Mayo GAA Discussion Thread

blueser wrote: »

Didn't Donegal try the same trick against us (was it last year)? And they got their arses handed to them big style. Managers and selectors should try worrying about their own players' shortcomings, never mind having a pre-match dig at the opposition. It only fires your opponents up.

Yeah McGuinness said some stuff before the game last year. I think managers do it to try to influence the referee more than upset the opposition.I would say most people in Cork think Ronan McCarthy (and Cuthbert) made asses of themselves by referring to Mayo before the game.
Like you say it's better to keep the head down and concentrate on your own team.

Just watched the match again on TV

One thing that struck me, and it was mentioned on TV, was that this team were just going through the motions.
They seemed to be never in doubt of their ability to win the game and expended as little energy as possible in doing so.

They came out at half time and 'bang' went 7 pts up, hoping to finish off the game I presume.
However they managed to loose that 7 pt lead I don't know but they did.
But when Cork drew level, 'bang' they went 4 up, just like that.
And again when Cork came back at them they added a few insurance scores and that was that.

That is a good way to be playing a QF or SF, and Provincial games, they did the same v Roscommon, and v Galway, when Galway came out of the break with a few points in a row.

Again I though Freemans efforts to win the ball to set up the goal were fantastic

Its easy to say that in hindsight. But they could very well have lost it if Colm O'Neill buried that last chance. Too close for comfort

Didn't bother posting anything about it until I had watched it back again on telly and, to be honest, it just made me more confused as to what I thought about the game.

Overall, have to be happy to get the win. Played reasonably well at times, but with plenty to work on for the semi final. Possibly lucky near the end but overall I think they were the better team and deserved the win.

So onto a few specifics.

The ref:
Seemed absolutely atrocious watching it live, i.e. had no control over the game and made countless bad calls for both sides. Watching it on tv improved my opinion of him a little, although it was far from good. Thought Mayo got a raw deal in the 1st half (things like frees being given every time a few players surrounded a Cork man, despite no foul being committed). However, coming near the end, Cork were definitely screwed out of at least 1 or 2 points. Made the big calls right though, i.e. Aidan O'Shea was fouled when going down on the ball after Hennelly's save and the last foul was definitely outside the box. Overall, poor show and I hope it's his last for this year at least.

The game itself:
I don't know whether it's just that us Mayo fans are beginning to think confidently rather than optimistically, but I felt that we were tipping along without really getting going, yet looking like they could if the need arose. Similar to earlier games, they did enough and when they were under pressure, responded with good play and confident scores. Cork were better than I was expecting, but were very naive coming out from the back with the ball at times, especially given that everyone knows how hard the Mayo forwards work and how ferocious they are in the tackle. Think that the Cork fans give them a very hard time of it and they deserve more support than the few hundred that were in Croker on Sunday.

Individual players:
Thought Cafferkey and Barrett had a tough time of it today but seemed to get a bit tighter as the game progressed, with the exception maybe of the last 5 mins. Rest of the backs were solid again, with an honourable mention for Lee Keegan. He might not have been getting forward as much, but he kept a tight leash on Kerrigan, who effectively ran the show against Sligo, so big credit to him for that. Kerrigan is lightning quick, we all know that, but Keegan looked like he was at his ease keeping with him when he went off on long runs. Might not have taken the ball off him all that much, but forced him wide and made him recycle the ball, which is pretty much all you can ask of him.

Midfield was unreal and most of the starting forwards played well.Thought Vaughan didn't have a great game when watching live, but seemed a lot better on telly somehow... Not sure why that is to be honest, must be just my perception. Dillon had a great game and Doherty is really beginning to shine. He looks very confident and he's a dangerous man when he looks like that.

Subs were only ok... Varley was terrible and hard to see how he's ahead of Freeman or even Conroy. I think this could be one poor showing too much though so could spell the end of him for this year. Freeman worked like a dog but snatched at the one real decent chance he got. Think he needs to start to get a bit of confidence going.

Looking to the Kerry match:
Think that Tom Cunniffe and Freeman should start, leave Andy on the bench to settle things later in the game. Barrett could be one to miss out at the back if he wants to let Vaughan back to half back and bring in Gibbons or Moran, but it's a tough one to call.

Not thinking too much about it yet, will look forward to the other two quarter finals next weekend first and see how that side is going.

Conclusion:
Happy with the win, relatively happy with the performance and seems to be no shortage of desire or belief in the team. Will have a good chance against Kerry but will be a very nervous trip to Croker at the same time. Looking forward to it already!


A quick mention of the minors is deserved too, they were unbelievable at times in their game and it's great that we get to see them again as part of our semi final double header!

Hon Mayo!

Read in Mayo News that there was a row at a county board meeting last week over Horan telling players not to play in club c'ship games despite what had been agreed. if there is an agreement in place then he was way out of order imo though only McLoughlin didnt play afaik

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Just watched the match again on TV

One thing that struck me, and it was mentioned on TV, was that this team were just going through the motions.
They seemed to be never in doubt of their ability to win the game and expended as little energy as possible in doing so.

They came out at half time and 'bang' went 7 pts up, hoping to finish off the game I presume.
However they managed to loose that 7 pt lead I don't know but they did.
But when Cork drew level, 'bang' they went 4 up, just like that.
And again when Cork came back at them they added a few insurance scores and that was that.

That is a good way to be playing a QF or SF, and Provincial games, they did the same v Roscommon, and v Galway, when Galway came out of the break with a few points in a row.

Again I though Freemans efforts to win the ball to set up the goal were fantastic

I dont think it is a good thing. To win an all ireland Mayo need to win just 6 games. Its not a big ask to stay switched on for 6 70 minute intervals spread across 5 months. Habits are hard to break and they may find it hard to maintain the intensity level when they really need to. 4 semi finals on the trot is a good body of work tho and they do seem to have mastered the path to the final but as we saw last year drifting out of games wont seal the deal at the top level.

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Read in Mayo News that there was a row at a county board meeting last week over Horan telling players not to play in club c'ship games despite what had been agreed. if there is an agreement in place then he was way out of order imo though only McLoughlin didnt play afaik

[FONT=Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=Times New Roman,serif]

Quarter finals of this years intermediate football championship were due to take place this weekend.

We have had a request from James Horan to delay this weekends fixtures based on the following reasons;
1. James Horan feels that players will require maximum recovery time following last weekends quarter final against Cork.
2. There are now only two weeks remaining before the Mayo/Kerry semi final and this is a very important game in Mayo Senior teams plans to
progress into the All Ireland Final.

Members of the CCC have discussed the matter at length with James Horan and have explained the pressures relating to County and Provincial fixtures.

A proposal from the Senior Team manager had been considered and agreed and is as follows.

The Intermediate Quarter Finals will now take place on Saturday the 30th of August and the eight participating teams will have their players released to them in the week leading up to the games.

We regret the position regarding the coming weekend but taking all matters into account we have agreed to the proposal to try our best to be fair to all involved,[/FONT][/FONT]

Mayo were not impressive against Cork, IMO but I think that will suit them going into the Kerry Game.

I would have been happy if we were within 5 points of Mayo on Sunday. We have a very inexperienced management team that were found our badly against the expertly prepared Kerry. Cork then completely changes tactics and employed 2 sweepers v Sligo (in preparation for the Mayo game)

Cork had 8 players that made their c/ship debut in the last 14 months - there was a lot on injury concerns coming into the game - 2 players Kelly & Cahalane were not long back from serious hip ops and hadn't played much football. Cadogan had missed 2 months with a bad hamstring injury and again had very few games played. AW played very little league time and like Cadogan and Cahalane - he had been mostly involved with the Hurlers who had a lot of big games. Cork have had huge problems with their kick-outs and were always likely to struggle for possession. There was little or no preparation for the blanket defence system compared to the work put in by the likes of Donegal, Armagh and Monaghan - even though Cork were warned about taking the ball into contact - their lack of preparaion was always going to lead to mistakes.

After Cork's terrible Munster Final and poor enoough form v Sligo, it was to be expected that Mayo went in very confident and were not expecting a big challenge.

Kerry will set up in a pretty similar way to Cork and will plan to get the ball to their 2 scoring forwards. Mayo have learned a huge amount from the Cork Game and will be far better the next day. However it'll be a tactical arm wrestle with both sides haveing gtear insight to the strength and weaknesses of each other through Cian O Neill and Donie Buckley - I'm really looking forard to this one and I'd give a hesitant vote to mayo.

Can't see Donegal beating the dubs they are just to strong.the first semi pro team in Ireland

naughto wrote: »

Can't see Donegal beating the dubs they are just to strong.the first semi pro team in Ireland

Yes very hard to see it. Donegal not at the level of 2012 while Dublin have improved from last year. Hard to know will Mayo have enough to even beat Kerry as the defence seems a bit ropey this summer.

How did we go from having one of the best back lines last yr to what we have now?
Is it all to do with the f1ucking about with Higgins in the forward line that has unsettled the backs