When Tommy Conroy burst clear and rattled the Down net with just 15 minutes played at MacHale Park yesterday, it already looked a sure enough bet that we’d win the game. It also made him the strong favourite to claim the Man of the Match award for his performance.
We did, of course, emerge victorious from yesterday’s opening National League fixture and, with 1-3 to his credit, as well as an assist for our second goal, the livewire young attacker from The Neale was instrumental in the win. He’s the deserving winner of the MOTM poll on the game, garnering 38% of the vote.
Others who were also prominent in yesterday’s game also feature strong in the MOTM poll. Ryan O’Donoghue (with 18% of the vote), Óisin Mullin (15%) and Mattie Ruane (13%) were all to the fore for us at MacHale Park yesterday.
Well done to all of them and here’s to further positive displays from all the lads in the weeks ahead.
Deserved recognition for Tommy. He had a difficult turn in the AIF and I’m sure it irked him over the break. To return and play like that will give him a huge boost.
If he can continue to push on, and Ryan O’D maintains his upward trajectory, our forward line looks very healthy.
Fair play to Tommy ‘goals’ Conroy. Living up to his name of finding the net again.
One of Kilmaine’s finest. Not many from there make the County team.
I’m afraid you’ve got your wires a bit crossed there, Carrot face. First off, Tommy isn’t from Kilmaine, his club is The Neale (it’s Oisin Mullin who is from Kilmaine). Second, strictly speaking this Tommy Conroy isn’t Tommy ‘Goals’ – that was Tommy from Kiltane, though I accept that the moniker has more or less been transferred to Tommy from The Neale at this stage.
Well done Tommy. I look forward to watching him for many years to come. I must commend Westport GAA on the excellent launch that’s going on tonight on facebook live with Win a House Westport 2. Very professional and energetic. I wish them luck. 100 tickets sold already. Perhaps Mayo GAA could do something like this.
If Tommy plays until he is 36….like Keith Higgins I will be 66 when he retires…….ah for fucks sake I am old!.
Conroy must have been horsing into the weights over the winter, he is in serious condition, like having Cristiano Ronaldo at corner forward
Pat, I won’t tell you what I’ll be when Tommy is 36! Or when you’re 66!
Supermac, more on Paddy Tally please.
Just watched match on GAAGO great service and unbelievable value.Raindrops on camera lens annoying but not the crews fault they should be working under cover Think there were objections to the roofing of the commentary box at the time.Now I need help.I have GAAGO and Eir on my mobile but I can’t for the life of me cast to my smart TV any help would be appreciated
Definitely it had to be Tommy Conroy as MotM, … Westmeath will be warned in advance.. Several options for James Horan for next week, Fergal Boland, James Carr, Padraig O’Hora, Darren Coen, haven’t been seen for a while, but certainly impressed me the last time they played, and hopefully Aiden O Shea, Jason Doc, Brendan Harrison will hopefully be soon fully fit and competing for game time with the rest, so we will hopefully have a big and very capable panel very soon.. Some very good player’s are not going to make the 26, never mind the first 15.. A good win next weekend could garuntee us a place in the semi’s and then what would James Horan do?.. No counting chickens before their hatched, Westmeath were only beaten by a point by Meath, and last Spring Mayo only overcame Meath by a single point, so let’s wait and see.. The Rossies done allot right versus a very experimental Dublin outfit, the Ref certainly didn’t do them any favors, Dublin must the GAA version of Man Utd getting penalties for nothing, 3 in one game, must be some record.. The Rossies looked gassed getting men back defending and supporting the attack and I think it led to some bad decision making.. But they continued to work their socks off for the 70+ minutes.. What will happen next weekend, Galway v Roscommon?.. Will Galway go back to the Galway Shawl for comfort, concidering they shipped a 22 point defeat V a rampant David Clifford inspired Kerry, and it could have been worse had Bernard Power not pulled off some fantastic saves.. When you concider that last October in their first game back after lockdown, Mayo were over 20 points to the good at halftime, with Galway eventually losing by 15 points.. Can Galway play an expansive game and risk not getting a tanking against a top team?.. And after Galway face the Rossies, they have the Dubs coming down the tracks shortly after that… Looks to me like Galway and the Rossies might be playing each other twice in the league, a possible relegation simi final and then a Connacht Championship game… I would much prefer if both were in the Div One league final and hopefully 3 Connacht team’s could be Div One next year.. those fixtures versus your neighbors are always interesting and to look forward to. Tomas O, Shea speaking on League Sunday, isint a great fan of the advanced mark, I tend to agree with him, Dublin certainly used to great effect, but for me catching the ball right into your chest and getting a free shot at goal is too much.
Well done Tommy Conroy, great performance yesterday he looks every inch the real deal he has bucket loads of natural ability. Tommy Goals from Kiltane was/is every inch the real deal and has an all ireland minor medal to prove it and all ireland minor medals don’t grow on trees certainly not in Mayo anyway alas for reasons I won’t go into here and none of them his own fault he didn’t progress.
@catcol – he’s am excellent coach, an all ireland winning coach in fact. What more do you want to know? Obviously you and joe brolly know better though
Backdoorsam, would agree with you there regarding Tommy (Kiltane). Nicknames are trivial really and im sure the players involved dont give a toss about them but I always find it a little disrespectful to Tommy (Kiltane) when people use that nickname when referring to Tommy (The Neale). Also shows a lack of knowledge of Mayo football when someone doesnt know the difference between the two players.
Full forward line really taking shape nicely now. R O’D improves with every game he plays and had a good AI final. Conroy has nailed down that no 13 jersey now also and cillian is cillian.
Tommy looks like he will badly trouble any defenses he comes up against. Keeps his balance at high speed and good finishing.
Saw a good bit of Ros game and thought they showed too much respect against a for once quite average Dublin. Also running themselves into the Dublin shawl far too often. Teams need to counter plan it, all about moving the ball to another player away from risk. And rarely see Dublin caught by the same tactic themselves presumably because they have to counter it in A vs B games, it’s just coaching not rocket science. Kerry would have easily beaten Dublin based on yesterday’s performance, last few points for Dubs were easy as the game was won. Self inflicted defeat for Rossies who had more than enough talent on the field to beat them.
Clearly some of our regular posters have very little knowledge of County Mayo our football and our clubs. It is so obvious they get their limited info from the blog. Getting Kilmaine club and The Neale mixed up was a great laugh to all the good people in the south. For the record I had Mattie, Diarmuid and Tommy on my selection. A notable mention Oisin, ROD, and Enda for various reasons
Well done to Tommy, expecting big things from him over the coming years.
And Christ, that picture above really highlights the massive improvement in his physical conditioning over the past year.
Hopefully our other young prospects are improving at the same rate. It’s fine having the skills, but the S&C has to be right to survive against the better teams.
Lads/Lassies, let’s get things in perspective for a little bit. Down were every bit as bad as the weather and this was a challenge match for Mayo. In fact their run-out up in Donegal the weekend before last was probably harder! This was a game between, in effect, a division one team v a division three team and it showed. There is nothing Mayo or Horan can do about that but, I have to say, that Mayo and Horan have gotten a very easy ride considering we got relegated last year and our performances in the early rounds of last years league were terrible. These performances are the ones that relegated us and have left us playing against poor sides. The Covid season and our run to the All Ireland final covered up much of what should have been severe criticism and I wonder what the reaction would have been if Holmes/Connelly or Rochford were manager when we were relegated?
First game back, some fresh faces in the mix and a resounding result but the opposition must be taken into account. We made many mistakes and bar maybe Walsh (at a push) none of our subs made any real positive impact coming in from the bench, worrying considering this game was already done and dusted at that stage! Keegans passing was sloppy and one terrible ball put Hession under pressure that forced a turnover which in turn led to their goal.
I am as passionate a supporter as any, but I sometimes feel that in our fanatical support we air-brush our own failings in a rush to adore our players/management. Kerry players and management were savaged over the Winter months for their performance v Cork. Absolutely savaged. Paidi was correct when he called Kerry supporters “fucking savages” because they hold their team (irrespective of the players and management) to a very, very high standard. Dublin too. I rememeber being in Croke Park for a league game and Dublin walking off at half-time (as reigning All Ireland champions!) after being outplayed by Mayo and the Dublin supporters were eating them with abuse, eating them without salt! Rumour has it Joyce was lucky to survive the Winter too. Joyce? A Galway legend, two time All Ireland winner and one of the greatest forwards to have played the game!! There are some that felt he should have been ran after their collapse last year.
So, in my opinion we need to get things in perspective. We are in division two for a reason, and if we don’t cake-walk our way out of it – at our ease – given the funding, support and player quality at the disposal of the senior set-up (not to mention the club players being basically told to forget about playing until Mayo are finished), then there is something terribly wrong and major questions need answering.
Supermac,
I originally said that I felt Paddy Tally was the wrong fit for Down. When you replied that you had played under him, I was very interested. You can’t beat direct experience.
I have no interest in Brolly. Never read him. Or look at him if I can help it.
A little bit harsh pebblesmeller. I can see where you are coming from but maybe with all the retirements it’s not so bad playing division 2 for the young players to get games. No point getting hammered by kerry or Dublin while trying to build. Also Down and the other division 2 teams deserve our respect as I’m sure they sacrifice loads in their pursuit of glory too.
I think there’s merit in what pebbles has to say but I think the context of where the team is at is everything. Horan blooded a lot of youngsters last year and brought on a few more, and looks to have started this year in the same vein.
I mean if we look at the team/Panel that went out vs Dublin in the Semi Final of 2019 vs the players that got game time on Saturday, I count 10 (Hennelly, Keegan, Boyler, Durcan, Mattie, Diarmuid, Kevin, Fionn, Cillian and Loftus) of the 22 that got game time, 2 of which came on as subs and 3 of which went off.
That’s a fair bit of turnover in the space of 2 years.
By the same token we should be expecting promotion to Division 1 and we should certainly be expecting to winning Connacht or at the very least giving it a very good rattle.
i might be some help to joe kelly in getting pictures from mobile phone to tv, first you must have the same wifi network on your phone as on your tv . next put on your gaago game and you should see some icons at top of screen ,there is one icon like a small screen with a wifi symbol in it. click on that and the name of your tv set should come up now click on that and wait a minute , you should now have game on tv from phone. you can try it out first with a video from YouTube and see how it goes . good luck with it , hope that is some help to you.
@pebbles
I’ll try not to celebrate IF we beat westmeath next weekend and meath the following week. I will keep perspective. It’s Sam or nothing. I will not enjoy the journey, I will wait until we achieve the ultimate prize. We are losers until we are winners!!!
@ pebbles
sorry for the sarcasm, it’s been a long winter!!! Hon Maigh Eo!!!
Come on Pebbles we’ve had 3 training sessions before that match! We did well. More often than not we’re disjointed at start of league.
I recall reading an article a few years ago where Tommy Conroy stated his nickname was Brown Thomas .
All the teams I saw on TV were flying, all that training is a waste of money!!!!!!!
I just got a text message which claims to be from Mayo GAA Lotto, asking me to update to a password which is provided in the text.
This might be a scam or it might be genuine.
Anyone else get the text message?
Pebblesmeller left out one very important point in his gripe against Horan. Connelly/Holmes and Rochford, had the 2011-2019 Mayo squad at their peak, and they were still just about staying up in the league, I can remember KMac bailing Rochford out in Donegal with the last kick of the game to keep us up. Aidan O’Shea saved us against the same opposition in Machale park to also keep us up. My point is, Connelly/Holmes & Rochford reign struggled just as much with the league as James did last year, but they never intoduced a raft of youngsters the way James did. They had arguably the greatest Mayo squad of all time, and still struggled. What James has done deserves great respect, relegation was the gamble, and in my opinion the juice was worth the squeeze, because them young lads performed brilliantly last season when the championship came around. Their first season and end up with a Connacht title and an AI final, our neighbours would give anything to make a semi final let alone a final, so James deserves great credit in my book. This league is glorified challenge game stuff. The real stuff starts against Sligo.
Well said MayoDunphy.
In Rochford/Holmes/Connealys defense I do believe there is more players coming through now than there was then. The talent pool is as good as its been since Horan took charge in 2011. I believe Horan is looking into the next 2 or 3 year plan to bring home Sam and might not be too upset with an AI semi final exit this year to the Dubs. Not saying he wants to lose any game, but I believe hes blooding these players with a realistic push for Sam in 2-3 years time.
MayoDunphy, to start with I have no gripe with Horan or any of the players. My gripe is the “red and green” tinted glassses his success is viewed through by supporters, relative to that of the previous managers.
And to pick up a couple of points you raised, the squads that Holmes/Connelly and Rochford had were 3 or 4 years younger than the one Horan inherited and so the pressure was not as great to introduce young blood with those managers as it was with Horan. The remit of those managers was to try and get another tune from that squad of players to try to get over the line. I accept that those managers came very close to being relegated, but the didn’t get relegated, and there’s a huge difference between the two. Nearly never bulled the cow!
No one, not even Horan, has gotten as close to winning the big one as Rochford did, and while I fully expect to be at the business end of things this year, as we should be given the resources and players at the disposal of the manager, I stand by the points I raise.
They’ve had 6 sessions, Liberal in the Role.
Pebblesmeller, i’ve great respect for Rochford and the football he produced, id honestly say 2017 was the greatest styleof football we ever played. But seiriously, you can’t go and say “nearly never bulled the cow” in reference to relegation, and in the very next sentence say, no one not even Horan got closer than Rochford to winning the All Ireland. Your contradicting yourself there……
Given the major rebuild going on and the fact that we nearly always struggle to beat supposedly weaker opposition, it was an encouraging enough performance. In the past, we were over dependant on Cillian and Andy and that’s why we never won Sam. For the first time in many years we have at least 3 regularly scoring forwards, our defence needs to be worked on but it’s much easier to find defenders than forwards so interesting times ahead I’d say.
He should be known as Tommie Guns, and let Kiltane have Tommie goals. He has wintered well as they say. Good luck to him.
Just great to have the senior team back again.
I’m hoping if the vaccine roll out goes well we might see them in the flesh this year?
Mairtinin I got similiar test re Mayo GAA lotto!
A good performance from our lads on Saturday
It’s fair to say that we have the bones of two good teams?
Mhuigheo abu
Remember Down were terrible. I watched the Meath /Westmeath game and I saw 2 very fit teams. I thought Westmeath got the better of the exchanges everywhere except the scoreboard.
Hello all, delighted to see Mayo powering to victory in their opening game and I pray it continues as Division one needs Mayo as much as Mayo needs to compete in that division. Great to see some young blood in the ranks and that great team of the past decade will no doubt have inspired a generation of young players who will be ripening over the next few years and will bring great joy and pride to the people of Mayo and their diaspora.
Good luck to all and thankfully our normality is beginning to dawn again, we should remember all those who we lost in this dreadful period in our history and equally celebrate the rebirth of our normality. Not only can we see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can feel the breeze and smell the cut grass from the hardening ground. Let’s do our best to knock the Dubs off their perch and inject some excitement back into our game again,,,
Good to have you back, Gamechanger 10. Kerry are motoring in top gear very early on. Ye won’t get caught on the hop this year in Munster.
Joet 1480. If the numbers stay down with the opening up of the country then some fans will be allowed back in July probably for the provincial finals. I’ve heard this from various ministers so it probably will happen.
On a different note, did anyone see the excellent video the Burrishoole gaa club did to promote their club lotto? Its priceless! Colm Mac looks fit enough to play!
Noel Mooney from Cavan is the ref for the Westmeath game.
Dooniver swifts,
Yeah I’d say Kerry are like a wounded lion, don’t know where they are after yesterday’s destruction of an unusually hapless Galway, in saying that they moved the ball with such speed from defence to attack it was very encouraging to see us playing our proffered game
Great to hear from Gamechanger,a great supporter,along side Martin the Dub and many ,we have many great supporters ourselves and it adds to the enjoyment of our games,I myself make comments about opposing teams but it is only banter,I have the highest respect for our opponents and would like to think that we could enjoy a pint after a game and discuss the game,but my thanks to Willie Joe for giving us the the platform and his knowledge
Thanks Sweeper but how do I know that the TV and mobile are on the same network.Ive tried using mobile as hotspot and the TV connects but no casting Also have built in Mirecast on TV, downloaded Mirecast app on mobile but no joy with connection as with last phone which worked fine Know it should work driving me demented.
Mayojoe, are you using the GAAGO app when trying to cast? Easy to cast to smart tv using the app
I would say Kerry are dying to play Cork in Munster this year.
You’re right on that Pat. They’ll beat them by 20+
Someone made a fair point. Kerry were slaughtered all winter by the locals and were always going to come out roaring versus Galway, who were well warned in advance. I even saw a quote from PJ recognising the fact that Kerry would be like a wounded animal so it wasnt like Galway were caught on the hop. For me, Kerry are favourites to win the All Ireland. Dublin looked normal in the Hyde and to be frank, were there for the taking last December but once again, we didnt take the opportunity. I get the ‘building for 2/3 years’ thing but we had a super chance last year and flopped in 2nd half when victory was there to grab.
Dublin looked normal enough in the drawn 2019 final too, Mayonaze, yet Kerry, a man up for a full half, failed to take them when everything was set up for them to do so.
Good point Willie Joe.
Good to see Gamechanger back on here. I still can’t make up my mind on Kerry, as WJ said they had 35minutes against the Dubs with an extra man and couldnt seal the deal, were they “savaged’ by their supporters for that? Im sure Gamechanger could answer. Would I want to play Kerry in a final? Hell no, they are a fantastic team, but to me their not close enough to Dublin. Crowley a massive loss imo, the type of player you hated when he was against you, but you’d have him in your team every day of the week if you could.
Crystal ball time, i think Dublin go through the motions and grind out another AI win against Kerry, buoyed on by about 30k in the stands, majority of which will be Dubs. Kerry could be vulnerable in the semi to Tyrone only but id fancy the yerra’s to squeeze through. They’d wipe Donegal who have proven year after year that when the pressure is on they crumble, Castlebar ‘19, Ulster final last year.
mayojoe whatever broadband wifi you have your tv connected to you should be able to find on your phone . go to settings on your phone then go to wifi and your house wifi should be shown and connect to that. if all else fails maybe you could get a lead with a HDMI plug on one end for tv and a MINI HDMI plug on the other end for the phone. your tv could have 2 or3 HDMI sockets at the back plug the lead into one of them , then go to source on your tv and you should see all HDMI sockets , and click on the one you need . i hope you enjoy the game on saturday on the big screen with a good mayo win.
If you have a smart tv, log into gaago directly on the tv and play, can be a bit fiddly but if I can manage it, then anyone can.
Kerry will not be far off, will get through Munster and will be better if they play to their strengths rather than overthinking it like last year.
MayoDunphy
Hard to know if Kerry are ready to turn the Dubs over this year, Sunday should give us a more realistic perspective on what weight should be tied to their saddle going into the Championship. In 2019 they could and should have turned them over to be honest but I felt that some of the weight on Clifford’s young shoulders told as he kicked three gimmes for him wide and dropped two more into cluxtons hands.
This is criminal for a talented forward like him and to be honest I have often pondered if he was correctly prepared by his manager for that game we would have won. I think if one or two of the older warriors of the forward line were in the dressing room before that drawn game I believe we would have taken them.
In truth when cooper got his marching orders that day Fitzsimons went over on Clifford and did a good job on him. If cooper had stayed on him I think we would have won a good few frees and with the handicap of the yellow card on cooper I think Clifford would have created some moments of genius that may have got us over the line, but that’s all potential bait on a hook that never created a ripple so we will never know.
On our departure from the 2020 Championship all I can say is if Eamon Fitz got strongly worded letters in his time in charge of Kerry, I’d imagine the local postman in killorglin has spent a fortune on chiropractor bills. To say that the people of Kerry were seething is an under statement. I know that he was trying to prepare for the dublin set up and he was trying to instil a defensive mindset on his players. What made us despair was defenders in attacking positions as a strategy. What we would have greatly endorsed was half forwards being instilled with responsibility and an expectation of them to defend as tenaciously as a defender but in their responsibility they still have the instincts of a forward and therein is the balance required. In his defence the weather that day Cork could have won the Ashes Series so beating Kerry was an opportunity to be grabbed in Chaos and they did their best and the Gods delivered.
I initially had difficulty casting the match onto the TV on Saturday. For some reason it wouldn’t cast from the ipad, but it worked no problem from the phone. Make sure first to sign out of all other devices before casting. It didn’t seem to work when still signed in on ipad.
Sweeper I may have to resort to HDMI and thanks Mayomad will download GAAGo app and try again