Mayo Football and Hurling - Discussion pages

[Mayo4Sam]

this is great news IMHO

[macdanger2]

Good stuff, hopefully he can find the elusive last few pieces of the puzzle

[muppet]

Well if the Boston Red Sox can do it, again, so can we.

Personally I am disappointed to see Nallen go. I was hoping he would take over this coming year or the year after. There seems to be a regular turnover of people from the back room staff which may indicate a problem or it may not. Regarding rows before the Final, some of the rumours are scurrilous and have upset at least one family greatly. The only issues I have heard that are remotely reliable involve the intensity in an A v B match the week before the game. Some subs were busting a gut to make an impression, understandably, while some starters were concerned about getting injured, also understandably. The outcome of these events appears to have left a good impact sub on the bench unused, which is not understandable.

Anyway, James is staying on and we should all back him for the next 12 months. I hope we learned from 2013 though.

Which leads me to the following question:

What 3 things have we learned from 2013?

Discuss......

[mayoman dan]

]What 3 things have we learned from 2013?

1.We learned that Horan has a habit of making disasterous decisions in all Irealnd finals.
2.We learned that our backs are as good as anyone in the country.
3.We learned that Keith Higgins can and should be played as an attacker.

[Farrandeelin]

1. It wasn't a different Mayo team, than say 1989, 96, 97, 2004,06,12.
2. Obviously our half forwards are not good enough, Higgins playing there was a revelation though.
3. We need everybody fully fit. And if that means starting the club championshps after Mayo get knocked out, then so be it. FFS the league should be over long ago and club players would have their games in good weather as well.

[moysider]

1. Seriously fit and conditioned team even if we appeared to peak for 1/4 final. So much quality in the side you would think they nearly have to get there. Hennelly, Cunniffe, Barrett, Caff, Higgins, Boyle, Keegan 2X O Sé, Freeman would all appear to be on the top of their game. McLoughlin had a blip. Barry, Andy and Dillon should be back after injury. It s a serious panel.
However doubts about the availability of Caff, Keegan, Freeman and Clarkie for next year is worrying. Anybody missing would put a severe dent in things.

2. Management is conservative to a fault. Leaving Higgins at 4 for so long and moving him back there at the first sign of trouble shows fear and inhibition. The Moran, Varley and Doherty substitutions in final looked preordained and did nothing to address the issues on the pitch. Against top teams we seem to get caught out tactically and find it difficult to adapt. We steamroll a lot of teams because we have quality players and we have pace and hunger, but we re still not a clever enough outfit when the opposition is as good as we are. In 2 AI finals we allowed the opposition to orchestrate marking mismatches. Shame because management have done such a fine job in general.

3. There is a AI final issue and it will probably continue. It s a stinking albatross around our neck for some time.
There ll always be a Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone, Donegal or Cork waiting in a final and they will feel empowered when they re only facing Mayo - because everybody beats us. The more we lose the harder it will be to win. This years loss makes it more difficult again. No matter what they say in team meetings or in public, if this team is still standing next September - and I expect they will -  the pressure on this management will be huge to get it right. Especially if management feel they got things wrong in last 2 finals. On the other hand management may feel they did everything they could and the players just were not good enough? Not sure which scenario is worse

[mayoman dan]

Against top teams we seem to get caught out tactically and find it difficult to adapt.

I would agree with this 100% Moysider.We always seem to be reactive with our switches as opposed to being the ones catching the opposition on the hop and doing some damage.When we demolished Donegal in the qf giving Higgins the free role played a huge part in us winning the game but as soon as there is a problem in the backs for the following 2 games Higgins is called back into the corner.This would be understandable if  management had no choice but Keane Walshe or Mc Hale could all do a job in the corner for us.Keane would have been perfect form O Gara in the final IMO

[macdanger2]

Hard to beat the old 20/20 hindsight - if Horan hadn't moved Higgins back and Keane had been roasted, the same 'experts' would be on here wondering why Horan lost us another all Ireland by leaving our all star corner back in the forwards.....

[muppet]

Hard to beat the old 20/20 hindsight - if Horan hadn't moved Higgins back and Keane had been roasted, the same 'experts' would be on here wondering why Horan lost us another all Ireland by leaving our all star corner back in the forwards.....

In fairness as least they have hindsight, you have if and wondering.

[mayoman dan]

Hard to beat the old 20/20 hindsight - if Horan hadn't moved Higgins back and Keane had been roasted, the same 'experts' would be on here wondering why Horan lost us another all Ireland by leaving our all star corner back in the forwards.....

I never claimed to be an expert.Its my opinion on one of a number of changes that i believe cost us the all ireland

[From the Bunker]

1. Mayo support died a death in the AI final. I've never seen a collapse of support for a team in such a tight game. We were 2 points down with 7 minutes to go! A pure disgrace. Would we be the same in a Connacht final in the same circumstances?

2. We have a bigger hill to climb than in 2010.

3. We are about 3 good players short of having a comfortable chance of winning Sam.  One corner back, One centre Forward and One full forward?

[moysider]

1. Mayo support died a death in the AI final. I've never seen a collapse of support for a team in such a tight game. We were 2 points down with 7 minutes to go! A pure disgrace. Would we be the same in a Connacht final in the same circumstances?

2. We have a bigger hill to climb than in 2010.

3. We are about 3 good players short of having a comfortable chance of winning Sam.  One corner back, One centre Forward and One full forward?

Why do you think the support collapsed Bunker? In fairness a few people about me kept it going. But a lot were dumbstruck for second half.

Not sure what you mean by point 2.

As for point 3. Yeah it would be nice to get 3 more quality players but remember Donegal and Dublin won without being perfect in every position. If it takes a 9/10 player in every position to win an AI we may as well forget about it.

Injuries all cleared up I d be hoping for something like this next year.

Hennelly ( his spot while he s injury and form holds up)

Cunniffe, Caff, Barrett,
Keegan, Boyle, Higgins, ( doesn t have to be in that order either)

SOS B Moran

McLoughlin AOS ??
O Connor, Freeman, A Moran,

I d like to see Kirby get games in spring. Maybe Parsons needs another look too. I d like to see a bigger mobile rangy player at 10 or 12 like Dublin use Flynn.

[mayoman dan]

1. Mayo support died a death in the AI final. I've never seen a collapse of support for a team in such a tight game. We were 2 points down with 7 minutes to go! A pure disgrace. Would we be the same in a Connacht final in the same circumstances?

2. We have a bigger hill to climb than in 2010.

3. We are about 3 good players short of having a comfortable chance of winning Sam.  One corner back, One centre Forward and One full forward?

Why do you think the support collapsed Bunker? In fairness a few people about me kept it going. But a lot were dumbstruck for second half.

Not sure what you mean by point 2.

As for point 3. Yeah it would be nice to get 3 more quality players but remember Donegal and Dublin won without being perfect in every position. If it takes a 9/10 player in every position to win an AI we may as well forget about it.

Injuries all cleared up I d be hoping for something like this next year.

Hennelly ( his spot while he s injury and form holds up)

Cunniffe, Caff, Barrett,
Keegan, Boyle, Higgins, ( doesn t have to be in that order either)

SOS B Moran

McLoughlin AOS ??
O Connor, Freeman, A Moran,

I d like to see Kirby get games in spring. Maybe Parsons needs another look too. I d like to see a bigger mobile rangy player at 10 or 12 like Dublin use Flynn.
[/quote

Would Donal Vaughan not be on your team Moy? Id agree hes not a 6 but i think hes too good to leave out

[moysider]

1. Mayo support died a death in the AI final. I've never seen a collapse of support for a team in such a tight game. We were 2 points down with 7 minutes to go! A pure disgrace. Would we be the same in a Connacht final in the same circumstances?

2. We have a bigger hill to climb than in 2010.

3. We are about 3 good players short of having a comfortable chance of winning Sam.  One corner back, One centre Forward and One full forward?

Why do you think the support collapsed Bunker? In fairness a few people about me kept it going. But a lot were dumbstruck for second half.

Not sure what you mean by point 2.

As for point 3. Yeah it would be nice to get 3 more quality players but remember Donegal and Dublin won without being perfect in every position. If it takes a 9/10 player in every position to win an AI we may as well forget about it.

Injuries all cleared up I d be hoping for something like this next year.

Hennelly ( his spot while he s injury and form holds up)

Cunniffe, Caff, Barrett,
Keegan, Boyle, Higgins, ( doesn t have to be in that order either)

SOS B Moran

McLoughlin AOS ??
O Connor, Freeman, A Moran,

I d like to see Kirby get games in spring. Maybe Parsons needs another look too. I d like to see a bigger mobile rangy player at 10 or 12 like Dublin use Flynn.
[/quote

Would Donal Vaughan not be on your team Moy? Id agree hes not a 6 but i think hes too good to leave out

No 2 people would agree entirely about players. Besides it s a 18-20 man game now. Add in the inevitable injuries, you know need a panel of serious players into the 20s.

The team I picked above was just to demonstrate that there are very few weak positions on a Mayo side. The usual droning about out forwards is already starting of course.

[mayoman dan]

Well listening to the lads on Madwest yesterday they think we might have found a forward in Mikey Sweeney.Lets hope there right.Personally i think if we get the lads we have fit it wont be as much of an issue as some seem to think.