Photo: MichaelMaye.com
Okay, the votes are in and counted in our first Man of the Match poll of this year’s championship campaign. It’s a decisive result too, with Evan Regan – who contributed seven points to our 2-16 tally yesterday – claiming 40% of the vote to win the award by a clear margin. Well done to him.
Conor Loftus, who notched 1-2 from the bench, finished next in the poll with 23% of the vote, followed by Andy Moran and Cillian O’Connor on 5%. In Cillian’s case, that’s roughly 1% of the poll for every minute he spent on the pitch yesterday before getting black-carded. No – I’m not wholly sure I understand the logic of that particular voting pattern either. One for the psephologists, I guess.
Is this 3 in a row for Evan Regan.
A big addition this year, really looking forward to seeing more of him.
Well done to Evan, congrats on winning the award. As can be seen from the poll the newbies and the oldies were at the top of the pecking order. Its up to the other players in the panel to be up there with these guys. There should be plenty of competition for places and that’s exactly what you want to see in the months ahead. Add in Diarmuid and the newer lads are doing very well. It should be interesting times ahead.
It is, indeed, Tommyk – great to see him take his League form into summer. Long may it continue.
Delighted for this old pal of mine, said it here long before many had faith in him he would be special ,but fair play ,deserves his spot. Also excited to see more of Connor Loftus this summer.Anyone who says Mayo don’t have the forwards this year is just repeating BS that everyone else has been saying for years.Once the injuries clear up a little we should be well on the road to a great championship.
Was anyone on here at the match yesterday? Just wondering how strict they were with the owl ticketing situation. Was it a properly all ticket affair or did anybody get in by just paying cash at the gate? Just curious to know for future reference. Heard different stories in the lead up to this game about how strict or not they would be about letting people in without a ticket.
Willie Joe, i know you were not there but did you hear anything on this subject?
Jimflag.I had tickets but when I neared the entrance a steward asked did I have tickets,when I said I had he said okay but that there were a few tickets still available to buy if I hadn’t.This was at 1:30.
Jim flag. 1 payday a year no one was left outside ( a lot of people inside should have been). Feckin programme was a fiver, what’s that in euro;s. A lot of beer sold i; d say they took in a tidy few pound Sunday . Surprised Coen didn,t do better in the poll seems a good strong direct running player a good foot passer and less inclined to loose the ball in a tackle than I,d seen lately at midfield. Needs to work on the shooting alright.
Jm Flag there was no one turned away and there were a lot who arrived without tickets , I had to cut for the airport straight after and hundreds more were arriving and paying a fiver in for the disco in the marquee after the game, the london GAA made some cash on sunday , fair play to them. one lad arrived with his match ticket after the game was over and got in with that.
lots of people outside the gates waiting for stragglers to arrive for whom they were holding a ticket but no one turned away.
Very promising performance from Regan. The runout for Loftus won’t do him a bit of harm either. If you add in the two O’Connors, Freezer, Aido and McLoughlin – that’s not looking too bad. With Andy, Dillo and others from the bench.
Definitely goals in us – an inside line of COC, Regan and Aido offers a real green flag threat.
There is definitely more potency up front. It remains to be developed nourished and harnessed over the next while and then …Bang! Bang! Bang ! Bang! and Bang!!!
if I am not wrong all our forwards had scored after about 20 minutes except for conor o shea , even loftus who had come on , not too bad when you consider all the wides as well.
Just wondering would anyone know what dates are the all Ireland football quarter finals going to be held is it the bank hol weekend in August or the weekend after am trying to book a holiday but don’t want to miss our quarter final If we get there
I believe the quarter is on the bank holiday weekend but that is us winning Connacht. Could change if we loose and go to qualifiers(unlikely btw)
LondonMayoMan, Richie duck and Roger Milla.
Thank you gentleman for them answers. You pick up a lot of information on this site.
Loftus has to start the next day for me.
Jim, I would have to agree with you, Conor looks to have forced his way into the starting line up especially if Freezer is unavailable. I would go with a ff line of conor, cillian & evan.
Backdoor Sam – according to the GAA’s website, the quarter-finals involving the Munster and Connacht champions are on the August Bank Holiday weekend, those involving the Leinster and Ulster champions the following weekend. So if we’re going through the front door it’s the Bank Holiday weekend we’d be on. From what I can make out, if we lose the Connacht final (and win the subsequent Round 4 qualifier) we’d also be on that weekend, only up against the Munster champions. If it’s the front door route and we make the semis that’s on Sunday 21st August and I can say for certain that that’s a game I won’t be at, due to my own holiday plans.
Thanks a mill Willie Joe & Mayomad
Would be interested to see what starting 15 everyone on here would go with barring injuries. It’s easy pick holes in teams others pick. Some hard calls to be made this year.
Tommyk,
How about this:
Hennelly
Harrison Cafferky Barrett
Keegan Boyle Higgins
Parsons S O’Shea
D O’Connor A O’Shea McLoughlin
Regan C O’Connor Loftus
I never see Keith at lhb but I think this position gets the best from him.
It’s worth noting that from here on in and assuming we make the All Ireland final (ahem!) we will have the following gaps between games:-
3 weeks to Connacht semi final
3 weeks to Connacht final
3 weeks to All Ireland quarter final
3 weeks to All Ireland semi final and
4 weeks to All Ireland final.
No big, drawn out gaps between games which can’t be a bad thing although you might like the last gap to be three weeks as well!
Must be hard for players in the build-up to the final having to wait it out. Hopefully it’s a small burden they (and we) will have to put up with 🙂
McLoughlin plays on the right so switch him with Diarmuid.
Conor Loftus seems to be very injury prone, he came off the last day with what looked like a hamstring injury. Might be just precautionary though. He is very direct and not afraid to have a shot as we seen in the U-21 final. Has he done enough to force his way into the starting line up? Not sure yet but he is definitely getting closer. Much closer than Conor O’Se who is really struggling to transfer his club form to county. He has played pretty much every game this year I’d say but I think there was only 1 maybe 2 league games that he made a positive impact.
I can see Cillian and Aidan swapping positions for periods of the games going forward with Regan and Loftus/A.Moran either side.
If everyone is fit I’d like to try this team against Galway:
Hennelly
Harrison-Cafferky-Barrett
Keegan-Boyle-Durcan
Parsons-Seamie
Kev Mc-Higgins-DOC
Evan-Aido-Cillian
If Barrett hasn’t recovered, Higgins will continue at CB with Loftus coming into the forwards. Loftus may become impossible to leave out later in the summer if he keeps up his form.
In terms of tactics, Aido and Cillian could alternate between the HF and FF lines. I’d like to see Parsons try the Colm Cavanagh sweeping role as he’d be secure under the high ball. Aido or even DOC could slot into midfield as needed.
Robinbanks, for AOS to go ff I think a couple of issues from last year need to be ironed out.
The quality of ball into him needs to improve drastically, balls were mostly lobbed into him in hope last year 50/50 at best. They need to come in diagonally with pace to the far post for Aido to run onto, he would be virtually unstopable with the correct service. To often he was in a standing position where defenders let him catch it and then they would crowd him out and force turnover.
Support play also needs to improve, too often Aido was left isolated in the box and left to go it alone. Corner forwards need to pull wide initially creating one on ones in the box, support runners need to time their runs to arrive in the box with the ball offering Aido the opportunity to knock it down. Someone needs to be within 5yards of Aido when the ball arrives.
Overall I think the tactic of AOS at ff was a failure last year given that he didnt score in either of the Dub games. The tactic was just not developed enough on the training ground. I believe his best position is at hf but it can work at ff if it is done correctly.
For me I’d go with
Hennelly,
Harrison, cafferky, Higgins
Keegan, Boyle, Durcan,
Parsons,seamie
McLoughlin, AOS,DOC
regan, COC, Loftus
Ours subs should be used tactically with hard runners like Doherty, Vaughan and Coen brought when Galway starts to tire and also our sharp shooters, Andy ,freezer.
If we’re going to play a sweeper I’d drop loftus to the bench and play nally,Barry or boyler as the sweeper. Barry is quite mobile for his size and could do a job similar to Colm Kavanagh at Tyrone. I don’t think we nessessarily need a sweeper for every game but I don’t think it’s a tactic you can spring for the first time in an all Ireland semi and expect it to work.
For the record I think Clarke is a better keeper but don’t think it’s good to be changing keepers and roch has gone with Robbie so he keeps his place.
I also so think switching Cillian and AOS during games could be a very effective tactic.
I think Diarmuid OConnor is the best sweeper.
He’s a better kickpasser than Parsons. Taller and better in the air than the available backs.
He’s an excellent shot blocker often getting two blocks a game (some players just never master blocking). He has speed and strength to close off space and long arms for disposessing. He almost never loses the ball when in posession and can handpass 20+ yards at ease with both hands.
GK – dont mind
Harrison Caff/Keane (dont mind) Higgins
Diarmuid
Keegan. Boyle Durcan
Parsons SOS
Mcgloughlin AOS
Regan Cillian Loftus
Subbing for impact:
Andy
Coen
Thats who I would be confident will perform. Think Coen might struggle against bigger midfields, but a great first defender sub.
Full backs often get yellows, so probably end up using Caff and Keane.