzsimons full front assault on Keegan last year was described as a “50/50 challenge. The one the last day was horrendously wrong. Rté radio – McConville got it right instantly, before he even saw the replay.
As far as I’m concerned, McStay came out to say he got it wrong after 99.9% of the pundits said it was a bad challenge. I agree – we have to move on from it but McStay doesn’t need a dedicated support broadcast. I’m sorry it was McStay that made this mistake because I respected him so much.
He’s on a national broadcast. I don’t expect him to be biased towards us. I don’t expect him to “have our back”.
[Deleted].
Has anyone checked if Aslan and Imelda May are still available to perform at the final ?
Tommy Joe – that comment of yours really takes the biscuit. On the one hand you claim you haven’t seen any personal abuse of Kevin and then you add to it yourself. That final sentence, which I’ve now removed, was an utterly disgraceful thing to say and I’m not going to allow you say it here.
I can assure you, by the way, there was plenty of plenty of personal abuse aimed at Kevin here, which I removed as I came across it. As I keep repeating, I’ve no problem with reasoned criticism but where this morphs into attacks on an individual’s integrity then I do have a problem. Don’t get me started about what was on Twitter, you don’t have to look hard to find that.
Anyway, FDB is right – it’s time this debate moved on. That particular topic is now over here. We’ve an All-Ireland final to think about and I think that’s what we need to focus on.
McStay is a proud mayo man, gentleman and professional. He got it wrong and admitted it and explained why. Yes, I thought he might be more in “our” camp but he I acknowledge he is very careful in what he says- that’s just his personality. ( he is not an RTÉ mouthpiece)I will be interested in his thoughts on the final over next few weeks, as he is so much better than many of his peers. Just wanted to say that… I loved these last few days and 3.5 weeks more to look forward to! Might have to take off and wash the jersey at this stage! (Smiley)
@Revellino: I don’t think anyone can expect a commentator to allege in real-time that a dangerous challenge was intentional. Indeed, RTÉ might be on very shaky ground if such a thing did happen, as there could be legal consequences.
But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the commentators to identify high and dangerous hits, irrespective of where they hail from. And as previously mentioned, this is not the first incident in which McStay has missed or failed to identify a dangerous tackle on a Mayo player.
Oisín McConville and several others were able to identify it at the time.
Willie Joe, there is nothing abusive about my comments on McStay. I find your comment on that to be completely out of order. I pointed out mistakes he made (in his professional capacity). I did not make any personal insults.
Sorry Willie Joe, just saw your last intervention there after I wrote my reply to Revellino. No more from me on this topic.
We were all a bit emotional and affected after the Eoin Mc loughlin incident and i suppose we needed an outlet to vent that anger. in mature reflection the McStay family Kevin included have given a lot to Basketball and football in Ballina and Mayo, we all make mistakes and sometimes its good to move on and let go. I wish Eoin McLoughlin well please god he will make a full recovery and come back stronger than ever. lets look forward to the final now with confidence but not over confidence.
It’s you that’s out of order, Tommy Joe, and if you can’t see that then you’re going to have to find somewhere else to air your views. That sentence I removed clearly impugned a named person’s integrity, plain and simple. I simply won’t allow you or anyone else to abuse the comment facility here in that fashion.
The problem I have, Glorydays, is that too many people took the view that here was the appropriate place to vent their anger and several crossed way over the line in doing so. This isn’t some kind of pressure valve release facility for those who want to blow off steam and I have to say I’m getting woefully hacked off that so many still believe it is. Also the more that stuff like that is posted here the less reasonable debate there is, a classic case of bad driving out good.
Would appreciate help from anyone. Looking for two tickets for hurling final. From Mayo, always go to hurling finals but unable to get tickets this year.
ballyhowleylodge@yahoo.co.uk
Willie Joe, if anybody could point out anything of a personal abusive nature (including the bit you deleted, which clearly was meant metaphorically), I’d be happy to apologise.
That Kevin McStay is a decent and proud Mayo man is not in question.He made a mistake and apologized – no issue
But Tommy+Joe makes one fair point – in his attempt to appear unbiased Kevin goes too far the other way IMO
In the heat of the game it was absolutely infuriating to hear a Mayo man say it was a fair challenge when EMcL was prone on the ground. Calm is restored now and a lot of us are thinking more rationally than on Saturday but probably those of us who watched on TV rather than live in CP were more riled up by the comments at the time.
Tommy Joe – I give up, I truly do. If you can’t see the problem with what you posted then you simply don’t understand what this place is about and the tenor of debate I’m trying to foster here. The rules are crystal clear as was your breach of them.
All – as I’ve said already, this topic is now closed. No more last orders are being served on it, time to move on to other issues.
This really is my final comment on this topic – I think there would be wide agreement on the proposition that the co-commentator shouldn’t be from one of the competing counties, as it leads to, in various shades, the kind of complaints we’ve seen aired here and leaves that co-commentator in a damned if you do and damned if you don’t position. This means we risk being left in the gentle care of people like Dessie Dolan or Bernard Flynn but sin scéil eile.
Willie Joe, you don’t have to publish this – you can ban me if you like. My last word on this topic. Call me stupid if you like but in my mind personal abuse is abusing the person’s character or bringing family into it, etc.
Criticising his punditry (fair as he’s being paid by your licence fee and mine) is not personal, not should it be seen as such. I was accused of throwing personal insults around and that is completely unfair.
I get that you’re talking about a colleague and looking to protect them but I’d ask you – if it were Dessie Dolan who said it and his punditry was called into question, would you be as quick to defend?
As I said before, ban me if you like. Your forum, your rules. Best of luck with it.
The way Mayo shut down Dublin late in the game was more than impressive.
Each time Dublin tried to move the ball up along the sideline one of our lads sprinted in, no big collision, just reached the hand in and palmed the ball out over the sideline. They wouldn’t allow Dublin to get going from any area of the pitch. It was like a total lockdown.
Thinking of the final, I’m not sure if I would prefer to be 2 or 3 points behind or 2 or 3 points ahead at halftime. I think I would be more nervous if we went in at halftime with a little lead but Im not sure why.
You still don’t get it – recall what you said in that sentence and tell me that this wasn’t an attack on a person’s character. Of course it was and it went way beyond a critique of his co-commentary.
By the way, Kevin isn’t a colleague – we’ve had him as a guest on the podcast but that’s it – and I’m not seeking to defend him. I’m trying hard to defend reasonable debate and to steer people away from playing the person rather than the ball. That’s a tough line to hold right now but it’s one I’m determined to hold as otherwise the comments facility is of no use at all.
Ya …move on from Kevin McStay .. He apologised. End of .
Think one thing that really pleased me was to see Brendan Harrison back .. He is some man to have on the bench .. if he doesn’t start !!
Agree. Time to move on and enjoy the next few weeks and hopefully mont
Speaking generally :
The gold standard for co-commentary imo is Michael Duignan on the hurling.
He is:
A) from a neutral country, Offaly havent been in a hurling semi- or final in years.
B) he is sharp, observant and offers excellent insights as to what is going on in the game.
I dont understand why RTE program heads don’t flat-out stipulate a neutral, there are enough other counties out there with decent co-commentators. It puts a native in a compromising position, something that will come to the fore, the minute there is a controversial incident.
It is not always that there is bias if your native county is playing but any semblance of bias is already enough.
Maggie Thatcher once said she was against trying to find middle of the road positions; “you only get knocked down by traffic from both directions”.
For the final, we might even have a “neutral” Dublin co-commentator, esp if it is Mayo-Kerry, in order to get the “Dublin perspective” e.g. Whelan. “Neutral” because he will dislike Mayo and Kerry in equal measure.
Random question… When Eoghan Mc went off injured and Jordan Flynn came on, who was playing in the half back line? Did Diarmuid move back?
Is there any indication that there could be increased capacity from the 40k that was originally proposed for the AI Final? Is it something that will come once they have data from the trial events of the 1m social distancing, or will the government stick with what has been proposed?
Surely no reason why we couldnt have up to 60k in Croke Park for the final.
Really enjoyed the podcast lads, but I cant help but have an overriding feeling that the blanket admonishing of anyone criticising McStay, comes across as a little sanctimonious. Let me preface that statement by saying, in no way do I think Kevin wasn’t trying to be subjective, honest and forthright. He’s an intelligent guy who’s just trying to do his job as professionally as he can. And let me add to that, anyone who thinks he should be analysing games through the lens of a Mayo supporter, needs their head examined. Leave the one eyed guff to Spillane and the likes.
Having said that, I think a lot of rational ire, has been pointed in his direction, justifiably. I’ve watched the live footage back, and he reviews the replay not once, not twice, but 4 times on air. His honest opinion is that he doesn’t see a whole lot wrong with it. I got text messages at that stage of the game from people in Kerry, Galway & Westmeath, who were watching it live on TV, calling him out for really poor analysis. And that’s being kind I’m afraid.
Look, in no way do I think he was trying to appear unbiased to either Dublin fans, or indeed his RTE paymasters. That notion is beyond fanciful IMO. Personally, I feel he was only trying to do his job, calling it as he saw it, and that’s all we can ask of any analyst. But he got it badly wrong lads and people all over the country called him out on it. As ever, the toilet that is Twitter and beyond soon snow balled into a torrent of horrific bile directed at Kevin and his character. Unfortunately that’s one of the many incontrollable facets that those in the spotlight face, when they make a mistake in the full glare of the public. 24 hours later, Kevin to his great credit, admitted his mistake on the Sunday Game. He does however say he didn’t have access to replays on the big screen, which is a bit bizarre, as already mentioned, there are 4 separate replays shown in the live broadcast, which Kevin comments on.
Time to move on, but I do think, in that 24 hours between the Sat & Sun Games, a lot of people had a genuine beef with Kevin, for what was a really bad call on his behalf.
I hear you Willie Joe and I agree with you this isn’t the place for us to vent our anger on any Gaa topic and it’s unfair to expect you to clean up the mess. For my part I apologize for venting and will make sure it won’t happen again win lose or draw the final
My Left Foot does Ciaran Whelan do commentary? I don’t remember him doing so but then I tend to listen to radio commentary – any radio commentary – rather than enduring RTÉs.
Yes it’s time to move on – the point has been well made now and I do think the ire was justified, though the abuse was not. However any man who is big enough to admit they were wrong in front of the nation deserves respect, and I thought his piece in the Irish Times earlier in the week was excellent. But for all the talk of neutral commentators, let’s not forget that the main commentator on Sky Sports on Saturday was – once again – a Mayo man, and I didn’t hear any complaints. Personally, I don’t know how he manages to stay neutral, but it goes to show that it is possible. I’d go so far as to say he’s the best commentator in the country in either code at the minute.
I’ve only ever had the “privilege” of watching a couple of games on SKY but their analysis and commentary is way superior to RTÉ’s. The standard of both commentary and punditry/analysis on RTÉ in general is poor, and it’s surprising that aside from finally ditching Brolly, who has been absolutely no loss, that they haven’t really moved to freshen it up. I’m obviously a bit biased but I do think Cora has been a good addition – she’s not afraid to call it as she sees it. But what did any of us ever do to deserve Dessie Dolan? Give me Kevin Mc any day!
This place is WILD haha
Only in Mayo
Wide ball – when Hession came on, Eoghan moved to the half forward line as he was in some bother marking Paddy Small. Flynn came on for him when he was in the half forward line.
To my mind, restricting the capacity to 40k for a game that is being played 2 weeks later than planned makes little sense. At that point, we will have a huge proportion of the population vaccinated (76% of over 12s now fully vaccinated and we have 3.5 weeks to the game) and if we can’t have a full house at that point, will we ever be able to have one again? I would hope that the GAA and government engage to increase capacity beyond 40k but I’m not hopeful of a positive outcome.
It will be interesting to see how full houses in the premier league plays out for the next few weeks
A bold statement and I was a massive David Clarke fan but I firmly believe if Clarke didn’t retire, he probably would have started and Mayo lose that match. We wouldn’t have had a long range free taker in that instance. Hennelly nailed 3 points and his kick outs were brilliant. He also closed off space on the opposition kick out by standing on the right side of the 45.
As I said i was a big big David Clarke fan, but hats off to Hennelly – the redemption man
We seems to forget that Keegan also got taken out with a “Mis timed” tackle in last years final and again……no card….not even a free
Why is it that the big teams always get the big calls?
The referees need to step up and do their jobs
The reason for the uproar amongst Mayo folk in relation to the John Small / Eoghan McLaughlin incident is multifaceted.
1 – a major player is seriously injured
2 – the commentary on TV failed to call it for what it was
3 – most importantly – the co-commentator in question is the only respected representative from Mayo in GAA broadcasting (excluding Cora Staunton)
Point 3 is the real issue. We have listened to others from our rivals speak on radio, TV, podcasts, and print media and absolute blacken our players to the point that it influenced referees in an All Ireland Final and cost us our best ever player in that game. Which given his importance at the time you could argue cost us the game.
Even this week (and its only been a few days) we have listened to Paul Flynn, Ger Brady and that clown Hickey go to town on our team.
We as a people and as a county are sick of it. And when we feel that our sole representative doesn’t call that out (as other counties would) it hurts and angers us. Not Kevin’s fault. More a reaction to what’s happened us time and time again
Absolutely agree Johnnyboogeen, the campaign against Keegan in ’16 was a disgrace and influenced the referee without a doubt costing us the match. It is a laughable and unbelievable the three people you mentioned plus Caffrey coming out trying to defend Dublin’s tactics and trying to turn it on Mayo. They need to wind their necks in, so lucky to have got the All-Irelands they won in 16-17!
One of the reasons Hennelly was brought in to replace Clarke for that replay was because of his ability to kick 45s and long distance frees. If I remember right at the time Cillian was carrying an injury into the replay and was not able to kick the long frees. As it turned out we got no 45s or long range frees that day
Anne-Marie; I could be mistaken but thought I heard him the very odd time.
Personally I am slightly concerned about the 4 week layoff going off past experiences of other counties in both football and hurling. Hope to be proved wrong.
History shows it often can result in a sluggish first half, can’t afford that in a final.
Regarding Ciarán Whelan did he reel me in or something because I see lot of criticism about him on here but I thought he was one of the few who regularly said don’t write off mayo and usually said they’d have a big part to play seemed to be an admirer
@My Left Foot
Regarding the lay off. While I can see the point, I do think a lot is made of short Windows and long Windows in GAA. If they win you’ll never hear of it again, lose and it’ll be thrown out there.
Kerry could well say the same about just a 2 week lead in.
For me it completely comes down to prep within the set up. Your S&C, tactical team, players themselves and so on. If that’s on point, then a weeks difference won’t be a deciding factor.
All the talk about punditry etc takes the focus off the real issue – a shoulder charge like that is very dangerous. What if Eoghan broke his neck instead of his jaw? That could easily have happened. That did happento a clubmate of ours and he spent the best part of a year in a metal headbrace. He was lucky he didn’t end up in a wheelchair. As it happened it was his own team mate who did it out of clumsiness but the collision was similar.
Ban the shoulder charge entirely. Apart from being dangerous it is generally ineffective and rarely shoulder to shoulder with at least one foot on the ground. I noticed Swanny went for a big shoulder hit and missed completely. That could have been very costly.
Mark my words refs from now on will be told not to tolerate anything remotely close to Smalls challenge.
Cod – I know when Hession came on Eoghan went into the forwards, but when Michael Plunkett was subbed for Bryan Walsh on 45 minutes he must have moved back into defence. Basically after Jordan Flynn came on we were left with only 5 natural defenders on the pitch – O’Hora, Keegan, Hession, Durcan and Coen.
Let’s keep this debate going about the reality of the dark arts as our upcoming opponents need to have their cards marked. There is only one referee up to the standard required and that is Gough.
https://www.sportsjoe.ie/gaa/anti-dublin-bias-is-the-biggest-load-of-bks-oisin-mcconville-clashes-with-former-dublin-star-234540?fbclid=IwAR0tFNyzt_wR2QAUBWG04fC0MhSbwuuB7_-yHn1O4KXVQlIFzhk7h2ak6Cg
Bottom line for me is that in Ireland (gaa anyway) pundits do sadly have an influence, as we’ve seen to our disadvantage when Lee’s reputation was destroyed by Dubs and he consequently got the line. Similarly in 2012 when Brolly blackened us and Deegan dished out a couple of soft yellows to us very early on.
As Rob acknowledges in the pod, for Mayo supporters this has been building for a long time, the blind eye turned to Dublin. Glad he mentions ’17 when 6 Dublin players pinned 6 of our backs to the ground to smother the quick kickout. Those 6 cheats should have got black carded and we’d surely have scored and possibly won.
Mayo supporters rightly feel that these factors may have influenced the outcomes of those finals given the margins were so small. Dublin had the ref in their pockets yet we were still within a kick of a ball from glory. Do the maths.
So that’s where our anger comes from. Those years of leniency have now led to a Mayo lad hospitalised. I hope the Gaa are happy. Small naturally assumed he could act with impunity. Its only because Dublin lost that pundits are now beginning to develop a backbone. In fairness to McConville he has always called it honestly and bows to no one or no team.
Jaysus if we lost on Saturday mac stay and lane would have to hit for Mexico lol
Agreed that we need to move on from the punditry issue…for now. I have no doubt it will come up again in future, mind you.
For my sins, I ventured on to the Reservoir Dubs website to get a Dublin perspective on last Saturday’s events. My God, it bates Banagher! Almost none of them see the Small tackle as a red card, and it’s gotten to the point where they are almost blaming Eoghan for ducking into the challenge (needless to say, he didn’t). There was one fella who suggested that the tackler can’t be penalised if the ball carrier moves at the last moment, priceless stuff altogether.
Apparently also Ryan O’D is to blame for Small punching him in the stomach (an action which doesn’t do those protesting the “non-intentional” angle any favours). And Philly and the Smalls are being victimized because of their playing for Ballymun (although Rock and McCarthy seldom get any heat for this, maybe because they generally don’t go round trying to take the heads off opposition players, perhaps).
They also think there’s an anti-Dub bias in the national media, amazingly. Pat Gilroy, Ciarán Whelan, Paul Flynn, Joanne Cantwell, Paddy Andrews, Keith Barr, Charlie Redmond, Pillar Caffrey, Senan Connell and both Brogans can’t overcome this to get the Dubs a fair shake in the national media!
This just brings home to me that people will see what they want to see according to their own allegiances (and in spite of a mountain of countervailing evidence). I’ve been hard on McStay but to be fair, it’s a hard job in some ways.
No doubt – ciaran Whelan started the crusade on lee Keegan after the 2016 drawn final, but I agree in general. He’s one of the better pundits.
And you’re forgetting the time Mossy Quinn, commercial director of Dublin GAA was given a surprise appearance on the Sunday Game to blacken Cillian after the Clare game when he attempted to hurdle a tackle (and it was portrayed as him laying the knee into someone-talk about the irony given the presence of Johnny Cooper on their team)
As for that Jim Gavin, he has a lot to answer for. Showed his true colours after the ’13 final when he said Dublin had to beat the ref to win. Come on. He developed and presided over a Dublin team where there were clear examples of punches, stamps, eye-gouges etc while at the same time spewing out hypocritical lines about their commitment to approaching and playing the game fairly and with honour.
According to Darragh O’Ses piece this week (well worth a read), Jim now reads Nietzsche and practices Stoicism. I’ve heard it all. You’re not fooling me Jim.
Liberal role in the tie : yes, read that article yesterday and liked two observations in particular from OShea :
1.– “if I was managing Dublin, I’d be very stoic too if I could throw a jersey to Stephen Cluxton and Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion and tell Diarmuid Connolly to sit on the bench and tell Bernard Brogan he wasn’t good enough to make the 26. By God, I’d be the best stoic you ever saw in a day’s walking.”
But this one in particular was proof of what we suspected but yet he was dignified in his conclusion:
2. “That said, every conversation in Kerry over the past few days has been tinged with a bit of regret that we didn’t get to be the ones that brought the curtain down. But if we’re all honest with ourselves, we know well that only one county really deserved to do it.
Mayo brought the fight to Dublin for years when none of the rest of us could lay a glove on them. It’s only right and proper that they were the ones who got them in the end.”
Amazing thing is everyone bought Jim Gavins rubbish.
It Means Nothing To Me, don’t forget the esteemed Dr David Hickey, a late addition to the pack but one has landed a few comedic punches in recent months. I do like Paddy Andrews I have to admit. I quite liked Ciaran Whelan as a pundit until 2016 when he absolutely blackened Lee, and anyone who thinks this stuff doesn’t get into a referee’s head is deluding themselves – referees are not living in a bubble and they are humans with their own opinions and likes us all, they have their biases too whether or not they come into play.
The point has been made here, many times – it would have been nice to some of our own challenging this rhetoric and perhaps planting a few seeds of their own. In fairness to Andy Moran, he is doing a great and very articulate job there and is very fair to boot – did you hear him a few weeks back defending us against accusations of cynicism?
Kerry will be at this too – remember Eamon Fitzmaurice in 2019? If anyone needs a reminder, it’s here. https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-30933652.html
Now, I have no issue with gamesmanship, nor it being called out. The closing minutes of the 2019 league final was a fine example of Mayo gamesmanship, straight out of the Dublin textbook. But I do have an issue with pots being allowed to call kettles black unchallenged and in recent years the commentary has been one-way.
I can imagine though that not many Mayo pundits might want to place themselves in the firing line of the type of reaction Fitzmaurice received then and the Dublin crew have received this week. And that’s understandable.
Ultimately this game will be won on the pitch, even if it’s against 17, like it felt on Saturday.
Far be it from me to come to the defence of any Dub but I have to say Jim Gavin was an outstanding manager and he was the big difference last Saturday. The players had enormous respect for him. I suspect they haven’t nearly the same respect for Dessie. Breaking the Covid rules was a massive mistake one which Gavin would not have done.
Yes he was tough and uncompromising but he managed a whole lot of very big egos for a long time. And yes his teams played on the edge and over it at times but show me any successful team that doesn’t do that.
I think we should be more focused on our own lads from now on.
Another very enjoyable podcast. Thanks to all concerned. Looking back again at the match can there ever have been a more enjoyable few minutes than that period in extra time when we scored those four great points from play to completely turn the game on its head. If I had to award the score of the match it would be Darren Coen’s.
Christ, can we drop the whole tin-foil hat stuff. Refs, media, etc. I’m more worried where to start Aidan in a few weeks time @ 11 with James Carr @ 14? Or leave Aidan on the bench and bring him in with 25 to go. Or does Paddy D start @ wing forward and have a HB line of Lee, Stephen and Oisin. Or does Tommy start @ 11 and Aidan @ 15 like Johnny Crowley in 06. Does Darren Coen start @ 14? Will Brendan H be ready to start @ FB so Padraig can man-mark D Clifford. How can you not start Enda H after his performance last week, same for Jordan when he came on. Does Conor O’Shea start @ MF with Matthew and then introduce Conor when game has opened up. Does M Plunkett play the same role as last week for 45 minutes?
Questions!
@ Anne-Marie: Paddy Andrews is excellent and very fair-minded. I would recommend the football pod to anyone, as the interactions between Andy Moran and Andrews are very good-natured and insightful.
I did forget Dr. David Hickey, and indeed Ger Brennan, who was cribbing away about us on Colm Parkinson’s podcast (amazingly bringing Cillian into it, even though he wasn’t on the matchday panel, being injured). Both of them could sow a field of spuds on their shoulders.
I would have to say that as a county we are rank amateurs when it comes to playing the media game. There isn’t a hope in hell that a Kerry or Dublin pundit would have let something like the Small tackle go if it had it had happened to one of their players.
And as Keegangate from 2016 showed, these things matter. Ireland is a very small country and it’s hard for referees, even with the best will in the world, to cocoon themselves from a lot of these media narratives. The recent Lions tour and Erasmus’s video onslaught shows how effective these tactics can be, even in professional sport.
We need to get wise, sharpish. Because I’d say Kerry of all counties are the best represented in the national GAA media and hold the party line to a man. Nobody does it better. I remember all the chat about where the referee lived prior to their 2019 meeting with the Dubs and Joe Brolly’s subsequent outbursts, which thankfully got him put out to pasture.
@Mayo13GB: We have three whole weeks to discuss the final, there’s no rush.
The reason this is important is that as sure as day follows night a campaign is going to start up between now and the final to “highlight” certain aspects of our play or to focus on a certain angle on a specific players style.
We need to be ready!
If anyone wants to analyze the punditary, the game is on YouTube, this incident (the worst of several) occurs just after the second water break.. Daragh Maloney gives Kevin at least two chances to review his earlier description of it, (for me it’s definitely the worst wreckless and almost certain to inflict severe injury to a player that I have ever seen on a Gaelic Football pitch in my life).. After each of two different angles of the Replay , Daragh Maloney, says ‘Kevin’.. and Kevin says what he says,.. Was Kevin objective is the question?.. Now, Kevin didn’t cause the injury, nor did Conor Lane or Maurice Deegan, but all are much more influential about what goes on in the game than any poster or reader on the excellent Mayo GAA Blog, even if I disagree with Willie Joe’s take on the punditary around this incident… For me there is absolutely no room in the game for wreckless or deleberate tackles of this nature in any sport, and it’s time the GAA woke up to this, or unfortunately someone is going to be killed or paralyzed for playing the sport they love, and I believe that will be the inevitable result of the continuence of the GAA, the Officials on the day, and the jouranilists covering the game’s if a blind eye is the response.. Another thing that has to be removed is this term, in this context.. ‘Hospital Pass’ as if that pass of the ball because it’s not a good or perfect pass , entitles your opponent to hospitalize you.. The term Hospital Pass up until Saturday used to mean, it was a bad pass and could be intercepted and lead to a score against your team.. I know what the term used to mean, I gave enough if them in my life, but nobody ever got injured as a result.. Because a player crosses a white line in Croke Park, or any other playing pitch regardless of where, you are not entitled to wreckless endanger the health of anyone.. It’s as simple as that.. Many pundits of a certain nature (Neanderthal Men) seem to glorified the voilence, Colm O’Rourke repeatedly tells us about how ‘The Dubs and Meath flaked hell out of each other’ and they all shook hands afterwards.. Time for a few Neantherals to leave the stage, a few so called pundits,.. and and player with a history of wreckless endangerment of others to leave the stage, and few Refs without the nessary courage to do the right thing, to leave the stage, the game would be much better without them!
Paddy Smalls fouls / assaults have been going on for years and the media keep ducking the issue , his final ” assault on James Carr was as premediated as the day is long , he sized him up from several yards away ,never taking his eyes off his head before he delivered his swinging left arm to his intended target Carr’s throat .
I absolutely do not buy this argument that the Dubs have diminished and that this is why we beat them. Firstly, they did not look like diminished for 50 minutes last Sunday, but to take a more clinical assessment, Mayo have now surpassed the Dubs in areas where they had advantage in each previous encounter – panel, strength & conditioning, pace, fitness. We were always on top when pressurizing them but could not maintain it for the whole game, whereas now we can. They always resorted to foul play when under pressure and now its all they had after they were bossed out of it. Also, we were as good as Dubs in first half – even standing off them – with only effective difference being the shooting most notably from full forward but other misses that were scored with aplomb as if in a parallel universe by e.g., Carr, McLoughiln, in the storm period. Do the forwards get enough target practice before the game?
Areas that need redress: Restart – 4 of the 5 restarts coughed up 3 points and a clear goal chance
We have a full dynamic scoring forward pack, midfield and half back lines as well, and as an ex dynamic forward who played with a couple of those strong-man target full forwards, I believe that such 14s are a hinderance to that, but AOS surely can provide an edge in certain circumstances and I hope that is how they proceed.
Our younger guys came of age last Sunday and must be let have their head and assume the responsibility that they shouldered so well in real heat of battle.
We need to plan better for dealing with high ball in mid-field and around our square.
If Brendan and Oisin are back, Lee Keegan should play wing-half back where he is devastating and just beautiful to watch in full flight and a constant immediate threat, while he can be turned at CB.
Officials playing down Foul Play from Dublin (and Limerick), and Commentators white-washing the narcissistic rage (e.g., McCarthy 3 times after equalizer including a hit on O’Hora) petulance (e.g., Fenton on O’Hora) and bloody-mindedness (body-checks, and reckless shoulder charge) of the Dubs is unfortunate and one Dublin website offers the following which is insighful: “Oisin McConville is not afraid to upset the Dublin supporters”!
Mike Finnerty is an absolute national treasure and a Mayo treasure. Without doubt the most straight up commentator/pundit out there. Very neutral, very incisive, very honest. Zero arrogance, a 100% competent, knowledgeable and genuine guy. Reports and comments on what he sees.
I love Martin Carney and Michael D. on midwest. They don’t apologise for wearing their hearts on their sleeves and their commentary is intentionally for Mayo listeners. It cracks me up when they slip into a frenzied falsetto!! I’ve got into the routine of listening to their entire midwest commentary of the match in the days after. Its pure gold.
Martin is a brilliant pundit who reads the game very well. He picks up on so many things that I’d miss in a game but that transpire to be spot on.
Mayo13BG, all of the excellent questions you raise will undoubtedly be discussed in depth and to death over the coming weeks, so there shouldn’t be any need to shut down discussion even if you’re in disagreement with it. There will be plenty more questions too and not one of them is easily answered, and it really goes to show the depth we have in the panel now. Having a surprise for Dublin in the shape of Enda Hession was a real trump card (god but he was phenomenal) and that element of surprise will still hopefully be a factor for the final. Even the question of how to use Aidan will be mulled over at length – I think I said earlier in the week we should hold him on the bench and unleash him but the more I think about it, the more I think he should and believe he will start. He’ll always be a CHF for me.
Rapparee it has been mentioned elsewhere, but I don’t think we have given enough credit to the S&C team and the lads for the work they have done to get to where they are – I don’t ever recall seeing Dublin out on their feet like that before whereas some of our lads looked like they could have powered on for another 10 minutes if they’d had to, even in some cases after over 100 minutes of football. Serious engines. It was astounding and the level of conditioning won’t go unnoticed by Kerry (or Tyrone) either. Given the strength of our forward unit now you’d think we couldn’t be as poor again in front of the posts as we were for the first hour – could we?!
Leantimes, sorry but your definition of a “Hospital Pass” wasn’t accurate. Its not exclusive to GAA, its a term used in many sports for many years and means exactly as it says, A pass that subjects the recipient to a heavy contact from an opposing player. This could result in a trip to the hospital for the receiving player. Sorry to be pedantic but no way does the term refer to a poor pass that can be intercepted.
James carr to start at 14 for the final. He has pace and power and extraordinary ability. This man can be the difference.
Eoghan McLaughlin was back on the training bike last night, according to James Horan. What a hero and inspiration.
@Mayomad.. no pass entitles an opponent to hospitalize the recipient of the ‘bad’ pass.. the term . ‘hospital Pass’ us often used, and seldom the recipient ends up in Hospital.. the term needs to be eradicated from the lexicon in my opinion.. too many Neantherals are only too willing to use it as an excuse to justify the unjustifiable.. and to wreckless put an blindsided opponent into hospital cannot be justified.. and a blindsided hit on an opponents head by anyone so fit, so powerful as today’s elite footballers has the capability of killing or paralyzing an opponent… And if it’s tolerated, that’s exactly what’s going to happen to unfortunate player in the future, ..
@Castlebarred, stop talking nonsense!
It’s not nonsense leantimes – James Horan has an interview in the indo there just gone live. He’s not ruling McLaughlin out and he’s not ruling mullin in
Leantimes, look at this! https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/james-horan-not-writing-off-eoghan-mclaughlin-making-all-ireland-final-1.4651072
“Eoghan was obviously in hospital on Saturday night and we were together as a group and at one stage I think they nearly had to tie him down in the bed to keep him there.”
What a guy – here’s hoping it’s a very swift recovery for his sake, first and foremost. But it sounds like he’s raring to go!
Surely that has to be the earliest press night in advance of an All Ireland ever. Talk about getting it out of the way
This is parody ,right ?? ?
H.F.S !!!
Eoghan McLoughlin possibly playing with a broken jaw?
O Hora playing with broken ribs ?
Aido in a boot before playing the semi final.
Throw out all your ideas of what a hero is. These guys make them look like pussies.
When, and I mean when, they make a movie about this Mayo team , the audience will not believe it.
I haven’t got around to reading any article on the subject, but how can you train 3 or 4 day’s after a double jaw break?
Rejoining the training squad, is not the same as training with the squad… I’ll definitely do the Lotto tommorow, and I will let ye all know if I win.. I would dearly love it to be true.
Eoghan spinning on his exercise bike. Wonderful.
But, he’s also quite negative on Oisín’s chances.
@leantimes : ( apology accepted
Leantimes, no where in my post did I say a pass bad or otherwise entitled any one to hospitalise a player. I was just pointing out that your definition of “Hospital pass” was not correct and I think its more common than people realise that players recieve medical treatment after receiving such tackles. Under GAA rules a shoulder to shoulder tackle is permitted. Had Small connected squarely shoulder to shoulder with McLaughlin (he did not) then it would have been a legal tackle regardless if McLaughlin got back to his feet or not, again not saying that’s right just pointing out it would have been legal. Plenty of Mayo players have dealt out such tackles and its been cheered from the stands with little regard to the condition of the recipient.
GAA really needs to look into this type of tackle and ban its use, shoulder to shoulder when two players are running for a ball is fine but it a player running into a static player with momentum really does need to be banned
Eoghan McLaughlin – heart emoji.
What a character! I am so pleased to read in that Irish Times article that things are looking good with him. I’m relieved. I was worried.
I love that the team met up with him after the match.
Continued excellent recovery to him.
(Maybe now I can watch the match back in a more relaxed fashion).
Horan has the ability to do an interview and you are none the wiser after the interview – maybe even more confused.
@wideball I forgot about the keegan saga.
I see Ciaran Whelan is making victims out of Small and Lane on the independent website. I am not excusing social pile ins, but perhaps they should be asking why are so many people angry.
This is the Dublin media propaganda machine at work, no more than Paul Flynn on Second captains deflecting away from the horrendous injury inflicted on Eoghan McLoughlin.
Reference was already made here to the Yerra media management led by Kerry ex players anticipated if the Kerry win against Tyrone, where there is likely to be a negative focus on some of our players.
Mcstay seemed to indicate that he thought a free for Rocks shoulder charge into the middle of Tommy Conroys chest after 3 min was marginal!!
The one that was a stonewall yellow and one decision the ref actually got right on Sunday.
i agree with the other posters there is certainly a circling of the wagons going on with some of the Dublin pundits.Only thing good out of this is that there will be a bit more pressure on the refs in their matches going forward at least the Sunday game properly highlighted things this time
Christ that’s some incredible news on Eoghan, really lifts the heart.
His injury really took some of the gloss off the win, I kept thinking about it when trying to relive the joys of the game. Just delighted he’s ok, not even thinking about whether or not he’s available for the final (which I just can’t see, unless we give him a motorcycle helmet to wear…).
He’s some buck to be up and about and in such fine form.
And good to hear the praise of Mike Finnerty. He’s the best around.
I remember when he started off (was it Sky, Premier, Eir? can’t remember). I was watching a match with a few non Mayo people and they started praising the commentator, wondering where he had suddenly appeared from.
It gave me great delight to tell them he was a Mayo man. Delighted to see him doing so well.
Although if he’s commentating on the final, I would love to see how he manages to keep his cool WHEN we win the thing. Yeah good luck with that Mike!
@Mayomad, No you didn’t say anything like that, apologies if I came across that way.. but certainly too many so called pundits have been using the ‘Hospital Pass’ criteria since last Saturday to justify that very seneario, eg Paul Flynn, and the man who knows all about the sneaky cowardly shoulder, even into the back of an unsuspecting 60+ year old man, Pillar Caffery .. @Castlebarred, I have to apologise to you as well, .
@Anne-Marie, I’m not looking to shut down any conversation but it’s better to look forward than back.
JH reminds me now an awful lot like Jim Gavin, says everything but says nothing. Even his decision to call AOS in, no sentiment, just business.
I met my neighbour today, mad Kerryman, he was giving out that we beat Dublin as Kerry wanted to beat them in the final…also, his opening word to our conversation was “yerra, shur who’ll stop ye now……” Classic.
He said too that even if Kerry win or Tyrone do there will be red cards or casualties for the final…..I don’t think he’s wrong with this.
@leantimes no worries, alls good
Hi all, why was it such a low scoring game, do you think? 14 all at the end of 77 minutes appears low for a contest involving these two teams.
Was it due to our containment set-up in the first half that kept the scores down for both of us?
Was it that Dublin were lulled into relying on the keep ball (possession) tactic for large periods of the first half?
Was it because both defences were good at repelling scoring opportunities?
Was it that Dublin’s defence weren’t amazing in second half but we missed scores and so we kept our score down?
Did the wet damp conditions contribute to a lower scoring game?
Mayo13BG. Tell your friend that there was only one team in the Country capable of beating Dublin.
Tell him that Kerry should make a fine team next year, but they might be better off avoiding us in 3 weeks.
its only now that im back to half normal after saturday , just want to say congrats. to players and all involved for a brilliant game . i never enjoyed a match so much . i also want wish EOGHIN a speedy recovery after that assault, and i hope OISIN and JAMES [carr] will be fit for the final. if it happens that i dont get a ticket for the final i will watch it on sky sports not rte for good reason . UP MAYO
There are interviews with Horan and Stephen Coen on the off the ball YouTube channel.
Great Pod lads, really enjoyed ye’re thoughts on the game. Delighted also that Eoghan is up and about, a great lift to us all to hear that. Horan I see is been crafty out in telling the media nothing as usual in that he is not ruling Oisin in or Eoghan.out and you can be absolutely sure that we will all have to wait until the match day 26 is published before we know the answer to that. If it helps Kerry or Tyrone I do think AOS will start and he will be bull thick with himself for not having a great day out the last day 🙂
Will RTE ever cover a kick out live again?
These days they miss most of them due to replaying the previous play. When Comerford made a mess of one kickout, RTE only resumed live coverage as the ball landed to a Mayo player.
Does Sky cover the kickouts properly?
Seems it should be possible to do a split screen, show the kick out live and show the replay of previous play in a section of the screen.
The AFL use this method. The kickout is just as important in Aussie Rules as in GAA.
Thanks, Wide Ball – I just put those OTB videos up in a post on the press briefing.
All – I’ll pass on the news to Mike that he’s now been elevated to the status of National Treasure!
Mairtinin that really irks me too. They almost missed Ryan O Donoghue’s last point, while showing replay of previous one. Tg4 show replays in small little box in corner of screen, I can’t believe RTE haven’t copped on to this. I’m not sure about Sky, but their feed seemed similar to RTE
People only copping on to how good & professional Mike Finnerty is now….we have been singing his praises around these parts since he used to commentate on the local wireless…in short trousers.
National treasure for sure.
James made one interesting comment. He said we were not as bad in the first half or as good in the second half as people were saying. And I think he is spot on. If we had not had three awful wides halftime would have been a different affair. On the other hand Dublin being six up possibly made them feel the game was over and their performance level dropped slightly. And we all know when that happens it’s very hard to restart the engine.
My patience has paid off. Held back from rewatching the match during the week and have it saved up for tonight!
RTE having commentators from participating counties is probably a misconceived strategy where they hope to knock a ‘bit of craic’ out of the pre match and half time chit chat. Bad idea and leads to a drop in professional standards.
Kind of like trying to integrate the pre-final programme ‘up for the match’ into every big game.
While I enjoyed the podcast I am struggling with how much people concern themselves with the commentary of the game. Are we unique in this. I hope we are. I would really hate to think the whole country have their heads up the rear end of RTE commentary like we seem to have. I don’t watch Joanne whoever, as she is just not good enough. I don’t need to know what Brolly or Pat Spillane think of the game. On a good day the person sitting beside you at the game has a much better handle on the game, the rules, and who is going well or not. Really cannot understand this obsession with the SOAP drama around football. More posters on this site need to leave the couch behind, and start working out the world around them for themselves.
People on here blaming refereeing decisions for Mayo not winning AIs…..I’ve been scolded on here for that in the past! It’s he same clowns that have been refereeing these big games with Mayo involved over the last number of years.
There are 2 refs that I can cope with and they are Gough and Branagan. Deegan had the same view as Horan the last day but the reactions of both men could not have been more different-one had immediate concern for his player while the other who failed to identify the danger the player was in. Anyway, move on and talk about the final.
Sky is absolutely streets ahead of RTE both in the studio and match commentary. RTE have such lazy pundits namely Spillane and to a lesser extent O’Rourke, how they still think they are relevant, i do not know. Whelan shoud have been shown the door when he openly admitted being biased in the 2019 final. Mike Finnerty is a class commentator, don’t know how he can keep so impartial though, fair play to him, top pro.
Another great podcast ….I have watched the game back three times now and still don’t quite know what to make of it…..still buzzing after the win though.
Completely agree that Sky analysis seems far superior to RTÉ
@ My Left Foot….I never thought I’d see a Margaret Thatcher quote on Mayo GAA blog !