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Old thread here......
https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057962937/mayo-gaa-discussion-part-4#latest
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Green Peter - Permanent
Man Vs ManUre until 9/05/23
Outside of Rochford and Horan, the only managers to get their teams to AIFs in recent years are:
Gavin - would prob be my choice even though I can't warm to him at all, and not sure he'd have any interest in managing against his former players, he values loyalty too highly I'd say.
McGuinness - For all the talk, he won 1 all ireland (against us of course!) and that was a decade ago. Mighy still work some magic but it's not without a fair amount of risk imo.
Fitzmaurice - school principal in Kerry, won one all ireland after we were shafted and shafted ourselves. Kerry were glad to see back of him, not sure why we'd have him above Horan.
Harte - A great manager in the 00s, not at top level now.
Peter Keane - another man Kerry were glad to see back of, thought he was much cuter than he is.
Dooher and the other fella - still with Tyrone and not looking too rosy at the moment.
All well and good saying Horan should go, but hes one of the top managers in the country no matter whether people are fed up or not.
God knows who we would end up with!
How would that work? Intercounty management is basically a full time job and Fitzmaurice is a school principal in Dingle. The criticism of O'Mahony in his 2nd term was that he hadn't enough time along with being a TD. Even though he lived locally.
Lose to Monaghan then it's time for Horan to do the honorary thing and step aside..
If we "Kick" on during the summer, and show something different besides the standard running game, and offer some
tactical nous , then he will deserve another bite at the cherry moving forward.
If it goes belly up , Éamonn Fitzmaurice would be my preference..
Cian O'Neill?? Wouldn't want him anywhere near the place, granted he had a good record as a trainer but he has a brutal record as manager.
I wouldn't rate Rory Gallagher too highly either despite his recent success with Derry
I think that no matter what happens this year, Horan will call it a day and we'll be looking for a new manager at the end of the season. While Horan has his failing though, it will be hard enough to find a better manager to replace him IMO
Even that Tyrone game was the easiest draw possible. The other options at QF level were Dublin and Kerry that year. Mayo got the handiest draw every step of the way that year once they hit the qualifiers. Similar but to a lesser extent in 17.
2013 was the best iteration of Mayo we've seen. That dismantling of Donegal will do well to be topped. Went into the final against a Dublin who were themselves in rip roaring form and it was priced as near 50/50
Was never excited by Stephen during his first stint. The team at the time, hell yeah, just not sure how much of that credit was down to him versus the individuals. Seemed to be different tactics, waving between better and much worse at times, without ever making a big step forward. Was fine, wouldn't be upset with him given another shot especially given his tactics on big days tended to work out, but wouldn't be super excited either. Certainly think he could have the potential to win an All Ireland with the lads we have in the panel at the moment and the talent coming through behind that.
Personally I'd be very excited seeing what Cian O'Neill might do in the role.
He didn't have a great time with the back pain the last time he was commuting up here so it might never be a runner, though was quite a while ago and hopefully his injury is in much better shape now. Given the way his period in charge of Kildare went he might also prefer staying in the coaching side of a setup rather than the managers seat. Though hearing how lads from Mayo, Kerry, Kildare or Galway talk about him and knowing his knowledge of the game and seeing how Galway look reinvented defensively this year he'd be right near the top of any list I'd come up with.
Rory Gallagher obviously going to be high on any lists put together at the moment. He's a real character so always a little marmite about him but personally I adore the passion he brings to the line. Watching the positioning and patterns of his Derry side shows a level of creativity, inventiveness and understanding of the game I've never witnessed before. Even with Jim Gavin. I get the feeling he's working hard creating generational talents at the moment rather than just reaping the reward of managing them. Be hard to imagine him leaving that Derry side in the next few years given the connection he seems to have built with the lads but if it's Fantasy Manager time I'll be sticking him down for sure.
(On that note, I'd happily let Jim Gavin have a pop if he wanted to take a few summer's on the West Coast for a change of scenery)
Ray Dempsey the obvious local to have earned the shot. Has done a wonderful job with Knockmore in recent years and up until this year I felt he was a shoe in for the role, especially given he seems a DAMN nice fella. Got a little worried seeing how the tactics shifted without Darren McHale fit, the long ball they went to never looked to be working and they always looked better when they moved away from it, but he has certainly done enough to be given a fair shot at it. Not entirely sure how much of the pattern work and drills is Ray and how much is Terry Kennedy who seems to attract a lot of the praise down there. If the latter has a heavy hand on the blueprint it'd be pretty vital to ensure he'd be part of a Dempsey ticket. Or possibly having him involved with the panel even without Ray.
Have heard others talking about Damien Mulligan or Maurice Sheridan. Personally wouldn't be a huge fan of the footie I've seen either produce, though in Mulligan's case how much of that was necessary given the constraints of the team I've no idea. A few others have mentioned John Reilly's fairly amazing work with Kilmeena this year but have to fear the step between Junior Club and Senior inter-county might be a jump too far without a few steps in between. Not the strongest position we've ever been in for managerial prospects and yet still a few local names to be thrown around with some confidence in a conversation which has to be a good sign.
It was a penalty for sure, I meant controversial in the sense of the uproar and upset it caused many.
I remember that too - it was poor form. The social media pile on after that was pretty horrendous, but not that surprising.
I remember that alright. Marty Morrissey brought a tablet into his interview with the Fermanagh manager afterwards and showed him the penalty incident, trying to make him call out Aidan O'Shea for diving. Which he did. Have never seen RTE do something like that before or since.
Money being lumped on Monaghan bigtime over past 48hrs.
They'll be into 2/1 maybe 15/8 before the balls thrown in.
A staggering drop from 10/3 in such a short space of time.
Mayo 4/9 'on' which is mindboggling given the injuries and the lack of fight and quality that we have previously witnessed v Kerry & Galway..
There was nothing controversial about that penalty against Fermanagh only what was made of it by RTE afterwards. James Crombie from INPHO photography tweeted photos after the game showing a tangle of legs. The way it was portrayed afterward by RTE was nothing short of a witch hunt. They brought one single camera to the game and that was all they had to show the action from.
They had form that year I recall they did a hatchet job on Kevin McLoughlin on the Sunday game after the Tipp semi Final, when Bill Maher was sent off, making it out as if Kevin dived. It was shown afterward, using their own footage, that he had been punched, and that it was a red card all day long.
Maybe the narrative was created through circumstance, but I definitely think there was an element of Rochford paying less attention to Connacht and aiming more towards the later stages of the All Ireland.
When he took over, we had won it 5 years in a row and maybe he changed the focus a bit.
Those 2 years were definitely the most enjoyable to follow Mayo football, with all the close games, qualifier runs etc.
However looking back now it's hard not to question why Galway kept beating us and so many mediocre teams brought us to the wire. Considering we had such a strong team at the time.
I think we scraped over Fermanagh as well in 16... A fairly controversial penalty helped get us over the line.
And there was plenty of scraping in 17 as well come to think of it. Clare gave us a bit of a scare, as did Cork in the qualifiers... That's before the replays in quarter and semi final.
But all that said, I always got a sense that we were building towards peaking at the right time in those two years. I got a sense that there was a plan anyway, but maybe that's just rose tinted glasses as I really liked him as a manager.
I don't think we played particularly well in 2016. Lost to Galway and had an easy enough run to the final, apart from scraping over Tyrone. Dublin were dreadful in the drawn final but we still didn't win. Then there was the keeper switch in the replay...
Played well in the 2017 final but we had a brilliant team then, with no significant injuries. It all comes back to injuries at the end of the day!
I think JMcG would get buy in from any group of players in the country. His methods could be outdated though
In Rochford's defence he isn't in charge in Donegal and we don't know how much influence he actually has there! Will we ever see a Mayo team perform as good as 2016 and 2017 again? I would love to see what he could do with this current panel.
I wonder would McGuinness be able to achieve the buy in he got from that Donegal panel in a different county? He is Donegal through and through, the back story with him winning in the 90's and everything else surrounding him has no relevance whatsoever in other counties. I would love to see him manage a different county but i don't see him replicating what he did in 2012!
But for now in Horan we trust!
Good for you. I'm more cautious about this Saturday, especially if Ryan O'D is out. I'd also have little to no faith in how management set us up tactically. We lose, team gets a very well earned summer off and we can hopefully get a new management in place (would Rochford come back?).
I'm very impressed with what he has done with us as I don't think we have a panel that is notably ahead of other panels and he seems to have put together a great team and identified weaknesses. The flip side is that he's round a long time, now maybe that just adds to his experience. Knockmore were very close to getting rid of him at the end of 2019 AFAIK, fine margins and all that.
I'd be delighted for him to do well, I've a lot of time for him personally, he's a likeable fella
Rochford's time in Donegal wouldn't inspire much confidence for me. Pretty much every criticism of Mayo in the Galway game could be levelled at Donegal to an even greater extent last Sunday.
Jim McGuiness hasn't managed a Gaelic football team since 2014. I'd be skeptical of what he could do. Rumours that he was involved with the Waterford hurlers the last month which went completely pear shaped!
Would you not think Dempsey should/ could be in the running? I know a bit, but not enough, to be saying one way or another but he has done a great job with Knockmore imo, head and shoulders above most in terms of style of play and building a strong management team around him.
Probably not the talk for the week running up to a game.
In order of preference
Rochford
McGuinness
Well, who?
I'd take a loss on sat if it ment a change in management ,yes I no who do we replace horan with.
Not all of us are going to have the same mentality as the players. A player is going to have utter belief in themselves and the team, or else they probably wouldn't have made it that far in the first place. But it's not the strangest thing in the world for supporters to see things differently from players. It wouldn't make for a good build up if we were all just convinced of a win every time we play, no questions asked.
I don't think anyone is being overly pessimistic either. The injuries are there to be seen, it's a challenge that we have. The most pessimistic I got was saying that Monaghan are a big price to win, and they are imo. That's not saying we're going to lose, it's just saying that the bookies may have got it slightly wrong, everything considered.
No real fan wants us to lose.... But if the season was to end short, it would be the first time in a long time when we've had a good break. A good break might be of real benefit, and if it was to happen, we'll absolutely win Sam in 2023 then, no questions asked. 😉
With Mayo, its either extremely optimistic or the polar opposite of extreme pessimism. Never in between.
I think the default position/attitude for Mayo fan's is extreme pessimism.
It's understandable in a way I guess given the years of near misses, bad luck etc.
Anyone non-Mayo people I've heard talking about the game are all confident of us winning
I can't understand this mentality, if any member of the squad thought like this we'd never win a match,it's a losers mentality.
This is very different to Newbridge when a tired,aging team also facing a big injury crisis were scuppered on a boiling hot day.
This team is facing a worse injury crisis for sure but are young and hungry.Crucially the squad depth is streets ahead of what it was in June 2018.
We need to be heard in the stands and roar these lads on or it's advantage Monaghan,that bit is in our hands.If we win the thing opens up for us.
I know inside the squad training is ferocious and lads have a point to prove.Its likely they're more in battle mode than coming into Galway as we have a few big names back (Hennelly,Durcan,Mullen) although Ryan and plunkett are out.We played sh1te and still only lost to Galway by a point,how many 45s,ong range dead ball did we miss? about 6,how many points would Paddy have knocked over? How many would he have prevented? Now Galway are 3rd favourites for Sam.Its very small margins.
I haven't always in the past but I fully believe we'll win on sat.
I think If we loose Saturday its time for a new approach with a new mgt team. Think we should win tho, I think it's a different scenario to 2018 where everyone was kind of relived that kildare put and end to our misery that year. It's a younger team time around and the more championship experience they have the better. No guarantee our injuries will. Be any better next season.
I think our injury list is going to catch up with us once again this Saturday. Someone mentioned a page or two back that (I think it was here) that it may not be such a bad thing losing, if it allowed the panel to regain fitness while taking a summers rest. Maybe not such a bad idea.
