Photo: Irish Times (Bryan Keane/Inpho)
After the bright summer sunshine at Cusack Park in Ennis yesterday it was rain and wind at Pearse Stadium today. I doubt that bothered the Roscommon faithful much as Kevin McStay’s charges pulled off a glorious ambush, spectacularly bursting Galway’s self-regarding balloon to seal their first Connacht title since 2010. Well done to them.
By a funny coincidence I was in Salthill today myself – on visiting-kid-in-Gaeltacht-duties – and so I was no more than a few minutes from Pearse Stadium while the match was on. Mercifully, I managed to avoid the worst of the traffic circulating around the ground, skirting very close to it in the closing moments, large numbers of dejected Galway fans already streaming away from Pearse Stadium by then.
Today’s result is, of course, a hell of a comedown for the Tribesmen. From the manic, over-the-top scenes of celebration after they beat us – a defeat that becomes ever harder to understand when you see how mediocre they were today – to now find themselves slumming it with us in Round 4A of the qualifiers, that’s a bit of a fall in a few weeks. As the man says, hubris followed by nemesis.
But the schadenfreude-laden thoughts about the travails of the Tribesmen shouldn’t be our main concern this evening, even if I couldn’t resist a bit of that just now. From our perspective the main consequence of the Rossies’ Nestor Cup-winning victory today is, of course, the fact that we’re now paired with Cork in Round 4A of the qualifiers. That match will be played on Saturday week, 22nd July, with fixture details for the game, I think, set to be confirmed tomorrow.
On the venue question, it’s worth looking at that Páirc Uí Chaoimh possibility first. As has already been raised in the comments, there’s been some talk over the last few days that the redeveloped Cork venue could host the Round 4A qualifier involving the Rebels. John Fogarty’s piece in the Irish Examiner the other day (here) explains the rationale for this.
With Cork having won the Munster hurling title today, however, this reasoning is now moot as the Rebels go straight into the All-Ireland SHC semi-final. This means that the two hurling quarter-finals can, as planned, be played as a double header at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and so the Cork footballers can, as they should, be sent on the road.
Let’s be completely clear here. The notion of sending us to Páirc Uí Chaoimh for Round 4A would never have been remotely acceptable from our perspective, regardless of the scheduling neatness the CCCCCCCC might have dreamt up had Cork been on the hurling ticket. With the Cork hurlers out of the equation then Páirc Uí Chaoimh as a possible venue for our match with Cork goes out the window too.
So, where might it be played? There’s a chance, I gather, that the two Round 4A games could – for TV purposes – be played as a double-header at the same venue. As well as the hilarity of seeing the neighbours joining us in the flesh in the backwoods of the qualifiers, that means finding a geographical location that works reasonably okay for Cork, Donegal, Galway and ourselves.
So, if one assumes Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Pearse Stadium and MacHale Park are all ruled out, where does that leave? Limerick? Tullamore? Cavan?
I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. In the meantime, we need to start thinking seriously about Cork and the kind of challenge they’ll pose for us. More on that in the days ahead.
We have to he on our toes lads. Cork have the players even if they lack the structure.
We are in it and we can win it!
WJ, I heard you on a number of occasions say how great you thought galway celebrations last year were (which, frankly, I thought odd. How could you ever enjoy seeing your closest rivals carried shoulder high off our patch, singing the Fields..) so why were they deemed over the top this time?
You have watched Mayo this year? There isn’t a surprised we have a major inability to take scores from anything passed medium range. Galway and Roscommon and Clare were well able to do this and somehow the majority of our forwards are not firing for whatever reason. Our defence has been less than solid this year also. Now we are improving as each game is played it isn’t hard to fathom why Galway beat us and they were hardly pulling up trees.
Dr Hyde Park is the closest to a mid point for all 4 counties. However, Tullamore might be more likely.
‘Slumming it with us in Round 4A’, OMG WillieJoe LOL.
Never thought of the double header, 2 weeks now to prepare for Cork, one more game and back where we want to be :-).
Lads if this is the case we need to be getting stuck into @officialgaa on twitter voicing our objection to this. Joke!!
Fair point, Italianjob. I guess I could understand – and appreciate – the celebrations last year as a one-off, given what an upset it was. This year was totally OTT as it confirmed that, for them, beating us in June was the be-all and end-all for them this year. That this should be their main ambition convinced me this team was going nowhere.
Have no doubts that Cork can do to Mayo what Ross done to Galway today, overconfidence is a bad thing. Plus, Cork owe us a defeat in championship so I would ask any and all to please remember that cork have the players to beat Mayo.
Well done to Roscommon at any rate, a great victory and fully deserved and I hope Galway can regroup and take a few more steps
Ennis would be the sensible venue.cork footballers are very poorly supported as was evident in last years under 21 final .
I doubt Ennis – despite our undying love for the venue – would be a runner for a double-header.
Well done toRoscommon and I would join Dave in the hope that Galway can regroup as we westerners have been in the dark for far too long.
I sent the following blog earlier but feel it’s worth resending now that we know we have Cork.
A reminder of Corks track record this year is
QF 27/5 Cork 1-12 Waterford 1-11
SF 10/6 Cork 1-10 Tipperary 1-9
Final 2/7 Kerry 1-23 Cork 0-15
Scorers for Cork against Kerry: Donncha O’Connor 0-6 (4f), Mark Collins 0-2 (1f), Luke Connolly 0-2 (1f), Niall Coakley 0-2 (2f) Tomas Clancy 0-1, Ian Maguire 0-1, Paul Kerrigan 0-1
We would need to be very careful in giving away frees when Cork have so many accurate takers lined up. Kerrigan is also capable of yielding many more scores unless we mark him to the ground.
We also know how good Tipperary are and they proved that again this weekend against Cavan so that tight result Cork had with them is noteworthy of their strength.
The match report on Gaa website summed up the Munster Final as to score ‘Cork individualism versus the Kerry collective. Cork hit and hope against Kerry precision.’ We saw ourselves how badly wrong the hit and hope approach goes when the wrong men went for scores against Derry. There is be plenty of potential for Cork to start a collective approach against us, and that hiding from Kerry would be the kind of shock that would knock selfishness out of them.
There has been much talk about Mayo being open to direct runs at goal but every county finds it hard to defend against a hard running attack but we are not the worst at defending it, in fact David C comes to life when they come hard and direct at him.
We need to be far more concerned about our Achilles heel, the high ball into the square. There was only one yesterday, and a bad one at that, but we looked poorly set up under it. Derry showed how we can loose sight of the ball under this kind of kick, particularly David C for some odd reason. The better teams will have noted this again this year and it is simply down to Cafferkey, Clarke and Harrison to have a well thought out arrangement for it. Simple I’m sure….?
There is a rumour going around that limerick isvtge venu
Has this any credence?
CSI Sunday game trying to highlight harrison and Cillian incidents yday
The Sunday Game ..
Kerry & Dublin punditch plus desire marking cards for referee’s laterror in the year.
Cillian was defending himself & brendan waso being held.
Such pointed nonsense.
Another anti mayo rant by Cahill and co on the Sunday game.
What about all the cards in salthill and not a word?
The typical Sunday game analysts bashing of Mayo continues. Citing O’Connor incident and Harrison’s dump tackle stating they were both lucky not to see red!I could see nothing in the O’Connor incident when they zoomed in. Nothing said about the atrocious standard of reffing where great tackles were given as frees and fouls were waved play-on on both sides
Sending off incidents in three of the four 2b qualifiers. Never mentioned on Sunday game.
They drew attention to Harrison’s black card and an incident they deemed Cillian O Connor was lucky to escape. However they didn’t discuss how Cillian was dragged in the same frame they were discussing, the pulling on Brendan Harrison prior to his black card, and the countless other poor refereeing decisions against Mayo in the first half in particular. Lazy analysis by Sunday game panel.
We won’t be complacent with Cork. They will be well up for it.
Great to have this team to follow
Sorry Our Time has come, I was composing similar comment just as you posted, just saw after I posted.
Cillian’s incident was nothing. Brendan Harrison was lucky not to see red to be quite honest. There is no point pretending that there isn’t a discipline issue with the team. Three games now and we’ve had two straight reds and another incident that we deserved red. This needs to be addressed.
Lazy Analysis. …Not so sure. .. I think there was more to it.
Both instances were pretty minor in terms of incidents that can happen in a game.
What is interesting is the people who say it ( 2 dubs and a kerry yerra) and the narrative it says about mayo and those players in particular.
We may well have discipline issues but that doesn’t excuse lazy analysis. We were penalised for things yesterday that weren’t fouls but good tackles. Is Maurice Deegan a requirement for all Mayo games?
In fairness Maurice wasn’t reffing yday !!!!
It is lazy when other incidents aren’t discussed….don’t remember much discussion about the incidents in the Galway Rosconmon game either. It is lazy when the opposition’s involvement in the incidents are ignored.
Gooch was a great player but we can now see he is a poor and biased pundit. He thinks it’s ok for Clare man to hold Harrison in a headlock but not ok for Harry to try to shake him off? What a joke!
Also the Clare defender had been niggling and pushing Harry for several minutes before the edited snippet. Clearly visible to us live at the game, not shown in RTE anti-Mayo propaganda.
Unsurprisingly, the other pundit ?Dub? Thinks it ok for Clare goalie to hit Cillian twice, but not ok for Cillian to protect himself?? Cillian did a push to protect himself, not a “strike”.
Dub, in my personal opinion, you should take your biased “commentary” and put it where the sun don’t shine!
Maurice was on the line and delighted to come to Hurson’s aid at the end. Pity the same vigilance wasn’t there when Evan Regan was floored in injury time v Dublin while Bastic picked ball off the ground and when Cillian was boxed in the jaw all within seconds of one another!
There will not be a double header–Donegal v Galway will be in Cavan the presidents county.
Yeah but it’s like he regularly has to have some involvement in Mayo games. I felt sickened when I saw him yesterday and he always has to get his time in the limelight. Dublin fan pages have been going mad trying to draw attention to Harrison incident.
What next? Will he get a ban?
The Reffing was baffling at times and could have hurt us in the first half. In the second half he was giving strange decisions to both sides.
Thought he handled the scrum at the in OK though.
Cillian incident was nothing and to show it on TSG was a joke. On the other hand Harrison was a lucky boy IMO. You can’t pick someone up and slam them to the ground with force, regardless of what happened beforehand, could have caused serious injury. If the shoe was on the other foot, I would be looking for a straight red.
Asked during the programme why a Kerry man and Dublin man were on discussing The Connacht Final.
Became very clear later on why.
RTE agenda trucks on
Look at the Harrison incident again. The Clare lad had Harrison in a neck / head lock. Harrison had him by the leg and the inevitable outcome if neither let go was that they would end up on the ground. Harrison was lucky he did not break his neck. Who was last up and who got serious medical attention. How much do these lads on the telly get for telling us rubbish? I wish they would have a right look at things like this. And of course Dez had to focus on the Cillian incident. They need to focus on the abuse he gets in every game.
In fairness, Harrison probably deserved red. To say anything else is being as blinkered as the Dubs are regarding Connolly. I know there was a niggle beforehand between them but he lifted the Clare player by the leg and dumped him on his back! There would be war on here if an opponent of Mayo’s did that and didn’t see red. No point pretending otherwise.
Cillian sailing close to the wind as usual. I’d be surprised if the fact he is easy to wind up isn’t well flagged by opposition managers by now. He also went out of his way to jump over the Clare goalie after getting the goal. I’m not saying that players shouldn’t get stuck in, I just think there is a time and place.
The two sendings off Mayo have had this year were fully deserved, but the incidents were stupid, hitting and punching fellas off the ball. Needless. We need to watch our discipline because it’s definitely something that will come against us down the line.
Don’t think I can sleep after watching that, I honestly don’t know how the likes of Rochford and Aido give RTÉ the time of day. Straight after the Fermanagh match they show their manager Aido allegedly diving! Enough is enough, fuck the lot of them. I’d have no problem with a Tyrone like media ban for the rest of the year. Gooch making an ass of himself, hyping us up and playing down cork, it’s not cute hoorism when you can spot a mile off what he’s trying to do. Fair play to Harrison, caught in a headlock probably couldn’t breathe, got Sexton off him the only way possible in that situation.
Don’t think the incident with Cillian was that big a deal. Funnily enough, he could easily get a ban for it as it wasn’t dealt with. He’d be a huge loss.
Harrison’s incident didn’t look great and probably was a red card. It looked ugly at the time and we’d be going mad if it was done to a Mayo player. He could have caused a serious injury. The fact it was dealt with at the time might save him but he was lucky not to be sent off. I know your man was pulling out of him but still.
I agree with dreamysleepynightysnoozysnooze. Mayo need to stop with these incidents. It’s one thing to be cynical and stand up for yourself, as all winners do, but they’re crossing the line repeatedly at the min. Durcan, Higgins, Harrison and Cillian all now have been banned or are in danger of being suspended. It’s something they need to address.
Fully agree with what Bruce said there.
Cillian walks a fine line at the best of times and his conduct has supposedly been noted by referees this year. He needs to be careful. But I don’t think that incident yesterday was much.
Has the Derry eye gouger been charged yet or did Des but deem it worthy of it ?
What was Harrison supposed to do? He was not the one at fault. His man put him in a headlock first. I can guarantee you if Harrison suffered a serious neck injury the Clare player would be in serious trouble – with the law never mind the GAA! We in Mayo have seen a player severely punished by the courts for less.
diehard, if the Clare player had been seriously injured from being thrown to the ground like that, then Harrison would be in serious trouble too. It was a dangerous thing to do and we’d all be crying here if it had been done to a Mayo player. He was lucky to get away with it.
Have to say I enjoyed that yesterday. Ennis – what a town, and what a town when the weather is good.
Sure, I didn’t enjoy the first half so much, but they got bought themselves some space with the two late points near HT.
And their intensity in the second half was top notch. Some have said a ‘lucky’ goal brought them to life. Nonsense, it was their aggressive and direct play that put them into positions to score goals. I felt in the first half that Aido wasn’t really participating, as if saving himself or just not able to do it for 70 minutes. Thought he mightn’t appear after HT – he can’t sprint at the moment. But, a great second half; his winning of throws in is awesome, something we haven’t been doing for ages. Really pleased with Loftus, even though he had a bad wide. His pace and showing for ball is a real plus and indeed I though Evan showed very well too, though he took a bad decision in not going for a point with that free. Our free taking is a bit of a worry – Clare seemed to have at least 3 reliable shooters.
Agree with posters on discipline, but bedad, Clare are well up on the dark arts. How many bookings did they get us with their manufactured high tackles? They managed to move the arm up, feign injury and drop like stones all day long and had Loftus, and Diarmaid effectively sidelined because they were in genuine danger of a second yellow. They were the aggressors too in the Harrison incident, but again he should have kept his cool. Now I know what Paul Galvin had to put up with!
I agree but look at who started this.
Spot on Bruce.. pretty much summed up what I was going to say. We need to have a hard edge (which we do) but we need to be smart with it and right now we getting sent off for needles poor discipline stuff which will be used against us.. que tonight’s SG game, enough said. I have to say I thought the ref had a decent enough game. Clare foke around us were dead sound.
Des Cahill is infuriating to listen too. The Sunday Game is a load of shite.
Does Des Cahill have an agenda? Interesting that on tonight’s Sunday Game he name-checked two Mayo players (COC and BH) who he suggested could have been sent off in Ennis and proceeded to show clips and engage the panel in a discussion on whether or not they should have been sent to the line. No other county which played this weekend was subjected to such questionable forensic examination by the panel. I wonder why? Not a peep out of Des last week about the constant mauling and thumping of Mayo players all over the field by the Oak Leafers.
Zero analysis of melee in Galway match either
Those subscribers who say ‘Harry’ was lucky smack to me of being basterdized followers of rugby. Was the choke hold he was subjected to affecting his air passage? and if it were as well as slamming him to the ground a parting of his ‘nuts’ from his framework in addition could also be justified as self defence!!
Wjoe why does it have to a double header? Let’s play Cork in Ennis and Galway play Donegal in Sligo.
Sorry Citog. None of us are saying the Clare corner forward was entirely innocent in the incident – far from it. But slamming him to the ground is looking for trouble. In any sport.
For Harrison read Connolly in 2015 when keegan had him in a headlock. For csi Sunday game I d say that was nt a problem when Connolly was getting analysed v Carlow. [Deleted].
Yes, definitely Mayo need to improve their discipline.. Harrison incident did look bad… I know he was being niggled, maybe that’s an understatement, but you can’t do that in a match.. Don’t for a minute think there was anything deliberate or premeditated about it, but definitely lucky not have received a red card.. Cillian incident, or rather non incident not worth mentioning… However I think the GAA so far this year have been clamping down, we Mayo have had two straight Red’s so far this year,.. We need to address this issue, no matter what provocation AOS has received, his self discipline has been remarkable for year’s now… I think ref’s might well be watching player’s, not just Mayo player’s, who have been perceived as sailing close to the wind…. No doubt that the Dublin friendly media, will do everything in their powers to make sure that every possible player with any question mark over their game discipline, playing for a team that Dublin see’s as a threat, will get maximum publicity from the Sunday Game in particular… Especially now, as they perceive a terrible injustice against Diarmuid Connolly, however irrational the merits of Connolly’s might seem to the rest of us… So, we have been warned.
Sarsfield, you are 100% correct to point out the 0% analysis by the Sunday Game’s guests of certain incidents in the Mayo /Derry game last week… I wonder why?.. Did Dessi ask the question?.. He certainly did not,.. These questions were equally as relevant last weekend as this weekend,!
For the Cork game we need to assign a man marker to Paul Kerrigan and we need to have a plan for their young full forward the big 6’5″ lad. Cork should have been much closer in the Kerry game. They fluffed at least three clear goal chances. All in all it was a stroke of luck they only finished with 15 points. More likely was 2-15 given how straight forward the goal chances were. So I wouldn’t write off this Cork team.
They will target us with the high ball. However Kerrigan still remains their driving force. I would assign Patrick Durcan to tracking him wherever he goes.
There’s no need, Ger71, to make comments aimed at others who contribute here and the world doesn’t start or stop with Diarmuid Connolly either. The simple fact is that people are annoyed that The Sunday Game chose to highlight only two incidents from the weekend, both involving our players, when there were clearly loads of others they could have pointed to, not least the high profile one at the end of the Conancht final where punches were being thrown left, right and centre. Those commenting are right to question why we were singled out for special treatment on TSG.
Sean Powter is another Cork player with a lot of pace so we need to watch out for him too. I couldn’t understand why Cork played him in such a deep position against Kerry as he normally plays as a half-forward. Himself and as mentioned above by JP, Peter Kelleher, the big full-forward were very good for the Cork U21s last year. We will need to watch the big man as well if he starts for them. Cork do look to have weaknesses at the back so we need to try and exploit them.
All of the Kerry pundits played a blinder in the build up to the Munster final, talking about how dangerous etc. Cork could be. They were all singing from the same hymn sheet. It’ll be interesting to see if our pundits do the same thing in the build up to the Cork game.
Jesus, some ppl here calling for Cillian to be suspended!!!! There was nothing to be seen it that camera shot( from the other end of the field) on Cillian. He was surrounded by 3 clare lads and it was Cillian that ended on the ground not the Clare goalkeeper. Harrison’s incident was dealt with on the pitch. Pat Spillane himself said in his column last week that a certain analyst was texted during before a show by a Dublin gaa official telling them how to deal with an incident involving a Dublin player. The game is rigged so it annoys me that mayo supporters are actually agreeing with 2 dubs and a kerryman on a NOTHING incident.
Mayo pundits love “saying the right thing” regarding discipline issues.
They were far too silent on the national media following Dublin orchestrated attack on Keegan.
There was plenty ofor stuff over the weekend but the Sunday Game went after Mayo last night …. Led by 2 dubs and Kerry man.
Let’s see if this is highlighted regarding the Sunday Game analysis in the next day or two.
I dont watch the Sunday Game anymore as it only winds me up, the bias is clear for all to see and I would question, as it clearly winds everyone else up as well, why do ye bother watching it? I don’t read joe Brolly either for similar reasons. You know what you are going to get from both of those outlets, so why subject yourself to it? And why be so outraged when we get what we’ve always gotten from those? Move on, put some more positivity in ye’re lives by focusing on that second half V Clare.
Cork will be difficult, the Corkies think for some unfathomable reason that they are better than us, hence the poor attitude in the 2011 quarter final when this team announced themselves to the country and the spikeness in the couple of encounters since. The also hammered the bejaysus out of us last time we met in the league lest we forget. They have better players then their league position dictates, they just don’t have a very good manager due to politics (you think Mayo GAA politics are bad, they at not a patch on what goes on in “de rebels” county board).
We’ll be favourites and if we tear into them then they’re heads will probably drop and we’ll win. If we don’t then better to be found out now than in Croke Park.
Bit confused bout the all the furore above. Coc and Bh have no case to answer as far as I can see. However Loftus should have got a second yellow for a high tackle and Clare number 5 also deserved a second yellow moments later. Ref bottled both decisions.
Will we know this afternoon our time and venue v Cork?
Yew Tree, yes, generally they announce times and venues in the afternoon. Sometimes around 1 o’clock, sometimes a little later. I’d imagine it’ll be Limerick on Sat week, either at 5 or 7, to be honest.
Some day I will go down to Stradbally and launch a start a protest about that Donkey Deegan, I’d go through what the Jobstown 6 went through to finally get to that ‘son of a ………’
I see the GAA public’s obsession with double-headers is alive and well! Not a chance Tullamore could hold both matches, and dragging Donegal down to Limerick would be lunacy. The only sensible outcome is for Mayo v Cork to be in Limerick, with Galway v Donegal in Castlebar (as was the case for their 2003 AIQF replay). The Round 4A qualifiers last year were held in seperate venues, so its not like there’s a strong precedent for double headers anyway.
On the Sunday Game thing, I don’t get why people are up in arms. The two Mayo incidents were highlighted because they were missed by the refs, the Galway melee was dealt with and plenty of cards were dished out. I don’t think there’s any need to traipse over Cillian’s habit for getting involved in tetchiness, and at the end of the day he did strike towards the face of the Clare player. As for Harrison, he could have crippled the Clare fella with that slam. I get people saying that the Clare fella had his arm around him, but that doesn’t entitle you to respond in a completely disproportionate way, he was very lucky not to see red. A lad in a chipper giving you a slap doesn’t mean you can turn around and shoot him! A bit of perspective and honesty is needed, otherwise we as a fanbase will become as insular, paranoid and one-eyed as the Dubs
On the money Willie Joe. Like most people here I don’t think our lads are whiter than white. The Sunday Game tho is a joke. Not a word about slaps left, right and centre at end of connaught final but plenty of time to discuss incidents involving Mayo players….by ex Kerry and Dublin players….surprise, surprise. Imagine we can expect more of the same over the next few weeks.
Oscar Wilde once said: “The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about”.
Have a look at the weekend’s action:
* Cody shoves a linesman.
* Galway Rossie games descended into a Melee, cards handed out left, right and centre.
* Wexford finish a game with 12 men. 1xDouble Yellow, 1x Black and 1x Straight Red.
* Armagh Westmeath was 70 minutes of murder.
* Meath’s McEntee roaring at the ref after the final whistle.
* Carlow Leitrim finished 14 a side.
Do you know why these weren’t discussed? Because no-one in that list is a contender for anything this year. You’re only news if you are relevant.
In what is probably the best championship in my 36 years the Sunday game aren’t even focussing on that.
Paul Galvin is right. Rebrand it, let the youth at it. Like when do you ever see top class football really get focussed on. “and a great point there” hardly does service to some of the scoretaking this summer.
If you don’t have Sky, go to a pub or a friends house and watch it. I mean watch the whole thing, prematch punditry, half time analysis and post match.
Its so superior to the muck on RTE its like watching two different sports.
Federale has hit the nail on the head. Harrison’s reaction to the bit of a headlock from the Clare player was over the top and dangerous for both players. Harry was lucky not to get more seriously injured as a result of his own actions. Anyway, it’s done and dusted – lets move onto Cork. Game will be in Limerick or Ennis. Can’t wait.
Agreed with a lot that has been said.one incident that annoyed me on Saturday was when Kevin McLoughlin was clearly pushed out over the sideline Clare got a line ball and this then led to Donnies black card and a point for Clare.
Did anyone see today’s examiner? Just seen a snap of the article. Pairc Ui Caoimh is still very much on the cards it seems to me, reading the article. Not sure if its online yet.
Kerry and Dublin are not alone contenders but favourites, yet I bet you won’t see any of their players singled out like that on the Sunday Game Jaden…wonder why that is!!
Federale, while I agree two wrongs don’t make a right i dont entirely agree with your view of it. If someone gives you a slap you have a choice, you can walk away or slap them back. If someone has your head in headlock (or arm around your neck – which by the way is probably equally as dangerous as slam dunking a person) then there is very little you can do but put up with been choked until you become unconscious. Why is not being discussed that any contact with the head or neck is a straight red whether its eye gouging, grabbing the jersey to mask repeated hits to the throat or the head lock. Players are not going strike out directly at the opposing player as they will get sent off (although our discipline in this area has been poor as of late). This is just another one of the dark arts prevalent in our game at the moment which at some point is going to leave a player seriously injured. Player welfare should always be top priority in our game.. if you dont have that you have nothing.
Afraid I’ve missed out on all the controversies with things going on. Agree with Ah Now however and Paddy in D will have to show restraint but would love to be a fly on the wall …..hold me back and let me at him too.
@Walter White. I assume you haven’t watched the Sunday Game in quite some time. Spillane is wetting himself right now at the prospect of reviewing the Dublin/Kildare game next weekend. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when they’ll take an incident, and go to town on it. That’s what gets viewing figures up. The moment you realize that TSG is not about proper punditry and sensible discussion of our national sports – it gets alot easier to watch
It has gotten to the point when it is now basically just a live enactment of a twitter spat.
You watch it in the hope it will get better, but it never does. Still, if they’re talking about you, it means your a contender.
They are drowing the sport in negativity. We don’t want colgate toothed cheerleaders. But at the same time I get far more enjoyment out of Colm Parksions GAA Hour as they actually focus on the football and give proper respect to lower division teams. The Sunday Game just analysis all from a default position of winning the All Ireland contenders. They are very dismissive and light on coverage of competitive lower teams. The nature of Gaelic football is that you can still see great plays and players in the lower divisions. Obviously not the same standard of teams.
You would not know that this championship has been jam packed with interested stories and games if you tuned in. I don’t actually tune in anymore to the Sunday game analysis or the night time program which is shocking in it’s lack of footage. I only listen to Sky Coverage when watching on Sky.
Them setting up all these controversies is actually the most pressurising thing for the modern player. You’re going about your weekly business and what used to be a minor footnote in the match report is now your name in the headlines when you go into the shop to buy a coffee and rest your head from football.
My point is Jaden, that RTE is now dominated, especially the S G with ex Dublin and Kerry footballers. So where you may be right about Pat Spillane, I am sure Ciaran Whelan will have his own agenda..note suggesting Paddy Durcan’s offence last week was a one month suspension….bulls@#t. They are not highlighting Mayo because they are ‘relevant’ they are highlighting Mayo negatively to try and gain an advantage by trying to influence officials…and bravo they succeeded in last year’s A I final.
How come the Dublin gaa commercial manager was on the Sunday game highlighting and discussing non events in the Mayo / Clare game?
The sun game is a highlights programme. I presume although I did nt see it that Galway Ross match was analysed on the live game that afternoon and the subsequent incidents dealt with. The issue that mayo are singled out amuses me cause Kerry seem to think they are as do Tyrone and all northern teams and so do the dubs ( Jim Gavin at least does as we know). So it’s all rubbish cause the sun game is about ratings and Dublin Kerry and mayo are the big teams so the focus is on them . Connolly got 12 weeks for putting his finger on a linesman. Cody was more aggressive on sat with a linesman . O Connor punched a player and Harrison was like the tana umaga. Fans need to wake up and forget the persecution complex and realise we all have a duty to the game first.
Mayo news have the match confirmed for Limerick, time to be confirmed.
Ive had to take it easy this year so far, (with the roaring at matches like a bullock being sculled without anaesthetic that is) otherwise my blood pressure would burst my head-gasket. Was happy to beside a good Galway mate at that game – kept my roaring to acceptable levels. With regards to last weekends qualifier, well ,another Job done – thats all that was needed. I expected Clare (a county that I have great respect for, family in etc) to be right in the mix until 40-45 mins and thereafter our s&c fitness to be the platform for a win. We are not the finished article by any means and as a few have said already, would love to see management having a more defined system defensively and quicker off the mark to make obvious changes as soon as they are needed.
Im sure our lads will have plenty of respect and more for Cork. They might have been dumped out of the Munster Final by a Kerry team with 2 of the top forwards in the country (O’Donoghue and Geaney) firing on all cylinders – but Cork had and made their chances – especially when they ran at Kerry down the centre. That central attack has been a trademark of Cork football over the years and is also something we have struggled against this year to date. Without a defined sweeper or someone who cuts of that central channel, we have become prone to offering goal chances, and clear cut point-scoring opportunities. Kerrigan and co can severely punish us if we dont have a “tus maith” on the 22nd and a 6/7 point deficit to Cork is not something I would like to see us clawing at. Its mighty to see AOS back at full tilt and thought Kevin Mc was back to near his game controlling best in Ennis. I will never forget his game-changing goal run against the rebels in 2011 -when he decided “ah f.ck this – I’m going to score a goal”. Cork would feel they owe us one and want to restore pride in the big ball game in that proud county with all the negative press they are receiving – with particularly harsh attacks on Manager Peadar Healy. .
We still have the ability to go to the top- we havent fallen that far in 9 months since our draw and 1 point loss to “the greatest football team ever to grace a green field”. Conor Loftus has a talent that cannot be taught – an eye for goal or for a pass to create that goal – his long fisted pass into Cillian on Sat opened up the Clare defence where most others would have slotted it over. If forwards take that clinical look around for .5 of a sec we would be rattling the salmon net more often as we do create those chances close to the opposition goal mouth. Looking forward to more of a long summer of Football and for us to “peak” at the right time. The blood pressure is rising slowly………….
Limerick. A very small pitch playing area. Takes away our mobility advantage over Cork.
Can lads please give over about the Sunday Game. It’s a bit of entertainment that highlights issues that fans want to talk about. The reason Lee Keegan got a black card in the AIF 2016 was because a bad kickout (from Mayo) resulted in Diarmuid Connolly having a clear run on goal. Lee tackled him which resulted in Connolly falling to the ground. Ref justifiably decided to give a black card. The Sunday Game had nothing to do with the kickout or the pull down. If we want to learn from this, we need to work on our kick out strategy – not harp on about the SG and referee’s etc. I expect our players aren’t harping on about it.
I’m not a conspiracy merchant but surely there is someone from west of the Shannon who could have done analysis of that show last night. I know the Sligo buck from the Tango ad dirtied his bib with the Kevin Walsh comments, but is there no one else? Two weeks in a row there’s been 20 plus games and yet it’s only ourselves being highlighted for incidents on the field. Paul Galvin was right me thinks.
It was far from a clear blackcard gonesouth, so while your point regarding being somewhat in control of the outcome of our actions is valid, the fact that the call was very marginal means that people are right to question if there was an agenda being driven by that program.
In my opinon there clearly was and whats even more galling is that we have plenty of representatives on the national airways who just seem incapable of standing up for their county, James Horan excepted. IN fact, if I was a neutral from outside, didn’t know any better and was trying to draw a correlation between the performance of our pundits and the performance of our team I’d say that’s why we haven’t managed to win Sam the last 5 years, too fecking nice!!!
Gonesouth, you’re naive if you think that big mouths in the media have no effect on games.
Limerick it is. We owe that place some payback. Wonder if cormac Reilly will get the whistle………….
@gonesouth, you would need to have another look at the rules in regard to a black card.
Are you a Mayo fan Ger 71?
@NiallMc1983 – players affect games. If they play within the rules there’s nothing the media (or even the referee) can do to stop them achieving their goals. As I said previously – the Sunday Game is a bit of entertainment. Players are too busy worrying about their diet, injuries, rest, training, tactics (i.e thing they can control) etc. to give a fiddlers about what so called analysts think.
PS I didn’t like Mossy Quinn either – too boring for my liking.
@NiallMc, of course the referee can impact on players achieving their goals. And no I am not whining or making excuses, Lee getting a black card is not the sole reason Mayo didn’t win an A I but it certainly didn’t help!
gonesouth, re your comment “If they play within the rules there’s nothing the media (or even the referee) can do to stop them achieving their goals.”
Let me put it mildly. I disagree 100% but I don’t want to violate house rules.
Out of curiosity, WJ, what did you make of the ‘Penalties’ awarded to Roscommon from under the posts? I am loathe to criticise refs. but if this is a new departure by the authorities in an effort to cut out off the ball stuff (which I’m in favour of), then I feel it should be applied right across the board, and not just at the whim of one Meath official. By the way, I would like to congratulate Ros on their win, and also McStay on carrying out his duties in a professional and dignified manner under such pressure.
I’d agree with you there, Man of Aran. If Kyne had been sanctioned for the constant pulling and dragging he was let away with all day on Andy Moran like he was the last day (yellow after ten) and the Galway backline in general (same goes, by the way, for the Clare backs on Saturday) were pinged for the off-the-ball stuff on Cillian and Diarmuid it could have been a very different outcome in Salthill. But that’s water under the bridge now, I guess. Fully agree re Kevin McStay – one of the good guys.