Mayo GAA Discussion

Brill. Got it on the phone apps.

Mayo are barely a Top 6 side in Ireland now, with Derry taking our mantel as the Main challenger to the status Quo of Dublin & Kerry for the foreseeable future.

Its now a dogfight for the lower tier consisting of Mayo, Tyrone ,Galway, Donegal, Armagh for that 4th semi final slot.(making up the numbers slot)

Thankfully games aren't decided based on what imaginary tier teams are in.

This time last year Kerry and Galway were top 3 in the betting for Sam yet we beat both in championship.

Not unless Galway get their big guns back from injury and up to speed. They are running out of time though.

The Rossies will have to be respected but don't appear to be a big threat. Seem to have gone back a bit since last year.

Nothing rose-tinted about it. We are barely at the level of 'beating anyone on our day' now, certainly not a fresh and hungry Dublin team at late championship stage anyway.

The team of the 2010s was clearly much better than this. One of the most consistent Mayo teams ever. 5 connacht titles in a row and 5 AI final appearances, 4 semi final appearances. Also a number of our players were in the top 10 in Ireland. Hard to make an argument that we have any now apart maybe from an injury free Paddy Durcan.

Well we didn't beat Dublin at all between 2012 and 2021 so that's nothing new.

No denying we had some good years during that period but also had multiple defeats to Galway, lost to Roscommon and got knocked out of the championship by Kildare one year.

In the last 3.5 years we've won two Connacht titles, contested two All Ireland finals, beaten Dublin and Kerry in championship so our form hasn't just fallen off a cliff.

When Rochford took over the emphasis changed to peaking for the AI series so the connacht championship wasn't taken as serious. Whereas any time we met Galway or Roscommon at knock-out stage when it really matter we went on to beat them. If the connacht championship was do or die we would almost certainly have won those games. The 2010s was our most consistent phase for winning big games in Croke Park.

I also forgot to mention that we had what was probably the best Mayo player of the last 60 years on the team which we don't have now. You could go through the teams line by line and the 2010s was clearly superior to now. Diarmuid, Aidan and Cillian were in their prime then but are not the players they were. They haven't been replaced by players of the same calibre.

I agree he is still young but like Paddy D and Cillian (who is still only 31) he is probably now suffering from recurring old injuries. In his case I'm basing it on availability. If injuries are limiting his game time or ability to get to full championship fitness then he won't be as effective as he once was. Apart from lasting just a few minutes against Tyrone Diarmuid has only featured in one league game (against Kerry in Tralee.)

They were chatting in relation to the original list, Paddy was our highest in that one and Ryan surprisingly low. He'd shot up a lot for this update. (StatsAndSolos put's out some fantastic stuff on odds/game modelling for odds. Well worth a follow for anyone on Twitter)