Mayo GAA Discussion

I think people are being unrealistic here. No point in thinking some magic manager is going to come in and bring us straight to the All-Ireland. I've said it several times, we don't have the players for it right now, nor players that are confident, and leaders. That's just the way it is. I don't know if we can completely blame management, but maybe they have a role to play in the flat performances. I don't know.

I think James Horan would be a decent option to bring into the mix for a couple of years. Try to build what's there at the moment, and integrate the under 20s and in time the current minors into the squad (if he gets that long). It is too narrow minded to view that he has been over Mayo teams in the past, and notwithstanding that he got the team to several finals, he has not gotten over the finish line. We are way off that form/quality at the moment. The alternative is that we get some other management team in, and they continue with the same current trend. We all get frustrated again, and call for the managers head.

Of course, I cannot say for certainty that the team will improve dramatically under James Horan, but I see it as good an option as anybody else. That's if he wanted it of course. I really think the senior team is in a bad place right now. Teams have copped on that if they stop Ryan O'Donoghue, Mayo have little else options. I think they will get beaten by Tyrone and Donegal, and tamely exit the championship. And our only championship aspirations for the summer are that Galway don't win it. Which is a sad state of affairs for Mayo.

I didn't read the article like that at all. He is saying we need to get those structures in place or we will fall behind in the future. Right now Mayo have a squad that is as good as most in the senior championship. The results over the past 2.5 years prove that. Don't tell me for a second you'd swap Mayo's squad for Cavan's or Louth's. However, the current squad are clearly not believing in the management anymore and so management need to resign, which I imagine they will are we fail to get out of the group.

Mayo's biggest problem is they have been coached to be so conservative that they have lost their confidence in how to express themselves. With the new rules, this is particularly bad.

Not sure what you mean by a squad as good as most? If you mean top 10 then yeah maybe. But if we want to break into the top 4 and compete for the AI again we are miles off that. Tomas OSe was on the indo pod and said we just haven't the quality of player needed to complete at the top level and we don't. He said Mayo supporters seem to be struggling to accept that the players now are not comparable to the team of the 2010s.

Horan is clearly saying that the lack of facilities are holding us back and that we have been overtaken.

I think the issues around the CB, governance, etc. are separate to the current state of the senior team and conflating the two doesn't help.

As far as I'm aware, the Senior team isn't short of anything major; we're certainly spending enough on them. I think the vast majority of supporters were happy with the recruitment process and the outcome when the current management team were selected.

We don't have the players to win an all Ireland but we definitely have the players to perform better than we have for most of this year and the blame for that lies squarely with the management and players

The operations of the board is directly related to the state of the current

Not at the acute level we're talking about last Sunday; unless you think that Mcstay is getting the best out of the current squad?

Is that a typo? I presume you mean a cereal loser?

Yes

I agree with the fact that we have massive deficiencies within the squad.

Do you think that no manager could get a better tune out of the current squad though?

There would probably be an initial bounce under a new management as there often is.

A slightly more direct approach but the new rules do not suit the skill set of our players. There is a lack of pace and size in many positions and I'm have doubts that our forwards are able to win long early ball. I hope I'm proved wrong.

Cant agree with that. I don't think any management can get this squad anywhere near the top 4. I think the next management will be a acting in a holding role for a few years as we wait for younger players to come through.

Horan said he is not directly relating the problem to the particular Cavan game but it's clear he is speaking in general about the senior team and all ourunderage teams. What else could he be talking about? You seem to be creating a disconnect between systems and performance on the field.

“We haven’t built structures or laid down foundations like we should have over the last decade. We are behind so many other counties, what they have done and how they have progressed"

He's talking about the way things are now not just in the future. He raised this 10 years ago and nothing was done and here we are with a team outside the top 8.

Your statement that the structure discussion is for another day llustrates the whole problem. Supporters wanting the quick fix change in manager doesn't work. It's 83 years and counting since sam maguire came here. Comparisons with Armagh are irrelevant. They went and won it.

I'm not saying the structures shouldn't improve - they should. But the argument that it has and currently is holding Mayo back is weak. Since 2012, 13 years, Mayo have contested 6 All Ireland senior finals (seven with the replay). That's nearly one every second year. Even Kerry have contested less finals in the same period! Mayo's problem has been winning on the particular day, unlikely that a centre of excellence would have been the difference.

The current team have lost faith in the management, that is very sad to see for all concerned. And really it will be a largely wasted three years in terms of developing the players/team, other than two good days out in Salthill and in Killarney.

But do they have money to put proper structures in place. It’s hard to trust the CB to deliver anything big tbh. They still have a fair debt by all accounts and I would think they don’t have the money. They can talk all they want about structures but if they don’t have the funds to deliver…it makes them look ridiculous