Morning all. It’s Saturday, which hereabouts means a morning of underage hurling and football and associated hopping and trotting so I need to get this one out the door quickly.
There was a huge response to yesterday’s competition, which was great to see but I think that perhaps it’s time now to shift up the gears from the two-pointers to a four-point question. So, to get into the hat for a chance to win the Mayo GAA Blog commemorative t-shirt that’s on offer today – with thanks once again to T-Rex Clothing – you need to answer the following question:
Who was the manager of the Mayo senior football team after Jack O’Shea but before John Maughan?
Answers as always to mayogaablog@ymail.com. All correct answers received by 5pm this evening will go into the draw and I’ll announce the winner later on. Best of luck to everyone who enters.
Good question.
See. Conor Mortimer to write big exclusive for Indo Monday. Frankly I cannot see any benefit accruing from this. I think perhaps he could save his insights for later. This has the potential to be a major distraction and it is I believe I’ll advised.
Of course he is entitled tO give his views as I am giving mine now but I question his timing as I questioned his timing in withdrawing from the panel.
Lads – can you please stop providing answers to the competition via the comments and do so via email instead?
I agree entirely with ShoutoutforMayo. No need for this interview, timing is all wrong. Quite selfish in my opinion. Enough words have been written about Conor’s decision this year, this is hardly the time to do a big interview on it. For all his talk of him being a true Mayo supporter, his timing has to be questioned. It could have waited until after the 23rd. Disappointing.
The answer is….. ah only messing 🙂
I will purposely avoid that paper on Monday as I feel Conor simply cannot have the teams best interest at heart doing that interview
Conor is letting himself down badly here. I dont want to have a pop at the lad because in fairness he is the top scorer for the county and that has to be respected. However as every dog in the street in Mayo knows we want to keep the run up to this final as low key as possible. James has developed a team mentality of which Conor didnt seem to fit into but surely as a fan himself and having had the experience of a number of finals and the hype that goes with them then maybe it would have been better to have done this interview after the 23rd.
Mayo are better off without him, sad to say but true.
As regard’s Conor Mortimor, he’s perfectly to write for whomever he likes, & still be genuinly supporting Mayo, no one can know with absolute certainity what’s happing in anothers heart & mind. Martin Carney was writing for the ‘Donegal Demoract’ I have no doubt ‘John Maughan, Kevin McStay & David Brady all make a few euro’s writing or talking about football and still 100 o/o behind Mayo! I dont really think anything that he writes will make any material difference to match 5. Any insight into Mayo’s possible game plan could only come from the time he was last involved & in my opinion would be so stale, it could carry a ‘Best before the date of the 2012 Connaught final’ lable. Since that time Mayo have beaten Sligo, prepared for and beaten Down & Dublin in completly different playing conditions eg Croke Park, without any input from Coner. It may cause some controversey among Mayo supporters, but seriously I have no worries that it could affect the team, they since his departure have shown a great collective ability to cope with adversity, from Coner’s not inconsiderable loss to the panel, to Andy’s very considerable loss trough injury, Boyle’ Keegan’s McLoughlin all absent for much of the semifinal has given us plenty of evidence that this panel of players can manage its resorces to good affect with no player irreplacable. To tell the truth I feel a little sorry for Coner, I know he walked away, but he gave more than a decade to Mayo & could easily be playing on the 23rd.
Hope you are right Lobitin but I doubt it. The timing of this piece is all wrong even if as you say and I agree the boys and james handle it in their customary calm way. The point is that Conor can hardly take credit for their maturity. It only accentuates his immaturity. I too believe we could have done without this this week.Sometimes it is hard to gauge what will affect personalities around a team and what feeds media frenzy.
John Maughan,Kevin McStay and David Brady never pulled out of a Mayo panel so the comparison is not valid nor will anything they have to say be likely to be injurious to the Mayo cause as Conor’s withdrawal was.
But I agree he has a right to free speech. He has the right also not to exercise that right in the week up to an All Ireland. AS Horan’s brigade said- Disappointing.
Any tickets?
I’d tend to agree with Lobitin’s take on this – Conor is a former Mayo player now and like a lot of former Mayo players he has a media profile that to build and the run-up to an All-Ireland final is obviously a good time for him to do this. To be fair to him, anything he has said in public since quitting the panel has been supportive of the players and I’d expect him to continue in this vein with whatever he says in the coming week. In any event, I can’t see any public statements by Conor having any impact at all on James or the lads – I doubt very much that they’ll be sitting round devouring what’s in the Indo over the coming few days.
Really Willie Joe? Does that include statements indirectly attributed to him by his father on radio? And his twitter account. Tell you what let’s wait and see Monday and give him the benefit of the doubt. Build his media profile? At whose expense?Let’s wait and see.
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Question.does the famous family statement not say all conor wants now is privacy.funny that.
not this again please mayo have big game next sunday up mayo and galway
That’s a disgraceful comment, livenhope, which I’ve deleted in full. Comment moderation naughty step for you, I’m afraid, after that one.
Ah ‘ShoutforMayo’ ,to be fair he’s as entitled as the next to build his media profile, if thats what he wants I seriously doubt that Jim McGuiness will read it! I’m 100o/o convinced it wont even redister with the team or managment. ‘Cool hand luke’ I never said JM, K McS, or DB would do anything injurious to the Mayo team, I said they were 100 o/o behind the team.
Fair enough.enough said on this for now.let’s wait until we read his peace.
🙁 oops sorry Willie Joe bit stressed today and the whole CM thing a very sore spot for me my choice of words weren’t great I admit .. Promise not to mention him on here again ..
That’s fair enough, livehope – just bear in mind for future reference.
After reading the Saturday papers I couldn’t help but notice two two relevant comments, from mr donegal himself in the irish times which was very complimentary to mayo, and then mr star himself donaghy in the irish independant which wasn’t. Suffice to say the one that should be the focus of attention to any mayoman such as meself, from what with next weeks pot boiling nicely, waned with donaghy’s off the cuff remark that he can’t imagine what it would like to be blown out of it by 2-4 after 10 mins in an all Ireland final. Donaghy goes on to say that Kerry are now behind mayo and Donegal in the cute hoor stakes at closing out games and Kerry will need to get more cynical to compete. Well firstly, I never saw a team more attuned to the black arts than Kerry, not blatant but better than ourselves in the relevant games. Secondly, i’ll tell him gladly what’s its like to be routed. It’s memorable, and despite now beating cork, Kerry, down and Dublin at gaa headquarters in bright technicolor, it will never fade. It inspires us. It defines us. It petrifies us. It’s on the edge of our conscious and on dark nights and in the bright open fields of croker haunts the darker recesses of the stands. Croker is like a church, it’s a cathedral, it hosts funerals and christenings on the same day. I’ve been at both. I’m going to another soon. The one thing I am and can be sure of is that Kerry won’t be the undertaker this year. Mayo Abu.
Speaking of Donaghy, I had a bizarre dream last night – in the dream it was the morning of the All-Ireland, I was watching a re-run of 2006 except Kieran McGeeney was playing full back for Mayo wearing reading glasses. Mayo weren’t doing badly either, and they were wearing the all-white strip of the 50’s. Then I realised my wife had changed all the clocks in the house, including my phone, and it was 10 past 3 and I was going to miss the game. Make of that what you will.
Conor was an attention-seeker and greedy on the pitch – – – – no reason to think that he would be any different off the field of play. One would hope his article would be positive in support of the team – – – the last thing we need now is for him to unleash a “few scuds” that would be a distraction to James and the boys as they enter their final week of preparation.(surely he wouldn’t stoop that low) Obviously he is taking advantage of the situation while he is still in the public eye and intends to make a few bob for himself. Predictable but a little dissappointing. Time for Conor to put away the Michael Jackson T-Shirt and get behind his former comrades.
Samuel…….It was ‘Micheál Jackson’ if I recall !
I for one feel very bad for Conor and Mayo at the same time. He was daft to leave, completely daft and his father was even dafter to issue a statement. How would James Horan like to look at his panel and see Mort flying in training or look to the bench if Varley or whoever is not firing properly and give Mort the nod?
He may have been invisible in previous Finals but he was not alone in that respect, this present team will not shy away or be bullied in the final and Mort Would have shone in the presence of felllas that wont take NO for an answer.
Its too bad for all concerned and I hope sense prevails and he cancels this piece in that rag on monday, its of no benefit to a group that are trying to get it all right and if it fails( who knows) Conor could be a scapegoat for years to come.
In my life experience its nearly always better to say nothing in the heat of the moment and take time to think it out before acting, its the only way.
I loved his cockiness and arrogance on the field, when he was asked to take a difficult free he sauntered over and was very cool,it can’t be bought or trained, it was just his knowing when and where to be that way that has brought us to this, a real shame.
Well said David.agree twas prob rush of blood but he has had time to mull over article.we will wait and see.
You could be right there “Martyk” – – – seeing as that Conor’s homeplace is very near the Gaelacht – he probably was sporting the Irish version of that T-Shirt. Thanks for putting me Malahide! !
Here’s the Mortimer article mentioned earlier – a nothing story really. He doesnt say anything that would help or hinder either team.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/mortimer-im-still-not-sorry-for-leaving-mayo-3232429.html
I read a sports article last week which stated that mayo defeated the all ireland champions in 04 and 2011,but hype took over and the team failed to produce their best form afterwards. Colm O’Rourke stated in the sunday independent,that in the past mayo’s preparation often resembled Mardi Gras. He added that at a distance you would be inclined to shout,”don’t do it” but it was always too late. I am sure we have learned from the past finals, lets have a calm build up to the 23rd. Donegal are favourites that is just fine with me. Wishing James and the team every good wish on sunday.
I was looking online at the inependent for the main mortimer piece, is that it?
its a nothing story, nothing to upset any manager or teammates.I still think Conor was nuts to walk out, he was there long enough to know that the team was shaping up nicely.