Mayo GAA Discussion Part 2

The Mayo secretary Vincent Neary on OffTheBall on NewsTalk at 7.30 to give the county board's perspective on the future of Holmes& Connelly

Vincent Neary talking garbage on Newstalk right now.

Shurimgreat wrote: »

I'd actually like to see Donie Buckley given the job. From what I can see, he has been the real brains and key behind Mayo's success the last 5 years. He's turned them into a formidable team, tackling, turning over the ball and so on. He must get really frustrated to see mismanagement and poor decisions on the day of big games. He could be a good choice. The guy is clearly talented, far more so than other names thrown about.

Rumor has always been that Jack got rid of him in Kerry cos he was too close to the players.

Who knows he could be close to these guys too.

Has he ever managed a team or has he just been a coach ?

The players liaison officer is Mike Connelly... Noel Connellys brother. Thats a ridiculous situation. It was stated in the Newstalk interview by Vincent Neary.

PressRun wrote: »

He pretty much just undermined the players by acting like he had no idea about any unrest and that the players had just sprung this on the county board. Half the bloody country knew there was unrest.

But only in the last few weeks

There was no talk of unrest all summer.

I said it before and I'll say it again, the players better damn sure know what they are doing here, and I hope they come out on the right side of it, otherwise they will be completed fools, just like the '92/'93 crowd

Gael85 wrote: »

Buckley managed Clare around 06

There ya go, the much vaunted "inter county experience"

Join me in welcoming Buckley as our new manager

A few people mentioned McStay but he's gone to Roscommon setup has he not?!

I think McGuiness & Buckley are the main candidates. But if its a case of players looking to get rid of other two simply causd they'd prefer Buckley without any real issue its disgraceful behaviour from them. You'd swear they weren't the biggest bottlers in Irish Sport!!

Blue Magic wrote: »

A few people mentioned McStay but he's gone to Roscommon setup has he not?!

I think McGuiness & Buckley are the main candidates. But if its a case of players looking to get rid of other two simply causd they'd prefer Buckley without any real issue its disgraceful behaviour from them. You'd swear they weren't the biggest bottlers in Irish Sport!!

There isn't a snowballs chance in hell that Jim will take on the Mayo job at this moment in time and anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.

Defiler Of The Coffin wrote: »

They aren't. Please don't start this nonsense.

On what basis aren't they? Their unrivalled ability to be ruthless & put teams away when it matters in headquarters...

Mayo's biggest problem is mental weakness of players & anyone who can't see that is delusional.

blinding wrote: »

I would be very concerned that this is the beginning of the End of this Great Mayo Team.

I suppose it was going to happen some day but How can Humpty Dumpty be put back together again.

McStay is going to Roscommon……..

WE need Somebody from outside the County that won't take Bulls**t from the County Board or Players.

But

Are the Players or County board going to accept such a Person.

The Players Probably would but The Mayo County Board don't want anyone that they can't keep under the Thumb.

The biggest problem is the Mayo Co. Board, imo. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they go against the players on this, which would potentially trigger a serious unravelling. Frankly, the appointment stank from the beginning, and there's been a serious conflict of interest from the get-go which is going to complicate things further as the plot thickens.

Lad I work with who is involved in the backroom team with an intercounty setup said to me this morning what were they thinking having the brother as the liaison officer. Just said it stank of amateur.

Malachy Clerkin: Mayo players’ heave against management well signposted
Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly got off on the wrong foot with a panel hungry for an All-Ireland


The temptation when a group of players takes it upon themselves to initiate a heave against management is to pose a simple question. Who the hell do they think they are? In the case of the Mayo footballers, it is their certainty on that score that has led to this. They think they are the right leader away from an All-Ireland. And just now, they don’t think they have the right leaders.
The vote of no confidence in Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes had been coming a while. At the All-Ireland final 10 days ago, there was word that a players’ letter was being delivered that night to the county board – it appears now that they held off a week as Connelly was out of the country. One way or another, this outcome has felt inevitable for much of the season.
For now, the players look to be in a holding pattern. None of those contacted on Tuesday would be drawn on the situation but the longer the week goes without a response from Holmes and Connelly, the less likely it is that the players will stay silent. The next step is management’s – do they dig in or do they accept that they have no credibility with this group?


From the start, Holmes and Connelly got off on the wrong foot. A major factor in presenting their credentials for the job was the under-21 All-Ireland they won with a large chunk of the team back in 2006. But though the players had evolved since then, both individually and as a group, they came to the conclusion early on that not a lot had changed in terms of Holmes and Connelly’s approach.
Though the players had been to two All-Ireland finals and won four-in-a-row in Connacht, they felt talked down to from the beginning. There was an acceptance from the players that they needed to improve tactically and move on a level after James Horan’s time in charge, but they soon felt that they were learning nothing new.
Small things changed and grated with the players, becoming symptomatic of a wider slippage as time went by. There was a clearout of a few of the medical staff, some of whom had seen the players through long and painstaking recoveries from injury. Logistics weren’t quite as well organised as before – a trip to Derry involved a bus delay that could have been avoided led to inevitable comparisons with the previous regime. Faces from outside the group would occasionally appear in the inner sanctum of the dressing room.
While none of this is debilitating necessarily, there was a death-by-a-thousand-cuts feel to the year. For the players, the Mayo football team was a high performance environment. That’s who the hell they thought they were. What they wanted from management was a step up from what they had before.
Instead, the vibe they got from Holmes and Connelly was that they were no different to the Mayo teams that had come close to winning All-Irelands in the past. To the players, this was all very well – if tough love was the way to go, so be it. But for that to work, it had to be accompanied by fresh ideas and a creative tactical approach. They found this to be lacking.
In short, the players needed to be impressed and Holmes and Connelly did not impress them. While it may not sit particularly well with GAA traditionalists, the reality of the situation is that when a group of players in any sport are close to achieving their ultimate goal, they feel a deep ownership of the whole enterprise.
Keith Higgins is 30. Aidan O’Shea is 25. With the exception of the O’Connor brothers, the rest of Mayo’s main men are aged somewhere in between. If there is an All-Ireland in this group, it needs to come in the next two or three seasons or they will end up as just another group of Mayo footballers who let the chance pass them by.
Whether they are right or wrong in their judgement on the abilities of Holmes and Connelly doesn’t actually matter. What matters is that they felt they weren’t being adequately led. That being the case, they owed it to themselves to do what they could to change their circumstances

Awful interview by Vincent Neary....we have the process in place ad nauseum!