Mayo GAA Discussion

Only caught the 2nd half of the Ballina v Ballagh game (1st half was fairly poor apparently) but I thought it was decent enough.

Callinan, Tighe and Irwin were very good for Ballina while Drake, Kuba & the # 14 were very good for Ballagh. The first two goals were fairly soft, Ballagh keeper should have dealt with a ball dropping short for the first one and Clarke got caught in possession for the 2nd one. Ballagh had chances to go further ahead when they were on top but didn't take them and once it went to ET, Ballina were on top for most of it. That said, another Clarke mistake gave Akram a great goal chance right at the end that Ballina managed to clear off the line, dunno how it didn't go in.

I disagree. It wasn't within his range outside the 45. He has little or no record of scoring from there even with the wind. A very low percentage shot.

Calling the last one a mistake is overly generous. A very experienced player with over 16 years senior county experience and being the biggest man on the field he should be fully aware that he was needed inside. Any other player could have kicked it in to him.

Yes he had a very good season with Breaffy up to Sunday and I was hoping Breaffy would finally get over the line this year when they looked to be the best team around. But after seeing how they blew yet another great chance it's hard to feel too sorry for them. A very frustrating team.

I agree on the extra time one.

However the free at the end of normal time was always going to be a low percentage shot.There was no time to work it in so the options were bring up the goalie who had just missed a 45 and is not that experienced or let the free taker have a go.As I said low percentage either way.

We will never know how the goalie would have done but I don't believe the percentages were the same

Opt 1 - Aidan taking it from his hands

1 - Score - unlikely as he hasn't the range outside the 45

2 - Wide - unlikely as he hasn't the range outside the 45

3 - Drop short - this was the most likely outcome and is what happened and Reape collected the ball uncontested just inside the small parallelogram.

Opt 2 - Goalkeeper taking it from the ground

1 - Score - more likely than Opt 1 as he had the range outside the 45

2 - Wide - more likely than Opt 1 as he had the range outside the 45

3 - Drop short - in this case Aidan would be in there and it would be more likely to lead to something happening than Aidan dropping it in himself.

Small percentages decide these games. You have to make the right decisions when the ball has gone dead and there is time to decide.

Breaffy have had lots of players on the county scene over the years ranging from senior to players who made minor, yet they always failed to win the big one. I don't know why but unfortunately for them, they couldn't win it in their prime when they had better teams on paper at least. While they played decent this year, I always felt they would never win it just on that point alone.

They remind me of our county team but football is cruel sometimes.

Ah I long ago lost count of the amount of times that Aido would be taking a free or being well outside the box for a dead ball when he should be in the box to try and make something happen. He is outstanding at winning ball and I never understood that approach! But he's obviously doing what he's told to do, or has his own reasons for it.

Not to take away from his performance overall, he's had a great year for Breaffy and they wouldn't have gotten near a semi final without him, or be in that close to winning it!

They want the juice the dubs hàve

Were we gassed at the end of matches which is why we failed to get over the line in a few?

Well they did fail to close games out last year.

Not buying that, maybe a cop-out by some players who wont take responsibility for the squads shambolic game management last year .

We have had a long history of not seeing out games over the years & its a problem that has never been addressed, while our S&C standards has been elite over the past 10/15 years.

Was at the ladies final earlier, not a great match but an exciting finish. Westport probably deserved it overall, they played a double sweeper and we didn't manage to figure out a way around that, constantly got stripped of the ball around their 45. That said, if we'd taken a couple of the scores we put wide, we could have sneaked it.

I suggest that it may be more a change in how Mayo play, rather than a clear out of players. We don't seem to have any tactical awareness or a bit of cleverness in our play. We seem to struggle more than most teams when up against the very defensive teams, and don't show any ideas in breaking it down. Maybe the new rules will be to our favour.

Ok Maybe. But I don't think it will work if we drop

Aidan O'Shea

Mattie Ruane

Padraig O'Hora

Stephen Coen

Diarmuid O'Connor

Jordan Flynn

Who will replace them? Conor McStay? Paul Towey? Bob Tuohy?, Frank Irwin?,

Pierce Deane wasn't even on the Breaffy team earlier in the year, and now you have him starting for Mayo, while sending Diarmuid O'Connor to the knackers yard.

Misquoting me is not the way to make a point. I said in the middle of the league that Diarmuids injuries seem to be piling up and i doubted how much we would see of him during the connacht championship given all the training he missed. I got a few similar replies to what you just said but it turned out I was right.

I'd have a fit Diarmuid on the mayo team every day. But I said he may have to be on the bench next year if the long periods injured continue. Would you prefer to play him with a torn hamstring?

Oh ok. Cillian was sub last year, and Diarmuid missed most of the year. So that just leaves the big man. I guess your post was really - that management should leave Aidan out of the team. I don't know. Tough call. Looking at the club games in the past few months, he stood out.

I agree that game time should be given to Towie, Big bob and whoever else is showing well. I was making the point, that we can't just have a clearout of the seasoned players. If Mayo want to have a good year, players such as Hession, Carney, Flynn, Tuohy, Conroy, Callinan will need to up to a higher level. We will have the likes of O'Donoghue, Coyne, Reape, Coen, McLaughlin, Ruane, Durcan, McBrien, D O'Connor, O'Shea. That's 16 players outlined there, and has the look of a good team on paper anyway. But my earlier point was that I don't think the management have been getting the best out of the players in the past 2 years.

Shure time will tell.