Saturday July 22 Cork v Mayo, Gaelic Grounds, 5PM

[mrhardyannual]

It is hard to argue other than that the changes made in the second half were disastrous. Obviously any manager would have wanted to spring Durcan but to introduce him for Barrett was poor thinking. Moments earlier Clarke had sallied forth from goal aiming to hand pass to Boyle.Boyle was obviously out on his feet as he waved Clarke away. Barrett was obviously still strong as he came back on in extra time. Caff was struggling but the game was over before Crowe was put in. Crowe must start against Ross. Like Tubberman I thought Caff might play himself into form but unfortunately it didn't happen. Coen to midfield was another error. Surely we can see that he lacks the pace and is only ever effective at chb. He was lost at midfield and gave away the ball for the last score in normal time. Up to these changes I thought it was our best performance since last August. Backs were aggressive, midfield was dominant, wingmen, Diarmuid and Doc were at their best, Aido was leading the line and some of the play from Andy and Cillian was top drawer.
Still, nothing lost. If we keep improving we'll take beating.

[AZOffaly]

I must look at it again to see what diarmuid o Connor did. You're the second person to say he played well but I thought he was offering very little.

[Il Bomber Destro]

A few observations on Saturday's match. To score 0-27 and win by one point shows where the real concern lies. Subs made by Rochford were mad. Barrett should never have been taken off. The players who replaced them were no better thsn those taken off. Whatever anyone else thinks, in my opinion subs should strengthen the team, not put undue pressure instead. Speaking of undue pressure, Caff must be under a serious amount. He was taken to the cleaners on Saturday. Maybe his injury has taken its toll on him. Donncha O'Connor 36 years of age and Kerrigan I think afterwards destroyed him. Enough negatives, but they need to be addressed.

As I already said to score 0-27. Amazing scoreline. Forwards were simply outstanding. Cillian had his best game in ages. Magnificent. Aiden O'Shea had another massive performance too. He did however fade slightly towards the end. McLoughlin wasn't as good as he was against Clare but didn't do much wtong. Although one poor pass to a Cork player stands out. Andy was brilliant too. I know I often doubt him but he rarely has a poor game. Doherty had a good game too. Bringing on Alan Dillon nearly cost us the match. Stupid free to a Cork player who afterwards went down and kicked a wide.

Keegan needs to stop the playacting off the ball. Another card given wway carelessly by a Mayo defender. Boland must be dropped from the panel as he played with Aghamore according to MWR; might have picked that info up wrong though.

Up Mayo

In fairness, the 27 points were got with an additional 20 minutes of action played. What had they scored at full time? 20 points?

[Blowitupref]

A few observations on Saturday's match. To score 0-27 and win by one point shows where the real concern lies. Subs made by Rochford were mad. Barrett should never have been taken off. The players who replaced them were no better thsn those taken off. Whatever anyone else thinks, in my opinion subs should strengthen the team, not put undue pressure instead. Speaking of undue pressure, Caff must be under a serious amount. He was taken to the cleaners on Saturday. Maybe his injury has taken its toll on him. Donncha O'Connor 36 years of age and Kerrigan I think afterwards destroyed him. Enough negatives, but they need to be addressed.

As I already said to score 0-27. Amazing scoreline. Forwards were simply outstanding. Cillian had his best game in ages. Magnificent. Aiden O'Shea had another massive performance too. He did however fade slightly towards the end. McLoughlin wasn't as good as he was against Clare but didn't do much wtong. Although one poor pass to a Cork player stands out. Andy was brilliant too. I know I often doubt him but he rarely has a poor game. Doherty had a good game too. Bringing on Alan Dillon nearly cost us the match. Stupid free to a Cork player who afterwards went down and kicked a wide.

Keegan needs to stop the playacting off the ball. Another card given wway carelessly by a Mayo defender. Boland must be dropped from the panel as he played with Aghamore according to MWR; might have picked that info up wrong though.

Up Mayo

In fairness, the 27 points were got with an additional 20 minutes of action played. What had they scored at full time? 20 points?

21 points in 70 mins. 0-6 to 0-5 the extra time score. Of the games Mayo played this summer, Sligo for long stages defended well against Mayo,Galway defended well against Mayo which is why they won, for 60 minutes Derry defended well until they couldn't give no more, take away the 2 two goals in two minutes Clare did ok in defence against Mayo but Cork who were wide open in the Munster final didn't seem to learn much as last Saturday they were fairly poor at defending throughout the 90 plus minutes.

[Fuzzman]

AZ, you sound like me after watching a game live in that you missed a whole lot of things. I thought Petey Harte didn't have a good Ulster final but when i watched it again on TV I completely changed my mind.
It's good to be at games cos you see things that you miss on TV but you get a better all round view of the game from tv coverage I feel.

I agree with mrhardyannual and Tomás O'Se on TSG in that Rochford nearly cost Mayo that game with his crazy changes in the second half. I don't know what to make of him as a manager as in one way I thought he got his tactics right against Tyrone and Dublin last year but then he tends to make some very rash decisions. I think maybe he thought Cork will play a very open game and so they were happy enough to do the same and for the neutral it was a very entertaining game of football.

I thought CoC had an excellent game and really looks a top notch all star forward these days. He looks to already have top scorer for the season wrapped up with 2.40 after 5 games and I'd say he fancies his chances getting to an AI semifinal. Conor McManus is the next player still in the championship with 2.17.

Aidan O'Shea looks to have reacted to his criticism and has upped his game this year and is playing much better as a team player.
Mayo have got back to the quarterfinal stage again, the long way and I think they are actually benefitting from getting momentum from the qualifiers. I think Roscommon will suffer from their lack of matches as they've only really had one decent game all season going into a big game in Croker. When was the last time they won a quarterfinal in Croker?

Fair play to Connacht for getting 3 of their teams into the quarterfinals though it looks like Mayo will have to beat Roscommon and Galway again to get to the final. 

[AZOffaly]

AZ, you sound like me after watching a game live in that you missed a whole lot of things. I thought Petey Harte didn't have a good Ulster final but when i watched it again on TV I completely changed my mind.
It's good to be at games cos you see things that you miss on TV but you get a better all round view of the game from tv coverage I feel.

I agree with mrhardyannual and Tomás O'Se on TSG in that Rochford nearly cost Mayo that game with his crazy changes in the second half. I don't know what to make of him as a manager as in one way I thought he got his tactics right against Tyrone and Dublin last year but then he tends to make some very rash decisions. I think maybe he thought Cork will play a very open game and so they were happy enough to do the same and for the neutral it was a very entertaining game of football.

I thought CoC had an excellent game and really looks a top notch all star forward these days. He looks to already have top scorer for the season wrapped up with 2.40 after 5 games and I'd say he fancies his chances getting to an AI semifinal. Conor McManus is the next player still in the championship with 2.17.

Aidan O'Shea looks to have reacted to his criticism and has upped his game this year and is playing much better as a team player.
Mayo have got back to the quarterfinal stage again, the long way and I think they are actually benefitting from getting momentum from the qualifiers. I think Roscommon will suffer from their lack of matches as they've only really had one decent game all season going into a big game in Croker. When was the last time they won a quarterfinal in Croker?

Fair play to Connacht for getting 3 of their teams into the quarterfinals though it looks like Mayo will have to beat Roscommon and Galway again to get to the final. 

To be honest I wouldn't feel I normally miss a lot of things. It's kind of important to be able to see stuff when you are coaching/managing I obviously have missed something with Diarmuid O'Connor though.  I much prefer watching a game live because you can see patterns and movement etc. You wouldn't see the hesitant inside line movement of Mayo if you weren't there for e.g.

[manfromdelmonte]

AZ, you sound like me after watching a game live in that you missed a whole lot of things. I thought Petey Harte didn't have a good Ulster final but when i watched it again on TV I completely changed my mind.
It's good to be at games cos you see things that you miss on TV but you get a better all round view of the game from tv coverage I feel.

I agree with mrhardyannual and Tomás O'Se on TSG in that Rochford nearly cost Mayo that game with his crazy changes in the second half. I don't know what to make of him as a manager as in one way I thought he got his tactics right against Tyrone and Dublin last year but then he tends to make some very rash decisions. I think maybe he thought Cork will play a very open game and so they were happy enough to do the same and for the neutral it was a very entertaining game of football.

I thought CoC had an excellent game and really looks a top notch all star forward these days. He looks to already have top scorer for the season wrapped up with 2.40 after 5 games and I'd say he fancies his chances getting to an AI semifinal. Conor McManus is the next player still in the championship with 2.17.

Aidan O'Shea looks to have reacted to his criticism and has upped his game this year and is playing much better as a team player.
Mayo have got back to the quarterfinal stage again, the long way and I think they are actually benefitting from getting momentum from the qualifiers. I think Roscommon will suffer from their lack of matches as they've only really had one decent game all season going into a big game in Croker. When was the last time they won a quarterfinal in Croker?

Fair play to Connacht for getting 3 of their teams into the quarterfinals though it looks like Mayo will have to beat Roscommon and Galway again to get to the final. 

To be honest I wouldn't feel I normally miss a lot of things. It's kind of important to be able to see stuff when you are coaching/managing I obviously have missed something with Diarmuid O'Connor though.  I much prefer watching a game live because you can see patterns and movement etc. You wouldn't see the hesitant inside line movement of Mayo if you weren't there for e.g.

fans, coaches and managers tend to focus in on stuff they did or liked doing when they played - defence, forward runs/scores
very hard to get out of that habit

[AZOffaly]

True I suppose that's why you have other lads with you with different eyes.

[rosnarun]

AZ, you sound like me after watching a game live in that you missed a whole lot of things. I thought Petey Harte didn't have a good Ulster final but when i watched it again on TV I completely changed my mind.
It's good to be at games cos you see things that you miss on TV but you get a better all round view of the game from tv coverage I feel.

I agree with mrhardyannual and Tomás O'Se on TSG in that Rochford nearly cost Mayo that game with his crazy changes in the second half. I don't know what to make of him as a manager as in one way I thought he got his tactics right against Tyrone and Dublin last year but then he tends to make some very rash decisions. I think maybe he thought Cork will play a very open game and so they were happy enough to do the same and for the neutral it was a very entertaining game of football.

I thought CoC had an excellent game and really looks a top notch all star forward these days. He looks to already have top scorer for the season wrapped up with 2.40 after 5 games and I'd say he fancies his chances getting to an AI semifinal. Conor McManus is the next player still in the championship with 2.17.

Aidan O'Shea looks to have reacted to his criticism and has upped his game this year and is playing much better as a team player.
Mayo have got back to the quarterfinal stage again, the long way and I think they are actually benefitting from getting momentum from the qualifiers. I think Roscommon will suffer from their lack of matches as they've only really had one decent game all season going into a big game in Croker. When was the last time they won a quarterfinal in Croker?

Fair play to Connacht for getting 3 of their teams into the quarterfinals though it looks like Mayo will have to beat Roscommon and Galway again to get to the final. 

To be honest I wouldn't feel I normally miss a lot of things. It's kind of important to be able to see stuff when you are coaching/managing I obviously have missed something with Diarmuid O'Connor though.  I much prefer watching a game live because you can see patterns and movement etc. You wouldn't see the hesitant inside line movement of Mayo if you weren't there for e.g.

you would not have see a hesitant mayo fullforward line if you were there either
they were well marked and choosing their run I don't think more than one ball was missed as it went long(ish) to the FF line

[AZOffaly]

I was there, and I saw an inside line that had several opportunities to be 1 v 1, but Mayo seem to be not so sure as to what the game plan is. As I said initially, it's hard to complain about scoring 0-21, but I genuinely think they could have taken Cork to the cleaners if the ball was slightly more direct. Cork were not really operating with a sweeper as such, so there was scope to do it, but Mayo over played the ball out the field, and so the lads inside stopped making good runs. This improved in the second half.

As you said, every ball that went in they seemed to win!

[manfromdelmonte]

I was there, and I saw an inside line that had several opportunities to be 1 v 1, but Mayo seem to be not so sure as to what the game plan is. As I said initially, it's hard to complain about scoring 0-21, but I genuinely think they could have taken Cork to the cleaners if the ball was slightly more direct. Cork were not really operating with a sweeper as such, so there was scope to do it, but Mayo over played the ball out the field, and so the lads inside stopped making good runs. This improved in the second half.

As you said, every ball that went in they seemed to win!

watch the game again and see how far up the field cork had their defensive line
it took mayo a lot of hand passes to get past that
Cork had no players sweeping in front of their fb line and that's why the mayo ff line had so much space and 1 v 1.

[AZOffaly]

Yes, exactly that. Cork pushed up and Mayo could have played a more direct ball and got joy out of it. It's not as if Cork sat back and choked the space. If there's a line like that up the field, and you have C'O'C and Andy Moran 1 v 1 inside, then let the ball in in front of them, and then have lads like Diarmuid O'C, Aidan O'Shea and Kevin McLoughlin coming in at pace and taking it off them. Get Cork half backs running towards their own goals.

[mrhardyannual]

One of the strong points of Diarmuid O Connor's play v Cork was that (in addition to carrying and linking well) he ghosted into goal-scoring positions, unmarked, on at least four occasions. Unfortunately AZ, you weren't the only one not to see him as Mayo forwards either didn't see him or elected to settle for a point. These type of opportunities were not even being created by Mayo a few games back. It is frustrating watching Mayo as you feel they are coming into form with more and more of them returning to top form (CoC, AoS, DoC, Doherty, Harrison etc) but then complacency sets in and we are scrambling again. In regard to Rochford, I am more positive than negative. I have grave doubts about Caff, find Coen extremely limited and have no time for Regan. But that's just me. I rate Donie Vaughan very highly but am in the minority there. As a manager you wont please everyone unless you win and in that regard his Championship record is still positive.
Anyway I lived through the 70s so these are still the best of time and this team keeps on giving. Going to a Mayo match is cheaper than going to the Galway Clinic to check a dodgy ticker .

[Taylor]

Maybe I missed it but has anything official come out about the time keeping?

[Rossfan]

Frank Murphy has agreed not to make an issue out if it if the GAA agree to hold all hurling and football Semi Finals in PUìCh in future.