Ever since we lost Cillian O’Connor to long-term injury early in the summer last year, Ryan O’Donoghue’s importance to the Mayo team has grown and grown. The All-Star forward is now absolutely indispensable for us and he showed this again in last night’s narrow loss to Kerry down in Tralee.
Ryan ended last night’s match with seven points, all from placed balls though few were easy scores, and he led the line in attack from first to last. He was picked as the Man of the Match by RTÉ and, with 35% support in the poll, you’ve also voted him our MOTM from last night’s game.
Others who featured prominently in the poll were Fergal Boland (16%), Matthew Ruane (14%) and Michael Plunkett (7%), as well as Jordan Flynn, Aidan O’Shea and Diarmuid O’Connor (all on 4%). Well done to all of them and, in particular, to Ryan for what was an outstanding display last night.
He’s superb and you would wonder how good Mayo might be if they had Ryan, Cillian and Jason all fit and sparking ..not to forget Tommy…
Bring it on… looking forward to seeing how our team evolves and develops. JH has done amazing work and deserves great credit for bringing on so many new, young talents.
Well done Ryan. You’re fantastic.
Maigheo abú
Great player. Well deserved, himself and Boland played well in the forwards last night. It would be a shame now if we don’t make the final after today results. A national final in Croke Park. Up Mayo.
– Well done again Ryan, super second half
– Overall game was a damp squib turned into Horanball v Jack’s wall
– Great pace but no intensity, loads of mistakes many down to the poor conditions but not all.
– Boland did much better than I thought he would in those conditions.
– We keep missing gilt edged goal chances and that is killing us
– One lesson to learn is for injured players to wait on the field until a sub is called. DOC came off injured and Fionn Mc D was waiting to be subbed on so we were a man down during the last big play to get an equalizer. The linesman and ref are supposed to be miked up….why was there such a delay it cost us.
– Tyrone will be a real battle looking forward to it
– Kerry civil defence need to.improve their parking , half blocking one of the main exits is not a good idea.
Agree with most of that Olive, didn’t see the parking though.
Kerry were comfortable for most of this error strewn game. To our credit we fought back to level only to let go of the jugular once we had them.
Anyway, on to next week, hopefully the weather will allow for a higher standard of football and give us a better indication of how we’re fixed. Even though the league results have been quite successful, it’s still impossible to know where exactly we are at. Probably same goes for Tyrone, Kerry, Dublin, Galway, Roscommon and Armagh.
Alongside Mattie, Mullin and Leeroy, Ryan is quickly becoming irreplaceable. A very accurate place kicker but also a handful due to his size for defenders, can duck and weave his way out of tackles. He is also ferocious in the tackle. He is constantly moving inside looking for ball to be played into him. I’d really like to see himself and Carr play together, Ryan is very often winning ball out in front and spinning out of the tackle, if he had a pacey player alongside him we would likely get a few more goal chances.
Harrison has to come back in at 3 next week while Mullin has to move out to the half back line. As good as Mullin is he’s not a full back. Our captain looking like the man who will have to miss out.
The League Sunday on RTE is very poor coverage.
They didn’t show any of the Galway game. Spent 2 minutes patting Kerry on the back and then 2 minutes criticising Mayo. Then they spent 90 seconds covering division 3 and division 4.
Thank god for platforms like the MayoGaaBlog.
Didn’t realize how close Keegan was to equalizing !
Or Diarmuid was with the goal chance
Fine margins
At this stage I would probably prefer to have the spine of the team stable with two possibly three games to championship, midfield is the only area 75% settled and improved on last year. There’s about 6 wing back’s to accommodate in defence with no standout fullback/ center back, funny how we are always looking for what we don’t have. It’s going to be an interesting few weeks,
Pick Oisin in the half forwards but let him attack from the HB line. Otherwise play him midfield. We’ve ample half backs, ones who are much more comfortable defending.
ROD is one of the best players in the Country at the moment.
He is a great leader on and off the field.
AOS 4 per cent? Badly caught for pace numerous times and 2 silly frees. I think his role will be off bench this year
Stevie Coen was one of our best performers last year. One of the few lads to play well in the final. I wouldn’t write him off yet. He’s a very smart guy and he’ll work out what he needs to do to get it right.
Very impressed by the Rossies, scored some great points against a good Derry team. They’ll fancy their chances of a Connacht title with Mayo or Galway out of the way. Interesting times ahead. Great to see the Dubs back to winning ways again. Tyrone could be one the teams dropping to Div 2. Hopefully we’ll beat them and Kerry should take care of them. Wouldn’t a league final against Kerry be a great day out for us in Croker.
Boland seemed to play most of the game out around the middle which made Ryan’s performance even more impressive, he often won hard ball against 2 backs. A bad day for football so I wouldn’t read too much into it apart from we may need Cillian or Jason or both available to land Sam. We may have to start Kevin Mc come championship as he has so much credit in the bank and his omission from starting 15 is likely for giving others a chance. I wouldn’t play Oisin in midfield as Flynn is now coming good there – had 3 or 4 mistakes in 1st half but didn’t let them get to him and for most of the game was excellent. Aidan OS was taking a breather on 46 minutes and although he contributed some after that including a nice pass to Ryan, he also committed some fouls and played deep enough to cause a Kerry score at a crucial time. I think 46 mins is about the limit of his game time, managers have to be ruthless like Cody in the Hurling. I think best position for Oisin is probably 6 but he’s our best option at 3 for tall marquee forwards like Clifford, Daniel Flynn and Conor McManus, other backs are either lacking the aerial ability or the pace whereas Oisin has both. People might quibble at Clifford getting 4 from play but it could have been worse if high ball went with lads less able to cope in the air than Oisin who at least stopped Cliffford in the air. Oisin has done very well man marking him in the past so I wouldn’t worry about using him there. It frees up Keegan or Plunkett who both did well. Plunkett kept his Paudie quiet and only one other forward Brosnan really did any real damage, Spillane was held as was Moynahan who has been looking good so they had their forward problems too.
The area they were definitely better at than us was getting fast ball in, often with very long punch passes so that’s something to work on.
I think Coen will do well to start against Galway because Plunkett keeps improving and Hession is pushing hard too and Eoghan Mc should be back too.
As for our goal chances, Aiden for sure needed more composure for his but Kerry goalie saved Diarmaid’s chance with his arse, commentators said it was a great save but in reality he just threw himself in the general right direction and got lucky. Brolly had one of his usual annoying articles but he did highlight textbook goal shooting technique and he knows a few things about that has he used to practice goal drills all the time as a player.
Better play the G squad against Kildare, to relegate the dubs and get an extra week to prep for supermacs
It might seem like the comments are harsh here in the last day or two, but we are judging the team on a different barometer now. It’s no longer the 1990s or 2000s where beating Galway, winning Connacht and having a good show in the all Ireland series’s is enough.
It’s now all about winning sam for Mayo. That’s it. End of story.
Every new guy coming in or fringe player getting looked at is coming in with one question in mind – can this guy make a positive difference on all Ireland final day for Mayo? Either from the bench or as a starter.
It’s no longer “can this guy play well against Galway and Roscommon in the Connacht championship”
Those days are gone and that’s is a good thing for Mayo football as standards will be driven higher
Stevie Coen showing a dip in form but I wouldn’t be too critical,one never knows the reason for a player’s dip in form. He’ll be back stronger.
Next week might be the day to test out Mc Brien on Mc Shane with Oisin at 6..
This has the potential to solve 2 problem areas.
https://twitter.com/GAARetroPics/status/1060293143348690945?t=r_Pw8xhERXSgT_dAHroJgw&s=19
The 1981 white away kit v Kerry has to be the best away kit we ever had, would love to see it brought back.
The ’81 kit is before my time but that’s a tasty number! Other than that the red/black one for the Kerry matches was class.
Looking at that 1981 team, there were some damn good players on it: Willie Joe (!), Martin Carney, Willie Nally, Henry Gavin. All they needed was more organisation.
overall Ryan played well but his first free was shocking. I honestly believe Cillian is essential if we are serious about Sam. As regards the jersey I again say it was awful. Why at least one team didn’t wear their usual colours is a mystery to me . I found it hard to differentiate from a distance and I am not colour blind. BTW did we not wear those Kerry colours when we beat them in the final a few years ago. I’m delighted to see that RTe are showing next Saturday s game live. It would be a long trip for me and I don’t feel like getting cold and wet and miserable 2 weeks in a row!
Was it true that Mick O’Dwyer and Kevin Heffernan had Kerry and Dublin training 2 or 3 nites a week back in the 70s and 80s while Mayo were training maybe just once a week.
The only good thing about the 1981 away kit and it’s possibly one of the reasons it catches the eye for some is that it’s not defaced by a sponsors name.
Some lovely jerseys totally destroyed by sponsors.
https://library.mayo.ie/media/Lyons%20Collection/Lyons%20Photographic%20Collection/album/GAA/GAA/slides/Lyons0010108.html
All White kit again with Green and Red stripes socks v Kerry in All Ireland semi final 1969
How did Kerry get away with steward opening gate and encouraging kids to enter which forced ref to blow full time.
The ref was going to blow for full time when the kick out was taken anyway. It’s not a big deal in all honesty.
Does anybody have the plan for fixtures during the championship? Say if Mayo were to win the Galway game and then Connacht, what are the dates of weekends likely to be playing on? The joys of holiday planning around Mayo football again lol
I think on balance Kerry deserved to edge this tight encounter. 7 points out of a possible 10 after 5 game’s I certainly would have taken that in early January, allot of players tried out probably more than any other country in Division One, all certainly on the Plus side of the ledger. I taught that Fergal Boland getting taken off was a very poor call, 3 excellent points from play. Now I know he lost possession a few times in the first half, but what other outfield player contributed more in terms of positive play or as a scoring forward last Saturday evening?. Possibly Ryan O Donoghue or Mathew Ruane, but both Ryan and Mathew are and have been rightly so, nailed on starters for every game that matters for at least 2 year’s now, and Fergal has hardly got any game time at all. That’s going on the evidence of my own eyes. Anyway the league final is still very much in our own hands. Tyrone were poor against a rejuvenated Dublin yesterday, maybe that’s the reason why, Dublin were rejuvenated and it certainly was Dublin’s best performance for over 2 year’s, and in my opinion are very real contender for Sam Maguire again in 2022. But Tyrone haven’t really got going this year, their one win was a rather lucky one versus Kildare, several retirements, a hangover for their All Ireland success, a combination of factor’s I guess. Tyrone needs the win, they won’t want to go down to Division Two, and after yesterday, it doesn’t look like Dublin will be going down after all, I fully expect Dublin to win both of their remaining games, and if I am right in my thinking, two of these four, Kildare, Tyrone, Donegal and Monaghan will be heading for the drop. Mayo needs to be ruthless, both Tyrone and Mayo will have plenty of motivation. Maurice Deegan will be the Ref, and I think he was on the sideline for Tyrone v Dublin yesterday, and was instrumental in the Red Card decision for the Tyrone full back. It should be a full blooded affair, and I think James Horan will go with what he believes to be his best 15 to start!
Wonder will Cillian make an appearance in Tyrone?
Ryan got ball he had no entitlement to get. He’s unbelievable. But and it’s a bug but unless we get a target man to hit inside instead of trying to carry it through the lines and then recycle we won’t get sam colm o rourke is totally right about mayo s lack of height in the full forward line. We need option to let in in much faster. Who could do that job. That’s the question. We can only go so far with the running game unfortunately.
Height isn’t everything. Did any of Kerry’s scores the last day come from high balls in? Don’t remember any. I actually think Orme is an excellent ball winner. Can win it over his head as well as low down.
Would like him to be a bit more clinical with the chances he gets of course.
@leantimes – league final is not in our own hands. If Kerry beat Armagh then yes, and one win in the last two will almost certainly qualify us but if Armagh beat Kerry then we could potentially win both our last two games and miss out on score difference
@FrostTHammer.. Yes mathematically you are correct.
@FrostHammer
I don’t follow,if we are level on points with Armagh we would go through as it goes on head to head,score difference only comes into it if the head to head was a draw.
@FW.. score difference comes into it, if 3 or more team’s are on the same points total as well.. It’s mathematically possible for Mayo, Kerry and Armagh, to finish up on 9. .10.. or 11 points each at the end of the league.. or alternatively it’s possible for 3 or more team’s to be in equal second place on points in the league, and in such circumstances scoring difference comes into as well. That’s my understanding anyhow!
Ah right @Leantimes,that rings a bell and I think you’re right! Thanks for clearing that up.
Sam óg they are the Connacht colours. Munster played in blue
Wide ball. I’m not making any reference to how kerry got there score s. More like how mayo didn’t. I just think we lack that option inside. And yes orme is decent but his shots to scores ratio needs to improve dramatically..I wouldn’t get hung up on league final. It s all about galway now
Allegations on the Kerry gaa forum that a70 Yr old Kerry supporter spat in Aiden oSheas face as he left the field and Kerry chairman apologised to him. Kerry folks not impressed.
I think Orme is worth persisting with, I think if he continues his form, he’s deserving of a starting spot.
I liked how we freed up Ruane during the game and how he nearly played as a righthalf forward. I wonder if that might be worth persisting with and we should look at options at partnering Flynn in midfield. Diarmuid is in flying form, I wonder if dropping him back into midfield might help keep him more central to the game but I’d also like to see Oisin there, maybe once McLaughlin is back.
I personally don’t think a league final would do us any harm. It would be ideal preparation for the Galway game. I’d rather be playing them battle tested. They could get their own tester in their own division final, and they’ve two pretty tough games coming up in the league as is. They won’t be coming in cold
JnrB???
Surely not???
Jrb, that’s unbelievable if true.
I did hear a lot of bile from Kerry supporters on the terrace. This coupled with the booing had already left a sour taste. If the incident with Aido is true a public apology should be made by Kerry and the incident should be investigated by Gardai.
Kerry supporters when they travel then are as quiet as mice. Cowards, the guilty parties involved.
1989 read the forum yourself
Tralee and Killarney are very hostile venues.
As a proud Kerry football supporter of the incident as reported happened with Aidan O Shea then all I can say is that it’s absolutely abhorrent and in no way reflects Kerry or its supporters.
For me the matter should be dealt with by the Gardai and the man prosecuted to the full extent possible.
He should also be banned from all GAA grounds and activities for life.
This individual represents himself and not the good people of Kerry.
A large section of Kerry people were booing. Incredibly unsporting and creates a nasty vibe. So lots of Kerry supporters should look in the mirror.
No real interest in a League Final, we should continue with the squad rotation and get ready for championship.
Need to get a look at McBrien and get more time into Harrison. If one or both of them are options, we can release Mullin. Such a shame to be playing him back there and he doesn’t look comfortable in that role.
Boland v impressive the last night. 3 points from play and the second point was arguably score of the game. If Clifford scored it, Pat Spillane would have had an orgasm!
Midfield looking solid but Flynn needs to stop giving away turnovers.
Diarmuid needs to go back to CHF with Aido and McLoughlin playing the Final 45 mins.
Still 2/3 places up for grabs in forward line. Would persist with Orme and Boland. Hope Cillian and DOC are on the way back.
Thought we might have snuck a draw but not overly bothered with result.
Was at game and our management are still using the tried and failed ways. Leaving Oisin Mullen trying to mark David Clifford reminds me of 2012 Kevin Keane against Ml Murphy. Clifford is a giant amongst men and we picked a boy to try and curtail him. I dont beleive there is a player in Mayo who can mark him. We then changed a position in centre forward when we had thought DOC was doing a wonderful job this year and we again reverted to the tried and failed . Our forwards scored 4 points from play and another scored 7 frees and we are today lauding this great feat.
The forward who scored 3 points from play and taken off reminds me of taking off Alan Freeman against Dublin. We left on AOS and he as usual spent his time in no mans land. They say history repeats itself. Having said that Kerry were the better team. The young players have to learn and I would persist with them starting in every match. The subs we brought on the last day were worse than what we took off.
@Alltheway.What better way to get ready for galway than a league final 3 weeks beforehand. Looking to get gametime into players then the best way to do it is an extra game in Croker better than a month training. If mayo are in a position to win something go and grab it and see where it leads.
I 100% agree with True Grit. Diarmuid was playing great football at at CHF so why change him, he should be left at 11 end of story. Fergal Boland is a good honest lad and knows where the post are he should start every match and be given a proper chance. as for Aido a legend of a player has being immense for Mayo but probably best to use him as an impact sub running at a tiring defence. and Yes until my dying day i will never understand why Alan Freeman was taken off in 2013 when he was beating his man and causing Dublin problems. to be fair to James Horan he has made us very hard to beat and has done a lot for Mayo football and he has been unlucky with injuries but he isn’t infallible So I hope He starts putting his learnings to use. if ever a manage deserves to land Sam its him but you have to earn it and be the best on the day.
Sam Og, that ‘69 jersey is cool. All white, Connacht, no piping. No nothing, cool.
Was at that match, and could put names on a lot of the players.
@FrostTHammer, I don’t agree with you that it’s not in our own hands even if Armagh and Mayo win their last two games and Kerry beat Tyrone on the final day to leave Kerry, Mayo and Armagh tied on 11 points.
It just means our winning margins need to be a minimum of 3 points more in each of our last two games than Armaghs in each of their last two or an aggregate of at least 6, so I would class that as being in our own hands.
At this stage it would be good to face Kerry in Croke Park, that’s the best preparation for the championship you could get.
All the way and true grit. Two very real posts. I couldn’t agree more. Well said
Well said West Kerry,very decent supporters as indeed are most counties,I have shouted and roared and criticised as much as anyone but when the game is over we should shake hands and walk away
An awful pity Horan got rid of Caolan Crowe, could have been the perfect player to mark Clifford, in terms of height and strength and experience of playing in the full back line at Inter County level. Thought Oisin struggled with him for height the last day. Brendan Harrison looks the only player in panel capable of keeping him quiet later in the Summer.
On the clifford discussion, he is obviously a generational talent who every team will struggle with but i would like to see us learning lessons as we are likely to play them again in a league final (and also very possibly in an AI final).
Oisin is obviously a brilliant athlete and front foot footballer but i have never liked him doing a man marking job at cornerback, he has gotten several roastings now 1 on 1 so he should be release out the field. For clifford, i would try harrison on him in the final, someone who is a specialist man marker who is not worried about attacking.
On saturday night, great to see boland impress again, ive been arguing his corner for a while now, he definitely adds something different
ROD is just immense, you cant give him a bad ball. Impressive how much of a leader he has become in only 2 years on the panel
Glad to be proven wrong on Jordan Flynn too, he is really benefitting from the run of games and will be deserving of a MF starting spot alongside ruane v Galway, he is very athletic and strong and his kick passing is surprisingly good.
AOS was poor and it only confirmed for me that a bench role is the place for him, he worked hard but some of the familiar failings were there, clogging up attacks, not winning enough kickouts, and he turned down a shot to equalise at the end. He is a good man to bring on with 20 minutes to go to help close out a game but no more than that
Plenty of positives but plenty still to work on
Supermac – Aidan O’Shea was not poor at all. Was fouled for a free in the first half, played 2 good kick passes into Ryan in the 2nd half which led to points, set up Orme for the goal chance and set up Boland for his 3rd point. There seems to be this narrative that he slows down attacks when actually his quick hand passing sets up a lot. On kickouts, he won the only long one that came his way in the first half. Kerry’s goalkeeper made sure to stay away from him after that.
I don’t understand the criticism he gets to be honest. You praise Flynn’s performance, yet if Aidan tried a Hollywood cross field ball, got intercepted and Kerry scored it would be a different story I’m sure.
Maybe he does have more impact coming on as a sub, but let’s not pretend Loftus, McDonagh or whoever would have done any better the last day.
100% agree wide ball.Everyones mistakes seem to be forgiven except Aidan….and maybe Robbie Hennelly ……probably add the ref (whoever he is) and the County board of course who have the singular focus of destroying Mayo football at any cost.
Don’t think anyone can handle Clifford if he has space and good ball. He is so strong & is able to easily hold off his man. Need to starve him of ball and make sure there is pressure on the kicker.
Hate seeing Oisin back there. Don’t think he is suited to it anyways
100 per cent agree with Wide Ball and 1989, I thought Aidan had a good solid game and deserves to start, he comes in for criticism no matter how he plays and several other players didn’t do as well as him in my opinion
We will agree to differ re AOS wide ball, he done some good things alright but nowhere near enough to be nailing down a starting birth, for his height he doesnt win many kickouts and he never scores so you are discounting those 2 things straight away, his workrate is excellent but that should be a given. Dont get me wrong i still think he has a huge role to play but its coming off the bench for the final quarter surge, he had been performing that role very well in first three games.
Going back to clifford its probably damage limitation with a guy like that to be honest, he even managed 8 points against a specialist like ronan mcnamee last year, put some guy on him who is happy to sacrifice his game and limit the damage (Harrison or Coen for me) and let Mullin out the field to run the legs off one of the supporting cast
Looking ahead to Galway i think the following 10 players are all certs to start as it stands…
Hennelly, O’Hora, Keegan, Durcan, S Coen (just about!), Mullin, Ruane, Flynn, Diarmuid, ROD
After that its still all up for grabs, i see no reason to drop Orme yet and think he will improve on the drier pitches, also would find room for hession and boland somewhere with guys like Kev and AOS to come on with 20 to go
…also think Horan will find room for Eoghan McLaughlin too somehwere but for the life of me i cant see who drops out of that back 9 unless you move one of the wingbacks to half forward
I think our main priorities for the remainder of the league should be;
1. Find a settled half forward line (Boland, Diarmuid and ????)
2. Get lads coming back from Injury game time into the legs (Cillian, Hession, Jason Doc, McBrien, James Carr, D Coen)
3. Continue to give younger lads minutes and use experience off the bench.
I am not overly pushed about making a league final if we can tick all the above boxes between now and the Galway game.
people on here giving out about oisin mullin getting roasted by david clifford do people on here really think that oisin shouldn’t be giving clifford any score at all,in my mind keeping clifford to 4 points wasnt a bad nights work even though my own preference would not be having him on man marking duties but instead having him going the other way hurting the opposition
One point I couldn’t understand was moving Diarmuid OConnor from 11 to accommodate Aidan OShea.
Diarmuid has been excellent in that position and he was quiet on Sat.
For me he is a 11 and you play your best lads in their best roles.
Aidan is an impact sub for me, if you are playing 11 you have to be adding something on the scoreboard.
Agree West Kerry. Think I made that point in another post. Interesting to see it confirmed objectively by a Kerryman.
It may be that JH is trying along and all combinations to see what works best. Saturday should have told him a few things.
I arrived much later than I should have at the game on Saturday night and I searched the stand more in hope than expectation of getting a seat when I saw two and a half empty seats almost at the top of the stand and a kind Mayo man with a glint in his eye sitting behind said there was one free. I gleefully availed and perched myself on the right hand side of a rather well fed Mayo woman who was wolfing her way through a sack of chocolate sweets that Tenzing Norway would have struggled to get to that elevation of the stand. Shortly before throw in the occupier of the seat to my right returned and nestled in beside me with enough hot food to feed the Mayo team, she was also a lady that wouldn’t fare well on soft ground. I found myself wedged tightly between the two with my rear end occupying the left and right side of two different seats. My good friend from Mayo gave me a nudge in the back and when I looked around I could see that both he and his friend were enjoying the show. Despite my discomfort I decided to stay where I was as the prevailing conditions were atrocious.
The game commenced and it became immediately apparent that both ladies had very strong and differing views of how the game should be played and in particular how it should be refereed. The lady on my left seemed to be of the view that every tackle on a Mayo player was a “yella card hunderd persint” and every time Kerry got a free it was “a dive referee, boooooooo” all of these opinions were delivered with gusto from a chocolate filled mouth. The lady on my right who was going through two burgers and a sack of chips quicker than dried briars through a wood shredder was equally vocal and of a conflicting view and with every Mayo free was strongly recommending that the “referee put on the Mayo jersey why don’t you” or suggesting he should go home to Kildare and take up horse training. About five minutes before half time Ryan o Donoghue was pushed in the back by Morley and ended up on the ground on the right hand side of the stand, there was “red card referee” screamed into my left ear accompanied by multiple shards of half chewed crunchy and I said to myself fkuc this and extricated myself from their combined boa constrictor like grip and headed for the rain sodden terrace where I enjoyed the remainder of the game.
On the game I think jack and James will both be pleased with their outing as there was little between the teams when the last whistle blew. Jack wanted a good hard tight game and most of all he wanted his team to dig out a win when the pressure was on and no team is better than Mayo to come from behind and catch you at the line. I was also pleased that both managers put out teams that were there to win and not to be shadow boxing with the very real probability of second meeting and good chance of a final in HQ in July.
Both sides were missing big players and both sides will be much improved when the bees are back making honey. I thought Diarmuid o Connor (Mayo) had a less influential role on Saturday, I know he was very unfortunate not to bury that goal, he did everything right but the ball clipped Murphy’s side and peeled just wide. I thought Aidan o Shea had a good game but he gave away a few silly frees at critical times and I think he takes too much out of the ball. His first instinct is to use his physique to bull through opposition and at his age this will tire him in the second half if he starts a game, it also slows the hard running game Mayo are so good at. To be fair to him he is a lovely distributor of the ball and gives good kick passes but if I was horan I would be using him as a sub. If I was a player and in a tight game with thirty minutes left seeing o Shea bursting onto the field with the Mayo supporters shaking the stands I think it would be some shot of adrenaline to the collective.
It’s a hard game to analyse considering the impact the conditions had on the style of football that both teams play. Negatives for us were Mayo scored six points from frees and with a good free taker like o Donoghue we have to sharpen up out tackling, we lost a high percentage of our kickouts and whoever gets the jersey will have to develop an understanding and an agreed short and long strategy with the outfield players.
For Mayo ye were turned over several times around the middle of the field and I was struck with the amount of players that committed to attack so early and when Kerry won the ball they were able to kick with ease to an inside forward as ye didn’t seem to have any plan to either sweep in the space or to stifle or foul Kerry in order to get a few bodies back into the trenches, on most occasions Clifford and Brosnan with a two on two would engineer a goal and that could prove costly in the long days. Ye also don’t seem to have a few set plays that either opens a defence or creates poaching opportunities as your inside men tend to drift out to win balls on the run and then find them selves with 35 to 40 metre shots options under pressure. In saying that Mayo have a very dangerous running game but with defences setting up as they do nowadays it will be harder to get scores from that game. I definitely notice an edginess has crept into your game which was badly needed, the o Connor’s and Keegan have always had it but I can see a few more lads on the team now that I wouldn’t be staling their Easter eggs and that what every winning team has to have.
Anyway I wish ye well in Omagh next weekend and I just hope ye win it, we have an interesting game in Armagh and I am looking forward to seeing our backs against their forwards. Someone said earlier that there was a report of some scumbag spitting at Aidan o Shea, I hope it’s rumour born out of Chinese whispers but if it’s not than he should be frog marched out of the stadium and given a boot in the arse regardless of his age and banned for life from ever again entering a Gaa grounds. I have never seen it happen at a game in my life and I hope there is no truth in it as it would revolt and disgust any real Gaa supporter regardless what county they support.
Great report there Gamechanger on both the social and football aspects of last Saturday’s match. Good insights too on strengths and weaknesses of both teams. Good point on the all out attacking strategy that can get you turned over very quickly. Kerry were gifted chances, but they put the heads down and took them. Aidan O’Shea burst through at one stage, goal was on, at least a fisted point, but it came to nothing.
At least Mayo should know now what they have to work on. Great experience from that aspect.
Gamechanger in 2011 I went to Mulligans for a few pints after the match. 2 Kerry ladies in their sixties sat down beside me and lambasted their entire team and management, you would swear that they never won an All Ireland
Supermac – not sure what you mean on winning kickouts. There are very few players in the country who would beat Aidan to a 50:50 kickout. I just think it’s bizarre how Aidan gets singled out as the problem every time we lose a game. There were several players worse than him on Saturday.
I take the point on Diarmuid moving to accommodate Aidan, but most of this analysis hinges on the result. If he managed to slip that goal chance under the keeper it would put a different perspective on Diarmuid’s performance and we may well have went on to win the game too.
Game changer ,well worth reading
Fergal Boland the only Mayo man named on the GAA football team of the week.
@Gamechanger 10..Blessed are thou amongst Women.
I’d go boland. Doc. Plunkett as my half forward line. Back up from Loftus and Kevin mcgloughlin
– Great read, Gamechanger.
– Bit of banter on the terrace as well in particular from one of Mayo’s best known supporters.
– At one stage in the match as Mayo were edging closer he roared ” have ye any more Cliffords” much to the amusement of the Mayo supporters nearby…!!
Some interesting and insightful comments from James O’Donoghue on Football Pod.
1. He thought Mayo deliberately took the heat/pace out of the game early on…not sure this was deliberate but maybe.
2. He queried why we start Aidan at 11 if we play him as deep midfielder. His point was that Morley was left free, with Aidan gone deeper, to sit and block up central channel and double up on ROD etc. (What he didn’t add on was possible lesser impact of not playing DOC at 11 as we have seen him in prior games.)
We need to beat Tyrone like a badger
Gamechanger you should win the pulitzer prize for that post a very enjoyable read i felt your pain.