I know – it’s Monday and the kids are back at school (which made for an even more frantic Monday morning in our house) but wasn’t it just great to wake up this morning and realise that we did really beat Kerry at Croke Park yesterday?
There was much talk after the final whistle sounded yesterday about simian creatures being slung from between our shoulders and, predictably enough, there’s a fair few monkey references in the papers this morning. In the Indo’s post-match quotes piece, James Horan actually goes so far as to say that “monkeys don’t interest me all that much”. Well, whatever you’re having yourself, I suppose. Martin Breheny in his match report in the same paper muses on Kerry’s second successive Croke Park failure to hold onto a match winning lead – like the Dubs last September, we were four adrift with only five minutes to go – and wonders if this could be classed as a pattern. I dunno, maybe it’s two legs of a three-in-a-row?
Over at the Times, Ian O’Riordan also has monkeys on his mind in his match report and the same writer does the post-match quotes piece with James Horan and Jack O’Connor. Malachy Clerkin also has a piece in the same paper summing up the day’s action at Croke Park.
The Examiner is a bit slow out of the online traps this morning and the only morsel I can find there is the post-match comments bit with Jack O’Connor.
Speaking of online reports, you’ve probably seen these already but in case you haven’t here are the match reports from GAA.ie, Setanta, Hogan Stand and RTÉ. As regards the latter, I’m not even going to start about their highlights coverage last night. Okay, I will – every week you think they can’t do worse and every week they prove you wrong. They truly are a national embarrassment at this stage.
At the other end of the spectrum is this fine piece of analysis on tactics employed during the game by Emmet at Action81.com.
Joe.ie has reports on both matches in this piece and the same source also picks up on the GAA’s faux-pas – which was keenly spotted and posted on Twitter by regular commenter @ruanejos – in relation to the final pairing they had up on their website well after we’d sent the Kerry lads home crying to their mammies. According to @MayoGAA, it took a blast from that quarter to jolt the Croke Park webmasters into remedial action there.
Oh yeah, before I go – remember the lads on the Kerry GAA forum who were yerra-ing about whether or not they’d manage to swing the league final for Killarney after they’d “annihilated” us? Well, they’re not a happy bunch this morning, not happy at all. If it’s more in the way of an even-handed discussion, you might want to try this discussion on gaaboard.com.
And that’s it. Sadly, Monday must now exert its baneful influence in the way it normally does but there’s obviously plenty to be happy about on this particular one. Have a good one, y’all.
Jesus it must be great being a Kerry supporter. They have some nonsense going on their in there heads. They will say anything to explain away a loss. They was even talk that the team had a virus to explain the loss on there
I heard another good one from a Kerry supporter this morning, that Kerry let Mayo back into the game because they did not want to play Cork in the final, hence Donaghy’s pass and Sheehan missing the 45
they didnt want to play cork in the final 🙂
And Eugene “Anybody but Mayo” McGee penned this. “As stated they were great at getting handy points but struggled in general against the Kerry defence” He then adds and as Sepp once said I kid you not, “…And rarely looked like scoring a goal”.
We scored two Eugene and Andy blazed one over the bar and Keith sent one into the clouds for a point when a hand pass would have opened a clear goal. Eugene takes a paternal view of us western hicks. Its not that we were good, its that Kerry blew it kinda stuff. He then bemoans along Martin Brehenys bullshit that we have a free pass deep into the qualifiers.
Meanwhile ignoring that Kerry could have got to last years final without leaving Munster only we beat Cork. Of course having to beat Waterford, Clare, Limerick once or twice, Tipp in order to flex the muscles against dual county Cork is onerous stuff.
McGee gives me a pain in the arse and he seems to forever asking us to prove our calling card. So here goes Eugene . Since 2005 we made 2 senior finals, 3 national league finals, 2 u21 finals, 3 Minor finals and a club final…ok? Now spit out the stats for Longford and Offaly bud. I am listening Euge…or ok…lets see Kildares then?……easier to sock Mayo with a kick in the stones on a regular basis isn’t it?
Just in case Eugene didn’t see the actual result Mayo 2-15 Kerry 1-17. In the Longford lalala lands man mind Kerry kicked 17 mighty points, Mayo were handed 15 easy ones and the goals? the goals? …oh did Mayo get goals?…what two….agh I see…well goals win games you know …even for Mayo.
2004 I should have written. Fool that I am.
My most pleasing feeling getting up this Am
is that we (Mayo) can now produce top class performances back to back and against the best as well
Eugene McGee gave up on life in the late eighties. I can’t understand why he writes about football as I doubt he gains any real pleasure from the exercise!
Is Eugene’s analysis online yet? I’ve done another root around now and can’t find it.
Incompetent hacks like McGee will always be there to annoy GAA followers, most of what is written in the nationals is complete nonsense. McGee might as well have all his articles for the next 10 years written now, nothing ever changes.
If we beat the Dubs that’s ok but we can’t do it away from Castlebar.
If we go down to Tralee and get a result to take us to the semi’s that’s ok but we’re not capable of giving consistent performances back to back.
If we then turn around and win the semi that’s ok but we can’t win finals.
If we win the final that’s ok but we can’t do it in September when it matters.
If we win in September that’s ok but the best teams win multiple titles.
If we do that then that’s ok but we’ll never be as good as the teams of the 70s and 80s because that was footballs heyday and no mere mortal around to day could ever be as good as the legends that played the game the last time someone thought it was a good idea to employ that jackass in a managerial role.
He’s a complete bullshitter, even worse than Breheny.
That’s a great assessment of that line of thinking, Declan! If we get as far as the last one, though, I think I’d be happy enough.
On second thoughts, guys, call off that search for Eugene’s piece. In the course of my online search of relevant content this morning, I missed the best one of the lot – An Spailpin’s masterful analysis of what yesterday’s win means. Enjoy it over lunch here.
Don’t worry about the journalist lads, it makes it all the sweeter if you ask me. What really matter is the knowledge all Mayo supporters have today that we are an improving team, able to hold our own and win against anyone.
Spailpin is the man. Wonderful read. Tastes sweet to the stale beer of the man from the indo.
I’m glad McGee and Breheny have made their “contributions” – – as otherwise we might never see the “acerbic wit” of the one and only John Cuffe. Any chance you might go back into the closet John and come out again as “ontheroad” — – I dont think you were as bitter in that persona ! ! Now is the time to rejoice and be proud of that great Mayo win – – forget about the pundits – – we have done our talking on the field. Keegan,Keane, Boyle and of course Clarke have made the defence a much more formidable unit than last year. The pace of Higgins and Boyle going forward is a major bonus – also Vaughan has improved immensely. Midfield in the absence of the new lean and mean Aidan O’Shea is a problem – – Jason Gibbons did okay yesterday but we were still overpowered. While big Barry’s move to full-forward wasn’t a success – it did result in Maher playing a more defensive role where he was less of a threat to us. . Conroy didn’t score yesterday but he still looks dangerous and I would have thought Cillian would have been brought on before Varley. Fair play to Feeney for having the balls to go for the winning score despite missing one earlier. All in all James is learning quite a lot in this league campaign regarding the identity of the men who will stand up and be counted in the white heat of battle. There are a few pieces still to be completed in the jig-saw but if our injuries clear up the future is looking good and progress has been delivered.
Thanks for the link WJ.
Nice to see Mayo win yesterday, some goal at the end, how he got a boot to it I will never know. Others would have gave up and called for a penalty that would never have been given. Hope Mayo go on and win the league. Good honest performance where the better footballing team lost, to a team who put in the hard yards. You do not have to be the best team to win and fair play to Mayo, they proved that yesterday, this should stand to Mayo in the championship.
Its difficult to look beyond Mayo in this years Connacht championship. Why some posters here moan about what McGee, Brehony et al, have to say is beyond me. When you guys eventually win an All Ireland, all the bullc*it thats written to fill newpapers will stop and an alternative victim found. Heres to a Connacht Final meeting in McHale.
First of all I’d like to say well done to the mayo team 4 such a brilliant result and to the management team also.I 4 one was over harsh after our display in Donegal but since then alot of players stood up to the mark. We still have stuff to work on but some of the displays were top drawer yesterday.WE still need ta step up a another gear to reach the level that’s required to win a league but i must say tat some of the players have pinned there name to team sheet come june 24.Secondly I wouldn’t worry to much wat some anaylists say.Ther there to rattle people and they get paid to do it.And most change as things develop in a game and at the end they tell us ;i told you so. ALWAYS remember folks ‘HINESIGHT IS THE FORESIGHT OF A GOBSHITE’
wasnt it nice to see the kerry fellas looking at each other with that “how the hell did he do that” look on their faces after Boyle tucked it into the net. Priceless!
Love the bread and jam analogy from An Spailpin.
@Declan….trying to speed read your first paragraph there and I was convinced you wrote “Impotent hacks like McGee…….”
A Freudian slip if ever there was one…
Sorry WJ, feel free to delete if I’m breaking house rules by typing untruths!! 🙂
No, Ollie – I think I have to let that one stand!
Tony davis sickened me last night on league sunday when he came out with the comment, correct me if i’m wrong, ” sure mayo won it from easy free’s” and lyster was’nt much better, “ah shure mayo deserved it in the end, i suppose”
Nearly broke me other ankle with fecking temper! though us mayo supporters should be well used to that sort of top class commentary 🙁
Samuel I thought you were lost like the cuckoo! I actually had to get out of the closet once Bertie moved in…no room.
Have you not heard the cuckoo this year yet – – he is chirping away quietly on the home sod here!Not surprised you got out when Bertie got in – – – ye wouldn’t have been of like mind anyway.
Looking back at the match after the dust has settled, for me the most pleasing element is the fact that at times yesterday we were far from our best or the finished article and yet we still got the win.
We got most of our scores in the first 12 and final 5 minutes of the game and largely went to sleep up front for the middle portion. We had a couple of poor wides, andy should have got a major and we even were slow to take a shot on at times. Not too mention the fact that we were largely living off scraps in the middle of the park.
I know it may seem like a negative-ish comment but i think the negativity is the most important stuff. we’re not going to learn anything from the stuff we did well. Any yesterday we got the job done not playing to our full potential and that can only mean good things for the future!
Davis was very annoying especially when the stats don’t back it up. Mayo scored 1-5 from placed balls to Kerry’s 0-8. Same overall scored from two less frees. Take into account we missed a couple more frees than Kerry did and you are probably looking at the same amount of kickable frees awarded to both sides. And I certainly don’t think ours were any softer awarded than theres.
Well 24 hours after the event, what a spirited performance, what a difference a single point make!!.Lets not get too carried away tough. We need to put in 2 performances in a row in Croker,to get our hands on the league. I know we can do it, we are learning mighty fast, fighting like demons for scraps, got a break or two, and were good enough to make it count. Superb effort by all involved, most noticably Colm Boyle, Cafferkey, & Mort. However we did lose our way in a few periods in the match, eg high balls into Barry Moran in the seccond half yeilded nothing, when the low fast ball into Mort & Co in the first half worked a treat, when this ploy was clearly not working maybe we should have reverted to our earlier ploy. Still as it is I sure managment will learn from this, and its better for us in the long run having prevailed despite getting some things wrong. The huge positives are the way the team worked for each other, the fact that it was Kerry in Croke Park, the way we were down & virtually out, but refused to stay down. So now for Cork, I think we the nessary conviction to get the win, but remember in Castlebar, despite being down to 14 men for much of the match the Rebles still managed to get the result out of the fire. So what do I think? I think the team will come back from Portugal in rude shape, some of the flaws in the team will be iorned out. I think we will take Cork, but we will have play for the entire 70 minutes plus, the strength on the bench will be just about enough. Should be a humdinger. One dissappionting aspect in yesterdays game was when Kerry’s James O’Donoughue scored his sides only goal, the lad who took a slight knock in scoring the goal was up on his feet in a seccond, only for Darren O’ Sullivan to run up to him to tell him to lie down again running down the clock, dreadfull gamesmanship.Kerrry done alot of this in the match, it needs to be stamped out its a blight on our games. There were only 2 minutes to be added on but Cillian O’Conner equalised in the 4th minute of injury time, Kerrys antics meant more injury time had to be added on and they deseverdly got punished, could not happen to nicer people, what sort of training are they doing, ‘how to feign injury better or what?
Our league final team from 2010 V Cork. This was the match and us down big time that we sent two subs on with 2 minutes to go Harte and Big Barry I think. Team courtesy WJs archive.
FINAL: Cork 1-17 Mayo 0-12 (Croke Park, 25/4/2010). MAYO: David Clarke; Chris Barrett, Ger Cafferkey, Liam O’Malley; Donal Vaughan, Trevor Howley, Kevin McLoughlin; Tom Parsons, Seamus O’Shea (0-2); Andy Moran (0-1), Alan Dillon (0-3, frees), Trevor Mortimer; Conor Mortimer (0-6, three frees), Aidan O’Shea, Mark Ronaldson. Subs: Ronan McGarrity for Ronaldson, Aidan Kilcoyne for Trevor Mortimer, Alan Freeman for Parsons, Barry Moran for Conor Mortimer, Pat Harte for Aidan O’Shea.
Match reports: [Audio] [RTÉ] [Mayo Advertiser] [M
Interesting to see that team John. Out of the 8 starters from that 15 that won’t be or are unlikely to be around for the next game the only ones we’d start if we could would be the O’Sheas. Maybe have T Mort as an impact sub in the half back line. The others – Barrett, O’Malley, Howley, Parsons and Ronaldson – have all been replaced by better players.
And there is every hope that we’ll be able to bring the O’Sheas and T Mort back for the Championship when we’ll need them most.
Trevor mort won’t be back in 2012 unfortunately due to work commitments abroad. All the best to him. He had a great 2011 in the green and red.
My wife, from a hurling county, told me to shut up until Mayo win a league or Sam Maguire.
Surprised more people aren’t put out by Kieran Cunningham (The Daily Star) referring to Mayo’s style as “A carbon copy of the Donegal template for 2011” Donegal scored 6 pts in 70mins V Dublin in 2011, we kicked 6 in the first 14mins last Sunday!!!
More people read WJs excellent blog than the Star and who….Kieran?
For comment on the game its hard to beat the analysis by “action81.com blog” as alluded to by WJ at the top of this.
Sure its nice to read sugery comments about us when we do well but we really shouldnt expect knowledgeable comment from guys who dont give a shit about the game and are only out to make a headline, if they upset people in doing so all the better “Loved or Hated but never ignored”
We have every reason to feel proud of our team – at all times – and shouldnt be looking for affirmation from gobshites who wouldnt know Conor mort from conor cruise o brien.
Bye the way watching TG4 highlights again I thought your man nearly took the head off clark for their goal and the guy on TG4 agreed! Free out ref..
That’s a real pity about Trevor. He would have been a great man to have to bring in off the bench in terms of experience and also his running game. He helped get us out of Ruislip in one piece last year. However, if Richie Feeney and Gardiner aren’t able to make the starting team this year, hopefully they will be able to offer us something similar.
I agree with Albany, really enjoyed that analysis by Emmet at Action81.com.
As for the media comments. We have to face up to the fact that (as David said) until this team wins something there will also be that element of media distrust of Mayo teams’s real ability. 2004 and 2006 really did our football reputations a lot of damage but our stock is definetely on the rise. That’s why I think beating Cork is so important, we have to keep that momemtum and become a team that other team’s really dont want to play.
One point on the team. FF is still a problem for us, but it does not seem to be a settled position for any of the top teams. Could M Conroy be tried there? He has pace, he’s strong and he has awareness of open players around him. Conroy at FF with Mort and COC either side for the summer?
I would not rule Richie Feeny from a starting 15, was easily in Mayo’s top 5 players last year. ‘in my opinion’. The new guys have brought some real steel in defence and deserve to be 1st choice starters on merit at this moment in time. But come championship, who knows? I certainly would’nt have too many worries about Richie Feeny starting for Mayo. Great to have such competion for places.
Now that the dust has settled I hope we have learned some crucial lessons. Every match in Croker is an opportunity (win or lose) but within that one opportunity lies hundreds of smaller opportunities. Every opportunity has a deadline some as short as milliseconds whilst the overall opportunity lasts only for the duration of the match. It is the sum total of the taking or shunning of opportunities that ultimately decides the outcome. And it is just as easy to take each opportunity as it presents itself as to be forever waiting for the next one.
When I vacated my chilly Hogan Stand seat on Sunday I had four clear images in my head.
The first is from the warm-up when I observed Mayo players rolling on to the ground and catapulting themselves from their backs into forward momentum.
The second image is from the closing minutes and we are on our way to yet another ‘moral victory’.
Enter Colm Boyle thinking outside the box.
Colm catapults himself off his back with great forward momentum into the Kerry box – a lone beacon of green & red amongst a sea of blue jersies. Colm is now in the Kerry kitchen & is clearly hellbent on ripping out the electrics. The blue shirts are shepherding Colm towards the deep fat frier where the fat is now sizzling nicely at 200 degrees with only minutes to go. Colm is now thinking fast. Using his great experience of rush hour traffic in downtown Ballindine he realises space is at a premium. In milliseconds Colm makes a critical decision. In a confined space Colm realises that the absence of backswing is key and before anyone realised that Colm was shooting Colm had shot. And the rest as they say is history. One man taking an opportunity that was only there for milliseconds – a watershed moment !
My third image is Richie not passing the buck, taking his opportunity & putting us into the lead.
My fourth image is the frantic final attempt by Kerry to salvage the game. They find Galvin on the edge of the Mayo box. Galvin turns ready to take his opportunity and finds himself eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose, chest to chest with Donal Vaughan. For milliseconds the two were locked in the Irish version of that great Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Irishman’s Kiss’.
‘Roadblock on Main Street’ screamed Donie’s body language & the Galvaniser turned back.
On such decisions games are won & lost.
We have now been roadtested by Kerry and are about to be roadtested again by Cork.
Perhaps after that we can take the long suffering Mayo bus off the back roads and on to the motorway and take it right up to the speed limit !
Mike, I hear you, but what the media does is get stereotypes and stick to them no matter what. Even if we do manage to win an allireland, unless we beat Kerry by 15 points in the final it will still be considered soft or the other team werent up to it. I’m slowly managing to move beyond their small mindedness, i realise that most of them are lazy journalists who just mail it in, and if they were in a real job they wouldnt last 5 minutes. Once you realise that you focus on the ones, like Dara O’Cinneide, who actually know what they are talking about generally, and only focus on what they have to say and not the ones who, at the end of the day, havent a clue.
On the Match:
Digits and Co have every kick, catch, handpass turnover and score analyzed to the hilt so wont go there (great stuff by the way). Job well done by Mayo, both teams not at full capacity yet but it seems that our lads are making lengther strides than the Kingdom.
The biggest plus above all, I think, is the so called “Monkey of the back” syndrome in which JH ironically played down in the aftermath. At the back of it all he will be extremly delighted as it’s a massive mental step taken for this generation of players. Enough said.
On Cork:
Different animal to Kerry, a team also growing in confidence and consistency like us. They are getting key players back now that have been absent, D Goulding in particular. They have options in abundance in terms of team selection and competition for places will be fierce I’d imagine. Thats not to say Mayo are in the same scenario, however, I feel Cork would be much stonger than us in depth, but the good thing about it is that only 15 can be on the field of play at once.
On additonal Panel Members:
Them same names keep popping up, T Mort, R Mac and T cunniffe. Personally I would love to see them all back in the squad, but they have all missed out on the hard yards of much needed game time and the quality conditioning over the winter. Contrary to that T Mort missed the league last year and as it turned out, he got us over the line in Ruislip and was deservingly nominated for an All-star. Midfield is where all the question marks are so, Why not have another look at R Mac, he’s a ‘been there, done that’ player with loads still left to offer at only just 30 yrs. Very tough on other guys though if they loose out when a championship panel will eventually have to named.
Good Man Joey – – I like your style. If the traffic gets any busier during rush hour in downtown Ballindine then Colm Boyle will surely be able for the Cork road test in two weeks. Any more images since? ?
If I may say so Joey that is a fine piece of prose, great style and imagery. Go raibh mhaith agat !
MayoMad – I was thinking the same about McGarrity. He came off the bench last year to good effect. Was introduced too late v Kerry to have any impact. He is mobile. is a good distributor, can score, and crucially has alot of championship experience. I think he’s the ideal partner for O’Shea.
The reason B.Moran was so ineffective on Sunday when moved into FF was that he was playing too far out – he took up postions past the 21. He lacks pace and is slow on the swivel – this makes it easier for smaller defenders to nullify him. He should have been sitting on the 14 – the two boys beside him would clean up if he was knocking them down from there. Alternative, as suggested already, is Harte’s left foot.
Won’t even try to add anymore analysis on the Kerry game as anything I could contribute( and more) has already been posted in an in depth and excellent way as always on this site. As regards the Cork game my main worry would be midfield as I think Cork are physically stronger here than Kerry. Also Cork are happy to hold ball and work in runners from deep so no matter what our half forwards are going to be under serious pressure if we get cleaned out in the center for long periods as happened in the Kerry game.
Some people have been asking about the absence of T. Mort and Ronan Mcg, I’ve heard that Trevor is working abroad at the moment and probably won’t be back at all this season! I’m not 100% sure of this so hopefully it’s not true. According to my Stephenite sources Ronan is still struggling badly with his achilles injury despite being given a special training programme by Cian O’ Neill so not sure he’ll be around for championship either. Unfortunately this severely limits our options for midfield so personally I’d go for a the following lineup of 8 to 15 against Cork
Gibbons , Geraghty
Kevin Mac , Harte , Dillion ,
Conoreen , Andy , Conroy.
David ur missues woud,t be from galway woud she.lol.
Few quick things.
(1) If Trevor Mort is not available, he’ll be a big loss. For his attitude & bloodymindedness alone. He was always a winner in my eyes anyway, regardless of results.
(2) If the Sunday Game comes back with the same shite lineup we’ve had to put up with through this league plus Brolly & Spillane, I’ll go spare. Surely they could drag Dara O’Cinneide away from RnG/TG4 for the summer.
(3) If we lose to Cork, which is more than possible, can we all try to maintain some sense of balance. We’re really improving, the new lads are settling in well and we need to back the team all the way no matter what.
Re Mayo Mad & FGD. Bringing back Ronan McGarrity, Trevor Mortimer would not help team. JH has moved on and picked young blood, we got to a league final and we did not require the services of both gentlemen. I dont see why we require them for the championship, they have been good servents in the past. The present panal have trained hard the past few months and all those players are younger than Ronan and Trevor. I would find it hard to beleive that they could be in the same fitness league come championship time same as rest of panal. I would rather be beaten with a young panel, as they would learn from it than be beaten with a panel who are at their end. Would Mortimer have scored the goal that Colm O Boyle scored? Did’nt Gibbons perform better than McGarrity did against Kerry last year, I think Gibbons and O’Boyle are a better footballers and athletes going forward,” You cannot teach an old dog new tricks , but you can teach a pup” The present Mayo panel have guts and ambition so why fix what is not broken.
John Cuffe – Meath are in right turmoil, are they not