Maigh Eo v Dun na nGall, Pairc Mhic Eil, 5ú Aibrean @ 1500

[larryin89]

This is totally off-topic but as the previous post referenced the 2013 minor side...
Was Liam Irwin injured this year or what was the reason for him not featuring for the u21s?
None of the 2013 minor forwards played u21 this year I think

As far as I've heard Irwin has gone backwards, I don't know what the story is with the docherty lad and T Conroy has had to deal with personal family tragedy.

The academy thing in Mayo was questioned by someone at a county board meeting recently , it was in the Mayo news last week and mick Connelly s response was " I think it's still on the go but I'll have to look into it a bit more" I kid you Fuc king not " I think " . Can't believe more hasn't been made of his response to the question.

[moysider]

Noticed that remark by Connelly alright. Strange to say the least.

I suppose now for Mayos it s going to be quiet for a while. We ll have to just wait and see who makes the championship panel and hope everybody gets fit and well for the trip to Salthill.

The minors seem to be getting their shit together this year Larry

[maigheo]

Going back to the 2013 minor team I would only expect  Coen,Conor loftus and O Connor  to graduate to the senior ranks.Funny enough the 2005 minor team that got hammered by Down in the all ireland final has given our senior team the most players with Caff,Cunnife,Barrett,O shea and Parsons all representing our senior team and of course  the most talented of them all is playing in Australia.

[Chimley]

This is totally off-topic but as the previous post referenced the 2013 minor side...
Was Liam Irwin injured this year or what was the reason for him not featuring for the u21s?
None of the 2013 minor forwards played u21 this year I think

As far as I've heard Irwin has gone backwards, I don't know what the story is with the docherty lad and T Conroy has had to deal with personal family tragedy.

The academy thing in Mayo was questioned by someone at a county board meeting recently , it was in the Mayo news last week and mick Connelly s response was " I think it's still on the go but I'll have to look into it a bit more" I kid you Fuc king not " I think " . Can't believe more hasn't been made of his response to the question.

There's our problem in a nutshell. We produce minor teams on a par with the best before our county structures f*ck them up. It's criminal the amount of potential that we let go between minor and senior.
We consistently produce free-scoring talented minor teams 2010, 2013, 2014 all good recent examples, but once we come to U21 level, we are left behind. On this and other threads we lament our lack of natural scoring forwards but that flies in face of the evidence. Our natural talent is fine. Our development model must be seriously flawed.

[macdanger2]

Poor enough from Mayo on Sunday, we seemed completely clueless once we hit the Donegal 45 and far too often, we slowed down our attacks by turning around to handpass the ball backwards. If we're playing against a packed defence, the ball needs to move quickly before the opposition filter back. None of our forwards (or any forward on the day bar McBrearty) showed enough guile to create space for himself when under pressure and out from maybe COC, I don't think any of ours are good enough to do so when surrounded like that.

We dominated midfield for most of the game and yet only had 24 scoring chances. Conroy might have been at fault for 4-5 wides but at least he took the responsibility on when he was in a decent position and on another day he'll score more of those. A lot of other players in decent positions were unwilling to take the risk.

Good points:
Barry was outstanding at MF although not sure how many teams will allow him that much freedom.
McLoughlin's tackling back was unreal, Richie McCaw would have been proud of the amount of "turnovers" he won. Only mistake in the game was that missed free.
Kirby's pass for McLoughlin's point in the first half was class I thought, quickly changing the point of the attack like that is one way to beat the blanket
Vaughan & Seamie were very good and Keegan was better than he has been, hopefully he can get back to the levels he was at in 2013.

Bad points:
I thought Aidan / Kirby were wasted in at FF with the way we were setup – no point in having a big man in there on his own, there needs to be at least one man playing off him. Not that it mattered with the balls we were playing in, on at least three occasions in the first half there was either low balls sent in or a ball into the corner. If we're to persist with that tactic, we need to learn how to do it properly.
Some of the blatant dragging people down in the last minutes, you need to at least make some effort to tackle the man.
I can't remember us creating a single goal chance
Not getting on a replacement for DO'C immediately – Hall came on after the last point had been scored.

I thought the ref was poor enough in patches – at times he gave frees for little or no reason. For example, midway through the 2nd half, McLoughlin was tackling the Donegal corner back and had him under pressure when he gave a free out. Then Donegal went up the other end, McFadden went on a good run and lost it to Vaughan who then got a free out for very little. On the black cards, a couple of players should have been black-carded well before McFadden finally went. At the very least, Thompson (deliberate body collide), McGlynn (deliberate pull down), AOS (deliberate pull down) and Higgins (deliberate body collide) all should have went.

All in all, not a great league campaign but the aim at the start would have been to stay up (achieved) and uncover one or two new starters – have we done this? Maybe one or two but nothing that you'd say improves us vastly from the last couple of years. A lot of work to be done between now and June 14th v Leitrim / Galway.

[macdanger2]

macdanger started the Dublin and Cork threads. If we lose this, we know who to blame

Too true,too true.And he took job himself inspite of the fact there were many other candidates,accordin to some much more qualified and experiened for the position.We are watchin! "Judges"?

I won't be starting any more Mayo threads 

[moysider]

The thing is macdanger that a black card cant be replaced until next break in play. That is why our endgame was pure kamikaze stuff. We panicked and took cards when we had loads behind the ball - no need.

2 in a row for O Connor. Took one in U21 when we could not afford to lose him. He s young and will learn.

[macdanger2]

The thing is macdanger that a black card cant be replaced until next break in play. That is why our endgame was pure kamikaze stuff. We panicked and took cards when we had loads behind the ball - no need.

2 in a row for O Connor. Took one in U21 when we could not afford to lose him. He s young and will learn.

Didn't realise that you have to wait for a break in play, that explains that one anyway bit like you say makes pulling players down like that a questionable decision

[moysider]

The thing is macdanger that a black card cant be replaced until next break in play. That is why our endgame was pure kamikaze stuff. We panicked and took cards when we had loads behind the ball - no need.

2 in a row for O Connor. Took one in U21 when we could not afford to lose him. He s young and will learn.

Didn't realise that you have to wait for a break in play, that explains that one anyway bit like you say makes pulling players down like that a questionable decision

Taking a black card for the team is all very well in theory but there would be very few circumstances where it should be done imo. Maybe to prevent a goal chance if you re exposed. But goal v Cork and last weekend's late point were preventable with concentration v Cork and the same the last day - minus the panic. But the numbers were there and basically it was about doing what we had been doing well until then. Dropping numbers back, making them go over and back the field and forcing the turnover several times. Anyway in the final minutes we had the opportunities to close the game out. Great chances. After the Durcan miss the same player broke from deep again and tried to find Andy Moran. It looked a decent pass but Andy not up to the pace of it. He s only getting back and I hope I m badly mistaken but I fear Andy's legs may be shot at this level. Anyway we blew it in more ways than one. Positive is that they are things that can be easily fixed.

Back to black cards. Nobody should be taking one unless it s a last resort and players need to be coached when not to get a card rather than the other way around. There is no way Aidan should be taking a black but every game its touch and go with him. Oppositions will be conscious of drawing fouls off him so he needs to be ultra careful how he goes about a tackle/hit. Of course others seem to have open season to do whtever they want to him and not even a free - but that s the way it is for him.

[larryin89]

Rumours rumours rumours and it still over two months till Salthill.

[moysider]

Rumours, what rumours?

[Chimley]

Rumours rumours rumours and it still over two months till Salthill.

Spill the beans Larry! PM if you don't want to go public.