Connacht SFC 2020

[seafoid]

Very interesting insight from Kevin McStay in the Irish times

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/kevin-mcstay-croke-park-still-a-huge-advantage-to-dublin-1.4410744
Now, Mayo are terrific at generating those dispossessions through work rate and athleticism. But my feeling is they are still not accurate enough in front of goal. It is Mayo's Achilles heel. Against Galway, Mayo had 38 attacks and 29 shots and only 14 scores. That is a 48 percent conversion rate. So every time they shoot a score, they will, on average, miss on their next. Profligate shooting is a very old problem in Mayo's football tradition. It is time to figure out why that is.
My theory is that in Mayo we don't respect possession enough. Why? Because a lot of Mayo teams are populated by centre fielders - big strong, men who are raised in the belief that they can and will win the next ball. It leads to the notion among the forwards that: ah, we can get another chance easily enough.
Go back to Willie Joe Padden or Liam McHale and TJ Kilgallon and you get a picture of the proto-type Mayo midfielder: born ball-winners who will serve up a feast of possession for their forwards.
But that is a dangerous notion in the modern game. Because you won't get the ball back on the kick out. Galway illustrated that for Mayo on Sunday

[Hound]

Very interesting insight from Kevin McStay in the Irish times

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/kevin-mcstay-croke-park-still-a-huge-advantage-to-dublin-1.4410744
Now, Mayo are terrific at generating those dispossessions through work rate and athleticism. But my feeling is they are still not accurate enough in front of goal. It is Mayo's Achilles heel. Against Galway, Mayo had 38 attacks and 29 shots and only 14 scores. That is a 48 percent conversion rate. So every time they shoot a score, they will, on average, miss on their next. Profligate shooting is a very old problem in Mayo's football tradition. It is time to figure out why that is.
My theory is that in Mayo we don't respect possession enough. Why? Because a lot of Mayo teams are populated by centre fielders - big strong, men who are raised in the belief that they can and will win the next ball. It leads to the notion among the forwards that: ah, we can get another chance easily enough.
Go back to Willie Joe Padden or Liam McHale and TJ Kilgallon and you get a picture of the proto-type Mayo midfielder: born ball-winners who will serve up a feast of possession for their forwards.
But that is a dangerous notion in the modern game. Because you won't get the ball back on the kick out. Galway illustrated that for Mayo on Sunday

Interesting insight?!!

More like a load of nonsense.

Mayo forwards would better at taking points if their midfield was shite 

"Let's pick a couple of useless lads in the middle, so the forwards won't get the notion that they don't have kick the ball over the bar"   

[SouthDublinBro]

Mayo pundits are genuinely the worst in the land.

[larryin89]

Don't be worrying about little old mayo,  I've never in my life seen people get worked up as much about anything as dubs do about mayo , honestly all over the aul internetz you'll find it,  forums,blogs ,social media , yer friggin obsessed . I wish ye would find another interest I find it quite disturbing tbh , enjoy your wonderful team and all its success which looks like continuing for the next 100 years.

[mouview]

2013 was mayo's best chance of winning an all ireland in the last decade, in my opinion. they were the best team in the country that year and horan cost them on the line.

rochford was shrewd though and got match ups very good.

2014 by far. Patently the better team than Kerry; should have beaten them the first day only for they neglected to mark Star. Again in the replay, everything that could go wrong did. Players colliding and taking themselves out of it. Ref giving everything to Kerry. Not letting Hennelly take long distance kicks, 45s just falling short, all as far as I can remember. They would have roared through Donegal in the final IMHO.

[Angelo]

2013 was mayo's best chance of winning an all ireland in the last decade, in my opinion. they were the best team in the country that year and horan cost them on the line.

rochford was shrewd though and got match ups very good.

2014 by far. Patently the better team than Kerry; should have beaten them the first day only for they neglected to mark Star. Again in the replay, everything that could go wrong did. Players colliding and taking themselves out of it. Ref giving everything to Kerry. Not letting Hennelly take long distance kicks, 45s just falling short, all as far as I can remember. They would have roared through Donegal in the final IMHO.

Donegal v Mayo in 2014 would have been a very interesting one.

I think Donegal suffered in the final going in as favourites. I don't know whether it was complacency that the AI was won after beating Dublin, Kerry's cynicism or whether they their training too hard in the build up but their performance was just so flat and leggy on the day.

Mayo were clearly the better team both days against Kerry but contrived to lose it through a combination of wastefulness, jitters and terrible refereeing calls.

But I think the dynamic changes massively if Mayo win that game. Mayo absolutely trounced Donegal the year before, the scoreline didn't given a fair reflection on how much better they were over Kerry. So in that dynamic Mayo probably come in as favourties? Maybe Donegal are still favourites because they beat Dublin. Whatever way I think it's a much more evenly perceived final than it was with Kerry - Donegal were strong favourites for that and I think it weighed on them. Mayo have played so many All Ireland finals in the past 20-30 years but have they ever been outright favourites for one? In the majority of them they would have been underdogs and significantly so.

I would have fancied Donegal myself in that regard. I think they were really motoring that year. Ryan McHugh and MacNiallais had really exploded onto the scene that year and reenergised Donegal.

[Never beat the deeler]

Don't be worrying about little old mayo,  I've never in my life seen people get worked up as much about anything as dubs do about mayo , honestly all over the aul internetz you'll find it,  forums,blogs ,social media , yer friggin obsessed . I wish ye would find another interest I find it quite disturbing tbh , enjoy your wonderful team and all its success which looks like continuing for the next 100 years.

Wouldn't worry about it. Poster above your post has 15 posts in 2020, 9 of which are about Mayo and 1 about Dublin!

[Lar Naparka]

Don't be worrying about little old mayo,  I've never in my life seen people get worked up as much about anything as dubs do about mayo , honestly all over the aul internetz you'll find it,  forums,blogs ,social media , yer friggin obsessed . I wish ye would find another interest I find it quite disturbing tbh , enjoy your wonderful team and all its success which looks like continuing for the next 100 years.

Wouldn't worry about it. Poster above your post has 15 posts in 2020, 9 of which are about Mayo and 1 about Dublin!

Bedad, you must be having one real sloooow day if you can bother your posterior to take note of anything that laitcheko has to say. 

[highorlow]

I've never in my life seen people get worked up as much about anything as dubs do about mayo ,

It's because they are afraid of us this year, especially with Kerry gone. They wouldn't have minded losing to Kerry.

This year with no home crowd to urge them on and with Croker effectively neutral will be a truer reflection of how good Dublin are.

Unless and until they win the AI this year all the others will have a * beside them due to home advantage, biased media coverage, biased "game days", biased on field half time interviews, the "Artane" band, the hill, the king of the hill etc....

[Maroon Manc]

Just seen some of the stats from the match, Mayo scored 0-11 out of their 14 points from Galway turnovers although the majority of them were Galway giving it away under no pressure whilst Galway only scored 0-4 points from Mayo's turnovers. I can't remember a close match with this stat so different, shows how bad Galway were during that 1st half in possession and also how naive they were. Horan and Mayo often get labelled with naivety but its clear they were more the streetwise team. Galway did the more difficult part of winning primary possession against the wind and mostly in good positions in the middle of the pitch.

[From the Bunker]

2013 was mayo's best chance of winning an all ireland in the last decade, in my opinion. they were the best team in the country that year and horan cost them on the line.

rochford was shrewd though and got match ups very good.

Was 2013 the year where Dublin played the last 6/7 minutes with effectively 13 men? Think they had used all the subs and O'Carroll had probably been concussed and O'Gara was limping about with a torn hamstring?

That was 2013 alright and that was Dublin's most comfortable All Ireland final against Mayo. Went down to 14 with 20 min left and O'Gara tore his hamstring and couldn't move from corner forward. Rory O'Carroll then got concussed and played the last 10 minutes with 13 fit players on the pitch. Paul Flynn had to play FB when ROC got injured. That was the only reason Mayo got back to within a point that day and even then it was a free from the last kick of the game to bring the gap down to a point

Yes, it just goes to show you how far ahead Dublin really are/were. I'd say there will never be a team as good as them again. But the present team are as good if not better. And the next team will be as good.