Okay, I think the fat’s been fairly well chewed about Saturday night’s performance at this stage but the great thing about the league is that there’s never too long to dwell on any result, regardless of how good or bad it is. That’s certainly the case at the minute as we have three rounds of matches coming up over the next three weekends, starting against Down up in Newry next Saturday night.
We may be coming into this a bit unsure about ourselves – though it should be noted that we’re currently in fourth place in the table – but Down won’t be brimming with confidence either because, like the Kerrymen, they’ve lost three from three. That said (and Patriot has already said it in the comments) the Mournemen racked up a formidable 1-17 in that unlucky loss to Cork yesterday and you can be damned sure they’ll also be itching for revenge after the demolition job we did on them in Croke Park last August.
So, how do you think it’ll go down at Páirc Esler on Saturday night?
How will we do against Down?
- Win (76%, 103 Votes)
- Lose (20%, 27 Votes)
- Draw (4%, 6 Votes)
Total Voters: 136
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voted for a win and i think we will be just as itching to put the dubs result behind us.
We are a far better team than down, so anything other than a win is a poor result.
Cork haven’t started firing yet, I suspect, they maybe trying a different strategy this year.
Just a rough rummage in the statistical bin. Make what you want from it. In James Horan’s first year Mayo scored 10 goals and conceded 11. A year later (last season) and with two extra games thrown in, Mayo scored 6 goals but only conceded 5. It would appear we tightened the back door possibly at the expense of the front door.
Looking at the teams the other night , Mayo fielded virtually their All Ireland final team. Dublin saw ten departures from their semi final loss to Mayo by my reckoning. Once more make what you want from that. Most counties are trialling lads at the moment particularly Tyrone and Kerry. Even Kildare saw that work ethic alone wouldn’t pass mustard.
Two seasons ago Alan Freeman came to town and ended Sean Murrays tenure as Dublins full back. Lessons were learned by the Dubs and five months later Sean got his All Ireland medal but from the bench. We head towards summer with a permutation of any six from the following eight Dillon, Doherty, McLoughlin, Varley, O Connor, Conroy, A Moran and Feeney. All good footballers, all good at their job but as a unit have they they size, bulk and badness to grab big lugs?
As an observation , for the second successive match and for the zillionth time in my life as a Mayo follower once more I have seen deeds perpetrated on our players and the perps walk unscathed from the action. I think it was Doherty who got a smack in the balls from a Tyrone defender in full view of all bar the ref. Ger Brennan showed a deft touch twice the other night without the mascara being troubled.
Mick Mulderrig was having “trouble” with his marker in the 1950 All Ireland final. Tom Langan demanded to know what the eff was wrong. Mick informed him and a clearly angered Langan gave Mulderrig a simple instruction…”rise for the next ball and take the marker up with you”. As instructed when the next ball arrived into Mick up he climbed. So too did his marker. As Mulderrig clutched the ball he heard the sound of air being driven from the upper body of the marker. Fifteen stone of Ballycastle granite hit it in the midriff and Mulderrig continued unhindered until the end of the match. At some stage the Louth defender recovered his wind but kept a weary eye out for Langan.
I am not sure what passes for psycho babble within the Mayo camp but the sooner they take a leaf out of the old Meath manual the better. A well known defender perfectly described what was needed within the Meath set up when they were kings. “Sean wanted men who cut deep” went the defender, “problem was I went too deep and that was no use to Sean or Meath”. Its a balance thing really. At some stage some Mayo player will take of the gloves and do what needs to be done on the pitch. As he accepts the inevitable card be it yellow or red , he will have the greatful thanks of a tired following. alas the one lad capable of doing that will be donning the Sligo colours later this year.
John we have plenty of fellas on the field who are capable of dishing out punishment and have done so as recently as the All Ireland Final. I recall Colm Boyle, and Donal Vaughan hit some bone crunching tackles in last years final. On the down side when Aidan O Shea did a bit of sorting out he was suspended for a month and that did us no good whatever.
Didnt 1996 teach us anything? If we had kept our composure that day instead of trying to prove how ‘manly’ we were I have no doubt we would have won the game.
What I was taught as a young footballer was the way you really ‘hurt’ opponents is on the scoreboard.
I am a great fan of wholehearted football where nobody takes a step backwards but I cannot subscribe to dirty play. I have seen enough of that in my time. It needs stamping out not encouragement.
Well said diehard
why isnt Horan experimenting with new players? thats the most disappointing part of the league for me so far( well apart from the last 45 seconds of the tyrone game). i just dont understand why there is no new blood being tried? is there nothing out there or are they sparing the young lads for the U21s? Very disappointing nonetheless..
wouldnt go as far as to say Horan has lost interest (although I do think this will be his final year). he did the hardest part well….he lifted us off the bottom and brought us back to respectable in a very short space of time. i thought the most rewarding part of year 3 would be adding the final pieces to the jigsaw but that doesnt like its going to happen and we will effectively come championship be sending out the same team as last year which is very disappointing
There probably is no one new to bring in. I presume if there was, they would be getting a run.
That is probably the reason. Who should be getting a run that is not ?
James Horan promoted Lee Keegan, Kevin Keane, Colm Boyle and Michael Conroy last year, 2012. Now can any one suggest 4 other players that are not considered at the moment that would have the impact that the 4 above mentioned made to our cause in 2012. I cant see them to be honest, Horan’s biggest problem is getting the selection right on the day for the team we are playing. Horses for courses.
Heading up on Saturday. I was very annoyed at how we went and lost the game at the weekend but this week we should get the 2 points on offer. Come on Mayo!
facetheball, I’m blue in the face calling for Michael Walsh to get a run in corner back. I know many wouldn’t have seen him but the lad is pure guts, if John Cuffe wants a lad to give a fair clip, Micky Walsh is your man. Comfortable on the ball coming forward too. Evan Regan is another lad who deserves a shot, should be fit enough for a few minutes at least over the coming weeks.
Attacking options from the bench were fairly scarce on Saturday evening. Hence, pushing Keegan up into Feeneys position with Cunniffe coming on.
It was disappointing to see us lose the game from a good position and worrying to see us outplayed by 14 men and our attack crowded out. Make no mistake, this is a good Dublin team even without the Kickems lads and Brogan unplayable (felt sorry for Caff) but had Keegan buried his effort or had O’Shea passed to his left to the unmarked Doc (excellent game I thought!) instead of panicking we could have won it.
There were patches of good stuff (6 unanswered points, closing 2 points of the half and opening 3) but there was some pretty poor stuff also. I felt Higgins was shockingly loose on his man and Andrews was equally influential (if not on the scoreboard certainly in general play) and a constant outball for his defenders/midfielders. Lost everything in midfield, both clean catches and second balls, during the first half. Vulnerable under the long high ball into our full back line (McFadden anyone?) and Vaughan is becoming a liability.
I am afraid also that O’Shea is becoming our new McHale i.e. we need him at midfield but also at full forward.
Mayo to bounce back up North and to be fair it was a much better performance than against Tyrone in the Park.
Maigh Eo Abu.
As time goes on i’m not really sure that we have what it takes to get us over the line and people can pretend that we are progressing under horan but I think that maybe he has take us as far as he can.Some of the management desicions seem a tod baffling and why has this trend developed that we fall asleep for large periods of the game. Time and time again we seem to allow teams to rob us blind and when this happens we look clueless.I cant understand why James Horan and his side kics try to accommadate players on the team by moving them from billy to jack and back.I dont want to be critical of any individual but some of the players on show over the last 3 games are not at a standard required to compete with the top teams.
Ballagh won county senior, Charlestown won inter and the Neale won junior and not one player from any of them 3 clubs got a minute of league football.. am i correct in sayin that ..would that happen in any other county. I slowly loosing interest ……… rant over
Raz, keep the faith. There is no point in giving up now as I am sure that, like me and thousands others, you have travelled and hoped and prayed and cried for big lugs to cross the Shannon. But big lugs is not going to come to us until we deserve it, we have to go and take it. Not only win the final but also beat Lady Luck as she never smiles on us in a final.
Do not forget, O’Connor, in the All ireland Final, should have had a very scorable free in, instead the ref badly calls it wrong and from the resultant free out a long range effort bounces off our post, through Keanes hands and hops up into the open hands of McFadden. From being potentially 3 points down we were 7. Inches, inches, inches. McGee should have been red carded for his uppercut on Varley when he was kneeling over him, right in front of the umpire too. we do not get Luck on the final day, so we have to beat that as well.
It is only early March, they barely have their lungs blown out from the winter rest. Survive in division 1 is what it should be about. Forget about a league final or even a league final win. That will count for nothing later in the year. what did the 2001 league win do for us? We are close, and Tyrone aside, we are showing good form albeit in patches.
I think we have the perfect squad to challenge this year.We played 8 half backs in each of our last 3 games with 7 of them on the field at all times(Keith is a half back if your counting).We have a million half backs and none of them are corner backs.
So it’s back to basics we first get 2 corner backs that will mark their men at all times and forget about everything else.Just stick to their men like shit to a blanket.
This is a tough one against Down. JH can’t really experiment until he has more points on the board. At least Cathal Carolan got some Croke Park exposure on Saturday. And, there have been a couple of discoveries, or rediscoveries. Doherty with responsibility added is a revelation – everything he did on Saturday smacked of class. Richie Feeney is becoming undroppable, though how best to exploit him is the key. Problem is the way we are playing.
We HAVE to take a leaf out of Donegal’s book and become more defensive. Tyrone are doing just that. Teams are figuring us out. Get high ball in quick and see how our full back line handle it: Dublin on Saturday, Donegal in September, Dublin in September – Brogan just didn’t finish, and Flynn was unlucky, even Down scored 2 goals… I could go on
We really either do elation or despondency very well and often for little reason, judging by the comments post Croke Park. We have a lot of work to do and one thing a spell as a team mentor thought me was that decisions have to be made for reasons that are not obvious to supporters and for dressing room solidarity cannot be explained at the time.
That does not, and should not, preclude supporters from giving vent to their beliefs and opinions. Team managements have their reasons and because we do not understand or know them they are still valid. I do not know of a multitude of players out there waiting and deserving a chance to show their talents. There are several former minors and U21s who looked promising but have not shown up as expected in club football. Philip Rodgers, Evan Regan and Darren Coen are in the panel and will no doubt get their chance in time. Indeed I do not think that some who are being given a chance are likely to make a worthwhile contribution in the long term. Instead I think a few who appear to have been discarded may still have a contribution to make. How about Pat Harte as a No 14? Are Aiden Kilcoyne and Aiden Campbell over the hill? I am pretty sure having seen them there is nobody in any of the current county champions deserving of an immediate call up while the man going to Sligo had chances but unfortunately does not have the pace for county football at the highest level. Most of the better Ballaghaderreen and Charlestown players got chances in the past and were not quite up to it. I will be heading for Newry on Saturday DV in the belief that James Horan and Co are not just killing time.
I was delighted to be able to watch saturdays game live, something normally only available come championship. Even though we lost, these two teams sure know how to put on an entertaining match. While disappointed with the loss, I was more puzzled again by JH’s decision making. Was he watching the same game at all? It was clear within a few minutes that brogan was on fire and caff wasn’t up for that. Maybe if he got off the sideline, and went up in the stand, he could see it better? Albeit, from a different angle?
Same thing with ball into the forwards. Jeez if we’re going to try AOS in there, then why the hell aren’t we lobbing bombs into him with Conroy waiting for the break! Instead, we insist on our half backs coming forward, dishing it off to the wings like soccer (fuck sake man!), backs to the goal and making the likes of Conroy work twice as hard as he should have to, that when he does win the possession, he is forced to take a high risk shot, from range, for a score! Luckily, Conroy can do this, but as others have said, teams are onto this and if that’s our strategy, then we’re bolloxed this year. I don’t want to sound like its all over, but jeez have we learned anything over the past two seasons? It’s not like this is a whole bunch of newbies! No, these lads have been around a while now.
I won’t go into criticizing individuals for they do try their best, but at this level, some are just not good enough. Having said all that, the bright spot must be Docs form. He looks really relaxed and has this uncanny ability to get in a kick when it looks almost impossible or more likely to get blocked down. Was very impressed with him and needs to be given more responsibility in there. The other thing is, and I keep telling myself, it’s only the league, so no need to panic. Nevertheless, we should man up and not accept relegation.
The window for trying new blood is closing. JH seems to have hitched his wagon to the current herd and will live or die with them, for the time is now, this year, cause it will be his last.
We could have snuck the game against Tyrone but for the last high ball and again against Dublin if we had a little bit more composure with our late goal chances. In the long run the lessons learned might be more valuable.
The full back line needs serious work and with Keane, McHale and possibly Walsh to look at we have options. I think Keane is being hard done by, he got exposed in last year’s final ( but the time and space given to Lacey to play the ball in was equally disgraceful )and is paying the price but he has a lot to offer and should be given another chance. Playing a half back in the full back line is not the answer. Caff ( after his man of the match display against Kerry ) and Higgins ( who should not have let McMenemin in for the second Dublin goal, even if it meant a red card ) have both been given a timely kick up in the tailend and it will do them no harm.
MIdfield was a disaster the last day. Gibbons blew his chance, Moran looked out of sorts and too one paced and AOS looked like a guy who over-celebrated the Sigerson
victory. The loss of this area contributed directly to the problems in the FB line.
I liked the look of the diamond area before the Dublin match Vaughan, Gibbons, Moran and AOS but how wrong that turned out to be.
We still have problems at CB and CF and these need solving with AOS moving back to midfield and a big question mark over Vaughan at CB. Maybe more gain time will bring him on, if not a switch with Keegan may solve the problem.
We should look at the positives too.
We look like a team that aren’t as fit as others but this will be rectified as the year goes on.
Keegan and Boyle are going very well.
Moran and Vaughan can improve with game time.
We were missing half our forward line the last day with COC, AD and AM to return. Putting these three with Mcloughlin ( pound for pound the best player we have ) DOC ( who has wintered very well and is probably our most improved player on the panel and Conroy who is also playing quite well will give us a much better forward line. .
So maybe it’s not all doom and gloom and we should have a little more faith.in the manager and the fine panel,of players that we have. If we could win our next two games we could forget about the league and begin to focus on Salthill in May. That’s all that matters in the long run. A third Connacht title in a row must be our aim, last achieved in 1950 I believe and look what happened then.
Keep the faith lads, it’s early days yet.
It’s early days yet but there is no denying the that the line has been very slow at making decisions. We can “keep the faith” all we like or roll out any catchphrase we like but things are still quite worrying.
How long did it take the line to move AOS to midfield? How long did the substitutions take in the AI final take?Too long is the answer. Donnie seems to be immune from being dropped. The players themselves are no spring chickens any more, 2 serious championships under their belts yet still make silly decisions when it comes to the crunch, SOS failing to pass, high balls in on top of Conroy ect…
I’ll support Mayo to my dying day but there no point in denying whats blatantly obvious, no point in being a “flamin galah!”
James horan has to revert back to the players he has available sat. nite to as near as possible as the team that took the field in all ireland final, its as simple as that really and no more of this trying this an that with players in diff. postions, he shoud,t have done it anyway untill we were safe in this division in what will be a disaster to this team if were relegated….i agree A oshea has alot of football played this year alone already and prob. needs a little breeder but jesus do we need a big performance from him sat. nite in newry at MIDFIELD or wat…….. Lose and were in trouble……. over to u The Management and there lies alot of the problem in ye,re selections an substitutions…….C.mon Mhuigh Eo…….
I agree with your analysis of the game ‘All in all’.
Big problem for us now though is that we have been identified as a team who are suspect in the FB line under a direct high ball. If the likes of BB and K. McMenaman can win and break balls to supporting players, imagine what the likes of Donaghy and Cooper would do.
Way I see it there are two ways to deal with it. Either get someone in there who can deal with that sort of ball or else work harder in the middle third to pressure out the time for any decent high balls being delivered. (Ideally a combination of both solutions – but this may not be possible)
As for JH well he has taken us to a certain level. Whether he can push, pull this team on to another level is the big question. But its the same for all managers into their terms.
Lastly I’m pretty worried about Down. I think this is a must win game for them as well and they know it. But there is probably more pressure on Down than on us. It will be played on a tight pitch under lights and this will add to the pressure.
Equally it now becomes nearly a must win game for us (depending on our overall goal for the League). If we are to win it I would be confident of our ability to reach the semi finals of the League. This one should tell a lot as to how determined lads are this year and where we lie in the overall scheme of things.
Dont agree with ‘all the way’ that Jason has ‘blown’ his chance.If we were to base a players ‘chance’ for the year on his first start of the campaign then we’d have very few left-game time is what the lad needs
After browsing through the many fine contributions posted above, I hope the Mayo players and Manager take the opportunity to have a peak. The wide and varied comments nicely sandwiched between “utter despair” and “keeping the faith”, gives a fairly accurate assessment of where we’re at. I’m inclined to agree with comments made earlier regarding our fitness, which seems to be a little behind other teams at present. This is always more obvious with defenders, who are made to look sluggish and even foolish, when rounded by a nippy forward, as happened against Dublin.
Contrary to some opinions, I believe the Down match at the weekend is going to be very difficult for us, and could have a hough bearing on our League status for next season. Failure to win, will put massive pressure on our remaining matches, something we could well do without. O for those two precious points we gifted Tyrone !
The rate of progression of the team was always going to slow down as we became a better unit. It would be entirely unreasonable to expect the same progression this year as we made in year 1 when we caught an unsuspecting Cork, or even last year when our forwards were much more efficient with their chances. What we need now is the last couple of percentage points to bring us to the level of All Ireland champions. Its the small things that are going to matter from here on in, the inches.
Rumour has it that Gibbons and Moran had been flying in training for the last number of weeks and so Horan obviously saw fit to give them their chance. Therefore, playing O’Shea at no. 11 was the next obvious switch – a mobile and physical presence in attack whilst also aiding at midfield. It didn’t work. Fair enough. The only mistake was that it seemed to take a long time for the line to do something about it. Thankfully we saw McLoughlin taken out of the corner and put back into the half forwards and Keegan in his wing back position, these earlier experiments obviously looked at enough to be deemed unworkable. So the management are trying different things that may, or may not, work. You don’t know until you test them out.
I am not saying that the management are above criticism, but let’s be fair about it. They have introduced a number of players to the set-up (Keane, Keegan, Boyle, Vaughan, Feeney, Conroy), they have looked extensively at others, we are consistently competitive and that cannot be always said of Mayo teams of the past. Its the small, finer details we need now. Our fitness will improve, our injured players will return, Evan Regan will get game time and I believe the longer that Donie Buckley has with the lads (he is only with them since early February) we will see things improve and settle down.
We are one of the top 5 sides in the country and we will win the All-Ireland this year. No, I have not drink taken!!
Maigh Eo Abu
I have being looking through the comments and a thought came to me its just a thought but im going to throw it out there so i hope it doesn’t sound too stupid.
Is it possible that at all that Horan has delayed their fitness levels so as they don’t peak too soon and thus may have more in the tank and more bite come later in season .
Is this possible to do or is what i just said crazy or wishful thinking ? 🙂
Mayomaningalway, not at all. Reports after the Kerry game were that Kerry had 4 weeks training on us, don’t know how true they are but those rumours were circling.
We have areas to sharpen up on, no doubt, and they have all been discussed here very well, but division 1 survival is all that counts. Perpare for Salthill then.
Posted this last night but on the wrong thread.
We scored 15 pts at headquarters against a Dub team that has wiped the floor with all league opposition this season so far……..Public opinion and expectation to win everything, seems to have seeped through to the management team and decisions are being made to suit demand of the fans .eg.it seems AOS was moved to forwards to appease those who have been wanting it all year (as many on this site have asked for).
We should have won this game but if we did we wouldn’t have learned half as much about ourselves as we did by letting it slip…………winning might have let us forget the roasting BB gave to Caff, the missed goal chances and the overall bad decision making by those on the field and the sideline.
All that said ,this is a good football team and as most would agree, the league is not the time to peak but it is a great learning curve and we are on that curve, a bit to learn yet but sure there’s no better time for that than now……….I for one have no worries about this team getting past Galway in May and much further as the year unfolds……………I wonder does all who write us off now after 1 win out of 3 , also write Kerry off after nil from 3 ???
Don’t forget, Kerry will still probably make the Munster final. We have to go to Salthill to play Galway. Galway are ‘due’ a win against us and my fear would be (since the draw was done) that it will happen on the 19th of May.
Win, loose or draw, I would imagine all Managers sit down and study video of matches and see the good as well as the bad,so in that regard I would much rather see us winning. When it comes to writing off teams, I don’t think one can compare us with Kerry….Kerry have nothing to prove and with their tradition, would be mad to do so.
Regardless of how we do in the League, I do expect us to beat Galway and with a bit to spare and hopefully go on and do the hat-trick in Connaught. After that it’s in the lap of the Gods !!
I cannot accept the pessimism which seems to have crept into fans thinking since the Dublin game. Sure we lost, Brogan ran riot and a few other things went wrong. Regards management decisions and placing of players a manager has to experiment and explore options – otherwise how do they develop a plan B.and options for the day when things are not going our way.
Most teams have had a head start on us regards training – the penalty for having been in the final last year. Aiden O’Shea and Jason Doherty do seem that bit sharper than the rest, probably benefiting from their Sigerson campaign.
For all the complaining about players not being up to it there are very few alternative suggestions other than players already in the panel who will surely get their chance if they deserve it. I do not get to see much club football in the county but judging from local press and the grapevine there do not seem to be any outstanding candidates out there being overlooked. There is no point in being critical if there is no alternative put forward.Unfortunately some of our most promising minors of recent years do not seem to be emerging, perhaps not surprising in view of the difficulties being faced by young people today.
Finally I suggest that a more positive vibe would benefit the team. Remember that some of the players being most criticized now were outstanding not too long ago. I believe they can be again.
I think the reaction to Saturday night’s performance has been understandable enough, andyd, and in fairness to those who have posted comments criticising the display against Dublin, those comments have been measured enough (I’ve only had to delete one unacceptable one). It’s interesting too that’s there’s been a fairly wide range of comments – in terms of negative and positive – so I don’t think the mood here has been uniformly downbeat. Losing two matches in a row would always tend to make supporters a bit more pessimistic, all other things being equal. The great thing about the league is that there’s never too much time to wallow in the match just gone with the next one coming straight up after it providing an early chance at redemption. That’s the position we’re in now and hopefully the team can provide the reaction that I’m sure we’d all like to see following two disappointing results.
Sean Rice has a nice piece in Mayo News on Mayos last visit to Newry back in 1999. Below is the Mayo team courtesy of WJs excellent archive.
Down 3-7 Mayo 4-3 (Newcastle, 28/3/1999). MAYO: P Burke; K Mortimor, K Cahill, P Holmes; F Costello, A Roche, A Higgins; P Fallon, J Nallen; C McManamon, M Sheridan (0-2), J Casey (1-0); C McDonald, J Horan (2-0), D Nestor (1-1). Sub: D Heaney for P Fallon.
We were exposed in the full back line last week but you have to admire Dublin and Jim Gavin for their tactics. They used their half-forwards to come short from their kick-outs dragging our half-backs up the pitch leaving the full-back line exposed. An in-form Bernard Brogan one-on-one is going to give any FB trouble – the plan is usually to crowd him out, which we are usually quite good at, or to stop good ball going in. We done neither last weekend and they punished us.
Our lack of sharpness certainly showed, whether this is fitness or not we don’t know. If this happens again one of the half-backs should let there man go back and hold position to cover the FB line.
Anyone think Vaughan and AOS to partner in midfield would be worth a shot?
F’Deelin says:
March 5, 2013 at 9:55 pm
We have to go to Salthill to play Galway. Galway are ‘due’ a win against us and my fear would be (since the draw was done) that it will happen on the 19th of May.
Wouldn’t hold any fear for me. Galway haven’t beaten Mayo in a while because they haven’t been good enough that won’t change come May 19th.
Mayo have better players and are better side than Down it will have to take a poor performance for Mayo to lose on Saturday.
Re Sean Burke.:
I dont think Vaughan is a suitable midfielder, He doesent have the ability to jump and catch a ball, Looking at his football ability he reminds me of Colm McManamon, run all day but unable to defend or score but he would cause havoc like McManamon if he was allowed to wander all over the forward line, and come back to defend if required.. Vaughan has a great engine but prone to make mistakes and get punished. Still I would have him on panal going forward but to find a suitable position is entirly another story.
What is donal Vaughan position for his club… was at a few games over the last few years involving his club but I didnt see him playing at centre half back any time.If my memory serves me right the tried him at centre field against Westmeath in a challenge games last year. Didnt look comfortable in that roll .. well in my opinion. If I was James horan Its not LEE keegan I.d have moved up to the half forwards its Donal..
Last Sat night in Croke Park, we seen the ‘Good’, the ‘Bad’ and the ‘Ugly’. The comments to-date have, I believe captured the failings of some of the players and the management. Let’s take a step back… Assuming that everything else is heading in the right direction (team selections, fitness, mental toughness) there is one area that I believe this Mayo team/management as a group is falling down on and that is in basic organization:
– How to play against a sweeper (look at the trouble Tyrone caused us with this simple tactic a few weeks back)
– How to play against 14 men (nominate either a half back or half forward to be the free player for every game in the event that the team playing us goes a man down.)
– High ball into our backs (a very old failing, deal with it)
– High ball into the forwards (our forwards cannot expect chest high ball each time, put a least one good fielder into the full forward line)
– Free kicks (Stop with the backchat to the refs, we are being penalised for this and losing valuable yards and FACE the freetaker)
– Line the goalmouth (Often very slow to line the goal mouth in the event of a close in free, seems to be a very haphazard approach)
– Hand-passing or rather illegal hand-passing (a referee doing their job properly would have penalised us and Dublin a hundred times over on Sat night for throwing the ball) This is a GAA wide problem but a less lenient referee will cause us problems in this area (and 90% of other teams including Kerry who are probably the worst offenders ). Anyone like the new rugby type out half throw from some players who are on the ground ?
– Be alert to the ball bouncing off the upright or crossbar, happened a number of times during Sat’s match.
The last 2 rounds of the league are often the most informative and important, let’s hope we are not having to scramble for points against Donegal and Cork. Here’s to a win in Newry on Sat night.
If there’s one thing jh should do is show the ladsa rerun of the dubbin game, and highlight the basic errors that players at this level should not make.
A millisecond of calm before giving a pass or shooting when someone else is open for a goal.
Mayo are a fairly good side, one of the top 5 I think, but stupid mistakes are costing them and have nearly cost them games where they were the better team by far.
Basic mistakes, the best thing to destroy confidence .
And thinking lads 5.9 can out jump 6.2 lads in the ff line.
Andy Moran, Kevin o Neil, macdonald, cillian
But we need some speed in the middle too, sometimes i just think its far too deliberate and obvious from our center field, i reckon Vaughan would be the answer along with AOS obviously.
Speed in the middle of pitch is grand if you can catch a ball, We can catch a ball with our present midfielders, but then the want they want to run fordward and forget to come back.
I dont think Vaughan is able for midfield with AOS, as I said before the only person I have seen to do well with AOS is Gibbons, remember down in Kerry last year, it reminded me of WJ Padden and TJ Kilgannon. I still am convinced that if those 2 midfielders are given game time to geather the could be our best pairing, Gibbons has ability to catch a ball and is mobile and able to give a footpass correctly. O’Sea is able to break through any defence. Vaughan has neither. As I said previously he reminds me of Mc Mannamon.