It’s now been officially confirmed that the new Mayo jersey will be launched this coming Saturday (7th April) with simultaneous events taking place at the Elvery’s shops in Castlebar and Ballina (throw-in 12pm at both). Aidan O’Shea and Alan Dillon will be doing the honours in Castlebar while Ger Cafferkey (who, by the way, was Best Man at his brother’s wedding last Saturday, which was the reason he didn’t line out against the Dubs) and Andy Moran lining out in Ballina. The jersey will, in fact, go on sale the previous day (i.e. Good Friday) but the official hoopla isn’t happening until the day after.
On a separate note, it’s been pointed out to me this morning that it was, in fact, Conor Mortimer’s second point on Saturday night – a real gem of a one from play, scored from well out – that saw him overhaul Joe Corcoran’s long-standing all-time scoring record for the county and not, as I’ve been claiming, the one that came after it. While it’s fitting that such a sublime score from play should be the one to get The Mort into the record books, it’s not one that I have any video record of: is there any chance that he might – like the American and Russian armies did when they met at the Elbe – go out and do it again so that I could capture the moment for posterity?
We are a patient people. Nobody knocks us harder than ourselves but that’s the way it should be. However I draw the line at the serial Mayo sceptic Eugene McGee when he deigns to tell us about ourselves as his headline suggests in today’s Indo “Mayo now must prove awesome display was no flash in the pan”**.
This is the man after a league semi final defeat in 2006 uttered “Mayo have done what Mayo teams have done since 1951, flattered to deceive”. Didn’t stop them reaching their second All Ireland final in three years five months later.
Eugene asks us to “prove ourselves” after last Saturdays win over Dublin. Who the… (WJs bad language rule prevents what I want to say here) are you to ask us to prove ourselves to anybody Eugene?
A Longford man who managed a UCD team with Mayo men like JP Kean, Ivan Hefferenan and Con Moynihan on board seems to take an unhealthy interest in us. Perhaps he should worry about his own county and Offaly and the state they are in. We are more than capable of minding ourselves.
I don’t know…. for such a genial and polite people we have the knack of upsetting poor Martín Beg McHugh as well as Eugene. And lets not forget Laughing Joe Brolly and his Leitrim side kick O Rourke , two men who have got the sly sniggers in over the years.
We in Mayo and from Mayo make our own judgments and when the above named and their counties can put on board what we have spilt since 1982 then by all means bite our asses, until then worry about yerselves.
**Mayo have survived in the League Division One since 1999. Pan flashers like Longford and Offaly don’t.
John, I differ with you on some things on this Blog but have to (to quote a good politician) “wholeheartedly endorse” your points above….
For fear of WJ’s house rules I’ll hold off on the foul language as well, but the national media do have a tendency to talk absolute horse manure when it comes to Mayo football…Still no point allowing idiots like Brolly, Spillane, Breheny et al to rule the roost…time to look forward, not back!
John/Ollie – just to be clear, I don’t have a bad language rule of that kind (as I pointed out when dealing with this the other day, the context in which it’s used is the important thing) so feel free to fire away!
McGee’s clear hatred (a strong word, but one I dont use without forming that opinion from years of listening to him) of all things Mayo, once again comes across in his “article” in the Indo. Oh how he would have loved if the scoreline was reversed and we were heading towards the Division 2 trapdoor.
Face it lads, theres an element in the media who insist on not liking us, I dont know why, but they just dont, and even if we do eventually manage to win the big one sometime soon, they wont change. McGee’s sneering is so vicious at this stage I dont think it would matter what we do, he wouldnt change.
There was some clown, Eoin Butler I think his name was, allegedly from Ballyhaunis, on Newstalk on Saturday afternoon on Ger Gilroys show who seemed to react with glee at the opportunity to poot the boot in as well. Managed to get his facts wrong also when laughing at the hurling panels missed flight and quoted it cost 30K when it was just over 3. Its bad enough having some high profile Mayo haters who are suposedly the voice of GAA in the country without our own jumping on the bandwagon.
Note also how the cliched stereotype has changed from us being chokers who always fall on the big stage (all ireland quarter finals and semis arent the big stage according to this school of thought), to us now being inconsistent. This has occured I believe because, by whatever yardstick the illumaniti use, last years victory over Cork means they cant accuse us of choking anymore. I guess the other big days V Tyrone, Dublin etc didnt matter until last year. Would like to see the equation for that one. O’Rourke has been at it allready with comments about wether we can put two good performances back to back. So we can expect Marty Morrissey and Ger Canning to pretty soon scribble out “Mayo choke” and write in “Mayo inconsistent” in their respective books of commentart cliches for this summer’s championship. It’ll be right beside the “Meath never lose easily” and “Meath are never beaten”, ones which, while they are at it, they can also scribble out as they are often beaten, and sometimes quiet heavily.
I know I shouldnt care, but Mayo teams down through the years, and the players who have worn the jersey have brought alot more to the association from the type of football they have played and their ability to come back year after year and keep trying, then some of these hacks have and they would do well to remember that instead of trotting out the same shite all the time.
End of rant for today, but I’m sure I’ll be back on this topic before the year is out. Drives me fecken spare. Judge us and criticise us on the performance you are writing about and leave history lessons in the past. Or maybe you might have to put some thought into your paid analysis then. Heaven forbid!
I can understand how it can drive some of us die hard supporters mad over the medias goading a d often over the top assumptions about us. I have to say though that I take little or no notice of what them gobshites write. Admittedly buying the paper this morning I had a gawk at the indo. I chuckled to myself reading McGee. He just loves to put us down or make us feel worthless.
My advice is to just ignore the rubbish that’s written as hard and all it can be. Mchugh, brolly, breheny, o rourke and Liam Hayes especially have chips on their shoulders when it comes to Mayo. Chokers, failures, inconsistent….. Blah blah. At this stage I couldn’t give a damn what they write. They are beleaguered at the state of their own counties situations and always need a distraction to take their own frustrations out on. Rise above it. James Horan couldn’t be bothered what they say, so why should we???
lads i actually think brolly and orourke get it harsh on here , it was spillane last year with his donkey ” junk status ” comment that really pissed me off, no mention of it then when we came up to town and landed the all ireland champions on their holes. and lets face it i expect harsh analysis from other countymen , we’ll get until we lift the big one.. but our own fellas could lay off the uncle tom strategy
%$£***&^£”!)*&^%%££$%% McGee!…..ah…that feels better! Thanks WJ
we will get the treatment until we win and even then they will say kerry were short a few first team players or tyrone were robbed by an umpire or something. I really hope Mayo do get to meet kerry in the final, win it, and we can all sit back and smirk with a pint in our hand.
was chatting with a kerry lad recently, he reckoned mayo have the players and football, its the mental side that kills us.
Finally, we beat a disinterested dublin team that we clawed back a 14 point advantage from last year so its no real surprise that we beat them this year, and well. Mayo are close to the top, league and championship has proven this against the best teams out there, its the late summer games that we need to be ready for. saturdays win is a help in building confidence just like a skinning from kerry next weekend would knock the same confidence. i would be happy to see mayo win by a point or at least be close when the whistle is blown.
Another performance like Saturday and a win which put is in the semis would be great. Another good performance in the semis win lose or draw, which would be 3 in a row under harder ground, with no serious injuries to key players would constitute a succesful league campaign in my opinion.
I think it’s important to take Saturday’s victory in perspective. Eugene is paid to express his opinion and after reading the piece, I think a lot of what he says is not too far off the mark. Overall he just said was that we have to repeat the performance that was put in against Dublin down in Kerry.
If that’s done then it’s a step in the right direction. If it goes the other way (and we receive the thumping) well Saturdays emphatic victory will be quickly forgotten, and judged as just another Mayo ‘flash in the pan’.
Now of course these sorts of performances will never be repeated week in week out. Let’s face it, Dublin were really poor and we were exceptionally good. I grant you that.
But generally no team at the top level gets beaten up a stick in the way we did against the Dubs. Even on the worst of days you have some performers who do ok on the losing side. And they still are the AI champions even if they didn’t perform like them.
So back to the question of us. Was the level of Saturday’s victory really a once off? Or can it be repeated consistently? These questions remain to be answered.
Sorry folks, but our record in All Ireland finals across all grades is abysmal and we have choked on All Irealnd final days in all these gardes. 2008 minor final spings to mind. Tyrone would have killed the game had they been a point up going into injury time. We were dreadful against Kerry in our last the last three All Ireland appearences in 1997, 2004 and 2006.
We totally choked when 6 points up in both All Ireland finals(drawn and replay) in 2006.
Sorry but until we win something and we are going to have a bad reputation and deserevedly so.
We got to start winning at least some of these All Ireland that we are getting to until the monkey is of our back. No point blaming McGee, Spillane, Brolly, etc. It’s our own fault that such a strong footballing county as Mayo has such a poor success rate in finals.
Let’s use his words as a motivation for our team,our supporters and all the coaches and administrators in the county.Let’s redouble our efforts at underage coaching so we can have well coached young players coming through every year.
Lets stand back here folks and view the battle ground. No one in Mayo is under any illusion of our big day jitters, What angers me is the likes of McGee who asks us to go out and show it wasn’t a flash in the pan as if we owe him and outsiders some explanation for what we stand for.
I dont recall McGee asking Down to follow up with another victory after beating Dublin or Cork to do likewise after beating Mayo. I am well aware of what we lack and have often expressed it, however I take grave insult at the damning stereotypical view taken of Mayo as if we were a Longford or indeed an Offaly two counties Mcgee is well familiar with.
Since his last hurrah in 1982 Mayo reached 5 senior finals, 7 minor, 7 U21, 3 league finals, and 6 club finals. Offaly figures for the same read 0,1,0,1,0. And this man has the cheek to ask us to show its not a flash in the pan. I left out Longford because a series of 0s is embarrassing and before any Mayo man takes me to task for looking down on Longford lets recall the disgust we showed the 2010 team when they lost up there.
A good friend of mine recently asked me what should we do when we win a semi final…not play the final? Sobering. I go with Micky Harte, he said they must be doing something right in Mayo, they keep making finals. By the way if Mayo get it in the neck for losing finals, what does Eugene think of the poor Cavans, Kildares, Westmeaths, Antrims, Clares etc whom never make the big day. Somehow or other I kinda like where we are , we heal fast, we dust ourselves down and get back on the horse again. Our day will come and Eugene will still ask us to go and show that that day wasnt a flash in the pan either.
I may be in for a bit of a pummelling here but I think Mr McGee made some very valid points.
The two that stuck out for me were 1.Consistency and 2. Finishing.
1. Over the past decade the one attribute that can be applied to All-Ireland winners most especially in the year they won the big one is consistency. Are we that far away really from that ?
Won 3 – 2 away from home
Lost to Cork by 1 and played well v a good team
Lost to Donegal – meltdown here given the 14 men scenario
Lost to Down with 14 men – but had loads of chances so was it really that bad bar my next point- finishing
In the 96 League J Maughan made a virtue of winning but with a smaller panel. I feel JH has a very different approach to the League – player development
2. The one negative I had about Saturdays game was our inability to completely murder this game with a couple of goals. We must have had 6 oppurtunities to raise the green flag and miserably failed. Could anybody really imagine Tyrone Kerry or even Crossmaglen having those chances and not taking them. Against a team so visibly struggling it was disappointing. What have Kerry done to suck the life out of us twice in Finals – went for and got goals. Its a skill that we need to work on and requires a team mindset in the players to execute it which I believe needs to be worked on even harder.
John – I think you are being over-sensitive to criticism in your assessment of McGee. I think he is merely challenging us to become consistent and to go on to better things. He has not been half as severe on us as we have been on ourselves. For example players and teams have got slated on this website from time to time by Mayo supporters (myself included). Sometimes this criticism has been fair and occasionally unfair – but that is life in 2012.
We need to take criticism on the chin and go and prove ourselves in the only way that gains real respect – playing the kind of football that beats the big boys consistently – the kind we saw on Saturday night.
Everyone here has been frustrated with Mayo football down the years. And that’s ok. But woe betide a stranger to give an opinion in a family row.
I don’t think it’s fair on McGee to lump him in with Brolly or Spillane. I’m not sure how serious those boys are about their football. But I’m quite sure McGee is a very serious man when it comes to football and I don’t doubt his bona fides.
I think Eugene McGee’s heart is in the right place. I wrote this after he gave us a kicking in 2005. I still agree with it: http://spailpin.blogspot.com/2005/08/mayo-suffer-belt-of-eugenes-crozier.html
Oh, and I hate the new jersey btw. Hate, hate, hate it.
Totally agree diehard.
I could have sworn John, you wrote a piece not so very long ago on this blog being heavily critical of Mayo football for it’s lack of balls and fight. It’s like criticising a family member. Ok for us to do it but not an outsider.
We get to the next 5 all irelands and lose them all, surely we deserve to be slated.
I remember reading in Duggan’s House of Pain that when McGee saw Claremorris and Mayo underage star John P Kean for the first time in UCD he snorted ‘typical Mayo footballer’. Kean was a lovely footballer but there were questions over his attitude and heart for the battle, among some observers. A classy player who sometimes didn’t deliver on his talents.
McGee shares an opinion with many in the county in today’s paper and he’s entitled to articulate it. Let’s face it, until we turn around and win the fucking thing, there’s little comeback. Every result comes with a caveat. That’s the legacy of 60+ years without a big football county winning Sam. Beat the All-Ireland champions in the quarter final in 2011 and it was great ‘but can they go all the way’. It was like what Man United had to listen to from 1967 to 1993. The question marks linger until you answer the questions.
We can criticise it sometimes, especially when it’s lazy and poor analysis from the likes of Spillane but McGee in today’s Independent isn’t writing anything that the Mayo players and management themselves wouldn’t be acutely aware of.
I don’t believe the pundits/journalists mentioned truly dislike Mayo football, I actually believe they have a closet love for Mayo and have become frustrated with our near misses the last twenty odd years, ,this has led to a bitterness in their sentiments because I don’t know maybe they feel we don’t do ourselves justice for the quality of footballers we produce.
My only exception would be barney rock, that man has serious issues with mayo, whatever the story is.
Liam hayes is a bit not well in the head if you ask me too, wouldn’t pass any heed of him.
Wouldn’t pass any heed over a lot of them – ultimately someone who isn’t attending our matches and/or is only watching highlights isn’t really in a competent position to make a judgement on our team.
That’s why dedicated fans like the people here on the blog are the best pundits of all.
I do not know why any one would get upset at any thing that Mcgee writes as his articles never offer any insight into a game and are always good for a few mistakes like mentioning andy moran scoring a point in the first half.My daughter could write better game reports than Mcgee and she has nt a clue about gaelic football.
Just read mc gee piece ,and I consider myself as big a mayo fan as any one .everything he said is true , we have proved nothing only we ar capable of playing well sometimes ,when we go out and do it consistently then let’s start beating our chests ,
Just wondering did any of ye get your Cairde Maigh Eo jacket yet.
I was hoping to have mine for some of the league but nothing – will we ever get them?
Well said, John
but someone tell me where did Eugene actually analyze Mayo 2011-2012? My issue is that pieces about Mayo generally circulate around old news and cliched stereotypes, I have no issue with criticism but earn your money and tell us something new based on what the team are doing now, not what happened back in the mists of time. They get paid to analyze, not to dust off old columns, throw the words up in the air and repeat the same shite again. Yes, we do need to win it, but we’d have to win it 10 times in a row for some of these bucks to change their tunes. Thats what annoys me.
Imagine if some soccer writers insisted on writing about the history of a particular soccer team after every big result that team might have had, rather than analyzing what was just done. That wouldn’t be tolerated so neither should this. The association is amateur but the national media aren’t supposed to be, earn your money and do a bit of work.
And to prove my point again about lazy stereotypes and lack of analysis can someone please tell me why oh why the media rate Kildare? 4 years of prancing about under McGeeney and they haven’t won even a provincial championship yet the media think they are contenders. Baffling.
Funny you should mention it Mayo Supporter, a friend of mine who joined that Cairde Maigh Eo thing a few weeks ago, has said they haven’t got theirs either…
Classic from the Western People:
“DUBLIN cruised into the knockout stages with a comfortable victory over disappointing Mayo in Castlebar last night.”
That was the opening sentence typed out by a national journalist seated in front of me in the press box while the minor match between Mayo and Galway was still being played. The guest was certain that the All-Ireland champions would give the home boys a bit of a spanking and was delighted to have his intro sorted out long before he needed it.
Thankfully the Dublin-based reporter had to bin the said sentence and come up with a new one describing Mayo’s fine display. It must have stuck in his throat
It’s clear that Eugenes piece has rankled with several Mayo supporters but there is a lot of truth in his article. I am convinced that we will only win Sam again if we manage to fall over the line in some fashion.
It doesn’t matter if we unearthed 6 Goochs, 2 Willy Joes, and 6 John Morleys (RIP), we would still need luck to make the breakthrough.
I have no doubt that day will come and it may be closer than Eugene thinks.
Someone mentioned Man Utds drought between 67-93 and I recall that they won that title primarily due to an amazing turnaround in a game against Sheffield Wednesday where they won with two goals deep into injury time in an otherwise unconvincing and nervous performance. This was the luck that they needed and belief came from that result.
We need the bounce of the ball to go for us in a final and for the belief to seep into players heads that we are going to win this time.
Where are the league semis being played.
I presume the top teams will be at home?
Correct sir/madam I did indeed castigate Mayo for a lack of balls and steel and the game v Donegal proved my point. I would also like to think that over the years I am man enough to put a hand in the air and apologize when I am wrong. More of last Saturdays stuff V Dublin and Mayo will do the talking and my big mouth will remain shut…and I for one will be happy.
Now to give Eugene a break and find another buck who needs a kick in the arse. Well looking at the Irish Times web site I got a prime lobster. Enter athletics writer Ian O Riordan who gives two barrels of stereotyping shite. No facts but heavy on the crap. Below is a bit of what he wrote.
“The scenes afterwards of Mayo supporters posing for photographs next to the scoreboard told it all, as it was as rare and comprehensive a victory over the All-Ireland champions as anyone in Mayo could recall.”
So anybody want the facts then? Mayo and Dublin by my reckoning and WJs excellent archive have met nine times competitively since 2004. Each has won four and a single draw. Honours even then? Well maybe, except we beat them in the All Ireland semi final the only time we met in the championship. We also reached two league finals in that time and two All Ireland finals to their one.
We beat them by 1-10 to 0-3 in Castlebar in 2004, they didn’t score at all in the second half. That to me qualifies as comprehensive enough thus negating the rare bit above.
Last year in defeat we scored 3-13 in Croke Park against them, two more than the landslide the other night but Ian has us down as a small country fish gaping in awe at the big flash townies. No folks dont tell me that we are looking at fair and well researched journalism here and dont tell me that we are not seen as gobdaws by those in the Dublin media. And anybody that thinks Eugene McGee deep down likes us must still get a visit from the men with the white beard and red suit.
John if blogs like this one (i.e quality blogs ) show anything it is that they now hold the lazier Journalists to a higher standard , also those journos whose output is of quality will receive the praise they are due on these pages and long may it last!
in former times the punters recourse was a letter to the editor which might not be printed , now the same fella can deconstruct an article and hold his own thoughts up for analysis as well… much better!
The jacket! Yeah I didnt get mine either. Just wondering what is the score?
Its the 31st March – the temperature is 21 degrees – children are bathing in the waters of Enniscrone – 10,000 people attend a NFL match in Castlebar – entry is free – Mayo wear a really smart designer jersey – they then proceed to hammer All Ireland Champions Dublin by 12 points!
Ah….! Am I dreaming this or what?
John cuffe you were correct to say Mayo lacked balls etc….they proved that for three games in a row in the league. Don’t know why you are apologising for what were at the time were correct remarks. Last Saturday while encouraging does not mean all is good again. We need to see long term proof that this team is serious about what they do. I’m not saying they have to beat Kerry next weekend but they have to show they are up for the fight. I hate losing but it is easier when u make the opposition earn it. Win Sunday great. Lose Sunday but lose fighting as acceptable. Get walloped and have opposition supporters laughing at us as they were in Donegal is not acceptable under any circumstances
Disappointed reading the Club Mayo Dublin story in the Mayo News. Surely a better solution could be found
It seems genuinely dedicated people, an established willing network and €60K is not enough to rise above parish politics.
15 minutes of “The Bodhrán Silencer” for any one who missed highlights, thanks to tallowmanirish for uploading to you tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B22kCYcMgtc
Coilltemach – you aredead right and in other words give a fellow a stewards bib and he is God Almighty. Our Parish Politics is similar to other walks in life. If we don’t think of the idea ourselves then it is no good. Hope the team reaps the award of the week’s training in the Algarve
John, I wouldn’t argue with you on Ian O’Riordan’s general knowledge but I don’t think, to be fair, he was talking about as comprehensive a defeat over Dublin as Mayo can remember. Rather, he said ‘as rare and comprehensive a victory over the All-Ireland champions as anyone in Mayo could recall’. SO that would be Dublin in 2012, Cork in 2011, Kerry in 2010, Tyrone 2009 etc.
Dont know wat donegal supporters wer laugh,n at as i told a donegal friend who slated me abou mayo,s record n all ire. finals on facebook afew weeks ago.Needless to say i put him n tha picture tha it took them 100 yrs. to get to crokepark for ther only final appear n tha it.ll take them anoth. 100 yrs. play,n tha shite they did las year.got no reply to tha 1.I think tha relationship s strained, who gives a f… Not gone on tha new jerseys,surely they not gett,n rid of tha hoop jersey.