There are days when the weather matches your mood more or less perfectly, today being an obvious case in point. Unless you’re from Galway, I guess, though a spot of singin’ in the rain might be in order there.
I’m only going to do a quick gallop through the reports today. It’s a job that I do mainly out of custom, usually to start collating them for the links provided in the results archive. I’m not going to dwell on what’s said in the reports on last night’s game and I doubt many of you will either. Anyway, here goes:
Mayo Advertiser – match report, post-match quotes from Stephen Rochford.
Nationals: Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Sunday Independent.
Others: GAA, RTÉ, The 42, Hogan Stand (match report, quotes from Stephen Rochford and Kevin Walsh).
Right, that’s enough for now – there’s rumination to be done and rain streaming down the window panes to the looked at. And, of course, the drive back to the capital a bit later on. Happy days.
Oh, before I forget, please vote in the MOTM poll if you haven’t yet done so. I know the concept always seems a bit hollow when it’s run for games in which the real influencers were in the opposition’s ranks but it’s still, I think, a worthwhile barometer on who did well for us in adversity. Back later on with the result of the poll.
Same performance as the league – no game plan just 15 players running and not really getting anywhere.
This team is much better than this result. It may well be the turning point for this team. The next day will show us if they have lost that hunger or if last night was a hiccup.
Rochford needs to show he can manage this situation and get the drive back. He can do this by playing the players in their proper positions. Kevin Mac is not a back or sweeper – Keith is a sweeper / defender, not a forward. Aido is not a full forward but Freezer is. He needs to get Mayo to play far more direct.
Mayo will get to Croke park – the rest is how much you want it!!
Pathetic fallacy, eh? Avoiding the papers til later when this hangover wears off but listening to James Horan on Newstalk playing tribute to Galway’s five debutants.
He’s also suggesting that our brand new system with McLoughlin as sweeper was unsettling and may have led to tentativeness. A new “defensive” system, yet time and time again, we invited them into our 45 and left ourselves wide open down the middle? Bizarre.
Credit to the Galway supporters yesterday in the ground, and indeed last night in Galway, for generally being incredibly sound and gracious. Other nearby counties could learn a thing or two from them – not looking in any direction in particular … 🙂
Absolutely devastated. Gutted. Heartbroken.
Reading the neutral online opinions of us this morning did little to help either; this team will get no sympathy and is seen as having got its comeuppance after the Holmes-Connelly saga last year.
One thing that immediately struck me was that we were 4 points down with 15 minutes to go; plenty of time. This happened last year in the Hyde where Ross laid the ambush for us but we didn’t panic despite how we seemed to be reeling from the goal. Andy and Alan came on, saved the day by calming us and giving us leadership when we needed it most.
That didn’t happen today; we were headless chickens running into trouble. Alan Dillon was nowhere to be seen; Andy and Freezer got too little time. Management I feel got that one wrong and seeing how well previous management dealt with that same problem last year there seems to be a cruel poetic irony to yesterday’s result.
Take nothing away from Galway lads; they wanted this. Remember the feeling of hurt in 2011 when not even our own county gave us a fiddler’s? Still my favourite day as an ardent Mayo man and this victory will live long in the memory for them.
On to the dark and dangerous road of the qualifiers…
Yesterday the game plan didn’t go to well or was there any game plan at all by looking at them did didn’t seem to know what to do only taking the ball in to traffic something went wrong but I know this team can come back stronger I recall people saying when mayo beet Donegal by 14 or 17 points Donegal was going nowhere but still a team no body wants to play one thing I know mayo will do well nobody will want to get us I will take anybody we need to hit the ground running and we will games are what we need hard games at that give the team a chance they have given us five good years its going to be a long summer one game at a time that all Ireland is in this team
We can’t be waiting for Andy to save us. He is fantastic but even Andy needs a bit of a dig out from the others now and again. Boyle is showing signs of having the same stuff as Andy and this should stand to us going forward.
Some harsh words about our sweeper system just there on RTE. “about as useful as
a lighthouse in the middle of the desert”
Salt in the wound for me because I could`nt in truth disagree.
Is this the end of an era folks? Pains me to even consider this, but the lads have been on the road giving everything for the last 6 years and they have brought us so much much not and happiness. Looked like the tank was empty last night. A few things that i enjoyed last night was the passion and performance of Keane, Keegan and Boyle, after that I thought Regan showed well but after that no one else performed to their ability in my opinion
Ann Marie
You might want to look at our own supporters before pointing fingers at other counties for been ungracious etc. Your dislike of Roscommon is well known and their supporters are as good as anyone. We got beaten. You have to learn how to lose as well as win. The entire country is laughing at us today due to our arrogance and over confidence. Dont forget there wasnt too many Galways fans at the game to annoy us. Some of the REAL supporters wud make me laugh indeed. We are beginning to look like sore losers again this year. Who will we blame this year? Not looking in any particular direction
Mayomadness,
The whole country may well be laughing at us, everyone loves the underdog remember. However, in 178 comments on the last thread about the game, there was not one of them that was anything but complementary and gracious about Galways victory. No one blamed the ref, conditions or anything else, but laid the blame squarely on our own shoulders were it belongs. If you look back you will not see any post from a Galway supporter coming on to gloat, you will however see one from a Roscommon poster that I’m genuinely surprised WJ left on the blog.
Wonder will their be any retirements this year. It was Boyle that was the stand out player. I am sure their will be change s for Mayo next game.
I agree 100% with mayo madness. The petty and irrational dislike towards Roscommon gaa is one of the really tiresome aspects of this blog. In fairness Ann Marie is normally one of the best posters here apart from this. Many of our fans have been incredibly arrogant all week, and one silver lining of yesterday’s debacle is it might just inject a bit of badly needed humility into our fan base going forward. Mickey Conroys bizarre tweet before yesterday’s game summed up the situation. A guy who was on the squad up to a few weeks ago displaying an attitude like that makes it obvious to me how much respect Mayo gave their opponents yesterday. #easy indeed
Liam
I think you missed my point. I also agree the Ann Marie posts very fair and informed posts but the digs at the neighbours is petty. We dished out enough abuse last year when Sligo beat them so im surprised they arent on to point out our failings yesterday. James Horgan was on during the way saying how the gap was growing between Mayo and the rest of Connacht. Its that kind of stuff that makes us look silly. At least the ridiculous Mayo4Sam might relax this year now. And on another note the “fans” were very quiet yesterday when the team needed them. Lets see how many turn up for the 1st qualifer if lets say we jave to go to Wexford. A big reality shot in the arm yesterday and no harm for a few folk either.
Don’t be too hard on Anne Marie. Roscommon supporters can make it easy to be annoyed with them.
To be fair Mayomadness Ann Marie didn’t name Roscommon as the supporters she was talking about I have to say I was in Marchievickz park when Sligo bet us in 2010 and couldn’t believe how sound and gracious they’re supporters were every since that day I’d like to see Sligo do well Galway beat us fair and square and there is a good healthy rivalry between us and them Roscommon on the other hand have no time for us probably due to our sucsess in Connacht over the years
Rudderless, pathetic, believed the hype, leaderless, unforced errors, countless mistakes with the wet ball, never looked like scoring a goal, this Irish soccer team are a mess and going nowhere. Meanwhile the Rossies for Sam.
There is a lot of banter between us rossies and ye mayo. From our point of view ye have abused us more than any other team and that is why the rossies are kicking ye when ye are down (a bit like after our hammering in the league semi). Yer banter page called our under 21 team scum. Comments on the board.ie such as monkeys etc. Comments after new york game etc.
However I was hoping ye would win because we were hoping it would be us to stop ye.
Ye will get through to the QF depends on who ye play. Yer too good to be knocked out early. I would expect Rochford to make a few big decisions drop a few and bring in the under 21s
Took a deep breath earlier and checked a well known national forum..Plenty of comments congratulating Galway for their deserved win..Others warning against writing off Mayo..Although others may think it the entire country has other things to think about than Mayo football..
Mayo supporters in general, and also on this site, showed a lack of respect to Galway, also Mayo sports papers gave Galway no chance. James Horan’s comments… what was he thinking about? he most certainly was putting extra pressure on the team. Throw in the national sports papers – saying ‘Mayo was the only team capable of beating Dublin’ – It all resulted in what I greatly feared would happen, that Mayo would become complacent. They were complacent against Cork and Down in the league. Complacency cost us in 1986,1990 and 1998 – WILL WE EVER LEARN?. I wish Mayo had fifteen Colm Boyle’s – what a player always for Mayo.
Gérard, even Jim fahy(connaught tribune I believe, a Galway reporter and paper)had wrote off Galway, so much as to say only Shane Walsh was the only Galway player who would make the mayo starting 15!
I never knew until yesterday that Aidan OShea was a free-taker. Does he take frees for Breaffy or does he take them at training. On a few occasions yesterday Cillian had to stop him from taking them. He obviously felt he was a better free taker than Cillian.
Well at least the I told ya so brigade is happy.
Agree Gerard. I spoke here last week about the dangers of an overconfident supporter base seeping into the subconsciousness of the team, and it appears that’s what’s happened. Wild predictions of 12 point victories and the worst galway team in 20 years proved well wide of the mark. One of my favourite quotes of the james Horan era was his statement that he wanted to “take the bullshit out of Mayo football”, something he was very successful at achieving. Unfortunately much of the bullshit resurfaced in recent times, hopefully it might disappear again after this. We need to forget about other teams (especially the unhealthy obsession with Roscommon) and focus on getting behind our own team. One game at a time please. A big reaction is expected from a more focused and fired up team and supporters from here on. The season is not over by any means, but we just need to rebuild and try build momentum, and then see where it takes us. We didn’t become a bad team overnight, and hopefully we’ll see a big backlash from our boys next time out?
While I admire the commitment of Rob Hennelly his frequent mistakes have cost us too many big games and we have to try Clarke
Gerard, good teams should be able to deal with the hype, it’s part of modern day football – the Dubs seem to be able to deal with for every match.
The elephant in the room for Mayo in my opinion is the lack of natural scoring forwards – guys who can break a tackle and take their score or lay it off to a player running off the shoulder. Mayo didn’t become a bad team over night but have become to predictable in their build up and seem to run into blind alleys all to often.
It’s into the unknown for us now, but with a fair wind and a bit of luck in the draw, we can still make this a memorable year. Changes to style of play and personal may be necessary and it will be up to this new and inexperienced Management team to now show that they have what it takes to come up with a winning formula. It will also need when the going gets tough, that some of our more established players show more leadership on the field.
Yesterday was one of those days that few of us saw coming, it may only be a blip in the big plan of things, or it could be the beginning of the end for this team, only time will tell….
To be honest I’m not sure if Mayo were any more complacent this year than the last 2 years against us.
They would rightly have expected to win yesterday as they would have also in 2014 & 2015.
I myself expected Mayo to win by 4+ points.
As an earlier poster said – Jim Carney in the Tuam Herald put the boot into our team a few weeks back.
An absolute dinosaur who I hope doesn’t write too many more articles on Galway football!!
Anyhow ye will regroup from this.
No team will want to draw Mayo in the qualifiers that’s 100% for sure.
I think we deserved the win overall.our goal came at the right time.
I don’t think we would have got anything out of the game without rattling the net.
When are mayo going to address their problem with a lack of forwards? Our only consistent fwd is CoC and even he doesnt score a lot from play against the big teams. They have been carried by the backs for years now. Warriors like keegan, Boyle and mcloughlin are our only truly consistent players. Surely to God it’s finally proven that AOS is a midfielder and not a fwd. Fair play to galway, mayo were arrogant and got got their comeuppance. Hopefully they will learn from it and come back fighting. However the qualifiers road is a long and tough one, which mayo have struggled with historically.
Ta se crionaithe, Ta se crionaithe. its over for now unfortunately.MAYO dont do well in the qualifers.This is what happens when the players choose the manager.The players and county board officals will see their mistakes in hindsight, but the same mistakes are being repeated time and again .we could have won FOUR all-irelands in a row,we had the players to do it ,but alas it was not to be.Rochford should blood new young players in the qualifers. i urge him to play LIAM IRWIN . HE IS READY.There needs to be a cleanout in the panel . it is gone very stale.Lets plan for the future….
who would be part of the panel clean-up? Who should go?
WJ I know you don’t like rumours and I am not going to say anything but there are stories circulating today. I suppose you will hear that after a defeat. if what I heard it true we are a long long way from winning Sam. One thing on yesterday….why didn’t we place AOS in the square and lump the ball up to him?
C o Connor has being top scorer 3 years in a row.
Galway or Roscommon will win Sam ya people think mayo down and out no chance they will prove you all worng Tyrone taught they too would walk over Cavan not the case like mayo taught they would beet Galway one game at a time we will be there or there about come September mayo all the way
Cillian o Connor a great player and am not surprised he is top scorer for 3 years. However, a huge amount of these are from frees and racking up huge scores against the likes of the weaker connaught counties. No mayo fwd consistently scores 2 to 4 points from play at the business end of the championship. He has a great attitude and maturity for his age, but would not get his place on the dublin or kerry fwds. As for mayo’s other fwds I DoC has great potential but the rest look awful flaky compared to the top 4 teams fwds. I realy hope that AOS is finally moved out of the fwds…
The other comparable very below par performance this year was that against Cork in the league.They were to be annialated by Dublin in the next game and we know what happened. Ros walloped the same Cork, beat Kerry and Dong. and we went on to beat them in turn quite easily. Goes to show how volatile things can be in a garlic football in these times!
As a unit they showed all the signs of a very mixed up fifteen. Hard to understand where it came from or why just now. Can’t have been over confident or were they? How TF? Were they jammed between two systems? Are too many of them over the top or some, and have lost the appetite ? F!
Injuries? Planning for future games instead of Galway as I heard D Brady suggest? I have an ould tractor out the back that’s stuck in gear…I believe the fix will involve a good jolting when I get time! Hopefully the same will apply to the team . They ve had the jolt and no ones dead TG and really, as bad as they were last night we could well have been looking towards Ros in our next game.Its been said that a team doesn’t die over night.We have to believe that this is true and when we see such fine performances coming from some of the players then that’s something solid to hold onto.The interest is cranking up…not cracking!
Galway faced it at half time, when their first half dominance was reversed by Mayo’s five minutes of playing. They found the needed!
Mayo have now asked the question, in no uncertain terms. I presume honesty is prevailing in that conversation between them. I hope and believe they have the right answer.
I have enjoyed the long road, over the past few years and look forward to the hard road. The van is ready, the glass is rechargeable.
Believe.
Yesterday is now dead and gone. I thought after the game, and still think, that having to contest the qualifiers might be good for us, even though our record in the “back door” is very poor. It might be just what we need – extra games and some formidable opposition, with a lack of certainty, and no further chance ( as long as we can gratefully accept the second tier, and as long as the appetite is still there).
Many posters mentioned that teams will not want to draw us. Why not? Success in the qualifiers will surely mean more than coasting through the provinces, which would appear to have been the accepted opinion, Ulster excepted.
Some of the criticism of Hennelly is ridiculous, Apart from the misplaced kick out, Hennelly was fantastic. Mayo were still a point up after the conceding the goal. The team needed to respond but lacked the nessary bottle for the battle! By all means play Clark, it’s a worthy alternative. Flynn was quite a bit from goal when intercepted, had allot to do. And he did it! Yesterday’s Mayo team were so poor when the game was the final quarter, their could be only one winner. Don’t recall Mayo goal chance, Think Galway got 3.
Rossie – needless to say anything that Mayo supporters write about Roscommon on other sites has nothing to do with this site. I’d agree with others that there has, perhaps, been too much focus on Roscommon from some contributors (some, though far from all, of it verging towards disparaging). Personally, the whole online “banter” stuff leaves me cold. Debate is fine but the rest I can happily live without.
[Deleted].
Well said willie joe
I would happily live without the so called banter too. There just seems to a big resentment among the fans at the minute. (Obviously not all fans) . I was actually at the 04 and 06 final cheering ye on but I don’t think I could do it now to be honest.
Wensamsuun.. Ballaghaderreen, u spelled it wrong, is in county Roscommon. 😉
Wensamsuun – I’ve deleted that idiotic comment you just put up, which was clearly designed to cause offence. Well done, though, Joe Mc on pointing out the geographical and grammatical problems with it before I got to it!
Rossie – I’d agree that there’s a rising amount of bad feeling between supporters nowadays and I think the online world in general, and social media in particular, has done much to fuel this rancour. Otherwise normal people (at least I assume they’re normal) seem to think nothing of posting the most unbelievable, insulting bile on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere and it’s having a corrosive effect.
That said, I thought the atmosphere at the end of last night’s match was great – I happily shook hands with plenty of delighted Galway supporters and wished them well and I was far from alone in doing this. When you look at the carry-on between opposing fans out in France you realise just how special our way of supporting our respective teams is and we should all do what we can to preserve this. Better manners online would definitely help in this respect.
When i think of Roscommon i like to think of the Mayo players carrying Dermot Earley off the field after his last game. He was a real role model. Also that great team that pushed Kerry so close in 1980
Apologies I over stepped the mark! A pretty valid point but outside the house rules!!!
One of our biggest challenges going forward will be dealing with teams who park virtually all of their players within the 50 and cut off all lines of attack. That was Galway’s game plan yesterday that they had practiced for weeks and it worked a treat because we over carry and don’t have players that can consistently score from long range. Tyrone deployed the same tactic in the league last year in McHale park by snuffing out our predictable ball carriers and then countering at breakneck speed. We should have too much for some of the weaker counties in the early rounds of the qualifiers, however, everyone knows how to beat us now and the challenge will be to counter this tactic. Not sure how we will address this over the summer as long range shooting has been our achilles heel for some time. I would like to see Danny Kirby brought back in and get AOS out of the FF line for once and for all. Jason Gibbons’ very unfortunate shoulder injury may now potentially mean an open slot on the panel for the remainder of the campaign? McLoughlin is a clever play maker and our attack lacks creativity without him in the half forward line. Higgins must be restored to the back line where we also need to reorganise. Plenty to be getting on with tactically over the next three weeks along with the proverbial soul searching.
Mayomadness, I don’t know what your beef with me is, and I couldn’t care less, but regardless of how much or how little I like Roscommon, I’d think Id have better things for doing than our friend on the other thread. Mind you, I’m no paragon of virtue, nor do I claim to be. Neither, do I claim to be, as you put it, a “real” supporter – whatever that’s meant to mean. I do try to get behind my team though, an exercise that was kinda wasted last night among the funereal silences on the terraces.
Every county has supporters who behave poorly and we are no exception, but Galway were classy to the end last night. I’ll leave it at that.
Ok folks, let’s deal with it. Kevin McStay and Liam McHale have, this weekend, found a new door opening up to them….possibly going to Croke Park as Connacht Champions.
As someone who straddles the divide, living in East Mayo and having worked in North Ros for a quarter of a century I find this Rossie- Mayo attitude/thing tiresome. ( I’ve had close ties, professionally with Roscommon football…especially with two of the current panel) Many of the Rossies have done little to improve relations between supporters of our two teams. And. Do you know what? The same can be said of many of our own.
Would it be possible that, if Ros beat Galway (which I expect) we might show them and ourselves good example and support them as they go forward as our province’s representatives? No?
I thought not!
Firstly, congratulations to Galway and best of luck to both teams in the final.
I didn’t see the game courtesy of the GAA/SKY contract. However, judging by 190+ posts on the previous blog questions will be raised. The concern is with seeing such as belittling the effort and selflessness of those involved. That, after five years of magnificent play, should never be the case. A team that last August nearly and should have beaten Dublin has not changed its inner self. The difficulty lies with people not operating at the same level. Time stops for none of us. We blow hot and then cold.
If previous posts and newspaper reports are to be relied upon then, perhaps, we are at the stage where some make way for those that are firing on all cylinders. It is not necessarily the end of the road for those replaced, but it is something required for the greater good of the collective, Mayo. Finally having games one after the other, fingers crossed, will enable management to put players in their known best positions and for the team to play the system that should and so nearly did win AI over the past four years. Let’s stick to what we do best and let the rest do their all to beat us.
We have a strong squad with superb under 21s, so keep the faith.
There was no intensity to our game yesterday with an exception for the last 10 mins of first half during this spell we blew Galway out of water. Other than that we had the look of a tired team we not tight enough on Galway. I do still think we will do ok in the qualifiers. Any update on Gibbons?
Also Rossie – I meant to add this to the comment above – I promise you the majority of decent supporters cringe inside when they read stuff like that posing as “banter”, regardless of where it’s directed. Rivalry is one thing, a bit of slagging is another, but some posts cross the line towards idiocy and abuse.
One of the great things about here is that supporters like yourself can come in and contribute to the chat, and long may that last. And the contributions here from outside the county are generally a breath of fresh air (even if we don’t always like what they say!) so keep them coming.
Even though Galway were pretty poor they managed to win with little effort. I don’t think that they will progress in the championship based on that performance when they come up against a “Serious Team”. That’s not the Mayo I know and love. They have a second chance but I don’t know if the real hunger is still in them. If I had anything to do with it I’d have 25 mirrors delieverd to Mondays postmortem, Boyle doesn’t need one. Take a look at the problem in there.
I believe that it is well within each and every one of them to do great things, they have proven this time and time again.They deserve much better from themselves. Can they look and see and go back to the well? Draw deep from the insatiable hunger and relentless desire to win that was not evidenced yesterday, with the exception of Boyler’s immense contribution. Have we plateaued or are we finger nailing the summit? Time will tell. I believe…
That’s fine, Wensamsuun – apology accepted.
The elephant in the room here is the management team. What a shambolic set up of a team. I have never seen the likes which caused total confusion for the players.
We drop a forward for a defender before the game starts. We then play another forward as a sweeper and then we play a corner back a a corner forward. So now your are left with only three scoring forwards in DOC, COC and Regan before the game even begins. It beggars belief. And we wonder why we scored very little from play.
Why could not have played a regular FF line of Regan, Freeman and Regan. AOS at 10, K mac at 11 as playmaker and DOC at 11. Play Higgins as your sweeper.
A much more settled and attack minded team.
But what we got instead was some sort of a version of blanket defence with COC and AOS playing in our own full back line at times. At one stage in the 2nd half Regan was the only players in the Galway half, Absolute madness. Was this a plan ? or did the players just play anywhere they wanted to. You would not see it in an under 8 match.
Never mind the players, this was the biggest problem to emerge after yesterday the lack of a decent attack minded game plan. it was non existent.
Are we the new Donegal ? Is COC now going to play the Micheal Murphy Role with Donegal out the field.
If it happened last year, the two boys would have been absolutely roasted.
Very worrying indeed. We know the players can play but what is the game plan ?
I have nothing against Roscommon but I wlll be supporting Galway in the Connacht final and before anyone accuse me of being a roscophobe it’s because I had some great times in college in Galway and working in Galway and I even had a spell in Merlin Park for a while and alway had great banter with Galway people about football and facetheball I would agree with your comments 100 % but I do think the management will learn from this
Jarlath Burns made some pretty interesting observations on the Sunday game, the main one being the sweeper, many including myself thought Kevin did well in the role however Jarlath wasnt impressed and had plenty of video evidence to show it actually didnt work out. I have to say on review he is right, he was right on pretty much everything he said.
Congrats to Galway on a deserved win.Think we’re making the game to complicated, when we run at teams we frighten the shite out of them, if you’re putting a big man on the edge of the square let in long high and quickly. Smaller forwards put it in low in front of them and have lads running to them to take a pop pass . Backs defend forwards take your bloody chances. Know I, ve said it before but same failings 3 management teams later back to basics for the qualifiers.
facetheball – absolutely spot on.
the thought process of the mgt would be the most worrying thing. as bad as the performance was last night if the team was setup properly they would have won.
How are we in June and doing a massive level of experimentation in a championship match.
Picking Mcl as sweeper. when he can’t contend for high ball, Keegan at FB at the end, AOS being moved from pillar to post and so on
[Deleted].
Great post hontheros very honest
Hang on a minute there, hontheros. I have never, ever abused anyone here, from Roscommon or elsewhere, so I’d appreciate if you could retract that accusation at your earliest convenience, thanks.
@ hontheros “If Mayo folk weren’t so arrogant about the match before hand there wouldn’t have been such a back lash about it now”
Wow that is some generalizing there.
Can we just nip this bud.There will always be a minority of supporters from every county that for whatever reason does not like other counties we need to stop being sensitive and accept there will always be a few who will over step the line. Personally I have no issue with anyone from Roscommon and wish he the best in the final .As much as I’d have loved Mayo to be in the Connaught final its never a good for one team to dominate.
45… I agree with much that you say but would like to dwell a while on our forwards problems.You point to our inability to take long range points consistently and also mention our over carrying….running into cul de sacs.The impression is given that with the way things are we never will have a chance of breaking out of this impasse to the degree required if we are to prove any bother to the top teams anymore. I think you ll agree that long range point taking and short inside work that leads to scores are closely related .Teams that have an ability in one will also expect to be be able to execute the other. I am saying that proficiency in one will inspire the other.Both abilities are part of the modern game and the teams that can do both best come out on top.
All your wishes, Kirby in , AoS out, K Higgins back, K MC up, would I’m sure restore the resources nec to achieve the above. It’s not pos to lay off a ball unless there’s someone to lay it off to.What a downer it is to be bottled up in possession! You don’t just lose the ball but it rattles your confidence and makes it likely that you ll be a candidate for this famous hooked finger. On the other hand if you recycle and recycle smartly and intentionally when required and successively how good will u feel….and good enough to maybe have a right go at a long range point!!!
Our forward play has gone haywire lately and the quicker the disease is cured the better for all.
Last night was an aberration which I reckon won’t happen again. Those players who were awake will always be awake and those who wandered off will know themselves that they didn’t do themselves justice and that includes those on the line.
I know this probably sounds a bit weird given last night’s events but I’m actually kinda looking forward to the Connacht final. If both teams play to their potential it has the makings of a great game. I feel after last night’s game that Galway might just have the edge in terms of their defence, but if Roscommon move the ball quickly as is their wont, their (enviable) firepower up front might just see them through.
The competitiveness is good for all of us including Mayo in the long run.
Anyway, probably too soon!! 🙂
Spot on there Face the Ball. I was thinking the same myself at the game. Management really didn’t cover themselves in glory. This is a very worrying aspect of last nights game. I said in a post a week ago that Stephen Rochfords biggest challenge was getting the best out of our big players, particularly Aidan O Shea. This clearly hasn’t happened. Experimenting at this stage of the competition is far too late. If he wanted to try this kind of stuff out then the FBD, the league and the London game was where that should happen. I couldn’t get my head around it during the game. I’m afraid the players could begin to lose confidence in him. It doesn’t take much for that to happen as we well know. He needs to take charge and implement a sensible approach that the players understand and believe in.
Some players too need to up their game if they still have it in them after a long hard road.
Hontheross – I warned you earlier on not to post anything else of an inflammatory nature but you’ve clearly decided to disregard this. Do that again and you’re into time-ban territory.
To be fair to management, they may have wanted to experiment much earlier, but we have been plagued with injuries since the beginning of the year and that has probably meant that opportunities to try these things out with the best players available to us have been few and far between. I just wonder if they’ve really had many chances to rehearse these new ideas with the players most likely to get their starting place for the rest of the year. That’s not making excuses, by the way. The performance was a shambles regardless, no doubt.
A bad day at the office unfortunately. A good dose of humble pie for those that predicted an easy win and totally wrote off Galway. Anybody with an idea of the keenness of the Mayo Galway rivalry should have known better. Did we really believe Galway would just lie down. Since the 2013 hammering Galway have been closing the gap. Lost by 7 and missed a penalty in 2014, lost by 4 and conceded og in 2015. Then the ridicule they had to take in their own county and total lack of respect on Sunday Game and other so called experts last week. Galway is a proud traditional football county and Kevin Walsh is a decent man who was hurt and channlled that hurt so successfully.And what about Mayo. Did the team take their eye of the ball like many supporters did. In truth only Boyle played well. Keegan kept Walsh quiet and Keane did ok before cramp. Obviously Robbie is the scapegoat because of one bad kick out, seemingly few people saw his brilliant save in first half. So many things puzzle me about last night. Why did we play one of the best corner backs in the country at corner forward. Was Diarmaid not fit. After all he was our most consistent player in the league. Why chose to play McLoughlin who picks up a huge amount of dirty ball in the middle as sweeper. Where exactly was AOS playing. Why did we not put him on edge of square in last 10 minutes and send the ball in high. Andy Moran has dug us out of holes in the past especially v Ros two years ago, yet he was not introduced until there was only 5 minutes left and what is the point bringing on Freeman in injury time. These are all management decisions. I have no intention of slating players who have been brilliant in last 5 years and management are only starting out so they should be given every chance, but the lot of them need to sit down and examine why last night happened. Bad and all as we played we only lost by a goal. We can progress in the qualifiers but both the heads and the bodies need to be got right if we hope to make any impression.
How the team react now is the big question….have they the stomach for it? Colm Boyle has the fight I admire in a player. one thing though….we were 4 points up in the second half….again look what happened. Failure to hold leads and close the opposition out up when in a winning position….
Thanks JR, obviously the comment wasn’t to everybody’s taste, anyways my time on this forum is done, it’s impossible for an outsider from a neighbouring county to get views across here, perhaps if I start lambasting Hennelly as well for his poor game like others then my comments would be ok, for what it is worth wasn’t it his late frees against Monaghan that essentially kept ye in division 1? On the goal itself Flynn had an awful amount of work to do when he received the ball, the defence surely have to be questioned how he got in so easily to get his shot off, also I believe the forwards scored 1 point from play in 76 minutes, you wouldn’t see that in a junior b game in any county so surely they have to ship part of the blame also. Not going to be a hypocrit and wish ye good luck the next day out as it wouldn’t be sincere but ye should make it through to the quarter finals again with considerable ease, from our point of view I hope we have our heads right going to salthill, that is a major problem for us, if we have and can put in a full 75 minute performance I would be hopeful our firepower might sneak a win but Galway will be bouncing around the place with the confidence now after Saturday evening.
Hontheross – it will never be impossible for contributors from other counties to get their point across here provided it’s done in the right way. Coming on the day after a defeat for us making inflammatory remarks about Mayo support isn’t the way to do it and is only going to provoke trouble. Fair point, though, re Robbie – some of the post-match criticism about him has, for sure, been OTT. Best of luck to the Rossies for the rest of the championship.
Can`t understand why anyone would be taking pot shots at Anne Marie..In my limited time here, she has shown herself to be one of the most fair minded and knowledgable posters on here.
As for the events of last Saturday night, I don`t think there`s anything I can add to the vast amount of views already expressed.
As to the final itself, I believe its a 50/50 game and very hard to call a winner.
One thing I`m certain of is , unlike our forwards on Saturday, the Roscommon forwards will certainly score a lot more than 0-1 from play between the lot of them.
How good are Galway?..The danger for them is to make sure that because they beat Mayo, they don`t underestimate Roscommon.
Remember what happened to Sligo in 2010. Beat Mayo and Galway (after a replay) and then hot ambushed in the final here in Castlebar by a Fergal O`Donnell managed Roscommon.
I also believe that Rob Hennelly has been unfairly criticised from the other night. Tv replays last night showed he made a vital save early on to prevent a Galway goal.
As for the goal they did get, even though he didn`t produce a good kick out ,, Tom Flynn made light work of Parsons challenge before galloping into acres of space. Where were our defenders?
Haven’t read all the posts, finding it difficult, so someone else may have said this but I don’t think anyone need to ask the question of whether this Mayo team has a reaction or not. They have answered that so many times over the past number of years.
The question I have is do the Mayo supporters have the reaction required, its easy follow a winning team. When we were under pressure Saturday, Mayo support were found wanting in my opinion. Understandable I think as for the last number of years we have seen the team respond so many times so we let them at it, waiting for another response.
I think payback time is now here, the time is upon us to do our part and lift the team. Pack whatever and all grounds we are sent to in the qualifiers. Roar the team out onto the pitch and throughout the games. Let’s show our appreciation and maybe help what little we can, let’s be the 16 man and help get the show back on the road to Croker.
@ facetheball – almost word for word what I was going to post.
There was perhaps some complacency out there on Saturday but personally I didn’t see a lack of hunger or fight. Individual players like Boyler, Keegan, COC, Parsons, Zippy, Doherty and Keane showed tons of fight. The problem was there was no joined up effort.
How many times was Boyler left alone plugging the middle? How many times was Doherty left isolated with no support? Keegan was tied to defence and ended up FB. Kev Mc was playing a bad imitation of sweeper. Higgins a bad imitation of corner forward. (I don’t blame either of these players as they were out of position and obviously unsure of their roles). AOS pushed here and there and nowhere.
I worry about us this year. Not because of lack of hunger or effort or too many miles in the legs (we had Regan, Parsons, Durcan, Keane, Harrison, Coen out there who you could hardly say had too much mileage – and it didn’t seem to effect Boyler). I worry because we were poorly setup and didn’t change the obvious deficiencies at HT or after the goal. I agree we should give Rochford and co this year at least to try to sort things out.
Personally I think we need to see Higgins in the back line. If he’s playing sweeper he’d have to learn the position a whole lot Kev Mc had the last day. AOS should be around the midfield area – his best and most influential games for us have been there, often in a wrecking ball roles rather than creative. COC isn’t an out-and-out FF, Freezer is a better shout there. DOC is crucial to link the play, as is Kev Mc if played in his natural position.
There were only a couple of things I could see that the management were trying to do that were positive 1) put in place a defensive plan and 2) get the ball in quicker to the FF line through kick passes. I think we failed miserably to implement these but I think we can still try to bring these elements with us. But Christ a ton of work is needed before we get close to challenging the big boys this year
Hontheross. Stop acting the maggott. You are are an embarrassment to decent GAA supporters everywhere. A little person intent on causing mayhem in any code adds nothing positive irrespective of the place, situation, or thing. I am glad you are not supporting Mayo and I feel sorry for the decent Roscommon supporters who are busy supporting the efforts of the Roscommon team.