Mayo GAA Discussion Thread

Reportedly no injuries.
Did anyone see the Aghamore game to see how Alan Freeman played. I had heard he was going well?
I had a look back at the Dublin league game. Y'know Freeman if he shaved his head and shouted after his good moments would be seen as some kind of hard man who can also score. In that Dublin game he was the only forward getting stuck in in the first half when everyone else was marked absence in terms of the dirty work, he was turning hard won ball into passes to a team mate. As usual he won scoreable frees and didn't really get the credit due for it. A painful exercise but I recommend anyone look back at the first half of Mayo - Dublin league and count all incidents he's involved in. I counted roughly 6 positive and 2 negative. At one stage McGloughlin just stood looking on as Freeman was fighting to win back ball on the ground.
His problem I see is one of image. If he was all John Mullane like after every good moment there would be a perception that he's some beasht of a man who fights for the cause. But because he quietly goes about his business and doesn't get involved in any off the ball stuff Freeman has a perception problem amongst pundits and fans.
His stats in terms of goal scoring, point scoring, winning ball, successful passes to a team mate, goal scoring % are impressive on a seasonal basis. Other players survive a bad game but never Freeman. Simply ridiculous that he is almost now a "Give him 5 minutes at the end" type of player.
If you hold off on judging a player either positive or negative on a match to match basis but look more at their seasonal performance you get (like in the film Moneyball) a more accurate picture of which players can bring seasonal success. In terms of what is being way overrated now are worker type forwards who never goal or setup other players in either direct assists or second out assists from the scorer. Far too many overrated players in most teams who can't do anything of much quality with posession.
Derrys highest posession player McGoldrick was in my view damaging to their attacking game, 28 posessions and couldn't do anything of any quality with it. He didn't have a score, an assist, a second player out assist or win a scoreable free off of 28 posessions. Back and forth with easy option ball out around the middle of the pitch away from the scoring zone.
The way people harp on about turnovers you would swear a score goes up on the board when you get one. Any player rated well on turnovers must have high pass completion and assist rates or they're not bringing much game winning performance to the table. If they're losing posession themselves (turnover to other team) then they need to be much more heavily involved in the scoring and assists as they're only about breaking even in terms of helping their side win the posession battle. As I see Gaelic Football now these turnover worker merchants if they have two impressive turnovers can themselves get away with three innaccurate passes in the same game. Despite that being a 1 turnover negative swing to the other team. Okay rant over but I'm just tired of seeing the obvious statistical gap between players with minor deficiencies in workrate who far exceed worker forwards in the quality stakes in terms of assists and scoring.
Posession does not win Gaelic Football games but the efficiency with which you turn attacks (posessions) into scores. To be efficient you have to have on average attackers with high % shooting and high rates of assists, second out assists and pass completion.

Freeman was winning back ball in many games and if he was all hard man hero about it he'd honestly never have been subbed as much. He's a bit indistinctive apart from his two handed release of the ball to shoot. But physically not as obvious as AOS/Dillon/Andy/Cillian. Manys the time yer unsure if it was indeed him in a crowd of players.

Anybody heading up to the minor game on Saturday?Looking forward to seeing what talent of tomorrow will have to offer.It would be nice to secure another win over the Tribesmen.

ColeTrain wrote: »

I remember listening to that game on MidWest, from what I can remember the result was never in doubt!

Totally outclassed,solitary goal.Can't get any foothold in the Galway half.Hard to see any way back,quite a strong wind though.

Really disappointing for the young lads,totally outmuscled in physical terms by a decent looking Galway team.The Galway number 8 who got MOTM was superb,ditto the centre half back.The Galway number 10 Eric Lee has a serious range in his free taking if he needs to improve his accuracy a tad.

We've had a pretty decent period at minor level but the through put from the under 21s is a serious concern.