Mayo GAA Discussion Thread

DDC1990

Was in Castlebar on Sunday. Mayo were really impressive, and 14/1 for the All Ireland is a bit much IMO.
4 subs that scored. Solid back line. Fierce forward line. Surprisingly dominant midfield. Unflappable free taking.
Never rated Barry Moran, but he was like Darragh Ó Sé, and Danny Geraghty was a workhorse for the afternoon.
Letrim were very poor having said that. Felt sorry for Emlyn Mulligan. Only footballer of the 15.

It was the most impressive performance I've seen this year.
They will be very hard to beat this year. You also have to take into account that Ronan McGarrity is only coming back, and Aiden O'Shea is back training. That will solidify the midfield.

Only Dublin have a more solid spine IMO. Ger Caff, Donald Vaughan, Cillian O'Connor, Andy Moran are all classy footballers.

What's more impressive was that Mayo weren't even at full tilt. O'Connor is out of position at CHF, and looked devastating when moved inside. He was also wrecked for the last 10 minutes, and will be more effective when fully fit. Andy Moran was actually poor on Sunday, yet popped in 2 goals, the sign if a good player.

Anyway, things are looking up for the Green and Red. A lucky draw, and I could see them in the Final this year. Ye then need to sort the heads out, and get over that final hurdle.

Padkir

DDC1990 wrote: »

Was in Castlebar on Sunday. Mayo were really impressive, and 14/1 for the All Ireland is a bit much IMO.
4 subs that scored. Solid back line. Fierce forward line. Surprisingly dominant midfield. Unflappable free taking.
Never rated Barry Moran, but he was like Darragh Ó Sé, and Danny Geraghty was a workhorse for the afternoon.
Letrim were very poor having said that. Felt sorry for Emlyn Mulligan. Only footballer of the 15.

It was the most impressive performance I've seen this year.
They will be very hard to beat this year. You also have to take into account that Ronan McGarrity is only coming back, and Aiden O'Shea is back training. That will solidify the midfield.

Only Dublin have a more solid spine IMO. Ger Caff, Donald Vaughan, Cillian O'Connor, Andy Moran are all classy footballers.

What's more impressive was that Mayo weren't even at full tilt. O'Connor is out of position at CHF, and looked devastating when moved inside. He was also wrecked for the last 10 minutes, and will be more effective when fully fit. Andy Moran was actually poor on Sunday, yet popped in 2 goals, the sign if a good player.

Anyway, things are looking up for the Green and Red. A lucky draw, and I could see them in the Final this year. Ye then need to sort the heads out, and get over that final hurdle.

I agree what you say, but the problem is, this was the first day out and it was against Leitrim. No disrespect to them, but Galway looked very impressive against Roscommon and came unstuck against Sligo, so I wouldn't get too carried away!

padd b1975

The playing surface on Sunday looked in fantastic condition.

DDC1990

Padkir wrote: »

I agree what you say, but the problem is, this was the first day out and it was against Leitrim. No disrespect to them, but Galway looked very impressive against Roscommon and came unstuck against Sligo, so I wouldn't get too carried away!

I agree with that.

Im just saying, Mayo look very good on paper, and put in a great performance on Sunday.

Its now up to them to get the bottle on the big day.

They showed it against Kerry in the league semi-final, but now they need to carry it over into Championship Semi-Finals and Finals.

Padkir

DDC1990 wrote: »

I agree with that.

Im just saying, Mayo look very good on paper, and put in a great performance on Sunday.

Its now up to them to get the bottle on the big day.

They showed it against Kerry in the league semi-final, but now they need to carry it over into Championship Semi-Finals and Finals.

Yeah I agree, they finally have a forward line that looks like they can cause serious damage, and not just for one game per season!!

Just need to sort out midfield and we can compete with anyone! Still not sure if Aidan O'Shea is the answer, he was never the most mobile of midfielders but in saying that he's a great fielder, and if he is fit he'll be a massive boost! Great to see McGarrity back on the pitch too!

mayo.mick

Looking like the final will be in mc hale park;
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/mayo-poised-to-receive-machale-park-final-boost-3151568.html

Jimmy Macnulty

The mayo Co board have offered Sligo €20k in a bid to have connacht final in McHale park. If its played in Pesrse then neither county board would receive much of the gate

DDC1990

Mayo - The Dublin of the west! :P

All games in McHale park :P

Fr Tod Umptious

DDC1990 wrote: »

Was in Castlebar on Sunday. Mayo were really impressive, and 14/1 for the All Ireland is a bit much IMO.
4 subs that scored. Solid back line. Fierce forward line. Surprisingly dominant midfield. Unflappable free taking.
Never rated Barry Moran, but he was like Darragh Ó Sé, and Danny Geraghty was a workhorse for the afternoon.
Letrim were very poor having said that. Felt sorry for Emlyn Mulligan. Only footballer of the 15.

It was the most impressive performance I've seen this year.
They will be very hard to beat this year. You also have to take into account that Ronan McGarrity is only coming back, and Aiden O'Shea is back training. That will solidify the midfield.

Only Dublin have a more solid spine IMO. Ger Caff, Donald Vaughan, Cillian O'Connor, Andy Moran are all classy footballers.

What's more impressive was that Mayo weren't even at full tilt. O'Connor is out of position at CHF, and looked devastating when moved inside. He was also wrecked for the last 10 minutes, and will be more effective when fully fit. Andy Moran was actually poor on Sunday, yet popped in 2 goals, the sign if a good player.

Anyway, things are looking up for the Green and Red. A lucky draw, and I could see them in the Final this year. Ye then need to sort the heads out, and get over that final hurdle.

Interesting, DDC1990 comes over from the Kerry thread to talk us up.

Like others have said it's hard to really analyse the performances given the quality of the opposition.

My own feeling is that it is a very open year this year and a team from the pack may come and win it, and when I say pack I mean Mayo, Kildare or Donegal.

Kerry are not who they used to be, nor are Tyrone and Dublin may have a hangover.
That leaves Cork and one of the three mentioned above and even though Cork are deep, strong and will be hungry there is an opportunity for someone else to take the honours this year.

In that context I still think Mayo have a lot of work to do, particularly in the forwards.
In the two games I saw live this year, the game v Kerry in Tralee and the league final I saw the same things happen, Mayo forwards overplaying the ball and untimely loosing possession.

Mayo need their half backs, mid field and half forwards scoring from out the field, otherwise a team like Donegal will eat you up with their massed defence as you try and find spaces closer to goal.
Kevin McLaughlin is a good man to get a goal, it would be great if he could pop over a few points from out there too.

Andy Moran should be played in the half forward line. To me he is looking like Ciaran McDonald, everything going through him in the build up.
It's better that he be doing it from closer to his own position than being absent from the full forward position when the final ball arrives to where he should be.

I think the backs are solid but they do seem to soak up a lot of pressure, they need to be very fit to keep that up for 70 odd mins and you need good bench to support them n the last quarter of a game.

DDC1990

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Interesting, DDC1990 comes over from the Kerry thread to talk us up.

Like others have said it's hard to really analyse the performances given the quality of the opposition.

My own feeling is that it is a very open year this year and a team from the pack may come and win it, and when I say pack I mean Mayo, Kildare or Donegal.

Kerry are not who they used to be, nor are Tyrone and Dublin may have a hangover.
That leaves Cork and one of the three mentioned above and even though Cork are deep, strong and will be hungry there is an opportunity for someone else to take the honours this year.

In that context I still think Mayo have a lot of work to do, particularly in the forwards.
In the two games I saw live this year, the game v Kerry in Tralee and the league final I saw the same things happen, Mayo forwards overplaying the ball and untimely loosing possession.

Mayo need their half backs, mid field and half forwards scoring from out the field, otherwise a team like Donegal will eat you up with their massed defence as you try and find spaces closer to goal.
Kevin McLaughlin is a good man to get a goal, it would be great if he could pop over a few points from out there too.

Andy Moran should be played in the half forward line. To me he is looking like Ciaran McDonald, everything going through him in the build up.
It's better that he be doing it from closer to his own position than being absent from the full forward position when the final ball arrives to where he should be.

I think the backs are solid but they do seem to soak up a lot of pressure, they need to be very fit to keep that up for 70 odd mins and you need good bench to support them n the last quarter of a game.

Ha didn't come just to talk ye up, but was in Castlebar for the weekend and decided to watch the match.
Why would I pick Mayo of all teams to talk up, if I was on a windup, there are large Cork and Dublin threads, but I really believe Mayo have their best chance in years to win an All Ireland.

I was genuinely impressed! Was disappointed with the atmosphere though as the last game I was at was Cork vs Kerry so It would be hard to live up to that!

Kevin McLoughlin got 1-2 so he is contributing with points as well.

Agree with Andy Moran at CHF, Cillian O'Connor is a fantastically talented forward, but really needs to be played inside at FF or in the Corner to be fully effective, as he is wasted trying to chase his man around the field like he had to against Letrim. Then in the last 10 minutes he was shagged and didn't go for a ball (wouldn't fault him for that, he was out on his feet and probably could have done with being substituted instead of Freeman/Doherty IMO)

Bar midfield, I think the weakness in this Mayo team will come in the backs from the Bench. Richie Feeney is a good footballer and did brilliantly in the league against Kerry 2 years ago, but has disappeared since. However thats about as good as it gets, and if there was an injury to the first 6 then you could see Mayo having problems.

Aside from the backs, ye have great bench cover for every position, even the Goalkeeper (Was amazed to see Hennelly on the bench as I had presumed he was the starter).

I don't agree with you that Kerry are finished, or that Cork are as good as you are suggesting, but we'll see in good time i'd imagine.

rossie1977

to be fair leitrim are very very poor atm and you can't base anything on that match, we (roscommon) played leitrim in a challenge last week before the mayo game and beat them by 14 points, we played waterford at the weekend and beat them by 2 points with waterford scoring a whopping 2-16

Syferus

rossie1977 wrote: »

to be fair leitrim are very very poor atm and you can't base anything on that match, we (roscommon) played leitrim in a challenge last week before the mayo game and beat them by 14 points, we played waterford at the weekend and beat them by 2 points with waterford scoring a whopping 2-16

We also beat Laois and a Donegal team with 12/15 of its starters playing. So, yeah. Not so much.

yop

Any update on venue, looking more like McHale now!

WAY too early for Mayo to be talked up, how many times have we been here! Have barely missed a Mayo match in last 10 years and while I agree we got a good result on Sunday, the Leitrim team were Junior B grade and I say that with the utmost respect to them.

Barry Moran had the game of his life, I am hoping he can repeat it against Sligo.

Great win for sure, but we have been here before.

Kristopherus

Connacht final will be played in Hyde Park. Throw in at 2.00pm

Fowler87

Kristopherus wrote: »

Connacht final will be played in Hyde Park. Throw in at 2.00pm

Is the minor game on before it?

thatsnotmyname

Fowler87 wrote: »

Is the minor game on before it?

Yes Mayo will play the winners of the Galway V Roscommon game
12pm throw in.

padd b1975

thatsnotmyname wrote: »

Yes Mayo will play the winners of the Galway V Roscommon game
12pm throw in.

Early start:eek:

Clareman

Joys of having 2 games live on TV on a Sunday

df1985

Kildare v Mayo AI Final.




God knows both of us are due it!

naughto

think its time we got the ball rolling on the connaught final lads

blinding

naughto wrote: »

think its time we got the ball rolling on the connaught final lads

In this weather !

naughto

blinding wrote: »

In this weather !

why not its only rain.where u not there when we beat roscommon in the lashing rain and wind we got soacked to skin but we went home happy.and had a feed of pints after wards

RealityCheck

The way I see it is this.

Sligo will be up for this and will give it a great shot. If they play like they did against Galway in the Second half they have a great chance. If they play like they did in the first half against Galway it will be game over by half time. If Sligo play with the game plan they had against Galway, they'll trouble Mayo but Mayo should have enough for them because they are a few steps ahead of Galway. Sligo will try and cluster the defence and will try and play on the break. If Mayo allow their wing backs to bomb forward all the time, Sligo will try and make things congested and hit Mayo on the break. The other side of that is they might foul as they did in the first half against Galway.

To be honest I don't see Sligo beating Mayo but they'll relish the prospect of beating Mayo all the same and it probably will be tight.

blinding

naughto wrote: »

why not its only rain.where u not there when we beat roscommon in the lashing rain and wind we got soacked to skin but we went home happy.and had a feed of pints after wards

I just mean't that it would be difficult to get the ball rolling in this weather.

Re; The game.
We don't really know how sharp Mayo are at this stage as the Leitrim match did not tell us much.

Sligo had a great result in salt hill and are more championship ready than us. I hope that is a good competitive game and that Mayo come out on top. We need a settled midfield that can compete at the highest level and it would be great if Freeman could get back to the form that he showed in his first season but he has never come anywhere near that type of form again. The reason that I would like freeman to come good is that he is a decent size and the rest of our forwards are much of a muchness when it comes to size (medium to small).

A good competitive game with the best team winning whoever that might be (ah alright Mayo).

Fr Tod Umptious

blinding wrote: »

I just mean't that it would be difficult to get the ball rolling in this weather.

Re; The game.
We don't really know how sharp Mayo are at this stage as the Leitrim match did not tell us much.

Sligo had a great result in salt hill and are more championship ready than us. I hope that is a good competitive game and that Mayo come out on top. We need a settled midfield that can compete at the highest level and it would be great if Freeman could get back to the form that he showed in his first season but he has never come anywhere near that type of form again. The reason that I would like freeman to come good is that he is a decent size and the rest of our forwards are much of a muchness when it comes to size (medium to small).

A good competitive game with the best team winning whoever that might be (ah alright Mayo).

So do you put Aidan o' She straight back into mid-field

I think he has to, he needs to get some game time before a QF or a win or die qualifier

blinding

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

So do you put Aidan o' She straight back into mid-field

I think he has to, he needs to get some game time before a QF or a win or die qualifier

If he's a 100% fit then yes but he has to get out of the habit of carrying the ball into traffic.

Aiden has the advantage of being a good physical size which we really lacked against Cork. Cork murdered us physically in the league final and we can't let that happen against any opposition from now on.

Doing that and keeping all fifteen on the field may not be that easy. Mind you some teams are doing alright with 14 though.

Defiler Of The Coffin

blinding wrote: »

If he's a 100% fit then yes but he has to get out of the habit of carrying the ball into traffic.

Aiden has the advantage of being a good physical size which we really lacked against Cork. Cork murdered us physically in the league final and we can't let that happen against any opposition from now on.

Doing that and keeping all fifteen on the field may not be that easy. Mind you some teams are doing alright with 14 though.

There's a good chance Seamus O'Shea will be starting instead of his brother. Looks like he will partner Barry Moran in midfield. Expect Aidan to come on in the 2nd half if this is the case.

I wouldn't feel overly confident for this match, the Leitrim match did not progress us in any way and Sligo will be all revved up after inflicting the beating on Galway. They'll be eager to make amends for 2 years ago as well. I fear we may be walking into an ambush.

Defiler Of The Coffin

naughto wrote: »

and had a feed of pints after wards

Sure that's gonna happen anyway!

blinding

Defiler Of The Coffin wrote: »

There's a good chance Seamus O'Shea will be starting instead of his brother. Looks like he will partner Barry Moran in midfield. Expect Aidan to come on in the 2nd half if this is the case.

I wouldn't feel overly confident for this match, the Leitrim match did not progress us in any way and Sligo will be all revved up after inflicting the beating on Galway. They'll be eager to make amends for 2 years ago as well. I fear we may be walking into an ambush.

There are no bushs on hide park is there ?:D (I mis-spelt Hyde park by accident but it kind of works better so I left it)

Mayo would be very foolish to be ambushed by Sligo in this game. Its a great chance for Sligo to take Mayo down. Hopefully its a good entertaining and competitive game and may the best team win.

Fowler87

Hopefully there is a good crowd on Sunday and especially the weather is dryer than last year!