49 thoughts on “Poll: who do you want us to draw in the morning?”

1. Offaly please

2. We have lost 3 of these teams in away qualifiers in the past.
   Westmeath 2001 qualifier exit in Roscommon
   Longford 2010 qualifier exit in Longford
   Derry 2007 qualfier exit in Derry
   Monaghan or Down would be a tough task away.
   I would take any of Leitrim, Offaly or Antrim.It would be nice to meet the Saffron men as it is one team I have never seen us play and we could give the young guns a game.Game would probably be in Armagh though.

3. Longford for me. We owe them one. And a conveniant location if away.

4. I picked Derry because they’re a bloody good team and we’ll see if there’s anything worth hoping for if/how we handle them. I can’t take this squeezing past poor division 4 teams…. I know! But Derry are riding high and as has been said before, they have no fear or respect for Mayo. Let’s see if we have the interest and maybe a few hard battles will bring an edge to our play. We only play well when the opposition is good. Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

5. Longford or Leitrim please. Lower division teams within reasonable travel distance for the team.

6. would it not be in Antrim TH?

7. We are guaranteed to be away, unless we draw Monaghan (in which case it’s whoever is drawn out first, is that correct?)

   The wait is almost over. It’s shit or bust now, the team has to respond

8. Monaghan in Castlebar please and beat them
   By 3 or 4 points and get our confidence and morale back

9. Where are Antrim playing home games? I thought Casement was closed.

10. Pearse park in Longford was recently renovated , capacity no more than ten thousand ..
    Leitrim was my pick .. Its all about winning at this stage , so the easier the better .. Long road ahead – I hope !!

11. Why would you want to draw Monaghan ahead of a division 4 team?

12. 50 people have actually voted for Monaghan!!!…What is wrong with those people?.

13. Would like to add Seamus Huges and Joe Early to your list of defenders, John.

14. WANT to beat Derry so to see what bolick brolly has to say .

15. Offaly or Antrim. Both teams that we should be beating at this stage, and interesting away venues

16. Leitrim would be the easiest draw. But to be honest we should be able to beat any of them. Monaghan could be tricky but they’ve been playing lately like they just want to be put out of their misery for this year.

17. Antrim would be a decent draw. They’ve no home ground either so we’d be looking at a neutral venue.

18. Don’t care who we draw all I want is a good performance Mayo where flat against the Rosses.

19. Monaghan in Castlebar would be a disaster

20. Antrim have the Athletic grounds in Armagh nominated as their home ground I think as Casement park in Belfast has been closed now for several years!!

21. Tullamore is a nice venue and handy for me living in Dublin .

22. It doesn’t matter who we draw , its knockout from here ,so players and Management have to perform no more excuses ,we are either good enough or its goodbye.

23. Mayo need the easiest possible draw as a tough team wont give them time to take points and the inevitable wide count will be high. Need to keep practising point taking lads need to take responsibility for their poor shot selection as its beyond a joke now even moran is kicking terrible wides from poor angles. I fear the confidence is gone and a monaghan up north would be the end of the road for many of these players.

24. But if you’re of the opinion we would not be fit to beat Monaghan , what’s the point , might as well just be put out of our misery .

    Personally I think we could win this round no matter who the opposition .

    We won’t have 17 wides again you’d imagine , convert around 1/3 of them and we will win the next day out .

25. Leitrim would be a nice draw to get.

26. Leitrim, Offaly, Antrim in that order of preference for me. Hopefully we have a ways to go and the easier the first game out with no injuries the better. It’ll be soon enough that we will be running into division 1 teams and finding out whether we can beat them or not

27. That’s not really the point, Sean. The most important thing about the qualifiers is to get through them. Who you draw and when can be crucial in this and it needs to be borne in mind that early form in the qualifiers can be muck. Kerry were nearly beaten by Sligo down in Tralee in 2009 and then huffed and puffed to get past Antrim that year as well. Then they got to Croke Park and famously reduced Dublin to startled earwigs before going on to claim Sam. Tyrone were taken to extra-time by Meath in the first round last year and ended up in the All-Ireland final afterwards.

    Our hope should be that we get the softest possible draw in each round – this isn’t the time or the occasion to be seeking challenges to prove our virility. Monaghan had to get past the might of Waterford, Leitrim and Laois to reach the Super 8s from Round 2 last year and we should be hoping for a route as easy of that. Those seeking out the toughest lads in the pot tomorrow morning need their heads testing, in my humble opinion.

28. Went for Antrim although will take Leitrim. Baby steps now and slow build up. Like the league panel of players to be used. Anyone who wants a tough contest needs their head tested.

29. I would go for Leitrim. The last thing we need right now is to be paired up with an Ulster team who can play a blanket defence, considering that it is our kryptonite at the moment. A team from Leinster wouldn’t be too bad either, but we cannot afford to take any team for granted at this stage. We are at our most vulnerable right now and a win over Leitrim would set us off nicely. Not only that, but there are a couple of things that really need to be addressed in this round.

    WIDE COUNT
    Our wide average in the games against Roscommon & New York have been over 15, which is worrying. Converting most of those wides along with the scoring tally we put up and I think we could win games more comfortably. But let’s not get carried away here. These shots were taken out of frustration and poor skill execution.

    FREE TAKING
    I know we’re all waiting for Cillian O’Connor to return as he is Mayo’s top scorer and our most reliant free taker, but we should at least have 3, possibly 4 free takers who can score from left and right wings respectively. I like every other Mayo supporter does not know what sort of training they do indoors, but there should be at least 4 guys who can score from both sides of the pitch. Everyone has their opinions on who should be taking the frees, but here’s mine.

    – Cillian O’Connor (Mayo’s Top Scorer & most reliant free taker for the last few years should take 45s and frees that are best suited off his right foot.)

    – Evan Regan (Natural left footed free taker. Doesn’t take much frees, but based on form and confidence, he can score off the left if executed to the best of his ability)

    – Jason Doherty (Natural right footed free taker. Should be taking them if on the starting 15 and especially if Cillian O’Connor is injured. I could argue that him or Conor Loftus could do this, but based on experience, it has to be Doc)

    – Kevin Mcloughlin (Left footed kicker. Should really be taking the frees if it’s in his comfort zone. Should Evan Regan not be match fit, this guy should be preparing himself for them. We’ve all seen what Kevin can do. Remember when he got us out of jail last year against Donegal with that equaliser. Regardless of how many steps he took, he executed it perfectly.)

    PATIENCE
    It’s an area that we seem to struggle with lately. In the final minutes of the Roscommon game, we did hold the ball well at times, but there are times where we seem to force the ball in and hope that someone gets it and taps it over. Andy Moran, who is a fantastic player no doubt, rushed the kick and it got blocked down.

    Lee Keegan who is also a fantastic player tried to force his way in and got turned over near the end. Fortunately, we got the ball back, but we really shouldn’t have done that because you’re not going to barge your way in against two or three players.

    We need to show more composure or else everything that we do will be thrown away because of a silly mistake. And by silly, I mean last year’s clash with Galway (2018) which resulted in Diarmuid O’Connor sent off on a red card and the year previous with Keith Higgins. Donal Vaughan also going off in the All Ireland Final later that year (2017).

    SUBSTITUTIONS
    When it comes to substitutions, we never make full use of them. Ciaran Tracey coming into the game with 5 minutes to go is too short of a time period for a player to adjust to the wet conditions. I also don’t think that Conor Diskin shouldn’t have came on because he got so little time in the league. He’s a good player, but player’s like him need more game time and throwing him head first into the heat of battle with a Connacht Final on the line and little game time is outrageous. Evan Regan and Darren Coen could’ve finished that game in my opinion, but we’ll save that for another day.

    All in all, I hope Mayo do go on and win the first round. The “one game at a time” seriously cannot be taken for granted, especially after last year’s loss to Kildare. I am in no way trying to single out players because I have nothing but the height of respect for them, but it’s so frustrating to see Mayo start in poor fashion and not put games to bed.

30. Easiest possible draw for me. No disrespect to anyone but Leitrim and Antrim would be my preference ability wise. Would not fancy either Monaghan or Derry. We have lost to Westmeath and Longford in the past when we arrogantly thought we were superior to them. No place for arrogance now. Just go out and play to our best. I reckon it will be Offaly. The media would love Maughan v his old team. We would see clips of that wet semi final of 1997 and K Macs superb pick up and point on the run. Tullamore a beautiful venue so bring on Offaly please.

31. On paper Monaghan are the strongest but not sure about the wanting to avoid Monaghan afterall they were far from convincing against Fermanagh at home this afternoon. Beggan saved a penalty and then were gifted a late goal and Fermanagh got a few players sent off. Monaghan for long stages were poor v Cavan as well.

    Monaghan as far as i know is the only home game Mayo can get now as all the rest played in Div 3,4 this spring and they are all entitled to a home game v Div 1 opposition. For what its worth i think Mayo will draw Leitrim and that would be a long over due senior championship game in Carrick on Shannon.

32. I presume the people looking for a tough draw like Monaghan realise if we keep winning we will be playing 5 weeks in a row and 7 out of 8 weeks. The reward is the same if we beat a “weak” team or a “strong” team – we will be in the hat for the next round.

33. RIP , Padraig Carney .

34. Rip. Padraig Carney. There is a man who deserved the title of mayo legend. The world was a lot bigger place with a lot less options for communication and travel when he was based in America and coming back to play for mayo.

35. RIP Padraig Carney, the “flying doctor”.

36. Sad news just confirmed now by Mayo GAA: https://twitter.com/MayoGAA/status/1137824115497275393. RIP.

37. Very sorry to hear of the passing of a genuine Mayo legend.

38. RIP Padraig Carney. I would hope one day the full footage from his meeting Aidan O’Shea would be released. It was great to see players from different generations meet.

39. RIP – seemed like a genuinely nice man. Pity he didn’t get to see Mayo loft sam once more

40. Antrim please.

    A nice weekend trip to Belfast (despite Casement Park being re-developed) and a game we should win without any hassle. I can’t understand why anyone would want Monaghan. Simply put, we just need to get through these rounds without drama. Us not drawing top teams is obviously to our benefit. A win over any team would boost the confidence and steady the ship a little. There will be plenty of time to have a crack at some big teams along the way, it doesn’t have to be this round or the next. Let’s stay in the fight for as long as possible, we’ll have our backs to the wall at some stage soon, there’s no need for it to be two weekends from now.

    R.I.P The Flying Doctor. A Mayo legend.

41. Who we draw and when we draw them matters. Saying it would be no harm to play Monaghan now because we’d have to beat them and tougher teams at some stage is missing this point. We’re at a delicate place having just crashed out of a provincial championship that I’m sure players and management had plans to win this year. Getting further in the competition may mean having to play ourselves into a bit of form and build up some momentum. Playing a tough northern team that will inevitably frustrate and make it difficult for us will not help, in my opinion, and is exactly the kind of thing that would unnerve us at this juncture and end in an early exit.
    No disrespect to the teams in the draw, but some are easier draws than others and an easier draw might allow us to build some confidence and iron out problems, as well as carefully being key players back into the fold.

42. The “flying Doc” was a national hero in the late 40’s and early 50’s. Two All ireland medals.
    A true legend of the game and was flown home by the county board (this must have been a first) to help us win the national league in 1954, as he had left the county to work as a Doctor in California. His parents went aswell as he was an only child and they stayed in the the USA for the remainder of there lives (major sacrifice).
    The county bosrd could not be bothered to fly him back In 1955 where we lost the All Ireland semi final to Dublin (after a replay) and we never featured in an All Ireland final again till 1989.
    He is a huge loss now but was A much bigger loss in the mid 1950’s…

43. Survive and advance. Everything else is secondary. I voted for Leitrim. Why make the road rockier? Monaghan will be there for round 3, as will Tyrone. I don’t fear either (and I really want to come to see a game (or two) this year year!).

44. Leitrim or Offaly will do. Keep it simple for now wheven we attempt to get ourselves back on track.

45. I voted for Longford on the basis that we owe them one and there are a few players from 2010 still on the panel with memories to excise. Yes, we owe Westmeath and Derry one too but are there any players from those games still on the panel? (Keith Higgins on the team v Derry?).
    One thing is certain, we will not be going to Belfast or anywhere in Antrim.

46. Keith was already on the senior panel in 2007 alright, AndyD, but didn’t play in Derry as he broke a bone in his hand playing with the hurlers a few weeks before that. David Clarke and Andy Moran did, though, line out for us in Celtic Park that day. David Clarke, Chris Barrett, Ger Cafferkey, Keith Higgins, Donal Vaughan, Kevin McLoughlin, Seamus and Aidan O’Shea and Andy Moran all started against Longford in 2010, while Tom Parsons came on as a sub that fateful evening.

47. Stadium capacities
    St Tiernachs park,Clones 36,000
    Pairc Esler, Newry 25,000
    Celtic Park Derry 22,000
    O’Connor Park Tullamore 20,000
    Athletic grounds, Armagh 19,500
    Cusack Park, Mullingar 14,864
    Pearce Park Longford 10,000
    Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada, Carrick 9,331

    Carrick and Longford might not be able to hold all our big Championship supporters!!

48. TH…is there a ground missing outta this!??

49. Oh no…my mistake TH… interesting stats… Newry should be big enough for us. Hope we get on with it now!!