Well, we got our overdue win over Kerry and in far more decisive fashion than any of us could have reasonably predicted in advance. It’s not every day a match against them is won by half-time but this one sure was. With the cavalry on after the break, Kerry hauled the scoreline back into respectable territory but this was an extremely easy win for us.
There was a monstrous crowd at MacHale Park tonight – over 15,000 – and, when I arrived at the ground more than two hours before throw-in, there were hundreds queued outside waiting for the turnstiles to open. By the time throw-in was approaching there was a real air of anticipation around the ground about the contest about to get underway.
We made one change before the off, with Jack Carney starting instead of Bob Tuohy. Paddy Durcan replaced Eoghan McLaughlin on the subs list.
After an early flurry of wides, we opened the scoring from a Ryan O’Donoghue free. Aidan O’Shea had given a nice reverse pass to James Carr who got hauled down for the free.
The Ardagh man got our second score. He won a mark out near the ’45 and hoisted up the kick into the wind and it curled beautifully over the bar.
We turned over Kerry’s restart and in seconds the ball was in their net. Ryan carried it in, taking an indelicate number of steps in the process before poking it home. Just ten minutes gone and we’d already established a solid platform in this game.
They opened their account from a free but we responded almost immediately. We worked the ball around looking for an opening, the defence parting for Jordan Flynn to shoot over from a good central position.
There was a period then when it felt like the game could tip either way. We were looking to kick the ball inside as often as we could but Kerry were turning it over, though they were then failing to do damage in our backline.
Then we suddenly pounced to, in effect, put the game beyond their reach. We broke rapidly and Fionn McDonagh was fouled on the edge of the large square, Ryan popping the free over.
Then James Carr was fed close to the Kerry goal and it was clear he only had one thing on his mind. His shot was low and Murphy on the near side should have done better. The goal put us eight clear.
By half-time the margin had stretched to eleven. Jordan Flynn – excellent again for us tonight – added two of those and Ryan, with a trademark mark, got another. Diarmuid O’Connor got one too, hooking it over from out the left, but he left the fray before half-time, that troubling hamstring most likely the cuase of his early departure. Bob Tuohy replaced him.
Kerry had no choice but to bring on the cavalry for the second half. Dylan Casey, David Clifford and a patently unfit Seán O’Shea were all introduced and while Kerry did enjoy a happier time in front of the posts after the break, the new arrivals were never going to be able to rescue a result that was already in the bag for us.
We got the opening score after the break, with Colm Reape landing a ’45. After David Clifford pointed – and got promptly booked, following some argy-bargy with Rory Brickenden – we scored two more, Jordan landing his fourth of the night and James connecting with an attempted shot at the posts by Fionn and flicking it over.
That was our final score for close on twenty minutes, a spell in which Kerry posted four scores without reply. Then Colm Reape landed his second ’45 of the night, extinguishing whatever faint hopes the travelling support might have had for some kind of miraculous recovery.
We added late points from Donnacha McHugh and Jack Carney, stretching our lead back into double-digit territory. They had the last say on the scoreboard, though, with 1-1 without reply at the end to shrink our winning margin to seven points.
Whatever about the final scoreline, this was a game we won at our ease. We were home and hosed before half-time, as Kerry – shorn of so many of their All-Ireland winning side – visibly struggled to live with our hard pressing and high tempo approach.
But it’s only a League game in February and no-one is going to get carried away by the result. It’s great to get the win but it’ll be banked quickly and the focus will shift – as it must – to the next challenge, which will be Tyrone, back in Castlebar in a week’s time.
Still, a win at our leisure over the reigning All-Ireland champions has to be worth raising a glass or two over. Which I plan to do very shortly tonight. Mine’s a stout. Up Mayo.
Mayo: Colm Reape (0-2, two ’45s); David McBrien, Rory Brickenden, Enda Hession; Stephen Coen, Conor Loftus, Donnacha McHugh; Matthew Ruane, Diarmuid O’Connor (0-1); Fionn McDonagh, Jack Carney (0-1), Jordan Flynn (0-4); Aidan O’Shea, James Carr (1-1), Ryan O’Donoghue (1-3, two frees and a mark). Subs: Bob Tuohy for Diarmuid O’Connor, Cillian O’Connor for McDonagh, Jack Coyne for Brickenden, Conor McStay for Carr, Paddy Durcan for Coen.
Who was our MOTM against Kerry? Pick your top three performers
- Jordan Flynn (30%, 1,176 Votes)
- Enda Hession (14%, 564 Votes)
- James Carr (13%, 490 Votes)
- Conor Loftus (10%, 371 Votes)
- Aidan O'Shea (9%, 339 Votes)
- Ryan O'Donoghue (8%, 329 Votes)
- Colm Reape (4%, 140 Votes)
- Matthew Ruane (3%, 114 Votes)
- David McBrien (3%, 112 Votes)
- Donnacha McHugh (1%, 43 Votes)
- Stephen Coen (1%, 39 Votes)
- Jack Carney (1%, 38 Votes)
- Rory Brickenden (1%, 37 Votes)
- Diarmuid O'Connor (1%, 30 Votes)
- Conor McStay (1%, 26 Votes)
- Fionn McDonagh (0%, 17 Votes)
- Paddy Durcan (0%, 13 Votes)
- Bob Tuohy (0%, 11 Votes)
- Cillian O'Connor (0%, 9 Votes)
- Jack Coyne (0%, 7 Votes)
Total Voters: 2,001
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Wonderful win. Some very impressive performances and great overall team effort. Well done all. Kerry undercooked at the moment but fine win regardless.
Just on a separate note… I thought the announcer at the ground was poor. Surely we can do better than that.
Picked Hession, Aidan and Flynn but honestly could have picked another three.
That performance will give the squad a big lift for the rest of the league. Things are looking promising now when you consider there’s three or four to come back in.
Flynn by far the MOTM fair play he’s developed into one of our finest. A surprise result really was expecting a closer finish.
The only blight, another high ball into the box, goal!! Three of our players near the goal stood staring. They should have swarmed O Sullivan that goal was easily dependable. But sure look its 2 points.
@Maolla. To be fair, I think there were technical difficulties that made the announcer sound like he was lagging. The scoreboard wasn’t much better either.
Great performance tonight. Thought we out played Kerry all over the pitch. The backs don’t always get much of a mention but I thought they were excellent.
Only real negative was the goal where we got caught again with a size miss match in our full back line.
Think Carr scored 1-2 and McHugh got a point too.
Only early but you have to enjoy these type of nights.
Glass of red for me WJ. So enjoyable tonight. Some great flowing football at times, Aido and Flynn combining brilliantly. What impressed me most was our commitment to defence. Plenty lads back, not over committing, well organised. .. of course it’s early days but we been involved in 2 great tight games playing good football and one where we destroyed the Kingdom .. very happy with McStay !
Hessions coming of age game, speed, aggression and stamina. For me Flynn deserves it a mature and intelligent display wonderful display and his accuracy is through the roof, Aido runs and winning all chest high ball another string to our armoury. Now for TC to return and a match fit Paddy Durcan. Good night’s work. Kevs first win
Great headline WJ. Sure was fun.
Hession was brilliant.
Only home after 3 pints feels like I drank 10, definetly best half (the 1st) I’ve seen since 2nd half when we toppled the Dubs. Know its only the League but still going to savour the moment. Thought many were outstanding but Hession unreal and have to hand it to Mcstay, Loftus is awesome at No 6. Keep it up lads (Management ) and ignore any criticism you’re doing a great job in such a short time.
I take it all back about Hession! Maybe he read my posts during the week! 🙂 He did exactly what I wanted in taking the ball aggressively out of defense at pace, like the great Zippy used to do. I don’t care if he doesn’t score. Though I think he was playing at 6 marking (completely nullifying actually Paudie Clifford). Maybe Hession is our number 6?
Jordan was great. If we can keep him at no.12, what a scoring addition he is to the half forwards.
Kerry were absolutely terrible. But also, let it be said without doubt, when David Clifford doesn’t play they are right back in the pack with all the other contenders. You’d easily pay 20e to watch Clifford though, amazing talent.
Enda Hession is now too far a good footballer to be playing as a corner back anymore.thought himself and Flynn were the 2 main men tonite.He kept Paidi Clifford very quite and made some greats runs and plays up the field.
Some very strong performances tonight.
Reape looked a lot better under the high ball and landed a couple from distance
Brickenden and Mcbrien were solid. Improving every week.
Hession carried the ball well.
Loftus – best game at 6 so far. Carried and kicked the ball well. Got us moving forward and collected loose ball in the back line a couple of times.
Aido – made a nuisance of himself. Occupies defefenders. Makes space for others.
Carr – has some knack of finding the net. The run of games will bring him on. More to come.
Ryan – business as usual.
Jordan – A brute of a player. has the lot. mobile, good in the air, can tackle, pass, take a score. He could play anywhere from 2-15 in my opinion and there is still more to come.
The one thing that sticks out is the depth of panel we have developed. It feels like we have 2 players for each position. Kerry would point to the fact they are missing first teamers tonight. Fair enough.
Hennelly, Plunkett,O Hora,Eoghan Mc, Paddy, Cillian, and Tommy Conroy would all be classed as first team players.
That goal we conceded at the end annoyed me. I was thinking only a minute before how we hadnt given up any goal chances. Mind the House at all times.
Plenty of positives. It feels as though we have a lot of improvement in us.
The one thing to note; I just thought he should have run the full bench earlier. With the new format this year it is going to be a long and tough year. And a deep squad is going to be critical. No point naming towey, callinan etc as subs now for three games and giving them no game time.
Looking forward to seeing O’Hora, Conroy back in action soon…
To think we have Tommy C and Swanny to come back yet after that performance.Thought David McBrien looked much better when he went on The Cliff after Rory Brickenden was subbed, Brickenden was way too loose on him.McBrien looks to be the go to Man for DC later on.
3rd game in a row I’ve voted Jordan Flynn motm.
Honestly I’ll hold my hands up and say I never seen him hitting these levels, he looked very limited player when he first came on the scene 3 years ago.
Now he is a key man who can do a bit of everything and empties himself every game, very accurate too when he does shoot.
Fair play Jordan flynn
I agree about Hession – he’s really good and he will only improve as his experience and confidence grows.
We missed Diarmuid O Connor in the second half. I hope he is OK- he is vital around the middle for us.
And Aidan O Shea is making a huge difference up front. He is staying inside a lot more and showing the patience necessary to stick with it even when no ball is coming his way.. He sure can split open a defence with a hand pass.
Well done everyone. Its nice to give Kerry a dose of the medicine they have often administered to us.
Kerry very poor even with only one starting forward from lasts year all Ireland. It’s a long year enjoy it a great win, but all that matters is who’s standing with Sam on the Hogan stand at the end of this year. Kerry will be a different beast later this summer, you can be sure of that. Galway and the Rossies waiting in the grass, enjoy the win but remember business gets done at the end of the year. Don’t write of the Dubs or Tyrone either. Armagh and Derry are now quality sides to worry about also. Impressed with McStay and his background team so far, keep playing the long kick into O shea it causes havoc in the other teams defense. COC still not firing, he needs to soon. Durcan not fit yet and TC will be needed. Lots of promise but lots more to do to become the finished article. Bad goal to let in at the end, again we are ball watching under the high ball, instead of swarming the catcher, very poor defense that was otherwise stellar all night. Good game to watch!!!
If I what I heard tonight from a Kerry man is correct, and I know him, then the fact that the two Clifford’s played tonight is both inspiring and amazingly sad.
Achill75, I don’t see a problem having a really good footballer at corner back. Hession has a very good game tonight and was very influential, maybe we should leave him there if it’s working.
Right now it’s looking like a Coyne, McBrien, Hession fullback line.
Like Ed McGreal said, Kerry were cat.
Also, other than Jordan Flynn, only Jack Carney kicked a point from play from our forwards.
Once Kerry brought their better players on, we lost the second half.
Still, great to get a win tonight. Up Mayo.
Young backs did a great job on the big guns. Lovely Kerry lads beside us were so impressed with Enda Hession on Clifford.They felt Kerry thought they just had to show up as our backs so inexperienced! Jack O Connor face was like thunder getting on the bus afterwards.
Great to Jason Doc on bench & Paddy returning. Hope DOC injury resolves, lovely point & some great passes. Jack Carney had a better game.
Well done Mayo. Great to see the resilience in defense and the.pomp shown in attack. Steady as she goes. Proud of our boys. Aido played another stormer and Jordan Flynn is maturing into a serious player. Hession has similarities to Brian Dooher from Tyrone in his style of play. Not long home but definitely savouring that victory tonight. Time to hit the hay.
Great win tonight. Far more positives than negatives on the field! Up Mayo!
Off the field, I really think someone else should be given a chance as stadium announcer. I think a clearer voice would be no harm. Even Mattie Ruane was introduced as Matthew Tierney! The clarity of Mike Finnerty’s voice at half time was refreshing and there was no issues with the PA system then. The choice of music didn’t add to the occasion at all either. Mayo GAA can surely do better.
Aside from the negative off field stuff, two more points and on we go to Tyrone!
And he started talking too when we were working a score. He was cat.
But I’m very happy. Best night I’ve had in ages. Can add no keegan or mullin either along with O Hora etc.
Wasn’t happy with the goal at the end but the positives FAR outweigh the negatives.
Good win for us. We should enjoy it and then move on. It is February, Kerry were quite poor and both teams have a number of players to return. Thought a lot of Mayo lads did well tonight and it was great to score two goals. Ryan did very well to score his but I would be raging if a goal like that was scored against us as he took lots of steps. Super finish by Carr also though Kerry goalie will be disappointed to concede at near post. Jordan was our top player with a good few not far behind. Four points from three games is excellent. Well done to management. Can do a bit more experimenting now and personally don’t want to end up in league final. The championship match v Roscommon is what matters most at this stage. Finally glad to see Clifford come on. Scored three brilliant points. An absolutely brilliant player. None of the chances were easy, but he makes everything look easy.
@to win just once – It’s hard to solo or hop the ball when you’re being dragged and pulled as Ryan was, it would have been a penalty if he hadn’t scored.
Great match report WJ.
One thing I noticed, are you missing 2 points from the squad report where you list the score beside the players name? I forgot my biro at the match so I haven’t marked on the programme who scored what.
A few musings I have from the game;
– incredible tempo from the start. Prob the best first half from a long number of years, prob the replayed rossie game in 2017
– was disappointed to see COC come on. We know what he can do when we need him. Would love to have seen someone like P. Towey come on. His third game on the bench and he deserved a spell
– D. Clifford. An absolute magician with the ball. Can flip a game out of nowhere. Credit to D. McBrien who did a relatively good job on him when moved across, but you have to admire the talent of DC
– I though our midfield was quiet enough at times tonight. Hession and Loftus drove through the centre a lot and did trojan work in the middle of the park
– Agree with Ed McGreal on AOS, ROD and FMcD not scoring from play. ROD and AOS were immense But when games get tight, if you are in the front 6 you need to be contributing on the score board.
– the announcer talking as Reape was taking the first free… Rookie mistake
– wouldn’t be too worried about conceding the 1-1 near the end. Us hammering Kerry by 10+ points tonight was the last thing we needed. Conceding simple scores will give the team and management something to focus on in training.
On a side note, I was disappointed to see the behavior of some Mayo Stewards. There was 15,000 supporters that came to MacHale park to roar the team on tonight…a lot of them kids circa 6-12 age group. I don’t see anything wrong with them asking for a photo or a jersey signed. On the pitch after the game, I saw people/stewards with bibs and personalized mayo jackets drag players off the pitch and down the tunnel after the game. In a couple of cases, young boys and girls were pushed/shoved out of the way, while these players were rammed through. Mayo GAA is a brand, built by the fans. Let the players have a while on a Saturday night with them, after all these kids are the future. I met Mattie R. in a filling station in Galway at 11 o clock tonight after the match. He stood for a selfie with the kids and was delighted to share a few words about the game. It’s all these young people deserve.
Roll on the red hand next sat night. Can we outplay the blanket that has caused us so much trouble in the past?
MaighEo Abhi.
I’m a big Jordan Flynn fan and he was brilliant tonight but Hesson was also top class tonight
I was at the game In Armagh and I think Hession is becoming a class defender
GBXI. What we said about hessian during the week is matter less . The performance and most importantly the result is. I didn’t think our defence would hold out and yes we know they started with only one starting forward from the all Ireland team but still we done the business in defence. Kevin is doing well with flynn in half forward. Aos giving us the option of a target man. Loftus passing from 6. Carr rejuvenated. Young mcbrien doing really well and gaining experience. Also coyne. Hessian going well. Great intensity. Decent foot passing. Doc going well at midfield . This team is as good as any other potential Sam maguire favourite s. Well done Kevin
A first class display on the pitch, and great credit to the management team led by Kevin, they have done a remarkable job in the short space of time.
The players are showing great maturity and playing a lovely brand of football and leaders are emerging which is great to see.
I honestly did not think that we would be at this level so soon after the retirement of some of the finest player’s that ever played for Mayo.
I am well aware it is early days yet and not get carried away, but it is refreshing to see that we have players capable of taking over, and with time will develop into a formidable outfit.
What a night!!!. That was just sublime by the Mayo Lads. Jordan Flynn was excellent and deserved MOTM. Our defence were brilliant, They well controlled a much under par Kerry. This will not happen in Championship. So let’s enjoy the win for today but focus turns straight to Tyrone next Saturday. Kevin & his team are doing a grand job. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves..just yet!!
Maigh Eo Abú ???
Great to beat Kerry and still Kevin and Co have plenty of areas to work and improve on …and players to come back from injuries….
Job done V Kerry ….
Next up Tyrone…. another good test for the panel
Kerry had SIX players who started last year’s All Ireland starting yesterday evening.
Still we played well .. Look very organised and lads seem to be enjoying their football
We had only EIGHT starters from our meeting with Kerry last June,so not buying this idea that we won because Kerry were weak.Jack o Connor believed that the guys that togged for him yesterday were able to beat Mayo,otherwise they wouldn’t be there.
Took full advantage of a very hungover Kerry team. 2 precious points to aid our chances of staying up in Division 1 and making the All Ireland qualifier series. A really impressive first half team performance. Carr is finally coming of age. Huge credit to the management team for giving him a proper chance through this run of games, clearly building his confidence. However, that leaking of scores in the closing stages once again is a problem that championship teams will exploit. 2 more points and no heavy defeats from the remaining 4 games should hopefully be enough for us to stay up.
Congrats to our lads on an impressive win last night, any time you beat Kerry is a good day or nights work. Jordan and Enda were immense and a few more really impressed me too but I was very happy with Conor Loftus – I might have been a bit critical in the past, but CL really looked the part at 6. Well done Kevin and management, Mayo are developing well. We are going to be a serious force once again this year.
Agree re stadium announcer – he needs to up his game the most!
Cheers Willie Joe!
Hopefully we stay injury free.
Great win but….
We lost the second half and gave away another awful goal.
Kerry were terrible and are way better than that.
Still alot of players seem to have improved and this young fella Aidan OShea could have a future
Well done to the Mayo Team and Management. Only one team in it really on the night. Some of the young Guns of Mayo are developing nicely. Colm Reape, is a fine Goalkeeper and free taker. The Defence played very well. Donie Buckley is doing a great job as always. Jordan Flynn is some footballer and Aidan O Shea, after all the years is still a very important Man. Great Atmosphere, mighty Crowd, and a good night in Westport. Kerry needed a wakeup call. The Kerry Co Board made €2Million Profit in 2022. The team travelled up on a bus on the day of the game and back home again afterwards. That is a Disgraceful way to treat players.
There were an awful lot of positives from the game and still stuff to work on.
Kerry were poor but the “it’s only the league” thing doesn’t work as well when the season is so short. The league now is more important than ever. The result here shouldn’t be downplayed.
That said, it’s interesting to note how Kerry and Galway are both looking a bit hungover. They obviously started back later after their runs deep into summer. At the moment, it looks like the pack has tightened somewhat. Some very good teams in there now – Kerry, Dublin, Galway, ourselves, Derry, Armagh and Tyrone.
While I don’t expect us to win an All-Ireland this year, a good solid season could lead us onto great things in 24 and 25.
So, a good night’s work and great to see a new look team gelling quicker than we hoped for!
Great to win especially against the Yerras but let’s have a reality check….Kerry we’re poor, It’s only February , We had most of our best starting.. Bookies have us 12 to 1 for Sam. 15 to 8 for Connaught.. I’d gladly take a league final win if we could and then dream of further glory . 11 to 8 yesterday was generous . Now for revenge against Tyrone next weekend!!
Couldn’t travel, couldn’t watch it live, had to burn the midnight oil to catch up.
Trying to figure out the type of game we’re playing. Seems to be out of the Dubs at their best playbook: keep possession until the shot opportunity develops, play it back and over to stretch opponents, then get really organised to defend when we lose it. We defended with purpose. If Kerry got ten points, they had to work damn hard for them. In that sense no player stood out, and scores were mostly created from that probing play; some bad misses given that system.
Kerry looked awful. Some of that panel didn’t strike me as ‘Kerry’ players, and they will struggle with depth.
Ground looked great and one could sense the atmosphere, though TG4 had crowd sound muted or on low. Great to see the public address continues to provide comedy all through.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
I had Jordan Flynn down as a passenger who didn’t merit his place on the panel. That started to change in the 2021 semi v Dublin, but he has gone to a completely different level since then.
He is now one of our key players and one who I admire most – his improvement in the past couple of years has been immense and fair play to him.
He was excellent again last night, as was Enda Hession, who is playing brilliant stuff after a poor enough year last year. He uses his pace to evade tackles, and then he’s into space. Having said that, Kerry were shocking, in heavy training I’d say.
Another man with a new focus and impetus is Aidan O’Shea. When right ball is put in to him, he’ll win it, and he uses it very well. He doesn’t try to barrel through the defence like he used to, he has the head up and hand passes it off, and I don’t think he wasted a single ball.
On the negative side for me would be Fionn McDonagh and Jack Carney. Carney is struggling to get into games, but I hope the nice point he got will give him confidence.
McDonagh worked hard in fairness but his conversion rate is very poor, and some shots were from good positions that simply have to be taken.
Christ, the amount of people trying to explain away that win around Kerry being bad, including a lot of Mayo people is maddening.
Next we’ll be apologising for winning. Are we afraid of annoying Kerry or something in case we meet them again? Loser mentality, they put the team they thought could beat us on the field, we put ours and we had the game won at half time. Fantastic.
There’s no one getting carried away or talking about what that means for the rest of the season, but it’s very positive, not least as it helps greatly with job 1, which is stay in Division 1. So let’s enjoy this for what it is and move on. We couldn’t lay a glove on Dublin in the league over the years and subsequently couldn’t beat them on the day that mattered most.
Jordan Flynn is the hero we need but don’t deserve 😀
It seems like not many of us (myself included ) rated him as much more than another non scoring workhorse in the half forward line
Boy were we wrong . He is an absolutely key player for us. He was also missing for Galway game last year too. An absence that has taken on a new perspective since ……
As for Hession the signs were there but he just had a bit of a dip last year.
There is a new energy about the whole squad this year . Sometimes change is good.
If we only had either of Keegan or Mullin for the season I’d be very very confident indeed!
Never know what might happen all the same.
Hotel prices are fairly steep All Ireland weekend. A friend asked me to check 😀
Can t understand this “only February,only the league” mentality at all, whatever it is ,it’s footballs top flight,its a national title,there was almost 20000 people there last night, I m sure the dubs would nt have minded a night out like that. Well done mayo, brilliant win against a kerry xv that had no intentions on going down here by seven points, roll on the red hand and the rossies in the next couple of weeks, you re building nicely and enjoying the football.
Revenge would be beating Tyrone in an All-Ireland semi-final or final, not in a league game.
MichaelinCork we great value each way bet.
Dublin IMO are team to beat, followed by ourselves and Kerry. Galway with Comer gone I’d have 4th.
After that I think S&C and standard wise there is a drop off.
The two groups of 4. Virtually guarantees a QF/SF place depending on draw.
East Cork Exile, the reason we couldn’t lay a glove on Dublin in the league is that we never showed what we were about in the league under Horan and Rochy. McStay with Roscommon had them flying in the league but come championship everyone had their number and there is a fear out there that we are showing our hand to much early doors. It’s a tricky one to balance as we have to practice our game plan ro perfect it but other counties will be doing some analysis of last nights match and come summer they’ll be ready ti hammer the hammer. Who knows.. so for now I’m enjoying the win
Any chance of us gettin an ankle device for aido an cillian and if they stray beyond the 40, zap em…gently…
I’m only joking but when kerry came back in to the game, they drifted and so did we as a team. I get it, aido wants to turn teams over but if he does and there is no one inside, then what? We are back to our old slow build up.
The current defensive structure are well able to turn over but more importantly, turn defence in to attack quickly and that’s when aido is needed.
I’m not being critical but the pace isn’t what it was for either of them so the further out they are, that will be targeted by other teams. Cillian needs to start tagging a few on from play, we do in general as a team but I’m very pleased with how it’s all going.
I’d say the vibe in the camp is good. It seems fairly intense in other camps.
Tyrone will be another stiff test, anything from that would be great for our league standing.
Things change quickly with injuries as we know, so fingures crossed for a clean bill of health..
That doesn’t stack up toe2hand – in 2012 we got to a league final, in Horan’s first year back in 2019, Mayo won the league. This idea that getting hammered by Dublin in the league was a good thing is baffling…sure when we got to the AI final, they beat us in all those too.
Kerry hammered us in a league final last year, looked great from game 1 and went on to win an All Ireland – that’s form I’d like to see Mayo replicate.
Also it has to be said david clifford was phenomenal again, its a joy to watch him especially safe in the knowledge that he is going to be on the losing side. I think he might be the greatest I’ve ever seen.
The worry for kerry is that it’s looking more and more like the David clifford team and if anything were to happen him they’d be screwed.
Conversely mayos squad is padding out really nicely, with everyone back fit we should have 2 options for every position, would mean there is no 1 player injury that would be terminal for us. Very promising
Moose79 – Cillian has been scoring well from play so far this year, despite not starting any games.
Haven’t seen anyone mention Aidan’s kick pass for Ryan’s mark in the first half. Outstanding!
Joe – even when we won the league in 2019, we shipped a hammering from Dublin in Croke Park along the way. That hammering was repeated in the championship in case anyone has forgotten.
We hadn’t beat Kerry in a long time before yesterday, so it was important to get that monkey off our backs.
Tommy Joe it’s been ‘next year’ for Mayo for far longer than I’ve been alive, time to push on and make a serious assault on it. Kerry’s stock has plummeted and there are no red-hot favourites for the AI this year, we shouldn’t fear any teams coming down the tracks.
We were excellent in the first-half but that was the worst Kerry performance I’ve seen in many years, we had more than enough of those blowouts ourselves in the league but as others have noted there’s precious little time to pick things up for the championship, could be an enjoyable summer yet!
Hello, Congratulations to all. Colm Boyle was very insightful on Midwest. I think, he said that Cillian was there to slow/steady the play. Cautious but…….
Was delighted with James Carr. The team is so balanced now. It is looking good. Watched on TG4.
Ciaran2.
I know it’s only 3 games into the season but I’d love to see a forward line like this;
Diarmuid Ryan Flynn
Tommy Aiden Carr
Your half forwards are athletic and hardworking but most importantly very good passers of the ball, which is what Aiden needs. It’s also quite interchangable.
Also, why give Towey at least one half on football, like the way he has persisted with Carney? We know what Cillian can do.
No offense to the guy, he’s athletic, fast, hardworking but how’s Boland not there instead of Fionn??
All I’m saying Joe is that we were an unknown entity, new team, new manager and a poor season by our standards last year. I liked the results against Galway and Armagh.. doing enough and building nicely for Championship to spring a few surprises. The surprise element is now gone as the first half of yesterday game was completely off the charts. All we have succeeded in doing is setting off the alarm bells across other counties and in my personal opinion, aside from Tommy Conroy we don’t have all that coming back to the team. Other counties such as a Galway in particular have much more scope to improve than us. We’re not cute like Tyrone in coming from nowhere, tanking the league and winning a soft all Ireland. We always seem to set out to make it hard for ourselves
Like yer-man said “the futures so bright, I gotta wear shades ?
Toe2hand.. I have seen your handle come up a few times recently. Could you find something else to go by rather than using a version of the one I have been using for years.
I think the first priority for the new management is stay in division 1. Secondly find a few new players and build depth in the panel . I think making McHale Park a fortress is also important. Graph going in the right direction. Onwards and upwards.
Don’t expect giddiness but it’s also important to be able to appreciate the win . We gave the all Ireland champions a thumping in castlebar , that’s fuckin mighty like . Fingers crossed we can now move forward and make Castlebar a place where teams dread coming to play Mayo .
How did Ryan O D get his boot to that , absolutely magnificent stuff .
Remember we only won because the Yerras played the worst game of football by any team since the foundation of the GAA-The cheek of our our lads to not stand back and let the Yerras kick their lovely points,to not roll over and bow to the almighty kingdom……..
Any team will find scoring difficult when the kicker is put under the kind of pressure that Mayo put on Kerry yesterday.Kudos to our coaching team.
Toe to hand and all, have we shown our hand?
In my opinion, yesterday’s performance was a plan to negate Kerry’s defensive system specifically (unpick it), while not allowing them to score (defend far out the field) and get far enough ahead of them on the scoreboard so that we had the upper hand and they couldn’t ‘shut up shop’ on us. We’re not prolific scorers when chasing a game against a high scoring team with a blanket.
I could be wrong about that – I’d love other people’s views as to what our win was based on last night. But I’d say it was a thought-out strategy tailored to Kerry in particular. I’m sure Stephen R was looking for a way to punch holes in their system. Horses for courses.
I would say we are capable of mixing up and adjusting our game depending on the opposition. In all scenarios, Jordan Flynn is a real positive. My one priority would be that our forwards could score more reliably, including from distance, when the chips are down and we need the scores, like at the end of a game. Big kudos to Colm Reape for two great scores yesterday. Great to feel we have another keeper who can do that.
Shooting accuracy excellent..
Flynn and ROD instill such confidence when they’ re on the ball.. So solid and dont second guess themselves.
Appears the dynamic of Mc Stay/ Rochford is working well so far..Long may it continue.
Lovely win in any month of the year.
A great result no doubt, against the all Ireland Champions, but we need to keep feet firmly on the ground, as the saying goes, one Swallow never made a summer ??, hope Diarmuid is OK, Hon Mayo ?
Agree mostly with what the Tubberman has to say – He is singing the praises of Jordon Flynn, Enda Hession and Aidain O Shea and I have to agree. All three seem to have a definite purpose when on the ball and and just exude confidence that they know what they are doing .
But I don’t agree Jack Carney can be put in the same boat as Fionn McDonagh. Jack Carney looks to me to have a certain confidence on the ball and appears to belong and can cope at this level.
But Fionn to me looks in trouble. Even more so that what the Tubberman is indicating. Desperately want him to break into the side as an option but his play just appears to be not at the right level. His style is similar to DOC but yet always appears, when on the ball, a moment away from getting caught out. So head is down when it should be up, he’s kicking to score when he should be passing, wrong option taken all over the place. Hopefully he can turn it around and start relaxing – but, at the moment, it’s not looking good for him.
Massive congratulations on last night’s victory.
Beat us in every line comprehensively.
Wonderful county and hospitality.
Maybe we will meet again in the summer
On a separate note I backed you to finish top 2 in the league and that looks good now.
Toe2hand – just to support what Toe to Hand said, please find another handle as you’re causing too much confusion with the one you’re using and the other poster got there first with it.
It’s amazing how much Clifford really changes Kerry when he’s on. They’re very reliant on him.
Kerry without DC and SOS are bang average. I dont buy the ‘it’s only the league, it’s only February’ narrative at all. Like someone pointed out earlier neither team has everyone available and a lot of different personnel lined out last night compared with the summer. Mayo controlled that game all evening. I’ll sit through the sunday game this evening just to see the puss in Jack O’Connor explaining his way out of that performance last night. Well done to our bucks and the backroom team. If we play like that again next Saturday Tyrone will be beaten well.
Very impressive performance and still room for improvement. Very direct and fast football with very little cross field stuff only when we had to keep ball. A joy to watch. This is the way to play the game and it is the salvation of football. Aidan is hungrier than I have ever seen him. Still lacks the confidence to take a shot. Early days and way fitter than Kerry but moving in the right direction.
Have players benefited from a break from the game through injury ?, I think it’s true in O Donoghue case.
Agree @wideball on ”that” outside of the boot pass from Aiden for Ryan’s mark. 60+ metre and pinpoint accuracy. Ryan had plenty to do with a marker hanging off him and still have to find a finger to raise to claim his mark. Class from both.
Noticable how Aiden has always been pretty accurate with those probing balls, it’s just when he is about to shoot for a score he totally changes technique and appears to tense up instead of relaxing and just kicking through the ball.He would be scoring more heavily if he gets this sorted. Just a confidence thing I assume.
Great to see Donnie Buckleys influence back in the team! Great win, the lads looked very confident. The running attacking game seems to work well for us.
Just a little side note here, I’m genuinely not one who’s into the country music scene but your man last night Fahy who’s on glór tire I believe made a serious job of the national anthem, it was sung with real gusto and was one of the best renditions of the anthem I’ve ever heard before a game, it really got the crowd fired up and set the tone for what was to follow. We should make him our permanent anthem singer for the foreseeable.
wingback, very tough on them.
Well done. improvements needed big time
But we’ll done.
Fantastic victory, managing dream team looking good they seem to know what they are doing compared to previous management, and with hennelly, Doherty to come back in this could be the year the famine ends ?
Delighted to see Hennelly is back in your good books again @Cashel.