The starting fifteen and subs for Saturday night’s NFL Division One clash with the Dubs at Croke Park (throw-in 7pm) was announced a short while ago. Here are the details:
Mayo (NFL Division One v Dublin, 2/3/2013): Kenneth O’Malley (Ballinrobe); Chris Barrett (Belmullet), Ger Cafferkey (Ballina Stephenites), Keith Higgins (Ballyhaunis); Lee Keegan (Westport), Donal Vaughan (Ballinrobe), Colm Boyle (Davitts); Jason Gibbons (Ballintubber), Barry Moran (Castlebar Mitchels); Kevin McLoughlin (Knockmore), Aidan O’Shea (Breaffy), Richie Feeney (Castlebar Mitchels); Enda Varley (Garrymore), Jason Doherty (Burrishoole), Michael Conroy (Davitts). Subs: David Clarke (Ballina Stephenites, Keith Rogers (Ballaghaderreen), Tom Cunniffe (Castlebar Mitchels), Kevin Keane (Westport) Michael Walsh (Ardnaree), Danny Geraghty (Ballintubber), Seamus O’Shea (Breaffy), Alan Freeman (Aghamore), Cathal Carolan (Crossmolina), Cathal Freeman (Aghamore), Darren Coen (Hollymount/Carramore).
The team for HQ shows five changes from the one narrowly beaten by Tyrone last time out. Out go ‘keeper David Clarke as well as Kevin Keane, Tom Cunniffe, Seamus O’Shea and Cathal Freeman while in come Kenneth O’Malley, Donal Vaughan, Jason Gibbons, Barry Moran and Enda Varley. There’s a fair bit of positional switching too, with Chris Barrett dropping back to the corner (possibly to keep tabs on Bernard Brogan), Lee Keegan making a welcome move back to 5, Kevin McLoughlin making an equally welcome switch to 10 and Aidan O’Shea making the interesting switch to centre-forward. Barry Moran and Jason Gibbons are paired together at midfield for the first time since last year’s league final, which, incidentally, was the last time that Jason started a match for us.
Right i am going to say it again and no doubt i will be shouted down again. AOS at any other position than midfield is a load of me hole.
Other than that i like the team and i like that he is giving some fellas the chance to step up.
Oh I’m even more nervous now … League or not would prefer aiden at midfield and no Kevin Keane 🙁 … Will be very tough sat eve … Will be there to shout them on anyway !!!
We need to try these changes, AOS move to cf is interesting, gives a chance to try alternative midfield, plus see what the move itself gives us. This is a tough game irrespective of which team we put out out, but overall like the changes. I would prefer to find out that something works or not in the 3rd round of the league than in the heat of battle in August or September.
Apart from DC about the strongest team we can field IMO. Biggest concern is how much of the ball in to that Mayo FF line will be converted vs turned over. Good analysis in the Mayo News today about Tyrone game. 36 turnovers and 2-7 scored directly from turnovers in the Mayo forwards. If we repeat that against Dublin and we will be beaten by 10 points +
Good looking team but like Mike would be a bit concerned about FF line, looks a bit lightweight but with Andy and Cillian to come back that can be sorted before we get to Tuam. Good to see us try to solve the problem centre forward position and good to see Jason getting a run, his mobility should be good around centre field.
Don’t think it’s a win or bust game, better to be experimenting and fine tuning the team at this time of the year.
The only win or bust is Tuam in May. Anything we win at this time of year will turn to dust if we lose the first round of the championship.
How come Clarke not starting ?
Yea,as I said all last year,and repeated by RM,AOS is midfield thru n thru-though l would give him a break after all the ball he’s played this past 2 weks
Dublin are without their best midfielder Macauley for this game and that probably gives Horan the opportunity to try O’Shea at No 11 (can’t see it working TBH). B Brogan is in fine form for them however Mayo backs should be able to to a good job on the rest. I think this Mayo side are capable of scoring 0-15 which would be enough to win this game.
Seems as if Keane has a fight on his hands to get back the number 2 jersey. Geraghty and McHale had stormers when we played them in the league after the abandoned fog match. Certainly not a defining match but definitely an informative game. Can the league and All Ireland finalists get a game plan in place that actually looks like one, can they combat a Dublin side out to avenge last years defeats against Mayo and also wishing to impress a new manager. This could be one best viewed from behind the sofa but as usual I will stand in the trenches and watch.
Once the calendar turns into March and we hit the green sward of Croke Park and the opposition is the Dubs then we can be sure we are about to face a revealing examination.
Time to see what we are made of then ?
Can we keep tabs on Brogan ? Is Aido a possibility at 11 ?
Can our new midfield cut the mustard ?
Is our FF line still lightweight ? Is our half forward line more half back ?
Can we live with the movement of the Dubs in the wide open spaces ?
More questions than answers then ?
I am happy that the questions are about to be asked and I await our response with interest. I do think this match will be revealing & will tell us a lot about our prospects this year.
I’m shocked! Mayo team named on Wednesday before a game, with substitutes too. What is the world coming to? Don’t know where JH is going to find all these newbies; this looks like a team that could have started the All-Ireland final, so the degree of experimentation is minimal. It would be nice to see Cathal Carolan get some game time and see what he is made of. Still, adrenalin beginning to stir; Croker on Saturday night, Dubs young guns and Mayo old hands. Bring it on!
A lot of talk here in the City about this match – have no doubt Dublin are hell bent on revenge for last years league and semi – final defeats. Having already won convincingly their first two league matches, they are feeling mightily confident and so they should. This though could be their undoing, for if we can contain them in the early stages and sneak a few scores ourselves, a bit of self doubt might creep in and that’s when they might be vulnerable.
I like the look of this Mayo team and if we can play a high tempo game, support the man on the ball and convert most of our chances, then we should be good enough to take the two points. Either way this game should be a cracker !!!
What the story with cofusion with the report in mayo news am confused myself good luck to mayo on sun
Dont want to stir it again but on the new ‘Black Card’ issue on RTE news to night the demonstration of cynical fouling shown was…..you guessed it; them dirty Mayos hauling down a ‘Jack’.
They have made an early start to the ‘rub ins’
Just on Mike’s point, in The Mayo News the 2-7 was a reference to the All-Ireland Final and not v Tyrone, to be fair to Doherty and Conroy. 32 turnovers were against Tyrone but they were all over the field. The 2-7 out of 2-11 v Donegal was just used to illustrate how damaging turnovers can be. In my view both inside men worked well, it was often poor or late ball going into them, or both.
If you examine our record v Dublin in recent year, I can recall us trashing them twice in league, them doing likewise in fogged of game. Them trashing us in croke park in league with us comming back with a strong late run. Then last year in championship us running up a huge lead and them pegging it back, only for us to hold on. In short very exciting high scoring games.
I think saturday night will be the same, I can’t wait.
Up Mayo
Ed McGreal is correct about the All Ireland final. I sat in the Davin end and the ball in to Conroy in particular was atrocious, booted anywhere from under pressure out the field. Donegal choked the shit out of us in that early stage and the inside line would have needed three Donaghies to get a hand on the crap that was fed into them. Apart from McLoughlin we were non existent on the half forward line thats why we need a big man who can boss that area or a small guy with the balls of Dooher. We plainly lack in that area.
Not much physicality or size in the full back line for me. O’Neill caught Caff out on a good few occasions the last day and Higgins and Barrett have big jobs on their hands as the Dubs are going well at the minute. Just checked and that is the same full back line that started Johnos last match against Longford.
I must say I like to see Aiden O Shea playing in the forwards.I would go a step further, play him at full forward, with Jason Gibbins at centre forward with Seamus O Shea at mid field.It is a waste having good ( big strong) footballers on the side line.I agree with opinion that Seamus O Shea is a very good mid field player, but for the sake of the team i would put him in the forwards, we have other good mid fielders.I believe Jason Doherty and (Andy Moran, when he returns) Michael Conroy would feed off Aiden O Shea, and the goals would follow. They would win dirty ball and would strike fear in most full back lines, instead of being pushed around as usual.
I have said for a long time that we need more strength in the FF line and I agree with John Cuffe and Ed McGreal in their comments. In any game a proportion of ball into the FF line will be “dirty ball” and any team needs to win a share of it. I’m old enough to remember “Bomber” Liston as well as Donaghy and in my book that was his main asset. Of course he was well able to use it also. And remember Johnny Crowley caused us a lot of trouble with the high ball in 2004. As far as I can see Barry Moran is the best option we have there at the moment but are we looking for alternatives? Conroy and Varley are excellent finishers but we need a ball winner.
Looking forward to the match on Saturday. Will be travelling like countless others in hope of victory. I have a few concerns though and not just with team selection. AOS is a midfielder through and through, one of the best on the country, and playing him in a forward position is robbing another player the chance of stacking a claim for that position.
The game against Tyrone was frustrating in that it took Horan so long to react to Tyrones no.10 acting as sweeper. I thought he could have hauled Barrett off a lot earlier and replaced him with Dillon. If Tyrone reverted the no.10 to attacking duties we could have dropped Keegan back on him.
I hope we see quicker ball on Saturday and quicker decision making from the line.
Up Mayo
Dublin’s line up named is far from their strongest alot of new guys in defence a few defenders starting as midfield and apart from Connolly,B Brogan not many forwards to trouble us. I expect Mayo to win this by 3-5 pts.
@ ed. Sos is not a forward im afraid to say. When the pressure was on vs dublin he took a sideline ball and kicked it straight to a dub when there was a man free on the far side. And in the all Ireland when there was half a chance of goal he fell on his backside…compare this to colm Boyles effort in the league semi final. @ andyd id say leave the midfield with barry there…more natural there and would be wasted at 14. all going well andy for 14 on his return…the ball winner you want