Mayo GAA Discussion

Westernview · 16-06-2025 09:22AM

Aidan seemed to indicate that he wanted to keep playing for a few more years in a recent interview so who knows.

The national media have their usual lazy Mayo headlines today.... Tragedy, heartbreak, disaster etc. You'd think that no other team will get knocked out of the championship. I don't think any of us thought the were going to go much further this year anyway.

MacDanger · 16-06-2025 09:42AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123547932#Comment_123547932

If only we had known that the attitudes of the fans played such a crucial role in a team winning or losing 🤣🤣 Different attitude next year everyone and Sam is in the bag

ethical · 16-06-2025 09:55AM

So here we are again….or not,as the case may be!

This years Championship quest was lost by the diabolical defeat to Cavan.

As some pundits said yesterday evening there are worst teams left in the race compared to the teams that have now exited,Derry and Mayo two of the later. Remember in the league when Mayo were within 5 minutes of relegation …..and then in the league final 5 minutes later…..fine margins!

Mayo are not as bad as some people would suggest and of course no where near winning Sam as others might think!

Take Michael Murphy out of Donegal and we would have beaten them quite comprehensively yesterday. Michael Langan along with many other Donegal players did not turn up yesterday….this will not get them Sam.

Langan was brilliant in the previous game.I know he did a lot of work defensively yesterday but didn't venture forward as much, where he was very effective previously.

Same with Kerry,they haven't a hope of winning Sam if Paidí Clifford is injured,he is the glue that binds that team.Its fine having David but Paidí is the man that makes Kerry tick!

Galway likewise,if Shane Walsh does not fire they will find it difficult and Damien Comer injury free would be a great addition.Galway are by no means a two man team but all the others ,Conroy,finnerty,Darcy etc always give their all but they need the two lads to provide the topping on the cake.

Getting all your top marque players firing on the same day is required realistically in order to win Sam.

Armagh,as holders, will have a major say yet in this years Championship.

As as footnote from yesterday,why oh why did the backroom team of Mayo not notice the slipping and sliding of some Mayo players,AOS in particular, in the first half where there were turnovers and scores from Donegal capitalising on the slipping misfortune….NO BOOT CHANGE AT HALF TIME!!! SAME THING WAS NOTED TO CONTINUE IN THE EARLY PART OF THE SECOND HALF. How big is the Mayo backroom team that none of them noticed this!!!! Remember its fine margins,very fine margins that win or lose games at this level……Donegal got at least 2 first half points from this misfortune….Mayo lost the match by ONE POINT!!!!!!

16-06-2025 11:20AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123547923#Comment_123547923

So all those people shouldn't have supported their team when they were in a final? People shouldn't enjoy an event that unites their community and gets their children excited? What's sport about so? Just whinging and moaning and not bothering going to games and not letting yourself feel anything at all in case your team loses? Grand, you enjoy that miserable existence.

Fact is, Mayo support is way down the last few years. The average person you talk to is quite pessimistic and I myself have been saying for a while now that we are probably going to experience a few years of nothing because the players aren't there. Until the underage structures start producing better quality, we won't be competing for an All Ireland.

crusd · 16-06-2025 02:03PM

Hard to believe they are going to wait almost two months to start the club championship

BandMember · 16-06-2025 02:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549265#Comment_123549265

No choice. Have to stick with the agreed schedule that was released at the start of the year to ensure fairness to clubs and club players. Besides, what's the point in starting it now and have the County champions kicking their heels for months waiting for the provincial fixtures to start? They would be very rusty and at a massive disadvantage.

MacDanger · 16-06-2025 02:13PM

Since we're on the subject, bookie odds on the senior championship:

Ballina 11/4

Westport 16/5

Knockmore 9/2

Castlebar 11/2

Breaffy 6/1

Ballintubber 10/1

Ballaghdereen 10/1

Crossmolina 20/1

Garrymore 25/1

Belmullet 40/1

Charlestown, Aghamore 50/1

Ballyhaunis, Balla 66/1

Mayo Gaels 80/1

Rockfish · 16-06-2025 03:46PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548296#Comment_123548296

Ah in fairness it was the nature of the loss, i thoguht Eamon Sweeny in the Indo was good in fairness

"

Mayo, God help them. Their capacity for defeat is limitless.

Football’s rule changes presented a new way to lose in the most painful manner possible. So they embraced it. What did you expect?

Westernview · 16-06-2025 03:55PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549774#Comment_123549774

'Mayo, God help them' is a bit over dramatic for a group stage knockout. For all ireland losses..then yeah maybe. 4 more teams will be gone next week but none of them will get the same level of pathos even if there are some narrow defeats.

The media are always ready to churn out the Mayo football drama stuff. Despite the last minute Donegal winner I don't get any sense of devastation around Mayo over this one. Just a resignation that we weren't really good enough to progress much further. The small Mayo attendance yesterday reflected that.

Sweeney writes a lot of good articles I'll give you that.

muddle84 · 16-06-2025 04:21PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549807#Comment_123549807

That particular article is bang on in my humble opinion. Summed it up simply,

"A team which suffer so many narrow defeats must be responsible for their own misfortune"

He also highlights that we were in the same position last year against Dublin, also in the hyde and miss out on the result we wanted/needed with the last kick of the ball, nothing learned in terms of game management and shutting down the very last counter attack.

maximus15 · 16-06-2025 05:33PM

Downfall of our own heartbreak as usual . Pure lack of smartness cost us a draw . Should have held off a few mire seconds to get that shot away and hooter would have gone . And unforgivable again we let them score from our score , without getting a hand in the player . We just lack s***housery. Likes of Dublin, kerry and ulster teams have it down to a fine art how to see out a game or win with final kick of game, by running down clock cleverly and making sure right player gets final shot off . Can't remember which game reape was that player for us and naturally couldn't score . This is happening time and time again . Never mind the lack of scoring forwards we start every game with and fear from shooting from outside the arc . Even boland should have been smarter receiving the ball outside of the arc and would have had a 2 point effort instead 1 . Other teams seem to have this well drilled into.them already with new rules . We don't . Same frustrations as usual

Coillte_Bhoy · 16-06-2025 07:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549807#Comment_123549807

Ah it's a play on the 'Mayo God help us' thing but the whole Mayo story is one of the most fascinating narratives in irish sport so of course dramatic losses like yesterday wil garner moremedia attention than if it was another team. The media are only doing their job and we give them plenty of ammo. We are box office, thats just the way it is.

16-06-2025 07:08PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549807#Comment_123549807

There have also been a few last gasp scores since the hooter came in. Mayo aren't the first nor will they be the last to lose a game on the hooter, but journalists can't resist churning out this dramatic reading of it.

Coillte_Bhoy · 16-06-2025 07:13PM

No smarts at all in those last few seconds. Someone on the backroom team should have been tasked with knowing exactly what the situation was and how to get instructions in straight away. Kick the ball of the tee, cause a row, whatever, and even if we conceded a free by the time play restarts, Donegal bench will have got word into their players to just boot it over the sideline when hooter goes. They had nothing to gain and a lot to lose by playing on. If we had won posession on that last kick out and scored again, you can be sure Mc Guinness would have been raging at Patton. And yes Donegal management were as gulity as ours of not getting word into Patton to delay the kick out another few seconds. This is not absolutely whinging on my part, we lost and deservedley so.

MacDanger · 16-06-2025 07:24PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123550563#Comment_123550563

I actually think the right play for us wasn't to delay the kickout, it being kicked out before the hooter suited us as it gave us a chance to top the group. Once we didn't win it though, the wing back should have been pulled down to give us a chance to get back

Coillte_Bhoy · 16-06-2025 07:35PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123550599#Comment_123550599

Ya i can see both sides, but the fact we were behind for so long and managed to grab a lifeline, think we should have taken it, but as you say once we didnt gain posession should have done something. Was at the game so havent seen that last play again but looked liked nobody got anywhere near Moore to d anything

King Power Fox · 16-06-2025 07:48PM

yere 11 made a very poor last ditch attempt to intersect, sold himself for the big hit rather than shepherding out and wide, same fellow missed 2 goal chances, absolutely no composure

17-06-2025 12:59AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549919#Comment_123549919

"A team which suffer so many narrow defeats must be responsible for their own misfortune"

This is spot on.

For the whole of the 2010s I tried to convince people that if it hadn't been for small margins like own goals, or a hit post, or a pickup off the ground not called, or facing the team of the century, that Mayo would have won an All Ireland.

But 2021 opened my eyes, 2021 showed me that the Mayo teams lack the intestinal fortitude to win an All Ireland.

You can't lose 11 finals in 32 years and keep blaming it on something other than the team and their (lack of) desire and their (lack of) ability to win it.

How come ever other team "wanted it more", or "were not leaving without the cup" ?

Losing All Ireland finals has become comfortable for Mayo players.

When the fat is in the fire coming down the stretch in an All Ireland final the Mayo player knows that if he can't find that little bit extra to get him over the line it's no big deal, because he won't be singled out, he won't be anything special, he'll just be like the multitudes of other players that have come this far and lost since 1989.

Sure, if he can find the something extra to get over the line he'll be a hero forevermore, but right now it's hard to find it and he can put off finding it, it might be easier to find next year.

The next time Mayo have a team that will be serious contenders, and they will again, someone needs to tell them it's different this time, not winning is no longer an option.

They need to break that cycle within their own minds and within the camp that losing doesn't make them special.

They have to learn that winning will make them special.

westsidestory · 17-06-2025 10:10AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123551648#Comment_123551648

Bollocks of the highest order, probably sounds great with a few gallons on board but jaysus that's fierce demeaning to the time and efforts of manys a good man.

17-06-2025 10:33AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123552188#Comment_123552188

No intention of demeaning anyone who pulled on a Mayo jersey at any level.

They are doing things I never could do.

But there has to be something there that is preventing them from winning it all.

They have been in the situation numerous times in 32 years but still somehow fail.

Why does everyone else want it more?

Why does the hurt of losing spur on other teams but not Mayo?

And I think it's because losing is a habit.

If Davit Neary or Conal Dawson have stellar careers but lose multiple All Ireland finals they are not going to be any different from Lee Keegan or David Brady.

They are just going to be great Mayo players who just couldn't win an All Ireland.

I'm not suggesting people turn their backs on the team, but I'm suggesting that within the confindes of the squad the find a way to stop making losing a habit when it comes to it.

And if this is bollix of the highest order can you try and articulate why Mayo have failed to win an All Ireland since 1951, when the chance was right there in front of them?

crossman47 · 17-06-2025 10:39AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123550208#Comment_123550208

I think thats hard on Boland. If he held on a few seconds more he might not have got his shot away at all. The problem was in dealing with the kick out.

Panrich · 17-06-2025 11:00AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123552281#Comment_123552281

I’ve maintained for a long time that Mayo would need to fall over the line with a great deal of luck involved to finally beat this final ‘jinx’.

I’m reminded of the comments after the 2006 final when Jack O’Connor sneeringly said that Kerry’s one year drought made them hungrier than Mayo’s fifty five year drought.

I think the truth ot the matter was that a one year drought was a lot lighter of a load to carry in to the final and the losses since have only added to the burden put on subsequent Mayo teams.

Barlett · 17-06-2025 11:23AM

Agreed, I think at this stage any Mayo senior football team taking to the field in an All Ireland will be doing so with a considerable weight on their shoulders…can't recall who from the 2010s team said it in an interview but they did say, you'd never talk about it as a team…but it was always there in the back of your mind. It's nothing to do with hype or anything like that now, it's just the weight of history. But as long as they keep getting to All Ireland finals and since the 90s they're managing at least two a decade, they will eventually do it. They just can't fall away from that Division One pack.

And when that day comes…I'm not sure what we'll do with ourselves in Mayo afterwards, because a big Irish sports story will finally be at an end.

17-06-2025 11:28AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123550599#Comment_123550599

We were never going to win it. We'd barely won a kickout all day. Donegal took a chance taking a quick one, but that chance was based on literally everything that had been going on around the middle all day. If they'd been losing midfield, maybe he would have hesitated.

MacDanger · 17-06-2025 11:35AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123552508#Comment_123552508

At the match, I thought we lost midfield as well but if you have a look at Gaelic Statsman on twitter, he has it that we won 19/25 (76%) of our own kickouts and 5/21 (23%) of the Donegal kickouts so it was actually pretty even overall.

The last kickout didn't go to its intended recipient, it went over him but bounced to the Donegal # 7 who took off - he should have been taken down even if it was a black/red card

17-06-2025 12:18PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123552382#Comment_123552382

But what O'Connor said kind of makes my point, the 70+ years drought is lighter than the 1 year drought, if you lose another final, so what, it's just another final lost.

That burden of 70+ years is also a get out clause, it allows them to be no different to the years that came before.

Up until 2021 I always thought that what Mayo needed was what happened to Cork in the 2000s

Cork got knocked out in either the All Ireland semis or final by Kerry on 6 occasions in 8 years.

Then in 2010 with Kerry out and facing a surprise opponent in Down, they went and won it.

In 2021 Mayo were in a similar situation.

They had spent a decade losing to a rampant Dublin and now the found themselves in a final against a surprise team.

And what did they do, almost to a man they went out and played well below par.

So unlike Cork who went through the same thing a decade earlier Mayo failed to deliver on the big day.

And it's that that has convinced me that there is something wrong mentally with Mayo football, it doesn't matter what era.

No matter how good a player is , no matter what dedication they put in they still have that get out clause in the back of their heads.

We and fans can't fix it, we can't stop supporting them (even though going by the numbers many have). We can't withhold support until they win an All Ireland and then jump on the bandwagon.

They need to solve it themselves, within the camp, within their own heads.

Jack O'Connor talks about Kerry being hungrier in 2006 from the 2005 loss.

Why weren't Mayo hungrier in 2021 after 2020, in 2017 after 2016, in 2013 after 2012, in 2006 after 2004, in 1997 after 1996 ?

17-06-2025 01:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123552551#Comment_123552551

Didn't know the stats, but it didn't look good on television. Agree he should have been taken out immediately, but nobody put a glove on him. Our lack of pace overall is worrying tbh.

MfMan · 17-06-2025 01:03PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549919#Comment_123549919

Mean-spirited article IMO, and typical of Sweeney who's always going for the low blows and cheap shots without any understanding of context or nuance. (And this from a Galway man). Someone should post a rebuttal article and tell him he should get out more - see how he'd like that. Why don't journalists berate and constantly write articles about counties that achieve absolutely nothing, might buck them up a bit. Mayo will win when they have enough good players on the field, no other mystery to it than that.

What were Mayo supposed to do in the closing seconds, more than they could do? When you're desperately chasing a life-saving equaliser and trying to retain possession, how can you play with an eye on the clock?

17-06-2025 01:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123552481#Comment_123552481

It was Keith Higgins who talked about it shortly after he retired. I don't know how it couldn't be in the back of your mind tbh. There's a whole lore even just from the last decade. And it's not just the weight of history, but also overcoming all the narratives about Mayo football that have become cheap talking points at this stage among opposition fans and GAA journalists. Honestly, I would imagine they're a sports psychologist's nightmare (or dream depending on how much of a challenge you enjoy).

Westernview · 17-06-2025 01:53PM

There's definitely a psychological issue on AI day but outside that no. We lost sunday because we weren't good enough and not cynical enough. Nothing to do with another Mayo tragedy or disaster narrative.

Funny how the media forget about that BS when we win connacht titles, AI quarter finals and semis. Most counties can't manage that but they don't get labelled tragic when they just lose a championship game. Real tragedy is what is going on in war torn parts of the world today. Applying it to mid season football competition losses is an insult and just headlines to sell papers by tapping into the public appetite for drama and negativity.

Even our own local papers are at it this week with a picture of in the CT of OShea with his head in his hands under the title DEVASTATED. Give me a break.

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