Maigh Eo -v- Doire, Ballina, 01.02.2009

[kevmy]

It's pretty much all been said here before. We could all see the faults, half back and half forward lines poor, too much bad hand passing around half back and the ball not let into Barry Moran often enough or with enough quality. Having said all this I thought there was some positives and since it's still the start of the year I'll concentrate on them.

McGarrity - looked like he was back towards his top form, this is the best I've seen him since his brush with the big C. Caught good ball, kicked a good point, laid off some decent ball - still can't kick pass though.

Full Back line - considering the pressure they were under performed well. Good to see LO'Malley back on good form and Cafferkey seemed a good defender even if he let his man have a lot of ball.

Barry Moran - looked capable of causing trouble if given ball, the same could be said for Mickey Sweeney.


On the need to improve areas. I'd like to see Pat Harte play on the 40 above Trevor or Dillon he played well there last year. Leave the other 2 on the wings.
Parsons will improve again I thought he played alright in the 1st but faded later on. He got taken off but then half the team could have been taken off.

At half back Cunniffe impressed me more than he ever had before. I'd like to see a half back line with him and Keith Higgins on the wing with Howley at centre back. Pretty much the line that we've been hoping for over the last few years, it's only been held up because of injury and poor form in the FB line. If O'Malley continues to keep good form he should play CB and let Cafferkey play for the whole of the league and Championship at FB even if he makes a few mistakes - this is what Galway did with Hanley and he's turned into a decent FB. The other corner is open for selection yet hopefully either Vaughan or McLoughlin can put a stamp on it.

[Farrandeelin]

Its only the first of February but the alarm bells are ringing big time.

Have we learned anything since last Summer? I don't think so.

Whatever the reason there was no fight in the team today, they looked leaden footed and completely disinterested. 6 frees for touching the ball on the ground (it was hard to avoid with the conditions but then again maybe some fellas could have held on to it, or not have bounced it); no tackling (maybe that was because of the ridiculous new rules) and given a complete run around which leaves us in a completely perilous position in the league already when you look at some of the fixtures coming up.

For five minutes they kicked the ball into Barry Moran and things went well. THen the game plan went out the window. In the second half we struggled in midfield and being against the wind the ball wasn't kicked in to poor ould Barry. Why not bring him out?

My initial reaction today was that maybe it would be better for JOM and for Mayo football if there was an amicable parting even at this time of the year. His heart doesn't seem to be in it. His excuses during the FBD pissed people off and I'm sure he'll have similar sob stories about today. Of course it is too early to be talking like that but if there are more gutless displays like today he may not see Summer football.

You weren't the only one thinking along those lines Barney I can tell you that. Don't know if he will do the amicable parting though. The turning pt for me was at half time when the game plan we had seemed to fall asunder. I'd blame JOM for that. I can't remember losing in Ballina for a long time anyway. As for the players, some not up to IC standard, 2 subs in particular. I know it's only early February but it's shocking that we were so poor in the second half and other teams have built up fitness already. Ref very poor as well.

[RedandGreenSniper]

At half back Cunniffe impressed me more than he ever had before. I'd like to see a half back line with him and Keith Higgins on the wing with Howley at centre back. Pretty much the line that we've been hoping for over the last few years, it's only been held up because of injury and poor form in the FB line. If O'Malley continues to keep good form he should play CB and let Cafferkey play for the whole of the league and Championship at FB even if he makes a few mistakes - this is what Galway did with Hanley and he's turned into a decent FB. The other corner is open for selection yet hopefully either Vaughan or McLoughlin can put a stamp on it.

That would be an ideal half-back line. Having Higgins at wing-back depends on Liam O'Malley keeping up his form of yesterday in the corner and either McLoughlin or Vaughan taking control of the other corner, with Cafferkey in the middle. If we had a back six of O'Malley, Cafferkey, McLoughlin; Cunniffe, Howley and K Higgins I'd be happy. But full-back line a work in progress and we'd have to see how Howley would get on in the centre. Through no fault of his own he hasn't been able to prove that he is the solution at 6, yet.

I'm trying to look for positives and that might be one of them. Lord knows there's enough negatives to focus on

[moysider]

I agree that those are the 6 or 7 most likely backs. However 3 of them are under 6' tall - 2 well under. None are really big men. Thats the way it is I suppose. No point playing size for the sake of it. We seemed to do that last 2 years and look where it got us. But maybe lack of size will be a problem down the road as well.

[kevmy]

I agree that those are the 6 or 7 most likely backs. However 3 of them are under 6' tall - 2 well under. None are really big men. Thats the way it is I suppose. No point playing size for the sake of it. We seemed to do that last 2 years and look where it got us. But maybe lack of size will be a problem down the road as well.

Thats fair enough about the height issue but very few teams actually have massive FF. Donaghy and Cussen are the only two massive target men playing for top teams. Players like Meehan and Clarke are big but not massive, a decent defender will not let an inch or two stop him from playing well. All this does depend on getting the FB line sorted. I hope L O'Malley holds good form I think he is one of the better, naturally suited corner backs we have. Someone will have to fill the other corner but I prefer someone like Aiden Higgins coming into that corner instead of Keith Higgins, Cunniffe or Howley cos I reckon that would do more damage than good.

[moysider]

Heard ( from a usually reliable source) that Trevor Howley s recovery has had a setback and he s unlikely to feature even in the medium term. Big blow to everybody concerned. Perhaps Deelin or Mayo4Sam can find out for sure what s going on there.

Still no sign of Chris Barrett either.

[Shortso79]

Hilights of match on Tnag now

[Barney]

Trevor Howley had difficulty getting over injury before when he was under 21. Hopefully things go well for him.

The issues of working the ball out of the defence comes down to work ethic for me, there was no support play whatsoever yesterday. That is very disappointing but difficult to understand. What is the problem? Are players not interested? Are they not good enough? Have they a game plan? Do they not want to play for the management? Where is the fire?

Maybe we are some way off the pace because we didn't train during November and December (unlike our neighbours in Roscommon (allegedly)).

What is also frustrating is the lack of improvement in Mayo footballers.

Andy Moran has played for Mayo for probably 5/6 years now. For 5/6 years he has soloed his way around the pitches in ireland to little effect. What manager has taken him aside and tried to improve this element of his game.

Numerous players carry the ball into the tackle - they continue to do so - why?

God, its not easy being a Mayo fan.

[RedandGreenSniper]

The issues of working the ball out of the defence comes down to work ethic for me, there was no support play whatsoever yesterday. That is very disappointing but difficult to understand. What is the problem? Are players not interested? Are they not good enough? Have they a game plan? Do they not want to play for the management? Where is the fire?

What is also frustrating is the lack of improvement in Mayo footballers.

Andy Moran has played for Mayo for probably 5/6 years now. For 5/6 years he has soloed his way around the pitches in ireland to little effect. What manager has taken him aside and tried to improve this element of his game.

Numerous players carry the ball into the tackle - they continue to do so - why?

God, its not easy being a Mayo fan.

Not sure its all to do with work ethic Barney. I would say that the hardest working players for Mayo yesterday were Billy Joe Padden, Donal Vaughan, Peadar Gardiner, Tom Cunniffe and Ronan McGarrity. Yet a lot of these lads simply took the wrong option or showed bad handling/passing skills. Far too many times we had problems carrying the ball out of defence and a lad might be surrounded by Derry players. He would then break from this space, give it to someone who had space to drive into yet he'd double back and carry the ball into trouble. I hope this is because lads haven't been used to playing together; I hope its because the players know what to do but are just lacking sharpness at this stage of the season; I hope relevant drills to this gameplan are being practiced regularly in training and we will see the results in time; I hope I'm right.

[MacDanger]

The issues of working the ball out of the defence comes down to work ethic for me, there was no support play whatsoever yesterday. That is very disappointing but difficult to understand. What is the problem? Are players not interested? Are they not good enough? Have they a game plan? Do they not want to play for the management? Where is the fire?

Wouldn't agree that it was a lack of work ethic, thought it was more a lack of structure. When the backs looked up there was nobody open and looking for a pass around midfield so their only options were to hoof it or a short handpass which as we know didn't work out too well for us. I think this is something that can be relatively easily remedied.....a little worrying that JOM didn't remedy it during the game yesterday though.....

[AbbeySider]

The accounts on this thread and indeed on most reports makes for very, very depressing reading.
This is the lowest I have felt in a long time regarding Mayo football. Its a very bleak outlook for this year.

[moysider]

Since 1995 James Nallen orchestrated the movement of ball out of the Mayo defence. Heaney and the Higgins were expert at it too. Keith Higgins will be back in time but maybe we need somebody at 6 who can bring some structure and organisation while new lads find their feet. While Nallen was playing coaches did nt have much work to do cause it was never a problem. If Howley is out long term I d be knocking at Heaney s door to try and rescue this league - because that is what I believe it has turned into already, a rescue operation. Now coaches have a problem and it will be interesting how they go about this as well as a functioning half forward line. There was bound to be some teething problems with these lads only playing together seriously for the first time. But if these problems are not sorted quickly we ll be in Div 2 fairly lively. We were worried about finding fullbacks and fullforwards but yesterday the general structure of the team folded in the second half.

[mannix]

Jesus, i hope you lads don't know what you are talking about or it will be a quiete summer.It certainly sounded from the posts and radio commentary (when it came back) that Mayo were not able to run or win a ball and use it wisely.

[rosnarun]

is there a lot of self delusion going on about our new full back. 

Cafferkey seemed a good defender even if he let his man have a lot of ball.

I thought Cafferkey did fairly well. His man always seemed to be first to the ball,

Caff - Beaten to the ball a lot but defended well after a first 5mins that looked like he would get wiped out

this adds up to having a stinker of  a game which he did. he looked cluless and reacted about 5 seconds late every time. only that o'malley was there to mind the house things would have bee a lot worse.
Cunniffe too was a disaster at CHB . and that was with the constant support of either Andy or BJP. his busting runs though very quick rarely go anywhere and 3 time yesterday the ball landed in opprnts hand Leaving him completely out of position. An absolute no no for a central defender and indeed the cause of derrys goal .which won them the game f Vaughn may not have looked great but at least he did no harm.
overall we were not much behind derry but again our failure to win close games is fatal. Mayo are missing a spark an extra gear or an inspirational figure(maybe with a pony tail) and when they look to the side line one get the impression all they would get would be the same excuses the media are subjected to.
anyone else reckon the referee got embarred yellow carding derry lads in the 1st half and chicken out in the 2nf . esp when C Mort was dragged down in front of the goal. Cassidy was whining after about how many yellows they got to mayo zero . maybe if mayo had played a little closer to the line the result would be different

[INDIANA]

Can someone from Mayo hazard a guess at despite reaaching several all-ireland underage finals in the last 5/6 years , why they are at such a low ebb? Can't figure it out myself. Or is it just a case of the january bluesi