Last night was, thanks to Ryan’s outrageous score at the finish, one of the good nights at MacHale Park. His late, late point into the bacon factory end ensured we avoided defeat to Galway in League or Championship at the venue for the first time since the 2014 Connacht final. That stat alone makes it a positive start to the Kevin McStay era.
Let’s have a quick gallop through the online coverage about the game.
Locals: Mayo News, Western People, Connaught Telegraph, Galway Beo.
Nationals: Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Irish Independent, Irish Mirror, Sunday Times.
Others: GAA, RTÉ (match report, Kevin McStay quotes), The 42.
Photos: Inpho, Sportsfile.
Video: GAA (match highlights).
Stats: GAA Statsman, Stephen O’Meara.
Earlier on yesterday, the county’s women footballers lost out by the minimum against Kerry. Here’s the coverage of that one.
Match reports: Ladies Football, Western People, Connaught Telegraph, The Kerryman. Photos: Inpho, Sportsfile.
Club members should watch out for our match review pod, which will be online on Patreon a bit later today. The MOTM poll is still open as well, with the result of the vote on that to come this evening.
That’s the lot for now.
Flynn, ROD and Tuohy were excellent. Other than that, and an unbelievable finish by Carr, our midfield and forward play was cat.
Both goals conceded were shockingly poor defending . How does Orme end up last man back v Tierney , he must be four inches less in height at least . Keeper very poor for Tierney s goal too . Mayo are forever making crucial mistakes that lead to conceding crucial scores .I thought the opposite of most post match analysis, Galway far better in clogging up the channels and swarming the attackers . We were definitely not as effective at it .
I couldn’t see much evidence of a gameplan last night. Our forward play was really all over the place and lacked cohesion. Most of our forwards look hesitant on the ball, with the exception of ROD.
Midfield struggled to win much. We lost a lot of kickouts.
As for defence…well the two goals were ridiculous concessions.
One more question, what was the idea of bringing on Towey as ROD lined up to take on the last play of the game ? Genuine question as there must be some thinking behind such a deliberate tactic , I just can’t see what it is ?
Dreamysleepy – we were on top in midfield. Galway lost majority of their long kickouts.
I agree about our forward play. No sign of much improvement from last year, when everyone seemed frustrated by Horan ball.
@sean burke, he was brought on to score the equalizer. If a chance presented itself the management felt he would be more likely to score than Touhy. Better to have shooters on the pitch when you need a score.
Sound , fair point . Would love to know the stats on a player scoring an equalising point coming on with 20 seconds left though .
Overall a game that we should have won but maybe lucky to draw. Play in the final third was poor at times bit nervy, lacked a bit of decisiveness. Orme has plenty of good qualities but his finishing lets him down – he needs a good run of games i feel. Disappointed mainly on the 2 goals we need to get to a place where we have a good run of games with clean sheets. Coyne and McBrien look like good prospects and will get better. Jordan Flynn is turning into a Rolls Royce of a player
GBXI the time was as good as up at that stage though, theory not bad but timing was very odd.
How many Kerry/Dublin Corner Forwards would have had to end up where Orme was for the first goal?? The fact that there was acre of empty space Infront of Orme for that goal as well is bizarre. Where was our defence?
If having Loftus at 6 is meant to be for kicking fast ball in should we not have forwards inside?
How many balls were kicked in?
@Sean Burke, I think it was a smart sustitution, as I beileve the reffs are to add on 20-30 seconds for subs. Im open to correction, but basically the hope was to buy time I think.
Our attack lacks a real target man and therefore loses focus quite often. Cillian still appears to be the best option as AOS doesn’t wait inside. What we or at least I would give for an Eoin Mulligan type to give an option when transitioning out of defence. For all Canavan’s greatness Mulligan was always available and that is what we are missing in attack and have been for years
I had thought that Towey was brought on to ensure a further 30 seconds of play which would give use a chance to score the equaliser and we did!
@seanburke. My thinking is that the ref would add another 30 seconds for the substitution (i may be wrong).
@tuamstar.though your not the only one this naming mayo players and when they played and comparing them with galway players new and old is childish stuff really a bit like national school my dad is better than your dad.that said i usually enjoy your posts and find them interesting and fair
It must be said that it’s hard to judge any player when 29 player are in one half of the field. Alot of the focus is on giving up no space to the player on the ball by crowding rather than man on man like the old days
The loftus experiment at 6 has big question marks over it I feel. Do they stick with it for the league in the hope it will come good and be bedded in by summer, or do they abandon it if it’s not working after a couple of games and try get someone else established there?
The kind of decision that the management team will be judged on. If Conor is not kicking the ball A LOT at centre half back, I fail to see the benefits of him playing in that position.
I think Rian O’Neill will be at 11 for Armagh next week followed by Sean oShea the week after for Kerry so the challenges won’t get any easier for him.
Mikey3 – not sure Loftus at 6 will work long term, but he’s not going to be directly marking Rian O’Neill or Sean O’Shea. He’ll be rotated around onto one of the weaker forwards on the opposition and try to have a free role.
@sean Burke
As someone has already pointed out bringing on a sub meant the ref is supposed to add another 30 seconds,fairly crucial at that point.
Ryan is some man,looks to have taken up where he left off before injury,Cillian too looks sharp,if we could add Tommy there we’d be doing OK.
I thought McBrien did pretty well on Comer considering he’s still learning his trade at this level, won’t have much bigger tests.
We really should have won that game,Galway got feic all shots away and the 5 or 6 we dropped short cost us.I will say the breeze was a bigger factor than many think.I thought there wasn’t a breath of wind walking into and sitting in the stand but the flags high above the back factory end aswell as the points flying over from both teams at that end told a different story.
I’m not convinced by Loftus at 6 but as Boyler said on the pod,no point in doing it for a game or two,they have to stick with it and give it a proper go.
Also have to agree with what WJ said on the pod,PJ and team were too emotional last night.Wanting to win is one thing but it was over the top and I think its a weakness.
Looking forward to Armagh,my first time there so going to make a weekend out of it.Don’t expect us to get anything but wouldn’t rule it out either.
PJ and the Galway squad look like they want to build on their progress from last year so a draw is prob a good, fair result for us last night.
Good exciting, entertaining game.
As always Mayo made some poor attacking decisions, missed some scorable chances and gave up soft goal chances.
Its in the DNA, we played with great heart, great workrate and great resilience to keep going for 75+ minutes,
Changing management wont change Mayo’s weaknesses but hopefully we’ll have some good days out this year.
Nice bit of breaking news there on Robbie Hennelly by the Mayo news pod.
I think it’s good for Mayo to have Livingstone playing senior football for breaffy.
Robbie moving to Raheny in Dublin.
Really , more fool me as i actually thought that was just a soccer rule . How many subs were used in the second half altogether?
Robbie is a well mannered and articulate guy but jeez he’s fairly tore strips out of the split season there for club and county. Pretty obvious he thinks it’s a load of crap!
“We are not playing football at the right time of year”
“I prefer playing big games in summer, whether club or county”
Who would have believed that a player just wants to play ball in nicer weather? Incredible.
Have said it plenty times on here but the GAA has lost the plot with this, and the Mayo county board wasting the best 6 weeks of the year to start the club championship topped it all off.
Well done to Robbie for calling it out.
God help us when we play Kerry, they score for fun.
Bonus pod just gone online and available to all, in which Rob Hennelly chats with Ed McGreal abut his club transfer to Raheny in Dublin.
I’ve watched the game back and for the life of me I can’t see how Kelly got mom. He wasn’t even the best player on the galway team. I thought comer and daly were better than him.
Donegal putting it up to Kerry and Roscommon beating Tyrone. Could be a very competitive divison 1 this year with a dog fight towards the end of it.
Last nights point may be a big one for both teams in the grand scheme of things.
Mayo fully deserving of the draw. Lots to work on. McLaughlin and Orme both missed points they would normally score with their eyes closed, Flynn and Diarmuid O Connor ran into cul de sacs at times. But for that, all players were involved in passages of play including the above mentioned. Its a bit unfair to be highlighting faults only at this stage
We can only get better. Hession and ROD my men of the match
Tyrone and Kerry losing today. Probably puts more pressure on for us to avoid relegation.
Your right Wideball. The results today kind of take a bit of gloss of last nights draw. This was the time to play Kerry, im sure the big guns will be back before they come to Castlebar. Roscommon wininng aswell adds pressure. Cannot see us winning up in Armagh so it could be a struggle to stay up.
Big wins for Roscommon and Donegal. Two of the three teams tipped to be in the relegation fight. Along with Monaghan. Should tighten things up going forward. Donegal probably fortunate to have played a very understrength Kerry at home alright. Tyrone still look more like last year’s version than the All-Ireland winning one.
@no doubt, spot on about man of the match. I’m really not sure about how Eamonn Fitz calls it sometimes. Wasn’t he the co comm that gave the award to Comer in April when Walsh practically won it for Galway on his own? Ryan was by far the most influential player on the pitch yesterday. 3 from play, 4 frees – two of which he won himself.
McStay will be happy enough with the draw against what is a good Galway team but he will be a lot wiser today on what is required to Mayo genuine All Ireland contenders again in the next few years. Many of our old failings remain; once again we conceded two soft goals, the decision making and shooting from our forwards was very poor. There was little evidence of a new game plan in action and some of the newer players don’t appear to have the ability or composure to succeed at the highest level.
On the other hand McStay will take a lot of positives from the game. Our fitness and conditioning was very good, the tackling was strong and aggressive all over the field, McBrien and Tuohy had good games, and the team showed a lot of character to come back and snatch the late draw. It’ll take time to bed in a new game plan and style of play, there are some regulars to come back into the team and we’ll get better as the league progresses.
A few standouts for me…
Galway (first half in particular) looked very classy at times, they are building on something special and are overtaking us if we don’t find something new in attack. Comer was very good, winning ball inside and further out the pitch, he’s a real leader for them and he has a point to prove after final performance last year. They have way more kickers out the field than Mayo have (a point Canavan got spot on at half time), don’t have to point out the obvious that they also have way more scores in their forwards.
Ryan O’Donoghue is an exceptional find for Mayo and he is now the new face of this Mayo team, when the chips are down he is the man looking up. The infrequent kicks inside were only sticking with ROD, and he gave us a salvation with his drawn score. Could be vital after seeing the Rossies and Donegal winning today.
With regards James Carr, he is not a full forward. I think it is pretty clear that his best attribute is running at goal, I think when he gets those opportunities he is unstoppable. There is a bit of a Kevin McManamon in him, if he could add a bit more to his game such as tracking back, winning breaks and long kickouts he could be a real asset. I hope McStay gives him a few opportunities, its shit or bust for him.
David McBrien looks to have put down a place for himself in that full back line last night, not so sure on Brickendan and Coyne is very fresh into the scene so needs a bit of time. Hession came into the game in the 2nd half, I would not worry about his form as he usually comes good when required. Interested to see where the Loftus experiment takes the team. Stephen Coen quite good when he got on ball.
Jack Carney and Diarmuid O’Connor were quiet I felt, Mattie came in and out of the game (I feel there is more in him). Jordan Flynn has made big improvements in ’22 and looks to be continuing that trend, he won some good ball and looked used possession well, he got a great point from distance. Really want to see from Bob Tuohy, was very good in FBD. Saw him a few times over the autumn, is he much of a scorer to the Mitchels heads?
A bit of patience needed, we’re back on the road!
The new format for Sam!
League is important!
https://www.gaa.ie/football/news/2023-all-ireland-sfc-format-explained/#:~:text=Twelve%20counties%20will%20advance%20to,repeat%20pairings%20from%20Round%20One
The way results go today if either ourselves or Mayo lose next weekend we could be in for a relegation scrap.
The Rossies looked impressive, Armagh last night as well.
If we hadn’t gotten a point before the game we would have grabbed it with both hands. Onward and upward
Yes Tuamstar the Rossies game is almost a must win for us now. Games coming thick and fast.
Donegal looked good today also kerry not great they rely touch on clifford.
Armagh will be tough fot us next weekend Rossies did look good to.
But we were promising last night onwards & upwards hopefully haha
*much
Anyone know the story with tickets for next week, none available online or in centra
@Oilean acla. Dia dhuit. The League has additional relevance. Every game is a pressure game and thats what we want imo. How do we perform under pressure. Looking at other games, very high standard, its going to be a cracking competition in its own right.
P Joyce complains big time about the referee on Midwest and then says he’s not complaining!!
Just a couple of points after the weekend games. Not going to criticize referees but the guidelines they officiate under needs clarifying. Last night in general Joe McQuillen let the game flow and rarely bought any of the “soccer” diving antics. Today in the Ros/Tyr game players were throwing themselves to the ground every time any sort of contact was made and David Goldrick was fooled every time because lads who suffered a hand on the chest would go down clutching his face. Happened umpteen times.
Back to our own game and after a second viewing I can understand management telling aplayer to follow the lad he’s marking but in the case of a fullback I think he should hold his position. If McBrien or even Brickenden were at fullback position the first Galway goal doesn’t go in.
Bad set of results today
Our match review pod is now online for club members. Mike and Billy Joe front this one and there’s also in-game stuff from Rob and Ed, with post-match quotes from Kevin McStay and Padraic Joyce.
This is our third pod in under 24 hours and our fifth one in as many days. The season is up and running alright!
@km79 Why a bad set of results. Every game is competitive. Thats exactly what we need. Its only first round.
What is all this about other results going against us. As said by @ontheditch it’s only the 1st round. all those who won and lost were more than likely going to win/lose game /games throughout the league anyway. If it’s round 6 then that’s a different story.
I agree with above comments don’t know why the results from today are bad for us.. sure we just beat the Rossies in fbd Tyrone looked poor so wouldnt take much from that.
Kerry not on top form but will def bounce back. Armagh good we beat them last year and I think hopefully we at least get a point from next week be tough game but our guys were promising last night when everyone thought it be a wash out.
Only the first round honestly don’t understand why some are saying todays results are bad for us!
Really hope the Rossies stay up. Good for the west.
Still a long way to go in league. Plenty twists and turns yet.
Let’s say we rest Flynn and Ruane at some stage, who comes in to replace them? Flynn has established himself as an integral part of this team.
We still need to unearth someone who can kick 45s/long range frees from the ground, we had an opportunity last night on the 45 yard line in the first half pretty much exactly from where Cooke kicked that beauty in the 2nd half, but we had nobody to replicate that and instead played a short free out to the side instead. It’s one of our main Achilles heels not having a few good place kickers from distance.
@Clare I’d take even less from a indoor FBD match whereby both finalists also played a challenge game outdoors that weekend.
Mayo just need to take care of their own business than looking at what results may or may not be good news.
Finding Sam you’re spot on with your analysis . On the subject of PJ complaining, he does it very frequently .Was at it big time after Connacht Final In Croker after Shane Walsh And o Hora clashed Also some grumbling after A I v Kerry. . Rarely sees anything wrong with Galway antics. The way they ran down the clock during their black card in first half .Players ‘injured’ stopping flow of game and running down the clock. Lots of lying on ground in Championship against us last year when they were in front. It’s probably clever game management but don’t whinge that everything goes against you when the result isn’t what you want