Photo: Mayo Mick
Most of the reports on last night’s Croke Park clash with the Dubs focus heavily, as you’d expect, on Bernard Brogan’s outstanding contribution to his side’s four-point victory. Here’s a selection of reports on the game: GAA.ie, RTÉ, Mayo Advertiser, Sunday Independent, The Score, Hogan Stand, Breaking News. Emmet Ryan also has his usual tactical analysis on proceedings over at Action81.com.
GAA.ie also has a few post-match quotes from Jim Gavin and James Horan. Neither had much of substance to say, to be honest – our man paid tribute to Dublin, saying that they appeared a bit further down the road than our guys in terms of work done so far this year. He also, perhaps understandably, trotted out that old canard about having an extra man working against us and said that we “were maybe a little bit conservative when we should have kicked on”. As I said, nothing of consequence there.
That’s about it, really. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Just watched the Donegal and Tyrone . I thought when Tyrone put them under pressure they lost their heads a bit. Maybe they weren’t used to being under the cuff. And maybe Murphy isn’t used to missing penalties and he took his frustrations out on the Tyrone. Maybe our defeat to Tyrone doesn’t feel as bad now 🙂 The old Donegal came out today a shocking amount of yellow cards and 2 sent off needless challenges .
As for our game i thought we played well for parts . I would worry that Dublin are going to rely on Brogan too much for the season . For us we were pretty poor again when the long high ball came into our back line we still have not got this sorted out and will leak goals if it doesn’t get sorted. And once again we let Dublin work the ball out of their defense far too easily. Compare this to Tyrone every score that Donegal got today they worked for it and put pressure on Donegal in every part of the pitch . This is something i feel Horan needs to get the lads doing as in the past few games we have being too soft out the field. Im not sure whats going on with AOS . I think he had a very poor game.His body language showed very little interest in the game and was indeed out of the game for much of it. Mayo should have being able to dominate midfield instead the Dubs won ball after ball. Still best not to peak too soon 🙂
Dublin still have a few good lads to come back in I don’t think mayo have the same reserve to come for the summer campaign, andy and alan and cillian not withstanding. Does anyone else think that d vaughan is a liability? Gets involved where he shouldn’t, gives away frees, a bit of a diver too, just watched his spread eagle effort in last nights game, ott I think.
The good news is that this match became the reality check that was needed.
We had an easy run last year and it won’t be repeated this year.
The bad news is really bad and is summed up by poor defending and poor composure on the ball. Did everyone note the defending by our two all stars in the FB line ?
Their men regularly got goalside of them & the all stars were then tackling from behind, a recipe for frees/penalties/scores, etc.
As has been said elsewhere goals win matches and last night it was two goals to nil.
You can’t survive in Croke Park with those statistics. Again we failed to create goal chances and the two that were created towards the end were blazed over and wide.
At the other end we are still generous in front of our own goal conceding two goals, a couple of chances and another unnecessary & clumsy penalty when there was no danger. No Kevin Keane to blame it on this time !
Another worrying aspect is that we seem to have added very little in terms of new players or impact off the bench. Our experiment with AOS at 11 failed to fire and our other midfielders failed to generate any momentum. I do think it was an experiment worth trying however … this is the way we find out.
On the plus side we did put together passages where we dominated but were undone by our own lack of composure on our own chances and our generosity in gifting chances when we had established an advantage with a two point lead and an extra man ( a la the inexcusable gift to Kevin McManamon).
One of the most disappointing aspects is that we seem to be repeating the same mistakes from game to game.
There is still time to improve and absorb the lessons. The silverware isn’t given out in March.
It’s only the league and hope the win next week is the Kildare game on sun or sat does anyone know
Ger caff should have been switched off brogan. He was beaten from very early on and was not going to recover.
Over all not that bad given that we were cleaned around them middle. JG, BM, and AOS contributed very little and defended poorly. They are big and strong but they lack agility and im not sure about their stamina. Vaughan is worth a try and put higgins or keegan at chb.
We also needs to learn how to defend the high ball. It was obvious dublin knew this was a major weakness. Brogan was signalling to the outfield players to let it in high.
In some respects Mayo played very well on Sat and took some good scores, however, I would agree with Die Hard, the most dissapointing aspect for me was that once it became obvious that Brogan had Caff in trouble there was no defensive re-org to counteract this and Brogan ends up wth 1-10. We conceded 2 goals but it could have been 4. Brogan can make the best defenders look average so, there no shame in that, but, Brogan’s threat should not have come as a surprise.
At the other end we never even tested Cluxton. That 5 competitive games with only 1 goal and that was scored by a corner back. We dont score enough goals. I dont think that the return of Dillon, O’Connor or even Andy really changes this fact greatly.
While it’s only March it does seem that these problems are pointing to us coming up short again at Championship time against the Top 2-3. We concede too many goal chances and the top teams know this. We dont have the pace or size to really hurt opposition full back lines (albeit the lads scored some great points on Sat night).
i wouldnt underestimate the difference andy moran will make when he comes back into this team.
before he broke the leg he was as the english are wont to say “unplayable”
hopefully by salthill he will be back to his best and JH will have settled on the ideal other 14.
loads of ball to be played yet , lets secure division 1 now.
Does anyone know where Pat Harte is this weather?
I think he is back from injury for a while, is he not?
We need to be looking at natural half forwards like himself, instead of playing defenders in the half forward line.
A broken leg and an anterior cruciate ligament injury are two different animals Roger, some players are never the same after it. Hopefully Andy will be back to his best, god knows we need him….
i hear you Alf, i think we can be sure that andy wont lack for application and hopefully not for medical skill as regards the treatment he is receiving ,
the boost from having the old andy back would be massive.
It was frustrating to see the same defensive problems, we need a big ball winner. I’d love to see some new options at the back, someone to bring on when we are struggling.
Regarding AOS, if he is given one job, he normally excels, remember his midfield display in the semi last year. On saturday, he was all over the pitch. He does not have the required stamina. Leave him in the centre winning & turning over possession.
Andy M will have an impact on the goals for stat. Time and again when opportunities present themselves, the ball ends up with the wrong man. We should have been looking for Doherty or Conroy (fabulous display) to be on the final ball. Give them the opportunity and they will put it away. This is what Andy does and these players know it and are ready for it. Just look at the other top teams scoring goals, they always find the right man.
It’s still early in the season, but I hope we aren’t undone again this year by soft goals conceded. Now is the time to fix it.
Yes hopefully, Andy is one of the most dedicated lads on the team so it won’t be for a lack of effort on his part and the backroom medical team that are in place are top notch but sometimes they body just doesn’t respond after an injury like that. Hopefully he’ll be back to 100% though.
Conroy looks like a changed man this year, can see him having a big impact. Brimming with confidence. Doc’s display will do him the world of good. Front six for Galway would be great to have, Kevin, Dillon, COC, Conroy, Andy and Doc….
i think conroy changed in that sligo game last year alf , he came on , tried to get the range and although it didnt work out for him he knew he was good enough , he then proceeded to go to town on down, i hope he brings that form to salthill.
I dont think we can say that the experiment with AOS at centre half forward failed. Aidan himself was not in top form at all on Sat night. Maybe it was winning Sigerson and all that goes with it. Then again it was hard for Horan and the lads to get the team set up for this change given that Aidan was with DIT. The failure of the the two midfielders was another factor in this experiment. If they were winning enough ball it might have been entirely different for AOS. I would give it another go before condemming it as a failure. We certainly need something different in the forwards that willl give us better chances of scoring goals. And to my knowledge there are no outstanding forwards out there that have not been discovered yet! We need to use the ones we have to best effect.
Of even bigger concern is how we deal with the high ball into the square! Our shortcomings in this department have cost us dearly over the years and will again unless we solve it. You need three players, anyone of whom can compete effectively in the air ( ie not letting the forward get clean posession or break the ball inside) and the other two are completely tuned into the breaking ball both in front and behind the catcher. Hours upon hours of training time should be spent by those defenders dealing with the high ball into the square – practising the skills and techniques involved with the help of a good coach who can develop their play to a high standard.
We need to rethink midfield! Midfield is no longer a two man position. It involves 8 players. We need to pick the 8 that best compliment each other. High catching is still important but of far more importance is the ability to get around the field – link play, make tackles and turnover posession. We still think in terms of team formation being 3-3-2-3-3. It is in fact 3-8-3 or some small variation on this. Then you plan your defending and attacking strategies based on this formation. If we can learn anything from Donegal it is that.
Let us do it also except better than the rest of Ireland!
Vaughan looked ridiculous in the Brennan incident. He really needs to concentrate on defending which he has not done in a very long time. Maybe midfield with AOS might be his position where marking is not as important. But he is not a great fielder of the ball either and was badly exposed in the department by McAuley in the semi last year. He is a problem at the moment.
Vaughan is defo becoming a liability for us, and has been that way for much of the last 12 months. It’s a shame really because when he first came through I thought he looked an outstanding player. He dives too much and is begining to get the name for it. His breaks up the field (once a positive trademark of his game) are becoming an opprotunity for the opposition to counterattack us straight down the middle because he invariably loses possession in our half forward line. Finally, he coughs up stupid frees in dangerous areas, remember his 2 cheap frees against Donegal in September? This at a time when we were slowly pegging them back.
I certainly wouldn’t rule him out because 2 years ago he proved what he can do, he is brave and strong and knows the score with Horan. However, he needs to sort his game out, keep it simple, beat his man and give it off.
Hi All,
I hope you dont mind a Dub comment, I enjoyed the game on Saturday it was good stuff. I am delighted the Dubs won of course but not happy with the Ger Brennan incident, dont get me wrong he deserved to be sent off but I was just a bit surprised by the way Donal Vaughan seemed to charge at him, I thought it was wrong. Anyway best of luck to Dublin and Mayo for 2013.