We’ve just named the team for our first competitive outing of the year. Here it is:
Mayo (NFL Division Two North v Down): Robbie Hennelly (Breaffy); Enda Hession (Garrymore), Oisin Mullin (Kilmaine), Lee Keegan (Westport); Michael Plunkett (Ballintubber), Paddy Durcan (Castlebar Mitchels), Rory Brickenden (Westport); Matthew Ruane (Breaffy), Diarmuid O’Connor (Ballintubber); Fionn McDonagh (Westport), Kevin McLoughlin (Knockmore), Jordan Flynn (Crossmolina Deel Rovers); Tommy Conroy (The Neale), Cillian O’Connor (Ballintubber), Ryan O’Donoghue (Belmullet).
So, even though, to the untrained eye, this might seem line a much-changed Mayo team, there’s a fair bit of continuity in this selection with the players who saw action last year. Indeed, nine of the starting fifteen for tomorrow also lined out from the start in last December’s All-Ireland final, while another two joined the fray then off the bench.
Comparing those two selections, into the starting team for tomorrow come Robbie Hennelly, Enda Hession, Michael Plunkett, Rory Brickenden, Fionn McDonagh and Jordan Flynn, while out go David Clarke and Chris Barrett (both now retired), as well as Stephen Coen, Eoghan McLaughlin, Conor Loftus and the injured Aidan O’Shea.
Special congrats to Garrymore’s Enda Hession, whose first ever appearance at Senior level it is tomorrow. It’s a big day for him and here’s hoping he gets on well. Westport’s Rory Brickenden also gets his first start in a competitive Senior match, but he made two substitute appearances in last year’s Connacht Championship so he’s a bit more acclimatised to football at this level. The best of luck to him too and to the rest of the lads as well.
Best of luck to the team and management tomorrow it’s great to have games to look forward to again. A little bit of changing of the guard feel to the team for this one but a good strong team none the less. Let the games begin
Best of luck to the debutants.
Was hoping we would finally see a new goalie but not to be.
Good fresh looking line up otherwise
Game booked for tomorrow, couch also booked too! Great to be back at it again, you’d miss it! Hopefully my 3.5 year old daughter will now start watching football with me again and stop singing “c’mon you boys in blue” to me at every other opportunity, this is my wife’s influence, shes from Ballyboden and we live in Dublin. Either way she’ll be wearing her Mayo jersey with me.
New Mayo starts tomorrow.
Strong starting 15 for a Div 2 opener. I expected a more experimental line up from Horan.
With 3 league games to play to qualify for semis there is little room for experimenting so few surprises. Presumably the few starters from last year not in the lineup have injury issues. It will be interesting to see who the match day 27 are.
Any sign of Mr Tickle returning? Aka Harry. Longest arms of any defender. Big loss last year!
Like our midfield. Strongest pairing we have there.
Big chance this year for McDonagh to prove his worth. He started brightly in 2019 before fizzling out.
Looks like Horan is sticking with Hennelly. It’s risky but I think we are all tired of the keeper debate.
Havnt seen enough of Brick and Hession. Anyone here have comments on them?
Good luck to the team tmro.
With 7 subs allowed you can change half of the outfield team so a strong bench is necessary and lots of players will get game time.
Delighted to see Diarmuid in midfield, Loftus is a good footballer but he’s better in the forward line.
Good to see Fionn back and be v interested to see what Brickenden and Hession can bring.
Brickenden, Fionn and Flynn are all good options for kickouts.
Roll on tomorrow!
Lee at corner back,Again. Sweet Nora. He belongs in the half back line, full stop.
On closer inspection that’s actually a very strong team for 1st round of league, I would argue that’s our best full forward line and midfield for starters. Then guys like keegan, Durcan mcloughlin through the spine are vastly experienced
… Good to see fionn mcdonaghs back, that number Jersey is his for keeps If he wants it
Help someone…what’s the “promo code” on GAA GO..i can’t get past this field….no one on the Help desk today. Up Mayo
You don’t need a promo code Liam. Just leave it blank
You dont need a promo code Liam Jones. If you click the top right hand corner, go to ‘packages’ ,select the ‘domestic package for €25, and buy now. Dont worry about the promo code bit
9 from West Mayo what a change over the years.
Solid side but nice to see some new blood too. It’s a tricky start to the league having had very little training, so the balance is everything.
Really looking forward to the game.
Nice blend of experience and youth. Best of luck. I agree with othrr posters, opportunity for Fionn McDonagh to stamp his name on starting panel. It would be nice to see the youngsters showing some leadership qualities….
Great to see the west mayo reference Jr. I don’t live in the county anymore so a bit detached, is underage football still played in west, east, north, south basis?
Mayonaze a quick one on hession. I saw him come on for the carras u16s in a final a few years ago. He was recovering from a hamstring injury, heavily strapped came on with less than 10 minutes left and team 14pts down single handedly brought it back to a 1 pt game but ran out of time. I think himself and Oisín played underage together for carras.
Is Oisin not a bit wasted at FB… or is that just a trial…
Strange to see a team without an O’Shea on it.
Here we go again
Is there any TV coverage of the game ?
Good bit of variety in that team. Would a few people like to enlighten me on where Jordan Flynn is strongest at? I always felt he was an out and out midfielder, I wasn’t greatly taken by him last year. He seems to be highly thought of by Horan and Co, so I wish him the best of luck. Great to be getting the pre-match butterflies again after a long pause.
Good ish team. Question: where are scores going to come from? Every player should be taking responsibility for this. And, with Aido out, work rate must be upped.
Subs critical now.
Best of luck to the team tomorrow,I see a bit of a weakness in the half forward line doesn’t seem to be much of a scoring threat there also lacking a it of pace.
Mayo13BG,
What do you expect, marrying a Dub? She must have some redeeming qualities to make you pick her so stop complaining now that you’ve made your choice. Never got into that territory myself so maybe I shouldn’t comment but shouldn’t never stopped me before. Anyway good luck to you both and hopefully you’ll reconcile before the day is done.
Great to be getting back to the action again after a long layoff. Interesting team to say the least and with 7 subs allowed we will be very interested to see who is on the bench as could be crucial in the closing stages of the game. It is a very tricky fixture for us as the last time we played Down we were put under a lot of pressure and only secured the win in the latter part of the game. They will be fancying their chances and our record in McHale Park won’t inspire fear. Don’t like Lee in the corner but needs must. Hurry back Harry! Life is worth living again. Best of luck to old and new faces.
Can anyone tell me if Enda Hessions Dad played for Garrymore .. If so , what was his name … There was a good few of them playing when I was back in the 90s
There sure was My Ball…and every one of them tough yokes.
Thanks paddy joe Johnson and tubberman..has go working ..I omitted to put in Mr in my name or something mad like that..can’t wait for this game…the birth of a new era to keep the mayo dynasty growing ..up mayo
Gaa go working
It’s great to have matches again to look forward to. It’s been long time. I’m hoping that horan can find best positions for the new guys. Second year of transition sees lots new faces all chomping at the bit to nail down a starting place. It’s very athletic team that’s picked. With o shea out injured should be interesting to see how we go. My opinion is we will do well as aidens best position was never found. It seems he has to be everywhere doing everything and that dont work.
Its a solid enough looking team. Some great experience in it. Disappointed to see Lee in the FB line again but hopefully that wont be longterm. I presume there maybe be a change or two before throw in. Would like to see james Carr get a run of games.
We would normally be expecting to beat Down but we just dont know where we are at for this 1st league game. We need to win 2 of 3 in the round robin and then one of cork or kildare to get promoted. Promotion has to be priority. Connacht final is a 50/50 particularly if its Galway. Mhaigh Eo Abu…good to be back.
Looking forward to the Cillian show this year, he is pure class
Just bought the 25e package. Now all set. Looking forward to it all.
@andy, alright, alright, calm down! It’s only a bit of craic, my daughter happily sings the Green & Red of Mayo too. She’ll be fully togged today. We might even give the league final a re-run this am. Back to match matters now.
Good luck to our lads today. We have certainly entered a new era in Mayo football and I hope that this crop of players have the skill set and passion needed to keep us competitive at the highest level. One of the great mysteries of the 2012- 2017 Mayo team was how they always struggled to stay in Division 1, scrape through the early rounds of the championship and still produce brilliant displays against the greatest team of all time. Starting out on this new journey today we need to turn McHale into a fortress, so hopefully we can get a convincing win against Down to set us on our way back to Division 1.
Quayman – Flynn is a decent tackler and a very accurate passer, plus he has a lot of natural physical strength. Not afraid to take a shot when it’s on either – I don’t recall seeing too many wides from him.
I think he’s being used as a bit of a utility player linking forward and midfield – I reckon we will see more of him at midfield as time progresses.
Bought package. Does anybody know how to stream match from my android phone to TV
Looking forward to match today. I think we have a strong team there and dying to see subs bench.
Is eogan mcloughlin injured or out of favour, james carr gone down the pecking order ? Eoin o Donoghue still about the panel ?
Delighted to see Enda Hession named. When he played minor he was corner forward, last year was wing back for u-20 team and now corner back. That’s a big range of positions. I know he played midfield and centre forward for Colman’s so he can play any line on the team. That can be a good thing but could also work against him.
My Ball – I don’t think his father played. But all his uncles did. His mother is Hession also so all the Hession’s you played against are his uncles, some on fathers side and some on mother’s side. Some genes in him!
Delighted to see Fionn mcdonagh lining out. He was badly missed last year.
Sean Burke – it’s awful early to be asking those kind of questions! This is the first team sheet of the year and don’t forget that we can use seven subs today so we’re likely to see plenty of lads getting game time.
Good luck to this new look Mayo Team. The old guard are gone and now the new kids on the block must step up to the plate. To me the most important things players need is to be fearless, 100% committed, and never give up until the final whistle goes. In all our losses we have always been caught on the home straight. So I hope the new recruits get into a mind set of not yielding to pressure in those final minutes of the games. Go on Mayo, get back to Div.1, and bring on the Championship.
Flynn must be doing something extra ordinary in training but we have yet to see it on match day….his lack of mobility at this level is a concern…hope keegan plays in the half back line.
Knockingabout you can stream to the tv if you have a chromecast. You need the Gaago app on your phone for that option I think.
Or if you play it on a laptop & connect via hdmi lead to the tv, that should also work
Thanks so much Mayo Focus for that information.
I’d say they’re trying to get Jordon to fill a Seamus o’shea type role, when Seamus was in his prime. A hardworking ball winner around the centre. Big shoes to fill. Hope Jordon continues to develop.
We’re still missing a lot at midfield. Matty would be an automatic for me. Diarmuid hasn’t really shot the lights out in MF yet, but maybe he’d be better at 11. I still believe Diarmuid should be on the starting 15 come championship. The class is there.