The votes are in and counted in our first Man of the Match poll of 2019. We had a number of strong performers last night at MacHale Park but, with 30% support in the poll, you’ve decided that the player who should get the MOTM accolade was Jason Doherty.
It’s a fitting reward, not just for the hard-working display put in last night by the Burrishoole man but also because the match marked Jason’s 100th appearance in a Mayo jersey. Too often, Doc’s contribution to the cause is overlooked so it’s great to see him getting the recognition he deserves on this occasion.
Others to feature prominently in the poll were Brian Reape, whose thunderous goal in the closing stages helped him hoover up 13% of the votes cast, with Paddy Durcan (11%), Brendan Harrison and Donal Vaughan (both 9%) all attracting significant support as well.
Congrats to all of them and to the team as a whole, as it was undoubtedly the strong collective effort that saw us over the line last night.
Brolly has hit the nail on the head about AOS on league sunday. What exactly is his position? Because it’s not centre forward. He is not an 11. Not mobile enough he said and I’d have to agree. Doesn’t contribute scores or direct dangerous ball in like an 11 should and brolly has said he should be in around house…he’s right. I think our mom Doherty should be 11. Has all the attributes. Well done to Jason and donie Vaughan diskin and reape. Good performances from them last night.
Interesting view to be fair from Brolly on TV tonight that AOS is ineffective at CF, lacks pace in that position and is best suited to FF. I think he may have a point as Aidan causes a lot of problems at FF for teams. In the era of the blanket defence I’d like to see more direct high ball into the square to a strong target man and make the defences ‘think’.
Let’s start in Omagh next week!
Ya I see that too and particularly given how the offensive mark worked for monaghan today AOS has a great pair of hands Maigheo abu
It’s a robbing peter to pay paul situation take o Shea out of 11 and we lose an aerial presence around the middle for winning kickouts.
Talking of Brolly has he met his match with Joanna Donnelly on RTE!
I would almost disagree with that man as a matter of principle even when he might be right. I do not like how he targets a top Mayo player and seeks to denigrate him under the guise of suggesting he is not playing in the right position, making it sound as if he is not having a go at him when in fact that is exactly what he is doing. Aidan isn’t a classic CHF but then he doesn’t really play there most of the time anyway. He is all over the field. And another thing positions mean very little in modern football.
Congrats Jason Doherty.. a well deserved accolade and timely recognition.
On another note.. was Brolly at the match? No he wasnt and I believe he has it wrong this time. Why was Aiden playing out around the middle of the field? Because as Willie Joe rightly spotted and reported on.. we had to keep ball in the first half.. at all cost we had keep the ball away from Roscommon to keep the score down. He was told to play this role.. he is selfless to the cause. He helped Mayo retain possession and in doing that he helped Mayo win the game. He sacraficed his game so many times for the greater good..against Kerry he played full back for gawd sake because we had no one else to handle Donaghy. I expect he will go in forward when more players like Kevin Mcloughlin and please God Tom P come back.. but it’s impossible to say what his best position is because you have to change up your tactics to match the team and the conditions. I say we just be thankful it’s us that has such a selfless talented player that will do the job that Horan wants him to do and let’s just keep Brolly and co guessing what that is
Handy few quid for the Gooch on the Sunday league programme on rte. He really got little chance to speak as Joe the Know hogged the limelight again with AOS in the firing line on this occasion.
Well done Jason.
I’m still fuming after listening to that asshole Brolly. We got about 2 minutes of the match and pure bullshit from Brolly, and Gooch not much better. Practically no comment about the actual match, just let these spoofers have a platform to mouth off. By the way mention of conditions that caused the cameras to be dismantled and moved at half-time, such were the conditions. Thank God for the alternatives of Eir and Sky, so that Brolly and co don’t have a monopoly.
Talk of positions is a nonsense these days.
Aidan is played at 11 as:
– He’s not mobile enough for midfield
– He’s not an instinctive forward to shoot/pass at 14
– He plays his best football coming towards goal and he is freed up at 11 to do so
– He’s a kickout option at 11
The question is no longer a valid one, players have no set position these days. Our full back kicked a point with us down to 14 men.
Probably a pre-match tactic, if down to 14 the last person that will get tracked is the full back.
Horrendous weather for Saturday’s game, but a win, is a win, is a win! Two valuable point’s.. Concidering the conditions, It was a reasonable performance by both teams….And Reffed pretty well which couldn’t be easy on a night like last Saturday’s. Mayo were more than one point the better team, but another old failing came back to haunt us, conciding a last minute goal… Another annoying thing for me was Colm Boyle getting a needless but deserved black card. . Granted Colm had a fabulous game and probably Mayo’s Man of the Match in the first half… I wouldn’t like Mayo going into battle without him…But?..Big night for the deserved winner of the Mayo’ GAA Blog MotM award… Jason Doc, One hundred appearances in competitive football is quite a milestone..A great start for the new Captain of Mayo, Paddy Durcan it’s been a long time since we won a match in McHale Park.. I was very pleased with both of our debutants.. Both Connor Diskin and especially Brian Reape who I taught had a fabulous second half..We didn’t get the ball into the opposition half too much in the first half, but when we get decent ball into the forwards in the second half, Brian Reape certainly looked the business, and what a brilliant goal, for your debut, Brilliant!..
We are still looking to see Aidan tried at midfield and lob a few King balls into him. Seriously, we hear this every single year. Has that part of history been deleted? It has been tried and tested. He is not a full forward.
MayoMark, agree AOS at full forward was tried and did not work. Game v sligo all those years ago IMO does not mean AOS can play there, any half decent ff would have made hay that day.
It’s a new year but the same old shite being talked about, AOS must play at ff and while he’s at it play mf for knockouts, ‘debate’ rages on about keepers, still complaining about Brolly, I’m just waiting for the thread about how every ref in the country is against us.
Obviously my post should read “played at full forward” and not midfield! It’s early in my defence!
Aidan has played full forward countless times, including the 4 games against Dublin in 2015 and 2016. How many times has he really played well in that position? He’s not a number 11 in the traditional sense but he does his best work in the middle third. Fielding is his greatest strength. He doesn’t have the movement to be an inside forward and isn’t great at bringing others into play.
Can we all please not fall into the old trap of listening to the likes of Brolly and others and talking about the shite they spout? He only made that reference to AOS last night because he clearly hadn’t anything more relevant to offer. He’s incapable of analysing a game and so continually falls back on the same old generalised clap-trap. Joanne Cantwell putting him in his box last night was amusing but the last thing we need now is RTE bigging this up as some kind of unmissable TV. It’s shite, pure and simple. Same story on RTE radio yesterday where they had Colm O’Rourke and Dessie Dolan on, doing a decent impression of two crotchety ould lads in the pub. Apparently they were in the outside broadcast unit in Clones but there was no analysis at all from them on where yesterday’s match was won and lost. Loads about isn’t-it-great-the-way-the-kids-come-on-the-pitch-at-half-time-in-Parnell-park and aren’t-the-tickets-price-rises-awful and blah blah blah. Utter joke that we’re paying our TV licence money to facilitate the broadcasting of such drivel week after week.
The match analysis from Austin Garvin and Billy Fitzpatrick on Claremorris Local Radio last night at 7pm was vastly superior to anything on either RTE Radio or Television. Their program is on the Internet on Sunday evenings for those interested.
Ah lads ya can’t let the likes of Brolly get under your skin. The has a massive ego that needs to be filled I don’t think he believes half of his own shite . On O Shea it doesn’t matter what part of pitch he is in if he can get good ball he will do some damage will get a free at least . However that said with the forward mark we need to utilise his height and strength to control a game and get frees in good adorable positions.
Lads Joanne Donnelly is a weather woman, Joanne Mc Cormack works in super valu Tuam , the lady who put Brolly in his place last night is Joanne Cantwell..
I thought she quietened him every time he started harping on.. More of the same Joanne.
*scorable*
Just to add about Aidan (for the benefit of those who weren’t there on Saturday night), he worked like an animal all evening long and ran himself into the ground. He always made himself an outlet on restarts but balls were being kicked out as far as the fifty but then got caught by the wind and curled to land a good twenty yards back so it was impossible to judge where a kickout might go.
Well said Willie Joe.
While veering slightly into the territory of rant, I would have been proud to have put the same points as eloquently as you have. Though I think the lady’s name is Cantwell as opposed to McCormack.
It really grinds my gears that we pay a licence fee to fund that tripe while at the same time that shower will continue to have digs about keeping the game “free to air”.
The difference between RTE and all the rest is that all the rest actually analyse the game properly, as opposed to trotting out their tired old Clichés and sly digs. I quite honestly do prefer to listen to what the rest have to say as they clearly do put in the work on the analysis. TG4 do this very well also and on a shoestring of a budget.
Re Brolly and his comments, and his stated opinions especially about AOS. And indeed other high profile Gaelic football players troughout the land… It’s click bate, it generates traffic, on Twitter, on Facebook on WhatsApp, it’s what RTE want, in general, especially on RTE allot of Sport’s Punditry is more about keeping the public engaged in some afull meaningless rubbish . . The odd time I might agree with a certain point that Joe Brolly makes but I definitely didn’t last night… Year’s ago there was such a thing as, the classic Center Half Forward No 11, like the brilliant Ogie Moran of Kerry, Greg Blaney of Down, and our own sublime Ciaran Mac, but nowadays every player is a defender when the opposition have possession, and combination a holding player and/or an attacking player when they have the ball.. Numbers on your back don’t mean what they used to…Eg Brendan Harrison No 3, got a point for us on Saturday, both goalkeepers in the Monaghan/Dublin game yesterday played some football out the field….. There were some great analysis on RTE years ago, Antony Tohill being the best in my opinion…. For all his faults Ciaran Whelan is the best of the current bunch…Of course just like Pat Spillane, Ciaran can be very calculating in his words to the benefit of his beloved Dublin!
@diehard why was the weather woman presenting the Sunday game?
Well I believe brolly was at the match and is in mayo a lot I believe so knows more about mayo then some of you think. Love him or hate him he was still involved in an all Ireland team so knows what it takes and maybe his opinion should not be rubbished immediately.
Maybe then Aidan should play mf for a half to get fit and be taking off when he runs out of gas. He offers nothing at 11. When was the last time he scored and a c.f. with that wind on his back should have been popping points. He slows the ball up and doesnt let ball into the inside men. At least inside he might win a few marks and frees. Failing that I’m afraid he should be an impact sub like Conor mort became.
MIDFIELD needs more options so he needs to get fit if he is coming out the field and someone needs to fill that 11 playmaker position
Thanks FDB and Tuamstar – I’ve made that correction on the name. It’s always good to have your facts right while having a rant … and it was a bit of a rant for sure! For what it’s worth, I do think that Joanne Cantwell will prove herself to be a significant upgrade on Michael Lyster but until RTE institute a complete clear-out on the pundit side things won’t improve materially there.
The inside mark has totally changed the way football needs to be played . AOS needs to be used closer to goal . He will win the marks but more importantly will make runs taking 2 ( or 3 guys ) with him to open up space for others to win marks in the scoring zone . I am not a fan of the new rule but we are better equipped then most because of AOS to take advantage
I wouldn’t be worrying about our ff at all,reape looks good,i would be worried about our full back position,Harrison is a great player but I don’t think he’s a full back,we got caught out against Galway and again against Roscommon at the end,maybe play Donnie at full back,bring aiden to midfield and Higgins to 11,just a thought
Aido for all his prowess in the air, is not a natural inside forward. If he wins the mark, he is the one who has to take the shot. So i don’t see us benefiting a whole lot from that tactic.
Reape & Diskin on the other hand look like good ball winners and you would fancy them to pop the mark.
Well said, Willie Joe. It’s not so long ago this fella was referring to the anchor of a rival broadcaster as a “Baywatch babe”. Alas, it was pre-‘Me Too’. Joanne is a superb broadcaster and won’t take his shit. His ‘analysis’ is one-dimensional, dated and always, always self-serving.
At the other end of the scale, there’s Duggan in the Times today…
“The season began with the unpromising news, via the stadium announcer, that a Mayo season ticket had been lost in the stands – before a ball had even been kicked. The more blackly comic observed that the poor soul simply realised that they couldn’t take the hope – the lurching league form, the crashing early-championship disappointment, the wild rides of Croke Park knock-out days and, perhaps, a return to the All-Ireland final. The madness, in other words, that comes with following the green and red. But there’s something of the Hotel California about Mayo: you can discard your season ticket any time you like. But you can never leave.”
@Mayo focus Well surely to god if Aido won his mark on the 30 or 40 he should be well able to slot it over .
Well said Willie Joe. I fast-forwarded the video to go directly to the Mayo match. On that segment, I thought Joanne Cantwell was terrible, no control over Brolly or Cooper. And note, this was planned; when Brolly went on his rant about AOS at full forward, we saw video clips of the Sligo match, the Donegal match to illustrate the (non) point.That requires some bit of work by the researchers. RTE really are a joke at this stage. Compare that with Newstalk on Saturday (on my way down); a 45-minute segment on the new rules with Colm Keys and Jack Cooney among others. It was full of intelligent analysis and insights.
And on Aiden, well said too Willie Joe. As well as his intelligent play and work rate, he had to take a full 75 minutes of being pulled, dragged, mouthed at, and hit when the opportunities arose. I’ll say one thing about Cunningham; he had his homework done on the ref, and knew exactly how much they could get away with.
Tip for any of ye with a season ticket, and in Mayo’s case seeing the waiting list, we are all seasoned observers… The season ticket is read via the barcode…. Nothing underhand or illegal about what I am going to suggest… You can photocopy the face of your season ticket, and stick it on the face of last year’s ticket… The barcode can only allow one entry to the stadium in any case.. So your not fiddling anyone… Year’s ago I too Miss placed my season ticket… I got on to Croke Park to get a replacement.. There is a charge for this, I what it was reasonable enough… I’m still waiting for for the replacement season ticket, and it must be 2011 that I asked Croke Park for it.. I never found the card as it happens, but Mayo had reached Croke Park by that stage anyway so a print out was sufficient for my needs… It would be awful handy as well if you were sending your season ticket for a trip to Omagh with someone to get it scanned, before Brexit… You wouldn’t need to panic about getting the valuble copy of the season ticket back, after your friendly neighbor who taught fully brought your season ticket on a day trip North of the border…. Not that anyone would do that!
Billie Joe Padden is the finest of the analysts I find and he should have far far more work. Frankly he is good enough that he should constantly be used but I think he is only on Eir?
Dessie Dolan is very lightweight he hasb’t really god the head for it. It’s all obvious cliches. A young player will come in and kick 1-2. “Young that’s going to do his confidence the world of good, take the pressure off ”
John Maughan is constantly used by Mid West radio and I am sorry but he is doing zero prep and is phoning it in and far too comfortable in the role. Twice he has been on either Mayo GAA TV or Mid West broadcasts and being literally eating sandwiches “Mhmmm, mhmmm fantastic workrate last few mins there from Castlebar/Mayo”.
John Maughan reached his zenith of phoning it in last year on Mayo GAA TV for Castlebar Ballintubber. This was a quote “I was just talking to Jackie there about how 1 point is a huge lead in a game like this”.
He then pretty much goes off of famous names regardless of form “Guys like Danny Kirby with their experience now” when Kirby hadn’t been showing any form for Castlebar.
Castlebar score 2 points I think on the trot “Castlebar have really upped the workrate and intensity the last few minutes”. How can MidWest continuously go to John Maughan when Austin O’Malley is usually available and he like Billie Joe is a modern player and also a coach with a 2019 grasp of the club/county game.
Lads 30 plus comments on Joe Brolly on this site alone this morning – just what he would have wanted. We all know Brolly at this stage – my solution is to turn back to another channel while he is talking and wait for the small bit of the game they do show. Brolly and co NEVER analyse a game.
Willie Joes comments above are spot on.
Brolly is right. we are not getting the best out of Aiden. He is firefighting for us. Horan needs to define his role.
Joe Brolly is a cult. Don”t follow him.
Dead right, if we need to go looking for advice from Joe Brolly or even watch the bullshit on RTE TV then we all must be desperate.
RTE is one of those quangos where they look after their own, pay the so called sub-Contractors huge sums of money.
So hard to even remove a Reporter from their position, they even need to pay them off.
That also includes Radio 1 and 2fm.
One thing that Horan must endure this year is if Aido is to play at midfield we don’t want to see him chasing very fit Dubs around, using up all his energy particularly in the 1st half, think back to the 2013 final.
I didn’t see RTE’s coverage last night…What did they say about the Donie Smith episode ?
can anyone who was at the game give a players rating
I thought we had a manager,Willie Joe is correct Rte is rubbish both at Gaelic,and Soccer,all they have is pundits who want to promote themselves so I don’t listen to them at all ,at least people like James Horan and many more are willing to put themselves out there and make decisions,for what it’s worth worth i believe A O S has been an outstanding player for Mayo wherever he has played even full back,as for the argument about the goalkeeper David Clarke is the best stopper but his kickouts are terrible,we need a keeper who can kick at least fifty metres,Robbie is getting far too much criticism,but onwards and upwards,up Mayo
I wouldn’t take much notice of Joe Brolly he plays to the gallery sure isn’t he a barrister. Behind it all and I know it’s very hard to believe but Joe Brolly isn’t a bad bloke he was down in Ballycastle last Friday night giving out medals and said all the right things and was very good with the young lads and they hung on his every word. The Sunday game and that league programme last night is pantomime like the X Factor and dancing with the Stars Joe Brolly is the wannabe villain like Simon Cowell. Sky and Eir are way more professional than RTE and their pundits are way ahead. It’s annoying surely what Brolly was saying about O Shea but I wouldn’t take too much notice of him. O Shea is a class player he got stuck in Saturday night and put himself about Horan will find a good spot for him don’t worry. I thought Aidan was actually the difference between the teams on Saturday night but we are so used to him doing the donkey work and winning dirty ball that we take him for granted and others get the plaudits were lucky he’s playing for us and not the Green and Gold
I havnt watched punditry on RTÉ since whelo used it as a platform to start the anti lee campaign and I really wish ppl would stop going on here about every facile comment those clowns make.
I did watch the 2 mins of coverage they showed of the match tho and the goal we gave away was worse on second viewing. The ros playing caught the ball into his chest, didn’t even have to jump. Rather concede this goal now then in June tho so plenty to work on.
I thought Aidan showed pretty well for his first game of the season on Saturday. Won his ball where he could, distributed nicely and got dragged down for a few frees. He kept it simple and worked extremely hard.
Now Brolly suggesting we throw him back in full forward is just lazy. Aidan does a job wherever we need him – fullback against Kerry rings a bell. There might be times we do throw him inside but he’s a wrecking ball further out when we get him coming onto the ball.
If Brolly suggested we need to rotate him a bit then fair enough, but that would require a little thought. We threw him inside last year at times during the league but then struggled to get decent ball into him, or get support in and around him.
Fact is we could do with another couple of Aidan O’Sheas. I actually think he’s underrated in terms of what he delivers for Mayo (consistently), but the expectations are also a joke at times.
Just in the Reservoir Dubs site and some really annoying comments on the ‘Aido’s Diary’, think its time we started a Jack’s Diary here for poor Jack McCaffrey, God Love Him, a man of many talents….., he gets himself in some awkward positions, poor lad!
@Paddy in Dublin – if you’re referring rather crassly to that video circulating WhatsApp, I personally think it’s extremely offensive that this video has been so widely circulated. Can’t be compared to the fairly tame (and clearly fictitious) Aido’s diary.
Drog, Some of the stuff put in Aido’s diary should not be up there either, appalling content some of it and a bit too personal you should agree.. I am not referring to anything in particular but they are an interesting bunch all the same..Dublin based media would not have been as lenient had a Mayo player been involved…
Jazus lads and lassies I’m sorry for getting Joanne’s name wrong – Donnelly instead of Cantwell! Age catching up with me – must be!
I reckon RTE should put Joanne Donnelly on the League Sunday panel and let Joe Brolly do the weather. He could hardly blame AOS for the bad weather…….or could he?
Culmore – There was a fairly lively debate here on the site some years back about players’ ratings. I was mulling over setting something up along those lines but the clear consensus from those who responded to my idea was that it wasn’t a good one (the fear being that adverse ratings could be used as a way of having a pop at particular players) and so we went with the MOTM poll instead. The background to that particular debate on the site can be found here.
Shane Nally, did he not make himself available or is it that he was not picked by James Horan? Seems a serious player not to have in the team. Anybody know the facts on this one?
@Paddy in Dublin, I tend to stay off the site, found most of it harmless enough. I mean they are totally taking the piss, but most of it seems tongue in cheek. I just think if we start videoing every halfway known Irish person when they’re out and about socialising doing nothing wrong and then sharing it around the country, it’s a sad state of affairs. The two things are completely different. One is fiction and one is a persons real life and in 2019 shouldn’t be a big deal.
For god sake the only thing this has to do with Brolly is he said what many of us are thinking. Many of us have been saying this and maybe it takes national coverage for it to be pointed out to people. In this county we don’t take criticism well. Criticism can be constructive and something to learn from but yet when someone criticises a mayo player or the team we go on the defensive or throw the toys out of the pram. No wonder the dubs and other counties love winding us up. It would be great if people could point out what’s wrong and what we got to do to contend. We need an attacking 11 to start. We need scoring forwards and reape and diskin have impressed. Midfield will be a problem I feel. I think Vaughan has stepped up so far but have we back up cover? No. I don’t think Cohen is a midfielder so we need 1 or 2 more breaking through. It’s far too early in the year to be using Andy and it’s time to give one or 2 younger lads game time in next game or 2.
Regarding the Aos debate Aidan is in non threatening positions most of the time he gets the ball and going sideways and slowing our counter attack down. Hes not the only one doing it and Cohen tends to do similar. Compare him to the main 11s in the country and gather some basic stats. Start with scores then kick passes completed and catches etc. And he is well below Kilkenny Mattie Donnelly etc.
Now I thought he was poor enough Saturday. At crucial times he fumbled a number of balls in the 1st half inside our 14 and while the conditions were dreadful his judgment was awful and I believe he is not long back training so should not have started in my opinion. He gave an awful ball to Vaughan in attack in second half whereas reape in a similar attack gave a perfect handpass for Vaughan to score. I will be interested to see his role within the team if he starts Sunday and how we play vs Tyrone if it’s not snowed off
The inside mark rule will not be in place during this year’s championship. Therefore it would be a bit mad trying to work a gameplan around it instead of using the league to plan for championship.
Drog, Some of the material put up there about AOS and his family is not funny and downright disgraceful..
Paddy in Dublin, what is it you’re looking for exactly? Do you want the cyber-police to swoop in and shut-down Reservoir Dubs because some half-wit is writing drivel about Aidan O’Shea? Those fools love nothing more than winding-up other counties’ fans and getting a reaction and guess what, you’ve just given it to them! My advice to you is to treat them like any other troll, ignore them and eventually they will get bored and go back to playing with their fire trucks or whatever. Surely there are better things in life to be doing rather than trawling such a cess-pit just to get offended
@pk I have no problem with people criticising any of our players. I have been a critic of Aidan O Shea from time to time myself. However, I have a real problem with a well-paid ‘celebrity’ targeting top players, Aidan O Shea and others, including Sean Kavanagh and Colm Cooper, purely for the purpose of promoting his own media profile, as far as I can tell.
Brolly was a guest of honour at the Shrule Glencorrib awards last weekend..
He seems to have a grá for Mayo football in fairness.
Anybodys Season Ticket updated from Sat eve yet?
Tuamstar, I would reverse this question and ask: Why do Shrule (and Ballycastle) have a grá for Brolly? Why do we need to have a clown pundit as guest-of-honour at our award ceremonies? Why not our own, or our neighbours? Why not Padraic Joyce, Aidan O’Shea, Joe Canning, or MacDonald or a dozen other genuine national figures who would be far more suitable as guests and role models?
That’s a fair point Catcol, dont understand it myself.