Mayo GAA Discussion

Daire Duffy more of a soccer head ;)

diarmuid Duffy did well though, pity he couldn't finish either of the goal chances

Tommy worked hard but yeah, poor enough by his standards. Not really the type of day for his talents to shine I guess but hopefully as the sod dries we see him start to fire. Odd how often we were hitting him under the high ball. They must have thought the Galway back had a weakness to exploit.... mistakenly, perhaps.

Tuohy, Brickenden, Coyne, McBrien and Carney got through an absolute mountain of the messy work that seldom catches the eye. Really impressive stuff defensively from 1 to 9 (helped with a severe lack of Galway pace, in body or mind).

Callinan stole the show for me (a couple of sloppy possessions make it unlikely he'd get the MOTM pick but that ignores how often he turned it over, all while keeping Walsh in his backpocket) and Boland with the type of comeback against neighbours that you'd dream you.

Some nice flashes from young Diarmuid Duffy, winning the penalty a nice way to round out a debut. Another game or two to settle those nerves and he'd be walking away with two goals. Conor Reid did plenty to build on recent performances. Could see him (understandably) tiring towards the end but he put in a great shift around the middle for a first day out. Nice to have another high fielding option there and looks to be one with potential (Be nice to see Murphy from Ballinrobe get a run out there too at some point).

Great to see the pace, willingness to kick, support running off shoulders/in groups clicking so early in the year. Nothing you'd be getting carried away by but plenty of positives to show the lads what they're working away at is going in a positive direction. We looked far higher paced & fitter than Galway, thought they were incredibly lucky with a few of Hurson's calls to keep 15 on the field at all times, so be interesting to see how it looks later in the year when we all hit top gear.

I see what you did there!

A lot of the deflection (and don't get me wrong, McStay is more than media savvy enough to avoid the premise of a question he doesn't like or reframe it to his suiting.... which is a nice positive) was due to the wording of the question. "A lot of new guys" and then (inaccurately) name-dropping Fergie specifically as a new player.

A nice positive interview. A lot to like about it.

Are they charging U16's into McHale Park Saturday night?

If so, is it a charge at the gate?

Thanks

But mayogaa voted against that as there was too many issues with young people invading the pitch etc.

Kids were kicking around the pitch at HT in Salthill too.

If the solution is to price kids out of going to matches then there is something very wrong

This is what the was put out in November.

Stupid,reactionary, backwards,counter productive over the top nonsense to a minor annoyance.

I'm glad Croke Park told them to cop on.

What do they do in every other ground in the country?

Salthill the last day for example?

Anyway,it doesn't matter as it was a dumb idea and they've been slapped down so common sense prevails.

I don't agree that it's common sense to let unaccompanied kids free into games when they can swarm the field afterwards and cause difficulty for stewards. Our fans seem to be the main culprits for doing this. There are many cases of parents dropping off kids at the venue and picking them up afterwards and there are so many reasons to try and prevent this.

1 - Pitch damage - Last year the PA announcer repeatedly requested people not to enter the pitch afterward in order to protect the surface. That fell on deaf ears. There is huge pressure on pitches as it is with so many games played at all levels.

2 - Injury - Unaccompanied kids running around the pitch can get injured leading to litigation and increased insurance premiums.

3 - Unfairness to players - After playing up to 80 minutes on a winters night I think players should be allowed to acknowledge the fans in the stands and leave the field to recover. Ive seen players still on the field togged out up to an hour after the final whistle. In any case a lot of those kids are getting the same autographs for the upteenth time. Special meet the player nights are more appropriate for all this IMO.

4 - Stolen footballs - up to 20 footballs were stolen in one game alone last year. Stewards have been instructed to ask for the footballs back but not to run after kids in case they fall and sue the county board. Thats €1000 worth of footballs taken from a cash strapped board and the same again every time it happens. Its as much a respect thing as the cost. Do we want to encourage kids to keep doing this?

I actually did think that the first 1 or 2 invasions were amusing and harmless but as the crowds got bigger and bigger I just think its not on anymore.

Was half expecting them to be blamed for global warming as well.

I think players are under a lot of pressure in terms of interacting with fans. I don't believe that many of them would prefer to stay out there rather than get off the field.

The county board clearly cannot eject a accompanied juvenile from the ground. The problem has to be addressed on terms of having adults with them preventing them going out on the field in the first place.

The same applies to them taking the balls. Stewards cannot be chasing after them.

That's a ridiculous comment about the board spending 300k to damage a pitch. They clearly developed a good surface and any issue were afterwards with from not restricting the amount of games. This has since being addressed. The board have said that post match invasions undermines their attempts to protect it. But never mind you know best.

James Fallon (Mayo Gaels) announced as the Breaffy senior manager last night.