Photo: Hogan Stand (INPHO/Donall Farmer)
I know you’ll have made your New Year’s resolution to get to every single one of our matches this year and although such plans might already have bitten the dust with a less than 100% attendance rate for the FBD campaign, your already flagging resolve may have this week been boosted by the arrival of your Cáirde Mhaigheo season ticket in the post this week (as mine did yesterday morning).
If that’s you, then you won’t really be all that interested in the grubby details about TV coverage of our NFL matches but there will, I know, be plenty of others who, for one reason or another, will (like myself) struggle to make it to a number of matches over the course of the spring campaign. This one is, then, for you.
This year, four out of our seven Division One matches are being shown, with three being broadcast live and a fourth transmitted as deferred coverage. TG4 are showing two matches live and one deferred while Setanta Ireland (which I know is only available on pay-TV platforms) is also showing one match live. Here’s the full of our matches that’ll be shown on TV:
- NFL Division One Round 1, 2nd February: Kildare v Mayo (TG4 Live)
- NFL Division One Round 2, 9th February: Tyrone v Mayo (TG4 Deferred)
- NFL Division One Round 3, 2nd March: Mayo v Kerry (TG4 Live)
- NFL Division One Round 6, 29th March: Dublin v Mayo (Setanta Ireland, Live).
Details on the full schedule of live matches being broadcast this spring is available here – TG4, Setanta.
Thanks for the update, WJ. Speaking of season tickets, I’m still waiting for my Croke Park one to arrive in the post.Anyone else still waiting on theirs? It’s not long now till the 2nd!
Still waiting on mine too, what’s the story?
I much prefer listening to match coverage from mid west radio, Billy Fitz & John Casey give you the real feeling of being at the match & being former Mayo players always seem to have some inside information, would have loved to have their comentry during all ireland final it can get very passionate!
Thanks for the update Willie Joe! I was just having a look through our results from the last three years in the group stages of the league under James Horan. It is as follows….
P W D L
21 8 2 11
38% 10% 52%
Its interesting that our win % is well below our loss %
I also broke this down into our home and away games….
Home
P W D L
11 4 1 6
36% 9% 55%
Our home record is not great, we would need to improve on this, if we want to be a top team in the future….
Away
P W D L
10 4 1 5
40% 10% 50%
We actually have a better record away from home, well hopefully we can keep this standard up, away from home and try to improve on that as well, as we have 4 games away from home in 2014. So there is room for improvement alright, when it comes to our league results, in terms of moving on to the next stage of winning national titles!
Beginning to look like the other nfl with all these stats
Something wrong there lads , got ours six weeks ago.
Yeah David, I know what you mean alright! Some more stats, its interesting to note that from 2003 to 2013, six times the team that won the league title went on to win the All-Ireland title later in the year. Tyrone 2003, Kerry 2004,2006,2009, Cork 2010 and Dublin 2013…
Our home record is very weak over the last 2 years and we have been forced to pull out all the stops to survive in Div 1 football. Cillian’s 2 free kicks made a world of difference between success and failure in the league last season. We have been flattered by semi final appearance during this period. Taking a pessimistic view we have been 1 point away from the drop zone during this time. I think this point is what James Horan is referring to when he said that we have to get stuck in when the league starts this year.
You must be joking. Laural and Hardy. It would be like watching paint drying.
Yeah PJ, I thought the game against Kildare last year at home really summed up, all of our short comings, over the last few years. We build up a good lead. Then we conceded a goal and allowed Kildare back into the game again. We kicked a load of wides too and lacked leadership, especially when deciding who should be taking the frees etc. Then we lost the game by a point. We really need to win games like that, this year, if we find ourselves in the same situation again….
Looks like our defenders more than our forwards that fall asleep, second half.
I got mine the week before christmas, so I’d check in with them to see what’s up.
This team is too long on the road to be bothered about the NFL. We have reached the AL Final the last two years and the Semi the year before. We don’t need to convince ourselves that we’re serious contenders. The priority should be to keep the panel as fit as we can, try to uncover a bit more talent, particularly upfront, go through the motions, survive in Div 1 and keep our powder dry till summer. What will winning the NFL add to that ? This is the last chance saloon for this panel of players but not for Mayo as I believe we’ll be a serious force for years to come.
A National League title, though nice, won’t matter a fuck if we don’t land the big one – we have loads of NFL titles but we’d swap the whole shagging lot of them for one Sam.
So let’s enjoy the league and treat it as an experiment to uncover more talent and be patient in the expectation that it’s all a journey to a jubilant September Sunday.
.
Yes, got ours before Christmas too. Can’t wait to use them!
Agree 100% ………..avoiding relegation is all that’s needed. We have nothing to prove to ourselves that winning the league will help to sort out.
It is an opportunity to really experiment with new players and new tactics and let the lads enjoy their football.
When it comes to the summer months a lot will depend on how fresh and fit our players are and what kinds of NEW problems we can pose for opposing teams.
I disagree with most of the recent comments regarding Mayo’s upcoming league campaign. I think Mayo need to storm out of the blocks right from the get go. Mayo need to send a definite message out to all the contenders that this Mayo team are for real and fear nobody. We need to annihilate a couple of big scalps during the course of this league campaign and strike real fear into the hearts of all contenders who dare to face the might of Mayo. I realise this could be deemed hyperbolic in tone but so be it.
We seen what happened to Donegal after their laissez faire approach to the league, although personally I think Donegal just got found out. I see alot of the recent posters who seem to think that the league is not important are the very same people who were righting off Mayo’s championship campaign last year, on the basis of individual league results.
Over recent league outings Mayo have taking some big scalps but boy have we in most cases struggled to do so. ex. Mayo win against Kerry after a double over time etc.
Outside of Mayo and arguably inside as well, the rest of the 31 counties see Mayo as “chokers” and “nearly men”. Mayo need to blow that tag away and shove it up the doubters proverbial holes. Mayo need to play and expect to win each and every game. Forget about that old Mayo mentality of playing well and hoping to win. I realise in the annals of history the important win, the only win that will be remembered happens on the final Sunday in September. The work of expecting to win starts on feb2nd, the rest will take care of itself.
I think if they were ordered after a certain date they are issued later than others.
I don’t think any Mayo team takes to the pitch with the intention of losing. However trying out new faces is important as you have to blood younger guys sometime. Even thought he average age of last years panel is young enough a lot of the fringe payers have had very little actual game time. Talking here about Coen, Carolan, Regan, McHale, Keane. And there are probably a few new ones to add this year.
However when you play these guys together they are not going to be as cohesive as the team that took to the All Ireland pitch the past two years. But they have to keep getting experience.
They have to learn especially what it takes to close out matches at the top level. Unfortunately this approach though might end up with us sacrificing some games in the League by the proverbial point or two.
However its better to lose them now rather than in the championship.
Sent them an email there, they said it would come some time next week – cuttin’ it fine!
All The Way and Diehard. Agree 100%. Team building, training and correcting mistakes, all important.
Agree with a lot of the sentiments Joe and would honestly love if we could do that. If we could do that and blood new players, well that would be perfect but last year in the league we had loads of uncorrected errors. We need to change that in the first place.
Who cares what other teams think. Actually it could be to our advantage if they dismiss us. When they have the shite kicked out of them they will very quickly learn the error of underestimating Mayo!!!
Joe
Like yourself and most Mayo people I hate to see us lose any game. But for us, at this point in our development, the time to annihilate a couple of the big boys is in the latter stages of the championship. Beating the stuffing out of them at this stage doesn’t mean a great deal to the current team.
In the past playing the great Kerry teams in the league was never a daunting affair. But boy when you met them in the championship they were different…….very different.
Its very interesting to read the comments lads, what is the best way forward, go all out for the league or just concentrate on survival? In fairness both sides of the argument, have made very good cases for each of the two options. IMO, I think we should try to win it. When you think about Dublin in 2013, right from game one in the league until the final game in the championship in September, they said loud and clear, “We are the best team in the country”. Every game they played, it was played like a final. They only lost one game all year. Even the last game of the group stages in the league, they drew with Donegal, in a match that was of no relevance to them. They had already qualified for the league final at that stage. They were only playing for pride. They were behind by a few points in that game but came back to draw it. This result meant Donegal were relegated. I heard Jim Gavin the Dublin manager, mention this game a number of times. It showed the attitude and mentality of the Dublin players was right, he then knew, that they had what it would take to win trophies. I heard an interview with Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, recently. He spoke about the first piece of major silverware, been the hardest of all to win. Once you win once, the winning mentality and attitude starts to take root in the players minds. Our big problem has been an inability to perform in major finals, it would be great to get to the league final and finally put in a performance worthy of this team. Perform to their potential and develop that winning habit, the winning mentality. The time to start winning some silverware has arrived for this team…..
I agree that the main item on the agenda for the league is finding new players who will add real depth to the panel for the summer. However to get a proper assessment of these and current panelists we need to be going out to win every game including if possible the league final. Winning the league is, in itself, not crucial but it would be the best test for quality and would certainly add to confidence. We may have several league titles to our credit but mostly in God’s own time. We have won only one since 1970, two since 1954, i.e. 2001 against Galway. We have by my reckoning lost 6 [1971, 72, 78, 2007, 11 & 12]. Winning a final at Croke Park, esp. against one of the big powers, is bound to do confidence no end of good. I would not make winning the league a major objective for the year. The objective must be to win every next game and doing that will have its own result. It is interesting also to note that until 2011/12 every final was a prelim to a collapse in Connacht.
We can learn from Kerry!!!
They were seriously annoyed to be beaten by Dublin in the Semi-final; they expected to win and they don’t accept the mantle of being one of the best teams in the country. Kerry feel they are the best, not second best. There are no excuses accepted in Kerry for not performing. Does anyone remember a Kerry team not turning up in Croke Park? You perform or lose your place.
Can any one tell me did Kerry win Sam struggling through the qualifiers a few years ago? I remember Longford almost beating them on one of the wettest and dirtiest days ever for football in Longford, but Kerry just held out. The pitch was a swamp.
AndyD, “The objective must be to win every next game and doing that will have its own result “. That says it all. We always need that objective. If we don’t win, we need to correct our mistakes, circle the wagons and go for the next one.
Dublin has the advantage of having a more settled team so they can focus on winning only. We have problems we need to solve and I feel if we can stay in Div. 1; sort out our problems and be really prepared for the Championship, we could be serious contenders!!!
Winning becomes a habit and we need to get into that habit on feb 2nd and keep it.
Winning the league is also important as it would give this squad the taste of silverware at CP and help to eradicate the choker tag.
Every other county in the country need to believe that Mayo are one serious outfit and it begins with the squad believing it themselves and proving it.
Time now to get the gloves off and choke that feckin monkey jockey.
MaighEo Abú
why cant mayo do both go out to win every game in league and blood new players at the same time all it means is bringing them in to the team 2 at a time from the start letting them know that a win is whats required every time not this 5 subs coming on at once for last ten minutes that benefits no one subs should be brought on at ten minute intrevals to allow them to get to pace of game. we have brought on too many subs at once in championship last 2 years and that is why we loose our intensity by the time we get it back the game is over. if we had put the pressure on Dublin in the middle of second half that we did in last 5 minutes we would have won reason too slow making changes and too many at once.