Mayo GAA Discussion

Proud of the fight shown but frustrated with some poor decision making. Think we need to find a new goalkeeper and it's not just based on today. Fought back to get level with Galway and we were starting to win ball from long kickouts with the wind behind us.

Towey not up to this level. Not athletic or strong enough to win hard ball but finishing was supposed to be trump card. Strong wind behind him and a dry ball but fluffed every chance.

Subs bench is weak but we could have won that with better decisions

It's such a stupid rule that you reward a long distance kick with 2 points, but reduce it if an opposition player gets a fingertip to it (let alone that happening if the ball is already behind the posts). They got a lot right with the rule changes but this one is an example of trying to be too clever in my opinion

Exactly, its a completely differnet situation than if a forward punches it over the bar. Or just get rid of the 2 pointer for frees imo

Didn’t deserve to win. Same failings in terms of poor attacking play and bad wides.

I very much think the back card though was incredibly harsh. It was in no way a deliberate pull down. More like a tangling of legs.

if we deserved to win we would have won.

We didn’t as we keep making the same mistakes on and off the pitch .
Including putting players on the pitch who have shown they are just not good enough time and time again but hoping this time it will be different .
PJ subbed a sub yesterday

We left Towey on to kick a few more wides .
that’s the difference

Mentality

it was a carbon copy of what happened in the Kerry Clare match, the 2 pointer should not have been an option it should have been in front of the goal. These rules are a **** disaster, just keep the 3 up and the long kick outs, that’s what’s creating the space as it is all bunched to win breaks and who ever wins them has open road to get quick ball in. The other rules are just not feasible esp for club level

This might sound harsh but the game could easily have been dubbed :'a tale of two 'keepers'….and we know which one came out on top. ( The Galway 'keeper kicked longer and more accurately and made a decent save or two in the process while the Mayo lad was indecisive …and probably even more so when he had the wind,awful mistake gifting Galway a point and incurring a black card for the defender in the process.)

Mayo had the winning of it definitely but PJ was busy on the sidelines and the subbing on of Peter Cooke gave a great lift to Galway and probably got them over the line.

Our boyos, on the line, could have put P.Durcan on and he would,no doubt,have lifted us and brought us the Connacht title.

At the end of the day the only ones getting paid are the management and unfortunately they didn't turn up yesterday as far as Mayo were concerned. Some people around me at the game questioned as to whether either manager wanted to win the match with a view to the grouping for the round robin series. The GAA made the same fcuk up last year…think they'd learn by their mistakes,not a hope,arrogant bunch of so and sos.Excuses about logistics etc….for God's sake the GAA own all the stadia and could work off any timetable they want to ,its not that they have to wait for Leinster rugby or some soccer ground to be available for the series of round robin fixtures.

Its probably more about hotels, busses, Garda and Volunteer logistics and the likes morso than the stadium/ground availability.

Although it's generally just about squeezing more games into a relatively tight schedulem

Yep...he got the ball a couple of times and recycled it back.

Both times with his back to goal 😞

Surely they've worked on this exact scenario in training???

He should be waiting in the pocket for an opening.....not passing to the likes of Ruane to shank it 5 yards wide

Ryan was completely gassed and likely recognised himself that he wouldn't have had the range. I left the ground raging at him for not stepping up and instead standing deep but watching back you can see clearly he had nothing left. The amount of work he putting in during the first half was unreal. He should always have been in the 3 up but on most Galway attacks he was one on those tracking back which should not have been the case. It was likely Galways plan for his man to go forward pulling Ryan all over the pitch and Mayo's plan should have been for Ryan to leave someone else go with McGrath. Very quickly you would have seen Galway abandon the strategy if Ryan was left up top with someone other than McGrath marking him. One of the consequences of this was on Conroys second two pointer Ryan was actually the closest defender. It was only after Conroy already had 3 two pointers, 1 from a free, that Coen went man for man on him, after which he only scored one point. How this was not the plan for Conroy from the start McStay only knows!!

Again on the last play for the two pointer you can see we had no plan to get a man in space, like we never considered that a scenario for a last minute two pointer would even be on the cards, but Galway had a clear plan to defend it. They overloaded the left side and centre and left space on the right where Mattie ultimately shot from. They were ok with us getting a shot from there as they know it was an extremely low percentage option for our shooters. This is why Paddy needed to be on by that stage. While right footed, that zone is where he has consistently scored from for years. Even if lack of match practice and fitness might have meant he may not have been able to deliver, Galway would known that he was an option to be covered and potentially opened up something for Boland or Mattie in a better position.

With all that said and done, I was pleasantly surprised with how close we got in the end as expected them to win relatively easily, however we actually left it behind us with our shooting and gameplan. Why we waited until we were 8 points down to start playing directly is beyond me. Then when we caught up we once again we abandoned the direct strong running style that got us back in to it. The decision to remove both Neary and McHale was baffling. While they weren't perfect, that gave the Galway defence something to think about. At least one of them should have remained on.

I thought thats why they must have taken him off because he was playing too directly!

Its a great pity that the naturally talented are being 'discarded' . Young Neary was brilliant and direct….in a few years it will be knocked out of him!

A few years ago D.O'C was the same! Move forwarded a few years and,as was said here previously,when certain Mayo players got to the arc,they recycled.Neary preferred the direct route.

A reference from their training from a person on the inside is that,'they get a bollocking' if they try something 50/50… (I'd have more praise for a lad that took something on and failed rather than not try at all!!!,) they are asked to be cautious,break this 'rule ' and suffer the consequences….it would seem! Would Kerry tell D.Clifford to do this.Would Armagh tell Riain O'Neill do same,and would Tyrone tell the Canavans to be overly cautious and what of the Dubs with Con O'Callaghan and there are others?

Too much science and not enough given to the raw heart and courage effort.Yes science has its part to play but not to the determent of a players 'heart'.How many games would Kerry be defeated in if Paidí Clifford's sheer effort and heart did not break down teams for them?