Photo: MichaelMaye.com
I’m well behind schedule in doing this – the rain that was falling in Mayo as I was leaving early this morning is about to start up here on the east coast now, by the looks of it – and it was my overnight stay in the west, coupled with the drive back first thing followed by other stuff I’ve had to do since, that has delayed me getting the match reports together. Better late than never, though – here they are.
Locals: Mayo Advertiser, Connaught Telegraph, Donegal Democrat, Donegal Now.
Nationals: Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Irish Mirror, Irish Sun, Irish News.
Others: GAA, RTÉ, The 42, Hogan Stand.
Photos: Mayo Mick, Inpho, Sportsfile.
The podcast is a bit delayed too and it’ll be early evening at this stage before it’s up. This edition will be worth waiting for, though, as there’s plenty of stuff of interest in it.
Back later on with that and back later on as well with the results of the MOTM poll, where Aidan O’Shea looks in pole position to claim the final MOTM prize of this year’s League campaign.
As I said yesterday, Duggan’s report is something else – really captures the whole thing.
And of course the other guy who captured the whole thing was Aido. I haven’t enjoyed a final 20 minutes as much for a long time. He lifted Mayo, he lifted the crowd, and he suckered Donegal. The usual suspects then stepped up. What was that old phrase of Cork hurling fans when they won a match they shouldn’t have – something like – ‘we got a smell of it’? You could say that he played 40 minutes of league football, handled very little, and is responsible for our Division One status. Wait till he gets fit!
The other impact was the move of Keith to a forward position. This has been tried before and needs to be tried again. His pace is a huge asset and really needed, because we can look ponderous against the massed defences and need some one to inject strong running and lightning pace. Aidan and Keith did just that yesterday.
No complaint at all – until about Thursday!
I note that Michael Lyster focused in a sly way on only one aspect – the sending off of the Donegal player.
His implication being that Aiden O’Shea overreacted!
If,as has been observed ,it was a blow to the privates it’s hardly surprising!
Breheny and Lyster both hate to see Mayo doing well!
AOS was awesome yesterday!
Spot on there, Catcol, re Keith Duggan’s match report. It’s excellent stuff. The other player who I felt really injected some pace into our forward thrusts after the break was Stephen Coen. He had a big part to play in our comeback yesterday.
Yes, agree Willie Joe about Coen. I think himself and Shane Nally (and David Drake to a lesser extent) are coming out of their ‘apprenticeship’ year and taking control – even taking back control!. It really does seem to take a couple of years for newcomers to bed in. In this sense I am a little worried about Fergal Boland, Conor Loftus, and Brian Reape and the impact the might make this year.
Teams are going to play blankets against us in the main this summer. I can’t see us being assured of success with the kickpassing game to the inside line. The inside line has been well worn on here at this stage but Paul Geaney types are rare. We don’t have them at senior level currently but let’s not beat ourselves up about that.
The attacking running power we can maintain throughout games could be phenomenal.
AOS, SOS, Parsons, Diarmuid, Durcan, Higgins, Coen, Keegan, Vaughan and Boyle.
There are ten players of whom only SOS/Parsons/Higgins/Boyle aren’t noted shooters (but they ain’t bad either). Parsons/Higgins/Boyle are usually fine in front of goals straight on on the run. SOS often has a lot of success bursting forward on the right, he has got a lot of those points over the years.
In this way we are still tight at the back and not losing the ball so regularly to turnovers.
I love this sentence about the brawl, sums up McHale park when we think the world is against us ……..” The exchange was enough to pump up the volume in Castlebar to somewhere between full and outright anarchy. ” ?
I managed to record a few clips from yesterday. Have it uploaded here (apologies on the video quality, had wrong settings on camera)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF3YoA8P4Ro
Great stuff there MayoMick. Gave a great feel for the raw passion of it all.
That Donegal no. 2 McGrath is a proper little tyke. He should have got about 4 yellows.
Great video mick!
Captured vicious elbow charge by Murphy on diarmuid. No card from the eejit “ref”.
Captured constant interference with the free taker by Donegal.
Shows for the whole GAA world that the ref lost control completely.
But eejits like Lyster will take no notice. Sure Tomas O’Shea told them cormac Reilly is a fine ref.
I’m back on high-doh after watching that!
Good man mayo Mick. You did what rte couldn’t.
A bit slow coming on here,been collecting for the bonfire for Sam,no bother now we have the dubs in our sights
Great stuff Mayo Mick. I counted 4 clear red card offences committed by Donegal in that.
Murphy’s elbow on Diarmuid, both Donegal midfielders with clear strikes at Aidan during the brawl and McGrath with a punch on Cillian.
Shame RTE didn’t have your angles last night.
Jays some of the spectator commentary there is great craic altogether. Donegal look like an awful dirty shower but going by that Reilly gave us a few marginal calls. Pity one of our gang on here engaged in gobshitery with Deegan at the end. Wouldn’t catch a Kerry supporter doing that, they’d be telling officials they had a mighty game even if they thought they were shite… plámássing them for the summer time.
Donegal very dirt team as bad as tyrone hope monaghan win ulster
I meant to apologise in advance in case there was any *colourful* language in it! There was a few characters sitting beside me alright 🙂
Treat RTÉ as Micky Harte did. Boycott them. They only laugh at us anyway. Fcuk them.
Serious stuff there Mick. I wonder how some of those Donegal boys look at their kids. Some unreal thuggery. The GAA is finished if that kind of anarchy is let go. Sneaky cheating of the worst kind. Great disipline from our men.
Mayo Mick,
I just viewed your recording from the link you provided, it looked frantic, very dangerous for the players, pure war of attrition, alot of nasty stuff went on. I wonder how many minutes the ball was actually in play in the second half ?, Donegal were doing their best to slow the game down, ie, all in melees when they were ahead by a few points. It appears that the players know what they can get away in a match depending on the particular referee at the time, try and choke a guy, pinching, etc, but ok as long as no punches are thrown, I even saw a few kicks going in, maybe this is the way to win an All IRELAND, they are all at it, the Dubs do this also when they are ahead in games.
Great to view your coverage, I didnt get a chance to follow the match yesterday as I was caught up with the Feile final here in Dublin.
I was listening to that little Flynn bucko from Meath”s team of 88 – 91 this evening on RTE givinghis opinion that Mayo had “regressed” a bit since last year. Agreed that have “regressed” a bit since Sept last year but this is April, not Sept. In reality I think they have improved quite a bit compared to last April in that the squad depth and quality is much better now. Players like Nally, Kirby, Coen, Drake and Conor O’Shea now look like they can make a real contribution. If Ger Caff and Seamie O’Shea can make it into real contention then we are in good shape. I like that all of the players I mentioned can take a score or two.
I think that from here on Andy would be best used as a sub coming on late in a game and I would like to see Kirby tried at Full Forward. Hopefully Seamie O’Shea will be a fixture at midfield with Parsons. By the way, has anybody heard or seen big Barry since he got married? I hope his new status is not taking too much out of him. I would also like to see Alan Freeman return to the panel come summer as I think that if Cillian had any mishap we would be badly struggling with frees.
Some People need to cop on here.Honestly!Getting all vitiolic about RTE,pundits,certain journalists and referees,even calling opponents thugs.It’s immature,laughable and embarrassing.James Horan detested that type of attitude and rightly so,I have no time for supporters that have a chip on their shoulder,a sense of victimhood.When I come across those type of supporters I politely nod my head and pretend to have a call on my mobile and exit.
Respect the game Ladies and Gentlemen.
Think the same about Andy too , he only had the legs for an impact sub
Frantic and vicious stuff there Mick..captured better than the national broadcaster ever could..Some players finally finding their mayo mojo again..others losing their boot..Another drama filled day in Mayo football!
Was Adam Gallagher on bench for Tyrone or donegal games
Suggesting someone is a cheat without valid evidence is just not on by RTE. Especially when the player who committed the foul showed no surprise with the punishment.
Nothing vitiolic in that criticism.
Dead right mayoforsam. We are no victims. We give as good as we get Aping tyrone and micky harte in boycotting rte is churlish and small minded Harte has the greatest victim complex ever. We needed to beat tyrone and donegal to stay up. No shrinking violets those two. But we did it, manned up and gave them as good as we took. Fair play to our team. They take no shit from anyone and they dont feel they are unfortunate victims. If they thought like that they would have thrown in the towel years ago. Time for our supporters to follow their lead. Up Mayo.
Just watched that supporters video,, in all fairness who would be a referee. It was like a battlefield and someone is handed a pair of binoculars and a whistle, to see all the ongoing incidents you would need fifty likeminded supporters and a few hours to review the footage to make your instantly required decision,,, that was a tough hard game just like the Kerry v Donegal game last year in Tralee.
Say what you will about any of the refs but that looked like a clip of the battle of the Somme, every supporter had their battle story, most of which were a little clouded by patriotism. God bless localism of this great game
Mick….that’s great footage. Just watched in on the train on the way home from The Red Sox home opener
These accusations about RTE. I wouldn’t pursue it after a loss.
No victim mentality here either. Just balanced criticism.
Mayoforsam I agree that for Mayo’s cause the victim mantle should not be taken on and I regret doing so in this post. I do say, however, that for the good of the game this type of stuff needs to be stamped out. Not only Donegal do it, we do it, Dublin do it with Philly and their 15 behind the ball tactics, Kerry (Limerick need I say more), Tyrone, etc . We, Gaelic football, will lose our popularity as the premier game in the country. We have already lost it with players turning away from the game in droves. A lot of loss at 17-18 years old and then again at 26-27 as the game has become just not fun. Soccer, especially 5-7 seven a side, has taken over as the game people now want to play. Whilst this leakage has not yet totally spread to supporters I feel it will do. Trying to get kids to look at the behaviour of some players and say they are to be your role models just will not work. So what is wrong? Fitness taken to a new level. Tactically managers will try all and every system to avoid defeat. 15 men behind the ball (the GAA has to something about this). Targeting opposition playmakers (nothing new there I suppose). Influencing refs. Sledging. Personal abuse. Using the media to influence refs and the GAA authorities. Badly trained referees and especially badly trained umpires and linesmen. I am beginning to come around to Joe Brolly’s thinking on this. As a committed and long term GAA fan I worry.
Sinabhuil…..are you Joe Brolly in disguise!!? Your bleak outlook on all things GAA sounds very familiar
Shinabhuil,
Spot on and the men with the most expensive Louis Copeland sponsored suits are so gleeful with the gate funds that the eye is taken off the golden goose. I am obviously referring to the goose that has many colours and is passionately followed by all that support their club or county team. The people that tie the laces and the people that make the sandwiches are every bit as important as the peopee that panic the seagulls and pigeons into sudden unplanned flight in the trusses of the towering stands of Croke Park.
I was listening to a Kerry great of by gone years on Kerry radio recently questioning the wisdom of rewarding a catch in the middle with a mark when the obvious absent accompanying regulation of a specific required distance in the kick is simply comical, it’s hard to argue!!. The hand pass is the death knell of our game in my opinion and the refusal of the flat earth brigade to allow incredibly simple technology to clarify critical decisions is unfathomable. I think if the hand pass was limited to two or three passes and regulation was introduced it would hugely benifit the game, it’s football at the end of the day and the skills of our game have been hijacked to comply with the Celtic Tiger infection in the attitude of the GAA.
The reigns are being muscled from the guardians to comply with the cheer leaders,,,