Photo: Caroline McHugh (@Caramcq via Twitter)
It’s the day before the big day in Hyde Park and there’s plenty in the nationals today on the game. I’ve got to dash out in a bit – an U11 girls’ football match awaits shortly – so here’s a quick round-up of what’s in the papers today.
The Irish Times has a long piece by Keith Duggan with James Horan and Malachy Clerkin does the match preview, where he gives the nod to us. The Irish Examiner has a nice piece by the always excellent Dara Ó Cinnéide, who reckons we’re in for a bit of a battle tomorrow but who also thinks we’ll come through. The Irish Independent has a piece by Donnchadh Boyle focusing on the new faces in our reshaped forward line.
The Score also has a longish piece with James Horan, which covers much of the ground ploughed by Keith Duggan above.
There’s more, I know, but there’s more for me to be doing as well so that’s all I have for now.
Is Gavin Duffy still part of the squad or is he dropped completely now? Playing for salthill this weekend not togging with mayo
Looking forward now to tomorrow. Will be leaving nice an early to get in on time for the hurling @ 12. Im confident of a win tomorrow. I think our lads are stronger we may be in a battle for a while but i do expect us to pull away at some stage. Safe travelling to anyone going to game. Hon Mayo !
Could be a hard one but we should have enough 3-4 points to spare
To pick up Cake Curran’s comments which has caused a bit of argument on a previous thread, in my opinion anybody paying attention to Cake has too much time on their hands.
On the other hand I do not see why so many are down on Kevin McStay. He is not on RTE to defend Mayo football, he does his job of analysis fairly and without bias unlike many of the other pundits we have to listen to. On the issue of marquee forwards he has a point. Most successful team have one or often two. Kerry have had Gooch and had, for a few years, Donnaghy. Their decline came with the decline of Donnaghy. Tyrone had Stephen O’Neill, Peter Canavan and Owen Mulligan. Galway had Padraig Joyce, Down of 1990’s had Mickey Linden and Meath had Colm O’Rourke, A marquee forward does not gaurantee success. And an AllIreland can occasionally be won without one, usually if the opposition does not have one either. E.g. Cork in 2010 v Down. Dublin won in 1995 despite Peter Canavan who did not have the required backup from the rest of the team. The essential requirement for a marquee forward is the ability to get or set up a goal when it is needed most. Players like Kieran McDonald, Martin Clarke of Down, Brian McGuigan, Jarlath Fallon, Trevor Giles are also marquee forwards in their ability to distribute ball and the combination of the two is the ideal. There is no point blaming James Horan for our failure to produce such men. They come along rarely and, like a Dublin bus, often not when you need one most and cannot be manufactured. There are many marquee forward in other counties who never get the chance to shine because there county never gets into the limelight.
A previous poster gave the example of Joe Canning, Lar Corbet and Shane Dooley as marquee forwards who can be blotted out by “tough” defenders. Interesting that he had to resort to hurling to get examples. And few in Kilkenny would agree with his rating of Lar Corbett in 2010. Galway’s problems in hurling run far deeper than Joe Canning while Shane Dooley is like Peter Canavan in 1995, lacking the backup.
Kevin McStay does have an All Ireland manager’s medal in his pocket even tif some may not rate a club All Ireland. When the search for a replacement for James Horan eventually begins it is worth considering. Meantime I for one do not consider James Horan “fair game” for criticism until he wins the final. Certainly his decisions and selections will always be debated and sometimes criticized but who can say with certainty that their opinion is better? If they can I expect that they will be putting their name forward for the job when the time comes. Meantime there are many clubs out there who could use their services.
Think James Horan is the best manager have had in a very long time. Certainly the best in my lifetime. Even when O’Mahony was doing a good job with them in ’89, he couldn’t deliver the level of consistency Horan has delivered in the last three years. People have short memories.
Disappointing (if not really surprising, I suppose) that Gavin Duffy was an unused sub for Salthill tonight, as they were knocked out of the Galway championship. Hard to see how a guy who can’t make a club team will make a meaningful contribution on the playing field to Mayo this year. Still think it was worth looking at, but doesn’t look he is going to be challenging for a position on the team/panel this year at least.
Does the fact that he hasn’t played championship mean that he can still declare for his home club [Ballina]. I think it does and if he is really interested in playing he should, It will be interesting to see if he does. Even if he were to start at Junior it would be match practice.
AndyD – I see one report indicates that there is speculation he will for Salthill in the Intermediate championship tomorrow, presumably to give him game time.
Highly unlikely that someone can go without playing football for 15 years, never played u21 or senior and is then going to come back at 32 and make an impact in a top 3 senior team. in terms of skills, reading the game etc it would nearly be impossible. However he might help to freshen things up in the squad a bit.
Theres a serious question around why the county doesn’t produce forwards. Only have produced O’Neill and McDonald of top quality over the last 20 years which is far below counties of a similar size/standard.
I think our only option is to put AOS or B Moran on the edge of the square with O’Connor/Freeman in the corners if Mayo get to the business end of things this year. Also the likes of Dillon/Varley/Doherty have not produced in Croke Park so we can forget about if they’re still in the mix
Gavin Duffy an unused sub for salthill today
Is the hurling game on @ 12? i just want to be sure . Ross will try to pin us back but once we figure out how to break them down we will pull away with ease.Will be tight and messy for a while anyway . Safe travelling to everyone going up to it.
I do not know if O’Mahony can be blamed for the inconsistency of his ’89 brigade. They were after all mostly the players who had been found wanting through most of the ’80’s and who should have built on the ’85 Connacht win. Some of them had been there in ’82 when they fell abjectly to a moderate Galway team after a first Connacht win in 12 years the year previous.
Horan can take great credit for the consistency of the present team and his insistence that merely winning in not enough and that performance on any given day is what matters is a big part of this. But the willingness must also come from within the squad and each individual in it. Too many of our previous squads tried too hard, I think, to mix the good life with the football and a little success seemed to satisfy them. An example – a player [who shall be nameless] who won an All Star after a very good individual year but never produced a decent game afterwards.
Mayomaningalway,ya hurling on at 12,traffic restrictions in and around the town from 7am,anyone parked illegal will be towed away
Cheers pacar
Think we can stop talking about Duffy an as option now. If he can’t get a run for a losing salthill side, he won’t be any good to mayo either
Always thought that Gavin Duffy was an unlikely option and said so but it is 3 1/2 months to the crunch in Croker. If he has been with the Mayo panel since he quit Connacht rugby he cannot have put in time with Salthill so no surprise he did not make an appearance. I wouldn’t write him off but wouldn’t be putting money [or much of it] on him either. Still, fair play to him for the effort and if we pull it off he will have his part in the folklore of Mayo football forever.
Woke up this morning to the dawn chorus of ‘Up Mayo’ from my twin three year olds!
Would have thought that if Duffy is listed in the mayo subs for todays game v Roscommon, he would not be allowed to play for salthill last night. Not a question of him not being selected for Salhill. In Mayo there is the 8 day rule for inter county players not playing with their clubs. Expect him to get a few mins today in Hyde park
Maybe so Rober but if that’s the case then why would he even tog out for them?