Photo: MichaelMaye.com
It’s like bloody Groundhog Day here – another Monday morning when I’m rushing out the door before too long but first have to sort a whole pile of match coverage about a game we lost. Punxsutawney Phil’s going to get it in the neck shortly if he’s not careful.
Okay, then, here goes:
Locals: Mayo Advertiser, Connaught Telegraph.
Nationals: Irish Independent (liveblog, web, paper), Irish Examiner (web, paper), Irish Times (web, paper), Irish Sun.
Others: GAA (includes video highlights), Dublin GAA, RTÉ (match report, quotes from Stephen Rochford), The 42, Breaking News, Hogan Stand.
Photos: Mayo Mick, Inpho, Sportsfile.
Stats: GAA Stats Man.
Hurlers: Mayo Advertiser, Irish Independent.
Ladies: Mayo Advertiser, The 42.
If it’s aural delights you’re after, then don’t forget the Mayo News football podcast, the latest edition of which looks back on Saturday night’s match and ahead to the crunch Kildare fixture. It’s here.
Right, that’s it. Six more weeks of winter it is. The Beast of the East is, after all, headed our way. Have a good Monday.
I see big dog is leader this week w.j.
I could do with getting a few tips of him for the next few weeks.
Me too, 14allnall41! No contest as regards the in-house bragging rights in that department at the minute.
Reports that all games for next weekend are going to be called off midweek and rescheduled for Saturday and Sunday week.
Only getting to the keyboard now after a day and a half in the West – such is the productivity rate of this poster.
Dubs were well in control, but our performance was up, up, up in comparison to Salthill. It’s an exaggeration to say we could have won, but we kicked away 1-4, all of them, I could have kicked and Adam Gallagher’s goal, if taken, would have drawn us level.Think of the debate if these occurred in an AIF.
Dublin had that ability to punish us when they saw an opportunity – the second goal was an example when, after a very good spell of blanket defence, we committed men forward, and they hit us on the break with lightning moves.
Their full back line was awesome, and blotted out our FF line. Our FB line was cleaned – Caff in distress and Eoin D caught for some. But overall, I think the newbies will have gained immensely from this experience.
Very disappointed after Saturdays game.
It seems you just have to be able to run and handpass these days. Once again our scoring was below par and very low. It’s called football not handball…our boys shooting and kickpassing is poor/non existent. Gallagher should have rattled the net. Im glad hennelly got a run but wrong game to bring him in and cost us the 2nd goal…he had an ok night but kickouts got worse the more the game went on. We have no freetaker so maybe give Douglas a run vs kildare and let him take them. He did well bar 1 vs monaghan and hasn’t been seen since really.
If we have any aspirations of being contenders we need to cop on. On current form galway will eat us alive in may and if we make the super 8s it could be bad also…remember there is no extra time in the super 8s so if we take last year we could get 3 draws and 3 points and that will be it.
Re Aidan, as MOTM, he was the standout player, and I voted for him.
However to get the maximum from Aidan, we have to have him as fit as he can possibly get. The fitter he is the better he is. I remember the Connaught final against London in ’13, he was way off the pace. As it happened, I was in Castlebar for a few days and wandered up to McHale Pk on the following Tuesday (those really were the days). Before the training session Ed Coughlan put Aidan through an hour of gruelling one to one drills. An hour! He then participated in a tough training session. Remember the QF against Donegal that year; he was just awesome.
I felt all last year, he was only 75% to 80% fit. This year, he could be a lot fitter as he has had an earlier start, but I feel there are niggles that are going to hinder him come what may.
Pk, I would agree with you that it was a very disappointing game, once Dublin got the first goal they were in total control and in no danger of losing. I really cant understand some posters being satisfied with the performance etc, I saw no improvement from the Galway game. Apart from a fine game from Gallagher I struggle to take any positives from the game.
Pk, I disagree with you regarding the free taker, people were calling for Jason to be given the responsibility and that ended in disaster. Douglas wont be given free taking duties beacuse he wont be an automatic starter (might not even make the final panel) likewise loftus wont be given frees as he isnt an automatic starter yet. One thing that is 100percent guaranteed is that Cillian OConnor will be standing over the frees next sunday in Newbridge and for the foreseeable future barring injury (or red cards) we simply dont have anyone better and neither does 30other counties.
A few things I noted from Mayo v the Dubs.
1, The kick / with studs showing by Fitzsimons on Aidan O Shea was appauling, very dangerous, in soccer this is a red card and a ban ( Johnny Cooper also did this in the All Ireland final of 2016 ).
2, The management are in cuckoo land, I said long before Saturday last that Mayo were never going to win this match, it was an ideal time to try out all the other guys, forget about the score and see what they would have done.
3, Kildare game wont be easy, they should have beaten both Tyrone and Donegal.
4, If a guy is afraid or feels bullied by his opponent on the pitch then he should’nt be selected. When are the backs going to dish it out, nearly always after Rock gets a score, he then goes over to his direct opponent and pushes him hard into the chest, he did this to Keith Higgins big time in the 2016 final and Cafferkey last Saturday. In all the times I have never seen Rock do this in championship matches here in Dublin, he probably knows better not to.
5, When are Mayo going to learn from mistakes, the second Dublin goal was shocking, Hennelly and the defenders could have prevented it.
6, Why are so many frees from 30 – 40 yards being missed ?.
Mayo88 – the following guys were/are being tried out in Saturday’s and other games:
Hennelly (first start since Oct ’16)
Crowe
O’Donoghue
Hall
Akram (sub)
Gallagher
Boland
Kirby
Stretton (v Galway)
McDonagh (v Galway)
In addition Leroy and Seamie have to get game time on return from injury.
Mayomad I’d agree with you since when did we accept losses and below par performances and Saturday was all that. Since when do we celebrate failure. Some mayo fans are in cuckoo land. I’ll go back to a post I made about our tackling or lack of it…I was lambasted and told were the best tacklers in the land…Bull crap!
Dublin may be cynical but they are streets ahead. The hits they put in are devestating and they’re players cooper in particular deliberately foul to slow the clock and break down the oppositions attack. We are no where near the top! So tackling and finishing are 2 major areas we need to work on big time.
Finally re a free taker. A good free taker is key so that’s the final area we need to work on and that should involve 3 players. An extra half hour a session or 1 on 1 it’s not rocket science. We beat monaghan because we took our frees we lost the last 3 because we didn’t !
Mayo 88 I’d agree with most of what you say. Spot on
Pk – who were the only team to put it up to Dublin in 2016 when it really mattered? And in 2017? There was nothing wrong with either our tackling or our finishing under extreme pressure in the championship last summer. We’ve been nearer to Dublin than anyone else in recent years and there’s every reason to be confident we’ll be there again this summer, regardless of what form is being shown in February. Give the lads a bit of credit FFS.
Agreed 100% about Dean Rock pushing after frees, quick dig into his kidneys soon stop him putting his arms up into the air .
Freetaker = Conor Loftus and or Cillian . Loftus has the temperament and ability .
we are lost without runners from deep as we have no pace or big physical presence in out inside line .
By big physical presence I mean Michael Murphy, Paddy McBreaty types not Barry Moran before someone says kick it in high .
I think we are along way off the Dubs which shows the sad state of affairs as regards a competitive championship however we must give it our all and go again .
I dont know would relegation be such a bad thing , next year we will have to blood alot of youngsters with Seamie,Clarke, Higgins, Andy all coming near the end and mileage catching up with others.
A good run in division 2 might give the confidence to see the U21’s step up and build again .
For all those calling for Mayo players to start “dishing it out” I guarantee you if we started doing it to even 50% of the level the opposition are doing to us then it’d be all over the press and we’d be a dirty team.
Having said that, the opposition are generally being punished by the officials for their indiscipline and “strong man” tactics with us. Its not their fault we are woefully unable to capitalise on numerical advantages so far in this league
@WJ we put it up to them yes but didn’t win and that team deserved an all Ireland and we are slowly going backwards. The management of the last 10 years have not got out of the players what they deserve and with the age profile increasing and nothing coming up they’re are dark days ahead…you can see what’s happening when Higgins Barrett keegan and Vaughan are missing so I’ll give credit where credit is due and there has not been a whole lot to give credit for in last 4 games. What’s gonna happen when those 4 and others like clarke and andy retire? Dublin ran up the pitch at will and the defending for the second goal with a holy Mary up in air was diabolical. Young lads aren’t setting the world on fire either…look at what the young lads are doing for galway monaghan kerry donegal monaghan. Were slowly losing our status.
I don’t buy this its only the league shit. Do teams like your adopted club st vincents, Dr crokes in kerry, mitchels in mayo go out to finish just above the relegation zone in the club league and say well put it in in the championship…same with county the dubs finish strong in league and championship.
Whether we like it or not we only beat one div 1 team in championship in 16 and 17 (I’m taking ros as a div 2 team last year and we lost to Galway and dublin both years and only beat Tyrone and kerry in respective years). The super 8s will more than likely consist of div 1 teams so with the restructured championship were in territory we have never been in and it could all end in tears with the current attitude. Management need to come up with something more convincing for next 3 games because it’s not long to may 13th
Have had unofficial confirmation that all matches next weekend are going to be off. Refixtures to be confirmed but will be Saturday or Sunday week. Main concern appears to be people travelling even if pitches are good to go
No we didn’t win, pk, but finishing just a point behind them twice in two finals in successive years (as well as drawing once) shows how close we’ve come to the team that’s been crowned by the pundits as the greatest of all time. Nobody has punched anything like as close to them in that period.
Our League form this year has, of course, been frustrating but last year was the same, the year before too. For us, the League is only the League (and, by the way, Vinnies don’t put a huge amount of emphasis on the Dublin SFL, they tend to give it all in the championship instead) and the fact that so many of our panel are based in Dublin means it’s simply not possible for us to be ultra-competitive through League and championship.
It’s not professional sport and if upwards on twenty lads are up here till May/June (some all the time) then that’s the deck we have to play with. It’s a situation that means we have to choose when to give it all, knowing we can only do this for a few months of the year.
If it’s one or the other, I know which I’d prefer us to be strong in. Johnno had us stronger in the League but then we flopped badly nearly every year in the championship between 2007-2010. Since then we’ve taken it easier in the spring (though still made a final in 2012) but have been able to give it all in the summer.
For sure, our age profile isn’t great and I’d have real fears about where we’re headed when the current group retire. I’ve always felt this era has been an exceptional one for us, miles from what was our norm, but, sadly, many will only truly recognise this when (as I think is very possible though not 100% certain) longer-term norms reassert themselves in relation to our standing in the game.
PK, I don’t think you understand the issues surrounding ourselves and the league. It’s not a case of deliberately not taking it serious, it’s a case of having to. We’ve 18 members of our panel based in Dublin with work or college. That means no collective midweek training and if the games are on Saturday night then your not going to be training on the Friday night either. It’s not until the colleges finish in May that they start training together. It’s something we have to deal with and it’s why we focus on summer football, we have to cut our cloth to measure. I agree with you regarding more young players being brought into the panel and would go as far as to say as outside of the planned match day 26 we should go with the best 10 U20’s in the county and develop them.
Thanks, Ger, but let’s leave it to the National Emergency people for the weather-related declarations. Our U13 club fixtures for next Saturday haven’t been called off yet but I don’t expect them to go ahead either.
Agree with you Willie Joe,can’t for the life of me see where the criticism of management is coming from ,read Alan Collins interview where he talks about playing before James Horan took over and afterwards,in m opinion we have been lucky with J Horan and now with Stephen Rochford,we are also lucky with this squad of players,we will certainly miss them when they retire,we were at a very high level of fitness until October they were well entitled to rest for the winter now they Will be preparing for Galway and hopefully a long summer,all I can say a trainer trying to win the grand national is not winning races in autumn they hear their training for nearer the race,and before they point out Dublin they are a different case because they are an outstanding team with a squad of fifty or more players very close together,whilst we will be lucky to have twenty up to the task
defo a few years left in Clarke, hes at the very top ….. cluxton is a few years older than him………..3 I think and he has no intention of walking away
Kerry won the league last year and Donegal came 3rd in the table.Year before the Rossies made the semi and had a disaster in the championship.
The league gives very little indication as to where a team willl go in the summer
The Dubs are a special case in that they can have full collective training and have an enormous pick meaning that there is probably huge competition just to hold a place in the squad this time of year.
Sole aims for Mayo should be to stay up and give new players game time
just on the match Mayo need have a look at how they’re defending that across the box pass (for the second goal).
if i’m not mistaken the Dubs scored a somewhat similar goal in the semi replay a couple of years ago. it’s obviously a move they’ve practiced.
Keeper needs to take man, ball and everything else with him
Aos has been brilliant for Mayo for several years and has really stood up when some.games were.getting away from us. A.great player and we are very lucky to have him.
Don’t see why people blame managment for young players not coming through. There are a few.
Comparing what we have coming through to Kerry and Galway is BS as well. Galway.are coming out of a very lean spell. The kerry team haven’t had new players in alot of positions but that is changing now for them. They are still short in defense. Every county goes through lean spells so hopefully we’ll have some more new blood in the next couple of years.
Managment in my opinion are doing a really good job and optimising the years performance with what they have to work with.
Really can’t get my head around this ‘we’re miles behind Dublin’ stuff. Have the last few years not told us the exact opposite??
We consistently put it up to them and are more than a match for them. How does being on the wrong side of a couple of one point losses mean we’re so far off them?
Our first 15 are without doubt on a par with Dublin’s, it’s the players outside of that that seem to just nudge Dublin past us.
As for the future, well fair enough. I’m sure I’m not alone in being worried about where we’ll be in a few years from now. But that’s the future.
In terms of this year, I see absolutely no reason why we won’t be there again later in the year. We have the players, no doubt. Get them all fit and in proper shape and I’d have no worries.
The only problem and main disappointment from the league is the lack of real game time we’ve given the younger lads. I’m sure there’s no particular reason for that, other than they just might not be good enough (yet). That’s what we should be worried about, not this years championship hopes.
WJ, I’m not sure if you posted a link to this article with Alan Dillon already but if you haven’t its here. Its a interesting read.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/alan-dillon-bring-our-people-home-467553.html
Yes its not good for preparation obviously having so many lads based in Dublin . And ye reckon its May before they can get collective sessions going ?
Would Donegal would have similar problems , college, work etc etc ?
Miles off or close to ,what odds does it make , we are not better than Dublin (panel v panel)and it will take a fook up on their behalf for them not to secure a fourth successive all Ireland. Id argue we havent beaten them since 2012 and no matter what we do they have been better. Close to !! When were we ever two or three points up near the end and they needed to burst the net to get back on terms.
Honestly , absolutely respect this team , would follow them till my last breath , they are truly warriors and given us the greatest days of our lives following Mayo football but ffs this craic of denial about the age profile , mileage etc is insane. They could very well get into the shake up again who knows , they are a unique bunch of lads. It does not hide the fact we are in trouble , its not even long term now , its next year , all top six counties have better lads coming through. Talk about all the eggs in one basket, its only when ya start to think about the reality of the future ,its damn scary . The way this country is set up now id really worry for Mayo . Young lads that can play, will see a summer in America more attractive than playing for Mayo soon if we go down the pecking order as rapid as a pessimistic person might vision.
Back to the present, id be in the camp we need to stay up . Kildare game will be so difficult , flynn is the type of forward that could make hay against us. If caff were to stay in and leave him out in front , crikey he could score some tally. Is parsons in the frame for next game? Would it suit us to have game called off next weekend.Has keith higgins indicated he will make himself available for football anytime soon?
No team stays at the top forever. It goes in cycles. This is our 6th year vying to be the.top team in the country. That’s pretty impressive.
If it wasn’t for Mayo, is there any other team that would have come within an asses roar of the Dubs. That’s why we bother them. They would be called the untouchables if it hadn’t been for Mayo.
The kerries and Dublins and Tyrones have all had spells on top of the pile but nobody stays there forever.
We’ll attempt again this year to get to the promised land and the managment will get the maximum out of the players they have. Some of the finest players in the country. It’s alright saying where are all the young lads we need but it would take some brilliant young lads to dislodge most of the players we. till have playing for us.
It’s still early in the year and I have confidence when our boys start to swing the lead we’ll be every bit as good as we were last year and hopefully a little improved. It’s time to lift the heads, stop worrying and look forward to the games ahead. The managment and players will do everything they can to bring Sam home in 2018. Have faith.
The 3 areas of concern are (1) full-back (2) midfield and of course (3) up front. The funny thing is that we may be ok up front. Cian Hanley, Loftus, Gallagher and Regan might provide us with options in the summer. However, despite continuing to struggle Caff remains at no. 3. Is there no young fullback coming through?
We need an athletic option in midfield ( remember the last 15 minutes against Dublin in the AIF). Is Gibbons the answer and if not, what other alternative is there?
BTW, Kildare will be a very tough game. They’ve had some near misses, must win and are very strong in midfield.
Finally, some are putting our league performance down to players being based in the capital……are Galway any different.
I have to say Galway are really starting to develop..far better than Kerry yesterday.
If we had any vision we’d be looking at big athletic James Kelly as a full back option.
He’s the most athletic young player in the county. He was the most senior ready player in the u21 chamlionship and it seemed to count for zip.
JP you know your stuff, can you understand the lack of vision. Do the powers at the top sit down and think right we need a plan for the future cause we are coming to a bottle neck here . I dont buy into these academy announcements , it wasnt long ago there was one reported , with names like Michael fitzmaurice, eugene lavin then last week I hear theres a new one with ciaran mac ,.heaney etc . And there has been more newsflashes like this over the last number of years , it all sounds a bit wishy washy to me. We need a.definite long term plan even if it means starting now from schools age up . We need a serious junior team too imo , we also need divisional sides for senior championship imo
Galway are in a completely different position to us, Spotlight, as regards the number of their panel based in Dublin. According to an article published the other week (I think in the IT) Galway have only a few footballers and not a single hurler based outside the county.
Fair enough WJ…….didn’t realise that!
@sean Burke read today’s western and see the plans for future developments of academy’s etc quite impressive if all implemented.
Obviously a lot of work has went into this and some very impressive people brought in.you mentioned the junior team well they have taken that on board!
I for one have being very critical of the last strategic review not being implemented but I believe things will change for the better!
Judging by the bulk of the super negative commemts above we may as well accept our relegation, not bother turning up on May 13th and bow the knee to Galway, Kerry and the Dubs.
Ffs, it has always been this way with Mayo in late Winter early Spring, always. I’ll tell you what, I hope to Christ that none of the players take any heed to the posts on this wonderful website. Heros in September, useless lazy tactically and technically inept in February. Fuck me. Another thing, if this is what “supporters” do when their team is in bother please don’t turn up in MacHale Park in May, we’ll need vocal support full of belief. Not fair weather self-demanding entitled whingers.
The very people that demanded Doc taking frees are now criticising mamagement for not detailing someone different.
The very ones calling for Higgins and lamenting the absence of Barrett, Seamie, Vaughan etc would probably criticise Rochford for playing them if they were available.
1 thing is certain, Rochford and his team know a hell of a lot more than us regarding the state and health of his squad. Maybe we should trust him at this stage?
If not, please stay at home over the next 3 games and watch it on the tv.
Mayo88, Agree with you that Rock needs to be ‘sorted’ next time he kicks a free v Mayo, maybe Leeroy the man for that, dont think Rock will mess with him!
I thought Coen done well on Saturday, kept Fenton quiet by his standards and thats some achievement, I think he could be right partner for Parsons in middle,
Another injury blow for Mayo is the headline on the front of this weeks Mayo News. I wonder who that’s about…
Well said Pebblesmeller .. remember league 2017 against Dublin ….we were much closer to full squad and were mauled in Croke Park. No need for all the negative comments, doesn’t really help anyone. We need to get points alright in the next few games and maintain our div one status. More importantly, we need to get our key players back from injury and fully fitted. Great to see Lee back in action.
Spotlight..19 of our panel are based in Dublin..Apart from Rossies we have the highest number of footballers in the country living in the capital..Galway from memory are nowhere near that number..
Jesus, the absolute sh**e written on this thread is laughable. As a poster said above, Hero’s in September, lucky to get out of Div 4 in February..or something like that. Galway seem to have one hand on Sam Maguire, yet haven’t won a game in Croker in 17 years, their’ll be no handy team (Kildare ‘98) waiting for them this year though!, becareful with the commuion money folks. My money is on Galway losing in May, then coming unstuck in an away qualifier and fail to make super 8’s…like the all conquering Rossies who hammered Kerry and Cork (away from home) in the 2016 league. People need to remind themselves that its February before hitting the panic button. The man who runs this blog has a great archive section of results, compare and contrast our league and championship results over the last 7 years, see if you can spot the glaring trend?…..
Thats good to hear Aidan . Will try get a copy of the western this evening.
Im not wanting to be negative , when we were winning Connacht championships at under 21 level regularly the future was bright and so it turned out . When Horan said Mayo were going to be consistently competitive I believed we could keep it going , that was his legacy , he installed a toughness and the culture of our senior team had changed ,no longer was there ever going to be a day where we got pushed around croker . That day has yet to come but we dont wont it ever to come. Thats my worry because of a gap in underage success .
Remain consistently competitive and the sam will come some day. Id be pretty sure that was the crux of Horans ideology.
The beast from the east is set to arrive any time now. A foot of snow they predict on the east coast.
Well that’s an end to the outdoor training for the Dubs for a period of time. They’ll start putting on weight with the lack of exercise.
Eventually they’ll run out of canned foods. Philly and O’gara will resort to cannabilism. They’ll probaby eat Con o callaghan first and slowly work their way through the entire panel.
By the time we get around to playing them later in the Summer the Dubs will be down to 2 players, Philly and O’gara and they’ll be both massively overweight and unfit for football due to their unsuitable diet.
It’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow some good.
Why is it that the only position on the field that AOS never wins a high ball in is when he plays at FF.
I dont think its his fault either by the way. For some reason when he goes in there we just cant give him that supply.
Same down in Galway and on Saturday SOS tried and it ended waist high.
I am sure its not the answer to every problem but it should be a tool we can use.
Only time it worked was against Donegal and result was a goal.
I’m happy to report, Revellino, that there are no beasts from the east up here as yet this morning. Apart from the usual ones, that is.
@MayoDunphy
Why do you think Kildare were a handy team for Galway to play in 98?
They had beaten, Dublin, Meath and Kerry, the AI champions from 95, 96 and 97 on the way to the final and were the bookies favourites to win on the day.
Does anyone see on the Mayo News who is injured? Is it Harrison?
Yes Harrison is the injured player named in mayo news set to miss rest of league
The usual ones is right WJ. When the bad weather comes does its thing and eventually goes we’ll be still left with the usual beasts.
The smart boys in the Dail might start building igloos to ease the housing crisis.
Well I’m off to throw a bit of food.out to the huskies. They’re all excited. They can sense the snow on the way.
All,
Not sure if you saw this but good article from Ewan McKenna in Indo, be it all that it was before the Dublin Match at weekend.
https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/ewan-mackenna-aidan-oshea-and-mayo-have-been-spat-on-by-many-but-they-are-lions-not-lambs-36633675.html
What’s wrong with Harrison? According to Mayo News?
@Aiden,
While I applaud the proposed development regarding coaching, I’ll have to take a wait and see approach. A question was asked at a county board meeting about the famed academy in 2015 to the looks of total bewilderment of the top table. Two weeks later a double page spread appeared in the same paper with our esteemed director of coaching Billy McNicholas waxing lyrical about the famed academy. Much like the governments 2040 coverage in the press lately, it was planted and it was bullshit. The academy didn’t exist, Horan set one up, but like the rest of his “revolutionary thinking” it was binned the minute he resigned in Limerick. I knew a member of the so called academy that year and the sole communication from the coaching staff was a text over Xmas asking did they want to meet up for a “kick about”.
It’s a hip injury, Rochford’s Brigade, and, according to the Mayo News, that’s him gone for the rest of the League. Also Paddy Durcan is rated at no better than 50/50 to be fit for Kildare. The more snow that falls up this side of the country over the next few days, the better!
Carlsberg don’t do All-Ireland final opponents, Bertra, but if they did then Kildare in ’98 would be that team. That’s to take nothing away from Galway’s achievement in beating them (you could argue that Cork, whose brittle confidence was close to breaking going into the 1989 final having lost the previous two finals, were ideal opponents for us then) but Kildare really set themselves up for an almighty fall in 1998. Having beaten the champions of the previous three years on the way they simply couldn’t countenance defeat to Galway in the final and supporters celebrated accordingly for a good fortnight before the final. I drove back up to Dublin from Clare via Kildare the morning of that final – the town wasn’t bypassed then – and the place was full of signs congratulating the team on winning Sam. The penny dropped with me pretty quick then about what might be about to happen later that day at Croke Park.
Galway are only blooding players, full back, midfield couple of forwards and Mayo are only getting going, thats the fact of it. But reading on here and in print and all over other forums about how Galway will do a Roscommon 2016 is some of the laziest analysis I have ever seen and im from Galway. Roscommon were within a whisker in 2016 of winning a Connacht Final in 2016 in Salthill, lost the replay and then had to play a Clare team on a roll and a decent side after a dreaded 6 day turnaround. They then backed that up by winning Connacht in 2017. Had to say that lads as Ive been reading all about how they were flying fit in Feb 2016 and then basically rubbish since, not true. Anyway, Galway are now physically a match for Mayo and the game in May will be 50/50, strangely enough I wouldn’t give Galway a hope in Salthill but feel this Galway team play well in Castlebar and this Mayo team play better elsewhere. Trust me by the way, Mayo wont be going down in the league and will be bouncing when May comes, Kildare and Donegal to go down for me.
Regardless of the hype in Kildare or that Cork team’s then recent history I would still put either team ahead of the Kerry 97 team. That Kerry team were beaten as AI champions in 98 by Kildare.
I also think Donegal 2012 would have been a worthy Carlsberg contribution.
Harrison a big loss with must win games coming up. Any chance of Barrett/Higgins being around this weekend?
Fair point, Berry, on Kerry in 1997. I’d rate Donegal in 2012, though, to be a Stella Artois rather than Carlsberg production.
I will stick with the Carlsberg WJ. Stella too strong for me these days.
Galway started with 5 under 21s in the 98 final and were in a first final since losing to 12 men and without an all ireland in 32 years. It should have been a soft one for Kildare. Joyce and Donnellan had 2 all Ireland’s, a player of the year each and 3 all stars each won by the age of 23 so they were no mugs. The Mayo 96 final without opening wounds is the baffling one, steamrolled everyone all year with a young fit team and played meath off the pitch for most of the final.
understandable that Mayo are constantly benchmarked against Dublin and that we are constantly reminded we come up short on that simple measure. That statement is regularly reeled out when a commentator wants to make the point of Mayo being a failure.
What is usually overlooked is that when benchmarking us against the other 30 counties Mayo is a massive success – punching way above our weight in most if not all comparisons. We are not the second biggest county behind Dublin in the resources we have available (money or players). In fact I recall some GAA stats from last year looking at adult football playing population having us in 8th place in terms of size. If memory serves me right Cork is tops with over 260 registered adult football teams – putting them ahead of Dublin even which has about 170. Mayo, with just over 80 registered adult football teams, were in 8th spot behind the above 2 but also behind the likes of Kerry, Meath, Kildare, Galway and Tyrone. It galls me to see pundits, some of them from counties above us in scale, finding it easy to criticise Mayo and highlighting our ‘failures’ when there are much bigger county failures being conveniently ignored.
When you look at our 8th place ranking by playing population and add to that the logistics disadvantage we have of so many players based outside the county there should be a lot of pride in what the management and players have delivered over the past 5 or 6 years. Mayo have done it where others with more resources have failed. What we lack in numbers and depth we have made up for with sheer commitment and heart. How many times have the pundits written us off in past few years and have to eat their words? We would all love to beat the Dubs of course and no – getting close isn’t really a consolation for the efforts of our fine players. But keep it in context – a 4 point loss last Sat against what is possibly one of the best (if not the best) football teams of all time is not a reason to be fearful or negative. We have more to be shouting about and to be proud of than most.
Mayo Panel to date as of 4 rounds of National League
Goalies
David Clarke
Robbie Hennelly
Backs
Eoin O’Donoghue
Colm Boyle
Lee Keegan
Shane Nally
Stephen Coen
Ger Cafferkey
Caolan Crowe
Michael Hall
Ger McDonagh
Sharoize Akram
James Stretton
Donie Newcombe
David Drake
Midfielders
Aidan O’Shea
Tom Parsons
Seamus O’Shea
Jason Gibbons
Barry Moran
Forwards
Kevin McLoughlin
Diarmuid O’Connor
Jason Doherty
Andy Moran
Cillian O’Connor
Neil Douglas
Adam Gallagher
Conor Loftus
Fergal Boland
Danny Kirby
Unused Subs
Ciaran Treacy v Monaghan
Fionn McDonagh v Monaghan
Peter Naughton v Galway
Injuries/Break
Chris Barrett
Donal Vaughan
Keith Higgins
Brendan Harrison
Paddy Durcan
Evan Regan
When you’re trying to make the breakthrough and win that first All-Ireland in a generation, it helps enormously if the opposing county haven’t won one for even longer than you.
That’s the situation Galway footballers were in in 1998, and that their hurlers were in in 2017.
Kildare had no All-Ireland since the 1920s; Galway were three-in-a-row champions in the 1960s with many other final appearances. Waterford had no All-Ireland win since the 1950s; Galway had three in the 1980s and several final appearances. I think it’s more than a coincidence that the maroon and white came out on top each time.
Mayo, since 1951, have never been in that situation. At the crunch time in all our finals, we could not reassure ourselves that we had won more recently than our opponents. Cork ’89 had ’73 to look back on; in ’96, Meath still had fresh memories from ’87-’88; Kerry in ’97 had ’86 for inspiration, and by 2004/6 had more in the bag; Donegal in 2012 had ’92 in mind with McGuinness at the helm; Dublin in ’13 had won two years before and by ’16/’17 were strangers to failure.
I know that sport is not as simple as that, but winning finals is as much about the psychological as the physical.
DavyJ that’s fair enough but if you believed in that logic your nearly beaten every time you appear in a final against someone that has one in the last 50 years. The great teams of the last number of years went out and won their all Ireland’s on the day including Donegal, Armagh, Tyrone in football as well as Clare, Wexford, Offaly and even Galway in hurling.
treacy is injured too, I heard he was pushing v close to a starting spot v the dubs, but got injured Wednesday night
I hear you Big Mike. I’m just saying every little helps! I’d love nothing more than to see Mayo pay no respect to the past or to their opponents in a final and just seize the day. But when we’ve come so close time and time and time again and still not been able to get there, you have to wonder what the psychological problem is.
Incidentally lads, Mayo have won 3 all Ireland’s, the 1936 final they won 4-11 to 0-05 against Laois, so that’s 2 all Ireland’s and a soft one!!!!
Agree on AIF opponents. Weren’t Galway hurlers lucky too to get Waterford for AIF opposition – that’s not to take an iota from them; they beat the best all year. But Waterford rather than Kilkenny say in the final is what you’d go for.
On the other hand when Crossmolina won the club final they beat the best in the business – Nemo.
Yeah, Kerry 97 were ideal opposition.
They had the pressure of an 11 year famine to try and end.
We had beaten them in the 96 semi final.
They had beaten nobody to reach the 97 final. Clare, Tipperary and Cavan.
However we didn’t show up for the final and they got the softest Sam ever.
why are so many Mayo players getting injured in off season and at training sessions, something wrong with Strength and Conditioning Coaching ??
Right now I don’t see our game going ahead this weekend. GAA to decide officially on Friday.
Also I don’t know if this has been mentioned but I stood behind the bacon factory goal sat night and the amount of young Mayo teens up to no good was a disgrace.
Acting the hard men and shouting abuse at the Dublin fans. Few annoying shouts from the dubs here and there but nothing over the top and nothing you wouldn’t hear at any game.
I just think it’s sets a bad tone and image. We should be welcoming to all fans and not have young hoodlums running amock with little or no interest in the game.
Mayomafia is that definite ya? I had feared he might have been dropped as I hadn’t seen his name on the panel since the Monaghan game and there has been no mention of his name in local papers either, I hope him and Cian Hanley get a chance sometime during the next 3 games.Treacy really has blistering pace to go past defenders.Hopefully Peter Naughton and Fionn McDonagh are still in panel aswell as they are very talented.Any news on James Carr??another of the most talented young forwards that was meant to feature in this league campaign only for injury has held him back.I feel Treacy ,Hanley, Naughton and Carr names will feature for Mayo alot in the years ahead.
Conor O’Shea played for Breaffy against Ballintubber Sunday in a West Mayo cup game Cillian O’Connor scored 9 points. Seamie O’Shea, Matty Ruane, Rob Hennelly and Jason Gibbons all featured aswell.
Just announced from the GAA;
“The GAA can confirm that a fixtures plan is being put in place to cater for any potential negative impact caused by the adverse weather on the Allianz Leagues.
If required, the details of this contingency plan will be announced later in the week.
http://www.gaa.ie/news/gaa-fixtures-plan-place-cater-for-adverse-weather/
Westport2018 (and Mayomafia) – just to be clear, this isn’t a place to be providing scoops on player injuries, or asking about whether or not such-and-such is on the panel and all that kind of thing. In other words this site is not rumour HQ so I’d ask you both to respect the rules of debate here in that regard.
Westport 2018… Paddy Durcan has played in our first 3 League match’s!
Ya but hes injured now at the moment it said on the Mayo news today hes 50/50 for Kildare on Sunday.
Interesting list of starters/subs/injured over the course of the last for games Westport2018. If you include Cian Hanley that would make at 40 at least. Likely to see panel trimmed for championship. Based on what we’ve seen performance wise in both FBD and league to date, one would think that players like Barry Moran, David Drake, Neil Douglas, Danny Kirby and possibly a few others are likely to come under some considerable pressure to step up in the weeks ahead.
Loved your post on the dub cannibals Revellino. I hope they leave young O Callaghan alone and take a few bites out of Rock who really annoys me after he scores his frees. Agree with the comment re young Mayo fellas acting the fool last saturday night. I have no time for that nonsense. The majority of dub supporters who travelled to Castlebar are genuine fans, unlike some of the reservoir dub brigade who would get lost after they passed Lucan. Re Mayo and the league, no other county has the same number of lads living away from home. Surprisingly the problem is not similar in galway or kerry, with most of their lads going to local colleges, many kerry lads living in Cork. The Rossies are the nearest situation to ours. If we stay up it will be an excellent achievement, but all that really matters is the game v Galway in May. In the meantime I hope our neighbours, the Tyrone of Connacht continue on their winning ways beating all comers with their 13 men behind the ball and hitting on the counter attack. Not the Galway style I was brought up to admire but I suppose results are everything. Looking forward to the game in May already.
Your 100% right Revellino about the Cannibalism in Gaelic-football… None other than the Messiah like, Jim McGuiness said ‘Verily, One of the Dublin footballers took a bite out of one of the Donegal footballers’ the gospel according to Jim McGuiness circa early 2013…and the Donegal player in question was an Under 21 at the time, so I imagine he was quite tender for one of the hungry ‘Beast’s from the East’.. I don’t know what colour card should be issued to Dublin player’s for eating their opponents,(there should be no sanction for eating each other) ,… Perhaps a Blue Card in honour of the team that revolutionised this new tatic in Gaelic-football.. The other Jim (James the less Gavin,) regularly takes bites out of members of his own…(Did ye notice the hungry eye’s, on Diarmuid Connolly, from Jim Gavin on Saturday night …? The older farmer’s amoung the crowd would get a great thrill from seeing the old Blue Card make a comeback, and that would be sure to please the ‘Healy Raes’ and the Kerry public as well… If the Minister could issue a payment to the Kerry farmer’s every time a Dublin player ate a Kerry player, next Saturday (presuming the match goes ahead).. The farmer’s could be dancing in the streets of Kilorgan for the whole of Lent…. What’s the odds, Dublin to eat Kerry , next round of the league?… Blue’s, Yellow, Black’s and Red cards to handed out like confetti? …. Us Mayo fans have to be careful where we eat ourselves in Kildare, remember we are in Race Horse country….
Jesus lads we are by no means special when it comes to players living in Dublin or elsewhere. We should not be using it as an excuse every year.
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/on-the-road-again-gaa-players-going-the-distance-for-their-counties-1.3361869%3fmode=amp
Green and red alert , paddy power have quoted me odds of 80/1 for Cian Hanley to be POTY.
Excellent observations Leantimes. The blue card will have to.come in. The ref could write the number of calories consumed on the back of the card.
The Polar bears in Dublin zoo are really enjoying the cold snap. They are lined up at the edge of their enclosure and have been roaring across at the giraffes “Who looks stupid now in the white fur coats, yea long necked fuckers”.
Plenty of snow on the ground up here in the east this morning. Combined with what’s meant to be heading our way tomorrow and Friday I’d say Sunday’s game is looking fairly doubtful.
Snow flurries just begining in Galway but there was no snow here overnight. Would be surprised if we see any football this weekend. Be safe on the roads everyone.
Ocides1
Our problem is made much worse because of the distance and the crappy N5 road we have to travel on to and from Dublin.
Much better roads to Monaghan etc.
Pat: Loftus is the man to land the ball accurately in on top of AOS.
Imagine that scenario for Sèan Andy O Ceallaigh on May 13th! Although, judging by the league game, it would be Comer lining out at half back in that scenario.
Might be a tactic brewing in Rochford’s head for May 13th…
I meant Comer lining out at full back…
Jim flag,
We were not the ideal opposition for Mayo in ‘97, after the semifinal defeat in ‘96 John Maugham visited the Kerry dressing room as is the custom to humbly congratulate them on a great season and to wish them every good fortune in the ‘97 campaign etc, but his speech was remembered for different reasons. He giddily told the crestfallen Kerry entourage that he knew that Mayo were going to win the game that day and then went on to give them a “brief” of how he had plotted their down fall before they played.
Padí O Sé clenched his jaw and listened intensely because he knew their paths could well cross again at the top table in ‘97 and so it was. The late P O Sé used every imaginable syllable of every colour in the English and Irish language to reminded his team in the dressing room of John Maughan’s laudation regarding Mayos ‘96 dismissal of his team. Padí was a good man to get the adrenaline pumping and get the nostrils flaring, a grain of rice and all that,
Could have been worse for Padí and the boys, he could have given his lecture in the nip as supposedly was his wont back in the day. He’d emerge from the shower, stand in the middle of the dressing room with his hands on his hips and fagan flapping in the wind delivering his post match speech.
Liam that would make for an interesting scenario, I’d say he would have left the dressing room missing one or two rather important appendages had he chosen that particular style of delivery !!!
@Gamechanger: Sadly, that story doesn’t really surprise me. We don’t really do a good job of keeping our powder dry in Mayo GAA.
@Ocides1: No, we’re not unique when it comes to travelling, but it’s not really possible for us to have many collective training sessions as it would be for Meath, Louth, Monaghan etc. I think the map can be slightly misleading in places too, most of Kerry’s “foreign contingent” would be located in Cork City, a relatively easy spin to Killarney, likewise with Clare having fellas based in Limerick. IMO it’s the Connacht counties (bar Galway) and Donegal who get the rough end of it.
It’s hard not to envy counties with cities in them having their entire panel in place all year round.
I believe Clare in 92 was also mentioned in the Kerry dressing-room, Gamechanger?
Well !!, shall we just say he seemed to have gotten his post match dressing room speeches mixed up that day.
If there are that many lads in Dublin can we not train in Dublin in Abbotstown for instance? So at least the bulk of the team train together more often?