Right – with less than a week to go, the march to Sunday’s final is now on in earnest. What better way to start, then, with the latest edition of the Mayo News podcast? Here it is.
This is the first of three Mayo News podcasts this week and this opening one features Mayo News stalwarts Mike Finnerty, Edwin McGreal, Daniel Carey and Billy Joe Padden (Did you see BJ on The Sunday Game last night by the way? He was, I thought, very good in what was an interesting and informative preview of the big game). Reporter Ger Flanagan also has some chat with James Horan and Ray Cosgrove from when he met up with them at the Joe.ie GAA Hour Live show in Castlebar a few days ago.
The podcast is available on Soundcloud here:
Oh My God Oh My God Oh My God.
I’ve been waiting very impatiently for this.
But now there will be 2 more this week 2!!.
There would only be one thing that will top this and thats for Cillian O’Connor to be lifting Sam Maguire around 5.30pm on Sunday!!!.
Here is my predictions:
Mayo to win and get less all stars than Dublin.
Mayo the have peaks of 5-10 mins through out the game while containin well.
Mayo to attack on the wings.
Mayo goals.
A nerve biting last ten mins as the lads give us heart attacks.
Dublin and the rte media calling it a fluke.
@Bulltoe… I’ll take that!!
It will be called a fluke alright but that is to be expected.
Hope Cillian mentions in his speech from the Hogan that we had to do this the hard way.
1.Playing on the oppositions home ground.
2. Dublin have the linesman (Dublin Joe) in their pocket.
3. Dublin have the appeals system in their pocket and when needed they sit til 3am if necessary to find a legal loophole to get a player who was banned, cleared to play.
4. Dublin always get their favourite dressing room on big match days.
5. Dublin always get the right to warm up at their favourite end of Croke Park and when that was challenged by a team from the west in 2006 there were toys thrown out of the pram big time.
6. Dublins goalie always has a supply of spare footballs provided right next to his net to facilitate a quick restart if he feels its in his teams interest to quickly restart.
I could go on.
I have to say I am getting a little fed up of the Dublin “advantages” talk. If we are good enough on the day we can win. We must produce a performance like the first half of the replay against Dublin last year and keep it going into the second half.
2 days hols booked out for Mon / Tues so I can travel down and greet the team and Sam across the Shannon and then into Ballagh. Then party time!
I’m all for fair and balanced discussion. But this is not it.
1.Playing on the oppositions home ground.
Where would you suggest the All Ireland Final be played? (Not mentioning that Parnell Park is Dublin’s home ground).
2. Dublin have the linesman (Dublin Joe) in their pocket.
Blaming the linesman is a new one. He reffed A Vs B training games alright. I’m still not sure how that makes him biased.
3. Dublin have the appeals system in their pocket and when needed they sit til 3am if necessary to find a legal loophole to get a player who was banned, cleared to play.
Lee Keegan’s rescinded red card from 2014 is one of the more puzzling decisions I’ve seen made. Castigating one county for getting a decision overturned seems somewhat unfair.
4. Dublin always get their favourite dressing room on big match days.
Dressing rooms are allocated (as far as I know) alphabetically.
5. Dublin always get the right to warm up at their favourite end of Croke Park and when that was challenged by a team from the west in 2006 there were toys thrown out of the pram big time.
Which end of the pitch you warm up on in Croke Park is determined by which dressing room you are allocated. (See above). To be honest, I would prefer a coin toss to decide this.
2006 makes me cringe to even think about it. Thankfully, the mental fragility we showed that day is a thing of the past. To be honest, Mayo’s plan worked a treat, we were clearly rattled for the first 20 minutes of that game.
6. Dublins goalie always has a supply of spare footballs provided right next to his net to facilitate a quick restart if he feels its in his teams interest to quickly restart.
This is simply good game management, any team can copy this style if they choose, there is nothing to stop them. The fact that Cluxton can restart play in less than an average of six seconds, is something to be lauded, not berated.
http://youtu.be/9dONChKbYKs
Go on, go on, go on, for the 20th anniversary. Like a fine wine, it just gets better with age.
Well said Jaden
Please quit the whinging, defeatist stuff.
This is for us, let’s go take it
I’m with you there, Jaden. Clearly there’s only one place the final could be – or is ever – played. There’s the separate issue of all championship (bar that isolated example of Nolan Park) involving Dublin and their home League games being played at Croke Park, which obviously is a major advantage but this is a wider issue which isn’t relevant to this Sunday. Interesting aside – going into this final, Dublin have played their last four championship games at Croke Park, whereas we’ve played the last three. In 2013, the split was 5/2.
Points about the linesman and the appeals process are total red herrings, in my view. I’m not overly fond of Joe McQuillan but he’s not the worst and I doubt he’ll have trouble running the line competently. The entire appeals process is a mess and both Dublin and ourselves (Kevin Keane last year as well as Lee Keegan in 2014) have been beneficiaries of a system that clearly is deeply flawed.
The Cluxton quick restarts point is also moot. There was an issue some time ago where he had somebody feeding him balls for quick restarts while his opposite number didn’t but that was stopped a few years ago if I’m not mistaken.
As you suggest, a coin-toss, for dressing rooms and for warm-up end, would be a good idea or at least some kind of rotation.
Jaden
how do you feel about having zero competition in Leinster?
@Dave. Considering that at the start of the current Championship, both Dublin and Mayo were aiming for six provincial titles in a row – the question could just as easily be asked of Mayo about the lack of competition in Connacht.
Personally, I think it does us no favours. We have been caught cold in more than one quarter final owing to the lack of hard game time within the province. Dublin can’t fix Leinster, but I think everyone agrees that something has to be done.
@WillieJoe – The issue of ballboys was resolved in 2014, when Central changed the rules regarding how they can be used. Notably, two points were formalized:
1. Ballboys could come from a County involved in the game itself.
2. They were not permitted to “feed” the ball to a goal keeper directly. They could only place it at a spot where the keeper could retrieve it quickly and easily.
This has been superseded by simply doing away with Ball boys altogether, starting last year.
Not sure I care for the Dub-baiting that seems to be going on (and with some success) here.
I prefer we do some Dub-bateing on the field on Sunday!
Up Mayo!.
Thanks for that clarification, Jaden – I recalled the issue having been dealt with but wasn’t sure on the details.
Dressing rooms being allocated alphabetically is pretty handy for Dublin unless Armagh get their act together, can’t foresee Antrim getting to play Dublin anytime soon.
I was thinking the same @Alf Stewart
Presuming they are using “Baile Atha Cliath” to determine alphabetical order.
Correct
That’s the wheeze alright – though it’s Ath Cliath they use. This is an anecdote that’s told on the stadium tour (no kidding).
Just listened to the gaa hour with colm parkinson.
Very entertaining.
True that jaden. Mayo are not provincial champs this year and hopefully won’t be next year either for a good reason ( hangover) Best of luck to you and your team on Sunday.
Just because dublin may have advantages in certain areas as some posters seem to think they are however still human. Beatable if we are clever enough. I for 1 would not want to beat them in any other place than croke park. Signed sealed and delivered. No excuses then. A lot of reading today in western people. I’m not going into analysis because none of us know what team will start. But composure is the order of the day. Everyone who steps onto the hallowed turf next Sunday needs it
I think there is far too much nonsense about referees,home advantage,pundits,and so forth,although I accept that we have to pass the time until the big day,and everyone is entitled to their opinion,but the fact is we are good enough to win,and I expect us to win,I know I don’t pay heed to any other pundits,so I expect that the Dublin team and management won’t pay any attention to ours,I believe that James Horan is only saying what he sees as our chances.i think that Stephen and his management team has everything under control,and we will see the best of Mayo on Sunday,he has almost a full hand to pick from,Ger deserves our sympathy for all the effort he has put in over the years,but we have a very strong panel to pick from,I believe our bench is stronger than Dublin,so we have the best manager and the best panel,so I will have some of that three to one on Mayo,thank you again Willie Joe for your patience and be prepared for the site to crash Sunday evening
Donie to score first goal and mayo to win 75/1
Andy Moran first goal and mayo win, 30/1
Great value out there.
Agree there Corick Bridge. A while back I said it would be a Mayo Dublin final and now I think Mayo will win. We all know luck can play a role and it’s something either side cannot control. No doubt Dublin are a very talented team and may indeed have the edge over Mayo but on the day Mayo’s team intensity that will drive 20-30% of our performance will be higher because we’re the underdogs with a point to prove, we’re hungrier than Dublin for the title, with the management change the team have a point to prove. We hear Rochford is known for detailed planning which will give a huge boost to the team’s confidence, players will be focused on their match-ups and roles and will also know their Plan B if called on. We’ve seen some of this already with new and somewhat unconventional tactics to good effect. It’s now about executing a well rehearsed plan by the players and management. Cannot wait for Sunday!
You can be sure there will be a rabbit pulled from the hat on Sunday,what has gone before has no bearing on Sunday,the team who plays will have no baggage,it is what happens that will make the difference,does anyone believe that the Mayo forwards are not able to score,we have loads of options,so no worries,Mayo will win pulling up