Well done Mayo, best team won
Hats of to James and the Backroom Team for turning things around at half time, Still plenty of improvement needed in Mayo for us to have a chance in the Semi Final. Delighted that Tommy Conroy made a big impact in second half. Hope Padraig O Hora is ok, he was outstanding in second half.
Was a bit worried at half-time but that was some second half, even if Galway just wilted as their fitness seemed to drop dramatically.
Couple things:
I'm just not a fan of Robbie Hennelly. Maybe we were spoiled with the shot stopping ability of Clarke, but Hennelly just doesn't have the nous of a top level shot stopper.
Still too soft through the center.
Damien Comer. I fcuking hate him but I'd give my left leg to have him in our team.
The young lads introduced over the last year look so confident, composed and relaxed it's ridiculous.
Kevin Mc the most composed footballer around, simply class.
I think we will lose by 3/4 in the semi, but Mayo football is in a good place, long may it last.
BTW. Conor Lane is an absolute disaster of a ref. Makes better decisions when not looking at the play.
It will be quiet in here tonight now ;)
Onto the next one . August football again. Lovely
O hora was my motm up to the injury. savage turnovers and hard hits all over the place. have followed him since he was on that special forces show.
When the auld stock all retired I would gladly have taken a return to division 1 and a connacht title from this season.
BUT i wouldn't rule out running the dubs very close and even better! Wil be interested to see if they can make a statement against kildare or give more encouragement to the rest of us that they have slightly gone bacķwards.
Kildare arent travelling to make up the numbers. If flynn gets to run at them kildare will rattle them.
Whatever about previous years, you can't criticise Hennelly for today. Both Galway goals were from point blank range. He must have been 100% on the kickouts too.
Still doesnt inspire any confidence though, continues to look ropey under a high ball coming in, cant fault him for his distribution though.
As a Galway supporter, let me say a hearty well done to Mayo, and I sincerely hope you beat the Dubs and win Sam.
I'm disappointed, not just for today's game, but for the fact that Galway football - whilst producing great underage teams-have not really been able to compete with Mayo on a national stage for nearly 20 years now.
I often wonder what are Mayo doing so 'right' that we are not. Keep it going, and bring Sam back to Connacht.
In fairness, Mayo don't have much to show for the 20 years either.
Sunday game bring up more of our problems than give credit.
You've been consistently competitive at the highest level. Subtract Kerry and Dublin from past twenty years and there isn't much silver left...
It's a Galway fan.
Kicked a belter of a 45 too.
She had enough in the tank to get there from the 65.
His distribution has improved a lot. And his 45 had lots of gas.
But.... He should have cleared that ball before comer ever gets a touch. Could have cost us.
The other goals he wasn't at fault
Keegan was at fault for both goals. Way too slow out of the blocks.
You just knew we'd win that game when the penalty went in. We could have won by double figures if we really wanted to. Very happy with that second half.
Shocking stuff from Galway. Not to register a score until the 60th minute is beyond poor.
He was caught walking for the first one and Walsh had the run on AOS and Durkan for the second. So one definitely
Sad to say his form is very much on a downward trajectory.
Needs a big showing in the semi final.
Very enjoyable day in Croker today.
As usual decent banter between the rival supporters.Truly the best of enemies.The Covid 19 era seems to have ushered in a new dawn where the inherent decency and respect for opposing supporters is to the fore.So many genuine supporters who park hostilities post contests.
We flew out of the traps and looked like we might blow Galway away but we started to struggle for scores up front.
Conroy,Cooke,Comer and Walshe were immense in the first half.Tierney was influential too.Gleeson's kickouts continued to be a source of hope.
Cardinal error re the lack of anticipation regarding the possibility of a rebound off the post for Walshe's goal.
Hope all is well with Larry Finnerty's son Robert and all other injured parties including our own Padraig O Hora who was simply immense today.A couple of vital dispossessions.He stood up his opponents extremely well.I saw same first hand in front of me in the second half.
Robert Hennelly's kickouts were outstanding,no fault in either goal but was poor for Comer's goal attempt off the crossbar.
A good 45 and in spite of his inconsistency looks to be now our only live option for long distance frees ( Cillian's territory ).
In spite of his fault in the Walshe goal Lee Keegan who has lost that yard of pace was very solid in the corner.
His love of taking a score with his ciotog should possibly be confined to the past tense.Nice touch to see his daughter seated proudly in the Nestor Cup for the team photograph.
Michael Plunkett was solid if unspectacular.
Paddy contributed handsomely defensively and offensively.Tad rushed for the second point attempt.
It was a pleasure to witness Oisin Mullin's display,other worldly.Close second to Matthew Ruane for MOTM.He has the potential to become one of the greats on a national level.
Stephen Coen was solid,definitely gets a nose bleed crossing the half way line.Taking the mark put immense pressure on this weakness of his.
Matthew Ruane can truly aspire to compete with Fenton's and McCarthy's of this world.It is wonderful to see his progression from the 2016 under 21 campaign.
Conor Loftus' mobility and kick passing was to the fore.2 points,placement as opposed to power for such a guilt edged chance.
Bryan Walsh got on some ball but struggled a bit to impact the game.
Hot day for Aidan at 11,a couple of great turnovers ( was an impressive feature of the team as a whole ).Influenced the game inside with the vital take in the lead up to the penalty.I thought he did'nt really impact the kickouts and same contributed to the Conroy and Tierney lording of the skies in the first 35 minutes.
Diarmuid O Connor did trojan work but we need a return to his heyday when he was contributing on the scoreboard.
Tommy Conroy showed some bottle to turn around a first half where Silke smoothered him quite successfully and accuracy was sub optimal.
I thought Darren McHale was a tad unlucky to get the curly finger at the break,he linked up well and took his score well.
Ryan O Donoghue has nerves of steel,ex soccer man.Excellent technique for the penalty.Great game intelligence,ability to a score from play or placed ball.
Terrible decision to disallow his goal,I could see no foul from 60 or so yards away.
Two great switches at HT by James Horan paid off handsomely with Kevin Mc and Eoghan McLaughlin.I'd love to see McLaughlin starting.Only a superb save by Gleeson kept McLaughlin out.
He has frightening pace and is made for Croker.
Rory Brickenden did very little wrong on his introduction for O Hora,Enda Hession caught one great ball under the lower Cusack.
Insurance point or not I'd love to see James Carr take on that goal chance.
What were peoples thoughts on AOS performance yesterday? To me, there seemed to be a reluctance to go into the square, when he went in he caused untold damage but didn't stay there for long at all! In the first half, there was at least two occasions where he was going to take a placed ball out around the 45 but was refused the ball by Ryan OD and the second time i think it was Diarmuid. But instead of running into the square to cause havoc he stood back beside the kicker. I can't understand it and its very hard to know is he being told to not go in there or does he have free reign to roam, the roaming didn't work too well at times yesterday but other times he pulled off fantastic dispossessions!
Durkan seemed to pass it over to AOS at the start of Walsh's run, which was a crazy decision - AOS was never going to be able to stick with Walsh. You could nearly see Walsh's eyes light up and he put the boot down. By the time Durkan realised it, there was no recovering.
First one was shocking - ball bounces 3 times in the penalty area off the post and no defender picks it up. I don't think you can blame Hennelly either - I don't think he would have got there before Walsh anyway. It was on Keegan or Mullin to be filling back into that space until it was sure that the ball was dead.
After a year being 'locked up' it was a very enjoyable day out. First half great obviously, second half, not so. We must learn and move on. Hope Mayo go on now and topple Dublin and Kerry henceforth. (Give us extra motivation next year to take ye down. :-) )
I miss the days when trolls used to at least TRY
Hard to know what to think. An immense second half but I was shocked by the Galway fitness levels. Out of gas with about 20 minutes to go.
The first half would worry me a little. We were really all over the shop for nearly the entire half. Forward play was very disjointed and we were badly losing midfield.
Felt Kevin Mcloughlin made a huge difference when he came on. His introduction was maybe the winning of the game.
Great 2nd half on a hot day. Would think you should have no issue going the full 70 with Dublin. I’m not convinced yet about your forward line against a good defence. Might struggle to get the scores like in the first half yesterday. Maybe E McLoughlin starting at half back might give a bit more penetration if forwards tightly marked. Combined with a few high balls to OShea. Think he’s going to win most of them and crowding him out might be the only way to stop him which might free up a bit of space for others. Anyway good luck. It should be close. COC still a huge loss.
Well done to Mayo, absolutely deserved winners. No matter what happens, ye should absolutely treasure James Horan while he's there. He might not get everything right but always guarantees the baseline of effort & fitness required to compete at the highest level. That's without mentioning his tactical acumen, what I'd give for a Galway team to have some semblance of a modern kick-out strategy.
IMO definitely Durcan’s fault for the second.
I’d blame Hennelly for the first one, he kinda came and then didn’t, leaving himself neither here nor there. Out and close down Walsh, let someone else cover the line
He came out and realised he wasn't going to get it and correctly returned to his line. If Hennelly goes out charging after that ball and gets caught in no mans land we know what everybody would be saying. 100% neither goal can be attributed to Hennelly (as much and all as people would love to)
