59 thoughts on “Sunday match reports”

1. Another kick in the teeth from that shower, but we have so many players returning from injury and getting gametime for form, players who have never let us down are just not firing at the moment! There are many more issues I’ve no doubt, but, Harrison, Barrett, keegan, donie, boyler, Andy, Kevin Mac, and even doc to an extent not hitting form. I think to be where we are is massive for a team not playing well! We are finding cogs that will bolster us come championship, Plunket, McDonagh, Ruane are all close to championship starters, that’s a major plus! If caff hits his Grove again that will strengthen the fb line. Its not all doom and gloom

2. Too much mileage and heartache for many of our lads. It has the end of an era feel. Problems all over the pitch. No real performances in 2 years. Galway are a country mile ahead. We have dropped to the middle of the pack I think qand a championship Sunday against Dublin, Kerry, Galway or Tyrone could be a painful experience. Think we should stick with some of the younger guys regardless and think long term

3. I believe Mayo are coming to the end of a cycle, and will soon enter a period of decline. The only question is..how deep will it be and how long will it last ?.
   This is not a criticism of management or players or officials, it has happened to every county no matter how successful they have been. We’ve been fortunate in Mayo over the last 30/40 years that we have rebuilt and had another go after 4 or 5 years ,hopefully it will be the same this time.

4. Any word on how Cian Hanley’s recuperation is going? We miss an athletic half-forward like him who can carry the ball from defence to attack. Cillian can’t be too far away now either but both have been out for some time.

   McLoughlin will be getting fitter and I always think when he’s playing well we tend to go well.

5. Now that the, what I call the ’24hr purge’, is starting to subside I would draw ye’re attention to a post I sent on November 22, 2018 under the heading Senior Squad Update. I’m no oracle and in fact i’ve stopped doing the league predictive draw because I’m rubbish at it.. heart always ends up ruling the head.. but what I said at the time was a reasonable enough prediction.. quick out of the blocks and win our first three games.. mission accomplished. Anything after that is not going to be easily got and you have to temper expectation. Its not the first and wont be the last but as supporters we run away with ourselves and this is equally matched in measure by a team that panics, goes for goal instead of taking pints.. under sixteens childish stuff. I liked JP”s we dont need another hero description.. too much of that last night and not enough working as a team, concentration and that word again composure. But if we are question our teams failings then we also need to look at the bar we measuring them with. That said I do agree its frustrating because we could so easily have beaten them.

6. Rock – We have loads of athletic guys that carry the ball up the field. Coen, Vaughan, Boyle etc. We need guys who can lift the head and kick the ball up the field so it gets to the full forward line before blanket defences are set up.

7. When 2 teams are level on points, is it head to head or scoring difference that decides the placing?

8. Worst thing of all is the loss last night propels the Dubs into a great position of making the league final v Kerry, the Dubs will win today and also their final two games.
   I was talking to a guy from Bellmullet after the league game v the Dubs in 2017, he was concerned as to the failure of Mayo in the game, I assured him that it all would be different in the championship, I was right.
   But something was bothering me after I left Croker last Saturday night, how could Mayo play so badly after three wins on the trot, it’s very clear that there is also a massive difference in the 8 teams in Div 1, Mayo will need the seasoned guys fully fit for the championship of 2019.
   Guys such as Cillian, McLoughlin, Seamus O Shea, O Donoghue, Hanley are badly needed.

9. Very good interview with Chan Hanley on newstalk yesterday as part of an AFL feature. He is a very impressive young man and he spoken honestly about his experience of life family and sport and it certainly puts everything in perspective.
   As for his return he will not be back till champion ship and can hardly be expected to be up to speed after such a long layoff . 2020 may see the best of Cian.
   In the course of recalling his football journey he identified potential player welfare issues relating to intensity of training for youngsters and been allowed proper recuperation time from injury that are concerning. Link below I hope!
   https://www.offtheball.com/podcasts/off-the-ball/afl-saturday-panel-homesickness-injuries-returning-home

10. A good night for the lads who didn’t play last night .Again. Where have we heard that before. We lost to a pretty good Galway team by 2 points. We have been poor in the league for years Our new manager is trying to blood some new lads by mixing them in with older lads. We are a poor enough winter team but in fairness to us we have hung on to our Division 1 status. Some of our more established players are off form and last night simply must have been a nightmare for J Durcan and McDonagh in trying to navigate a way through the Galway backs against the wind. In my opinion some of the reaction here has been over the top. A small bit of realism is needed. At this moment in time Galway are better than us.7 victories in a row is fairly conclusive evidence and they certainly have more and have better players to return than we have. But having said that we are still well capable of beating them in the summer even if it is in Pearse Stadium. By then I feel we will have our best starting 15 and best subs ready to go. That will be the time to judge us .In the meantime we can continue to experiment and hope that the teams below us don’t make it to 6 points. And don’t despair too much if we lose to Kerry and don’t be tipping us to beat them in WJs poll before the game and then raging because you have been wrong again. As has been the case since 2011 the time to judge the team is in Summer.

11. I hate this rubbish about it only being the league, not up to speed etc blah blah blah….this mayo team consistently make the same errors and have done so for years. This suggests a funamental problem of not being able to learn or not being willing to learn

    For example the missed chances and bad decisions…..Andy came on to try to get us over the line. Now you would expect him to show cuteness and experience to the younger forwards but when we had momentum what does he do…….he attempts a Hail Mary kick from the corner, later on other forwards tried other crazy shots……you could nearly see them thinking……well if Andy thinks it’s ok then it must be

    Now this has nothing to do with time of year or only the league etc but does it have a lot to do with ego ?? Someone on here said we don’t need another hero…..quite right and an ex manager said a few egos need to be checked……….

    I’m not having a specific go at Andy…..he is just this weeks example there have been plenty more and this appears to be a culture in the team

12. Game Management .

    The great teams always talk about process and performance but they also speak about game management.

    This was one area where we were let down badly last night. I tweeted the following at half time last night;

    Hmmm Game management very poor 6 points to 3 down against a gale Galway 2 men in the bin and WE expose our full back line for a stupid goal. Why not see the half out 6 to 3? @mayogaa 0:03 @Galway_GAA 1:07 #AllianzLeagues #mayogaa

    Actually think we were 5 to 3 down ( there was a gale blowing you had to be nearly inside the 21 to score) and we were trying to play Hollywood football and score goals , you play the conditions. Go in 6 to 3 down at half time and we have effectively won the game ( with a 6 point wind).

    The New England Patriots ( the best NFL franchise of the past 20 years ) have a saying/motto “Do your Job” well we have too many guys not doing their job, some like Colm Boyle trying to do 2 peoples jobs .

    Game Management needs leadership on the pitch and leadership on the sidelines (we saw neither of this last night) we got the game back to 1 point and continued to go for the Hollywood shits instead of trusting the process and working the openings until the percentage shot.

    Every team suffers game Management issues Dublin in the drawn 2016 final at the end when Connolly took the ball from Kilkenny to go for the Hollywood shot, 40 seconds late Cillian was levelling the game ( which we could have won if Bastick had been pinged for the technical foul of picking the ball off the ground)

    So for the last 2 rounds of the league I want to see a few things , Process, Performance, Leadership and Game Management .

13. Well if we’re taking Hollywood shits on the field we lost altogether:)

14. Disappointing performance, on my way back to Dublin now and I don’t honestly know how to gauge where we’re at in the bigger picture. When we got to within a point I thought we had it , what on earth happened , it was like we didn’t want it in the end. Vaughan taking that last point underlined for me that we were not pushed about victory , that mind sound stupid but surely not as stupid as going for a point with the last kick of a game when losing by more than one point .

    Keegan is not himself at all , Boyle needs a bench role now , why plunkett didn’t start I can’t fathom. Our keeper situation is bizzare , horses for courses would explain rotation but then you’d imagine hennelly would of suited last night’s conditions . Our reluctance to take on shots into the wind was pathetic .

    I actually don’t think we are finished as such , our expectations might not be as ambitious but can we bounce from this league and grab the Nestor cup back , too fookin right we can .

15. Come on the Rossies, playing the Dubs with no fear, so far.

16. @NiallMc1983 autocorrect on mobile (unable to edit after posting) Freudian slip

17. Agree mayo88, rossies playing the dubs with no fear, great to see the dubs out of croker, I hope the rossies beat them

18. Listened to the audio report, bit of background wind noise but fine summary for anyone not able to make it to the game.
    The most worrying point for me. We got into a good rhthym, whittled down the lead to a point, but then, inexplicably, hit the wall and couldn’t push on. Even the assistance of a howling wind and frenzied supporters couldn’t get us over the line. An undesirable trait, we’ve seen in the past, back to haunt us.
    Worse still, we put the final two nails in our own coffin by giving away two unmisable frees. And even worse again, two of our most experienced players were the culprits.
    when the dust settles and the video analysis is done, there will be a lot of head scratching, both players and management.
    On a positive note, Matthew Ruane was outstanding from start to finish. Matthew’s game has really gone up a notch since linking up with the mayo squad. A midfielder who can score from long range.
    I was glad to see Darren Coen getting a good run, did some good work and took on the responsibility of having a pot, when the chance arose.
    I did sense supporter frustration with the way many of our attacking moves panned out laterally, bit like a ‘one trick pony’.

19. Very frustrating, the stats have Mayo ahead everywhere except on the score board… Galway were the better team, they managed the game allot better than Mayo… scored a goal when 2 men down was a disaster from a Mayo point of view. . Galway if you remember also scored a goal totally against the run of play V Monaghan, So it’s something that Galway are working on, and doing it very well…Stricking hard when opposition don’t sense the danger… Galway also almost scored a second Goal last night, totally against the run of play when Mayo were totally on top.. only David Clarke was super sharp off his line…. I think you could see that this particular mix of player’s haven’t played too many times together… Mathew Ruane was a big plus for us, but I still feel sick from last night’s defeat. . The form of Leroy (possibly the best Mayo player of all time) is poor… Diarmuid I taught was poor as well.. Look we have Six point’s, and we may need another point to be certain of staying up… There will be no league Final Now as far as I can see.

20. The good news for us is that Roscommon and Monaghan have lost today. We’re very close to being safe now.

21. A one point hammering.

    Galway Superiority Check List

    Physicality. Check
    Cuteness. Check
    Tactical Awareness. Check
    Primary Possession. Check
    Accuracy. Check
    Dealing with adversity (2 black cards). Check

    Upside? 1 point loss makes our point difference still respectable. As Wideball said, Rossies and Monaghan losing today.

22. I am as perplexed as Sean Burke above. We needed to make a positive statement last night in McHale and that did not happen. Galway are now shaping up to be a useful unit. Maybe all those wins in underage comps in recent years is taking it’s toll on us psychologically.
    By championship time, Galway will be fair contenders.
    I do hope Horan continues to give new talent a chance. Fionn McDonagh may need a rest at this stage and come back recharged. Imo We need a Comer type target man in full forward line, to give us more options going forward. And we need lots of target practice from out at the forty. AOS, for all his good work, needs to be able to take his point too. If we are persisting with this lateral play we need to be able to take long range points.
    Kerry game will now be a measure of anything learned from last night

23. We should be ok now anyway given today’s results

    And to answer ShufflyDeck
    Just because I dare question Horan and point out that Rochford may feel he was harshly treated does not make me a troll.
    I am a regular contributor.

24. Just typing out loud here , let’s say Galway and Ros draw or Ros win ,. Monaghan beat Cavan , it’s a last day nail biter ?

25. Good results for us today in that both Roscommon and Monaghan both lost No offence to the Rossies
    who in fairness played well but its about our survival not some other county beating Dublin. On a slightly different note well done to Leitrim. Excellent achievement to get promotion with 2 games to go.

26. Tyrone aren’t safe yet either on 5 points. They’ve to play Dublin in Croker next and Galway in final round.

27. Tyrone will decide who the league finalist will be to play Kerry in the final.
    Tyrone have both the Dubs and Galway yet to play, this makes it all the more frustrating, had Mayo won or even drawn last night, I reckon they would have made the final irrespective of the upcoming Kerry result.

28. Thanks for that link Lahanman. Really worth listening to. Huge amount of respect for Cian Hanley and everything he has gone through. Hopefully we see him soon playing for Mayo

29. If 2 teams finish level on points then it’s head-to-head, if more than 2 teams finish level then it’s goal difference.

    We’re safe but it’s looks like Dublin will prevail to meet Kerry in final,

30. Lot of talk about Cian Hanley. Saw him once or twice in action since he returned to these shores and I can’t really see what all the optimism is about. I’ll be very happy to be proved wrong there. However, I sure as hell was impressed by the fighting spirit of the Rossies today in the Hyde. Ok, the Dubs finally broke them down but it is to the credit of our neighbors that they gave a much, much better account of themselves against the Drive of Five team than we could muster. So much is made of getting the Dubs out of Croke Park but I must take my hat off to Ros on the manner in which they ploughed into the best team of all time and were not overawed by reputations.
    I don’t like reminding myself that Galway scored 1. 01 against us with 13 players. There is now irrefutable evidence that we are currently the third best team in Connacht. I sincerely and earnestly hope that, unknown to me, there is some logical explanation for our current fall from grace and for our downward spiral. Next up, Kerry in Tralee and Monaghan in Castlebar. No reason to be bullish about the possible outcomes in either of these encounters if one is to deal with the realities of Mayo 2019. Perish the thought but I wonder how we’ll do in NY?

31. Why would anyone want us in the League Final. As far as I can see it could do more harm than good. All doom & gloom for now.

32. Apologies” to win just once” I didnt know this handle was already taken. I will revert to a new name from now on.
    Its good to see there is still a lot of optimism out there. Maybe we are building to peak in June, July and August when it really matters and JH has a masterplan to finally bring Sam home. Stick with the new lads now and keep going. Bring in Diskin, Plunkett and hold Reape,Ruane and Mc Donagh in the Team.Important now we get something from the Kerry clash. A draw would suffice.

    Team to play Kerry
    Hennelly
    O Donoghue
    Harrisson
    Coen
    Keegan
    Plunkett
    Durcan
    Ruane
    AOS
    Mc Donagh
    D O Connor
    Higgins
    Moran
    Reape
    Diskin

33. I’d agree I don’t know where the optimism is coming from on cian Hanley, I’d put him a good bit behind Treacy or McDonagh. Was parachuted into the county team last year but I’ve seen him a bit with club too and still seems to struggle with the skills of the game.

    We did beat Roscommon a few weeks ago so until they beat us in a competitive game I wouldn’t agree we’re the 3rd best team in Connacht.

34. What is the story of tickets for the. New york game in may when do they go on sale

35. Ah catch yourself on Sourceoftherobe, third best team in Connacht? Come off it. When did we last lose to the rossies in league or championship? And Roscommon (although granted they showed some fight today) are on half our points tally with Kerry and Galway yet to play so relegation is staring them in the face in my opinion. We’re a close second and that’s it, give me strength.

    The league is a training exercise in my opinion – I couldn’t really give a damn if we won it. I was there in 2001 and we cheered as the team done their lap of honour, went home and that was the end of it. Only one thing matters. It’s just under 6 months to the all Ireland final (6 months!!) so can everyone take a chill pill, we’ll maintain our division one status (again) and look towards peaking in the summertime (again!). Can we also place a little more trust in James Horans ability? He has a proven record and I’m sure he is analysing every player and their performance as we go – seeing how they cope and react under pressure and their game management ability – no point in waiting until summer to find out. Why else would he make 6 changes for every league game? He is assessing his panel and giving every one a fair crack – isn’t that what everyone wanted for the league? Far more important than winning it in my opinion

36. Cian has been carrying alot of injuries and you dont come back from Australia and just resume where you left off. It takes time.
    Listen to the interview on the link Lahanman provided you have 3 guys talking about the transition back and how difficult it is.
    Look at Tommy Walsh he came back a bit like Hanley after getting injured out there and it just didnt click. Talking to guys in his club its getting there now and he will feature this year for Kerry.
    Obviously Cian is a top athlete and can play football I think he can provide something positive for us over the next few years.

37. Any one out there know aout aquuiring ickets for the new york game

38. Very disappointing result last night. A match we could and should have won. Poor shot selection, lack of discipline by a few players when we seemed set for victory and too late use of substitutes cost us match .I wonder If M.SLINGERMANN, C.LOFTUS and J.CARR would have been more effective starters in the conditions than DC, JD and DOC. Also JH has been tactically outwitted two weeks in a row. It is worrying too that some of our new players who began brilliantly a few weeks back seem to have gone off the boil already.
    I would like to see the following team start against Kerry. M.SLINGERMANN, D.DRAKE. B.HARRISON, C.BARRETT, P DURCAN, M.PLUNKETT, K. HIGGINS, M. RUANE, D.O CONNOR / S.OSHEA, F.MC DONAGH, C.LOFTUS , C.TREACY, J.DOHERTY , A OSHEA. and J. CARR.
    Here;s hoping that management and players put in morale boosting winning performances in their remaining two league matches. I know you can do it . BEST OF LUCK

39. James – there are no tickets for the NY game…it will be first come first serve at the gate and when the ground is full it’s full…so I’d advise taking the 1 train up to 238th street early that morning….

    It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if we beat Kerry but medium to long term it’s not looking good at all at this moment in time. People keep saying we always bounce back for championship…well we didn’t last year and we are another year older this year…I fear tough times ahead

40. Listening to cian hanley on that link it seems incredible that he got into the Mayo team last year. Clearly has had a lot of injuries and needs a lot of time to adjust back to living here never mind playing for Mayo. Taking all that into account he did well for us last year but it was probably unfair all round to have selected him

41. Agree with Our Time has come.
    You have to look at our situation. Not alone are more than half the panel in Dublin at this time of year so not playing together. 6 different newbies/changes are played every match. Please tell me how there can be any real cohesion or gameplan with this set up. Every team put out is different and not used to playing together. We have months yet to nail down all that. As someone else said the plan was to come out of the blocks raging and win our first few games so we can experiment. Many here only wanted that a few months ago. We have done that. No last minute point over the bar needed to salvage our division 1 status this year. Same people now are saying we are finished etc etc. Same people who say quiet on the Mayo for Sam stuff are writing epitaphs. Personally I rather the Mayo for Sam mentality than the negative woe is me mentality. A bit of reason or middle ground needed.
    My god if you were to look back over the last 3 years posts at this time of year I’d say we would hardly be able to tell the difference between 2016/17/18/present. I really am not able to lose sleep over the league. I wake up sick and depressed in championship after a defeat but not in League. Calm down everyone. We have been here before many times.

42. Who knows, maybe Cillian will be back for the Kerry match… But only if fully recovered. While we are, in experimenting and giving everyone possible a chance, I would like to see Connor Louftus, and Eoin O Donaghue get a chance v Kerry… Kerry, are already in the league Final, and might experiment themselves… Which might mean the return of, Geaney, O Donaghue an Clifford…so food for thought there!…

43. Our time has come
    On the strength of our performance against Galway who, last night, managed to score a goal an a point against us when down to 13 men, I think it’s fair to arrive at the conclusion that Galway is currently a better team than Mayo. Ok?
    Now we’ll move to Roscommon. They took on the best team of all time in a head on manner. Fought with tenacious spirit and self-belief. Were level at half time. And lost by four points.
    A short seven days ago Mayo, who are (allegedly) comfortable and accustomed to playing in Croke Park had to thank the heroics of Robbie Hennelly for saving us from a 20 point tanking at the hands of the same Dubs. The Rossies’ goalkeeper was scarcely troubled today.
    And you ask me to catch myself on? Get with the program please.

44. Last year we were absolutely riddled with injuries. Have people forgotten that?!

45. The dubs hardly approached the rossie game same as ours. Prob didn’t even discuss it!!!!! Can’t compare. They went all out to put us out of the picture in first 20 mins. Different circumstances.

46. Sinead37 – how long can this team keep going back to the well for summer redemption? We are all 2 years older from our last final appearance….new blood needed and so far are not as good as what we need replaced. If we are relying on 34 year old Andy Moran to come on and win a league game for us then we really are in trouble.

47. We have a good record against Kerry in the league. Wouldn’t be suprised if we beat them!

48. Where will we get the 1 train yew tree from

49. Mayo are possibly juggling training schedules and collective training is not possible as regularly as is required with the scattering of the team and weather and daylight issues. Mayo will as always get it together in time for the solstice and have the ability to stand toe to toe with anyone (if they bring the kicking game).

    One thing that disappointed me with mayo over the past two weeks was their fatal adherence to the running game, Dublin are like a circus act the way they take up their positions for the next act in the show. Mayo ran the ball and didn’t use the foot pass and this resulted in your inside forward line having to make big decisions regarding further developing play or having a shot in a claustrophobic finger snap moment. The results speak for them selves, fourteen wides and four dropped shots (I know some were down to bad shooting). Last evening from listening to the radio it seemed that again ye carried the ball to their first outer defense and played a lateral non probing hand passing tactic in the hope that someone inside would macigally find a clearing In the chaos of the Galway trenches, not going to happen,,

    The dubs move a ball from one side of the field to the other while two or three players make runs into the defensive structure, everyone else is running in rehearsed patterns and out of nothing cooper or philly or someone else find space and get the pass and pop a shot off. Nothing about this disorganization occurs by chance, they alter their game for the opposition with fantastic effect. Thankfully we have started to change up out game defensively but we have a way to go tbh. That’s why defensive teams don’t threaten the dubs, teams that kick the ball and Harry them give them the most to think about.

    Kerry are more or less in the final and may chose to start an inexperienced team next Saturday week against ye in order to blood them. In saying that ye probably represent the best preparation for a meeting with the dubs. I hope it’s a good night for football and I hope horan starts to introduce a kicking game for mayo going forward, otherwise I find it difficult to see ye getting out of the S8’s and reaching the semifinals.

    There is still a lot of fog on the horizon and only God knows how things will pan out in the months ahead but if anyone can pull it out of the ashes it’s !! ,,,, well ye know who they are

50. I hear you Yew Tree and very valid points. But I still will wait and see and have hope.

51. We’d have to do some remarkable improving to beat Kerry at the moment. But the league is funny in fairness , you have Monaghan who beat the dubs first day out and have lost every game since for example .

    Mort was on some programme there , really wish he played on in 2012 , all ifs I know but no injury to Andy and Mort sprung from the bench ,we just might of beat Donegal .

52. The in-house competition for places on the Dublin panel is something we can only try to imagine. To suggest that there was less intensity in Dublins’s approach to the Roscommon game than there was to that against Mayo is naive in the extreme. It’s dog eat dog in the Dublin. They are on the cusp of a unique achievement. Five in a row. They may, indeed, go on to win eight or ten All Ireland Finals in a row. Unless Kerry or some other county decides enough is enough and puts a halt to their gallop. But the suggestion that they may have taken the foot off the pedal in Hyde Park today is very wide of the mark.

53. We need to get another point to leave us safe by the time we get to our last match v Monaghan. When we are playing Kerry they will be facing Cavan who they are almost certain to beat. If we don’t get something against Kerry and they then beat us in MacHale they are level on points with us and have the head to head on us. So we could be facing the same routine as last year v Donegal. Our other escape route is Roscommon, now on three points who would need four more to overtake us as we have the head to head on them. Incidentally, to say they are ahead of us in Connacht rankings now is adding two and two and getting something in excess of five. They have’nt beaten us competitively for years and until they do I would ask the doom mongers to please shut it. You’re making far more noise than sense.

54. I think it’s naive to think Dublin approached Roscommon same way as Mayo who have been their only real rivals in recent years and perceived to be on the up a few weeks ago for first time in the League in years when on the other Dublin had lost a few games. Different head space.

55. Source of the robe we bet Roscommon just over a month ago, they are likely facing relegation, we are likely not. How the hell are you judging them to be better than us?it’s baffling. You can’t compare two games with different teams in different stadiums with different conditions and conclude that just because dublin bet us by more then that must mean Roscommon are better!! FYI Roscommon were kept scoreless for over half an hour in that second half today when Dublin upped the gears. I know which panel of players I’d rather have heading into championship and they aren’t of the sheep steeling ilk!

56. Oh and I’m case you’re wondering sourceoftherobe I’ve reached that conclusion that we’re better than the rossies because we bet Tyrone by 8 or 9 points and the rossies could only manage a draw!!

57. Ah here, I’ve heard it all now. Sourceoftherobe, thank you for giving me a good laugh. If you have Horans number, give him a call about me….I slammed in a penalty for my junior b’s last Sunday morning, so im now obviously a far better player than Jason Doherty!!!. Your logic is crazy, even the most die hard mayo hating rossie (all of them) would struggle to agree with your power rankings..

58. James – The number 1 train is the red line…it depends where in NYC you are staying but you can jump on it at Penn Station and Times Square and head uptown….get off at 238th street and Gaelic Park is a 5 min walk.

59. We need forwards with natural scoring abilities. That can confidently kick points equally as good off both feet. Watching the game I felt a lot of our scoring chances were kick and hope for the best. Some of the misses Saturday were diabolical. Even with a bad wind. We overran Galway on Saturday in the second half with powerful runners and epic tackling. It was real enjoyable to watch. However as always we don’t have enough forwards with natural point and goal taking abilities to take advantage of this on the scoreboard. We are incredibly strong running and hand passing up the middle but that’s not going to work with stronger teams blanket defenses. Right now it feels every time we shoot it’s a 5050 chance we get a score out of it. That might beat weaker teams but it won’t scrape the surface against the Dublin’s of this sport. I know we have Cillian to come back. But if we are going to make headway this year we need at least two other forwards with similar scoring abilities. Andy Moran has a good 15 mins in him at best and is our only forward right now who can win his own ball. We had enough possession to win this game easily but threw it away it does not look good. And remember Galway without Corofin contingent.