Mayo Football and Hurling - Discussion pages

[Fishead_Sam]

Well I think he intends of putting Bill Joe back in the forwards, so I think its worth giving Kilcullen a shot @ number 6, I am a little more worried that Devanney hasn't come up to the grade, he a very good club player I had been ranting about bringing him into the team myself for a few years, but Im not sure he can make the step up, I hope Im wrong. I see Ronaldson was playing in the challenge matches, I know he is a great player, but while he may turn out to be another small man with great ability & scoring prowess like Mort. will the lack of hight make it hard for him to battle for his own and other forwards scores. Was David Kilcullen playing in any of the challenge matches?

[Davitt Man]

According to reports BJ was playing in the forwards in recent challenge games and ger brady and trev mort were in defence! Enda Dev wont be playing the next, he isnt quite up to at that level, speed to burn but he is poor on the ball and not a great defender. Surely the time for trying Kilcullen at 6 should have been done during the FBD and national league and not sticking with Nallen and Heaney and the likes, he should have been blooding these lads back then i have been harping on about this with ages.

[Tubberman]

You're right - they should have tried other options at CHB during FBD and national league.
They didn't, and we can be fairly sure that the BJP experiment isn't going to work, so I think they're right to be looking elsewhere, even if it is late in the day.
The fact that D Kilcullen didn't play at 6 for the U-21s wouldn't rule him out of that position for the seniors in my opinion. I haven't seen the challenge games that he played there, so I can't say how well he did, but any reports I read said he was impressive. If he's good enough, he's worth the risk. Ger Brady would not work in half backs in my opinion. He'd be turned far too easily and as has been mentioned before, he's not the best at tackling or tracking back after his man.

It's all just speculation to pass the time til the team is named anyway! 

[muscles magoo]

It's likely that Trevor Mortimor will be at CHB against Cavan.

[AbbeySider]

The fact that D Kilcullen didn't play at 6 for the U-21s wouldn't rule him out of that position for the seniors in my opinion. I haven't seen the challenge games that he played there, so I can't say how well he did, but any reports I read said he was impressive. If he's good enough, he's worth the risk. Ger Brady would not work in half backs in my opinion. He'd be turned far too easily and as has been mentioned before, he's not the best at tackling or tracking back after his man.

Regardless of where David Kilkullen played for the U-21s he has played Centre-back for club most of his club career (so im told) so he should be well used to the position.

I can see Trev mort / Ger Brady / Andy Moran / Heaney in wing back positions.
Gardiner seems to be loosing out because I havnt heard his name mentioned in the challenge games. 

Has Deviney played in many of these challenge games?

[Barney]

Four wing-backs?

Regardless of the experience of Kilcullen at CHB he is a 19 year old novice, not Kieran McGeeney, and dramatic things cannot be expected from his in the heat of championship when he has never put on a senior jersey before.

But maybe our luck is changing with Austies injury ruling out the inevitable comeback and substitution of the People's Champion.

[AbbeySider]

Four wing-backs?

Regardless of the experience of Kilcullen at CHB he is a 19 year old novice, not Kieran McGeeney, and dramatic things cannot be expected from his in the heat of championship when he has never put on a senior jersey before.

But maybe our luck is changing with Austies injury ruling out the inevitable comeback and substitution of the People's Champion.

Are you sure David Kilkullen has two more years after this year at U-21 level? I thought he was 20 or 21.

And as regards the "four wing-backs", I named four alternatives to whats already there... thought that one was obvious Barney but your were fairly quick to question it.

[rosnarun]

Ther no way ... could drop Gardiner . if his name hasnt been mention its because he sure of his place. Going on previous i would reckon there will be very few changes for the cavan games from the team that actually started against galway maybe one experimental and a couple of enforced one. I certainly don t see Him starting an entirly new half back line.
What about pearse hanley deal or no deal

[Tubberman]

Pearse Hanley came on against Cork in the challenge match from what I read, but I think it's too soon for him yet. Maybe a late sub if the game is already won, but I can't see him starting.
He is still pretty inconsistent, but has the talent to be a major star for Mayo for years to come. 

[Fishead_Sam]

Gardiner a valuable player from the creation of scores deep from defence, but his primary role is defence, but while I think we need to find a player better suited to the position, the no. 6 & full back postions are far more urgent, also Peader is always exciting to watch & actually a major fan of the man as a player despite his defensive weekness.

Pierce Hanley is a great new talent, but I would hate to seem him destroyed by a player of a quarter of his ability just because he was muscled out of it, would really hit the confidence. Anyone else read what Ray Dempsey was saying about the minors, the Rossies are heavy training with weights at minor level already. Scarey future ahead if big & talented Rossies who can score & know how to win are the future.

[AbbeySider]

Gardiner a valuable player from the creation of scores deep from defence, but his primary role is defence, but while I think we need to find a player better suited to the position, the no. 6 & full back postions are far more urgent, also Peader is always exciting to watch & actually a major fan of the man as a player despite his defensive weekness.

Pierce Hanley is a great new talent, but I would hate to seem him destroyed by a player of a quarter of his ability just because he was muscled out of it, would really hit the confidence. Anyone else read what Ray Dempsey was saying about the minors, the Rossies are heavy training with weights at minor level already. Scarey future ahead if big & talented Rossies who can score & know how to win are the future.

I dont rate Gardiner as a defender, I never rated him as a defender. His biggest weakness is his defence.
I dont care if he scores the odd point, its not his job. When he plays deep he is not looking after his own man. A good forward runs rings around him. Opposition teams will just play their best forwards on him and run at him all day.

Half backs coming deep clog up the attack and prevent first time ball going into the full-forward line. I blame the likes of Gardiner and Heaney for hand-passing too much. Attacks often break down around mid-field because of that crap. Its more devastating to watch rather than exciting.

Pearse Hanley is still a bit young. I think he has still a year or two left at U-21
(BTW I think David Kilkullen is a year older and has a much better physique)

Dont get me started on Dempsey
(Ok I will)

I heard from inside the minor camp that the minors didnt even train that hard this year because Dempsey didnt believe in hard running and "wanted to keep the lads fresh" = total bolix IMO

Minors in weight training is nothing new and he should have prepared them properly.

Apparently he made the minors make their own way to football matches. In the whole panel Id say there was 6 cars among the minors. Its totally unfair to expect them to make their own arrangements for transport.

And worst of all he didnt have any food for players after training. Imagine finishing school in Belmullet or somewhere like that and perhaps having to leave early for training and no dinner or food afterwards? Absolute Disgrace.

Dempsey should be ran... I felt sorry for the minors under him this year.

[mannix]

I heard similar about minor training and morale.He is not the man for the job in any way shape or form.Mayo probably have 2 teams of minors to beat ross if they were trained by the right people.Congrats to ross but its not a sign of the seniors demise in Mayo in a few years.Dempsey has a few good ideas but not enough to do the deal it appears.

[blast05]

Dempsey subbed off the centre forward against Ros after about 20 minutes. I presumed he would at least shake the centre forwards hand and say a few quick words but none of it  ..... the young lad walked right beside him and Dempsey didn't even look at him

[Fishead_Sam]

Dempsey subbed off the centre forward against Ros after about 20 minutes. I presumed he would at least shake the centre forwards hand and say a few quick words but none of it  ..... the young lad walked right beside him and Dempsey didn't even look at him

Sorry didn't see the game myself but was that Alan Freeman that was taken off?

[Farrandeelin]

I cannot speak of one who has ever played football/hurling. I was fated never to play it from a very early age, but a friend of mine said that when Dempsey was in charge of the underage teams in Knockmore that he didn't do a lot to inspire any confidence in them. In that light, while I was very happy to have a Knockmore man managing the county minors if decisions are wrongly made he will have to accept some of the criticism from supporters. I didn't see/hear anything about the minor match only the result and the comments that are made here and it seems that Dempsey has made a bit of a balls of it in his first year in charge. Hopefully he will learn from his mistakes. It's a pity there's no backdoor (from the beginning) for the minors to strut their stuff again but I suppose if there was the club games would never be played with a lot of clubs depending on their good minors to play on the senior club team. It'd be nice to see Mayo have another chance.