London don’t belong in Connacht – famous last words, eh? But, as they say in those romcom movies, this wasn’t about them – it was about us. We were worse than awful today and could have had no complaints had London succeeded in pulling off what would have been one of the great championship upsets of all time. Nineteen wides, countless errors, utter cluelessness both on and off the pitch: we certainly deserved to lose today but somehow – and I’m not sure I know why it was – we did manage to drag ourselves away from Ruislip with the win that now sends us forward to a Connacht semi-final clash with Galway at McHale Park in four weeks time.
For a variety of reasons, I’m not going to pretend to do a proper match report here. These reasons include (a) the lateness of the hour at which I’ve started writing this (it’s around 10.30 pm), (b) I’m a bit pissed, having just got back in the door from the afters of a First Communion, (3) there are plenty of other perfectly good match reports out there already, notably Colm Gannon’s one in the Mayo Advertiser, as well as the ones on RTÉ.ie and Hogan Stand, (4) I wasn’t in Ruislip today and (5) tomorrow is Monday and all that it holds. As a result, I’ll confine myself to a few comments of a general nature about today’s championship opener for us.
The first is to congratulate London on a superb performance today. They could and more than perhaps should have won and while this may have been as much to do with our ineptitude as anything else, they really went for it today, especially when they sensed they were onto something. It sounded like they deserved an historic win today and it’s only right to salute their superb attempt to achieve what would have been one of the great GAA championship upsets of all time.
From our perspective, though, it has to rank as one of our worst ever championship performances. We were shit last year against Sligo and Longford and we were equally poor today. Nineteen wides is an horrendous statistic but what’s worse is that our performance today was utterly flat with the bulk of the starting fifteen failing to perform. Did we train at all for this game? Did we view it as a nice weekend away with a challenge match thrown in? I dunno but, whatever it was, we simply didn’t perform at a level that would win a junior club game, let alone an inter-county senior championship match.
We seemed to suffer power failure all over the shop. The backs appeared even more ropey than usual, midfield was bailing water for much of the day and, with a few notable exceptions, the forwards weren’t all that hot either. And we had at least six freetakers, one worse than the next. When will we learn about the need to sort something as basic as this?
Alarming as our on-field performance was, our effort on the sideline wasn’t much better. The decision to play a sweeper against London was always questionable but to persist with this strategy for the best part of an hour when it was screamingly obvious that it wasn’t working was utter madness. James Horan, James Nallen and the rest of the lads have more footballing smarts in their fingertips than I could ever hope to have in my entire body but, for fuck’s sake lads, what was all that about and why the fuck did you not move faster to sort it out?
And then there was Johnno on the radio, full of self-important pompous shite about what we needed to do to rescue the day. Yeah, like the sort of stuff we needed to do last year in Markievicz Park or in Pearse Park. Or in Croke Park in 2009 and 2008. Or in Celtic Park in 2007. You’re a politician now, Deputy (with the brass neck to go with your new station) so why can’t you do us all a favour and shut the fuck up about football?
Amidst all the wreckage, though, it’s worthwhile to salute the guys who dug us out of the hole today. Pride of place in this respect goes to Andy Moran who weighed in with six points, all of them important and whose extra-time barrage all but single-handedly won the day for us. Kevin McLoughlin made a crucial difference when he came on – not least in getting the score that took the game to extra-time – and Alan Dillon (who went off but then came back on again in extra-time) used his guile to effect more than once. Trevor Mortimer also contributed to the win, not least by lamping over a point from over fifty yards shortly after coming on.
There’s not too much more to be said from this standpoint. We flirted outrageously with humiliation today and yet we somehow managed to escape with a win, albeit one secured with bugger all of our modesty intact. What will this mean for Galway in four weeks time? Very little, I reckon, given the unique microclimate that surrounds this fixture but you’d need to be at the very optimistic end of the spectrum to believe that we’re heading anywhere this summer.
Put bluntly, it appears we have far less talent than we perhaps might have thought we have both on and off the field right now. Maybe we’ll win Connacht (but I doubt it), maybe we’ll find our way to the All-Ireland series (but I doubt that even more). Some may look at today’s match and see it as an escape but I can’t help but think we’ve had another peek at the abyss.
Mayo: Robert Hennelly (0-1, a ’45’); Tom Cunniffe, Alan Feeney, Dermot Geraghty; Richie Feeney, Donal Vaughan, Chris Barrett; James Kilcullen (0-1), Jason Gibbons; Aidan Campbell (0-1), Andy Moran (0-6, one free) , Alan Dillon (0-4); Trevor Howley, Alan Freemen (0-1), Jason Doherty (0-1). Subs: Aidan O’Shea for Gibbons, Kevin McLoughlin (0-2) for Campbell, Cillian O’Connor (0-1) for Howley, Trevor Mortimer (0-1) for Barrett, Peadar Gardiner for Dillon, Alan Dillon (extra-time) for Doherty.
Should OShea have started ? Gibbons poor not up to the standard Who as was poor all defenders? forwards were poor and Doherty didnt play well all the hype has got to him. Midfield didnt work
its a good job Horan did not listen too many on this site and discard the experience of Trevor Mortimer!
Willie Joe I have a feeling your article was posted on the London dressing room wall !!
Well done to the lads for sorting it out in spite of the tactical mess. I feel JH will have learnt some lessons both about himself and about the players. He will have the team right where he wants them going into the Galway game.
Well done to London too. Was there the day they nearly beat Leitrim – A kinder draw this year and they might have won today.
Any chance Horan will abandon this ridiculous sweeper system which we can’t play anyway and just play the game of football like London appeared to do today. Howley’s man didn’t camp him self in his corner of the field today. He followed him up d field and reeked havoc by the sounds of it. We’ve never been a team for defending well so for once in our lives can we give up copying every new trend in gaelic football and play our own game. We’ve embarrassed ourselves once again and although we have a few new faces we haven’t changed the attitude that is destroying the game in this county. Rant over!
listened 2 the match on Mid West and I’d get a better picture lookin out over the Irish Sea from a rock on Irelands Eye-absolute crap coverage!!
JH has gotten a free pass for too long. If Tommy Lyons or John Maughan had gotten the nod, and this debacle subsequently happened, most on this site would have calling for their heads.
Perhaps he is playing a master stroke in dampening expectations!
Clearly something went seriously wrong over there, one of those days where we played well below ourselves and them well above. Lets not forget they have some decent footballers but yes it is London and it shouldnt even be really close.
Were the lads relaxing over there I wonder? ANyway they got out of jail and if we are as shite as this result suggests (which I dont think we are) then the championship will be fairly shortlived. There certainly wont be much expectation for the rest of the year anyway!
Add London 2011 to Longford and Sligo 2010. Three consecutive championship games v three teams that wont trouble any silversmith. Thats where we are folks and the vision sadly is not within the county to lift the mess.
Not the managers fault by the way. We don’t got the players.
Players need to look at themselves. they cannot blame Co. board or management for this debacle. THEY WERE A DISGRACE TO THEIR COUNTY TODAY!!!
ah jesus will you stop that talk about the players being a disgrace to their county.Nobody is paying them and the players are the first to know that they were way below par and lucky to win the game.
I agree with you Ted, its is not the Managers fault, the blame for this very very poor outing by Mayo rests solely with the players and the Captain must take some blame also, my view is we dont have the players that have the passion and will to win games. Sligo, Longford and now London, what message is there for supporters, cannot see any huge improvement, look what happened to Offaly against Wexford, they came to Mayo and beat us up in Ballintubber, and guys that day for Mayo were playing to stay on the panel, nough said.
You cant blame the players and ignore the management. It must have some effect on the players that the manager does not appear to know his best team and that he engages in eccentric tactics and decisions. Of course the players should take the responsibility for what goes on the field, but the manager has to share the responsibility.
If players do not have the passion to play for the County, then select lads who do.
Brilliant !! Why? Casue I’m sure today went exactly to plan. No doubt in my mind that the intention was to lower expectations so that we don’t get too excited too early and Galway will be lulled into a false sense of optimism heading for our encounter in McHale Park. What a strategy and carried out perfectly today.
Look at the evidence …..
All those wides and that penalty miss today – sure you couldn’t miss all those unless you deliberatly wanted to. All intentional misses for sure.
And even the extra time – sure that was only setup to give the new lads lads an extra 20 minutes of play and experience of championship.
And Aidan O’Shea needed a rest from a full match – keep him fresh. Trevor Mortimer coming on and doing Roy of the Rovers – that was definitely in the pre-match script too. Has to be.
Lokk at Alan Dillon. He got an imaginary injury in order to be taken off just in case he went on a scoring spree and ruined it all. Sure he came back later when he couldn’t do much damage. Jason Doherty and Alan Freeman and in particular Aidan Campbell had read and followed the script to a T – missing sitters your granny could score. Trevor Howley was moved back the field well away from any scoring opportunity just to be sure he wasn’t going to score. But Andy Moran mustn’t have heard the instructions clearly as he went and scored 6 points. Could have ruined everything Andy !
I’m even half inclined to think the plan was to go for a draw to get a replay back in Castlebar (we even let in a soft goal when we were opening up too wide of a lead). Those few extra points from Andy was where the planned draw result went wrong perhaps.
A great plan and executed almost flawlesly !!
Todays match proved we have an abitlity to totally control a match and it’s outcome. We should be excited !
I thought we’d be entertaining London in a Connacht semi-final for a lot of that game today. It was hilarious, ye almost got shown up.
Roll on Castlebar.
sorry but today was not about blaming management. Players need to take responsibility for this. The excuse that they are not being paid is not good enough Maigheo. They are playing for the county because they want to, for the privilidge. if i was good enough i would have given anything to represent my county and would have given everything for the cause. but i wasnt talented enough. Those who were selected today are considered talented enough and should also be honoured to wear the jersey but honestly today it looks liked they were inconvenienced by the honour. shame on them!not acceptable!
an absolute joke so it was, Spillane and Brolly will ave a field day. if it was not for Andy Moran, the game would be long over and that sweeper role JH whats that about even Mourinho would not use that
Were the lads on the piss last night or were we really that bad?After that I would think we would be better to be in the qualifiers we need the games!
This is not a recent thing for us ie. total failure in the championship.Since 2006 how many games have we won?Very few is the answer.What is it about the championship that turns lads that can play a bit in the league into almost complete failures in the summer?Is it fear of failure or is it fear of success because it`s fear in some form as far as I can see.
You know when you go for a game of pool and you`re not too bothered wheither you win or loose the pots come easy.Then some fecker that you really want to beat comes on and you miss the shots that you`d usually pot in your sleep.
At this stage I think if fellas just went out to enjoy the game and loosen up and forget about wheither we`ll win or loose we might get somewhere, because if we loose we`ll be no worse than any of the teams that we`ve seen in the last 5 years.
Maybe that is an over simplified way of looking at it but missing 21 yard frees is hard to explain at this level.
And another thing the galway fans that we get putting in their shite into this site mustn`t really have much going on in their sad lives I personally wouldn`t be seem dead reading a galway gaa blog let alone commenting on it!
I’m inclined to avoid blame although this is a natural reaction.
JOM summed it up on Mid West after the match – ‘we have found no replacement yet for Brady or Nallen’ – I would add Heaney, McDonald, Ruane and O Neill to that. A ‘sort of golden age’ of Mayo football is over.
It would seem after todays display that the form against Cork, Sligo and Longford last year is a more accurate measure of where we are at than I would normally like to admit.
It all depends now on how the lads and the management react. Lets hope they can turn it around in time for Galway.
Would have to agree diehard. The players are sub standard. The golden era is definitely over.
We could still win connacht. That’s how bad the standard is in the province. The best think of Mayo GAA at the moment is Willie Joe’ blog. So long as he does not go off and start blogging about Armagh football instead 🙂
Just wondering Ted were you at the game as I am wondering how you could tell that the players were disinterested and not trying?
I wasn’t at the match today so I’m not in a position to judge players performances but I watched the short highlights tonight on the Sunday Game.
Mayo looked poor but I think it’s important to point out that they had 19 wides! London are no great shakes and Mayo have handed them wallopings through the years after which they learnt nothing about themselves. The standard between intercounty teams has leveled out – this is borne out by close run matches in each province every year. Laois (Div1) were run v close by Longford (Div3) last week. Wicklow beat Kildare 2 years back. Antrim had a great run last year as did Louth. Limerick rattled Cork and brought them to extra time. Cork obviously kicked on from that! I don’t have the stats but the majority of these teams operate in League Div 3 & 4.
It is difficult for a team to raise their level of performance against inferior opposition. Invariably they are brought down to their level and a dogfight ensues.
Perhaps the team were a little blasé before the ball was thrown in today. I think its fair to say that this will not be the case on June 26th in Castlebar.
Golden era my a**e, time for felllahs to respect the jersey, time for JH to change the plan when everything is going belly up. time to get that Fec**r Johnno off mad west
Well said PJ.
Exactly. These galway heads are always at it. We beat Cork at home and first thing, they are making a beeline to this site with underhand psychology. The apologists then go mental when we give it back, not as eloquently as you did. Mayo softness can be displayed online as well as on the pitch. I was at the game and behind the goal when London were robbed of a forty five by an incorrect call by the umpire when two points up before we pulled it back. Very lucky.
of course the management have to take responsibility for today’s performance. each league game was a pick and mix selection but people game them the benefit of the doubt that it was all part of the larger plan , but today was a dis jointed effort by a team who had never palyed to gether before . the alarm bells started ringing when Geraghty was called into the squad at the last minute. It shows the team is being picked minute to minute without any stategy. players need to know the management are behind them and have some confidence in them and not waiting with an axe at the first sign of a mistake . and how about a ban on new players from the managers own club. jh seems to have let his personal emotions interfere with his analysis of players worth . Ballintuber were shown as not be all that in lasdt years club connacht championship but seem to have been moved en masse to the county team
I happened to be in Ruislip today and brought a few Sassanach friends for the ‘occasion’… Not a wise move.
A couple of mitigating factors (i.e. excuses) to start. First, travelling to London can’t be considered a heady experience for most teams. Second, despite their stature, London rarely get beaten badly on home soil – they play with a lot of pride and, perhaps, a little bit of a chip on their shoulders.
That all said, Mayo were rotten. What I found most disappointing was not the lack of skill or aptitude (although both were totally absent), but a lack of desire when the game was still for the taking in the final stages of the 70 minutes. I don’t care what might have motivated them at that point, but one would suspect that the fear of abject humiliation would at least have spurred them on somewhat – not so. It was blind fortune that got them to extra time and, perhaps then, it only dawned on them the severity of their situation and them began to assert themselves.
This was my first time in Ruislip and it was hard to gauge things given how 95% of the spectators were more interested in being on the piss than watching the game… But I’ll have a crack…
In response to some of the previous comments here, I thought Andy Moran was awful – six points is a fine tally, but his decision making was dreadful. Too often he took the ball on himself when others were better placed – ’tis a common issue. He also seemd to ‘take charge’ of many of the frees in the London half, wasting a spectacular number. These are the sorts of positions that, if capitalised upon, turn a near-humiliation into a comfortable if unremarkable win. It seems as if Moran has become the ‘main man’ in the front six, yet he displayed none of the virtues needed to earn such a pivotal role.
With regard to Alan Dillon, I thought he was pretty quiet but played with an assured quality lacking in pretty much everyone else. He looked like a good player, if playing a little within himself, but he didn’t shirk anything and was behind the few good moves we showed. He was subdued later in the game, following his knock, but I certainly wouldn’t lay too much blame on him for our woes.
Midfield was awful, just awful… Kilcullen played like he had ten broken fingers. Actually, the handling of all of the players was terrible – simple passes fumbled and decent possesion constantly wasted.
The sad thing this year is that Galway are in equally poor form and there’s a clear path directly to the All-Ireland quarter’s for any half-decent side in Connaught, I’m just not sure it’s us. The biggest concern in terms of progressing – and how can we not progress after a performance such as today’s – was that London were physically stronger for much of the game. As with our decision making, it’s not new issue, but it was only in extra time that perhaps the greater fitness of the Mayo lads told. That ‘advantage’ won’t exist when we play Galway. I spoke to a man shortly after the game todat who had seen them lose to Offaly in the challenge match a couple of weeks ago – he said Offaly were “very physical” and it was that which won them the game. Given Offaly’s day out on Saturday, this doesn’t bode well for us and our days out…
Apologies for the essay, thwarted journalist here (without the alocohol problem, thankfully).
I think your final comment sums up mayo IC football perfectly WJ. “Another look into the abyss.” The question is how many more peeks will we take before we finally tumble in.
I would imagine everyone is probably shook up after this in the mayo camp. The problem for us though is that we don’t deal with insecurity very well. Look at what happened to this team after last years meeting against Cork in the League final. Complete implosion in the subsequent championship.
Management now have a very tough time to get the house in order for the visit by the Heron chokers. Sadly I believe even escaping with a victory there will only delay the inevitable and another possible embarrassment.
wardjnr has captured it perfectly. His description of the Mayo forwards and some of the “alleged” leaders is what I have seen for ages, right back in some cases to U21.
All show and wind but no substance. Plenty of optics. Armagh gave a lesson on team work, strength and commonsense on Saturday night. So too did Down, no egos on display but thirty players who followed a game plan. One free taker on each side not six as is the norm with us and no need for the seventh man bullshit.
However the display of this team is actually a manifestation of a deeper malaise in the county. Between 1994-2005, every second year almost, we got a club team to an All Ireland final. Since then club football as evidenced by last years county final is dire. That folks is where we get the seed capital from and if it aint there then we get three championship games like our last three Sligo, Longford and London.
Perhaps we will have calls for a root and branch review of Mayo football during the week…oops.
gud man Rosnarun nice to see your stupidity isnt just confined to the Gaa Board.Lets start the’Dillon & O’Connor out’ campaign right here-Stick to Hogan Stand
Haven’t been on in a while lads but was in ruislip yesterday,
Negatives from yesterday ,
1. Londons goal in extra time , utter disgrace , one Londoner who was about five foot feck all beats three backs and a keeper to fist it in, shocking defending , it cannot be excused.
2. A goalkeeper coming up the park to take a 45 , so out of the outfield 14 inter-county players there isnt a man who can be relied on to convert a pressure 45.. ? That’s very telling
3. Physicality, there was no attempt to boss the londoners physically that I could see from my touchline, they were for the most smaller men than the mayomen.
4. Ruthlessness. Too many attempts at goal in the first half which were easily blocked, the crowd were roaring the team on to take their points early.
5. Team selection, some players seemed to be out of position and londons link up play was far better, both teams had a league campaign so why was mayo only fluid in spurts but London always seemed to get ball to a man in space.
positives
1 feck it we won anyway.
2 great support for mayo in London
3 dillon was excellent , always looking for the ball and making yards.
4. We will be much improved in castlebar , I am sure of it, Galway are no great shakes, their captain was there yesterday and hopefully they will be overconfident.
Finally just an honorable mention for the point of the day that the baldy London 24 scored, he was driven out wide and shot and curled it between the posts, best point I have seen in a long time
I was at the game.
It was like being in longford all over again – a very similar performance.
Firstly I agree very much with WardJnr – andy moran was very average. He gave the ball away as much as anyone else. I’d have andy on my starting 15 for Mayo, as someone who can win dirty ball in the middle third, but he is not and never has been a natural scoring forward, when the likes of aiden kilcoyne arent even making the panel, u get to thinking that something aint just right!!!
The free kick taking was frightening. If we had Maurice sheridan on the pitch we would have won the game by 6 or 7 in normal time.
However – i dont think people who werent at the game can comment on players effort. You cant tell from radio as youre relying on someone elses opinion. The players did try – thats the unfortunate thing. They tried and were just no good.
I could write an essay on this game and performances and where I think we are at – but whats the point. Instead here are 3 words that should sum things up.
Not good enough.
…what ever happened to that ‘root and branch’ analysis of mayo football??
Just read a point by Ontheroad – ur spot on…the club championship level is well below where it should be. Ballintubber are very average. God, that county final i watched last year on tv was embarassing.
WardJnr has hit the nail on the head here. We have been too lightweight for years and we show no signs of addressing the problem. I remember the 2005 minor team that was swatted aside by Down in the AI final. Some lovely footballers but a gust of wind would have knocked half of them over. Ray Dempsey seemed to take this on board with his minor selections and we have held our own at that level since.
At senior level though we still persist with smaller tidier footballers. You can get away with a few of that type as long as you have a strong spine to the team but we have way too many. We have one genuine hard man in the current team in Kilcullen but the rest will not have too many Galway men looking nervously in their rear-view mirrors.
Oh and for the love of God, can we please find a freetaker within the boundaries of the county that can kick 80% of frees up to 45m out.
I was at the game in Ruislip yesterday and have to state the obvious we are extremely fortunate to be still in the Championship. London displayed a hunger and ferocity in the tackle that Mayo simply couldnt muster up. When Kelly from Crossmolina came on the first thing he did was drive a shoulder straight into his man and showed that he wasnt there to make up the numbers. The London centre half forward destroyed us in the air and I really fear for this Mayo team against better opposition.
Negatives:
Absolutely no game plan
No bite, hunger or will to win
Backs play implodes at every opportunity
Midfield was atrocious-destroyed yesterday
Putting a defender up front does not work if he cannot hit a cows arse with a banjo-Kevin Mc should have started and deserves his place
Forwards link up play was brutal
Free taking was atrocious and players on the pitch were nearly arguing about who was going to take each free
I hate to say it but managment seemed clueless on the sideline
Positives:
Huge Mayo crowd showed up yesterday
We got out of jail
Kevin Mc made a big difference off the bench towards the end of normal time
Dillon and Andy good at times
Should be a wake up call for Galway game
Keep the heads up
Maigh Eo Abu
I think JH might be in the Wenger school of thought, this is how I want to play and I won’t change even if we’re beaten.
Very disappointing at this stage of the year to be despondent and let’s face it, it can only get worse unless there was a massive piss up on Saturday night! That might explain a few things, but I don’t think that is even possible as an excuse.
BTW – I know you’re not really his Dad WJ but congrats to Billy for great performance on Saturday night!
Seems like we have a similar enough assessment mayofaninkk , beat Galway and all will be forgotten.
I neither seen the game or heard it on the radio due to work commitments, but there is still a lot to be taken away from this game. One of those things is that I would much rather have seen this tight result, which it was, than have seen Mayo stroll into Ruislip bang over 17 points or a fist full of goals before half and turn up for the second half and walk out easy winners…. Could you imagine the complacency for the Galway game in four weeks if this happened?? I say not shame on Mayo but rather fair play London for a big kick in the arse, it is always badly needed and we were lucky to get it from a team that we could over come on the day.
Any Mayoman would have to be very worried about Castlebar in a couple of weeks time. I don’t really buy the whole ‘we always lift it for Galway’ line.
The return of Higgins, McGarrity and Cafferkey will help. Aidan O’Shea and Kevin McLoughlin should start next day too. Possibly David Clarke as well.
I seen enough of Gibbons and Kilcullen to believe they’re probably just not good enough for intercounty. After all the experimentation in the league we’re still relying on Dillon, Moran and Mortimer.
It’s very easy to jump to some apocalyptic conclusion about team Mayo after yesterday. My tuppence after taking a day to gather thoughts (and fly home):
a) London played very well, hit hard and were fitter than previous London teams. Paul Geraghty was the only footballer on the pitch that could catch clean ball, they had players willing and able to burst the tackle and were full of running until extra time;
b) Dare I say it but maybe Mayo took the game as a challenge instead of a championship game. In the first 10 mins they had great chances for easy points and seemed to run in looking to create goal chances instead. All of a sudden a missed penalty, goal at the other end and the fight was on. General sloppiness (not to mention 5 different free takers) adds to the challenge theory;
c) Mayo’s system may not have worked (seeing as Howley’s man scored 2 points) but their subs did – Trevor looked a lot more like the Trev of old, willing to take the fight like the London team were doing all day; McLoughlin got on ball and scored 0-2, Aidan O’Shea levelled out Geraghty’s dominance at midfield, and Cillian O’Connor got a score;
d) if not for Andy Moran and Alan Dillon our goose was cooked. Andy especially was hungry for ball all day and deserved his tally, Dillon was his usual self, great spreading of the play;
Stating the obvious now, but the Mayo camp know the hard work / straight talking that is required in the next few weeks, otherwise the 2011 campaign won’t get near the end of July. Roll on Castlebar!
I’m no great fan of Johnno or what he did for Mayo but surely Willie Joe you have over-stepped the mark a little in the following comments!
“And then there was Johnno on the radio, full of self-important pompous shite about what we needed to do to rescue the day. Yeah, like the sort of stuff we needed to do last year in Markievicz Park or in Pearse Park. Or in Croke Park in 2009 and 2008. Or in Celtic Park in 2007. You’re a politician now, Deputy (with the brass neck to go with your new station) so why can’t you do us all a favour and shut the fuck up about football?”
I actually thought JOM made a lot of sense in his after match comments and perhaps what we saw against London is the same as we saw against Cork, Sligo and Longford – a weak team that no manager could do much with. I really hope I’m wrong.
I did have a few on me at the time I wrote it so maybe it was slightly OTT. However, the brass neck of the man still astonishes me: when John Maughan was manager JOM was forever sticking his oar in and it now appears he’s determined to do the same with the current incumbent. That would be all well and good had he a reasonable track record with us from 2007-10 but his abject failure then should, I reckon, have given him pause for thought before starting to spray round his opinions in the way he did on the radio yesterday.
JOM won you a Connacht title in 09 (something you won’t win this year) & he brought Mayo from no where to All Ireland final in 1989.
Maybe he stole your pint one time or maybe your a Fianna Fáil man?
For the record I’m a Ulster man & felt he (JOM) talked alot of sense on MWR & you were OTT with those comment.
Woeful stuff the other day-both on the field and on the sideline, I think we all agree on that. To find supporters however talking about disgrace to their county etc is a bit much. I was at the game, 90% of the individual perfomances were certainly way off the standard as was the sideline but thats where we’re at. The standard every week in club football in Mayo doesnt do anything to suggest that we should have a quality senior county team. People above suggesting Horan bias towards his homeclub-again a lazy assessment. His homeclub are county champions, top of Division one and only lost 2/3 games in div 1 for the past three years! Thats the level we’re at in Mayo at the moment, thats reality! On what evidence do people expect Mayo to wipe the floor with any opposition based on results at any level in the past 2/3 years? We’re a poor side, with possibly two players players that would get on our team in 1996/97 when we we’re at our closest to an All Ireland-in other words we’re way off unfortunately-people need to get a grip as this will be a rebuilding job that will take several years at the very least.
If JOM were just an analyst like any other I would accept his views no problem, or if it was John Maughan giving his opinion I would be happy enough with that, but JOM had plenty opportunity to get it right and he failed miserably and FF or FG doesn’t come into it Gaalover. He should know how hard it is, he’s been there and done nothing much.
Just a word on O Mahony. He got four years not three as a lot of journalists seem to think to sort Mayo last time out. In that time McDonald soloed off to retirement and O Mahoney did not replace the better players on the team when they stepped out i.e O Neill, Brady, Ruane and Heaney.
O Mahoney was a good manager with Galway but he was lucky to get such a crop of players there. Johnno mark 1 also got four years with Mayo. Once more, he did not depart after the 1989 final. He left in 1991 after two mediocre years post 1989.
Bearing in mind that the nation is shagged Johnno as a politician might be better off concentrating on getting it back on its feet rather than worrying about a Mayo team thats in terminal decline. By the way Johnno is well aware of how poor we are.
Since he took over in 2007 we beat Galway(that will keep a few from south Mayo happy and tucked up in bed),Roscommon, Sligo, Cavan and New York in championship football. We also lost to Sligo and Galway plus Longford and Derry. The current tailspin we are in can be traced back to his reign. London was the culmination of that nose dive.
Perhaps we simply are out of our cycle and dont have the players and no manager is to blame. That seems plausible but personally speaking I would rather not hear from those that got the opportunity to do something and failed. What we need is a novena to St Martin De Porres not words from the wise.
I don’t think JOM should be the focus of debate post-Ruislip but just in response to GAAlover, I’m not an FF man and Johnno never (well not to my knowledge anyway) stole my pint.
Yes, he did take us to an All-Ireland in 1989 and you could also add in the fact that he was manager of our U21 All-Ireland winning team back in 1983. In addition, his achievements outside the county speak for themselves. But that all needs to be set beside the fact that in his four years in charge of us from 2007-10, he won just one significant championship game for us – that Connacht final in 2009 that you mentioned. Also that sole success came in the third year of his tenure and it came after a shambolic 2007 performance (which clashed with his first election campaign), a slightly better but still underperforming 2008 campaign and it was followed by one of our worst championship campaigns ever last year. James Horan may not lead us to a Connacht title this year, but then again he just might and I’d say he has a better than even chance of doing as well with us as Johnno did in his second tenure for us.
I’m not overly surprised that you liked Johnno’s honeyed words on the radio last Sunday (he is a politician, after all, and an ability to communicate isn’t one of his weaknesses) but context is everything and the context in which he was making those comments just sucked: he spent years sniping at John Maughan from the sidelines and it’s little short of disgusting to see him start to crank that act up once again. I agree with ontheroad – it would be far better if all that wisdom were to be dispensed in Dail Eireann. I’m sure he has plenty of fine ideas about how the country should be managed and it is, after all, what he’s being paid to do.
went to ruislip on sunday with my family to support the green and red. This mayo team were a disgrace,. They looked very unfit the football was to say the least was sloppy and to be fair to ruislip they out played them and should have won. The buck stops with the manager, mayo has been the laughing stock for years and unless we can have a manager that puts some serious discipline into the team and start thinking like a manager, then mayo have not a chance in hell of ever winning an all. ireland.
I think we underestimated the Exiles and paid the price. They had fine players from all over the country. Most of them had some county experience and alot had medals. There were All Ireland winners, A.I. finalists, Munster champions and all star awards on the team. Admittedly most of this was at underage level, but they knew how to play football. They had 4 Mayo players and a good few Kerry players. They were young, played well as a team and had a point to prove.
Thats why I picked the middle option (narrow victory over London) on WJ’s survey. Galway will be a different story and a totally different game. Hopefully we will have some of our players back for the occasion. We are not going to lie down or go to pieces in Castlebar, if anything we’ll be more reved up. I’m looking forward to the game.
(WJ I 100% agree with you on JOM – some bloody neck.)
How do 90% of the people here comment when they were not at the match and rarely go to the matches?
exactly Cynthia
people are forgetting that Galway spent 5years getting rid of Gary Fahey and the next 2 years he was an all star
we have to give these young players time to mature into strong players . it is very much a work in progress this year people
Alan Dillon claims that confidence in Mayo is way down – not having won a serious championship match for a long time. Maybe he is right but surely one sure way to build confidence was to start by beating the sh*** out of teams like London. The fact that we didnt (or werent able) says a lot.
And I dont buy this stuff about complacency – how could any team that lost to Sligo and Longford be complacent unless they have completely lost touch with reality. And maybe that is the core of the problem – living in an illusion that we are in some way where we were in the past (1996-2006). This team is a long way short of that standard and maybe if we start to accept this fact it might be the start of a long road back to the top or at least near the top.
When are people going to wake up, especially the mayo supporters. when you have footballers that have no passion or pride in wearing the mayo jersey, then you have a problem. i am feed up with all thats been writing and talked about mayo football. If they do win an all ireland medal it wont be for football. but i would say i think ther entitled to one for dancing to the tune of the london game last sunday.
Calm down boys. In 1996 we barely scraped by London, having no free taker (familar?) and then went on to lose an All Ireland by the bounce of a ball. John Maughan learned the lessons taught by London and I’m sure James Horan will do the same. Again in 2006, we didn’t distinguish ourselves in London but went all the way to the All Ireland, playing our best match ever against Dublin on the way
Grainne. what is your point, They as you said didn’t win. Please stop fooling yourself and the team by biggen them up to be something that there not. Jm learned nothing and he taught less.
Ah lads, this is class to read! We haven’t lost a game in Connacht since (Sligo 2010)! Who on earth would have thought?! It just goes to show, we really have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes. The prep and travel itinerary for this game has since been revealed to be shambolic!
RogerMilla has since changed his stance on ‘keepers taking frees though. He’s a massive fan of the boys between the stick coming up for a pop at goal.
Haha mark here I am 5 years later still ranting about it, feck sakes, I think mark gottsche the current county secretary was the man who got the point I mentioned, and I was right we did bate Galway,
I just want to know what name 60 Years goes by now 😉