Enjoy!!
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
Yes its an odd one but it's in our own hands.
If we win and Tyrone and Kerry Win we make the League Final.
If we Lose, and Tyrone, Kerry and Armagh win, we're relegated unless we have a better scoring difference than Armagh, which we are currently 6 points better off than.
Not safe yet by any measure.
it’s more likely Tyrone and Derry will be relegated based on performances so far . Kerry to win . Dublin to win Armagh to win . then mayo Donegal . Donegal to win . have I got the match ups right there ?.
It is almost destined to come down to a frantic final few minutes in McHale Park that will see us moments away from a final or being relegated.
Mayo will end up in the league final.
I think today showed where Jim McGuinness priorities are, and making it to a league final is not among them with ten different starters from the team that beat Derry two weeks ago.
After watching Galway last night, with them having New York in New York a week after the league final, I`m not sure they are that interested either. For me a Dublin v Mayo final is the most likely.
I see the U20 panel has been released.
Disappointed to see no Maheady or Ronan Clarke involved. I think Clarke may have had some injury problems and hope it’s nothing major. What’s the story with Maheady though. He was a big part of the Crossmolina AI and I though he would be involved
Maheady absence might be related to non-footballing matters...
The problem being that we never do things the easy way. Donegal coming down and not really going for the win isn't a comforting as it should be. We rarely stick to the script.
Maheady is no loss to any panel. Should never have been allowed to tog out for Crossmolina
Welcome back Tim, I see you're still as poisonous as ever. At least England are on the up, you can go back to flashing lads at soccer matches
IMO very likely we'll make the league final, Kerry need a win to be safe, you'd fancy the dubs to win also. Donegal have zero interest.
Good year for us to be in the final and we seem to be going well, I'd be interested to see how we'd go against the dubs with something on the line and both teams up for it
I was very pessimistic about this team at the end of last season and the early part of this league.
But it's good to see them improving.
It's always better to be finishing the league playing better than to start it off all guns blazing and then fade.
Galway are doing a bit of the latter at the moment.
I get the feeling i am well out of the loop living in Galway i guess
I know how you feel. We were pretty good shredders of scripts ourselves under various management. Not so much with the present. If I was Mayo I would take a lot of encouragement from us losing at home to our neighbours and most bitter rivals over the past 20 odd years, and everybody going home happy.
Best to say no more on that sensitive subject. Off field legal affairs should be left to play themselves out. We don't have any facts either way.
On the footballing side some people here and elsewhere may have been too quick to call for McStay's head. As things stand we are close to qualifying for a league final, a lot of young players have been given game time and we seem to be playing an attractive brand of football under the new rules.
Delighted with the big jumps forward from Neary, Reid, Irwin, Morahan & Kelly. They've made significant gains & achieved the main goal of the league most of us would hope for, but I'd be greedy and still be a little disappointed we've not seen some time between Thornton, Ivers, Akram, Coggins or Quinn. Possibly they're just not performing in training to warrant it, which would excuse management completely & this isn't aimed at them, but that'd possibly more disappointing. A real shame McLaughlin & McHale picked up the injuries when they did. Awful timing for it. You'd have hoped Finbar would get some time early on when we were short bodies & that Cian might have seen a chunk more if not for the surgery.
Maybe more players will get a run the next day. Pretty much safe now and win or lose not critical. Some of the younger guys have a lot of conditioning to do so they would be used sparingly anyway.
I'd have loved to see more of Cian as well. Hopefully he will get back fully fit soon enough.
Championship is less than 3 weeks away. If I was the manager, I would be looking at getting a settled first 15 in play from now on. I'd be instructing to give it a good lash against Donegal. I think a league final would be great experience going into the championship - considering that they have Sligo at home in the first championship game. That's a lot different than the Roscommon situation a couple of years ago. Big Aidan has done really well in the recent matches, but I'm sure he could do with the match practice after being out for several months.
Of course, if key players get injured in a league final, then that plan backfires. But as Del Boy says - "he who dares".
Also, I wouldn't be so casual about potential relegation. Tyrone beating Dublin is very possible. Dublin are grand in Croke Park. But not so hot when they are on their travels.
Most of the team is settled I'd imagine. They can just vary 3 or 4 positions to give lads game time. There is also the option to give lads experience coming on as subs.
Relegation is possible but worth risking to give lads experience. You need a strong bench nowadays and the league is the place to train lads in.
It would be great to see Paddy D, Diarmuid or Tommy making the bench too but no sigh of them so far. You'd wonder what they could realistically contribute if they miss the entire league.
You are spot on on both topics.
A league final would be of no hinderance for Mayo the way it was a few years ago and the way it is for Donegal right now.
And I'd not be counting any chickens as regards relegation, the outcomes that have to occur on Sunday to relegate Mayo are not outlandish.
Ya. This is McStays last year (I think). He's not going to want his legacy remembered as the manager who got relegated in the league, and then a few weeks later to possibly get knocked out of Connacht by Galway or Roscommon. That would be a disaster year for Mayo football.
We do not want to be in a final against Galway when we meet them in the final providing we beat the sligo /letrim we need to be hurt from the hammering we got from them an raw to get revenge.
I agree with that. No great benefit in meeting Galway again before championship. Securing division 1 status and giving new faces game time was the aim at the start of the league and will probably be achieved. I'd sooner get focused on championship now with no distractions and leave nothing to chance.
On the evidence of the first 3 rounds of the league you would have to say criticism of McStay was well warranted. It was like the worst aspects of last years tactics were doubled down on and the consequences of rule changes appeared to not be taken into account at all.
The subsequent 3 rounds have seen a return to more traditional Mayo virtues of hard running, utilising space and hard pressing, as well as systems of play to exploit the opportunities presented by the new rules, which is great to see. It is however to be noted that in each of those 3 games there were significant periods where we regressed to the passive stand-offish patterns that were their last year and in the early rounds. Both in and out of possession. That wont work in later rounds of the championship. All in all I am now more positive than negative in outlook for this year, especially if we get a fully fit DOC, Tommy and Paddy at some stage. However with fears of reversion to the static style and also that we may be exposed by teams with good 2pt options and our press could be undone by a good long passing game.
I disagree.
You win on Sunday which is what you have to do because if you don't you could get relegated, and you take things as they happen after that.
If that means a league final v Galway so what.
You play what's in front of you when they are in front of you.
A potential Connacht final is far enough away not to be of too much concern right now.
And when I say potential I mean potential.
Back in 2020 Peter Keane as Kerry manager picked a team in the Munster final with an eye to see how they would get on in a All Ireland final v Dublin.
But they never got to play that final.
A league final v Galway should be no distraction because of a potential game you might play against them 5 weeks later.
I agree go out to win sunday but ideally still not make league final would be my preference. Unless Sligo are very weak I'd sooner have more than 2 weeks to approach that game. It's takes up to a week to come down from a league final and that only leaves a week to ramp up.
The hard running game is great to watch but very hard to maintain for a full game. Playing the ball around the arc is no fun to watch but players might well need to use it so as not to run out of steam before the match is over.
I don't understand not wanting to make it to a league final. I don't see any downside to it, could you
explain why this would be a bad thing?
I pretty much explained it in my last 2 comments. If you discount Sligo then it's not an issue as there is plenty of time to prepare for Connaught final v Galway. But I think 3 weeks of undistracted preparation versus 1 week post league final recovery and 1 week championship preparation for Sligo is preferable.
I appreciate where you are coming from, but I think you are thinking far too conservatively. If Mayo had Roscommon or Galway in the first round of the championship, I would think along your lines. But I think with it being Sligo, it offers a great opportunity for Mayo to put the foot on the gas this Sunday against Donegal. Match practice is better than any training session. For the Donegal game, I would go with whatever starting 15 McStay hopes to go with in the Sligo game. If they beat Donegal and if other results go their way, the bonus would be a league final in Croke Park the following week. Again, that would be great preparation kicking into Championship season. Could then bring on the subs at half time in the league final to give them a good 35 mins to prove themselves. The alternative is losing against Donegal, possibly getting promoted and a 2 week lead into the Sligo game of just training, and getting over the unexpected shock that they may be playing division 2 football next year, and listening to media crap about having a poor year.
I was looking at Sligos results in the league. Laois, Kildare and Cavan have beaten them. And they drew against Fermanagh. I know it sounds cocky, but it really should not be a problem for Mayo. I really hope these comments don't come back to haunt me. :(
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