Enjoy!!
Old thread here......
https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057962937/mayo-gaa-discussion-part-4#latest
Threadban list
Green Peter - Permanent
Man Vs ManUre until 9/05/23
I would not get rid of Horan in 2022 seeing as he has one year left anyway, but if they fail to win in 2022 I really can't see the value in keeping him on, and of course he may step away himself at that point.
As for a replacement for 2023 I can't give you one, I don't live in the county so I don't know what the club scene is like.
I recall when Rochford left Michael Solan was a potential candidate, and I for one would have preferred him over Horan as I feared that Horan would be too forgiving to the older players that he developed in his first stint (got that wrong thankfully).
Is Solan still a viable candidate ?
He has won a title after all.
Any man who stands on the sideline in an All-Ireland Final and waves away his no. 2 & no.3 and goes with his own decisions needs serious questioning. It's an absolute disgrace regardless of what he has done to get them there. The manager is stubborn and when it came down to it he had no interest in the input of his coaching team, some arrogance IMO. Not to mention that he is probably one of the only top level manager who is not mic'd up. I listened to Horan last year describe his coaching staff as the best in the country and now like so many before they are gone. Horan has had 4 All-Ireland finals on each occasion he has made an absolute balls of so many decisions. (2012 -Match-Ups, 2013 Dublin with 14 players and he didn't realise / Freeman-Gate) Where is he going to go now for a backroom team?
What was Freeman-Gate ????
couple of queries if you'd indulge.
From what i saw, JH was on sideline talking to Ciaran MC and burke (or what ever his name is) and it looked to me like they were shrugging their shoulders in a "i dont know what to do" sort of gesture? where could i see what you are talking about?
Also, what do you mean by freeman-gate? from what i recall, he was in serious decline? am i missing somehting? Genuine questions by the way
Freeman-gate.
Freeman seemed to be doing fine in the 2013 All Ireland final when Horan for some reason subbed him off sometime before HT
I was behind that goal that day and I though he was doing fine, very surprised why he was taken off.
I can't recall who replaced him.
There might have been a element of panic from Horan in it, Mayo were not leading but they were not too far behind either at the time if I recall.
He was criticized a year earlier for not doing something quick enough when Donegal got two early goals, maybe he thought he had to be seen to be doing something in 2013 and Freeman was the victim.
While we are here, this is my favorite Alan Freeman moment
1:25:00 into this, after sending a howler wide he fights for possession and setup an Aiden O' Shea goal.
Aidan's composure in taking that goal stands in marked contrast with his lack of composure with his goal chance against Tyrone :(
Freeman was MOTM in the semi-final win over Tyrone in 2013. He really stepped up that day to get us to the final. Lo and behold he gets withdrawn early in the first half of the final and the reasoning to this day is still a mystery. Again one of the many strange Horan decisions on the biggest day of all
It was Mickey Conroy that replaced him. Thought it was a crazy decision at the time as well.
If i remember rightly Conroy had very limited game time that year if any at all!
Just on your point of suspicions of him not being a good manager. There is no valid argument for those suspicions. He is without doubt one of the top 4 or 5 managers in the country. In his first term he toke Mayo from losing to Sligo and Longford to repeatably beating the reigning champions and making it to 2 finals in 4 years. Second term he toke mayo who were very much in transition to again making it to two all ireland finals in 3 years. He is a very good manager and has shown it again and again. BUT he has also shown he is not good enough to win an All Ireland! Maybe a small detail and me being pedantic but I think there is a very big difference, maybe the difference between being a good manager and a great manager!
Admirable and all as those achievements are, it's not 2011. Mayo need one and only one thing from a manager now. Someone who, by hook or by crook, will find a way to get them an All Ireland.
Where he is and who he is.. that's the problem!
Hopefully the 2020 Cillian O'Connor will return next year. He was missed on the big day.
AOS' day has come and gone. Sad to see, he gave his all. The harder he tried v Tyrone the worse he played.
Need another high octane season out of Lee Keegan, 32 in November. The backs will be ok. If Mayo could unearth a gem of a forward, something we've often said. But a strong mobile forward who scores regularly from play to aid the lighter forwards.
Loftus and Ruane have a bit of redeeming to do.
Someone to play beside Ruane is massive too.
Although neither played well in the final,Ruane was arguable our best player all year and is a shoe in an all star.
Loftus had his best year since he started even though he's being played out of position.
I'm not sure how or who they have to "redeem" themselves to.
Agreed.
DOC (has been out of form at hf) and has always done pretty well at mf.
Mullen if he stays.
My own choice would be solid and dependable Stephen Coen who could play a bit defensively and cover a bit when the wing backs push forward.
I see Freeman is back in the Aghamore team, not good news for Knockmore
I think we could struggle tomorrow
As wide open a championship as there has been in a long time, Castlebar probably rightly favourites, I'm hearing great things about Walsh and Heaney coming through from the U-20s, but you wouldn't be surprised if they didn't make it past the group stages. Likewise if we didn't get out of our group it wouldn't be a massive shock. Breaffy, Garrymore and Ballina, Ballintubber are fairly straight forward winners of their groups IMO
If anyone, you or I, played badly in an All Ireland final, any player with a hint of competitiveness in them would want to get back to that stage and play well. It's the biggest stage of all. Ruane and Loftus had very poor games in the final. It's probably the Mayo problem in essence, playing well all year, which is great, but not on the biggest day. Wouldn't you like to get back and play well/star in an All Ireland final?
Great players play well on the greatest ocassions... Lee Keegan for example. In any sport, your Tom Bradys, Maradonas etc. As a sports person you wouldn't be happy with yourself if underperforming on the biggest day of all. It starts with your own pride.
to lose again? nah no thanks
Well with that attitude you're beaten already. If that's what a Mayo fan thinks..
Freeman was ripped with flu. He went to close someone down in the corner and didn't have the legs. He signalled to sideline to be replaced.
It is very unlikely COC will return to anything close to his previous level. His injury is very serious and career threatening.
The bookies have Ballintubber 5/2 favourites and then not much between a group of 5 or 6 teams including Castlebar (5/1).
Don’t know how Ballintubber are favourites especially without COC. I think Ballina will beat them this weekend.
I agree it’s hard to call this year. Breaffy (11/2), Westport (11/2) and Ballina (15/2) all did well in the league. I’d add Knockmore (6/1) to that group and expect the winner to come from that group of 4.
The next problem Mayo have assuming JH does the honourable thing and walks (or the County Board fires him) is attracting a decent Manager from outside the county. Some of you may say that we have plenty of good managers inside the county and yes maybe there is a hidden gem here but at this point I think we need a good outsider.
The resaons we need one are probably the same reasons that will put the good one off applying.
The last two times the manager position was open there was only one local applicant. It demonstrated what every potential outside candidate thought of the Mayo set up (as well as other potential internal candidates.) We can expect the same next time if nothing changes.
If the County Board are serious about winning an AI (which I don't think they are) they need to do the following immediately.
Will they do it ? Of course not.
I agree with your point about Jim Gavin. I’d say he would be a massive massive missing piece of the puzzle.
But writing to players to say that, by the way thanks for efforts and sacrifices over the years but it’s back to the queue you go with the others. No way. It’s not good for morale and there’s no need for it. If s was new manager comes in he will pick his own squad anyway in a low-key manner. No need to be over dramatising a situation that has enough drama to it already. The media will spin it in some way to sell newspapers. And we will be in the headlines again for some wrong reason.
I don’t know where the though that outside managers work in the GAA comes from. Dermot Healy, Eamonn Cregan and Eugene McGee with Offaly and O’Mahoney with Galway, that’s it in hurling and football in my lifetime all 20 years plus ago, and would say it was rarer pre 1980.
Putting the systems and structure in place within a county is what breeds success not a celebrity blow in who breezes in for a couple of days a week.
Ballintubber justified the favourites tag by the looks of things.
Yeah, Good win over Ballina.
Incredible how you want to get rid of a man on the verge of being canonised the evening of the semi-final win.
Michael bond also but you're on point. Outsiders people are referring to are all Ireland Winning manager outsiders and they don't manage other teams for the romance of it.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e68aa2b0e039b12ade8384a2f42841c6.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w5.vanillicon.com/v2/5117ec177439400b1e5944f4d30acdda.svg)
