Mayo’s footballers have provided so many memorable Croke Park performances over the past decade. The devastating way that they put Tipperary to the sword in an eerily empty and fog-bound Croke Park was one to savour by Mayo supporters, even if they all had to do this watching on at home on TV. The Mayo News football podcast was, though, out in force at Croke Park to tell the tale of the win that sees the county back in the All-Ireland final for the fifth time in ten years.
Host Mike Finnerty, who was on commentary duties at the game for Sky Sports, introduces this match-day podcast episode along with his Sky Sports and Mayo News colleague Billy Joe Padden. Mike is then joined by his co-commentator Paul Earley and by Colm Keys of the Irish Independent as they discuss the devastating performance put on by the men from the west.
Edwin McGreal and Ger Flanagan of the Mayo News then catch up with Mike to consider the game, following which we hear post-match reactions from both managers. Edwin and Ger give us a flavour of the action in-game and then, once the final whistle has sounded, they provide their own post-match take on what they’ve seen.
This latest episode of the Mayo News football podcast is now online and is available to listen to on iTunes, SoundCloud, Podomatic and Spotify. You can also listen to it directly on the Mayo News website as well as here on the blog using the SoundCloud player below or the one on the panel on the right.
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Colm Keys presents a very realistic, sobering view on the final from a Mayo point of view. He can’t see a Mayo win and gives very logical reasons, which in truth we all already know. Its brought me even further down to earth after the excitement of today.
Dublin are certainly not going to have it all their own way though. Kickouts will be a huge part of this match. Our best keeper is in the first 15 so no complaints there, but Dubs will target him as they’ve successfully done before. Cluxton is simply unreal so unsettling him will be number one on our agenda and we can make gains here. But it won’t be easy.
Fantastic — what a performance. COC with the capstone on an incredible career. Its lore will grow in stature to even higher heights over the years. What I wouldn’t pay to get on a plane with my brother to be in CP in two weeks.
Looking at Dublin they really use the width of Croke Park in attack – draw their marker to the sidelines before laying ball off and making an incisional run diagonally inwards before receiving the ball back and the Goal is on.
Mayo almost need to adapt an offensive shape and a defensive shape. Offensively when we have the ball we should do likewise and use the full dimensions but defensively I don’t think our defenders should track their marker to the sideline as it leaves gaps. They won’t score from the sideline, they are trained to work the higher percentage shot. Standing 5m off them on each side but tracking them is the way to go. This narrows our defensive shape and leaves less gaps to feed the ball in to.
In our last 2 games we did really well on turnovers and got a high quantity of scores from them. However you can garner a couple of things from this 1. not getting enough primary possession. 2. We wont get the same turnover numbers against Dublin. The match ups need to be really spot on so we target those top 3/4 on the Dublin team that get most primary possession. I’ve said it a while back and a couple of others have said it since Durcan on Fenton (Lee on Kilkenny, Mullin on Con, Coen on Rock, Mattie on McCarthy). Use sweeper cover when not in possession and also keep the full forward line in place…
there were a few defensive lapses yesterday but I would only really look at those at the start of the game as the game was well up in the 2nd half. This will actually suit mgmt as they will have plenty of focus points for the next 2wks (last thing they would have wanted was a perfect performance, yesterday we had a mix of the sublime and not so good at times )
Vote on MOTM in order was Cillian, Tommy, Kevin
@ Liberal role on the tie, I know what you mean. Defensive concerns are one thing but a lot of people are saying the core of the problem will be Loftus and Ruane at midfield. These boys are gonna have to both play to their absolute best just to have a chance. If you lose the aerial battle against Dublin you get severely punished. Simple as. You cannot compare tipp or galway to them. Logic points firmly to a Dublin win but sometimes sport throws logic out the window. Sometimes…
I’m switching off my logical side past the final whistle of the All Ireland final.
We all have a bounce in our step today.
My final logical statement, we have a chance, we’re at the table with the dice in our hands, it might be 1 in 3, 1 in 4, 1 in 5.
They happen, they happen, they happen.
We can win this final. I’m usually the cold analysis one, but feck it, this is great.
I had a dream pre Covid of us going to contest the All Ireland and there was some mention of plague. I was watching an old 70s medieval film around then. Feck it, might be just written for is this year 🙂
Obviously the way we were exposed today is worrying but I don’t think it will happen against Dublin (at least in the same way. Dublin are super-structured and rarely lob in high-balls like we say Tipp do early on yesterday. For Dublin that is simply too risky, it’s not the percentage play. I also don’t see Dublin isolating 1/2 guys in the full-forward line. They generally keep 5-6 forwards up. This means we would have additional defenders around.
Some of the poor one-on-one defending was worrying – there is no doubt that needs to be tightened up. However against Dublin in my opinion to beat them you have to go man-to-man. They have no problem playing against 1, 2, 3 sweepers. They just wait and wait and wait and take advantage of a single mistake in 2 mins play.
Additionally by playing with sweepers you don’t keep their backs honest. They can drop a sweeper in front of their full back line to cut off the long ball or the goal threat. You want to get one-on-one with their backs and see what happens. We saw what happened when Cooper got isolated against Clifford last year. There are mistakes/frees in him. And John Small too, well capable of losing the rag. I’d imagine O’Donoghue is the type of player who’d get under his skin. We also haven’t seen what McDaid is like defending – why not test him? How good are Bugler and Paddy Small at tracking runners like McLaughlin and Durcan if they have too without the comfort of a sweeper?
Personally I’ hope Dublin line out like they did on Sat with McCarthy at MF and Philly on the bench. If they bring in Howard at MF and Philly in backs for marking Aido and drop Cooper and McDaid I think we’d be in more trouble. I don’t think Philly has the legs any more for 70 mins through.
My match ups would be: Mullin/CoC, Chris/Rock, Lee/Kilkenny, Coen/Scully, Durcan/Small, McLaughlin/Bugler. They seem to switch O’Callaghan out quite a bit to field ball and I’d want Mullin out there rather than Barrett (Rock tends to stay close to goal). Lee should just glue himself to Kilkenny and not care where he ends up. I think he just needs to forget that he’s playing in the FB line and just concentrate on that.
If we get all that right it’ll come down to bring the intensity (which I’ve no doubt we will) MF and kickouts. I hope we have something up our sleeve on kickouts to break a cycle of a couple given away. You might only need it once or twice in the match just to prevent that blitz that Dublin put on in the 3rd quarter. Horan has stuck with this MF all through, I think with a focus on Dublin. He wants mobility, he wants tracking, he knows Dublin rarely go long on their own kickouts and when they do is banking on our intensity on the ground. I feel he’ll persist with it and ask Ruane to track Fenton.
Do all that and we’ve a chance…
Up Mayo!!
What a shame we spoiled what was a brilliant performance with some terrible defending in the last quarter.
With the game well and truly in the bag, it would have been a great opportunity to try close it down at the back, something we might have to do a lot of against Dublin.
It’s great to see Horan putting so much emphasis on pace and attack but I’m afraid as was shown against Galway and again yesterday, we’re clueless when it comes to shoring things up at the back.
Can we rectify that in the remaining time before the final…not so sure.
Great podcast, once again. What worried me was the ease in which Tipp tore through us for their 1st goal. Defence was caught out completely. Also Loftus was tracking the scorer but didn’t lay a finger on him. He’s just not a defensive player and he won’t be any different in 2 weeks time. We need muscle and power at midfield in the final. Move DOC back and switch Loftus to half forward. Aido did most of the damage yesterday around the 40. So keep him there. Ryan O’D is getting better all the time but he is very slight compared to the Dubs half back line. Disappointed that Carr didn’t get game time as I’d have him start and move Cillian to full forward. That way we are strong down the middle which we need to be the next day.
The match ups will be so important to get right. Keegan performances worrying, just wondering is there a nigly injury, pale shadow of his former self but its a final, who knows. I would love to see Eoghan McLaughlin have a go at kilkenny.. Big ask but big ask for everyone.
K. Mc Loughlin as sweeper. Our midfielders don’t offer a lot defensively and that’s where the problems started with Tipp carving through us..
The dubs play to a pattern where ball is worked to Rock in scoring position. Maybe Mullin would be a good match up…
Quieten one dub and someone else puts up their hand.
First 15 mins vital in few of our performance against Tipp will be vital. Dubs will come all guns blazing