For the second successive weekend, Mayo lost out narrowly to opponents they may well encounter later this year in the Championship. Both losses were frustrating but they had something else in common too, as both of them saw sparkling performances from Ryan O’Donoghue.
Down in Tralee last weekend, the Belmullet clubman was without doubt our standout player. Last night up in Omagh he wasn’t quite as prominent and, in the early voting in the MOTM poll, it was Matthew Ruane – who had an excellent outing in Healy Park – who led the way.
When the polls closed, however, it was Ryan who was once again out in front, having secured 26% of the vote, just ahead of Mattie on 25%. Jordan Flynn – another strong performer for us against Tyrone – came next on 15%, followed by Aidan O’Shea (9%), Lee Keegan (7%) and David McBrien (5%).
Well done to all of them and, in particular, to Ryan who continues to do the business for us in the forward line this year.
Ryan O Donoghue the go to man for the past 2 years.
One clear difference between Tyrone and Mayo last night, Tyrone got 4 or 5 points from play with the left foot, Mayo got none.
Simple, not enough dual foot forwards in the Mayo team, are there any left foot kickers apart from Durcan who is a half back ?
Left foot kickers orme, mcdonagh mcloughlin oshea
How many dual foot forwards are there in any team ?
Wow I don’t care how many all Ireland’s pat Spillane has but he really is classless, with the couple of digs at boyler tonight pure disrespect for a brilliant footballer Jesus I hope we get a chance to make him eat his unbelievable arrogant words he just doesn’t learn even after his comments to Cora last year
Anyone but Kerry for the All Ireland.
Yep, passive aggressive Pat.
Even though I voted for Mattie, well done Ryan O’D, a class act.
Well done too Colm Boyle. I was impressed with Boyler on the Sunday game tonight, very professional with top class analysis thrown in. His Co-analyst P Spillane tried throwing a couple of digs at our man, but the Davitts dynamo wasn’t biting!
Also, I watched highlights of the Kildare v Monaghan game. Kildare looked very impressive putting up that score v the Farney men. Points came from plenty of boots incl their half backs. Flynn, Hyland etc al will take some watching next week.
I still expect our overall superiority to win out but we need our best 15 tagged.
Colm settling in nicely in The Sunday Game. Spillane 100% correct in his comments re Mayo much as we might not to hear. Miss Brolly for the humour and delighted the Dubs are back to winning form.
Tenacious Yew, I completely agree. Classless is the word.
And I too would love to see him eat his words, something that’s not outside the realms of possibility.
Please dont frustrate yourselves getting annoyed at commentators folks.
It just ruins your enjoyment of the game and they are just looking for clicks etc. Some have 160,000 twitter followers and they have to keep them fed and watered with what they want to hear.
That’s there game. Its like Conor McGregor thrash talking.
Bit of advice for anyone who wants media analysis is to subscribe to the Patreon ”channel” where you get good analysis from players who have played within the last 15 years. Padden was excellent on Saturday evening and everyweek you get guys like Kernan or whoever who know what they are on about and are not looking to rile anyone etc.
Also go on Kerry fan blog and a few others.
You see honest opinion from fans that is not rhetoric. You just wont get that in mainstream media.
I still think we will cross the line soon to where we want to be.
Despite all the shit at the weekend we have a team to follow for the next 10 years again and in say 2018 I feared for that.
I wish to christ we could have some luck with injuries though.
We have guys on the sideline that can solve all our problems. That is bad luck but we are not dead yet.
We wont be in July either if we lose another final……..we will keep at it. We know that by now.
We just had a off day and to be honest we had a off day Galway looked very good against derry if donegal beat armagh are we in the final
Well done Ryan O Donaghue, yet again, one of our best pperformers. But over reliance on one player is worrying. We need the same level of leadership from others. The Tyrone game will bring Doherty on and Orme could be a player who thrives on pressure. Big day on Sunday.
A win and a good performance from the forwards this weekend would put us in a good place.
I didn’t think we needed the league final but after Saturday night`s showing i think its important the next game (hopefully 2) we find our settled team for the Championship.
The one thing Spillane said last night that annoyed me was him asking boyler does horan know his best 15 and its the truth i dont think James does, there is currently 3-4 places up for grabs in the team (2 in half forward line, 1 in full forward line, 1 in full back line).
We are not in as bad of place as some people are making out but we arent in as good a place as we thought after dublin / armagh games.
Galway can now fully focus on us for the next 4-5 weeks with having promotion wrapped up with a game to go. I know people dont want to hear it but we might need Aidan to start in the forwards for the Galway game if some more lads dont put their hands up over the next week or two.
The pundit on The Sunday Game who is not Colm Boyle is totally irrelevant. The game he played and the game played today are very different in just about every aspect and he is struggling to accept that. There are obvious reasons why this blog and many others are so popular. I am nearly a pensioner myself but it’s time for the artist formerly known as Pat Spillane to move over and retire.
In other news, Ryan O’Donoghue is quickly becoming a true legend of the game….. And He hasn’t got going yet.
Lovely posts, folks, that give me a bit of heart. Thank you.
Well done to Ryan, I would agree with post above that if others don’t stand up, Aido deserves a place in the forwards. We had some good performers earlier in the league like DOC so no reason they can’t perform again.
I expect an improvement next day but Kildare tails will be high from one of their best days out so important to be competitive from the off.
A bit too much attention on Spillane, I agree he should move over at this stage but equally he had the good grace to apologise and say he was wrong when challenged by Joanne Cantwell. Would Brolly have done the same? Spillane did say regarding Cork they slated them earlier in the league but had to call it as they see it. He does have a habit of antagonising though and most counties fans probably are annoyed by him at some stage.
Maybe I am reading this all wrong but it looks to me like we are going to do whatever it takes to have O’Shea in the starting 15. We have the best set of backs in the country, bar none, yet on Saturday night we tore that up to drop O’Shea in at 6. For what exactly? What was the reasoning and tactical decisions around that? Because to me playing an immobile player who takes too much out of the ball, who slows down play and isn’t exactly the best foot passer, in the crucial position of number 6 was a strange decision. Against a Tyrone team that we all knew was going to go with 4 forwards up top, at most, why was there a need for a static number 6? Surely it should have been the other way around that we set up, e.g. 5 backs with 7 forwards. Rochford had shown us how to unpick the Tyrone defense back in 2016 by naming a forward (Alan Dillion) at full back but in reality Dillion was a floating playmaker leaving the other 5 backs to take up the 4 Tyrone forwards. Tyrone never got to grips with Dillion that day as he floated between the lines and sliced Tyrone open with quick, accurate footpasses. Was that the plan for O’Shea? If it was, then he is the last person with the technical skills to play that role. If it wasn’t the plan for O’Shea then what was? For me, and this is no personal slight on O’Shea, but in the cold, hard, environment of senior intercounty football O’Shea is not a starting player anymore. It is no coincidence that our best performances this season have been with O’Shea off the pitch. In the last 25 mins of last years AISF v Dublin and our 1st three league games this season we played a fast, kick passing game that went a long way to winning the ties. O’Shea came off the bench, to very good effect, in our 1st three league games this year to help us close them out. He was fresh, at the pace of the game and effective. Compare that to our last two games where he started and played both games in full. Against Kerry his lazy, sloppy tackle deep in injury time, led to the winning point for Kerry. Against Tyrone on 3 occasions he tried to bulldoze his way through tackles, got held up, lost possession of the ball (once by fouling and twice by dispossession) and on one of those turnovers Tyrone went down the field and scored. There is enough of a body of evidence to show that O’Shea needs to be used differently.
Seeing us play Tyrone on Saturday night was worrying for me because it looked like we had learned absolutely nothing from our God-awful, terrible performance against the same opposition in the AIF last year. We had zero threat inside in our full forward line, in actual fact on many occasions on Saturday night there was no Mayo player inside the scoring zone at all! We had zero threat from our half forward line and O’Donoghue had to continually drop out the field to get on ball. You could substitute the words “Cillian O’Connor” for “O’Donoghue” in the previous sentance and it would the same thing we’ve been reading for 5 years.
We are clueless in attack when met with a defense that marks zonally as opposed to man-to-man. Kerry (with Talty in the backroom team and O’Connor as manager have adopted this tactic) and Tyrone both get numbers back the field to protect the scoring zone. This isn’t any new fangled tactical innovation, it’s just fairly crude, hard work and numbers. Forwards want space, backs want to crowd them out. And yet, after 5 years, we still are clueless against it. Dublin, Armagh and Monaghan (who have seriously regressed under Banty – a much overrated manager) all went man-to-man and left loads of space for our kick passers and inside forwards. They played straight into our hands. I expect Kildare to do likewise next weekend and for us to get the win but that’s not my point. If we want to win Sam we have to find a way of beating the crowded zonal defense and accept that starting O’Shea is not going to lead to success.
Pat Spillane once said “Football is a simple game, you just get the ball and kick it over the bar” That aspect of the game hasn’t changed and it’s a skill Mayo players would need to develop.
After six league games , Mayo appear to have no fixed team apart from Midfield, every other line of the team is changed for every game, except R O D . How can a team gel and get to know each others play with so many changes. Important game against Galway in a few weeks and no settled team yet, god only knows who will play where against Galway. Aiden O has to be an impact sub for last 20 minutes,anyone can see that . Winning is a habit , time to start winning and stop the messing.
I think James for Kildare game should be picking the team he wants to play against Galway barring any injuries in the coming week. Get them together, then if we win, have the same team play against Kerry in league final and hope to get players to start to understand each other and make connections. Maybe then we can start to find scores from play easier to come by especially against packed defences. Overall considering James has made 5/6 changes every game we have done alright. James has been doing what managers do in preseason, playing everyone and trying to get them all up to speed, all fighting for places. I would hope he has his starting 15 in mind now for Galway. The first 9 in my eyes name themselves. its the front 6 bar RoD and DoC where there is alot of question marks. Personally for me think starting 15 based on what I’ve seen in the league would be
1: Rob
2: Plunkett
3: Ohora
4: Keegan
5: Durcan
6: Coen
7: Mullin (Although don’t think its his best position, think maybe as a 3rd midfielder floating may suit him better
8: Flynn
9: Ruane
10: Doc
11: Loftus (need a good kick passer in half forward line and can take a score, Surprised he hasnt started more in the league)
12: Carney (Been impressed everytime he’s played)
13: (No one has stepped up to take other corner forward position for me. Need a scorer in there so maybe D.Coen, Boland did well there against Kerry but then moved out to half forward line against Tyrone where he struggled)
14: Jason
15: RoD
@pebblesmeller agreed on AoS, brilliant servant and always puts in a shift but feels like we desperately trying to shoehorn him in somewhere at this stage. He wasn’t especially bad on Saturday night but he was essentially given a free role as he was the previous week against kerry and didn’t contribute near enough to justify it. Peter harte in particular appeared to be targeting him as a weak spot on Saturday, given the fact we have an embarrassment of riches in half back line I don’t we can indulge anyone with a free role back there especially while we continue to have troubles in the hf line
On Saturday performers the positives…
– midfield is looking really settled. Ruane has continued allstar form and Jordan flynn really nailing down a spot so credit to management for persisting with flynn
– ROD continues to be our talisman, already a huge leader in the side. Think I voted him motm 4 times already
– McBrien showed well at fullback, would like to see more of him, think he is very definitely an option now. Put him up against Dan flynn this Sunday will be great test for him
….oh shoutout for jack carney too.
He has really put his hand up with his contributions, he is very much in the mix for galway game
I expect the team for sunday will be very close to championship start up. Bit of a dress rehearsal for championship imo against tricky opposition.
Yeah think kildare will be perfect dress rehearsal for galway as they are very similar in style and standard to galway so it is the ideal fixture really to find out where we at. Would be going with strong as possible lineup, close to championship starting team as possible but definitely another trial for the guys like mcbrien and carney who have been putting up their hand…so for kildare game then…
Hennelly
Keegan
Mcbrien
Plucknett
Durcan
Coen
Mullin
Flynn
Ruane
Carney
Diarmuid
Loftus
Doherty
ROD
Orme
Pebblesmeller – it’s very misleading to say our best performances this season have come with Aidan off the pitch. He didn’t play the first half vs Donegal when we were terrible, the first 30 minutes vs Monaghan when we were clearly second best or the first half vs Armagh when we were 4 points behind. I said the same thing after the Kerry game, but it’s mad how Aidan gets judged on completely different standards compared to others. I’d be starting him at 11 vs Kildare if Diarmuid is injured. Nobody else has put their hand up at all in that position.
Having said that, I didn’t see the point of O’Shea playing at 6. It will never happen in championship.
Wide Ball_ you have saved me a lot of typing with your reply , I am sick of all the negativity around other.
Sorry that should be oshea
If we get to the league final could we play another experimental team, even if to avoid injuries to key players? There are pros and cons to this, the cons bring that if we take a tanking it will be bad vibes going into the Galway match. Also, Kerry will be trying their very best to win it as per previous Jack O’Connor eras (and they’re mad to win tight, meaningful games these days), so it will likely be a full blooded affair and the risk of injury thus increases. And we certainly don’t need anymore of that.
The pros are that it’s another high end, elite match for our newbies. But we need to guard against a hammering. Who’d be a manager, eh….
Well done Ryan once again. Proved he can operate right across the full forward line so he won’t have any adjustment to make to his game whoever the third man may be. Looking at the manner in which a lot of the no 11’s on the top teams operate, including the manner in which DOC plays the position when posted there, I would be confident that Oisin would revel at no 6. A lot of those centre forwards (bar Sean O’Shea) seem to travel all over the field and that would allow Oisin to make those more effect runs through a more central channel and not starting from quiet as far back. Hoping we might see it next Sunday.
Great suggestion Richard. Not sure why he hasn’t been tried there.
Agree Wideball,when Mayo lose there’s about three times as many posts as when they win.Some lads just can’t wait to put the boot in,I’ve said it before but coming from some Rossie or Brolly I can’t deal with it but coming from our own it gets to me.Aiden was one of our best performers the last day but facts like that don’t come into it.
I’d prefer to have him coming off the bench to close out games but we don’t always have that luxury.
Ryan is consistent in his dogged play and works hard. I’d like to acknowledge our goalie – I think he did a fine job on balance and hopefully he will get better and better. Jack Carney is improving. In fairness we did hit in a few high balls but the wind really was a factor and carried the ball on numerous occasions. Maybe James Horan is playing the long game – we as fans havent a clue who he will have on the “settled team” – makes it hard for Galway to prepare against us. On a sour note though, I think we were lucky in the way the draw went because I feel that if we met Dublin this weekend we would have struggled to get a result. Our team had no shape the other night and there was no communication compared to us versus Dublin. We carried the ball into defensive walls and still havent learned to try and take that extra yard before kicking. Personally I will be happy that we can stay in Div 1. Is there an All Ireland in us? Hard to know just yet.
I saw Spillane playing in his heyday, he was to me good player surrounded by brilliant players, but he was a fake, look back at any footage you will see him at the slight touch fall in heap to the ground as if he were badly hurt,get free and away like March hare not bother on him, himself and o rourke should be turfed off that panel, I like fitzmaurice he doesn’t insult or belittle what are amateur players.
There is an All Ireland in us……..dont know if its this year but there is.
I would try Jack Carney at 14 he is good in the air and we need that option…….worth a try?
Plunkett in half forwards?
Plunkett at HF. 100% should be tried.
To quote Pebblesmeller is summing up our problems.
Great post.
“Seeing us play Tyrone on Saturday night was worrying for me because it looked like we had learned absolutely nothing from our God-awful, terrible performance against the same opposition in the AIF last year. We had zero threat inside in our full forward line, in actual fact on many occasions on Saturday night there was no Mayo player inside the scoring zone at all! We had zero threat from our half forward line and O’Donoghue had to continually drop out the field to get on ball. You could substitute the words “Cillian O’Connor” for “O’Donoghue” in the previous sentance and it would the same thing we’ve been reading for 5 years.
We are clueless in attack when met with a defense that marks zonally as opposed to man-to-man. Kerry (with Talty in the backroom team and O’Connor as manager have adopted this tactic) and Tyrone both get numbers back the field to protect the scoring zone. This isn’t any new fangled tactical innovation, it’s just fairly crude, hard work and numbers. Forwards want space, backs want to crowd them out. And yet, after 5 years, we still are clueless against it. Dublin, Armagh and Monaghan (who have seriously regressed under Banty – a much overrated manager) all went man-to-man and left loads of space for our kick passers and inside forwards. They played straight into our hands. I expect Kildare to do likewise next weekend and for us to get the win but that’s not my point. If we want to win Sam we have to find a way of beating the crowded zonal defense and accept that starting O’Shea is not going to lead to success.” (end of quote)
If you don’t have forwards that are nurtured, and be patient with and encourage them to express themselves, and take on defenders, then it will be the same old same old.
we have seen that while runners while important to a team, it does take skill and speed to score.
At the start of this D1 league campaign the objective was to stay up, job done. Around that, try news players, bring people back in, experiment. Some players have cemented there place in the starting 15, few questions still remain on others.
It’s easy to get fierce carried away over the past 2 matches. We seem to focus on what went wrong versus the good points.
The real football starts v Galway and then v Ros should we beat Galway.
Sam and only Sam is all that matters. Not the league.
We’ve left a few too many scores behind for sure but the game V Kerry and Tyrone are done, move on to Kildare.
We’ve the squad and talent to keep us going until July. I’d rather be debating who is playing where then than focus on blaming individuals now.
If we get to position where on 55 to 60 mns we are ahead against a northern team and they have to come out and chase the game we need to be able to lock down our defence and hit them on the counter. It’s at this stage in the game I would bring AOS on at centre half and bring in say a speedster like hession beside him. He needs game time in this position to give us options but the league is not championship and playing in the league does not mean you’re a starter come championship
@Mayo13BG
I would also say the following were objectives of the league;
Find a midfield partner for Mattie (done)
Find a settled half forward line that can chip in with scores (not done yet)
Find an additional inside forward that can chip in with scores (not done yet)
Overall the league has been a mixed bag but we are yet to address our Achilles heel which is the scoring return from our starting forwards.
Is the media ban still in effect..any statement on the match from James horan
I find it truly amazing how this is not sold out yet , what is there 3600 mayo st and let’s hazard a guess at 1000 Kildare that leaves a measly 4500 tickets for open sale , quite extraordinary when you consider half a million tickets for an all Ireland final wouldn’t be enough .
Media ban is still there, Parkoncroakie, so we’ll be hearing no more from JH until that’s sorted.
There are a few forwards on the Mayo panel who’ve been ‘nurtured’ for a few years now but who are still struggling unfortunately.
No, we need players who can kick over a couple of points under pressure. If that means half backs being picked at HF then let’s try it.
Why is it that the Paddy Durcans and the Plunketts can do this? Perhaps it’s because they’re not being dogged by man-marking defenders. Who knows, if they line out at HF their scores might dry up? But as things stand I’d rather this be tried instead of sticking with our current non-scoring rotation. We’ve plenty great half backs to cover there.
Perhaps our style of play just doesn’t facilitate half forwards flourishing? I don’t know….
I’d throw Plunkett in at half-forward against Kildare.
Welll done Ryan. Disappointing to lose to Tyrone again – surely we knew what to exoect from them. Agree with panel, why werent Brendan H and Conor O ‘Shea used. Not a fan of Pat Spillane, but I cannot disagree with his comments “poor skill execution, lack of composure, poor game management, starting 6 forwards got 1 point from play, no goal and only 37 percent of chances in All Ireland converted’.
No sign of Cillian yet so ……
After 6 league games… more questions than answers. Anyone thinking that Doherty and cillian will save the day I’m afraid slightly deluded. Yes put plunkett into the forward line. Half forward I think. We have what we have. Best juggle it around. Nobody has stood up really that’s new. I reserve judgement on flynn until championship but he has done well. Big injury worries are Harrison cillian and Doherty
Well done Ryan Deservedly man of the match in the last two matches, though only got one point from play in those two games. In fairness showed for ball, excellent on frees as well. But our forwards have been really poor in the last two games. Look at what we now face. Kildare who scored more in first half than we managed in whole game and who scored more v Monaghan than we got in the last two games. If by chance we win then up comes Kerry. One goal conceded from a penalty so far in the league when we used to point to Kerrys defence as their weak area. Would any Mayo forward start for Kerry..? Maybe Ryan. Then in 5 weeks we have Galway. Only team in any league with 100 per cent record. Derry defence had conceded very few goals before yesterday but Galway rattled in 3 by half time. Comer and Conroy were impressive and all this minus Shane WAlsh. Massive few weeks coming. We have done well to retain our status but other teams are looking more impressive at this moment in time. I just wonder where are our scores going to come from. We need to be scoring goals but got none v Donegal, Armagh, Kerry or Tyrone. We also got none v Dublin or Tyrone in last year’s championship. On Aido, he certainly was not the problem Saturday night. I feel he should have been moved to full forward in last 10 minutes.
I don’t get why people are still calling for Loftus to be given a chance in the forwards. Genuinely can’t recall the last time he contributed a decent amount from play, he’s been on the scene long enough and had more than enough chances compared to others. Would persist with Boland and have Carney in other wing forward position with Diarmuid in CHF. Mcloughlin and Hession very able cover for this line. Orme, Coen and O’Donoughue in full forward line for me, Doherty to come in when game loosens up.
Carney will hopefully bulk up a lot more for next year and will be another serious midfield option. Think the man we need to get minutes into more than anyone is Harrison to be honest, get him into the full back line with McBrien and O’Hora and it frees up Durcan/Keegan/Mullin a hell of a lot more. An awful pity Eoin O’Donoughue is gone from the panel this year, would have been ideal for CHB, excellent there this year for Belmullet, in particular his kick passing. Unfortunately if we are to see Cillian this year, I think it won’t be June/July if we make it that far. Pity the club league isn’t ongoing to give lads like him, Harrison and Eoghan McLaughin some valuable game time to ease them back in.
Would also add Mark Moran, James Carr and Justin Healy to that list of lads who would be great to have as options. Healy is off the panel at the moment but the potential is there. I’ve a feeling Mark Moran will get a half this weekend, be great if he could put his hand up, well capable of it
I say this again, and not condescendingly, that I feel sorry for the Mayo lads, the pressure and scrutiny they are under, always, particularly the forwards. The talent is there, on a par to compete with all teams and enough to win the All Ireland. Scores win matches, so ultimately the wrath will always be on the forwards when we lose. Add in the weight of expectation and there’s your answer.
But there comes a time when they need to overcome this, collectively. It’s all psychological at this stage, not lack of talent.
There’s too much expectation/anticipation around Cillian and even Jason Doherty. Getting back to form takes time. What’s the story on Darren Coen – he’s scored some spectacular long-range points but never starts -does he lack the speed for Championship GAA?
When I saw Aidan was starting at 6 I just thought it was to add a bit of height in around the house where Mc Shane might be hovering & as a bit of cover for a rookie full back. We might not see that again,I think he offers more up front but as othere have said coming on rather than starting. He still occupies a couple of defenders when he’s posted close to goal. It’s disappointing that we never developed a plan around him stationed up there. Win it & quick lay off to nippy scorers. There’s still time maybe. A great plus for me would be to see Brendan Harrison at corner back against Kildare , release Lee to hb line. Harry at his best is a match for any corner forward & vital for Galway game imo.
@Liberal in the role; True a lot of issues are due to mindset i would say.
Lots of posters are getting frustrated as we clearly had Tyrone by the ear coming into the last period and still let them off the hook. Why? No good pointing to missing cillian or other lame excuses that don’t wash..
For me, it’s a lack of belief. And fear coming into the teams’ play at a critical time. The style of play doesn’t help either.. Orme i am told fires over points for fun for his club. Now he is surrounded and playing with better colleagues but no sign of the scores!
Something simple; i would like to see more use being made of the ball. Put the defenders on the back foot with a few well directed long balls. Get enouth players on the receiving end. Some may argue this will leave our defence open at the back but what’t the alternative?. And other teams give the long ball at the right time. Last thing we need are players running themselves into the ground pursuing a bad style of play that is just negative.
Will be interesting to read tomorrow where the County Board have got training facilities for the county teams.
The London eye. Saw Orme play good few times for club. Havnt seen him score for fun, if anything
He gets on lots of ball but is not accurate.
Potential but needs to work on it.
Not sure about anyone on here anyone else on here but I have only tuned in once to League Sunday since the start of league this year. It’s complete scutter . It’s a pointless task spending a few mins analysing a game and only showing a 2 or 3 mins highlights of the game itself . Not to mention some of the heads on it that are more suited to a bar stool chat .
That’s where these regular podcasts really come into their own . Some real debate & analysis .
Think Kildare will be a difficult proposition. They put 24 points over Monaghan . No mean feat even if it is debatable Monaghan have gone backwards . Kildare have a serious forward unit . For us going forward I’d be concerned about where we will get goals . Anyone know if the Kildare game will be on the box ?
@ThelondonEye, I can tell you it’s one hell of a step up from club to county, you’re dealing in milliseconds a lot of the time and you’ll be eaten alive especially by a team like Tyrone.
We can’t say it’s a mindset problem in a league game.
My honest opinion, we are over trained and under coached.
I think a team that gets to 6 All Ireland finals in 10 years must be properly trained and properly coached. To be fair. It’s miniscule margins we’re losing by. Horan has rejuvenated a Mayo side who lost a number of once in a generation players, maintaining us as top contenders for consecutive years. With a good number of rookies. He’s not doing bad. I’m convinced the talent is there.
Knockmore use Orme as more of a playmaker than a scorer. His pace and athleticism are very effective around the half forward line at club level. Darren McHale would be a much more prolific scorer for knockmore when fit.
We were every bit as well coached and fit as Tyrone last year. They only held the heads a little bit better than us on the day.
We are so close yet so far. We need to figure out how to keep the heads when the pressure is at its most. If our heads were right on those biggest of days, we’d have got those few more necessary scores. That’s all we needed. No need for Messi or Ronaldo really. The opposition is always going to be nervous also, but us more so because of our ever-mounting losses, history, and ongoing scrutiny.
@Liberal role in the tie, yes in a decade with very little competition where our S&C was king and we won as many All-Irelands in the last decade as Carlow.
I haven’t seen too much evidence of top class defensive or forward coaching, I’ve seen plenty evidence of something resembling a serengeti stampede but that’s not coaching, that’s a system, two very different things and it hasn’t been good enough to win an All-Ireland.
You say scores win matches, thats only partially correct of course. I prefer to look at the broader picture and put it another way, what wins matches is conceding less than your opponent, in other words start by having a defensive structure to your game.
The majority of posters on here are totally consumed by our forwards or lack of and they’ll rhyme out all the top names we have in defense but what are names without a defensive structure, nothing.
Scores win matches alright but getting turned over willy nilly and conceding soft ones will lose you plenty of matches as well.
So Orme is more of a playmaker than a scorer. Just what we need !!!
Need to get Darren Coen starting in the absence of Cillian.
Needs lads on the pitch what will have a pop. Currently we only have ROD.
Our defence was not the issue versus Tyrone Viper in the league game but has been an issue in big championship games, and in particular our ability to concede goals. I think that our match last week highlighted the lack of a plan B in terms of forward play which has also been a recurring issue, and why fans are more focused on this.
@Mikey, I wish I could post screenshots or clips to highlight what I mean, another issue is we are not pressurizing the opponents ball carrier enough.
All anyone needs to do is look at the transformation in Kildare in a short space of time by Glen Ryan, a fantastic player in his day but a newcomer to the inter county management circuit and well aided by coaches Anthony Rainbow, Johnny Doyle and Dermot Earley.
We are not going to unearth anyone better than we have at this stage of the season and like I suggested some time ago when the masses were searching Mayo for a new goalkeeper that the answer to our goalkeeping issues was better coaching in order to help eradicate Rob’s bad habits, and there is evidence that extra coaching is being done with Rob.
With the defense it’s more unit coaching rather than individual and thats why we need a settled back six.
I must look back at the Tyrone game again but I recall several occasions when Tyrone men were in acres of space and several occasions when there was no pressure at all being put on the ball carrier.
The issues we have are fixable, whether they will be fixed is another matter.
We should beat Kildare and reach a league final, if we fail to do that then I think the shit will hit the fan big time.
Any word on mchale park , pretty sure there was supposed to be some kind of update this week due .
Yip, McHale will be ready for Galways visit next month Sean. Piece in today’s Mayo News confirming it.
Viper, I think that we struggled for 25 minutes defensively versus Tyrone but we have to take into account that 4 of those playing 1-7 were inexperienced in their positions, after that we tightened up considerably and scoring 12 points to win was very achievable. I do agree with your final two points though, let’s see what Sunday brings.