Mayo GAA Discussion

irishgeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120171407#Comment_120171407

Buckley is back I expect a huge improvement in tackling.

flasher0030

I like the look of Loftus at centre back. I don't know if it will work out in the long term - hopefully it does. But he seems like a new man in that position. Calm on the ball. Bit of a playmaker instinct to him, and wanting to get on the ball. When he is in the forwards, the game often passes him by - he does not have any burst of speed or side-step to deliver as a forward. I hope it works out for him.

PressRun

I know its early days, but I would still have massive concerns about our forwards this year. I didn't see any evidence of a plan for our forward play last night and I thought there was a great deal of indecision and a lack of confidence in shooting from most of the forwards bar O'Donoghue. Much the same as last year when we were blaming it all on Horan. I would have big doubts about some of the personnel and I don't know if we're going to see anything different from them. Carr, while he has flashes of brilliance, is so inconsistent and has a tendency to just put the head down more often than not. Orme isn't the answer either.

km79

Bad set of results for us today

Man Vs ManUre

Roscommon looking down and seeing Mayo and Galway. And there are no mountains in Ros!!

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120175521#Comment_120175521

It's very early.

Mayo's next games are

Armagh

Kerry

Tyrone

Roscommon

Donegal

Monaghan

Kerry are not coming with the same vigour as last year so that's one I would not rule out.

And importantly our last three games are against teams that are not as deep as Mayo.

They will be playing with full decks from the start to try and get a foothold to keep their division one status.

By the time they get to Mayo Mayo should be fresher.

I think the schedule helps Mayo.

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120173041#Comment_120173041

Not sure I'd agree on that, they highlighted Loftus for the first goal last nite, how have Galway managed to isolate our corner forward and their half forward on the edge of the square. That situation shouldn't have been allowed to happen, he needs to be passed onto a back the closer he is getting to goal and I'd have that as the No. 6's responsibility. A cuter player would have been able to block Tierney and Reape should have cleared him out of it and made him sorry for coming near there. I said on Saturday that Reape can have the odd wrong decision and that was a good example, he is only in goal three years, I'm not sure you can learn all you need to that quickly.

On Orme, I think its outrageous that lads are writing him off so quickly, hes 22 and has started 8 games for Mayo but apparently lads have seen enough of him. What I see is a player who wins every ball that goes into him, doesn't matter if its high or low he'll win it. A lot of the ball he got on Saturday he looked up and there was no run inside so hes back to recycling the ball. His shooting and his decision making around shooting needs to improve but that will come with time. His work rate and kick passing are outstanding.

I see Hennelly is transferring to Raheny, probably not good news for @PARlance, even though Breaffy seem to have a great replacement I would take it to mean Hennelly doesn't see Breaffy winning a county title

PARlance

I wouldn't paint it as a decision of him not thinking Breaffy will win a county title @GreenandRed@Green&Red. He deserves more credit than that. He's living in Dublin a long time now, and he just got married (so maybe plans afoot there to start a family). A great lad and I don't think too many in Breaffy will begrudge him. It helps that Livingston is coming through no doubt.

Would agree with you about Orme, lots of potential there, but decision making and shooting needs to improve. It's a big year for him, I think he'll get there. We shouldn't be knocking guys who aren't afraid to take a pop but he probably needs to reign it in a bit.

Blackjack

Robbie has been travelling over and back for 10 or 12 years now and made his reasons clear on the podcast. Long story short - he's living in Dublin, the split season extends the travel period considerably for him and he just recently got married and no doubt has plans for his family and his career.

Hard to blame the man.

It's not like he's doing a correspondence course where he wants to be closer to the post box for sending off his homework and got a bag of cash for transferring. 😉

Blackjack

As for Orme - he needs a bit of time and experience. I wouldn't be calling for a lad to be dropped having played only a few games.

It wasn't that long ago people were calling for Jordan Flynn to be dropped and look how important his contribution was on Saturday night alone (not to mention several other games last year too).

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176615#Comment_120176615

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand his reasons for transferring and I don't think anyone could blame him, its a massive commitment. We had similar when Kevin O'Neill went to Na Fianna. I think in both cases they might have waited if they could see a county title the following year

HBC08

Robbie transferring is a win win for everybody involved.

The first choice GK for Mayo gets to extend his playing career and hopefully is fresh,enthusiastic and injury free.

Breaffy have a serious young GK talent and they get to develop him and let him make that position his own.He has a good chance to go on and succeed Robbie for Mayo in a few years too.

Breaffy supportive of the move in general aswell which is not the way it usually goes.

All in all a good thing for all involved.

Squatman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120173188#Comment_120173188

main concern id have for the forwards is the lazy play. Galway pull plant and stop people progressing, as they have done for 10+ years. Mayo forwards got into positions and waited for the ball to make it to them. which is lazy and selfish gameplay. go back 3/4 years and you'd always have Andy Moran making runs, creating space, and offering options for forward play. This hasn't happened since he left, and with new management, hasn't been instilled yet. Galway have the exact same strategy for a decade, and we haven't been able to come up with a comprehensive method for cracking it. I personally think it culture in the forwards rather than skill.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176213#Comment_120176213

That's only one incident in the game. Players switch markers the whole time. Orme shouldn't have been last man back. But doesn't mean you can just pin it on Conor Loftus. At the end of the day, in those type of scenarios, the keeper has the advantage as he has forward momentum, whilst the attacker and defender are generally back pedaling. Keeper should be coming out all guns blazing and taking ball and man.

I was watching the Sunday Game. I didn't hear them mentioning anything about Loftus. Maybe I missed that part.

Green&Red

Their point was that he should have been sweeping. I'd go back a set further and have it as the No. 6s job to arrange who is marking who and where.

FWIW I think Loftus looks great when we have the ball and think he could add a lot from 6 but he needs to up the defensive side IMO.

It's amazing to think he was scorer in chief on several underage county teams, we seem to be coaching it out of some players

muddle84

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120177811#Comment_120177811

Just on the comment about coaching the forward out of the player. I've heard it said before that if David Clifford was born in Mayo he'd be a half back and if Lee Keegan was born in Kerry he'd be a forward!

Audioslaven

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120177811#Comment_120177811

I don't think it was coached out of Loftus. He just couldn't move up into IC level as a scoring forward. It is not as if he didn't get enough chances as he got played alot in the forwards. But he is no different than lots of other guys, who find it hard to nail down a position in the forwards and deliver consistently. We really only ever have a few forwards who can deliver scores in a consistent manner ..COC, ROD, Andy, McLoughlin etc.

This is far from easy to get guys to do this. Andy was in his mid 20s before he started to do this if I remember correctly.

MacDanger

Best of luck to Hennelly. I doubt anyone would grudge him moving at this stage in his career, esp when there's an able deputy coming up behind.

I think McStay is right to give gametime to Reape & Byrne but unless one of them really steps up, Hennelly is probably still our championship starter

PARlance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120178686#Comment_120178686

It is kind of mad to think that a guy who couldn't nail down a place in the forwards generally due to him not being strong enough to win/hold onto the ball has ended up playing midfield and now center back.

I thought he did quite well in midfield and can see the thinking behind him at CB... but I do think we're missing a trick somewhere. The guy was an extremely talented forward underage.

If you told someone five years ago that he'd be wearing number 6 for Mayo, they would probably call the men in white jackets... Not the umpires.

I thought he would be a player that McStay would look to get playing further up the field again.

Blackjack

Apparently Loftus has been playing at that position for Crossmolina. Don’t know how true that is maybe someone closer to that scene can confirm.

I don’t think he did too bad, could have kicked it more which is where his strengths are in my view. We do need to work on a sweeper - remember we used McLoughlin there before though I know he would be more used to a defensive role for his club too.

ChippingSodbury

I'm not from Mayo or Galway but decided to bring my lad to the game on Saturday. Ended up standing beside Hennelly on the terrace. I made a bit of small talk at half time and told him my lad was also a goalkeeper. He spent the rest of half time talking to him about tactics, explaining what Mayo were doing for kickouts, where the goalie was standing and why, asking him what he thought, what were his tactics etc. That was, of course, all while stopping every couple of minutes for pictures/ autographs with kids etc.

What an absolute gent...

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120180975#Comment_120180975

I saw them play Parke in the league and he was 11 as far as I remember

GBXI

Interesting comments on Orme. Yes, he works very hard. Yes, he is a solid ball winner and a good passer. But he is not a good shooter. He lacks belief in himself and that is hard to coach.

I think Towey should start the Armagh game because he has complete confidence in his own abilities and it's scoring forwards we need. He deserves a chance. By the way, I defended Orme to the hilt for taking the last second shot vs. Galway last year in Castlebar - he was dead right to shoot. Forwards should always be encouraged to shoot.

km79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120180275#Comment_120180275

He is definitely our starting championship keeper ! And I assume for second half of league whenever he is fit .

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181969#Comment_120181969

I'd disagree on whether hes a good shooter or not, I've seen enough of him to know that he is, he just hasn't shown it yet.

The belief is a funny one, he had the belief to kick that, and I'd agree he was right, he has almost the exact same kick against Castlebar in the championship last year and kicked as well. Missed both but I think if the same situation arose he'd back himself again

Agree on Towey, has looked great for Charlestown anytime I've seen him, looks like he could be a 6/7 point a game man

GBXI

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182055#Comment_120182055

Maybe conviction and not belief is the right word. Orme knows when it's the right time to shoot (which is great) but he doesn't score enough of them. He's just not accurate enough. He's definitely getting picked for all his other attributes and not his shooting because Towey is well ahead on that front. Towey played 3 championship games for Charlestown last year and was just shy of the top scorer (that was Regan who made it to the final) award. He is prolific. However, he's probably not at Orme, ROD, Cillian, or Conroy's level defensively. Too much emphasis on defensive duties though for inside forwards in my opinion.

spakman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182092#Comment_120182092

Towey could be like Dessie Conneally for Galway - prolific scorers for their clubs, but doesn't have the physicality for intercounty.

GBXI

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182168#Comment_120182168

Yeah, maybe. Though I'd like to see more of Towey at IC level before I decide. Dessie also, I think, will be good for Galway too if they persist a bit more. He'll get more space from the other teams and he's deadly accurate.

HBC08

Good points being made on here on both sides of argument about Orme.

I'm not sure what to think,he wins good ball and is not afraid to shoot which I'm happy to see.He does need to improve his accuracy though, hopefully that will come.

I'd like to see Towey get a chance aswell,no doubt he's accurate but would his size and lack of space at IC level count against him? Only one way to find out I suppose.

MacDanger

I think the upshot of it is that both Orme & Towey (and a few others incl. Carr) need some additional coaching and gametime to see if one or more of them can make the step-up to being a reliable regular for us