We’ve just named our starting fifteen for Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin at Croke Park (throw-in 3.30pm) and here it is:
Mayo (All-Ireland SFC semi-final, 30/8/2015): David Clarke (Ballina Stephenites); Ger Cafferkey (Ballina Stephenites), Donal Vaughan (Ballinrobe), Keith Higgins (Ballyhaunis); Lee Keegan (Westport), Chris Barrett (Belmullet), Colm Boyle (Davitts); Seamus O’Shea (Breaffy), Tom Parsons (Charlestown Sarsfields); Diarmuid O’Connor (Ballintubber), Aidan O’Shea (Breaffy), Kevin McLoughlin (Knockmore); Barry Moran (Castlebar Mitchels), Cillian O’Connor (Ballintubber), Jason Doherty (Burrishoole).
So it’s just the one change, with Chris Barrett named at 6 in place of Tom Cunniffe. Barry Moran, who was a last-minute replacement for Andy Moran in the starting fifteen for the quarter-final, is named to start at top of the right.
As we know by now, though, exactly who’ll be starting – and in what part of the field – is something that’ll only become clear once the ball is thrown in on Sunday afternoon.
Be interesting to see the real team that will line out.i can def see 1 change there maybe two.
What it does seem to suggest is that Cunniffe won’t line out. Wonder if the hamstring is still a problem, despite assurances to the contrary.
Barry being name might suggest he won’t play!
Cuniffe must be injured.Thats definitely team that will start…no changes envisaged!
Why is there no andy surely his experience is an asset and also theres a big game in him if given the chance
Can’t argue with that team ,,, sorry for turbo tom but think Chris Barrett is better corner back ,, roll on Sunday , , ,
Andy now to slow ,, great to have his experience to come in ,
Nobody none the wiser and named positions mean nothing. Nobody can say for sure until they take their positions at 3:29pm on Sunday.
Jaysus lads this will keep everyone guessing. I’ve no idea what the tactics will be the next day.
Being it on!
Yeah it’s all pinch of salt stuff till 3.29 sunday. Same with Dublin when they name theirs
The mid week naming of the team is just a box ticking exercise at this stage, who knows who might line out come Sunday, naming that team tonight tells Dublin almost nothing.
The only thing it does suguest is that Cunniffe might not make the 26 due to fitness issues, because if he was a cert for the 26 they’d probably have just named an ‘unchanged’ team and announced the real team on the day. As it stands, I still think there’s a strong possibility of a switch or two on Sunday.
Can’t see Barry playing again at the back for this game, so if he’s on would expect him either FF of HF beside AOS.
Try to cause damage to the Dubs FB line under high ball and unsettle Cluxton too so that his kickouts suffer.
Jesus, I wish it was Sunday already, come on the green and red, lets lift the rafters off croke park cheering the lads on.This is the best team/squad we have ever had.
Good team have prayers said for Sunday hopefully they will win.
We tried something totally new with Barry Moran as sweeper against Donegal which was ideal tactic on the day. Question is do we have a place for Barry in the team on Sunday. Will have to wait until throw in to see.
Cillian O’Connor. He seemed to be a half second off the play against Donegal, to the extent that it appeared he was holding back. It is also so very noticable how little he is being mentioned in the media. An example being the Mayo News podcast which never said his name over 45 minutes of banging the aidan o’shea drum. Who could imagine that a year ago? What a great place for Cillian to be.
If mcloughlin, doherty and vaughan get into stride and the subs such as freeman, andy and dillon get on to change the strategy, nothing will stop us.
In turn Lee needs to mind the shop (and Conolly) so its the other guys time to get the spotlight, which suits so well.
If this goes right and Cillian does what we all know he is capable of, we are going to win this game and go home content with the thought of the final blowing our sail all the way, what a great feeling it is going to be.
I cant see kerry beating us this year either. They have never played so poorly and yet be so cock sure.
We are looking into history over the next 4 weeks.
Sunday.
Twin towers full forward line? O’ Shea and Big Bird?
I know and he is not mentioned by the media
I notice too his not doing much interview s either this year
The twin towers has also occurred to me.. it would give any back line problems. I don’t particularly agree with many talking about sweepers. On the evidence from the last day it is a new defensive system, in which everyone is involved. Did you not see that; everyone taking up positions and directing others?? The “sweepers” are a part of the system..
Well here we all are nervous as hell but all looking forward to it . I sincerely promise to ye all and I am a man of my word that we will beat that crowd on Sunday. And the lads will make Darragh and county mayo proud.
Jasus, sick with the nerves!
Maybe Parsons will sweep (more mobile) and Barry in middle. Better to hold Andy to let loose later.
Suggestion No 1: Dublin, whatever Jim Gavin says, will not line out without a sweeper on Aiden next Sunday. My guess it will be Cian O’Sullivan.
Suggestion No 2: Key to stopping Dublin is stopping Cluxton’s short kickouts. Putting a marker on their sweeper is a large part of this. Putting Barry on O’Sullivan adds to Dublin’s problems in dealing with Mayo’s target man tactic.
Suggestion No 3: The more congested Dublin’s defence is on Sunday the better for Mayo, more chance of their kickouts being intercepted by a Mayoman and the longer Cluxton has to go with kickouts. The longer the ball is in the air the more time Mayo have to react to his tactics and the less accurate he will be.
Must say im sick at the thought of sunday ..want it sø badly for them that the idea of anything but a win is pretty horrendous …then i think of darragh doherty and quickly cop on to myself…
I see one change to that team, cunniffe in for barry, with higgins the designated sweeper to start with. The man is made to be a sweeper, has every attribute required. Cian o sullivan to sweep infront of Aido. I also cant wait for WJ to put up the match poll. Will be interesting to see the results!
Nobody knows how the match is going to pan out but there is one thing we all know —
that if you give the Dublin lads time and space they will destroy you. Our boys are
going to have to fight tooth and nail and claw. The opposition in this case will have to
be stifled.
As Alan Hansen used to say about away games for Liverpool in their glory days
“the first thing you have to do is quieten the crowd”
E Liston going for dubs as they have better forward then Mayo not one bit surprised at that up Mayo
Hey MartindaDub
Haven’t seen ya on here for a good while.
But fair play to ya, you have been very
respectful and fair to us MayoFolk on
this blog in de past.
So I hope u enjoy de game but obviously
hope you will be coming on here next week to
congratulate us on a win.
I would gladly accept it.
Good Luck and may de best team win!
P’S – I don’t think Cluxton will start – he’s not good enough at this level!!!
How big a loss is Cunniffe if he is still injured and is Barrett a good replacement.
Its a squad game these days so the bench is important.
With the deployment of Barry against Donegal in the defensive role,wouldn’t at all be surprised if he started corner forward, him Aidan and Cillian would wreck havoc! plus it would nullify the dubs sweeper, the confusion would hand mayo the advantage in the forwards as Barry is no shrinking Violet when it comes to taking scores. Is it gonna happen tho, that’s the big question! I’m not fond of surprises but the donegal tactics were a pleasant surprise, hoping for same again
As time comes near I feel we have enough artillery in many guises to win this game.My one concern is how much guile and composure can we unearth on Sunday.Its the stuff that’s vital at all times but esp in tight situations. It’s about a pass a kick or a tackle not properly executed at a particular time.
A Morans missed goal last time out with D OC inside was not composure. Nor was A Finnretys goal miss back then a great idea! You could go on forever with examples. Is it an innate quality or what? Wherever it comes from we need it for what’s to come.
There is some talk on dublin forum of an injury to a key dublin player, only rumours at this stage though
There are always rumours of injuries to Dublin players before big games, normally around one or two key players. Before the 2013 final, there were rumours that Cluxton was injured!
The announced teams mean nothing these days. In fact the GAA should either stop forcing teams to name in advance or do something to force them to stick with the team they have named barring exceptional circumstances. The GAA love their match programs with the teams lined out in them but i think its time to just list squad number players (as per other sports) and see who lines up. Rugby seems to be the only sport that now actually plays the team named.
As i said, either scrap the naming or force it to mean something….
I think the team naming is just to get the programmes printed
Cantini, I don’t see any need to scrap it, it’s part of the GAA.
I’m all for taking aspects from other sports to help improve GAA, but regarding the naming of the teams early in the week I think it’s all part of the excitement and the passion of the GAA and it’s not a detriment to the game.
It’s very exciting, roll on Sunday and all I hope for is that the best team on the day wins, no hard luck stories like Limerick last year or dodgy calls like last weekend.
Hopefully the best team wins on the day, and hopefully that team is in green and red 🙂
Biggest change in Mayo this year is what Kieran Shannon wrote about, the curved ball, the unexpected. For once we the fans don’t know how we will line out on Sunday and neither do the dubs. Big Barry might play sweeper, around the middle, as part of a twin tower or as I suspect will not start.
Boyle will play sweeper for sure and if Barry doesn’t start then someone like Freeman might. It makes the build up even more tense!
Cantini I see your point re: naming teams but I think it would be hard to define exceptional circumstances. For example a manager could argue that he felt a player wasn’t in a good mental place on the morning of a game.
Pockout – you are spot on. This is a change this season. I genuinely don’t know: (a) how we will line out and (b) what formation we will adopt once the game starts? C&H have added this dimension and I suspect Donie Buckley also has a big say, Barry Solan also who is now named as a selector.
Whatever about listing squads, and there is something to it, what annoys me intensely are the changes made after the teams have been announced,media have been informed, after the ball has been thrown in. Donegal slipped in two players the last day who hadn’t been named and who hadn’t paraded. This is more gamesmanship and blatant stuff at that. We are no angels, but I don’t think we have done that one
Lads, I’d be amazed if Barry played corner forward
Our two best players already play in the inside line, where they thrive on room, why on earth would we add another 6″6 lad to that to congest it even further? I really hope the management don’t do this. Moving Cillian out would be unwise too, he played some of the best football in the country operating inside last year
I could see Barry operating as 3rd midfielder if anything, to give Cluxton less chance of “bypassing” our midfield, and give him less targets to aim at. I’d be surprised if he takes to the pitch at all though, I think Cunniffe will get the nod if he’s fit
If Cunniffe isn’t fit though I think it’s a far bigger blow than some might think. He’ll be a massive loss
Haven’t looked forward to a match like this in years!
I have not been very active on the blog this year. Whole thing boils down to let the players do the talking on the pitch. No amount of words matter. The only thing that matters is winning by one point or more in the AIF. At this stage nothing else matters. I find the debate as regards being liked or loved tiresome. I dont care if other counties love us or not – only Mayo and Mayo people exist. I will either be with other Mayo people with joy or with despair. What other people think is irrelevant – let them piss off back to their own blogs. This is a blog for Mayo supporters.
Elverys have a great advert for the Mayo fans. Im pumped up for Sunday after watching it. Hon Mayo!!!!
https://youtu.be/uD_HQKMU5XY
I wouldnt get too excited about surprise tactics or unorthodox placing of players. It worked well the last day but it can go wrong as well. And then everyone says….what and idiotic tactics.
One of the key things on sunday will be every player doing the simple things well. That and a huge workrate and we wont be too far away. Oh and a bit of luck as well. You wont win much without it as we know only took well.
Im as nervous as hell. I just want it to be over and watching the victory over and over on the telly!
Named team not all that relevant. Having said that I would expect Barrett to start ahead of Cunniffe even if Tom is fit. Wondering about Big Barry. I wouldnt be surprised if he didnt start as management may come up with different plan for this game though I still do expect a sweeper. Two crucial men on Sunday I think are Caff and Cillian. While Caff was a bit better v Donegal I still feel he could be a bit fragile if he gets off to a slow start and he has had a fair share of problems with Dubs before. Dont think Cillian has reached the excellent standards of recent years b ut Sunday would be perfect day to do it.Fascinating game in prospect. Mayo are good enough but must play well to succeed. And then there are the things outside their control like poor referring decisions ,injuries like to Andy in 2012 and Cillian 2013 and downright bad luck like the clash of heads of Aiden and Cillian last year.Maybe this year it will all fall into place for us. Come on MAYO.