Mayo were back at Croke Park on Saturday night for the first time since the 2017 All-Ireland final but it proved to be an unhappy return. James Horan’s side came into this meeting with Dublin with an unbeaten record in this year’s National League but they left Croke Park having suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the four-in-a-row All-Ireland champions.
The county’s ladies team were also in action on Saturday night, their LGFA League Division One clash with Dublin providing the curtain-raiser at Croke Park. This match ended in defeat for Mayo too but only after a cracking contest, with Dublin sealing the win with two late points.
In this latest episode of the Mayo News football podcast we review the night’s action from Croke Park. Co-hosts Rob Murphy and I get the ball rolling and take you through some of the action in the game as Mayo were slipping to a dispiriting defeat.
Mayo News sport editor Mike Finnerty gets the views of ex-Galway start Michael Meehan on Mayo’s display and what it might mean for the clash with Galway next weekend. Ger Flanagan of the Mayo News then chats with Fintan O’Toole of The 42 about the match, following which Ger teams up with Mike to review the ladies’ match.
Wrapping up this episode, Rob and I get into a huddle outside the stadium with Mayo News columnist Billy Joe Padden to assess what went wrong for Mayo on the night and what areas need to be addressed most urgently for the Galway game.
This latest episode of the Mayo News football podcast is now online and is available to listen to on iTunes and SoundCloud. You 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 to the right.
The 2 key issues now lie in the FB and FF lines. We have no fast young FBs coming though and that was the winning of the game for Dubli (e.g. Costello’s goal where he got out in front of KH. Time and again in 1st half Dublin’s forwards were out in front. Ger Cafferkey is in the autumn of his career yet there is no sign of an emerging no. 3 – that’s serious. Harrison was destroyed by Mannion in the 17 final. The lack of young FBs coming through is killing against pacy inside forwards.
The problem with the FF is obvious…the main man is still AM who is 35! He should be an impact sub now. Do Dublin have Bernard Brogan as their main FF! Fair play to AM who still has a role to play but our lack of options in the FB and FF lines indicates problems in the future. Whilst the defeat can sort of be seen as ‘one of those things’ youthful options are required in the FF and FB lines.
Keegan and Boyle should be dropped the next day…they’re not performing and there must be no special treatment.
The biggest problems now is the lack of pace in FB line and an over reliance on a 35 year old AM in FF line. There is no new FBs coming through and Harrison was destroyed by Mannion in 17 final.
Where are the pacy young no. 2,3,4 and 13,14 and 15?
AM is still worth a place as impact sub but are Dublin relying on Bernard Brogan as their ‘go to’ man in the FF line?
Boyle and Keegan should be dropped the next day as they’re not performing…there must be no special treatment!
Can’t understand why two out of Eoin O’donoghue Drake and Plunkett did not start last night or at least get game time (mabye injured?). Boiler has been a great servant to Mayo football but his legs were gone last year never mind this year. Horan had to get ruthless.
I agree about lack of pace in the full back line, except for zippy Higgins who still has pace to burn and still has loads to offer if played correctly. However, having shipped big scores in his one to one battles on numerous occasions (e.g. paddy Andrews taking him for 5 points from play in 2015 semi), he needs to be played as a sweeper. I can think of no one better to sweep rapidly across the space between the full back and half back line, clean up dirty ball and start counter attacks at pace. Our defence needs a sweeper, Dublin cut us open repeatedly in 2nd gear last night and should have scored 5-6 goals if we’re honest with ourselves. Eoin o’donoghue in one corner, Harrison in the other and coen in full back with caff, Crowe and drake providing back up/cover. There you go…..sorted ; )
Does anybody know the situation with tickets for the kerry match? A friend from kerry made me aware they were already on sale online and have sold out there. Will they be on sale in store next week?
People are being a bit harsh on the full back line. Harry and Higgins are 2 of the quickest corner backs around. Paul Mannion destroys most of his markers and Costello is top class as well. We’ll sort out our 6 backs in time so long as JH isn’t afraid to drop non performing veterans. Plunkett should have been playing last night on all known form.
The forwards is where the real problems are. People can call on Andy to be an impact sub all they want but someone needs to put their hand up and take his jersey. Not a good night for Reape but IMO he’s still the best “new” option in the full forward line. I’d start him again the next day out. Aidan offers no scoring threat from 11 which puts more pressure on the other forwards.
Your a bit premature there spotlight though I agree on the FF issue. I hear good things about Diskin.
Drake should have started, he would have matched Jack McCaffery for pace.
The problem isnt the players in the FB line. There needs to be sweepers back there supporting the FB line.
Dublin dont go man to man in their FB line. if you dont compress the space against the Dubs you can forget it.
This has been a feature of Horans management. Kevin Keane on Murphy, Cafferkey on Donaghey, Cafferkey on Brogan isolated defenders on players that are nearly unmarkable 1 on 1. Its the main reason i didnt want him coming back managing the team again, just doesnt seem to have the know how to get a team defending properly
No fast Full or Corner backs about??? Eddie Doran, Seamus Cunniffe,James Stretton, Marcus Park and Stephen Brennan are all very fast backs , and maybe should be looked at been brought into the Mayo panel.Think it’s more of the fact that we stood of our men and had no sweeper inside around full back against the best forward unit in Ireland that caused us such problems last night.
@TH, every one of those players you listed has been looked at in detail.
Agree with you that it was the exposed 1 v 1 matchups that were the issue rather than the personnel.
I am surprised that Caolan Crowe has not been tried at Fb or Corner back. He was thrown in down in Tralee 2 years ago and did well and last year he did very well on Paddy Mc Brearty who like Mannion and co is a top forward. Reape will do much better as time goes on but number 11 and Midfield are concerns against quality opposition. Loftus and Boland have the ball playing skills required for Centre half forward if they can get over some other issues. Ruane is modern style midfielder but we could do with an all rounder like TP who can field and be physical and get up and down the field, any suggestions as my knowledge of potential Mf in the County is limited?
In the challenge game v Sligo , i heard we were playing with a sweeper system , I assumed it was practice for the dubs game .
My opinion on midfield is that we should be playing
Durcan
AOS
DOC
Keegan
across the middle of the park
Hanley, Ruane,SOS covering the above from the bench.
e.g team
ODonoghue
Vaughan
Harrison
Barret
Mclaughlin
Coen
Higgins
Durcan
AOS
DOC
Keegan
Doherty
AMoran
COC
Centerfield
That might work for Galway but against Dublin you simply have to have to have more targets in your attack. Kerry were pinging a quick ball to a player on the 35-40 metre lines and he in turn either found a pacy player going at full tilt and fed him or else gave a quick ball into the Dublin halfback line. This was collected and either given to a runner or the player in possession ran at the dubs and had a go at a score or as happened on many occasions got fouled. The dubs didn’t have time to organize and this put the defenders on the back foot as a few of them got cards and that also caused them issues.
There is a good chance we may end up playing the dubs in the NL final and that would be a far better game to assess where we are, the dubs are a very different animal in their home ground of Croke Park. The celebratory cobwebs and dirty diesel would be well blown out at that stage and while I think we would give them a good test I feel that they would probably get over the line. Kilkenny is a serious player and almost impossible to curtail, he is such a danger that intelligent movement creates space for some of the other assassins to kill the game. It will take some effort to stop them.
If Saturday nights performance was Dublin with only 2 weeks proper training behind them, then it is going to be an even bigger task to stop them than I thought. And I’m an optimist.
Forget about stopping Dublin , for now at least. We desperately need to start beating Galway . Fooked if I can bare another loss to them in castlebar sat night.
“AM is still worth a place as impact sub but are Dublin relying on Bernard Brogan as their ‘go to’ man in the FF line?”
No, they aren’t. But that’s irrelevant. Once somebody better than Andy Moran breaks through, he will be replaced.
Gamechanger 10 I agree with your assessment of our game on Saturday night. It is an honest and well informed analysis and makes a welcome change from most of the other posts on here of late. I believe that Kerry and Dublin will contest this years final as they are the top 2 teams in March most of the last few years. Any time Kerry are out of the league final the Dubs are able to operate in 2nd gear in a league final as they did last year. I was amused by Rock and his efforts on Saturday night, nothing beats giving the jersey to another player for a few games does it. I have great faith in JH and I always will. He has been there and he has done it all before. This a work in progress and it takes patience and fortitude without the ridicule. Remember our status in Div 1 is secure for year 22 and I am continuing to be encouraged by the younger players with every outing. I understand that the transition from club to senior inter county football will not happen overnight. This league run is about getting some first class experience, and a chance to look at what is required at this level. I believe there are others in the wings who will offer a further dimension in the future.
PJ- I wouldn’t say we are safe from relegation yet. If we lose to Galway (possible) and away to Kerry (likely) we could end up playing Monaghan having to get a win or draw to guarantee Division 1 status.
Would still be very unfortunate to get relegated at this stage. We’ve the head to head record over Roscommon, Tyrone & Cavan and the 3 of those still have to play Dublin.
Don’t think we can be relegated.
6 point’s certainly could see a team relegated, if in the event that Kerry won all their match’s ending up with 14 point’s, Dublin could end up with 10 point’s which I think they will, either one of either Cavan or Monaghan could remain on 2 point’s..a number of teams could be stuck on 6 point’s , (in this seneario 5 team’s) making up joint second last position, then it would go to scoring difference. Not very likely I would say, but very possible!
We need to find the best position for the big lad.
Aos is our most powerful man and can win ball at his ease. He’s not contributing from wer he plays. Granted, i will say he rarely losses possession wen he has it but come on surely 14 is his best position??? Good ball in and there are options.
1) he wins it, ploughs thru and scores
2) he draws a foul, or
3) he attracts 2 sometimes 3 lads to mark him which leaves other forwards in more space.
Could I get opinions on wat ye think his best position is?
Kieran,
I think the problem with lumping high ball into AOS in the square is that you have to figure out who’s going to win the ball and who’s going to lump it into the square.
One thing I noted from Saturday night was that once AOS went into the square, there was little or no ball into the forward line.
There are many who criticize AOS, in the press, Dub fans, whomever, who just won’t see what he does on the pitch because they don’t want to. They should take a look to see what happens when he’s not in his usual position and the impact he has on games.
Best place for Aiden is midfield with C O Connor , let O Connor do all the running and Aiden control and direct traffic from around the middle which he is good at if he lets the ball go quickly and not slow down the game. Remember his display from midfield against Donegal in2013
I agree Aidan is probably best suited to a central position. I havent seen enough from him in terms of agility and scoring ability to back the argument of him at 14 (and I would have been an advocate of that in years gone by). He has a different skillset to Donaghy, less of a natural forward or just hasnt had enough practice becoming one. I think he is someone who would have to grow into a 14 role and so I dont think you can throw him in there and hope for a display or even in circumstances where he had one good game, any regular consistency.
At the moment he is better at winning ball in the midfield sector and is very good at tackling. He can dominate midfield against most counties but against the very top teams he can play reasonably well but not dominate and can be caught for pace. he can be quick and hard to stop when in full flow and in possession but he isnt a hard guy to get away from if he is chasing you.
In many ways he is a bit of a utility player and in some respects this has an advantage in that opposition don’t know when and where he will pop up. The disadvantage being that he may not master one area.
That being said, I’d hope Horan and co have a plan for him. Of course they must!
Perhaps as he gets older and pace slows down the only option will be as a full forward. Given our glaring lack of options in this sector, there’s still the argument of trying him there but you would have to put him in there and given him a good 4 or 5 games before making any kind of call. For eg: if Horan played him at 14 against Galway (which is extremely unlikely) and say he had a poor-ish game, then you’d have the vast majority of Mayo fans saying, no Aido isn’t a 14. Too quick to make an accurate judgement call. It would be very interesting to give him the 14 jersey for the next 3 games and see how we fare. We know what he can do in the midfield area but have we ever given him a proper run of games at 14? If you’re a manager and going to do it, then what better opportunity than now with 3 league games left and the likelihood of relegation remote. On top of this, we struggle to create goal scoring chances and this is potentially a route toward goals. If you think about it, if 10/15 balls are kicked into Aidan in a game, the chances are, that even on a bad day he wins 4/5 of these – you’d imagine that if within 14 yards of the goal that a goal scoring opportunity will ensue.
The problem is it’s hard to settle into a new role without being given adequate time.
I’d be inclined to say he will stay in the middle sector but why not play a 3 man midfield. Diarmuid, Aidan and Ruane. There you have 2 mobile capable footballers and and one big strong influential ball winner who can on his day dominate teams physically.
The debate with Aos is unreal, i fully agree we don’t know his best position even though he played in 5 All Ireland Senior Finals. I think its fair to say that every county winning all Ireland’s know were to and how to maximise there key players.
Through Keith Higgins into the same debate ( No 4,6,11?)
Through lee in No 5 , no 6
Jason doc 10 or 13
Kevin mc 11 or 12
How long can we get from andy, how to maximise coc and by accident Doc is probably the only Mayo player we can all agree a position for in championship maybe paddy durkan