Well, it’d be a dull old championship if we weren’t in it, wouldn’t it? Eight games on and we’re still there, not in the final but not out of it either. We should have won today but were a bit fortunate to come away with a draw.
The biggest factor in today’s match started to become apparent a few hours ahead of throw-in. A nice morning up here in the capital gave way to rain by one in the afternoon and for a while during the second half of the minor match it was pelting in earnest. The downpour had eased by the time the big match got underway but the damage was done by then, with treacherous conditions underfoot throughout.
Both teams lined out as selected but the game’s major talking point was plain to see right from the start, with Aidan O’Shea switching back to mark Kieran Donaghy. The logic of the ploy had merit, in cutting off the option for Kerry to launch an early aerial bombardment on us, but whether or not Aidan should have been left in there all day is another question, one that furiously divided many supporters where I was sitting in the Upper Cusack.
We got a dream start. Dominant on the breaks and pushing forward at every opportunity, we missed a few early chances but these were forgotten when Andy Moran smashed the ball to the net after just four minutes. Jason Doherty followed up with a point from play and we were already in the driving seat.
Frees from Paul Geaney and James O’Donoghue got Kerry going but Andy restored our three-point lead. Then Seamus O’Shea fumbled a ball at midfield, Kerry broke rapidly and Donaghy fed Stephen O’Brien who smashed home a levelling goal past David Clarke.
Kerry powered on. Points from play by Young and O’Donoghue put them two up, our explosive opening now a fading memory.
But back we roared. Colm Boyle jinked through the labouring Kerry backline and got away with about eight steps before blasting in our second goal. Points from Cillian and Andy then hoisted us four clear with twenty minutes on the clock.
But, once again, back came Kerry. Four unanswered points from them dragged the contest back to stalemate at half-time.
Kerry had already replaced Michael Geaney midway through the first half and they made two further switches before the ball was thrown in to start the second half. We lined out on the resumption with the same fifteen who’d started the game.
They got the first score of the second half but over the course of the third quarter we began to take control. Andy bagged our equaliser and then Donie Vaughan got on the end of a nice move to edge us one ahead. Points from Cillian and Tom Parsons widened our lead to three as we made our first switch, Paddy Durcan coming on for Boyler.
But then just as it looked like we had them where we wanted them, we conceded another sloppy goal. David Clarke saved David Moran’s piledriver but Johnny Buckley was on hand to collect the rebound and fire to the net.
From there to the end, it was score for score, the tension ratcheting up with every minute that passed. Geaney put them one up once more, Cillian levelled with a free, then O’Donoghue put over a free for them and Andy squeezed one over on the nearside from out on the left wing.
Geaney again put them back in front but Tom, played in for a possible goal chance, flicked it over to level once more. Then Cillian smashed over a monstrous point from out on the left and victory for us beckoned again.
Not for long, though, as sub Keane fired over a quality score for them into the Hill. Then, after six nerve-shredding minutes without a score, Kerry broke the deadlock and Paul Murphy’s point had all the look of a winner about it.
We’d fluffed a few late chances at points before Murphy’s score, one of them from Paddy Durcan, but when Paddy got another chance deep into stoppage time he made no mistake and fired us level.
Tom claimed the restart too and it looked for an instant as if we were going to win in the most sensational manner possible. Just as quickly, though, we lost possession and Kerry broke, winning a free sixty or so yards out.
Bryan Sheehan, only on the field a few minutes, did his best to rob a few yards before taking the kick but the complaints from our lads, combined with the caterwauling from the stands, prompted Deegan to wave him back. Sheehan’s an incredible freetaker but his effort had neither the distance nor the accuracy. Aidan claimed the ball on the edge of the square and the final whistle sounded.
So, we live to fight again. On balance we were the better team but the two times we got on top we failed to retain the advantage, letting them back into it on both occasions.
In the end, I thought we were a bit fortunate to come away with the draw. Kerry grew in strength as the second half wore on and I really thought they’d make this count on the scoreboard. But even though they came at us repeatedly in that late period of the game, we somehow managed to keep them at bay enough times to scramble the draw.
As I said at the top, the game’s major talking point was Rochy’s decision to go with David Brady’s suggestion – which I’d always felt was a tongue-in-cheek one – of putting Aidan on Donaghy. On balance, we possibly lost more out of this gambit than we gained but, that said, Donaghy never became the high-fielding, rapid-offloading menace of our nightmares.
As an aside, it’s worth recalling how difficult Aidan normally finds it to earn frees off Maurice Deegan – who, by the way, I felt had yet another mare in a game involving us – so it’s not a given that we’d have got a big return off the Breaffy man further up the field. That said, I’d prefer to see him in a more offensive position next Saturday.
Star man for us today was, without doubt, Andy Moran. He ran the Kerry defence ragged and his 1-5 contribution from play was a huge score to run up in an All-Ireland semi-final played in such atrocious conditions.
Also prominent for us today were Jason Doherty – about whose great qualities many are finally starting to wake up – and Keith Higgins, as well as Chris Barrett and Brendan Harrison. Between them, this latter duo did so much to neuter the twin threat of O’Donoghue and Geaney.
On a day when we often had significant problems in the restart department – partly due to David Clarke’s kickouts but also as a result of Kerry’s very effective full court press – it’s easy to overlook that top-drawer one-on-one save David made late in the second half. A third goal for Kerry would surely have been fatal for us then and not for the first time this year our ‘keeper kept us in it.
And so on we go, this time to an All-Ireland semi-final replay, our second replay of the year and the third time we’ve been involved in a replay at this stage of the championship in the last four years.
2014 was also against Kerry and there was little or nothing between the teams then. Today’s heart-stopping draw proved that this is still the case and so it’d be a brave person who would predict how Saturday’s rematch will go.
What I think we can say with full confidence is that – not only on today’s evidence but every single day of this absorbing and still unfolding championship campaign – the lads will once more give it everything in the replay. We go again. And again. And again.
Mayo: David Clarke; Brendan Harrison, Donal Vaughan (0-1), Keith Higgins; Lee Keegan, Chris Barrett, Colm Boyle (1-0); Seamus O’Shea, Tom Parsons (0-2); Kevin McLoughlin, Aidan O’Shea, Diarmuid O’Connor; Jason Doherty (0-1), Andy Moran (1-5), Cillian O’Connor (0-4, one free). Subs: Paddy Durcan (0-1) for Boyle, Stephen Coen for Seamus O’Shea, David Drake for Diarmuid O’Connor, Conor Loftus for Doherty.
Who was our MOTM against Kerry?
- Andy Moran (69%, 818 Votes)
- Jason Doherty (10%, 114 Votes)
- Keith Higgins (6%, 75 Votes)
- Tom Parsons (3%, 31 Votes)
- Colm Boyle (2%, 29 Votes)
- Aidan O'Shea (1%, 17 Votes)
- David Clarke (1%, 15 Votes)
- Kevin McLoughlin (1%, 15 Votes)
- Brendan Harrison (1%, 13 Votes)
- Diarmuid O'Connor (1%, 8 Votes)
- David Drake (1%, 8 Votes)
- Seamus O'Shea (1%, 7 Votes)
- Chris Barrett (1%, 7 Votes)
- Donal Vaughan (1%, 7 Votes)
- Conor Loftus (1%, 6 Votes)
- Cillian O'Connor (0%, 4 Votes)
- Paddy Durcan (0%, 4 Votes)
- Stephen Coen (0%, 3 Votes)
- Lee Keegan (0%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,182
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Jeez Andy Moran was absolutely outstanding, best individual performance I’ve seen in a mayo Jersey in many a year
Sadly Star had a massive influence also and probably was the difference in them not losing
More analysis later but it is absolutely screaming out for AOS up front, that Kerry backline is completely there for the taking
Kerry are very mediocre but still get scored easier than we do and have that massive threat Moran in midfield
The game was in the melting pot in the last ten and we just did not do enough to sneak it, sadly. anytime youre a point down in injury time though I’ll take a draw
Roll on Saturday
Andy Moran on that display is good to go for another 5 years he was unreal …Jason Doc had a great game also …..We will have to fix our own kickouts to win the replay and the coceeding of frees cost us also….Its all about winning the replay and we have done this before already .Mayo fans today were a credit outnumbering Kerry 3 to 1.
Maybe Kirby could do a job on Donaghy the next day and release O Shea to the forward line let them worry about our forwards for a change
In saying that the AOS on Donaghy ploy did work to an extent in that his aerial threat was completely negated.
Funny subs near the end, Drake over Nally was lunacy, Diarmuid left on way too long
Right now I’m thinking chance completely missed but I’ll be more philosophical when I sleep on it
Not sure how the feel, relieved to see another day but that should have been a Mayo win. Wasted so many opportunities and gift wrapped both their goals with careless mistakes, gave up two match winning leads, you simply have to take every chance against them, they will always score heavily. Think the AOS on Donaghy was worth the try and did nullify his aerial threat but Donaghy is a far better footballer than given credit for and a more mobile player needs to pick him up the next day.
Andy Moran was just outstanding, won an all star today.
Geaney had a huge game for them. Two O’Sheas lost possession which led to Kerry goals which was disappointing.
Management brought Loftus on too late and again, Boyle coming off the pitch was odd. Our subs made us weaker, I felt.
Our attitude and approach was impressive but like all of you, only victory will suffice.
Eamon Fitzmaurice far more upbeat in post match interview. Rochford sounded disappointed. RTE pundits commented on this but their overall analysis very very patronising toward Mayo. They say Kerry have far more space to improve. They asked when have Kerry last lost a replay?
Andy unlikely to get 1-5 next day so we need other forwards to step up and do what they’re meant to do.
Cmon t’f€ck Mayo. Will ye ever go and do it!!!!
Another method of dealing with Donaghy will need to be found. Played into their hands by giving up O’Shea. Donie was useful for us going forward but surely Aidan would have made an impact today, they were there for the taking up front. It was heartening to see us take it to them from the get go. Should have been up by three at half time. Serious work is needed on kick-outs and frees, too much possession was given away, although Kerry will have similar complaints. Andy Moran, never leave our lives! Boyle was brilliant going forward but maybe not tight enough at the back. Parsons put in a serious shift at midfield. Not lacking in that sector today.
Overall I’m happy to still be in it but will go into the next game in the same mindframe as today – hopeful but not over-confident. Another bloody replay was all we needed… Hon Maigh Eo
Hate the 6 day turn around but the previous battles may stand to us.. lets hope for fine weather and we can really run at their defense. Mixed feelings about AOS on Star, could be done again next day but would have to stay tighter.
Barry Moran should have been on donaghy for the last 20 minutes, Kerry backline is there for Aos to destroy next Saturday. Nally was the man to bring in instead of drake, but thank you to one and all for such a game of football.
Mayo have easily the measure of Kerry if aos is posted near the Kerry goal and pass it in to him. All day long. Cavan minors could have had bags of goals with the same tactic but ran around in circles 95% of the time. Barry on donaghy. End of story.
I was embarrassed during the week by the local ,”experts” saying I was crazy for putting aos on donaghy, I can hardly wait to see the faces later. Mark O’Shea of Kerry scoffed at the same idea the other evening on newstslk. It shows all these guys know.
No need for poll for MOTM for that game as Andy Moran the clear winner. Very little between the top 3 sides so many draws and 1 or 2 point wins,
Sorry, silly question perhaps but why is KD called ‘Star’?
Not bad from a team that was given no chance!!
Replay is on in Croker next Sat @ 3pm
Drawn game in 2014 finished with a Sheehan free being fetched by an O’Shea…….lets hope the replay result is different.
SOS wasted at FB……we need him up the pitch.
REPLAY IS AT 3 IN CP next week.
I’d like to reopen the debate that full back is a specialist position.
Plenty argued against me .
Mind boggling that it went on for 70 minutes
Rochford did Fitzmaurices job by completely nullifying O Shea and Keegan
Fair play to the players for digging it out .
Drake on again when we needed a score too
I mean SERIOUSLY
I’ve lost all faith in the sideline and I’d given them the benefit until today .
Fair play to the on pitch leaders that dug is out but it should have been won
Sadly it was prob a match too early for Big Barry. Donaghy needs a man marker if that’ll be his role again, but he only needs to win one feckin aerial ball which he didn’t today…
We handed them their first 1-3 which was criminal. Eerily similar to the drawn final last year. Couldn’t take advantage of dominance and couldn’t push on when a couple of points ahead
The OGs were perhaps unlucky last year but their two goals today were wholly preventable
The positive is they’ve a very poor backline and JOD doesn’t look fully fit. They’re very beatable but we just need to be much more ruthless
Superb performance by Andy.
Jason Doherty one of our best players too and had been critical of him previously but he really delivered.
Midfield did well really go stuck into them.
I would prefer to see mgt go for BMoran if he is reasonably fit or SOS on Donnaghey. They were right to go after Donaghey with one of the 3 big lads though and it did work we had the platform to win the match.
I think Durcan or Nally need to start ahead of Diarmaid who is totally out of sorts.
Also someone needs to be detailed with picking up OBrien caused a lot of problems today.
Great effort today whatever happens the next day
Great game. My RTE player reception in the Spanish airport was coming and going so lots of squeaky bum time endured. Got most of it. The drama with Mayo continues. Both teams should improve on a drier day. 2-14 apiece was very good scoring though we left more behind. Maybe on a dry day we’d score more of them especially Cillian’s first free which hit the upright. Analysis for later, relieved for now.
Missed last 2 mins of extra time. The brother was monitoring score online and notified me of the draw. I’ll take that. Can book return flight for Friday to be back in Croker for round 2.
AOS is not mobile enough for Donaghy I don’t think.
Problem is he does cut out the aerial threat.
Another player might not do that.
We need him further up the pitch.
Does that create another problem
WJ, Mayo were brilliant today, they never give up, 5 frees for Kerry in Geaney territory sailed over the bar & kept them in it during the first half, proved costly in the end & another draw, it’s roller coaster at this stage, UP MAYO………….
So much for all the talk about Donaghy. While he acquitted himself well, can you imagine the inquisition in the Kerry camp about how to deal with Andy Moran. Marquee forward James Who?
one general point the next day (easy saying this up in the stand)if we go for a shot it has to go dead one of the goals came out of that type of turnover and they really seem to get energy out of this type of miss
Christ almighty..Thought we were goosed when Kerry got the free..usual rubbish on radio that the game will bring Kerry on more..They wont have Cormac Reilly in the replay..or will they??!
My guess would be that whoever out of mcquillan or Gough isn’t getting the final will get the replay
I’d say Gough
Branagan was standby ref today actually ………..and in fairness I thought Deegan did ok
He seemed to decide early on that due to conditions he wasn’t going to give any blacks
Yeah agree Centerfield sadly Diarmuid is miles off form at the minute.
Probably the same 15 again though.
i thought we had them at the end when parsons caught the kick out from durcans equaliser.
retain possession and fabric a winning point in the next phase of play.
and what did tom do. gave it straight back to them!!! enter donie vaughan with a great foul too far out for sheehan to score.
all ranges of emotions but proud of each and every one of them.
much to ponder as there has been all summer but we are still alive.
this moran looks some prospect at full forward as well!! a wily fox if ever there was one.
Why does it matter who refs the replay? If you are good enough you will win . Too many silly frees by mayo defenders. You can t grab a man around the neck as happened too many times. Moran great display but a lot to ask for again next Saturday. His teammates need to help him out. Cillian o Connor too unreliable at this level and I mean vs the likes of Kerry or Dublin. An occasional hallelujah point does not compensate for the other kickable points. O shea on donaghy was baffling and simply did more harm to mayo than good. All said and done a terrific game fair play to both teams.
This Kerry team cannot handle our pace. We should select accordingly. Patrick Durcan has to start the next day. Bring Diarmuid off the bench.
Use Aidan as an attacking threat in the second half at least. Saving him at full back in the first half might be fine. But when the game loosens up he needs to be upfront.
Keith Higgins should be free up more if we can.
They couldnt handle us running at them today.
Well done Andy Moran, great performance. Disappointed with Seamus o’ Shea with turnover for first goal. Durcan adds a lot. Kerry can be beaten , they can, can we beat them is the question. The AOS experiment worked some what today, but it was a one trick pony to be honest. AOS in the forwards the next day. Lets Roll on.
Who comes off for B Moran?
Efeckingalite aris! Hard to believe..What a team… proud beyond the beyonds. Up and at it again Mayo next Sat . Kerry…! you’re not getting away that soft.
You could start with Aidan at full back first 50 mins until Donaghys legs are gone. Especially at 34 on a 6 day turnaround. But then switch it and have Aidan up front the final 25 mins.
I can’t believe people think the AOS on Donaghy worked. It didn’t. Donaghy had a very influential match and was involved in a lot. Aidan is not mobile enough and his own influence completely negated. I’d bet Fitzmaurice was chuckling to himself when he saw that decision playing out.
Wow what a game Andy Moran had ,Brilliant , brilliant ,brilliant .
Roll on next Saturday
COME ON MAYO
We forget one thing. We got destroyed on our own kickout. I’ll remain open minded on Aidan at full back. Possibly other lads were destroyed all week in training by Aidan at 14 and no alternative was apparent.
Solve our own kickout and push up on their kickout throughout and I think we can win it.
Watched this game on line in Croatia, looks like we blew it but what a performance from the lads. Thought playing AOS back on Donaghy was a good idea, but should have been moved forward late on. Thought Maurice gave a few soft frees to Kerry to keep them in the game but gave us a few handy ones at the death to try and even it out! Taking off Boyler again at that crucial time was tough on me and bringing on Drake instead of Nally was tough but we managed to eke out the draw. Ger71, most prolific freetaker is Cillian, Maurice didn’t give him a chance today even though there was a blatant foul on him in the last few minutes. Have a look at the soft frees that Kerry got today, laughable really.
Very disappointed we didn’t win that today. I’m almost more nervous when we got 4/5 points up in the first half as it always feels like we are going to lose our lead. Why we didn’t kick on more and make hay in front of their goal more in the second half, I don’t know. Thought Vaughan was a bit lost on the pitch and wasn’t sure where he was playing. Thought Boyle was massive today and really missed him when Coen came on. I think Drake has gotten enough chances without doing enough to strengths the team. Would be a good game for Conor o shea as we needed more attacking threat. Disappointed with Diarmuid today.. much too far off him man when in our own 45. Aiden is too much of a sacrifice at fb… are we that scared of Donaghy that we wouldn’t give Vaughan the job? Or Harrison.. the stickiest of all our backline?
Ever hopeful if that’s what you saw it must have been a poor line in Croatia. Laughable frees! Dragging a player down or grabbing him around the neck or chest is not a tackle. Re o Connor he misses vital frees and unless someone is better mayo will struggle. Mayo were the better team today but again found themselves in a position of a point down in injury time. Steady and simple win titles . The right decision at the right time. Hallelujah football is for YouTube moments.
On what planet did AOS work today!? Donaghy had a hand in both goals and I’d harbour a guess of at least 3 points conservatively. It makes no difference that they didn’t come from high balls. He had some amount of possessions today with all the time in the world to decide what to do with them
Amazed. Kerry couldn’t believe their luck
Get Aidan on that middle third and we kill them
Andy, Doherty, Kevin, Zippy, Harrison all class
Durcan getting used to these massive scores!!
Well done lads
We fight on!
The main talking point for me is the Donaghy/O’Shea matchup. This was a complete cat and mouse game between Fitz and Rochford.
I think Fitz must’ve thought when will Mayo move O’Shea off star and into FF, thereby freeing up star for the artillery bombardment!
Of course, Rochford, to his great credit, called his bluff and was patient.
I predict Star will not start next week. He will of course come off the bench when the game is in the melting pot. But anyway, that’s a bit off yet and something to think about..
Of course Star will start
He was outstanding today and still chasing down balls near the end
We needs more scores from play from our forwards to have chance next day. Over reliant on Andy.
Kev McL – quiet game.
Diarmuid very quiet. I’ve been a huge fan of his but this year he hasn’t reached his potential. Might be better coming off bench.
Cillian…tried hard but room for improvement from frees and shooting from play.
Loftus not given any chance to impress.
Drake ahead of Nally. What???
Lee- Paul Murphy kept him quiet.
AOS- cancelled aerial threat but in the wet this was already nullified. Donaghey had a decent game while Aidan was anonymous and his mis-control letting the ball over the side led to Kerry’s 2nd goal.
The rest of the backs were reliable enough but geaney needs tighter marking. Kerry brought on several fresh legs in attach. Rochford didn’t bring on anyone to give us a bit of zip up front.
Seamus could have had a better game.Tom was decent.
I’m a bit concerned now that all these games will catch up on us. 6 day turnaround. Rochford & Co need to improve this week and get it right next weekend. It’s crucial. Again, our subs didn’t strengthen our team. Kerry’s did, particularly Darren O’Sullivan and BJ Keane.
I cannot see us winning unless AOS has a much more influential impact on the game. When he plays well we usually win. When he is taken outing the game we usually draw or lose. Perhaps Vaughan to mark Donaghy with AOS drifting between midfield and full forward. Give Kerry something to think about.
We are still in it….its been a crazy summer. Just hope we still have the legs and energy…
And fair play to Paul Murphy. Credit where it’s due he was outstanding. Lee had pretty much no impact which was a huge factor in us not winning
Ger71 – I think you need to look at this year’s scoring stats. Cillian’s way out in front and while I’d agree that his radar is off a bit compared to previous years he’s still hugely important. His late point from play was a monster score.
You must have an inside line to Fitz Ciaran?
Star by no means nailed on to start.
Kerry have a lot more to think about this week. We have our own too big on evidence today, we will have better options for the replay.
So proud of Mayo, great performance, lots of talking points, but big one for me is our Kick outs particularly in 1st half, Kerry pushed up and we lost so much possession. We can’t expect same again from Andy, we need somebody else next week. Hon mayo!! Love this team.
Funny, I looked at the front of the match-day programme and thought which 4 players would I prefer? The 4 Kerry lads or Lee, Aido, Diarmuid and Kev. I opted fairly quickly for ours but ironically enough all 4 has far less influence than normal. Mayo need these lads buzzing next week. What’s happened to Diarmuid? He looks like he doesn’t know where he’s meant to play.
Did anyone else back the draw?. 10/1 had to be done, still sickened tho. Kerry were tere for the taking, Mayo the better team. Get more use out of lee and aiden and start durkan and i could see us winning by 4 or 5.
Willie joe , he s played 9 championship matches of course he have a few more points than opponents. My point is he s not reliable. He kicks some monster points but misses scoreable ones. If he is the marquee forward he has to kick them. Can t fault his attitude or bottle but winning teams are clinical.
Wow again wow. It will be a quiz question in years to come. What team won the all Ireland football series by playing ten games.
We are still there and will do it next day. This team has leaders all over pitch.
Everyone played really well but Higgins Tom parsons n Andy were superb.
I agree with diarmuid being off the pace and wonder should we start Loftus inside as well and play Jason doh at twelve.
That or paddy durian in halfbacks and leeroy moved forward.
They are there for taking their midfield was beaten up a stick nd defence taken to town.
We will win just need that steely believe.
There’s a lot more goals to be got against Kerry and that’s why I say throw a surprises and start Loftus inside with Andy and Cillian. Push them backwards. Loftus will thrive on that space and direct running.
Do we think Keegan was fit ?
Hi All,
Super game today the better team were Mayo without a doubt. I thought Andy Moran was man of the Match. Too many wides for Mayo simple as that.
Kind Regards
Martin the Dub
Diarmuid has been poor enough all year tbh. Is he or should he be a nailed on starter at this point? When was the last time he had a major influence in a match for us?
The Donaghy thing is completely over analysed. We have seen him being marked out of it any time he plays Dublin and he has a couple of inches on any of those Dublin backs. The difference is they’re not afraid of him at all. They trust an old fashioned defender to do the job rather than trying to do something special to negate his influence. At the end of the day, he’s a 34 year old man who was on the brink of retirement 3 years ago. We need to stop being so fearful. And maybe offer some thought to other Kerry players that need taking care of, i.e David Moran.
We’re still in it, could have won it yet relieved to draw as we were 1 point down as the clock hit 70 minutes.
What a standout performances today from Andy, if that ain’t marquee then i don’t know what is!
Despite his kickouts, Clarke did make two top drawer saves and it was unfortunate that they got a goal from the first one.
I definitely felt we were the better team but some (unfortunately familiar) lapses cost us at crucial times. If only we could just be that bit tighter, more focussed or cuter at defining moments we wouldn’t be talking about ‘what ifs’ yet again.
Still, credit to all, the rollercoaster keeps running, would we really have it any other way?
Kerry were for the taking,bringing on Loftus with 4 minutes left was CRAZY after bringing on Drake and Coen – if Loftus has the chance Coen had i am sure he would have scored
Andy immense as everyone says. Doherty, Boyle – huge games.
Hard to believe that Lee and Aidan were so removed from our play and yet we played so well
I would have taken 2-13 from play before the game (and assumed we would have won easy with that)
for replay
Vaughan on Donaghy
AOS to FF
Start Durcan instead of Diarmuid
Lee to MF replacing Seamie
Final comment – Banty’s comments (on RTE Radio) re Mayo were so biased as to be almost laughable. He rubbished Andy before the game and had not the good grace to retract his comments after.When Bernard Flynn is the most balanced analyst you can draw your own conclusion
Diarmuid seems to have a confidence issue , he’s just not the same buck at all.
Donaghy created 2-4 and scored a point. Crazy tactic. Long ball into him was never on in them conditions. Crazy to persist with it in second half when David Moran was doing what he wanted in the middle of the park.
Andy, Keith and Harrison had v good games. Our kick out is rapidly becoming a major problem.
Overall, a small bit worried how likes of Andy will recover in 6 days.
Can we stop calling that lad “the star” ffs.
He’s way out in front Ger, but I take your point (pardon the pun) re the number of games we’ve played. As I said, I’d agree his radar is a bit off this year – in previous years he’d have nailed that early free in his sleep. But then Geaney – who every pundit would say is a marquee forward – missed a similar free late on for Kerry today.
I have to say I did not take it seriously when David Brady said Aidan should mark Donaghy. In my view it did not work and should not be done again on Saturday. Donaghy was still highly influential while we badly missed Aidan further up the field. We also gave to many frees away in dangerous positions and paid the penalty.
Having said that overall we were immense again today and I am very proud of this team and what they bring with them. There is nothing to be afraid of in this Kerry team and no reason why we can’t finish the job next week.
Given the way today went with kickouts again I wonder will we have another obligatory big call from Rochford next weekend ……..
Credit to DB for calling the aiden oshea role he was mocked everywhere for suggesting. I thought it was great , Donaghy was kept quite . In my mind it paid off .that blocked point by aido was a beauty and we scored from it so that alone was worth 2 points. Would have liked to see nally on sooner i think hes a match winner . Clarke pulled a couple of cracking saves . But hennelly should be considered for next week . Seamy did nothing wrong , doc was great, boyle off after 42 was strange. Andy was unreal credit to him . Kerry made alot of mistakes especially messing up that free at the end which we scored from . Overall we had great confidence and no fear we’ll have to thank roscommon for that. Mayo go bragh
The more I think of it the more I feel Fitzmaurice had the edge on the line but Our management got a few things wrong. They retain my absolute support but we need a much better performance the next day.
We also missed far too many chances in 1st half.
Fitzmaurice is going to play a sweeper next Saturday. They’ll sit deeper, crowd out our forwards and try to hit us on counter. There’s no way in hell he’ll play with just 6 defenders.
Loftus might be a starter. He’d have scored the chance that fell to Coen.
David Moran and Stephen O’Brien were influential for them today.
I certainly don’t buy into the notion being thrown about social media and rte that Mayo’s chance is one. That’s insulting and suggests we aren’t good enough. Mayo need to take the initiative next weekend. We have the players. It’s time for them to do it! Victory or nothing.
I would say the league game against Donegal influenced management today…Michael Murphy ran that game and was destroying us until Aiden came on and marked him out of the game..Which turned that game in our favour….The 2 kerry goals were of our own making the 1 st one in particular Seamie will know himself he should have released that ball quicker and seemed to be affected by his contact lenses soon after ….We only used 4 subs and Loftus was only on a couple of minutes whereas kerry used all 6 subs a lot earlier….Something maybe we could change on Saturday defo Kirby and Nally would bring freshness…
Thats a poor kerry team-we need to fix kickouts for sat, short ones are too slow and odds are better if we go long and expect the break. Presume cillian’s freetaking will not be as poor again and i trust there will be a change of role for AOS. Much to improve on and i would take today as a confidence booster for next week.we are battle hardened and wont lose sleep over today .mayo to win!
Twentieth championship match managing Mayo for Stephen Rochford next Saturday. It would take nearly a decade for some counties to get that amount of championship games. Weve only lost 3 of them. This was our 4th championship draw this year. Most counties can only dream of such a run. Some entertainment all the same. Expect the unexpected the next day again.
How can anyone say o shea on donaghy paid off ?
Donaghy laid on half their scores
O shea beat himti one ball and has ZERO influence on the game
It’s as ludicrous as the decision to play him there and worse again to persist with it.
To those that do ask yourself this
Would you start him there next weekend?
You have your answer
One time Aidan was not on donaghy he won the ball aerially so don’t be so dismissive km.
had donaghy won two or three balls aerially it would be said Rochford got it all wrong.
Credit to rochie for sticking with Aos back there it would only take one ball and donghy would being a match winner.
It ok saying go gung ho release Aos forward but better make sure we continued to keep them out.
Does it make any difference in the world if KD sets up a goal from the air or the ground?
It didn’t work. He played exceptionally well today
Skyblue, I think it’s unfair to say this is a poor Kerry team. They won an all Ireland 3 years ago and are NFL champions. They were one minute away from beating us…again! If they are poor, what does that makes us!??
This is a strong pacy Kerry team and if we aren’t at our best next sat it’ll be curtains.
Yeah its a bit mad the way people are so divided on this. Hope rochford realises its not the e
Way to go. Jeez aido would of had a field day with that fb line, they are pure useless in their last line,hammer the hammer as tomas would say.
Did darren o sulivan strike vaughan on the ground the time they both got yellow?
Seamy’s o Shea to three playing six for Breaffy and more mobile than Aidan pushing Aidan on. Also Keegan to 11 away from murphy with paddy in Diarmaid out . What options he would give from the bench . He can cover many positions including midfield. Aidan lost that battle today and But for great defending elsewhere we were lucky Kerry didn’t hit us for more. Couple of key changes Mayo by 5
does anyone are the tickets for sale for the replay next Saturday
Anyone for a big lad at FF and Andy and Cillian on the loop ? Anyone anyone ?
that should read does anyone know when will the tickets be going up for sale for the game next Sat
‘Stalemate’ & ‘Again’ is the very apt heading above.
We seem to continually find ourselves in ‘stalemates’ again and again and again.
When we get a lead we find a way to concede a goal & bring it back to a one point game again.
This has been our failing for years.
Make no mistake all these draws are not magnificent displays …. rather they are all failures …. failures to win.
Today the siting of AOS at FB did not work. The substitutes that we used weakened the team .
We were under continuous pressure on our own kickout. We were not up to the standard required at this level on our frees, long range frees & 45s.
We did have some good individual performances & we got some joy from pushing up hard on the Kerry kickout.
We now need to park this game immediately & focus completely on Saturday which is already fast approaching.
We need our management to fix the things that didn’t work well enough today … the things I mentioned above.
In particular we may have to think the unthinkable in terms of belting the leather 70+ yards from our own kickouts as unfortunately the top teams are now ‘homing in’ on our kickouts.
With deadly forwards in the opposing team I am not convinced of the value of short kickouts.
This might also help solve the problem we have with 45s & other long range frees that we are currently backing out of. Every point missed or gained from here to the end of our run is vital.
I wouldnt necessarily agree that Aido lost the battle today. He was put in there to kerb the aerial threat of Donaghy, job done. This took away one of their major weapons and made them play through us where we turned over posession numerous times. This tactic also isolated ODonaghue as he wasnt able to feed off of Donaghy knock downs. Also having AOS there disrupted erry substitution strategy, their plan would havebeen for Donaghy to do the damage in the square and come off around the 50min mark, today he had to stay on as being subbed would release aido forward. It isnt a straight forward failure, the tactic while not perfect did yeild positive results which contributed to a fine display from Mayo. AOS may well have done ok at ff but Kerry would have made a switch to counter that. Lets not forget our ff today scored 1-5 and set up plenty more. Had we been moer economical with the chances we had then we would have won by 3-4 pts and the tactic with aido would have been deemed a success.
Mayo by far the better team – but failed to seal it on small margins. Tom Parsons lost possession leading to Kerry goal, and Aido let a ball over sideline also leading to another goal. Mayo’s attitude today was excellent – but you must now move onto the next level and be RUTHLESS! When you loose possession, or ball goes out of play, stay tuned in, and be RUTHLESS in instant covering reactions, and doing ‘WHAT HAS TO BE DONE’ – think Tyrone tactics!! Finally, before you start giving out about referee, I thought Deegan did Parsons a huge favour by not penalising late on.. The task will be more difficult next Saturday, and will require improvement but can be done. One other point, Diarmuid’s performance has not improved since last year, energy levels seem to be low – just wondering would blood tests now be in order..
Aidan must move ..simple as.
But we need kevin Mc To step up.Did a good bit today but more there.
Doherty immense. Not sure Coen adds anything at all.
He won the ball aerially that time because O Shea who was supposed to be full back was miles out of position looking for a pass out the wing
That left a hole where he should have been
I felt sorry for him today
He was having a storming summer and had no influence today
Zero
None
This has been my main problem with Rochford all along
He analyzes and analyzes which is fine
But when it comes down to it he always takes away too much from our strengths to counteract the other teams
During the week there was a brilliant quote from Mick O Dwyer which I shared with many friends as I had an inkling this lunacy would be unleashed
He said ” you have to be positive about your own game . If you are thinking about the other team , trying to counteract them you will not win ”
That is the exact opposite of Rochfords approach.
Take the David Drake change as another example ……..trying to win or trying not to lose ?
Lads
Kerry were there from the taking.
When we need a draw, any amount of lads step up. When we need a win there are no volenteers to stand up.
We are. 4/5 points better than Kerrry ….. as we were in Limerick also.
Kerry will be happier with draw
Mayo will have over 600 minutes played in this championship compared with Kerry’s 300
Great match and the fans could be heard down in Tralee
Interesting one about AOS but Kerry must have been delighted to keep our two biggest threats quiet for the whole game. Added to that Donaghy was running the game at times, gave Aidan the runaround out the field.
Andy had a game of games and shouldn’t be expected to get away with that again.
Room for improvement in Kerry but hoping that Rochford has a look at a few things and maybe do a job on them in the return.
His in game changes are puzzling but he does seem to set up with a definite plan.
Don’t know if anything like this has been mentioned yet but I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if the Kerry media mafioso kick into action now and highlight something if Gooch or T O’Se are on TSG tonight. Watch this space………
Km totally agree re. Rochford.
After today even I realise Kerry are not as good as our bucks. We really should of won today.
Loftus needs more time than the token 3 min slot rubbish.
Nally deserves a shot too.
Seamie needs to make sure , more composure , too many times he gives it away in big games for crucial moment scores for the opposition.
Kerry did well to stop keegan having his usual impact.
We have the players to beat Kerry , we can see that now . Kerry will improve though as mayonaze said they will play a sweeper the next day or else fitzmaurice is not well. How the frig did we not get another couple of goals today.
I think our genuine confidence will have grown legs now, they know now . We could very well make the final again.
Our in-match line calls weren’t good today, huge room for improvement there. Our free taking wasn’t positive either.
I agree with some posters. Yes, while AOS did nullify the aerial threat, you don’t see the dubs do it and we have as good defenders as they do. While Mayo started brighter today, the way we set gave the initiative to Kerry. Mayo need to be bolder and more positive. Just go for it!
I can’t believe people defending the AOS Donaghy situation. The facts speak from themselves – Donaghy contributed 2-4 in assists and scored a point for himself. Aidan’s influence by contrast was almost nil. He was exposed as an inexperienced man marker. It didn’t matter that the aerial threat was gone, Donaghy was too agile, his movement too quick for Aidan, who just isn’t mobile enough for that role.
I feel sorry for Aidan because he’s been having a great year in his rightful position and was taken out of it to do this job that he isn’t built for. I hope it doesn’t knock his confidence.
Brilliant game to watch for a neutral.
It fairly ebbed and flowed.
Geaney had a good chance to put Kerry 2 up in injury time but tried to be too clever with it.
Draw a fair result overall I thought.
I also thought – with Kerrys fullback line at sixes and sevens for the whole game & their one physically imposing player (Griffin) taken off – it would have been a wise move to put AOS in front of the opposition goal for the final 10-15 minutes.
There were more goals to be had in there.
The replay is a tough one to call.So many variables at play.
Will Kerry change tactics & play a sweeper the next day to protect that full back line that were obliterated today?
If they do that means they won’t be able to press as hard on the Mayo kick out which they got some joy from today.
It could also free up more space for Mayo runners from deep.
Equally they may decide to leave well enough alone and challenge the individuals in that full back line to atone for their performance today.
Who knows.
From a Mayo viewpoint I really think AOS shouldn’t be full back.
It “might” deter Kerry from kicking high ball in – who knows really.
But Vaughan has the physique to spoil Donaghy in the air and the pace/mobility to be tighter to him on the ground than O Shea can.
Boyle taken off again today when going well makes no sense.
Shane Nally is 100 times better than Drake or Stephen Coen as well in my opinion.
You’d imagine that game will bring Kerry on certainly as they haven’t had a game this year unlike Mayo.
Overall I still think Mayo will win the replay.
That Kerry defence is too weak – I don’t think they have the personnel to fix those issues.
Mayo are a lot tighter defensively (despite some lapses today).
Apologies all and in particular to Colm Boyle, whose name I omitted from the MOTM poll (I put Lee Keegan down twice by mistake). I’ve fixed it now but I’m afraid I’ve hobbled poor old Boyler badly in the voting, and after him scoring that great goal too!
Ger71 – Coc not able to perform at highest level are you actually stone mad?? The only player we have that consistently scores at the most crucial times against every upper tier team ?
You can’t dress up your justification in any of your comments
Hope I’m not coming across too negative just found it a deeply deeply frustrating day with O Shea in particular being handicapped by tactics
I am so so proud of this bunch and my county and wouldn’t swap this summer for any other
What a ride and it ain’t over yet baby 😀
Jesus – the panel for The Sunday Game: Gooch, Whelan and Whelan’s glove puppet (aka Dessie Dolan). Open season on us, I fear.
Boyler “legend “surely talking him back on for the last five minutes would have made more sense . We start him to set the time for the rest . That is equally as important if not more coming down the straight . Might even have been man if the match Wj lol
Wow,
Firstly I think it’s my responsibility to come on to this blog and congratulate Mayo as an opposing supporter and of course Kerry too for putting their hearts, souls and bodies on the line in the representation of their county colours. They were like two great warrior tribes who were not wiling to yield an inch.
I think AOS’s exceptional talents we sarcraficed because of the eavesdropping juicy titbits gleaned by the local operator who committed her resulting opinions to print. O Shea was a warrior who was told to drop his sword and was unfairly handed a shield. This won’t happen again and if it does all in Kerry will smile or smirk depending on who they are conversing with at the time.
Who wouldn’t pay to see these two gladiatorial teams walk onto that pitch next Saturday ???
Jesus lads ye had that today but i feel that desicion putting Aidan full back failed miserably. If Aidan was free to run at that full back line he would have been fouled consistently.. Rochford is over thinking things again..
The lady in front of me (Kerry) engaged in a half time conversation with the fella beside me(Mayo). She thought we’d beat them but went on to say we’d be no match for either Dublin or Tyrone, so the fella beside me told her we’d give it a right crack. She asked him “why do ye come back year after year even though ye never achieve anything?, if it was me i’d just give up”.I know she meant it as a dig but really i think it is compliment to both the mayo players and supporters.
Proud of the team again. Way too much focus on AOS. Watch second goal. 2 Mayo defenders running back heading towards ball while Kerry forwards run outside them. There were enough defenders to avoid the goal but neither went with the runners. Same thing with first goal when AO’S left 1 v 2. That’s 2 avoidable goals despite not have recognised FB.
Our FF line scored 1.10 today vs Kerry 0.11 – and they’re allegedly the envy of every team!
I’m more confident now than I was this morning.
Just watched the game again. I have no doubt that we will win the replay. We have the players but our sideline s by far the weakest of what’s left. Hate to say this but a fact
Thank God i made a decision not to watch the sunday game ever again with mayo involved as
the whole occasion depresses me .i feel so proud of our beloved players they were immense today ..two decisions by management baffled me and all around me in the cusack.why deprive o se his best position further out the field where he has the potential to wreak havoc.and why was boyler subbed..my opinion we would have won pulling up. with o se furter out and boyler left on for at least another 10 mins .but im not the manager am i
[Deleted].
keegan looked a bit paler than usual id say that few days sick shook him ,He should be stronger next week ,seamus o shea gave ball away but also set up a goal for us .the game may have been over to early had o shea not stopped the ariel attacks but if someone else would work there woud create more opportunities .Moran great game and forwards won almost every long ball just not enough scores .The main thing is confidence for these guys they been up there consistently and able to match the big guns we managed to stop kerry without even making all substititions . they will have new game plan next week hope rochford has as well and its the right one he seemed to do well against roscommon on replay I would like to see loftus on a bit longer he kept us in the game against derry didnt play great against roscommon in replay .Lets be positive and let kerry worry about our attacks ,what a privelege to be part of this generation of football ,
2 goals And 4 points from KD. AOS potential havoc creator sacrified. Back to the drawing board. SOS definitely not the man, Parsons but are we sacrificing too much? Paddy Durcan or Donie? Barry Moran, high risk stuff,
Full credit to players today they gave it everything….
Interesting point Mayomad.
Yeah if OSHEA wasn’t there and Donaghy got high Ball to feed odonaghue everyone would be saying why didn’t we do something to combat that. Also we had the chances to win it so overall the tactic didn’t fail.
AOS didn’t look natural in that position though.
I would put him in Mid Field as that is first line of defence and launch pad for Mayo attacks.
It gives a better long ball option from the kickoff when they press and an attacking option.
Put Vaughan at FB and then on substitutes bring on Loftus earlier ie around 55 minutes and try Shane Nally also.
Loftus is a potential match winner he has something explosive.
Cillian will not have as bad a day again also Keegan.
Cillian in particular gets some stick he has been immense other days. Today it was Andy who did the business on Saturday it might be Cillian or Lee or maybe AOS
Hopefully we get good weather for the replay. We looked more dangerous than kerry with our running game. Mayo by at least 5 points. Hopefully we have no injuries. Maigh Eo Abu. No surrender
Ger71 – I see I’m going to have to save you from embarrassment if you won’t do so yourself. I’ve let you make the point but now you’re acting the ass. Cop yourself on.
Wow lads and ladies.
Will be a tragedy if Higgins, Boyle, Moran ( in particular) don’t win an all ireland. But u know what even if they don’t there are lots of lads wit AI medal no one could name. No one will forget these lads. As good as the game has ever seen. So don’t put ur stick in AIs but I understand the obsession.
Mayo the better team today and so hard to know how they did not win. After a few hours I put it down to this. Kerrys top forwards without playing particularly well nailed the chances they had. Of course Moran phenomenal today and COC very good too (stayed inside 30y for most of game where he should be) but Kerry with Geaney and O donoghue playing well below certainly Moran still contributed because they are out and out forwards in the Kerry tradition. Obvious to anyone AOS (brave) decision backfired through no fault of his.
Mayo picked their team to play Kerry. Kerry picked their team to be Kerry.
I’m sure that will raise ire but I said it the moment I saw AOS in a on donaghy but also that Lee Keegan man marked Murphy rather than the other way round. The AOS decision I understand – not after HT mind you – Keegan one not at all.
Very easy typing words at 10.30 at night criticing managerial decisions but never mind that. I was buzzed to be a Gaelic FOOTBALL fan today. Yes hurling produces better more consistently but give me that shit everyday if plays like that! Fair play.
I’m not going to wish luck or any of that superstitious shite. You will win it or u won’t but don’t let it define this team in a binary way. They deserve more. I was grateful to be there today. I will remember it.
AOS a good 20 yards off KD when he won the ball. Admittedly left in two on one situation. 1-10 from our ff line just proves how much they are there for the taking. More of the same next week with AOS to torment them…
I’m so proud of these lads. They fought like warriors today. No fear. Apart from 2 costly mistakes I thought defence were excellent, but agree that AOS on Donaghy was a mistake. Why on earth was boyler taken off??? I thought he was a potential MoM before being taken off. Absolutely baffling. DOC was poor yet again and can’t belive how he is consistently started. Also drake must be walking in air in training as he is always brought on before nally, who deserves more.
With respect WJ I also think COC doesn’t score near enough from play year after year, although I’d never question his work rate aired commitment. His stats are huge because hes our only freetaker and he can rack up big scores against weaker sides.
Our fwds, with exception of AM and JD will hopefully up their game on sat. Also I think durkan has to start instead of DOC, however they juggle it. A few tweaks and mayo can wreak havoc on sat, as they have zero fear of kerry now.
I see a lot of people want DOC dropped but take another look at all the work he does on the field in the course of a game. Himself and Tom Parsons left it all on the pitch chased and harassed and tackled all day long.
We are all mad about this squad of players BUT let’s not fall into the trap of 2014, where we say we’re better than Kerry but not beat them. To be honest I’m getting tired of reference to ’14. Mayo are not better than this Kerry team until they go and beat them in championship. So far our lads have failed to do so. Sure, they deserve some credit for a gutsy performance today but it was far from perfect. Far too many missed opportunities in first half. We lost the break count in the 2nd half, gave away two sloppy goals AND our defence gave away too many kickable frees for Geaney to punish us.
I’ve watched the game back and we have plenty of room for improvement and many of our key players in particular had little influence on the game. Lee, Diarmuid, Kevin, not one score between them! JDoc, good first half but one point from play, he’ll be disappointed with that. Kerry did quite a lot of third man fouling on McLoughlin and were never blown up on it by the ref. Kevin needs to stamp his authority on it next day, as does Lee. Cillian only one free…Kerry were clever not to foul much within 40 yards of their goal. We can improve on kickouts..and winning midfield breaks.
Kerry will be much tighter at the back the next day. You can put ur house on that. I really hope we do it and aren’t out of gas…it’ll take our best performance to do it but it’s achieveable. Mayo need to be more mentally aggressive.
Paddy power Kerry 4/7, Mayo outsiders a 2/1
Ye almost did it with 20 just not enough in slippery conditions. Kerry exposed at back and can only tinker with it in 6 days. Need more from other forwards. Kerry got very soft frees but Mayo kicked a few into goalies hands which is bad. Kerry must now be worried.
Well done mayo great performance! Could have went anyway! Well done to management on trying something different with Donaghy! A case of dammed if you do dammed if you don’t!
anyways we go again up mayo!
Roll on coppers
Next week is a complete lottery, I just can’t hazard a guess as to how we will setup or to be more specific how ye will setup. I think EF will definitely attempt to plug a few holes in the back and he might kick O donoghues arse for not giving that blatantly obvious hand pass to Buckley just before half time,, it had devastation written all over it.
Nothing hurts great players more than to play below par, O Shea, Keegan and O Connor will be well teed up to visit pain on Kerry next Saturday. In saying that today’s game will have lit a few fuses in a few Kerry players who were tearing sod on reputation as they have failed to deliver to their expected standards but class is permanent we hope in Kerry and form can switches on sometimes if the collective stars align.
Not poking the bear but did anyone else wonder why David Moran didn’t get a free when he was tackled like an armed robber fleeing the scene of a crime .. I’m sorry but everyone in the hogan stand regardless of their colours collectively gasped ,, are my eyes that tinted or was that not the most blatant foul ??? I haven’t seen it on TV yet and it wasn’t reviewed on the Sunday game but it looked from a live perspective to be a howler of a free and even had a smell of black off it ?? Not a slight but a genuine question !!!
Hope we get a decent ref the next day, Degan gave us f… All today as usual, if we can get a fair share of the breaks we can win the next day.
How is Shane Nally ignored when you need scores in the last quarter – came on the last day and scores 2 points – has played in 2 all Ireland minor finals at half back and scored in both. I’m a bit confused by this at times – is it cos he is considered not to be fast enough ? As Cyril Farrell said about Martin Storey ‘ We all know he has no pace but he always arrived on time !’
Gamechanger yeah I think the ref made a few odd calls. Morgan’s one, yeah and I thought Cillian was tripped just before half time as he was closing in on goal coming from the hogan stand side. Ref left his black cards at home. A few could have been dished out.
Someone mentioned earlier in the week that Deegan doesn’t give frees to big players going into contact.
Maybe it was for the best that O’Shea stayed back today. He wouldn’t have got anything going forward especially in the slippery conditions.
Great entertaining game and a pleasure to be there. Andy Keith Jason and Clarke all tremendous. Lee a bit disappointing. Aos is not a full back. Put aos at midfield instead of his brother. Start Durcan. We can do it. On train back to cork tonight I couldn’t get over the smugness of the Kerry crowd Really makes me so anxious to see them suffer next Saturday Up mayo
Who’s to say Donaghy wouldn’t have caused even more damage had A O’Shea not been deployed on him. Maybe you’ll get what you wish for next weekend and somebody else goes on Donaghy and he’ll run riot completely.
@ady
As a neutral u are belittling urself saying that. Did the ref get things wrong ? 100%
In those conditions he would need to be a wizard not to. Did he cost either team? 100% not…
And to answer gamechanger it was 100% a free to David Moran.
The short kickouts amaze me and then the tactic of taking them so fast, talk about looking for danger . Surely the lads can work on catching in center field . Kerrys two midfielders didnt look anything special .dont know if barry is fit but maybe the two osheas is the way to go aido has a great catch .start nally and hennelly for the long kick out .
I have to say I thought it was a strange decision by Kerry to push up so high, clog midfield and leave so much space in behind. Doherty got on a lot of ball as a result and when we got in behind them we were able to run at them all day. Maybe they just didn’t count on the Andy Moran factor. I still think we should have put our trust in Ger Caf at full back as he has the pace for Donaghy to break the ball away from him and the midfielders to take turns in dropping back to stop the aerial threat and give cover. We need AOS rotating between midfield and full forward.. as there’s opportunities to be had in there big time. Personally I think we are giving Kerry to much respect and over thinking this. We should dictate the style of play and let them take measures to counter it. D O’C should have come off earlier but in general I thought his contribution was ok… should he not be replaced by nally. We need fresh legs sooner and maybe some news legs to start the next day.
Ah here willie joe considering some of the nonsense I ve seen posted on here that’s claptrap but it s your gig. If saying I think cillian o Connor is good but not great is somehow poor form then debate is dead.
watching the game back again cannot understand how we’re taking the pitch without Durcan.
Durcan who was one of Mayos best couple of players in both all ireland final matches last year he has delivered consistently when it counts
Lot of errors on field of play by both teams, biggest ones ,poor decisions by Mayo management both tactically and personal let Kerry of the hook. .
Appalling decision in my view to leave AOS full back for duration of game when after 20 mins it was obvious ‘ Star’ was getting on plenty of ball and our go to man was peripheral.
Credit the players for sheer heart,grit.and courage, if only Management showed same trust and bravery in their squad..
midfield should have been addressed @ h;t with Paddy Durcan coming in for SOS and either AOS going to the middle or Keegan.
Removing the inspirational CB from fray was criminal.
Conor Loftus and Shane Nally introductions in last twenty mins would probably have swung game for Mayo ..
Kerry will benefit enormously from draw and likely learn more/
Fitz took evasive action 22 mins into game and attempted to address other areas of concern with prompt substitutions
Ger71 – I let you make the point twice but that third shot was veering into trash-talking which was why I binned it. You made the point you wanted to, and were allowed to do so, so I don’t think you can have any complaints on that score.
Good shtuff today. SR mediocre again. Wont mention the AOS position decision. Why drake and Coen? Thought maybe nally or loftus on sooner. SOS on too long and boiler off too quick. All the same brilliant game of football and with the right men in the right places I think we can win next week.
Commenting without reading the rest of the comments so apologies if I am echoing what has been said elsewhere.
Firstly – a cracking game. But one we left behind.
That said, I still feel very confident that we will finish the job on Saturday.
The big call today was obviously AOS on Donaghy and like you WJ I thought David Brady was having a laugh when he suggested it during the week. Again Rochford took a gamble and first and foremost, it should be said that taking gambles is to be welcomed. Rochford sometimes doesn’t get enough credit for his tactics – think of Keegan on Smith in the first Roscommon game – but what is not to be welcomed is the reluctance to make amendments when these gambles don’t work out. There is no doubt that Aidan negated Donaghy’s aerial threat today, but given the conditions, how likely would high balls have been to stick? Would Vaughan not have been able to handle that threat? Donaghy still had huge influence on the game by playing low and that’s not O’Shea’s fault necessarily; he is just not a full back and Donaghy is a (sickeningly) good player. The gains we reaped didn’t merit sacrificing O’Shea. The game was crying out for that Kerry full back line to be exploited and we needed our strongest fielder in the middle. Trying to figure out Rochford’s thinking in leaving him there – did he think he was doing a decent job and feel no change was needed? Either way, I can’t see this experiment being repeated and if it is I will do a Spillane and eat my shirt. Run aggressively at this Kerry team like we did against Roscommon and we will beat them. Hope we haven’t missed this opportunity as Fitzmaurice will no doubt look to shore up his defence the next day.
If Rochford really wanted to take a gamble, he could have brought on some attackers while there was still time to make an impact. Bringing on Drake when the game was screaming for the audacity of Nally or the opportunism of Conor Loftus? Why Coen when we could have had Kirby? For me those were the most baffling decisions of the day, all told.
We’re hearing that Boyle is consistently substituted aroudn the 55-minute mark as he has a long-term injury and player protection is the motivation here, probably based on GPS stats. I have no idea to what extent this is true but if it is the case, it cannot be argued; there is no doubt though that Boyler is doing a great job of disguising it. That goal was so, so sweet.
I have fallen into the trap once or twice this year of thinking Diarmuid O’Connor is performing poorly relative to his normal exceptional standards. Then I watch back and see what influence he has on games and how excellent his movement is. Jason Doherty was top class today. Thought Kevin McLoughlin had another strong performance but needs to be more assertive. Keegan was quiet, by his standards – which bodes well for Saturday. And Andy. What can we say about Andy? I would give my left arm to see him claim a Celtic Cross.
Next week instead of sacrificing so much to negate the opposition I hope we have the confidence to focus on our own game and play it well; in doing so we are well capable of beating these guys.
Mayonaise and Cantoni,
Thanks for the heads up, it genuinely is so hard to make the right call on calls when you are up in the stand and what appears to be isn’t at all what happened. I was in 335 in the lower Hogan and it’s hard to make any real call on what happens in the far side of the field. Over all I thaught Deegan had a fair game, whilst he made a few calls that made me grasp my head I think this happens in all games and usually the subsequent replay on the comfort of your home couch registers the concern that you were not exactly correct to register the animated protestation to those in your vicinity in the stands of Croker.. This was a great days sport and the referee didn’t have any agenda so hats off to him to stand in front of 70,000 odd people who would cheer or protest his every decision.
The GAA Championship and Christmas ,,, what would we do without them in this country. We’d go mad
You’red right Gamechanger the tackle on Moran was I felt one we got away with but I feel that Deegan called us up and gave Kerry a few iiffy frees and maybe he was giving us one back ?
We could pick out different incidents but we had a blatant penalty not given in that goalmouth incident in the first half when the Kerry fullback played the ball on the ground when Mayo had about 3 attempts for goal before the ball eventually was deflected over the bar. It got a passing ‘Dessie Dolan’ mention on the Sunday Gamr ala ‘Mayo might have had a shout for a penalty there’ and no comment from Gooch or Whelan when it was as plain as the nose on your face – the ball doesn’t move of its own accord.
So much and all as I always enjoy your balanced and in fairness well informed comments Gamechanger, ye can have little complaint about Mr Deegan today.
Well yer man said I was stone mad!!! I reckoned that gave me the right to reply but out of respect for the work you do to put up with all this guff fair enough I ve made my point and I ll leave it at that.
We did well today and should have won but sideline let us down once again. Aidan is not a back. He should be at centre field. A centre field player is the antithesis of what a full back is. A centre field player roams the field with a freedom for making plays. A full back marks his man and makes sure he does not score and prevents him making plays that leads to scores. It is a very different discipline. And Aidan lost his man a few times today. We need a full back. And it has to be a back. Maybe Paddy Durcan??
Take Seamus off and put Aidan centre field .
Kerry will also make changes. The changes they will make will strengthen their back line. This will suit us as it will allow Keegan, Boyle and Higgins to run at them and tear them apart.
Corner backs were caught ball gazing for Kerry’s second goal after rebound from Clarke’s save. A moments lapse punished. Have to remain focused for every second of the entire game.
If we make the right choices at centre field and full back we will win well on Saturday.
The forecast is for a fine day. A fine day for Mayo. Do you feel it in your gut. I do.
Hi AM…agree Donaghy had a good game today and I felt the same that the rain would have nullified his ability to win a high ball, do it was disappointing that AOS was kept there. And yes, the subs we made, wrong calls and the timing made no sense, particularly with Loftus.
I do think however that Kevin and Diarmuid need to assert themselves a lot more the next day. Not a score between them. If we are to beat Kerry then we need these guys chipping in on the scoreboard. Andy won’t get 1-5 the next day so it’s time for others to get in on the act.
I would have liked to see Keith bursting forward a bit more. Let someone cover him.
I said it earlier but I think it’s important. Mayo win when AOS is taking the game by the scruff of the neck. When he doesn’t feature we struggle. Kerry started to dominate in that last quarter and looked like they’d kick on. We clung in, just and nicked an equalising score. Had we lost, people here would be gutted and furious and rightly so.
I think the national reaction to the match is strongly influenced by the fact that most didn’t give Mayo much hope. This Mayo team without question has the personnel to beat Kerry but bad decision making on and off the pitch almost cost us dearly.
We live to fight another day. Kerry will be better, so must we.
Finally, listening to MWR tonight, you’d swear we win the bloody game! A bit embarrassing!
Thanks, Ger, and point taken re the stone mad accusation, which, on reflection, shouldn’t have been allowed either.
All the way,
Mmmmmnnnnn !!! I wonder ?? That was right in front of me and to tell the truth I genuinely couldn’t see what was happening due to the chayos and frenetic nature of the development.. I don’t anyone in attendance could have made an agreeable decision as to what happened in that frenzied scramble. Slow mo may identify an infringement but I sure as hell couldn’t or wouldn’t have the balls to give a peno in that situation…
Anyhoo !! the managers will be as busy this week as Stormin Norman and Sadam Hussein with their individual battle plans and the good news is we mortals can buy a seat to witness the extravaganza. Now that’s a treat to cherish.
Ciarrai Abú with bowed head,
Have to agree with mayomaningalway please stop calling that man star it’s cringey
Wow! What a match. I’m still trying to come down but my brain has been hot wired by these men who will never show the white feather. Panic on our own kickouts needs to be urgently addressed before Saturday. Clarke kept us in it and out of it and was still mighty. AOS made some phenomeal plays but did he play to his full strenght or was he slighty hampered. We’re down to inches here and inches always end in miles.
I think we should go for it Saturday. We have the measure of Kerry. Moran on Donaghy. OShea with COS and Andy in the forwards wouldn’t be a bad start. Mayo should fuck with them. Make them think and then change again, if necessary. We need to play to our strenghts and not cater or over indulge in our perceived weakness.
We had a great day today and we will have an even better one Saturday. Despite my manical roaring I never seen a man smile so bright after Shehann missed the free kick. “We’re still here. We’re still here, the smile , the smile, is worth a lifetime of memories. Thank you Mayo!
I think Mayo can learn more from this match. Brave decisions were made, no doubt about it, but sometimes , only sometimes you need to go for the jugular. That time is most definetly now, now more than ever. One more into the abyess and all the concrete poured before through sweat and blood will pave the way. That’s for another day
Jaysus willie joe with all those points you take you should be full forward. I m joking now.
Kerrys five main performers were in my view:
1. Kieran Donaghy – A full back with ground game needed.
2. David Moran – on kickouts and defensively Aidan needs to pick him up
3. Stephen OBrien – Patrick Durcan quitened him late on.
4. Paul Murphy
5. Paul Geaney
For the next say the most direct and linear to reduce are Stephen OBrien (Patrick Durcan) and Kieran Donaghy (Donal Vaughan).
Rochford might have been right to try Aidan on Donaghy but surely after the first Kerry goal it was blatantly obvious that this experiment had started to fail and he should have been moved out to his usual role and replaced by a genuine defender such as Donie Vaughan. A no brainier! It doesn’t matter whether you win a ball in the air or on the ground it’s the same thing in the end – you have posesssion.
That said Aidan could have done better by trying to stay tighter and even give him a bit of stick but unfortunately this isn’t his style of play. I also though Aidan could have bombed forward a few time to drag Donaghy away from our goals. If he failed to track Aidan that would have been a massive plus for us. In that case some could have been detailed to drift back to cover Donaghy in case of any possible break by Kerry. Poor tactic and poor execution but crucially we got away with it.
And yes Aidan is crucial to our kick out strategy. Out with him from full back the next day.
A classic and I’ll take the draw after seeing sheehan over the last placed ball.
POSITIVES
The ferocity and intensity of the lads
The full forward lines ability to expose their full back line and that fox Andy Moran at work
The quick hands and our lovely runs off the shoulder
Our scoring from play
The work rate
Clarkes shot stopping again
The Mayo support
NEGATIVES
Our midfields inability to win clean primary possession and SOS performance yet again. I’m sorry to focus on this but he is going to cost us crucial scores but yet he starts every game (in 2014 he let David moran waltz past him for that James od goal late in game and turned over ball at crucial times again today)
Kerrys cheap shots and the refs inability to punish them
Some of the sidelines decisions again…colm Boyle off too early…sos on too long (same as 1st ros game) and bringing an inside forward on with 2 mins to go and leaving AOS in fb position!
I suppose our failure to take some crucial chances and shot selection sometimes
Were capable of winning that replay. Up mayo
On Friday I suggested that Barry Moran would be given the job of countering Donaghy’s aerial threat as he had done against Michael Murphy in 2015 even though he hadn’t got into a championship panel all summer. As it turned out he was in the match day panel even though not called on to deal with Donaghy. But, given that he was in the match day panel, would he not have been a better bet than Loftus in posing different questions to the Kerry defence in the last ten minutes?
On an entirely differnet aspect to the day, this was the first time in years I travelled home via Mullingar / Longford. I normally travel via Athlone but needed to make a call in Longford. When I got off the Muillingar ByPass I was met with a total holdup [at about 8 pm]. Looking up the hill alomg L Owel traffic seemed to be at a total standstill and I guessed that unless it was caused by an accident it would be the same all the way to Ballinalack / Rathowen. I decided to take a different route, a bit longer in distance, via Ballymahon. Time to Longford bypass 48 minues. What was other people’s experience? Is this kind of hold up coming off the motorway normal after Mayo games?
Mayonaze, I agree – I know I would have been furious had we lost that game, and indeed, I was furious for a good two hours having drawn it. it would have felt like nothing short of self-sabotage. Again. I’m not sure which I’m more annoyed about – our failure to switch Aidan back up the field or our baffling choice of subsitutions. On what planet was there any point to bringing on Loftus on 72 minutes? But look, we got away with it and hopefully next Saturday will see us right. Bertha looked well on the Hill today 🙂
If donaghy scored 2 goals from high deliveries today there would be some moaning on this site as to why Rochford did not put a big man on him .FFS some people are still going on about how he set up crucial goal in 2014. Donaghy did ok today, he wasnt brilliant. Some people are crediting him with setting up second goal. Well if S O Shea getting above him to break the ball away from him counts as an assist for donaghy, then I think I will go back playing myself. I thought Mayo were excellent, everyone one of them gave their all. Hit 2 13 from play. Of course there were errors and chances missed, but in case you didnt notice, it was pissing rain there today{probably was dry in sitting room or pub watching TV} Management had balls to take gamble. it partially worked. Players were tremendous, supporters excellent, begrudgers havent gone away and will be queueing up again on saturday, and as for the chap who is whinging about Cillians performance, maybe he might tog out himself next saturday because Ger you must be some player. This team are brave resilient and skilful and despite what the experts say {who by the way get most calls wrong} are still in with serious shout.
I have no idea why my comments are going into that moderation thingy bin. As the disgruntled plum said to the blackberry, “There’s always a raison”.
Happy with the result, but need to win this replay now, can’t keep losing them. Thought initially after winning the kickout from the equaliser a bad pass had cost us a good opportunity to win but Conor Loftus was just a bit too static coming for it – probably because he got two minutes on the field.
Great work down – lots more to do. I hope we finish the job
I’m pinching myself to be sure its real. Mayo for sure got out of jail in the last seconds of the game and I truly think they have to quality to beat Kerry and go to the final with confidence. Loftus needs a lot more time next Saturday, Barry Moran and a sweeper at fb and aos to chf.
Shane nally has to play a 20 minutes plus part too and his fresh legs and instinct are badly needed. I wouldn’t listen to those pundits, they know as much as I know myself except they are paid to waffle on.
There’s an air of destiny to this whole thing, I have no doubt Mayo can win the replay by a few scores.
If Rochford hadn’t played o’shea on Donaghy and Donaghy set up a few goals from aerial balls people would be calling for Rochfords head this morning.
Everyone on here was asking how do we deal with donaghy because of his aerial threat. Well they took care of the aerial threat. The damage he did was on his ground game.
Unfortunately he will still pose an aerial threat saturday.
Mayo have paid the price more than once before for not preparing for donaghy. At least they prepared for the high ball yesterday.
Not sure what the answer is for marking him. A small marker and the bombs will rain in. A big awkward player (not referring to aiden) will get fleeced on the ground. An unplayed big player like Barry could get rightly scalded.
We probably have alot to add to our own game by moving aiden out the pitch but the question is what will donaghy do from the high balls if he’s given that chance ?? I know what he’s done to us in the past.
I see my comment not posted again willie joe, can i ask why? From a genuine supporter
a – there is a raison. I was in bed.
BazHam19 – you may ask and the reason was that, yet again, the comment you attempted to post breached the rules. If you are the genuine supporter you claim to be then why don’t you try to frame what you have to say in a more reasonable and constructive way? If you’re in any doubt on this, the house rules are here.
At one point down in the closing minutes you would have taken a draw, especially when it looked like Kerry would go two up. The end of the game reminded me of the match against Galway, that day we couldn’t get level but we did yesterday. Fair play to Paddy Durcan. You cannot fault the heart, fight, determination and spirit of our team.
You would prefer to see us being more positive late in the game, i.e. having scoring forwards on the field rather than defenders. Again we should have probably learned that lesson from the Galway game. For example you would have preferred to see Conor Loftus on much earlier up front .
We live to fight another day!
I have only read some of the comments.
Firstly, I, as any supporter is entitled to do, question some decisions by management. This is any day a team plays, whether at club level or county. I try to be balanced in any criticism, and try to acknowledge that you have to try things, take calculated risks etc.
On the Aidan O’Shea v Donaghy issue I think some people are being very unfair to management. I also think the Sunday game comments were bizarre. To say we put Aidan on Donaghy to take out the aerial treat is correct, and in the next sentence to say it backfired is a little extreme.
Kieran Donaghy is an experienced full forward and will cause some problems. It was imperative that he didn’t cause problems in the air as psychologically and on the scoreboard that would be a disaster. He didn’t do that. Kerry were forced not to kick high ball in. Did donaghy do ok/well in open play, yes. Is there an element of robbing peter to pay paul, yes. But having Aidan back there was the most secure I’ve felt as a mayo supporter facing donaghy in the last 13 years.
I would agree with some who say maybe we should have gambled a little at stages and moved Aidan out for periods. I’m not sure at what point I would have made this change mind you. But I am by no means willing to say playing him full back was a mistake or that the move “backfired”.
Also, to people who say our subs weakened us, I disagree. Paddy Durcan played very well and kicked the equaliser. He came on for Colm Boyle who was having a stormer. Colm appears to be routinely taken off in games around the 50th minute which I don’t agree with. However, yesterday I felt Colm was outstanding but I also felt he had given almost everything when he was withdrawn and given the pace paddy D brings to things I think on balance it was the right call.
Yes Conor Loftus got caught waiting for a ball which lead to the Sheehan free. Sheehan missed. But if Conor got that ball (which was his to get) we would have been on the attack. While this was a mistake, which should not happen, it’s a little extreme to say our subs weakened the team. The next step is to suggest Rochford shouldn’t have made those subs. You have to try things, have to have faith in guys. Conor was a good sub before (v. Derry and Cork), he was worth bringing on yesterday and will be worth bringing on the next day.
Lastly, its important to think like winners. Kerry don’t feel they left is behind them. We shouldn’t either. A new game the next day. An entirely different game. It’s there to be attacked and be won.
Whatever about Aidan on Donaghy bringing on Loftus on 72 minutes is pure lunacy. He should have been in on 60 minutes and David Drake is another
Interesting substitution but lookit we are still there and very much In it I hope Rochford learns more from this game for next week and I think
He will
To win just once you dead onn with your comments above.
Well done to our incredible team.
2.13 from play against Kerry in a AI semi final.
What a team! A game of the championship playing the kind of football that we all love.
They all played their part in such miserable conditions. We will beat them on sat because they are the experienced and better team. They believe that with their whole minds and bodies.
We have to keep believing too. Together in this.
Were people at the game …..
Stephen O’Brien’s pace caused colm all sorts of bother in the 1st half.
Paddy matched of o’briens pace with colm couldn’t.
That is why colm was taken off. Possibly he could been moved onto Murphy with a switch with keegan.
This game definitely requires a rewatch people before getting into too much detail on who played bad, okay, good or very good or which tactics didn’t work.
People are crediting Donaghy with every assist for a score even when he was 5th, 4th, 3rd or 2nd assister in the move.
Well the corollary is that Aidan came bombing out about 7 or 8 times and made some deep handpasses 30 yards up the centre of the pitch which lead to attacks for us. So if we are going to credit Donaghy we also need to credit Aidan.
Donaghy is even being credited for the Sky ball which was a total lottery and fell to a Kerry forward.
He’s been credited with the goal which was all of David Moran 50% and Johny Buckleys follow up 50%, I would give Donaghy 0% influence on that goal.
My ratings of players in terms of assists works as follows. Once you get past 2nd out assist, unless it’s some amazing turnover or catch or incredible pass, you can’t credit a player if they are a long way back in the move. That is simply standard play. Obviously there is the player who scores it, but it is much more (in most cases) about the 1st out assist (assist direct to scorer) and the 2nd out assist (assist two out from the scorer).
If you haven’t rewatched the game you can’t be too forthright about too much on it. It was that type of game with both teams and individuals have periods of dominance.
Too true, JP. On the Aidan tactic, people really need to think about the counterfactual – what would be the reaction if we hadn’t done something to deal with Donaghy and 2014 all over again ensued? Rochy would be getting it from every direction had we lost it in such circumstances. We’re still in it and the focus now needs to be how best to exploit the glaring weaknesses we exposed in their backline yesterday.
Darren Frehill on RTE has just made the point that all but a single point of our total yesterday came from play. Kerry and their marquee forwards got 2-10 from play.
Over all ,happy to be still in it .. I agree that Rochford was right to try Aiden in full back …take him out as most seem to want and by Christ Kerry will absolutely pepper high balls in on him , also agree that Donnie is the only other option but at 6’2 a bit small for the high ball but a great tackler …Aiden would be useful contesting kickouts from 11 but nowhere near mobile enough for that Kerry mid field …. Clarke made couple of fantastic saves but kick outs very poor at times
On the contrary WJ, if Caff was marking Donaghy to the exact same outcome yesterday he would be hung, drawn and quartered for it! Sure he got slated for keeping his man completely quiet in the Rossie game!
I slept well last night, I reckon the mattress is fine after all and we will beat Kerry in a likely dry croke park on Saturday.
That’s true as well, Mark, which shows that no matter what tactic we go with and how it goes, there’s always going to be criticism. The bottom line, though, is that we’re still in it and rather than slating management about the calls made yesterday we need to get behind them again ahead of the replay, one I’m increasingly convinced we’ll win.
If aiden was given the job of man marking Donaghy he was caught out of position which led to the 2nd goal. He’s not a back and if you’re man marking someone well then you don’t go up the pitch and be caught 30 yards off your man. I don’t think he should have been put in that position. BM and a sweeper or vaughan would seem more logical. Watch how dublin dealt with him
Christ, in general I’d love some proper analysis, both from the supposed paid “professional” pundits and the knowledgeable GAA public. The problem is one follows the other, came into work this morning to be greeted by “ye left it behind ye”. had to remind the experts that since the Roscommon game all we’ve been hearing is that we wouldnt be able to tie Kerrys bootlaces. Where is that expert opinion now? Have we gained no respect over the past SEVEN years. It infuriates me that the perception is that Kerry were on some sort of off day, is it just coincidence that all these supposed great teams have off days when they meet us? Or is it just that we happen to make them look ordinary every fecken time because we are just as good as them? Why do you think that might be??
I know, I know, it works both ways, if we do manage to win one, or had managed to win one then it would all change. Kerry are considered better than us because they win All Irelands, but I wish, sometime proper analysis would happen in the mainstream rather than obscure places like twitter from people like @dontfoul
@PK
Aidan was “caught out of position” as he was giving options to David Clarke for a kickout. In the end the ball went to Keith higgins who under no pressure gave a bad pass to aidan which resulted in a lineout. the line out was quickly taken which resulted in a scramble defence and Seamie o’shea going on donaghy leaving Moran free to burst through on goal. bottom line, if Keith gave a proper pass Aidan wouldn’t have been out of position. Just because you are man marking, doesn’t mean you stayed welded to him on your own kick out………. otherwise Davis clarke has no options and we don’t win our own kick out ball.
Wonder what reduction will be on replay tickets…….
PK, Aidan O’Shea had nothing to do with that second goal other than he should aruably have judged the pass to him better.
The high ball in was broken excellently by Seamus and unfortunatley broke to a Kerryman, the excellent save made by Clarkie broke to a Kerry man after Morans run down the center went unchecked as the backs were concerned with the other runners. Kerry got a big rub of the green with breaking ball bouncing their way and the rebound falling to a Kerry man.
Our goals had a bit of luck about them as well notwithstanding the excellent finishes, ball broke kindly for Andy and Colum took about 8 steps. For the first goal imagine if that was us??? Spillane and the stooges would have a conniption, high ball in, backs dithering and a marquee forward pounces and hurts you.
Picture the scene
Spillane “You cant afford to give away chances like that against these type of forwards, its fine against the likes of Roscommon but Kerry will hurt you if you do….weakness under the high ball, backs running around like frightened hens, that wont win Mayo any all irelands .” Lyster:”Sorry, Pat, it was Kerry that happened to” “Oh, Apologies Michael, I was reading from the wrong set of cliches and prepared notes, Spillane: “What do you want me to do, analysis the shagging thing? Let me check another page, “Meath are never beaten….” Lyster: “Lets go to a break”
Re: Aiden o Shea on Donaghy ….
Some sports journalist are such gobshites. ….. eamon sweeney for one and breheny for two.
Ist goal.
Mayo lost ball to easily … and the backs could not go with o’briens pace.
2nd Goal.
Ball over the line. Out of position because of this.
No fault on either goal.
To quote a former US presiden Roosevelt said…..” It is not the critic who count ; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed;who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat”
It’s a privilege to follow this team including current and previous management.
Maybe this thought is for a winters evening by the fire when we’re either toasting Sam or thinking about another one that got away. If its the former then the next point is irrelevant, the latter then it very much is.
james Horan made comments way back that his goal was to make this team “consistently competitive”. Now I dont know what kind of physcological mumbo jumbo he went at at that time, but whatever mindset seed was planted, definitely took and we have more than achieved that.
But do you ever wonder if sub consciously thats the sum of it for us, no matter who we seem to play, they have a damn hard time beating us. We fight tooth and nail to be consistently competitive against the other main contenders, but when it comes time to drive on and win it, sometimes we seem to pause and give the opposition a chance, they go back in front and we rise ourselves again, one more time. Happened twice yesterday, happened several times last year in the games against Dublin, 2015 against Dublin again, 2014 against Kerry both days……I wonder do we need to reset that programming somehow.
WJ I wouldn’t criticise management for AOS tactic . I thought it was a brave call. But i would be highly critical of them sticking with it when it was so patently not working. Donaghy was undoubtedly 2nd candidate for MOM and couldn’t believe when second half started the same tactic was still pursued even though the damage he was doing was all down to running into space taking hopping balls into him or handpasses with AOS way off him. AOS is not a man marker…he is a man that other teams need to be marking. I wonder what plan Kerry had for him if he played around the attacking 50 and who it freed up not having to worry about that. Kerry fullback line looks very weak yet never got hit with the biggest test Mayo could give them I.e. AOS.
Again I repeat – Mayo picked their team primarily to deal with Kerry. Kerry picked their team on its own merits with much less regard for the opposition….maybe that’s the Kerry cockiness- I don’t know. But I certainly don’t subscribe to the view Mayo missed their chance. I don’t see any reason they can not win replay…kerry should be worried…but being Kerry they probably won’t
If mayo had won yesterday SR would be a tactical genius playing AOS at full back. We scored one from a free , Kerry got six- 4 & 2, Geaney & JOD respectively. On a shite day for football we outscored the league champions and AIF favourites from play easily. Critical of substitutes….Paddy Durcan scores the equaliser. As for the replay, well LK won’t be scoreless two days in a row and Cillian won’t be as quiet either. Maybe Danny Kirby for the last fifteen and pump in a few high ones? Donaghy limped off the field yesterday and donnacha Walsh probably wont be back for Saturday’s game so Kerry have plenty to worry about as well as their marquee forwards doing shag all. Either way no doubting these fellas. Up Mayo.
P.S. A note/caution to the two gentlemen sitting behind me in seats 330 N 3&4 : stay at home if you are bothered by other Mayo fans, who also paid for their ticket, stand up at times to during the game. It’s worth noting that we are not in you’re living room, we are in Croke Park, Dublin 9. Thank you.
We’re spending alot of time commenting on instances that happened over an 80 minute period. Bad instances.
I for one think that mayo were brilliant yesterday. Why aren’t we discussing all the exceptional football we played. Andy Moran was unbelievable. Cillian kicked as good a point as you’ll ever see in croke park. Colm boyle scored a.goal that any marquee forward would be thrilled.to.score. Paddy Durkan again took on the responsibility of putting it over where a wide would have probably ended our participation in the competition. Imagine that pressure. David Clarke pulled off a couple of brilliant saves. Seamie ran his arse off. Tom parsons scored 2, a good return for a midfielder. Doc put in a monster of a game.
90% of what we did was top class so let’s talk about the good stuff for a whlie.
Jaysus after some of this year’s earlier performances this was a top class display from the team.
Let’s get positive folks.
It was a brilliant day out …..well done to all. My reception was via commentary MW and an on off GAAGo.
1. Ball handling passing kicking greatly improved.
2. Recycling/ possession retention …great maturity and patience.
The clincher nows to come….the killer punch not the pinch! It’s been heralded by many posters and it’s all this team really lacks….an extra composure in the latter part of games! We do enough to level or go up a point it seems but not enough to ruthlessly dispatch an opposition….esp so when the opp is a fairly capable one.
There was period at end when our score rate was not reflective of possession… become over cautious … just a point…just a point, to the extent that we labour to even get one not to mind the major score which might be as much on then as earlier or even more so. Eg… Jason’s deflected shot.
We need all the fine qualities of this team upfront throughout games but esp at the wind up. Job done. Roll on Sat.
Joet….doubt if that pair are on here.
Would wonder at this stage if our management actually trust Conor Loftus ?
Imo, he`s not being given a chance to do himself justice.
We need to steady up a bit on here with all the calls for changes.
Some of you seem to want to gut the team with various calls for Barry Moran, Conor O`Shea, Shane Nally and Danny Kirby to be brought in.
One poster well up this page even called for the return of Rob Hennelly !!!
Hear hear Revellino…..missed your comment…. You’ve said it! Tks!
JASUS im wrecked today,but im content ish,we didn’t lose,we live to fight another day,it was a good game of football,the weather perhaps hindered the players ability at times,but overall they didn’t lose and that the important nugget here ………..
happy with durkans imput when he came on, i wasn’t too fazed my managements decision regarding Aidan,but i did feel we should of mixed it up a bit,we compromised our own attacking game to TRY and nulify donaghy ,
look bottom line is we are always going to give out regardless of what decisions they make,but it is very clear that aidan is not a full back,he needs to be in the thick of the action,causing havoc, i have to say bringing conor on at 72 mins was just pure crazy, also drake and coen ,ahead of nally and kirby, the mind boggles,
the heart and determination our lads showed again yesterday was immense, and yes i agree we were lucky to get out of jail with the draw,granted kerry will improve for saturday but i feel so will we, we have this,i just know we do,
support was bonkers good again,i was in the davin, ,i was at times ott animated, i tend to lose myself in the game,but i will make no apology for getting behind this team, i got a few strange looks, but to hell with that,there is no place for anyone going to croker if they want to tut tut and throw dirty eyes ,this team are willing to die on the swords,so therefore i feel we as supporters have to do the same ,i thoroughly enjoy been part of the 16th man brigade,i wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,
trekking back west, i have to say i was in a trance for some of the journey,reliving every kick of the ball,but not once did i even consider NOT going again,bottom line is if that team of amazing men can do it again so bloody well can we,deegan has got a few mentions above, he has got too much air time here so i wont harp on,he is shit- substandard end of,POSITIVES re deegan he cant ref the replay ,so fingers crossed we have seen the last of him for 2017
i slept like a baby last night,never stirred,im looking ahead to saturday with a happy head on me
we are mayo, we never give up,i love this team.
now i must get on and try and do some work
rant over
happy monday folks!
cmon mayo
Agree 100% Revellino.
We focus on the bad far too much. Yes acknowledge it and work on it but focus on the good. And Yesterday there was a lot of good and some exceptional play.
Listening to guys behind me in the Lower Cusack. Two of them for 80 minutes kept going on about all the mistakes. That was their primary focus for 80 minutes. The must have used the word “mistake” 50 times.
Focus on the good. Encourage the lads. Be positive.
You talk to some people today and you’d thing we had drawn with Sligo or Leitrim (no disrespect to them). We’re dining at the top table. Get on board with it. Mistakes will be made on big days. All teams do it. Don’t let mistakes consume you. 90-99% of your energy should be on the positives, whether your a player or supporter.
Very interesting will be to read likely Don’t fouls next column. I would think statistically the following is important.
1. Kerry had more posessions off of kickouts (Theirs and ours)
2. Mayo had a much higher % success rate of scores versus attacks
Meaning that our defence did quite well. Conceding 2-14 to Kerry in a game where they are dominating kickouts is a low score return for this Kerry team.
If the game was replayed fresh again with the exact same lineups and tactics (so letting randomness/luck at it again) I believe it unlikely that:
– Kerry would get more than one goal (Both were breaking balls that went the right way luckily)
– Kerry would be awarded so many more scoreable frees. We had three clear cases ignored yesterday. (1) Colm Boyle was fouled twice before his left footed wide … what happened to the advantage rule where it comes back for the free. (2) Donal Vaughan standing several seconds with the ball in his grasp has the ball knocked away, Deegan sees it and does not move the ball up to within scoring range. (3) Kerry had a yellow card after a free was awarded and yet the free was not thrown up for a hop ball. Those were three stone wall cases with no excuse.
– Unlikely Lee Keegan, Cillian OConnor and Aidan OShea wouldn’t have a bigger influence
– Unlikely Andy will be quite as strong again to the same degree
– Unlikely we would lose the kickout battle so badly again
So there are plenty things that I think should run in our favour the next day if you are a believer in probability which I am.
Any idea when tickets go on sale ???? Will it be today
All, Enthralling match again yesterday, but as some of the latter posts above state, we are great at clawing back but not getting ahead at crucial times. Revellino you ar epsot on, we should be looking at the positives and building on them. The AOS decision was ballsy but SR should have changed it when he saw it was not working. Did he see it was not working?? AOS up front the next day and stick Harrison / Vaughan in on “Star”. Works for Dubs why not for us??? Why does anyone know does he keep taken Colm off?? We CAN do it on Saturday, but we need a few decisions by management and a few decisions on the pitch by the players to influence things. Mayo by 3 points Saturday.
All im asking would seamie not of done the same job as aido but we would of been more productive with aido in his normal role?
Mark Griffin touching the ball on the ground prior to Andy goal chance/point was a sickner not to get.
I’d give Deegan a bit of slack however for not spotting it, he was probably tweeting some of his in match quotes from all his chats with the players at the time.
Well said Revellino! I was so proud of our guys yesterday (AGAIN!), each and every one of them contributed their all and have an amazing never say die attitude that just might see them over the line this year… replays until Christmas anyone????
I just have one comment on Deegan, he seemed to really prevent Mayo from taking quick frees yesterday, while Kerry seemed to get to take theirs all day! Maybe it was just my mind playing games, but the most blatant one was just after he had fallen on his arse and we were about to launch an attack with most of the Kerry team around their own square… he called back the bloody free allowing them to regroup again… nearly had palpitations at that stage!
Season ticket email has just arrived. I’d expect tickets will be on general sale shortly as well.
It feels like deja vu all over again. It feels like deja vu all over again. The laziest thing to say after that is that we left it behind us and plenty of pundits will opt for same. Obviously a lot of debate re aiden on kd. Think JP is well worth a read above, I agree that kd is being overly credited with kerry scores and really didn’t see him as a contender for motm. Thought moran was their best player by far and Andy ours. Lots of comments re their full back line and how they should be taken to the cleaners the next day. They scored 2-14 too remember with our backs poor tackling at fault at times so both teams need to sharpen up at the back. Overall not happy with a draw, it’s yet another game we should really have won.
Tickets on sale now
10 euro cheaper
That must have broken their hearts !
Also wanted to add that Donaghy will hopefully suffer from yesterday… He would normally be taken off earlier to allow recovery, but had to be left there to keep Aido occupied… 6 day turnaround might go hard on him! (fingers crossed)
after all the analysis one of the most important questions remained unasked.
Is there any concerns about whether or not Mayo’s jerseys yesterday infringed upon Sligo GAAs image rights yesterday notwithstanding the dash of token red thrown in on the upper sleeve.
For a brief moment when they came on the pitch there I had to pinch myself…is it, could it be, had i just forgotten!!!!…..no…it WAS Mayo!
Seamus would have been destroyed for goals scored by and assisted by Donaghy. The only alternative to Aidan is Donal Vaughan who I believe is the wiser choice. Donal gives up a bit in the aerial game but can do more in the ground game especially on a wet day where it is easier to contest high ball.
Aidan would have been a threat up front.
I know I mentioned the rewatch earlier, but overall, we will come to the same conclusion, Donaghy beat Aidan yesterday overall and it wasn’t worth having Aidan completely out of our attack.
I expect us to do one of three things the next day:
1. (50% likely) Go with Donal Vaughan on Donaghy
2. (25% likely) Go with Aidan on Donaghy in the first half but then for the final 25 minutes when Donaghys 34 year old legs on a 6 day turnaround mean he has less spring/influence we move Aidan up front. This has the added advantage of keeping Aidan fresh in the low mileage position of full back and away from all the harassment and hits he would get in attack. Kerry will have a few yellows clocked up, their defenders won’t have explosive pace to get recover ground tackles in (not on a 6 day turnaround and not with those chunky builds bodytype that they favour).
3. (25% likely) Aidan for full game again at full back. This would be utter madness based on the evidence of both teams in the drawn game. But it’s up there around 25% likely given that we already did it.
I am open minded as to whether (1) or (2) is the best option. I just find it unlikely that things run so well for Kerry again without the aerial threat.
Sometimes in a game you draw it’s important to really dig into what was deliberate teamwork and tactics of the opposition/ourselves and what was simply lady luck.
– Scoreable frees (Deegan as ref)
– Johnny Buckleys goal (The ball bouncing perfectly into his path)
Controllables that were bad errors on our part.
1. Not using Aidan as an attacking threat late on.
2. Not getting Patrick Durcan in for Diarmuid to mark Stephen OBrien
3. Substitions. Shane Nally, Stephen Coen and Conor Loftus should have all came in close to 55/60 mins. Kerry were on the brink and we needed to land a knockout blow.
– David Drake is a fast lad who will work hard, but that is not what we needed. We needed composure and a scorer (Shane Nally)
– Stephen Coen was a correct call but should have been in earlier as SOS was tired and lacking in pace in closing down throughout. We were losing the kickout battle anyways. SOS didn’t win a mark all day.
– Conor Loftus we needed to lift our pace late on. Both teams were tired. Conor Loftus is one of our quickest players and he can take the ball right at defenders one on one.
I really hate this simplistic nonsense of “If we won SR would be a genius”.
For goodness sake, I think some of us have a bit more about us than that. When we form an opinion based on what we see in front of us, we won’t just change it on a whim. I haven’t heard any analysis from any pundit and frankly I don’t care to. I can come to my own conclusions.
As far as I’m concerned, Kerry always had an option in the full forward line yesterday almost by default. The ball stuck every time it went to Donaghy because Aidan was unable to mark him. It’s a massive problem when it’s that easy to work the ball into the danger area and you’re nearly guaranteed that clean ball will be won.
I have no problem with management trying things. But yesterday it didn’t work in my view.
Are we better than these? In my view, it’s a resounding yes. Run hard at them and we cause them all sorts of problems. We really should have had a 3rd goal in the first half.
At least this breaks up the time we have to wait for the final 😀
Up Mayo!!
You could say we might be in trouble with Down’s patent lawyers as well, Cantini! Anyway, I think it’s time you lads went back to the white jerseys, even if that might bring up bad old memories from my childhood about 1975 and Mickey Kearns.
Fair play to the lads and to Andy. He carried us today but you also have to look at the class kick passing that went in particularly from Tom, Donie and Jason.
This Donaghy / AOS thing is a distraction. Donie Vaughan had his best game in a Mayo jersey and was able to play in the same role as AOS would normally be in.
Maybe Kerry / the Media should focus their attention on who was supposed to be marking Donie. I’d be interested to see the stats on how much scores he set up.
Someone else also pointed out that AOS gets no change from Deegan out the field so tactically I think it worked in some respects.
The question is would we have been able to run as freely trough Kerry if AOS was in the HF line and Kerry were constantly spoiling the game by pulling and dragging from him? I’m not sure we would.
Leave him in FB for the next day again I reckon and if we have a dry ball we will win this game by 5+.
Personally I didn’t like the AOS tactic from the start as I felt it took away too much from our attacking abilities. Didn’t think it worked myself and I wouldn’t have persisted with it. The reason being we were struggling to win primary possession and I think Aido was shown not to be a FB. Not having a natural defender at FB (no slight on Aiden who tried his best) can seep confidence from the rest of the backline. I thought this happened a couple of times yesterday. Vaughan for me the next day.
I would credit Rochford with developing our kickpassing game over the last year of so. It really paid dividends in getting good, quick ball into the FF line when Kerry blocked our runners around MF (by fair means and foul). Thought all our FF line played well (including Cillian – who kicked three excellent points from play, more than any of the Kerry FF line) because of this.
This leaves Kerry with three options for their defence next week. 1) Persist with the high press to limit our kick out options and running game and give a kick up the arse to their backs 2) Drop their HB line deeper and tell Morley not to leave CB at all costs to provide protection 3) Play a full-time sweeper.
Personally I think it’ll either be 1) or 2). It won’t be 3) because of the Kerry arrogance and it could very well be 1) for the same reason. If it’s 2) we need to be aware of this quickly and really cut through them with our running game. I also think whatever happens they will start Barry at MF the next day. Maher helped dominate at MF but couldn’t track runners or give an option on the wing for their kickouts.
I have a lot of the same questions on the subs as above so I won’t go into it. I just hope we see a fully fit Keegan the next day and Aido back at MF/CF. Think these two guys didn’t have too much of an influence in attack and if they do on Saturday we’ll be victorious
The biggest fight in history is on next saturday and then I think the mcgregor – mayweather fight will be on a few hours later.
Just a point, despite Kerry not having a great day at the back they were clever not to concede fouls within a scorable range for Cillian. While I felt Deegan was slow to award us anything in the final 3rd it was still a noticeable tactic employed by Kerry. Make Mayo kick scores from play, don’t give them soft frees.
On the other hand how many times did we present Kerry with scorable frees, particularly in the first half. Some were awarded softly by Deegan but quite a few were lazy challenges by our lads and this is an area of the game we need to improve on ahead of next Sat.
I do believe the Kerry forwards will be better next Sat and I also feel Fitzmaurice will shore up their defence. That’s an absolute certainty. I think we should start with Durkan on O’Brien and overall we need to be even tighter and a good bit more disciplined.
Tom had a decent game yesterday in midfield but overall I felt we lost the battle in that sector. Plenty of scope for improvement on winning possession out there, primary and breaking ball in particular.
Doherty great 1st half but seek to feature much after HT maybe it’s cos I was standing on the Hill!? But 1 point should never be a sufficient return from a forward and on this Diarmuid and Kevin have massive scope for improvement.
I thought overall we only played OK yesterday. The general synopsis is that we were great. We weren’t. Quite a few lads played within themselves. I note what someone said about being ‘consistently competitive’. You may be right. It’s time for Mayo (all of us) to strive for and demand victory. As an Argentian lad with Irish roots once said:- Hasta la Victoria Siempre! (To victory always).
Not sure bout all of you but I’m long tired of moral victories. It’s loser mentality. Time to go and win.
Brilliant game and brilliant performance by most of our players, how ever this is a game we should have one, simple as that,2-13 from play and not to win the game says it all,beleive me it wont be simple the next day and while Kerry may not improve much playerwise tactically they will be big changes.I said during the week we try AOS on Donaghy in the believe Aiden would do what he was asked, in my view that didn’t happen yesterday,it was the poorest attempt at a man marking job I have ever seen,ok because Aiden was in high ball wasn’t kicked in, but Donaghy did as he liked and 2-4 came off him,I was watching from high in the Hogan when Oshea went back,Donaghy just bullied him,pulling,dragging,pushing and talking to him,and Oshea just took it,his body language said it all he did not want to be back there,he was like a man that was afraid of Donaghy.On the positive side he has to be played in the middle of the field the next day, because you could say we drew with them without the usual big contribution from Aiden all around the field,and that to me will be massive for us the next day. Is Keegan carrying an injury he wasn’t in the game, or was it Paul Murphy marking him,I also said Keegan was the man for Geaney and I believe that now more ever,Geaney got on a huge amount of ball,laid off a huge amount, and scored 3 from play, we have to limit there full forward line as best we can, Keegan has a job to do if fully fit.Other than the Roscommon replay, SOS and DOC are not playing well yet we keep starting them,and keep bringing on Coen Drake without any results,why? We are putting pressure on our own kickout because we are stuggling at mid field forcing Clarke to kick short and out to the wings, footballing suicide against the likes of Kerry,how many of our own kickouts went wrong yesterday,putting pressure back on our defence,we have to sort out mid field, Aiden has to be round there, Tom cant be expected to always carry the can, maybe we should think about how we could use Barry or Kirby,one thing is certain, we have to give ourselves the option of getting the ball out of the danger zone from the kick out,the more you dominate at mid field the more pressure you take off your backs.Then we still have the Donaghy problem,Vaughan would be the best option,but is it the right one he is risky because of his black cards, we cant afford to be without him if we won,its a hard one, you need a player who can compete on the ground as well as in the air and Donie would certainly man mark Him,or is it a chance for SOS keep his place?,he would have the power and strength but has he the pace or maybe Barry,Donaghy is better than ever at 34.Barrett did well on O’Donoghue,but what about Stephen O’Brien he created havock with his running, he is a speed merchant and Durcan has to do a job here.Kerry will set up different the next day,there full back line wont be as exposed again,our full forward wont be allowed score 1-10 from play if they can help it at all, they will probably play a sweeper its about the only option they have,in reality they would need three new backs but they don’t have them I think,we have to play a target man in the full forward the next day to give us a chance of beating the system, and brind Doc out to the half line,Barry,Kirby, or Nally has to be considered,and why Nally is not being used more is mindboggling to say the least.In my view this game will be one and lost on the sidelines and we need very carefully about what team we will have on the field for the last 15 minutes,rembember there will be tired legs especially on our side and no better team than Kerry to exploit that,they’d love moving in for the kill.Stephen and your backroom team,well ye have a lot of thinking to do,this game can be won,be in no doubt,but a lot will depend on what you deceide,we must surprise them in a few departments,May God direct you to do the right things,and one final question why are you always taking of Boyle when there are players left on that are not playing nearly as well,I and no other Mayo supporter agrees with this and as people that support and pay good money to follow this team week in week out,year in year out,feel you should make the reason known.
The persistent scurrilous & downright disgusting nonsense coming from journos in @indosport has to stop! Enough is enough
JP and Willie Joe – good points on the assists question. Media people have again gone into overdrive on Donaghy and of course they couldn’t believe their luck when Aido was detailed to mark him – sure we can get a whole week out of this.
On Kerry’s second goal here’s a question: if the ball had come in and David Moran had tapped it down to say the on running Paul Geany, and the rebound from Clarke’s great save went to Donaghy who buried it, would all the focus be on David Moran’s tap down? Somehow, somehow I think not.
Disgraceful headline in the Independent this morning. Absolutely shameful
Oh what joy to see the Kerry bench in full panic mode after our second goal. Doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day, but I enjoyed it.
Where were all those ‘sly underhand’ Kerry tactics yesterday? Where were their ‘black arts’. Is there still an agenda to have Kerry v Dublin in AI final. Was Deegan reasonably balanced overall in dire conditions. You had 2 teams of good footballers out there yesterday who gave everything. There will always be incidents. Yes Mark Griffin touched ball on ground. Yes David Moran was fouled. D Vaughan could have got a black another day on Sheehan in the end. Both teams blew chances towards the end. Enjoy next Saturday an may best team win
Rochford deserves huge credit for bringing such variation into our play. Under Horan we were a one trick pony- run run run. Now we mix the running game with good diagonal foot passing and our execution of the foot passing and our handling of the ball was excellent yesterday. I agree with East Cork exile above – is there something in our psyche that is stopping us from winning these big games – we play excellent to go a few points up and then sit back or something silly to let teams back in. Putting in David Drake with 5 mins to go and teams level sends out the wrong message- We are level and we will try to hold onto it. Put on a forward and go for the win.
I reckon if Donaghy touched a call in his FB line they would put it down as an assist, just to say the AOS move was wrong. I for one am glad I was not leaving Croke Park with the sight of a soaring Donaghy setting up goals galore seared into my eyes. Like it or not, the decision by management to play AOS at FB was the reason for that. On a side issue, some of the guff in todays papers is little short of disgusting. SR is doing a fine job with Mayo. He is keeping people guessing as to our tactics. Again like it or not, this I am certain, has had hand in us staying in this championship race as long as we have. For too long you could name Mayos starting 15 and positions too. The yerras in the media pointing out that AOS should not be at FB. Do you really think that they are going to be kind enough to us poor souls in Mayo to point out tactics to help beat them. No they are not. This week, us Mayo supporters need to jet behind team and management more than ever. As the mighty Andy Moran once said WE ARE MAYO, WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER.
Headline today was mayo are lions led by donkeys. By half time Kerry had made 3 changes. Their FB line conceded 1.10 even after seeing how easily Cork and Galway exposed them. Why is OK to call Mayo management for a decision that can be questioned with hindsight but no one would ever categorise kerry management decisions as made by donkeys?
Lets there be no doubt, Kerry came to.croke park yesterday to win that game. They didn’t win it. We didn’t let them win it.
Plenty of.comments above of tweaks to the team that can bring us on again the next day.
Well if kerry.couldn’t beat us yesterday and we can tweak the team to our advantage to get that bit extra then I think we can all look forward to Saturday.
Not sure if that one got away or we are lucky to be still there, probably a bit of both.
The substitution policy is very puzzling. If you have a sniper like Loftus available, and the oppositions backs are ran ragged why do you wait until extra time to bring him on.
Secondly why do we substitute forwards with backs, when games are still in the melting pot, and we need more scoring options.
In fairness to Rockford, there is a lot of lazy analysis going on about putting Aidan on Donaghy. Games have been over after 20 minutes, when there has been aerial bombardment in the past. Perhaps, mixing it up a bit might have helped. I think Donaghy was kept on longer than usual yesterday, to keep Aidan out of where he could do the most damage.
on the way home yesterday I heard John Maughan waxing lyrically about Deegans performance. Now I know it may seem we have gripes with an increasing number of referees, but the count of frees that Kerry forwards got in comparison to the Mayo forwards spoke for itself.
This 2-4 came off of Donaghy is complete and utter nonsense. Donaghy didn’t even get a hand on the ball for Johnny Buckleys goal. Even if he did, it was a brave pile driver from 20 yards by David Moran that fell into the path of Johnny Buckley who was sharp in having made the run in to the danger zone. That cannot have any credit to Kieran Donaghy.
Another score, an attempt for a point that skyed up into the air and fell in a complete lottery for the Kerry forward.
So 1-3 came off of Donaghy with 1-2 being assists. I’d damn near take that.
In this fight we are the fighter and they are the boxer. We took away the boxers left jab (primary threat) but we weren’t brave enough to go for the knockout when the boxer could no longer defend against the fighter quite as well.
This is very much like a boxing contest. The boxer is often lost if his left jab is not working. Kerry were very close to floundering when their left jab (aerial threat) was taken away. We can talk about destroyed by Donaghy ground game all we like. We were not destroyed by a Donaghy ground game. This is a Kerry team with really good footballers who won the battle of kickouts. What did we expect they would run up in a scoreline? 1-11? 1-12?
Winning the kickouts as much as they did they would have had us pinned back if Donaghy was uncontested in the air in the game. The mistake I believe was after 50 minutes when his legs/explosiveness would have been much less we should have been brave and put Aidan (our knockout blow) into attack. Been willing to take a few weaker jabs (primary threat). Of field sports Gaelic Football needs a lot of conscious thought on what was deliberate and how the primary statistics looked like. Kickouts are a massive deal. It is important to look deep and see who had the most of them. It is important to look deep and see which assists were deliberate/fluke and how far back in the move was a particular assist. Otherwise we could all tog out again and start taking easy ball back in our defence, laying it off with a handpass and screaming “Had a hand in the move, had hand in the move, masterclass”.
This btw is how we overrated Dillons performance versus Tyrone last year. Similar to Donaghy there was a whole load of pent up written word dying to erupt with “”Masterclass, still got it, wise old head etc.”
The truth is in between. Run that game again under the exact same conditions with the exact same lineups and subs and Mayo would win it somewhere around 7/8 times from 10. That was how the non-controllables ran yesterday and they are unlikely to run like that again.
Kerry without their aerial threat are bloody uncertain as to what to do and they are uncertain how they should select at least 5 or 6 of their outfield players for the next day. They are not in some good place where they can shake us off like we did to Roscommon. The boxer has problems with this fighter and is hoping we blink for the replay and allow him to establish his left jab and box us out of the ring. We must not blink. We are fitter and faster than them and on my viewing we have less that needs to go right for us. Without their aerial threat I really think Kerry are set to be left floundering.
It would be remiss not to comment on the performance of David Clifford in the minor yesterday. He is without question the best minor player I have ever seen – and that was even before he kicked a ball this year. He looks positively bored playing at that level and I think he is even now good enough to start on either of the senior teams yesterday.
Hope to god the Aussies don’t poach him because he does look a once in a generation footballer that would be an awful shame we dont get to see a lot more of even if he is doing it for Kerry.
When Coen came on yesterday, I would like to have seen him going in on Donaghy and seeing Aido pushing forward. However, we are still in it and I believe that we will close the deal on Saturday
Eamonn Sweeney Last Year:
“Connelly and Holmes saga suggests blame for repeated failures lies with players themselves”
Eamonn Sweeney Now:
“Mayo are lions led by donkeys”
Donaghy is 6’5″and 100kgs. Hence it was either Aidan/Donie or both (switch).
So if there was a switch to be made it was Donie and not Stephen Coen to go in on Donaghy.
You cannot mark Donaghy with anyone even a bit smaller than Donie, Dublin/Tryone get the respect of being allowed to harass the hell out of him. Don’t ask me why, but it is deeemed as scorable frees versus us and deemed as tackling if it’s Dublin/Tyrone.
Hoghorlow – I was going to say you couldn’t write this stuff.
But obviously some people can!
That is baffling stuff.
Agree with you there Fourgoal and that would be my play next Saturday, Coen in from start in place of Seamie (give him a rest and launch him for second half). Coen to go to full back after the first 10 minutes, with AOS and Donie working between midfield and no 11. Kerry cannot play a sweeper and at the same time man mark Lee because the one man has to do both, P Murphy. So they either deploy a sweeper and allow us to run and our running game has become much smarter or else they persist with man marking and leave space for our full forward line. We will definitely not be short on confidence now particularly given our step up in performance in our last replay so all to play for.
I think the solution next day is probably stick with Aido. Yes Donaghy did well enough and set up the first goal but for his point Aido was one on 2 and prevented a fast forward going inside for a goal chance. There is it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul but who’s to say Aido wouldn’t come out on top in a round 2. Stopping Donaghy being an aerial manage was important.
Typo should read menace
If Stephen Coen goes full back Kieran Donaghy simply stands isolated in on top of him and wins almost 100% of ball kicked in. How is this a good tactic? Mayo pinned back deep in our own defence and even with the help of a sweeper Donaghy can crash over the top of that sweeper and still win high ball.
Why the need to move Coen to full back after 10 minutes?
It is either Aidan or Donie or both (Switching Donie to finish game) at full back. No other option will or should happen.
Tom Parsons and Seamus are not secure enough in posession close to our own goal. Aidan did not lose one ball yesterday. Tom P and Seamus are about the same as Donie Vaughan in the air and Donie has a much superior ground game. Aidan is much superior to Donie in the air.
On Colm Boyle, a couple of friends who were at the game yesterday said he had the ‘hands on hips’ a bit before
he was taken off. The thing with him is he goes into sixth gear straight off and doesn’t know how to pace himself at all id say. He’s a warrior who puts his head where no one else would put their foot. A class act who’ll give you everything he has and god knows he gave us loads yesterday. I reckon management do know therefore what they’re at when he’s being replaced.
Willie joe, any word on ref for the next day out or would you care to speculate? Cormac would hardly get it or would he?
As for tactics, not sure how much training Leroy missed and if it played a part the game will be a great training session for him. Probably just that Kerry needed to stop him. Next day not sure about starting Donie or Diarmaid though both playing their part might prefer Keith or Leroy in forwards jersey with Diarmaid and impact sub. Donie luck with black cards though a few Kerrymen were too he was probably the most lucky. Did the needful at the end though.
Donie Vaughan was one of our best performers. He has to start the next day.
Patrick Durcan in for Diarmuid is probably something that should happen. Diarmuid is not explosive off the mark or in contact and it suits him more to come on later in the game when he can open up his stride and really run at teams.
Once he is into his stride he is a huge threat and much moreso later in the game.
Did anyone notice that the line ball that led to Kerry’s goal was kicked from inside the line and should have been brought back for a hop ball. We only scored one point from a free – I wonder were Kerry listening to all the experts who are saying that if you don’t concede frees to Mayo – they have no forwards to score. These are great times supporting Mayo – at least 9 dramatic games in championship this year. I am old enough to remember a time when it could take 5-6 years to see Mayo play 9 championship games with no game in Croke Park.
I don’t think it’s been confirmed yet but that’s not the name I’m hearing, Pullhard. From what I gather it won’t be one of the usual suspects and there’s zero chance of Reilly getting it. I guess that announcement will be made before the day is out.
Ya Boyler was pretty knackered looking before he was taken off. Ran himself into the ground. Correct decision this time.
Boyle was being run ragged going backnow to the mayo goals numerous times yesterday. Durkan has the pace to go with o’brien.
Full stop.
Maybe mayo could be reorganised to include boyle & Durkan to tag o’brien.
Lads us as supporters are being led by donkeys – the media. Yesterday AOS marked Kieran Donaghy. Donaghy scored 1 point and was involved in a minor way with other scores. It could have been any of the Kerry forwards. His aerial dominance was neutered. The whole world goes on about AOS. Andy Moran scored 1-5 and was involved in a huge way in gaining possession and laying off lovely passes. Who was marking him? Why was the media not commenting on this – no pick the usual soft target – the big fella. Then we fall for this as well. Ignore the media for they know not what they do – they are as thick as shit. They just pick an item, play it up and then they all back each other up. There is not a serious journalist among the lot of them. No stats. No proper commentary. I heard better analysis from the Kerry and Mayo supporters around me. Why is Rochford getting the heat? What about Fitzmaurice, Sheehy and Fitzgerald? They allow a 34 year old totally dominate a game and dont do anything about it – they had 75+ minutes to do something. Hammer the hammer my arse. Donaghy was hammered. I would suggest that Moran was not. Time for the Kerry county board to have a serious look at the game.
@Sinabhuil
with the greatest of respect you could get a job in Trumps white house!
What do you mean why is no one talking about moran – every paper has made him man of the match. He got rte and sky MOM. Everyone is talking about how poor kerry’s full back line handled mayo full forward line…
…now to Donaghy….he had a minor hand? What match were you watching. He was the most influential player by a country mile in the Mayo half of the field. A third goal should in fact have come off but for David Clarkes great save. Donaghy was masterful yesterday and rightly regarded as 2nd in the running for man of the match. So you might argue that only for o shea 2-10 rather than 2-4 or 2-5 came off him ….but to try and cast his performance as some how peripheral requires some time spent on the doobie!
There is a wide variation in year comments. Was everybody watching the same game?
James Horan was the man that transformed mayo. He deserves massive credit for that but one of his failings was not to identify the opponents strengths. SR probably focuses too much on the opposition. Think we need to get that balance right and looking back AOS would probably be better used further up the pitch but I can see SR thinking.
Iv said it on here a few times about Jason Doherty value to this team and he was immense yesterday constantly on the move to be an outlet for us.
We can improve on certain areas especially off our own kickouts. It wasn’t a day yesterday to try and pick a player on the run down the sides. I thought Clarke should have gone long down the middle.
Our handling was brilliant yesterday but the few mistakes we made we got punished especially Seamus losing the ball for the first goal.
But I’d never criticise this team. They put everything into it again and people criticising COC don’t have a clue. Up mayo!
a will you stop …………..talk of bringing hennelly back
Cantini. I am not saying that Andy Moran did not get praise what I am saying is that his markers were not subjected to the same level of scrutiny as Donaghys marker. Fair enough if you want to argue that AOS was missed elsewhere. That is some argument. Andys markers were no where to be seen and yet I dont see any leading articles about these guys or question marks over their managements failure to find a solution to the Moran problem. I just feel that we are all a little bit led and that any opportunity to put Mayo down is grabbed by the media and then we buy it. Why is there not a story about Enright being caught out again or Fitsmaurice being unable to deal with Moran despite being warned of his ability earlier in the year in Tralee. We seem very quick to criticise our own or allow criticism of our own when other county’s players and management are not looked at in the same light.
.
David gough man in middle for replay
Hope it’s a dry day on Saturday as yesterday’s conditions were not conducive to our running game. Kerrys full back line is the weakest of the four remaining teams and when you see what our full forward line did to them Fitzmaurice must wake up in sweats at the thoughts of what the Dubs would do to them. Thankfully we’ll do Eamon a solid and save him the hassle of trying to sort that out. The whole O’Shea debacle is a diversionary tactic by Kerry to avoid the elephant in the room, their full back line is no good. They’ll be forced to play a sweeper the next day and that’ll invite on our running game. The footballing Gods are not finished with us this year by any means at all and I’ve a feeling that when we get the boulder to the top of the hill this year there might just be a wedge stuck under it.
Keep the faith
By the way, does anyone here work in banking? Would “I follow Mayo” be acceptable to put in on a loan application under the “Reason for loan” heading??
If the wife moves out because we’re at all these football matches, we could put the loan application under the “home improvements” heading….. LOL 🙂
@Sinebhfuil
the reason AOS gets such focus is that he is Mayos marquee player – he has been their best player in the championship up to Sunday…there is no question that but for his performances in tight games Mayo would not be where they are now. He is then chosen to play completely out of position on the threat everyone identified as being Kerry’s biggest…bottom line is of course that match up is going to get much greater scrutiny as a result of that background.
I still can’t believe they matched up the same way in the second half – I assumed SR just wanted to get to HT to properly assess the situation. Apart from the fact that AOS was not curtailing Donaghy was one thing but the fact that Kerry’s full back line was so poor surely a period with O Shea inside the kerry 50 or even 21 was surely a massive opportunity cost simply to stick with a plan to keep him on Donaghy.
I have read some analysis questioning why Enright was left on Moran and that is justified…but Enright is not AOS and he is a natural back who usually does a better job than he did yesterday. in some respects Enright didn’t play all that badly – Moran was just on fire, it wasn’t as though he was dummying and leaving Enright on his arse….he was getting ball and pullling trigger instantly and they were all going over…I remember Keith Higgins have a superb match on James O Donoghue in 2014 but O Donoghue still scored 1-3 from play….if it wasn’t for Higgins that day i’d say any other back might have given up double that score to him. some days players are just on fire….I think Kerry were very disciplined at the back in terms of not fouling but it cost them in general play because Moran and O Connor were unerringly accurate from play. Can they do the same again…
O’Donoghue didn’t get 1-3 from play off Keith that day, Cantini. His goals were both penalties. Both dives too but sure time is a great healer.
i stand corrected WJ – i just checked but he did get 4pts from play…which i think means the point still stands….it usually means a back has got a roasting and that isn’t necessarily the case being the point.
The media are hilarious really. Bunch of numb nuts.. Every time a mayo player is given a different role, they automatically become Mayo’s best player and the hand wringing starts. Its happened with Keith/Lee/Aidan.
You’re right Cantini, it was four points from play alright. O’Donoghue was a real handful that evening and Keith certainly had his hands full with him. By the way, I couldn’t understand Marc O Se licking his chomps the other day about a rematch between them in yesterday’s game. From our perspective, that was never going to happen.
…but I still think Higgins played very well that evening down in Limerick.
O Donoghue did okay yesterday without being a huge threat – i’d be worried a dry day will suit better for those sidesteps and jinks…he was slipping a lot as were a lot of players – seems there is no stud that guarantees a hold on that pitch when it is wet.
Can people stop talking about 2014 esp a Kerry man. We were robbed pure and simple – 2 goals and 2 points gifted to Kerry by the inept ref not to mention other stuff. I don’t care what anyone says but 2 non penalties and 2 non frees is hard for any team to push past never mind ‘poor ould Mayo’. I’m sick of hearing about 2014. No bearing on now only we were the better team then and we are the better team now. So lads effing go and finish them. Don’t listen to the media. Cooper and Spillane were not happy campers.
Beginning to agree with keeping AOS on Donaghy for a bit and alternating with Donal Vaughan like others are suggesting. Agree with Shuffly Deck, JP, Sinabhfuil, Revillino and many more. Much better analysis here than reading the papers.
@sinead
I wouldn’t want to accuse ur analysis of 2014 as been viewed through rose (and green) tinted glasses but I would disagree that that those 2 matches are highly relevant to these matches 3 years later. The donaghy question has still not been answered. In all 3 games he is the main reason Mayo haven’t come through. Most of the players are the same and unpicking the history of those matches can still provide some insight to winning this one.
@ Cantini,
You are dead right! My analysis is very rose and green tinted same as yours is somewhat tainted with green and yellow 😉 We are both healthy supporters of our counties 😉