The draws for next year’s provincial Championships have just been held, broadcast live on RTÉ Radio One’s Saturday Sport show, and we’ve been drawn against Roscommon in the quarter-final. So, for Kevin McStay, his first Championship outing as Mayo manager will be against the previous county he managed, Roscommon.
In what’s an utterly lopsided draw, the winners of our match against Roscommon will face Galway in the provincial semi-final. Which, of course, means that one of Sligo, Leitrim, London or New York are guaranteed to reach next year’s Connacht final.
Provincial draws, eh – don’t you just love ’em?
Really is time to bin the provincials.
This means a division 4 team will be in the round robin stage of the championship too
Is that a home game for us ?
destiny, I suppose. I would say, rossie won’t need much motivation , most day , meeting mayo. But they love nothing more that given Kevin a black eye, and send mayo packing with there tails between there legs. However, we should have a little advantage as I sure Kevin see most of the Rossie team up close, as he seen more Roscommon club football than Mayo.
Lopsided is an understatement. To regain the Nestor cup we are going to have to do it the hard way. Because of the predetermined nature of the draw with regard to New York and London this draw has always been a farce. I agree it is long time to ditch the provincials.
With the format next year aren’t the provincials nearly a total irrelevance, if you are in the all Ireland series which mayo will be then there is fuck all of an advantage in winning connaught.
Hard to believe one of sligo/Leitrim will be playing in the ai series because of a quirk in the draw
Great to have what’s essentially two FBD leagues to look forward to….
You would imagine this be death knell for the provincials.
London could be worth a punt to make final. With the Tailteann the alternative for most teams in division two now, some players could easily be tempted to work in London for a while.
In times past that would be a tough draw for us but the fact we are in the Sam Maguire draw later in the summer makes it less of a big deal. Winning Connacht to secure a top seeding might still be worthwhile though. Division 2 is going to be even more dog eat dog next year after the Connacht draw. Cork not certain by any means of making the Munster final so a poor league could send them to the Tailteann maybe as a result of a Division 4 team in Connacht final taking their place. Sligo or Leitrim could get horrible beatings in a Sam Maguire group stage which is no good to anyone.
Winning Connacht is still important as that gives you top seeding in the round robin draw.
Yes the draw is “unkind” and people will say that the provincial should go. But on the flip side playing Roscommon and Galway are good challenges to get us up to speed. And let’s be honest if we can’t beat Roscommon or Galway do we really think we can win an all-Ireland?
Why isn’t it castlebar , I’ve obviously forgot some fixture ?
It should be in Castlebar Sean Burke. We last played the Rossies in the championship in an empty Hyde Park in 2020.
Something not adding up , was mchale shut for a spell , did we have to concede home advantage but surely that just automatically reverts to alternate arrangement for the next time like cork had to v Kerry when stadium was getting redeveloped. Ahh I’m missing something here cause everywhere is reporting it as the Hyde
Sure what harm if a lower ranked team gets to a Connacht final and the round robin stage. More power to them.
A pointless competition at this stage. Getting very expensive for a family now to follow Mayo. Season tickets have got very expensive and all these extra matches will rob hard pressed families.
The perfect draw for Mayo and McStay. Honeymoon will be well and truly over, win or lose.
If we get through it, we owe Galway one in the next round.
Do three of the four group teams in round robin not still go through Willie Joe?
I bamboozeled with it at this stage. If so does top seeding in group make a difference after the group stage?
Does this guarantee 4 Connacht teams in the all Ireland series? It would I’d imagine take some bizarre set of results to prevent it
I don’t know what a tracker mortgage is…
Love it@moose 79.
Mayo, the Rossies,.Galway and the other Connacht finalist are all going to be in the last 16 regardless of what happens in Connacht or the league this year. Comp really starts at 1/4 stage.
Seems to be nonsense to me that it wasn’t a full open draw for the Connacht championship. How did Prenty and co think it was wise to have 3rd quarter final with Mayo,Roscommon and Galway in the pot. All 2 if not all 3 Div 1 teams should be seeded also.
Sligo or Leitrim into the last 16 group stage whereby their receive 3 trimming. If in the B All Ireland there would have a better chance of winning matches and perhaps that competition.
Back to Mayo, should be Roscommon at home who still don’t have a manager and some of the names suggested to take over will put them into a further tailspin if appointed. After that is a discussion on where to park in Salthill
Winning Connacht is still important and it no another FBD as suggested here.
It means Seeded for the group stage which means likely avoiding Kerry and Dublin and will get the first match at home. Winning the group is important as into the quarter final, 2nd and 3rd has a play off game to reach the last 8.
Ideal Situation win Connacht = easier group, topped it and straight into the quarter finals with a rest over the opposition and better chance to reaching the AI semi final.
Giz – the top team in each group will go straight into the quarter final. Teams 2 and 3 play teams 2 and 3 from other groups with the winners also going into the quarter finals.
Way too many games now
Thanks south Mayo Exile, lots of bites a the cherry so. West is best is right, it’s a robber. Imagine a lot of people will have to skip the first 3 or 4 games for financial reasons alone.
So barring catastrophe we start off in the QF really.
Easter Sunday 9th of April for the start of the Connacht championship two weeks after the NFL concludes or just 1 week if you happen to reach the NFL final. That schedule will take some time to get use to.
I can’t say that I’m a fan of this new format even without giving it a chance. It almost looks as though the Connacht draw was contrived to show the flaw in this setup. It looks good for Sligo or Leitrim but in all honesty they would be better off in the Tailteann Cup. Not being disrespectful just honest.
When a sizeable % of regular folk think something is likely a load o boll*x, it almost always is.
Everyone can see from a glance that next year’s championship fornat is boiled steak. 12 mintes, no spices, eat it, it’s still technically steak.
re Green&Red
Even if we beat Roscommon and Galway I think we will not win an AI.
So can anyone put me wide as to why the ros fixture is being reported as down for the Hyde ?
It’s error if reported that way Sean, Mayo v Roscommon will be in MacHale Park.
MO2021 I possibly a bit harsh but the reality is if ya can’t beat the team who would be in that last fixture to get to last 8 you at nout anyway.
Strange format…it could Leitrim against Kerry in carrick….and Mayo or any team could loose first 3 games in championship and still win Sam..if they win there next 5..!
We should be salivating – bring on the Rossies, let’s ate ‘em and then chew up Galway.
Not a good draw for us. Connacht is still worth winning and it would be much better to be top seeds for round robin. That draw makes Connacht more difficult to win. Great news for the counties in the other side of the draw though. Andy will have Leitrim revved up, Sligo will fancy their chances and its not beyond belief that either London or New York could make it to Conn Final
So we setup a Tailtean cup, that’s good.
But as we see one Div 4 team won’t be in it, instead getting destroyed by div1 and 2 teams in round Robin.
Just wondering if anyone could clear up for me – even if we finish bottom of division one and get knocked out of Connacht, we’re in the Sam Maguire?
Also we could end up playing Galway in fbd, league and possibly twice in championship if things fell that way. Often used be once a year in total we played Galway. Overkill now!
Tonmy+Joe I believe the provincial winners are top seeds, provincial losers 2nd seeds. And then the remaining teams are made up from the league standings. But I have yet to hear clarification if bottom team in division 1 is ranked higher than the top team in division 2, for example. Westmeath, as last years Tailteann Cup winners, I am unsure if they get a spot in round Robin also..
But barring a crazy series of events, Mayo, Galway & Roscommon are guaranteed to make the last 16 as far as I can see.
Beating Ros and Galway if it comes to pass should mean an easier win than normal in a connacht final and seeded in the group stages avoiding a playoff game giving the team a rest where others will have to go full tilt at that time. Maybe in this scenario winning connacht is important. I’d also agree with the points about the weaker side of the draw taking big hammerings in the group stages and wonder would they prefer to be in the tailteann Cup.
It’s nearly impossible to get to grips with the new system for next year, it simply means lots of more games, this calls for a big squad to be available. The Gaa are trying to make up for the Revenue lost during the Covid spell.
All in all it will be Kerry again as champions.
@mayo focus. As posted by someone earlier there will probably be 4 connacht teams in the last 16 as the beaten provincial finalists go through. And yes westmeath are also there and this means at least 2 less division 2 teams in the last 16 if I’m reading it right
True about the play off no doubt. But realistically if you designs on winning Sam the team you would meet in that shouldn’t be a huge issue.
@gizmobobs
When there are going to be so many games there’ll be a massive strain on the squad so if you can play one less game enroute thats obviously an advantage. The days of 5 week layoffs between championship games are long gone,the old argument of going into games cold or rusty are long gone.
This plus the seeding means it we be good to win Connacht,it’s not the end of the world if we don’t but like last year would put us on a harder road.
We could play Galway this year in – FBD league, national league, Connaught championship, round of 16 games and later in the All Ireland semifinal of final.
When are league fixtures released?
2 or 3 FBD games. 7 league games. 1 League Final. 1 Connacht 1/4 final. 1 Connacht 1/2 final. 1 Connacht Final. 3 group games. 1 round of 16 games. 1 All Ireland 1/4 final. 1 All Ireland semi final. 1 All Ireland Final. That’s 20/21 possible games and if precedent is anything to go by then the season ticket holders will be fleeced again. For a family with 2 or more kids it’s getting very expensive. Conservatively €3,000 to €4,000 for the season. From a Mayo management point of view it’s pretty much the same as every other year, win the last 5 matches and you’re All-Ireland champions. The other games count for nothing.
Only counties with large squads will withstand the rigours of this new format.
Correct on the ditch and west is best.
We lucky to be in bracket of having one the bigger squads thankfully.
3 very bad goals given away by Ballintubber proving very costly. Some soft frees in first half when on top seemed to go against them alright.
Age catching up with them as well, couldn’t cope with Ballina’s work rate and press.
Jason Gibbons was excellent fielding in fairness, dominated everything that went in top.
The O’Connor’s linking excellently for Ballintubber goal.
Hopefully Westport win this, Castlebar absolutely septic to watch.
anyone at the games today see any new player of County standard. On radio commentry Mickey Murray got good praise when he came on for Ballina. Any of present squad play themselves off panel for next year.
Playing off the panel, any forward who was not after the group and quarters on a good helping of scores needs that factored in in the negative column. 3-4 games to get it done. Five if you made the semi.
Mark Moran pretty poor today, Morohan was excellent as was Keegan.
Damned if I can see how John Maughan didn’t think Keegan man-of-the-match with all due respect to the receipiant.
You really have to admire The Neale. They have taken some drubbings and being kicked when they were down this year, with a depleted squad. They deservedly came up trumps today. Davitts will be sick. The Neale have shown time after time that they are never bet and I think back to 2012 with the last kick goal to bring the junior final to extra time. Very reminiscent of today. Seanie Cosgrove was the main man. They are now the first team to win a Mayo club championship game on penalties.
From the TV games and reports it’s been difficult to identify any consistently good new forward talent at senior. McStay for Ballina maybe?! Happy to be corrected if other feel different! Things seem to look bright further back though.
In my opinion the best players for each team today were
Ballina : Frank Irwin (Swanny a close second)
Ballintubber: Diarmuid O’Connor
Castlebar : Sean Morahan
Westport: Lee Keegan
@culmore, not too many outstanding performances. But Sean Morahan is going to be a great player for Mayo. He’s only 17 but I’d have him on the 26 at least. Between himself and the evergreen Keegan for man of the match in the 2nd game.
Frank Irwin very good for Ballina. He will be in the Mayo 26 for the league as well. Great free taking.
Cillian and Diarmuid were good. Diarmuid did damage at 14 in the 2nd half.
Mental finish to the cbar westport game.
Westport snatched victory from the jaws of defeat from the jaws of victory.
Castlebar will be having nightmares about the scott goal having gotten into a winning position, nearly every player in their box and somehow the big man was able to step to his left and have half the goal to aim at
Hard argue with that Seanie CH.
Disappointing in a way the Lee, Diarmuid, Swanee the better showing players though. Not to many new names putting head above parapet.
Morahan for sure for young lad, Irwin probably not a midfielder but great striker of ball so HF line perhaps?
Gibbons you’d wonder how wasn’t featured last number of years, dominated the Ballina midfield who are senior county panelist’s.
As others have said young morahan looks a player, Frank irwin continues to impress too.
Have seen absolutely nothing from Mark moran since that galway league game to suggest he is worthy of a run with county
A septic second half in McHale Park but then the injury time was the most exciting 2 mnutes of football I seen this year! Wesport deserved the win and glad Castlebar didnt win playing the style of football they played today. Who got man of the match? For Castlebar Sean Morohan was really good. Leeroy was super for Westport – probably the best game I have seen him play for Westport but for me Fionn McDonagh was man of the match. Thought the Wesport shooting was very poor. They should have been 5 or 6 up at half time but they never killed of Castlebar.
The first game was a more entertaining game. Both goalkeepers with mistakes to concede goals. Ballintuber really made Ballina work for it. Thought the referee was harsh on Balintubber at times and Ballina got away with a bit more.
Travelled to Castlebar yesterday for the Intermediate semi final not knowing it was cancelled. Cant believe there wasnt a backup venue. Luckily it was the Saturday game so there was another day to reschedule.
Hard luck to Davitts on relagation from Senior. Not a fan of penalties but accept games need to be decided but it is not a nice way to be relegated.
Well done kilmeena. Following on impressively from.last year. Very good management set up tgere. Should be an intriguing intermediate final . Sure Haunis cant loose a other one.
3 bad goals to give away from Ballintubber perspective, which makes a 3 point loss a real sickener. Glad to see neutrals say that the ref was harsh on tubber, wasn’t just my bias! Thought Walsh in goal was fouled in the run up to penalty incident, which was one of several calls that “went against” tubber.
Ballina high press caused an awful lot of problems for tubber though
Ballintubber will be sickened. Very unfortunate losing Geraghty to injury in the warm up and Bryan Walsh going off before half time. Left them short of bodies when Ballina could bring on the likes of Luke Doherty and Mikey Murray.
Diarmuid had a massive game but what was he thinking with that back pass from the kick out. Looked very dangerous at full forward. Jason Gibbons lorded it in midfield too. Frank Irwin and O’Hora the best for Ballina.
The 2nd game was a hard watch with the way Castlebar set up. At least the 2 late goals added some drama. First time seeing Morahan in person and he looks an unbelievable prospect. Kicked 2 unbelievable points, won frees and was basically the only Castlebar player that threaded a few kick passes into the full forward line.
Westport were the better team bit just ground their way to victory. Keegan and McDonagh were their best players I thought. Conall Dawson is another really good prospect. For an 18 year old he looks completely at ease.
The final is 50:50 IMO. Very hard to pick a winner.
Contrary to an earlier posterI taught that Mark Moran was very good for Westport… Castlebar a very young side, and done very well to reach the Semi, Ballina will probably be favourites for the final.. Maybe Ballina knew that Westport v Castlebar wouldn’t live up to the billing, (which it didn’t until injury time) and were anxious to get home..I hope whoever parked their car in front of the Ballina bus, moved it in time…then again if Ballina were held up in Castlebar for a bit longer maybe it was all for luck, and they got to see the most dramatic of finishes between the Covey’s and the Mitchell’s for many a year.
It looks like after Cillian, Tommy and ROD – the forwards available for the county team are at least two levels below these lads. Even today a half fit Cillian was thinking and playing two steps ahead of all the other forwards we saw.
There seems to be 10-12 forwards out there of a similar level but not really good enough for top level inter county football. As someone said above it’s the lack of consistency from these forwards that it disappointing. One day they kick 3-5 points from play and look the real deal and next day look very average again.
I would say Paul Towey put his hand up as a forward option during the club championship. Just didn’t get chance to play in the latter stages.
Between a team bus from Ballina and flying unused subs from Dubai moneys no object for the Stephenites it seems 🙂
The final should be interesting at least, I would have had Ballina provincial favourites before today, but I’d be more hesitant now. I still think they be to strong for Westport though.
Castlebar style of play like it was v Knockmore is exceptionally negative and hard to watch and would have made for a drab final.
I have to agree with leantimes regarding Mark moran, thought he put in a great shift was a bit quieter in 2nd half
Unfortunately no player put up there hand for the County in the senior semifinals. Conor McStay had a very diappointing performance and he was the one player I thought might have a chance of breaking through. If a player cannot stand out at club level then there is no chance at senior intercounty level. What the hell were James Horan and his selectors looking at when they didn’t rate Jason Gibbons. Mind you, he also got rid of Tom Parsons when he was at his peak. It’s disgraceful how an honest player like Gibbons was treated I believe. It’s no wonder we didn’t win an All-Ireland under his managment.
The west is best I agree no real forward stood out today, but Barry Morans tactics killed the 2nd game today where there are 2 very talented teams and good forwards on show it was like a rerun of Donegal and Dublin 2011, one of the most negative games of Club football I have ever seen in Mayo.
Horan got alot of things right but alot of things wrong and not playing his own clubman Jason Gibbons was one of them, dropping Caolan Crowe and Eoin O’Donoghue and playing Leeroy at Corner back were 3 really terrible mistakes he made.But will see how McStay gets on , any word on trials games coming up? Paul Towey was the most impressive forward on show in this years club championship.Would like to see him partner Cillian and Tommy in next years full forward line and bring ROD out to 11.
Conor Diskin is worth a look next season with good players around him and not been double marked like he is with Claremorris, could be a major threat.He was the stand out forward in the 2018 All Ireland Under 20 final against Kildate that Ryan O’Donoghue ,Tommy Conroy and Colm Moran all played in.
Jason Gibbons got quite a few chances with Mayo down the years. Picked up injuries at bad times if I remember correctly. The fact he is the same age bracket as Parsons and the 2 O’Sheas didn’t help either. He’d walk into the Mayo team if he was 5 years younger.
@Samog I don’t remember Diskin outshining ROD or Jimmy Hyland in that final. Either way he hasn’t developed like those 3 forwards you mentioned.
That’s complete revisionism about Gibbons, he was always a great club player and but wasn’t as good as Parsons, the 2 O’Sheas, and often struggled v Barry Moran too. We had some strength in the middle of the field back then!
I wouldn’t be too harsh on Mitchell’s tactics, they are such a young team and Westport could have cut them to pieces if they didn’t make it tight. They lack some good scoring forwards though and today they were poor in the final 3rd. Lots of talent coming through and Barry has done a good job with them.
By the way, Bob Touhy is another one for the future.
Not complete revisionism on Gibbons, he had great duels with Barry Moran but it was the lack of cover that killed us re Jason, we dropped him, kept Kirby, and ended up without any midfielder close to Gibbon’s ability, shoe-horning DOC and others into the position when first line players got injured.
I Dunno GBXI, they are young alright, it’s not players that set out to play that way. Westport aren’t exactly pensioners and Mitchels have some seasoned campaigners as well.
That style of play can yield some results but it seems bit of throw back to hay day Donegal and maybe even more defensive than that even!
In other news: https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-40984817.html
This combined with other some other altercations in Mayo this weekend involving match officials, Westports exoneration last week, managers on the ground fighting in Meath, the GAA has serious issues.
The west is best Tom Parson wasn’t at his peak when he was dropped. He even said himself on a podcast this year that his performance had dipped and when he came back he came back with the right mindset and the right work ethic
Des Cahill gone from The Sunday game night programme hopefully someone from west of the Shannon gets it, would like to see Dara Ó Cinnéide or maybe even Colm Parkinson.He would bring great debate and not shy away from asking the Hard questions.Known RTE a woman again will probably get it.
Cahill, Spillane, O’Rourke all gone. Wasnt such a bad year after all.
Cahill, Spillane, mcstay, o Rourke, McConville, Tomás ó sé, Dessie Dolan all gone from the Sunday game. That’s a huge amount of change. Will be interesting to see the lineup next season. Maybe Horan will take a seat at the table
Cora Staunton certainly deserves to be prominently included in any tv panel.
Spillane ranks his top 30 players in the game today. Keegan only mayo player, 6 from Galway.
When we take off our multicolored spectacles we have work to do. I expect McStay and co to be fairly ruthless in that they will not have experienced players taking up a place on a panel going on past performances. The winds of change are with us. A lot of promising players around, just to make the final jump up. Full back line remains a concern, imo, and playing players out of position to fill a gap is also detrimental to a players progress. Im thinking of Hession kin particular, i think he is the ideal replacement for K McLoughlin…
Read Spillanes top 30 , the Galway thing is a joke tbh . One final appearance and it’s let’s all hail Galway . Let’s see how they fare in 2023 first
In fairness Sean, they are high quality players. We have our work cut out next year but at least we will have lots of games to break people.
We need a dynamic leader in forwards,, a walsh character. Good forwards in display in championship but they have to make the jump to matchwinners
Thing is Sean Burke very few Mayo players would get into Galways best starting 15. Different a few years ago but times have moved on and Galway will have a very strong panel in 2023. Lee is yer best player but time is not on his side. Galway to retain Connaught but its a difficult path back to a final. McStay has it all to do and desperately needs zero injuries.
Ok chessney if you say so buddy . It’s not that many yrs ago since we knocked ye out of the championship in croke park ,anyway time will tell .