Mayo GAA Discussion Thread

tacofries · 13-01-2013 06:57PM

Its only the league.... if it was an important match we'd have taken them ...... :P started out thiz way last year to so no worried yet!

Always_Running · 13-01-2013 07:40PM

That was James Horan's first defeat in the FBD. Michael Conroy was the only first choice starting forward and 0-8 showed. Emlyn Mulligan played captains role for his team he's good enough to start for any side in Connacht.

yop · 14-01-2013 09:44AM

Syferus wrote: »

It's what a lot of great players and teams in all sorts of sports do, create perceived slights (even though in Mayo's case it's very real) and exaggerate what is real. It helps gives you an edge. No harm in it at all. You need some sort of motivation after making it to the dance yet again and losing.

Think thats exactly what he is doing alright, good piece in the Sindo yesterday re how Trolley slated Mayo yet ignored Donegals fouling etc, wasn't pleasant, then again Trolley isn't pleasant either.

yop · 14-01-2013 11:18AM

Brolly continues'

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/mayo-boss-horan-adds-fuel-to-fire-in-war-of-words-with-brolly-3350687.html

davegrohl48 · 14-01-2013 12:14PM

Well the reason Brolly picked Mayo stemmed from the final 10 minutes against Dublin. Brolly was highlighting that the 'Old Mayo' would have ushered at least one Dublin attack through for a goal. Whereas 'New Mayo' fouled and gave away frees for 1 pt.
It didn't influence the final as in the first half all Mayos frees against and yellow cards were all correct decisions. I'm from Mayo and looked back at the game recently and the refereeing over the 70 mins favoured Mayo. Only bad miss for Mayo was a pretty obvious over aggressive tackling on Cillian OConnor near the endline but not much else. The second hit on Karl Lacy should have been a sending off (dangerous and deliberate). So you look at it and Mayo should have been going into the second half with 14 players.

Fr Tod Umptious · 14-01-2013 12:18PM

I'm not sure what to make of all of this but if I am right Horan is attacking Brolly for implying that Mayo are cynical i.e foul a lot and get away with it
Brolly did make some comments on the Thursday prior to the semi final, on the Pat Kenny Show if I recall about the selection of the ref, and he implied that the Dublin players were quiet familiar and almost friendly with him, He them summarized that this would adversely affect Mayo because they will be pull up on each and very foul they commit, and they commit a lot more than anyone else.

He also had a rant on the RTE League Final highlights show about how Donal Vaugh went down too easily, after being held by the neck by Noel O'Laery
In truth the league final was a clean game without any controversy for Brolly to jump up and down about, so he picked one odd incident to raise a fuss about.

I remember Horan from my youth, he does not come across as the kind of guy who would let something like what a pundit says get under hos skin, I reckon he is taking the piss.

davegrohl48 · 14-01-2013 12:52PM

Anyone in Ballinamore yesterday with any updates on new players?

This year changes I'd like to see:
- Higgins to wing back to bring his attacking play further up the pitch. He rarely loses the ball and is an accurate passer.
- Keegan to centre back (I just don't think Vaughan has the skill or agility if our aim is to win out the championship.)
- Possibly two big men in the ff line. New rules on square ball mean this makes even more sense. COS, SOS and Barry Moran the options. If Freeman could ever come into some form again maybe.
- Aidan O'Shea but put a workhorse with him who can cover the ground. Maybe Jason Gibbons is the most athletic of the options. As someone pointed out Barry Moran was rounded pretty easily by Karl Lacy to setup the first goal in the final.

keane2097 · 14-01-2013 02:06PM

Pretty decent match report from yesterday here if anyone's interested to read it:

http://www.livegaelic.com/news/fbd-league-round-2-leitrim-vs-mayo/

EDIT: Just to clarify, we actually had someone in the ground so it's not a sponge job

mayo.mick · 14-01-2013 02:12PM

davegrohl48 wrote: »

Anyone in Ballinamore yesterday with any updates on new players?

This year changes I'd like to see:
- Higgins to wing back to bring his attacking play further up the pitch. He rarely loses the ball and is an accurate passer.
- Keegan to centre back (I just don't think Vaughan has the skill or agility if our aim is to win out the championship.)
- Possibly two big men in the ff line. New rules on square ball mean this makes even more sense. COS, SOS and Barry Moran the options. If Freeman could ever come into some form again maybe.
- Aidan O'Shea but put a workhorse with him who can cover the ground. Maybe Jason Gibbons is the most athletic of the options. As someone pointed out Barry Moran was rounded pretty easily by Karl Lacy to setup the first goal in the final.

Good piece here by WJ;

http://mayogaablog.com/?p=12117

davegrohl48 · 14-01-2013 02:44PM

keane2097 wrote: »

Pretty decent match report from yesterday here if anyone's interested to read it:

http://www.livegaelic.com/news/fbd-league-round-2-leitrim-vs-mayo/

EDIT: Just to clarify, we actually had someone in the ground so it's not a sponge job

Nice site first time I'v seen it. Do ye have a network of volunteers in different counties for reports?

From match report it seems Darren Coen was showing pretty well, good to see him back and scoring.

keane2097 · 14-01-2013 03:06PM

davegrohl48 wrote: »

Nice site first time I'v seen it. Do ye have a network of volunteers in different counties for reports?

From match report it seems Darren Coen was showing pretty well, good to see him back and scoring.

Thanks for the feedback, glad you like the site. We've got a few changes in the pipeline in the next couple of weeks, basically adding a longer list of articles under the main switcher thingy so we've got more than just the five or six latest pieces on the front page. We'll be launching individual county pages shortly as well hopefully.

Yeah we're relying on volunteers at the moment for articles as we haven't looked to sell any advertising space yet, once we start selling we'll be looking to start paying contributors on a fee per article basis. Obviously we don't have people in every county unfortunately but we try to put together original pieces as far as we can.

We're always looking for contributors by the way, so if anybody knows anybody who'd be interested in building up a portfolio with a view to full-time journalism please do drop me a PM.

Fowler87 · 14-01-2013 03:10PM

davegrohl48 wrote: »

Anyone in Ballinamore yesterday with any updates on new players?

This year changes I'd like to see:
- Higgins to wing back to bring his attacking play further up the pitch. He rarely loses the ball and is an accurate passer.
- Keegan to centre back (I just don't think Vaughan has the skill or agility if our aim is to win out the championship.)
- Possibly two big men in the ff line. New rules on square ball mean this makes even more sense. COS, SOS and Barry Moran the options. If Freeman could ever come into some form again maybe.
- Aidan O'Shea but put a workhorse with him who can cover the ground. Maybe Jason Gibbons is the most athletic of the options. As someone pointed out Barry Moran was rounded pretty easily by Karl Lacy to setup the first goal in the final.

Higgins at centre back is a different animal of a player but he's a reliable corner back plus his pace helps counter alot of the Mayo attacks from deep. So I'd say its unlikely to happen other than the odd league/fbd game

keane2097 · 16-01-2013 11:14AM

Preview of tonight's game here if anyone's interested:

http://www.livegaelic.com/news/fbd-league-changes-expected-as-mayo-aim-to-improve-on-slow-start/

davegrohl48 · 17-01-2013 02:26PM

Reading reports on GMIT game. Major changes were:
- Lee Keegan wing forward
- Richie Feeney centre forward

I wonder would Keegan be useful as a hard running centre forward? We were very light last year with Dillon, Doc, McGloughlin. Also from Dublin/Donegal games it's apparent we need at least one hard tackling half forward.
From my memory Keegan scored most of his attempts in last years championship. Was picking up 1 -2 points per game.

keane2097 · 17-01-2013 03:06PM

At the same time you had two near all stars in Dillon and McLoughlin in there. One thing I would say is that Mayo seem to be very well stocked in the half back area so if they could adapt one of those guys to give more depth to the forward line that could only help.

Incidentally, I meant to post this earlier but forgot - match report from last night:

http://www.livegaelic.com/news/fbd-league-mayo-vs-gmit-report/

davegrohl48 · 17-01-2013 03:14PM

Story of Mayo county and Club football, stop in any reasonable size town in Mayo there is a near enough county standard back somewhere about.
Then you'd have a smaller county like Westmeath at their peak had class forwards and lacked coverage in the backs.
Maybe it's the competitive, hard hitting nature of Mayo club football? Think derbies like Cross - Knockmore, Ballina - Cross.

Always_Running · 17-01-2013 07:25PM

Keith Higgins,Alan Dillon were unused subs last night i guess both will start v the rossies on Sunday.

davegrohl48 · 17-01-2013 09:04PM

Long season ahead so they might be spared yet. Plus Dillon is 31 now.

Defiler Of The Coffin · 17-01-2013 09:05PM

Thought Higgins came on in the 2nd half no?

Always_Running · 17-01-2013 09:58PM

Defiler Of The Coffin wrote: »

Thought Higgins came on in the 2nd half no?

You're right and it's a home fixture for him on Sunday.

davegrohl48 · 17-01-2013 10:34PM

Hopefully between FBD and league if we could secure Div1 status earlier than last year we can get plenty gametime for likes of Rogers, Coen, SOS, COS, Shane McHale.
Plus if Freeman can find his form again that would be a huge addition.

Syferus · 18-01-2013 02:06AM

Frozen sod and frozen air promised for Sunday. It'll make a change from the mud, anyways. Wrap up warm, lads.

Fr Tod Umptious · 18-01-2013 10:35PM

davegrohl48 wrote: »

Hopefully between FBD and league if we could secure Div1 status earlier than last year we can get plenty gametime for likes of Rogers, Coen, SOS, COS, Shane McHale.
Plus if Freeman can find his form again that would be a huge addition.

Yea that would be good

And this year they have a tough Connaught championship so making the latter stages of the league may not be essential as it was last year when they needed good game time

I can see them winning 4 of their first 5 games

v Kerry (H)
v Tyrone (H)
v Down (A)
v Kildare (H)

They may loose to Dublin (A) after the Tyrone game.

Always_Running · 19-01-2013 07:50PM

Strong Mayo team named for tomorrows game they should finish off the FBD with another win.

David Clarke

Ger Cafferkey - Shane McHale - Keith Rogers

Keith Higgins - Donal Vaughan - Chris Barrett

Seamus O'Shea - Aidan O'Shea

Kevin McLoughlin - Richie Feeney - Lee Keegan

Alan Murphy - Alan Freeman - Jason Doherty

davegrohl48 · 19-01-2013 10:17PM

Is Alan Murphy the oldest ever Mayo debutant? 31 I think.

Defiler Of The Coffin · 19-01-2013 10:21PM

davegrohl48 wrote: »

Is Alan Murphy the oldest ever Mayo debutant? 31 I think.

I believe that honor belongs to the venerable Billy Fitzpatrick who made his debut for Mayo at the age of 32.

John Healy was the oldest championship debutante iirc.

Defiler Of The Coffin · 20-01-2013 04:29PM

Sounds like Roscommon should have done the business today! We'll take the draw anyhow!

Always_Running · 20-01-2013 07:53PM

They should and Mayo should be thankful they weren't playing Kerry in NFL today. Plenty of work to be done before the league starts...

Fowler87 · 20-01-2013 07:57PM

I know its very early days but its a worry that full forward options are very limited atm. Only got their act together when Conroy was brought on.

davegrohl48 · 21-01-2013 10:12PM

I wouldn't expect any of the debutants Rogers/Murphy/McHale to be nailing down first 15 or first sub places. This is the first season these guys have gotten any proper gametime, way, way too early to make any judgement calls.
They'll need to be featuring off the bench in the league as well.
Really this FBD and next few weeks of training are to prepare these guys to rise to the intensity of league football.
Then you'd be looking to see based on that are they ready to be on the bench for championship. Can they come on with ten minutes left and stick a difficult point or do a job to shut down a quality inter county forward.
1 - 2 new starting faces a year is all ever pops up.

Mayo GAA Discussion Thread

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