Mayo V Kerry semi final

[squire_in_navy_slacks]

The young legs of Mayo to win this one and have a good crack at sam too........................kerrys forward line is hardcore, however midfield and defense isnt that awe inspiring, mayo to run them ragged and show them no respect

[squire_in_navy_slacks]

"I have a figure in my head of what I want to get up to in terms of medals. I'm not there yet. It is no good having twos and threes and fours in Kerry because there's players with a lot more than you"

Kerry Darren OSullivan.................http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2011/0816/osullivand_kerry.html

[Lar Naparka]

The routine never changes. All of them will trot out onto the pitch come Sunday evening without a bother on them.
I suspect James is doing a Jack O'Connor and playing him at his own game.

Ah Jaysus Lar, do you really think Horan would bother his arse engaging in that kind of shite? That he'd not play Trevor in an A v B game one week before the game to try to hoodwink O'Connor? Trevor is an injury doubt and is touch and go. From what I've heard O Se did pull up but there's no tear and, with plenty of physio this week, will play. It is too small a world to be inventing fake injuries.

I'd sincerely hope that he would and right now I'm praying that he is. The alternative is something I'd prefer not to think about.
Sound man, James; I always thought he was the best man for the manager's by a country mile and he hasn't put a foot wrong so far.
Now, it's quite possible that Trevor picked up an injury. If he did, I'd expect the Mayo camp to take no chances whatsoever and not risk him in a training match. Word goes out and the "O woe is us" brigade spring into action.
If you notice, I never said his injury was faked but it's natural to expect that reports of it are greatly exaggerated. Same probably holds true for Jack O'Connor and his team.
However, it seems to me that more miracles take place in the Kerry dressing room before every big game than you'd find in Knock, Fatima and Lourdes in a decade.
Never fear; Ó Sé will turn out and will be leppin' about like a young colt until old age beckons and he is well and truly horsed.
I'd have expected at least a half dozen injury scares from the Kerry camp by now and I would be expecting each and every one of them to right itself before the team comes down the tunnel. I'm sure none of them are deliberately faked and I'm equally sure all of them will have cleared up before the ball is thrown in.
Me mates, Mad Mike and Kerry Martin, down in my favourite place of worship, are having none of it and neither am I.
I will accept that Trevor's injury is serious when James Horan says it is and I won't be holding my breath for that. I've told the gruesome twosome that I'll go by the bookies odds before throw in and I'll be asking them to but their money where their big, fat mouths are.
Them and their effin' Mexican wave routine! I'll sicken the pair of them cute hoors.

[IolarCoisCuain]

Interview with James Horan in the Irish Times today: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/0816/1224302523793.html



'We sat down and plotted out a few things we would like to achieve - so far so good'

Tue, Aug 16, 2011

GAELIC GAMES: KEITH DUGGAN talks to Mayo manager James Horan who has quietly assembled an unhyped team that thrives on the collective

IF THERE is something different about Mayo this year, then the starting point of that change has to be their manager.

For the first time in living memory, Mayo have made it to the last four of the All-Ireland with little of the fanfare that signalled their other ill-fated runs. The Ballintubber man is calm and low-key and it is as though the entire county has taken its cue from his bearing.

As one of the most dashing player on the Mayo team of the mid-1990s, Horan has plenty of first hand experience of how the county football team can energise and excite the county.

But on a dark night at the stadium in Castlebar, it was easy to believe Horan when he predicted that the mood would be different as they prepared for Kerry. After they sent the All-Ireland champions Cork out of the championship with ease, Mayo just resumed their routine.

"It hasn't been difficult. We had club games on the Sunday afterwards and with the knocks and bangs, it was back to normal. Back at it and back training.

"I don't think that (surge in expectation) will happen this year. Mayo people are very realistic this year. But that is the general public point of view. We will just keep doing what we have been doing: keep our heads down and train hard. And we are looking forward to the game."

In 1996, Horan played on a Mayo team that raised eyebrows by leaving Kerry cold in the All-Ireland semi-final. They went on to participate in the most controversial All-Ireland final in living memory against Meath, when literally a bounce of the ball denied the county its first title since 1951.

Horan had finished up playing when Kerry made ribbons of Mayo teams in the 2004 and 2006 All-Ireland finals and wasn't particularly impressed by the idea that Kerry might have some kind of hold on Mayo teams.

"Kerry have a psychological hold on a lot of teams I suppose. But no, not particularly. You can link and trend anything if you want to go that route. But this team are just keeping it fairly simple, we will play the game and won't be looking or listening to what is happening outside that."

Horan's success with Ballintubber made him the smartest choice to succeed John O'Mahony but because Mayo is such a high-profile county, there was always a chance that the county board would be drawn to a flashy resumé from elsewhere.

Horan wasted little time in chiselling out the kind of team and attitude he felt would take Mayo places. If their league form was neurotic – they occasionally became caught up in those crazy unpredictable shootouts that seemed to underline the flamboyant and open house nature of Mayo football – their overall attitude was beginning to change.

They became meaner defensively. Aidan O'Shea was transformed from a mercurial full forward with a stellar minor career into an old-fashioned midfielder. Trevor Mortimer came back to add experience and cunning to the defensive unit.

Horan had the courage to pick a teenage free-taker, Cillian O'Connor, whose poise in the rain-storm of the Connacht final was magnificent. Against Cork, O'Connor was again immaculate. The collective works like a demon and they have fast developed the reputation for being the meanest second-half team in the country.

"We have done very well. It is not something we consciously planned. Maybe the weather conditions had a hand in it. We will certainly need to start well. History shows that if you don't start well against Kerry it can be over very quickly so we need to start when the ball is thrown in.

"We looked to address fitness and strength and condition – maybe that wouldn't have been high on the agenda of Mayo teams down the years. If you look at the Cork game we only played well for 50 minutes really."

Mayo's second half performance was so full of conviction that it is easy to forget those jittery opening minutes. The thought must have crossed many Mayo minds that another sledging was on the cards. Their recovery from that unpromising opening was methodical and impressive and completely confounded general expectations.

It was refreshing that Horan didn't go down the-everybody-wrote-us-off road after the match – but then he has always been gloriously indifferent to general and critical opinion. The same is true now; once again, Mayo will face Kerry as outsiders.

"It doesn't bother me," he shrugs. "Sometimes that stuff can certainly help focus a team. It didn't do us any harm leading up to the Cork game. It took a while to know where we were and where we could go but after a few league games we sat down and plotted out a few things we would like to achieve – so far so good.

"Cork was a big milestone. And now we are looking at being as competitive as we can be in Croke Park for as long as we can."

When Kerry played Mayo in Castlebar this spring, Jack O'Connor unveiled Eoin Brosnan as his new centre-back and the visitors won an even contest with a late surge. "Our league form was mixed. But what you can take is that Darran O'Sullivan played well and got a penalty against us so he is very dangerous and obviously we need to watch him . . . It was a game we should have won. But Kerry showed again that when they get an opportunity . . ."

Those are qualities that will always stand to Kerry. But this year, they face a Mayo team with new tricks of their own.

© 2011 The Irish Times

[seafoid]

Am convinced that Mayo will win this one. Jist have this hunch gnawing away in my head that despite Kerry having the best players in the land that (like Tyrone), they haven't learnt the lessons of 2010.

As for their "injuries", please lads don't even bother commenting on them,  pure yerraism, they will all be like spring lambs next Sunday.

I am going to call it for Mayo.

Me too. They appear to be serious workers and very organised, no rábáil football .


If I was James Horan I would read this article to the players before every training session


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/0622/1224299383646.html

GAA : No Connacht county will win the All-Ireland title this year and, in fact, they don't look anyway close to winning one. That's what makes their provincial championship so valuable, writes Dara o Se.

They're (Mayo) football-mad and you always got the feeling that if they could harness it, you'd be in trouble.

What a patronising twat.

[Jinxy]

Will Mayo bring a big crowd for this?
What's the vibe around the place?

[AbbeySider]

Will Mayo bring a big crowd for this?
What's the vibe around the place?

I would expect a big Mayo crowd. Wouldnt be surprised to see over the 30,000 mark.
The majority of people are cautiously optimistic or quietly confident.

I have not heard anyone say hands down that Mayo will beat Kerry, but at the same time there is hope we can.

[kevmy]

Will Mayo bring a big crowd for this?
What's the vibe around the place?

I'd say there'll be a decent crowd from Mayo. Maybe not matching previous years but a lot of supporters would have regretted not going to the Cork game might show up for this one. I'd be expecting a crowd of between 35k and 45k, with 50k the absolute max.

[AZOffaly]

Am convinced that Mayo will win this one. Jist have this hunch gnawing away in my head that despite Kerry having the best players in the land that (like Tyrone), they haven't learnt the lessons of 2010.

As for their "injuries", please lads don't even bother commenting on them,  pure yerraism, they will all be like spring lambs next Sunday.

I am going to call it for Mayo.

You were also convinced that Waterford would beat Kilkenny

[Canalman]

Am convinced that Mayo will win this one. Jist have this hunch gnawing away in my head that despite Kerry having the best players in the land that (like Tyrone), they haven't learnt the lessons of 2010.

As for their "injuries", please lads don't even bother commenting on them,  pure yerraism, they will all be like spring lambs next Sunday.

I am going to call it for Mayo.

You were also convinced that Waterford would beat Kilkenny

Indeed I was AZ. Got that one wrong, very wrong.

[AZOffaly]

I'm only slagging. I get a fair few badly wrong myself

[Jinxy]

Will Mayo bring a big crowd for this?
What's the vibe around the place?

I would expect a big Mayo crowd. Wouldnt be surprised to see over the 30,000 mark.
The majority of people are cautiously optimistic or quietly confident.

I have not heard anyone say hands down that Mayo will beat Kerry, but at the same time there is hope we can.

And the rest? 

[HowAreYeGettinOn]

Will Mayo bring a big crowd for this?
What's the vibe around the place?

I would expect a big Mayo crowd. Wouldnt be surprised to see over the 30,000 mark.
The majority of people are cautiously optimistic or quietly confident.

I have not heard anyone say hands down that Mayo will beat Kerry, but at the same time there is hope we can.

And the rest? 

Morbidly depressed at the prospect of another merciless pummeling a la '04/'06 

Seriously - was down in Mayo at the weekend and I heard very little about the game. And what I did hear was more realistic than optimistic. The people I spoke to are not expecting a win : they just want the team to stand up and compete as hard as they can for as long as they can (nobody wants another lie-down-and-die "performance" like we had in those two finals).

And if Mayo can do that on Sunday, and if Horan can ingrain that culture into Mayo football teams, then as a football county we really will be going places.

I think Sunday will be a hurdle too high - this is a Kerry team that reached 6 successive AI finals before last year - but let's see how close a hard-hitting, hard-working Mayo can run them. I'll be there to shout them on anyway - here's hoping we get several rubs of the green!

[Farrandeelin]

That's exactly the sentiment HowAreYegattinon. The same ones I have anyway. It's going to be a battle from first whistle till last, but by God Horan has some battling qualities engrained in the team. The one Kerry player I would be more worried about more than any of the rest of them is Declan O'Sullivan. Everything goes through him. What we need is someone to frustrate this fella, but as he is in the backs running forward when Kerry have the ball and the forwards running back when they don't it will be interesting to see who will pick him up, or if anyone might give him a clatter on one of his runs! Kerry's midfield still haven't been properly tested I think, but by God this Sunday they will. (Or at least I hope they will!) I for one am not thinking Mayo are going to win handily obviously, but Kerry IF they are to win it will be put to the pin of their collars ala Tipp the last day.

[IolarCoisCuain]

There'll be a small Mayo crowd as part of the no hype campaign. It's all part of a carefully worked out strategy within the county to not run away with ourselves.




























Come on Mayo - tear the holes off them! Gwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnn!