Connacht SFC 2020

[mouview]

What was Comer like pre covid Galway lads ? That ankle injury really messed up 2019 for him . Miles off the pace yesterday as expected , 3 weeks post significant hamstring injury.

He hasn't really had a run free from injury in probably 2 years now. The ankle injury was 2 years ago this Christmas. Was misdiagnosed and lingered for a year. Played some league football during the spring and was working his way back and got injured during the club championship I think. Wasn't due to play against Mayo in the league but they started him and he did his hamstring after 3 minutes. A pale shadow of himself at the moment but obviously a major weapon if they can get him fully fit and training regularly again as his ball work has really suffered with little football done.

Also, his body shape means he needs to be training. He can't get away with a smaller training load like some others guys could.
McDaid is the same. He missed almost the entire club season - only played their last relegation match.
I imagine that has had a part to play in his stuttering form.

For Comer to be at his best next summer he really needs to stay injury free for the next 6 months, between club and county McDaid probably hasn't played more than 20 games in the last 3 years. He needs an injury free run with a good run of games to start looking like the player he was before he went to Australia.

On a positive note Power should start all the league games and Galway can hopefully make proper inroads on kickouts.

Yes, until he makes a mistake and gets dropped for the next in-form man. That was a good save in the second half but I think he lucked it a bit with COC's first half shot, appeared to be half turning away from it. I think all our keepers are of a muchness

[Lar Naparka]

Will RTE focus on that bit of outright cynicism from Mayo....hmm.....

nice boys win nothing.

Absolutley....however Sean Cavanagh endured a terrible time over his drag down, when prevening a goal...manhood questioned, analysed to death on RTE etc, tons of media coverage

Just wondering if Mayo will get the same treatment...or if it's all ok as it's not a Tyrone player

Sean Cavanagh got the full nine years because of Joe Brolly's emotional reaction- nothing more or less. IIRC, no intercounty player came out to say he was critical of what SC had done.
IMO, that's perfectly understandable.
Players in Cavanagh'as or McLoughlin's position will react instinctively if they see the game slipping away from them. Unlike spectators they can't sit back on their arses and worry about what armchair warriors are thinking.

Yeah, they'll all do it, no matter which county it is, but is that the way it should be?

If someone is clean through and gets taken out, it should be a penalty in addition to a straight red (and all the extras that brings). The punishment should fit the crime instead of the current cop out. This "taking one for the team" bullshit might end.

Surely not a penalty if the offence is outside the box though ?
Happy enough to see McLaughlin scythe Kelly down personally , I remember Meehan scoring a goal into that end in Connacht 2009 final to level things up and had 2 of our lads had chance to take him down and went the honourable route instead .

Why not?

It might remove the urgency to just hack the player out of it just outside the box, instead of actually trying to close him off and get a tackle in.

Why not?
Because the devil is in the details.
What both SK and Eoin Mac did was clear enough. What they did could be classed as straightforward cynical foul, designed to prevent the opposition scoring and maybe the award of a penalty in such cases would be appropriate.
Go back to the '17 (?) final.. Dublin were awarded a 40 methre free in the closing minutes.. The stakes could not have been higher. Then Lee Keegan tried to put Dean Rock off as he went to take the free. Rock didn't miss but the tsunamii of shite that swept social media was hard to stomach.
In the same game, Con O'Callaghan ran in and booted the ball off the tee and into the crowd as David Clarke prepared to restart. Several other Dublin players began pulling and dragging the opposition players to prevent Mayo getting the ball downfield.
How many penalties should/ could have been given in the manic last 5 minutes?
THe purpose of all those acts of "unsporting" behaviouir was no different to what SK and Eion Mac did.
It was noticeable that neither Dublin or Mayo players and officials went public on the shenanigans in any form. Cynical fouling is part and parcel of the modern game and whale scything a player down as he bears down on goal can be penalised easily enough, it's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

[moysider]

Will RTE focus on that bit of outright cynicism from Mayo....hmm.....

nice boys win nothing.

Absolutley....however Sean Cavanagh endured a terrible time over his drag down, when prevening a goal...manhood questioned, analysed to death on RTE etc, tons of media coverage

Just wondering if Mayo will get the same treatment...or if it's all ok as it's not a Tyrone player

Sean Cavanagh got the full nine years because of Joe Brolly's emotional reaction- nothing more or less. IIRC, no intercounty player came out to say he was critical of what SC had done.
IMO, that's perfectly understandable.
Players in Cavanagh'as or McLoughlin's position will react instinctively if they see the game slipping away from them. Unlike spectators they can't sit back on their arses and worry about what armchair warriors are thinking.

Yeah, they'll all do it, no matter which county it is, but is that the way it should be?

If someone is clean through and gets taken out, it should be a penalty in addition to a straight red (and all the extras that brings). The punishment should fit the crime instead of the current cop out. This "taking one for the team" bullshit might end.

Surely not a penalty if the offence is outside the box though ?
Happy enough to see McLaughlin scythe Kelly down personally , I remember Meehan scoring a goal into that end in Connacht 2009 final to level things up and had 2 of our lads had chance to take him down and went the honourable route instead .

Why not?

It might remove the urgency to just hack the player out of it just outside the box, instead of actually trying to close him off and get a tackle in.

Why not?
Because the devil is in the details.
What both SK and Eoin Mac did was clear enough. What they did could be classed as straightforward cynical foul, designed to prevent the opposition scoring and maybe the award of a penalty in such cases would be appropriate.
Go back to the '17 (?) final.. Dublin were awarded a 40 methre free in the closing minutes.. The stakes could not have been higher. Then Lee Keegan tried to put Dean Rock off as he went to take the free. Rock didn't miss but the tsunamii of shite that swept social media was hard to stomach.
In the same game, Con O'Callaghan ran in and booted the ball off the tee and into the crowd as David Clarke prepared to restart. Several other Dublin players began pulling and dragging the opposition players to prevent Mayo getting the ball downfield.
How many penalties should/ could have been given in the manic last 5 minutes?
THe purpose of all those acts of "unsporting" behaviouir was no different to what SK and Eion Mac did.
It was noticeable that neither Dublin or Mayo players and officials went public on the shenanigans in any form. Cynical fouling is part and parcel of the modern game and whale scything a player down as he bears down on goal can be penalised easily enough, it's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

It's all so true Lar. I was fit to be tied watching Mayo trying to lose that game the last day - but of course they weren't trying to lose it. I gave myself a good talking to and came to my senses. We would have been over the moon about any type of Connacht win back in the lean days.
I would look at the McLaughlin foul maybe a bit differently than most. My take is thank God he was on pitch and the pace to get there. Like Stephen Coen could never get there.
There's a lot of stuff out there about Joyce and sour grapes. He's entitled to be bitter. Galway had a great opportunity there. He's not correct about all the ref. decisions but I can understand why he is sour.
For me, the closeness of the game was down to Mayo not being clinical and at it. That's not Joyce's concern and he is entitled to be devastated. For all Walsh's brilliance, Joyce will have expected him to manage that end game better too. I think, deep down, that really annoys him.

[SouthDublinBro]

Surprisingly some still underrate Horan. I always wonder where would Mayo have gone and where would they be now if he didn't take over in 2011 and return after the Newbridge or no where match.

They came closer to winning the AI with Rochford in charge. None of Horan's teams ever looked likely to go the distance to me.

[Blowitupref]

Surprisingly some still underrate Horan. I always wonder where would Mayo have gone and where would they be now if he didn't take over in 2011 and return after the Newbridge or no where match.

They came closer to winning the AI with Rochford in charge. None of Horan's teams ever looked likely to go the distance to me.

Mayo was at their most consistent in 2013/14 under Horan and arguably would have won the 2014 AI if they had got over Kerry.

Rochford took over a side built by Horan with few and any new players introduced to the panel, he couldn't win a Connacht title and was lucky to win a number of qualifier games, his final game was a championship knock out by Kildare, the earliest Mayo had made their exit from the championship since 2010.

[SouthDublinBro]

Those are some nice cherry-picked statistics. All I'm saying is that from a Dublin perspective, Rochford's Mayo came far closer to upsetting our apple cart than Horan's did. You can't refute that.

[Blowitupref]

Those are some nice cherry-picked statistics. All I'm saying is that from a Dublin perspective, Rochford's Mayo came far closer to upsetting our apple cart than Horan's did. You can't refute that.

Also can't refute the fact that Mayo are where they are right now and may never have got to the level they got 2011 to 2017 without the groundwork under Horan whom in his own words made them consistency competitive.

[WhoDat]

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.

[larryin89]

honestly i felt walsh was the motm. he had a bit of a nightmare with the frees at the end, but i felt he otherwise had a great game. he is the stand out quality footballer on that galway team in my opinion.

on the ref, the ridiculous call of the day was giving a yellow to durcan for a totally fair shoulder. i swear to god, tough fair shoulders are part of the game. if the fella falls on the ground, then he falls on the ground. that doesn't make it a foul.

You do have to have at least one foot on ground for it to be a fair shoulder. Definitely looks like both feet off ground. Maybe not a yellow, but a free.

One foot was on the ground and both going for the ball , fair shoulder per rule book

[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.

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?

[Captain Obvious]

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.

2016 drawn All-Ireland final was IMO. Dublin produced probably their worst ever performance in a final scoring only 0-9, 0-6 from play.

[dublin7]

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

[Maroon Manc]

honestly i felt walsh was the motm. he had a bit of a nightmare with the frees at the end, but i felt he otherwise had a great game. he is the stand out quality footballer on that galway team in my opinion.

on the ref, the ridiculous call of the day was giving a yellow to durcan for a totally fair shoulder. i swear to god, tough fair shoulders are part of the game. if the fella falls on the ground, then he falls on the ground. that doesn't make it a foul.

You do have to have at least one foot on ground for it to be a fair shoulder. Definitely looks like both feet off ground. Maybe not a yellow, but a free.

One foot was on the ground and both going for the ball , fair shoulder per rule book

O'Donnell wasn't in possession of the ball which makes it a foul in this instance. The only way you can shoulder an opponent without the ball is when there both moving in the direction of the ball to play it.

[Eire90]

Why did your guy score a point at the end should have went for goal you see that a lot in gaa players scared to go for goal when the really need one.

[Rossfan]

Should have GONE ffs!!!