Mayo GAA Discussion

I am one of those saying to get rid of him. There were probably a lot of Tyrone supporters saying what you are saying as regards Mickey Harte a year ago. He had 3 AI's in his pocket. A year later new leadership and an AI win.

The hard core Galway lad has a point. JH if he left Mayo would be a logical move for Galway. They have massively underperformed this past 20 years since John O Mahoney left. He failed with Mayo but then went on to win 2 AI's with Galway. This proved he was a good manager and that issue from his time with Mayo was players \County Board or a mixture of the two.

Moving to Galway would also be logical for JH as it would give him an opportunity to prove his worth by actually winning an AI with Galway. If he did it would prove like with JOM that problem was players \ County Board and not him. Danger for him though is that if he failed after a 3\4 year term it would confirm suspicion that he is not a good manager.

One of these years Galway is going to get its act together, rock up to a final and win it.

That will really add to our suffering even though would be nice for Sam to cross the Shannon again after a long absence.

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?

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

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.

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

If i remember rightly Conroy had very limited game time that year if any at all!

Someone to play beside Ruane is massive too.

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.

It is very unlikely COC will return to anything close to his previous level. His injury is very serious and career threatening.

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.

• An incompetent County Board. The county boards role in this is to go out and find a good manager, agree the goals, roles and processes surrounding the Mayo Senior Team Organisation and agree with Manager the resources required to deliver success. After that they need to stay out of the Managers way. I don't think they are capable of doing this.
• Player power. The Holmes \ Connelly saga showed that the players (most likely just some of them) are more powerful than some Managers. They deemed this pair not good enough after one season yet accept 7 failures from others. No good Manager will come in unless he know that he will be the undesputed Boss and that he has the complete freedom to pick whoever he chooses no matter what. I don't think that some of the current players would like a new outside manager or one not of their choosing as it would end many of their careers.

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.

• Terminate JH contract immediately plus that of his backroom staff
• Write to all players thanking for their efforts and telling them current championship panel is now disbanded and new manager will pick a new panel for league when he is appointed.
• Approach Pat Gilroy or Jim Galvin or maybe both (or at least someone of this stature from sporting world) and ask them to propose a best in class operating structure for the operation of the Mayo Senior Team Organisation and to go out and find the best manager available to lead this organisation and deliver success.

Will they do it ? Of course not.

Yeah, Good win over Ballina.