We’ve named our team to face Kerry in Tralee tomorrow night (throw-in 7pm). Here it is:
Mayo (NFL Division One v Kerry, 16/3/2019): David Clarke (Ballina Stephenites); Chris Barrett (Belmullet), Brendan Harrison (Aghamore), Keith Higgins (Ballyhaunis); Stephen Coen (Hollymount/Carramore), Michael Plunkett (Ballintubber), Donal Vaughan (Castlebar Mitchels); Matthew Ruane (Breaffy), Aidan O’Shea (Breaffy); Fionn McDonagh (Westport), Conor Loftus (Crossmolina), Diarmuid O’Connor (Ballintubber, captain); Kevin McLoughlin (Knockmore), Jason Doherty (Burrishoole), James Durcan (Castlebar Mitchels).
So it’s three changes from the team that lined out in the previous round against Galway. Into the starting team come Michael Plunkett, Conor Loftus and Kevin McLoughlin while out go Lee Keegan, Colm Boyle and Darren Coen.
Our most recent meeting with Kerry was in Round 2 of last year’s League campaign. The team named for tomorrow night contains seven survivors from then – David Clarke, Brendan Harrison, Jason Doherty, Stephen Coen, Aidan O’Shea and Diarmuid O’Connor all started for us in the game, while Conor Loftus saw action that night off the bench.
Kerry have also named their team tonight – full details are here.
Horan must read the blog!!!
We’re about to see how things go with a different type of player at no.11 as many wanted. Loftus is in at his best position so he needs to make an impact.
Delighted to see plunkett back in, disappointed there’s no reape or diskin.
I know I was on the beer but I am pretty positive Durcan started last week. Still wish EOD and Crowe would make an appearance. Otherwise, happy enough with the team. Good to see Loftus back on. Hopefully he helps facilitate tomorrow. Lets take it to them.
Wishing Conor Loftus the very best of luck tomorrow night. A player with huge ability who has been struggling to find his form for quite some time now. Happy also to see Plunkett back in at No 6. Would also like to see Diskin, Reape and O’Donoghue get some valuable game time in Tralee.
Stephen Coen to fullback to mark Walsh and other than that I’d start Paddy durkan instead of his brother and I think it’s a strong team.
Delighted to see Loftus at 11.
Maybe we’re a bit light on scoring inside maybe Andy inside as well??
Either way good mobility and power with overlapping runners.
I think Harrison will man mark O Shea and Higgins on Stephen o Brien other than that excited to see what Vaughan diarmuid Matty Ruane Kevin Mc and Aidan o Shea bring to midfield section
Then add the passing accuaracy of plunkett and Loftus pulling strings and I think that’s an intellingent physically strong summer team
Bit dissapointed with the full forward line, I’d only class Doherty as a renowned scorer out of the 3 named, would have liked to have seen two of Coen/Diskin/Reape starting, makes life a bit harder for Loftus too. Half back line could get a bit of a roasting I fear.
Any news on cillian???
I’m not sure we will see anymore of Diskin this year…..
Bit concerned too about ff line. McLoughlin likely to drift back and Durcan not a ball winner. Much will depend on Doherty.
Still interesting, not afraid to experiment. AOS gets his chance at midfield. All about the performance. Big opportunity for Plunket. Good luck to all.
Looking forward to seeing how Crossmolina’s Conor Loftus does against Kerry.
He has always seemed to me to be a player with a lot of class and huge potential.
Nothing wrong with that beer you had last week, ErrisExit! My mistake – James did, of course, start against Galway. The third change from that game sees Kevin McLoughlin named to make his first start of the year. I’ve amended the post accordingly, thanks for pointing out the error.
I Hope we will see more of Diskin this year and Colm Moran inter county football requires a lot of commitment and discipline and dare I say self denial it’s not for everyone or rather it’s not everyone that can give that commitment
I’ve mentioned this before and unfortunately it arises again….the lack of new talent in the FB line. EOD seems out of the picture so there’s a serious lack of pace there. Really disappointing that there’s no new option in this area.
You’d also have to be worried about FBoland at this stage.
Spotlight. Harrison, Higgins, serious lack of pace. Please explain.
I think that with Plunkett at 6 and Loftus at 11 we have two of our best foot passers in key position, hopefully this will speed up our attacks. With Coen Vaughan MCDonagh and Diarmuid we have enough of players to cover if Aido has a free role to wander where he wants. Loftus has the skill set for the role whether he has the physic for it we have to wait and see, wishing him all the best. James Durcan desires a shot not sure if LCF is his best position maybe convert him into a halfback may be may suited as he is another player who likes to run with the ball. Of the newbies so far Diskin Coen Reape are our best bets for winning inside ball hopefully James Carr can get on tomorrow and prove he is the future. Big powerful and has pace.Looking forward to tomorrow’s game.
Best of luck to the team Glad to see Loftus get a chance Hope he takes it. As is fairly typical in Mayo he has really gone up the pecking order with each game he didn’t play Hopefully he is still high in that pecking order by 9 o cock Saturday night. To be honest I will be more than pleasantly surprised if that team wins and would be delighted with a good committed performance. That’s not fatalism just being realistic Kerry are flying, we are not Kerry are at home,, Kerry are playing to confirm their place in league final. Hopefully our status in Division 1 will be confirmed by the time games starts off.
Happy with that team, I’d agree with Mayomessi on James Durcan, possibly Wing Forward would suit him better? He needs the game time anyways. There seems to be no word on Cillian, anyone here anything?
I’m rather surprised that Eoin O’Donoghue seems to be getting little chance at starting. I thought he had a solid year last year IMO
Catcol – Against the better teams our FB line has come out second best in terms of winning ball kicked in there e.g. Dublin and Galway. Take the way Costello skinned Higgins for his goal.
Higgins has a certain amount of pace still, but, he’s 32 not 22. My key point is not that Higgins and Harrison are ‘slow’ as such but that against very pacy younger forwards they’ll struggle: as above.
The fact remains that not a single new no. 2, 3 or 4 has been tried out in the league….and that’s a huge worry and disappointment.
Reape togged for moy davitts last night according to the reliable ah ref on Twitter .
One would worry that we’re completely underrating size and power in our forward line in favour of stamina and tackling.
The exile of Diskin and Reape to me shows we’re looking more towards workrate. Again, we’ve seen the flaw in the workrate tackling forwards at this stage no?
Happy with the team choosen, Durcan deserves another run after the Galway game, hopefully D Coen will come on at some stage,,, it looked like he had a lot to offer. Delighted Aido is starting at midfield and I hope he doesn’t have a free role as some suggests, I hope he stays in the middle and concentrates on controlling that area, that’s all he needs to do.
That’s one way of looking at it JP “exile ” . Obviously we can’t go discussing here as there are rules .
It’s some commitment for a young man in his prime to make to play county level.
Rotation policy continues which is a positive, will be interesting to see how Plunkett does this evening, he has an experienced back line to support him which should provide him a good basis to prove his worth, he looks a fine player so hope he takes his chance.
There looks to be more half forwards than anything else up front, I wonder if the focus is to develop options to try and gain parity or better in the middle third. This is an area where we have struggled to date, improve this, then we can look to develop our scoring options.
Best of luck to the team, and hope the supporters enjoy the weekend away,
Best of luck to Mayo I don’t care about getting to league final as long as Mayo stay up
Given the widescale alarm on the blog after the Galway game about or lack of shape and direction in our play, would have serious concerns about the team named for tonight’s game. Great we can try out more players in different positions but we could well take another serious beating tonight. Hopefully not the case but would like to see us moving towards a settled team, shape, method of play. None of this evident so far in the league.
Nice looking team
was happy at first glance, but then you look at kerry’s team !
I think kerry will do a number on us for sure late into the second half.
Hopefully results will go right elsewhere.
The 2 of yea were on the beer. There was no game last week. Or if there was then I was on the beer.
A big challenge tonight for sure. I looking forward to see where he plants Diarmuid on the pitch.
Good luck to Conor Loftus if he does actually start. He’ll need a good performance. Looks like he may not get too many tries under James.
Very difficult to figure from that selection exactly how it will line up. Surely we will not start a FF line of mcloughlin, Doherty and Durcan. Wouldn’t be surprised if Aidan starts at FF