Mayo V Laois Challenge

[rosnarun]

you have to play the hand your dealt . and almost all mayo's best forwards are smallish  they have to play to that. Better to have a ready made replacement and the lad  has class written all over him. you could makes a decent team from all the forward  hastliy dumped in recent years . Conroy,regan ,casey,durcan, costello,benson. and others that got even less time. i thought Durcan in particular had a lot more to give.
wonder if moran still considered a possible full forward?

[Tubberman]

Sean Rice gives his report in The Mayo News. He makes it a one point win for Mayo, not that it particularly matters

Mortimer hits spot for Mayo

Senior Challenge
Mayo    3-9
Laois    1-14

Sean Rice
Ballyhaunis

CONOR Mortimer rescued Mayo from the jaws of defeat with a goal from a penalty three minutes from the end of this tough, hard-hitting challenge yesterday (Monday) afternoon. The game marked the official opening of the revamped Ballyhaunis grounds, which was performed by the new Director-General of the GAA, Páraic Duffy.
The visitors fielded nearly a full-strength side. But Mayo were without a number of league regulars, including Andy Moran, Austin O'Malley, James Gill and Trevor Howley. It was a good workout – tough, free-flowing football in summer conditions. But there was a bite to it too.
Laois started strongly and midfielder Brendan Quigley drew a splendid save from David Clarke. But Mayo opened the scoring with a fine point from an acute angle by Conor Mortimer before Michael Tierney, Laois's accurate free-taker, fired over the equaliser. In the eighth minute, Mayo had the first of their two goals when Mark Ronaldson grabbed a centre by Trevor Mortimer and made no mistake with his blistering shot.
Laois had dominated the midfield exchanges, where Quigley and John O'Loughlin were too strong for Ronan McGarrity and Seamus O'Shea. But the vigilance of Colm Boyle, David Heaney and Pat Kelly nullified that advantage.
Laois came more into the game, and points by Ross Munnelly and Tierney left two between them. Then Conor Mortimer swapped points with Tom Kelly and Colm Parkinson. Just a minute before half time, Aidan Kilcoyne compensated for two bad misses from frees when, having been put through by Trevor Mortimer, he finished sweetly to the net. By half time, Mayo led by 2-5 to 0-7.
Laois started the second half with more hunger, and gradually, their clever wing play produced a string of points by Colm Kelly and Tierney.
Mayo substitute Tom Parsons, now accompanied by Pat Harte, brought considerable improvement to midfield. But when Colm Kelly shot Laois into the lead for the first time in the 49th minute, it looked as if Mayo had shot their bolt.
Five minutes later, the visitors appeared to be well on their way to victory when a brilliant move involving Brian McCormack, Peter O'Leary and Colm Kelly was finished to the net by Colm Parkinson.
Mayo had the help of a slight wind in the second half, but Laois had certainly gained control, and were it not for a couple of timely interventions by David Clarke and solid defending by David Heaney, Colm Boyle (who played himself almost to a standstill in the first half) and Aidan Higgins, they would have carved out a few more scores.
No one worked harder in the final quarter than Trevor Mortimer, who maintained his first half momentum, and Mayo's recovery was due in the main to the Trojan effort he put in. Aidan Campbell didn't spare himself, and Mark Ronaldson troubled the Laois defence with his strong running.
Aidan Kilcoyne grabbed Mayo's second point of the half in the 60th minute, but Laois were ahead by three when Kilcoyne was fouled in the large parallelogram. Conor Mortimer's penalty, was tucked nicely into the corner, and with almost the last kick of the game, Mickey Mullins fired over the winner.
Mayo travel to Dunderry to play Meath next Sunday.

MAYO
D Clarke; A Higgins, K Conroy, J Nallen; P Kelly, D Heaney, C Boyle; R McGarrity, S O'Shea; A Campbell (0-2), P Harte, T Mortimer (0-1); C Mortimer (1-3), A Kilcoyne (1-2), M Ronaldson (1-0).
Subs used: K Higgins for Kelly; T Parsons for McGarrity; M Mullins (0-1) for O'Shea.

LAOIS 
M Nolan; C Healy, P O'Leary, J Higgins; T Kelly (0-1), D Rooney, P McMahon; B Quigley (0-1), J O'Loughlin; B Sheehan, B McCormack, R Munnelly (0-1); M Tierney (0-5), Colm Kelly (St Joseph's, 0-2), C Parkinson (1-1).
Subs used: Colm Kelly (Stradbally) for Munnelly; P Lawlor for McCormack; K Meaney for Sheehan.

Referee: D Hunt (Roscommon)

[moysider]

you have to play the hand your dealt . and almost all mayo's best forwards are smallish  they have to play to that. Better to have a ready made replacement and the lad  has class written all over him. you could makes a decent team from all the forward  hastliy dumped in recent years . Conroy,regan ,casey,durcan, costello,benson. and others that got even less time. i thought Durcan in particular had a lot more to give.
wonder if moran still considered a possible full forward?

Good question. The answer appears to be 'not'. Was nt played there during the league and the brief appearance he did make was on the wing - which did nt last long.  Maybe he s been injured cause there was no sign of him last Sunday either, yet he played for Mitchels weekend. Looks like his deployment there last year was Hail Mary stuff but this year they believe a withdrawn full forward with 2 inside is the way to go - for now anyway. I ll put it this way. If Barry Moran is played this summmer as a full forward we re up s**t creek and on the rubber chicken qualifier circuit. I ve always thought Barry was going to be a Mayo midfielder for 10 years. Dont know whats goin on?  His club now playing him ff as well. We needed him to come through at this stage.

[RedandGreenSniper]

wonder if moran still considered a possible full forward?

Leaving Derry last July Barry Moran was one of the only bright lights (Pierce Hanley and Tom Cunniffe were too imo) and I was certain that he'd be continually deployed at full-forward.
Seems JOM thinks otherwise though. Maybe its simply a case that Moran was injured at the start of the league and Austie got in, did well and when Moran returned it was impossible to drop Austie. Certainly being replaced by Moran would do Austie's confidence no good at all I think.
Moysider is right, if we see Moran full-forward in the summer it will be a bit of a Hail Mary effort.
At midfield he has certainly been overtaken by both Parsons and O'Shea in the pecking order, bizarre for a fella who made his championship debut starting against Kerry in 2005, just in his first year out of minor

Maradona, you could be right re Nallen. I wasn't at the game. But it could be an interesting option. As I said, time will tell.