Mayo Football and Hurling - Discussion pages

[AbbeySider]

http://www.mayogaa.com/
New?
Its not great, and takes ages to load.

It takes an age to load, even more frustrating than the last site.
I cant believe the same people got that contract

[Bod Mor]

Mayo team v Qualifier.

Drastic changes have to be made, how about this starting 15:

Clarke
Barrett
Cafferkey
Higgins
McLoughlin
Vaughan
Gardiner
Harte
S O'Se
Ronaldson
Dillon
A Moran
Kilcoyne
B Moran
Freeman

In no mood to give out about change of management this morning, what do other people think?
McGarrity, Parsons, Cuniffe, 2 X Morts need to be dropped and take a good look at themselves.

[muppet]

Cunniffe might possibly be forgiven as he has played very little football but I would want him to play every minute of every club game from now until we are knocked out. If he doesn't improve its time for someone new such as Keith Higgins or maybe Liam O'Malley in his club/U-21 position.

When Barrett didn't start I was disappointed to see us weakening two lines to replace him. Vaughan is a very good half back and barely a decent corner back. We need him playing half back. McLoughlin obviously has to play 7.

Midfield has been a complete disaster for two consecutive games now with no sign of any alternatives emerging. We finished on Saturday with Moran and Conroy and if someone told me that before the game I'd have stayed at home. If Barry Moran was fully fit surely he would have started in the full forward line, if not he shouldn't have come on. We very badly need at least one grafter in the middle, maybe Seamus O'Shea will grow into the role but he needs a run of games there. Maybe the 2006 U-21 pairing of Moran and O'Shea?

Our half forward line was awful against Cork and yet the best of them was the only one not to start on Saturday (due to injury). Dillon will return and should improve things but we might need two new faces with him. Moran wins a lot of ball but there seems to be very little end product.

Up front Freeman was a big success and the management deserve some credit forgiving him his chance. He will obviously stay. Varley was poor, he might improve but shouldn't start again in this Championship without a couple of good appearances as sub behind him.

Tactically if you look at how we played against Sligo, who played with a sweeper in the 1st half, we had no idea how to open them up. Bar the odd good ball into Freeman and the even odder one to Conor we were going nowhere. Looking at our midfielders, half backs and half forwards who do we have who can deliver good ball? If you can't beat that system with accurate ball to the FF line you need half forwards & midfielders who can score from over 40 metres. We don't have anyone that can do that.

The best pass of the game from a Mayo point of view came from BJP which resulted in a point for Freeman. BJP might have to start somewhere in the half forwards, but he is hardly one for the future. We need Kilcoyne back badly and if there a few more Alan Freemans out there we should bring them straight in.

[diehard]

Mayo team v Qualifier.

Drastic changes have to be made, how about this starting 15:

Clarke
Barrett
Cafferkey
Higgins
McLoughlin
Vaughan
Gardiner
Harte
S O'Se
Ronaldson
Dillon
A Moran
Kilcoyne
B Moran
Freeman

In no mood to give out about change of management this morning, what do other people think?
McGarrity, Parsons, Cuniffe, 2 X Morts need to be dropped and take a good look at themselves.

I cannot disagree too much.  I would put Howley at corner back and Higgins out at half back.  I would have Aidan Higgins in the panel also.  I'm not sure about Barry Moran.  I have not seen him play IC football for a very long time.
Even at that where are the leaders?

[highorlow]

We very badly need at least one grafter in the middle, maybe Seamus O'Shea will grow into the role but he needs a run of games there. Maybe the 2006 U-21 pairing of Moran and O'Shea?

Is Pat Harte in the Panel?

[muppet]

We very badly need at least one grafter in the middle, maybe Seamus O'Shea will grow into the role but he needs a run of games there. Maybe the 2006 U-21 pairing of Moran and O'Shea?

Is Pat Harte in the Panel?

Think he is injured. Certain worth a place on the panel and maybe on the team but only if fully fit.

[western exile]

Would I be correct in saying that this year is the first time Mayo are in the 1st round of the qualifiers?  i.e. the first time they failed to make the provincial semi-final since qualifiers began in 2001?

[moysider]

Mayo team v Qualifier.

Drastic changes have to be made, how about this starting 15:

Clarke
Barrett
Cafferkey
Higgins
McLoughlin
Vaughan
Gardiner
Harte
S O'Se
Ronaldson
Dillon
A Moran
Kilcoyne
B Moran
Freeman

In no mood to give out about change of management this morning, what do other people think?
McGarrity, Parsons, Cuniffe, 2 X Morts need to be dropped and take a good look at themselves.

I cannot disagree too much.  I would put Howley at corner back and Higgins out at half back.  I would have Aidan Higgins in the panel also.  I'm not sure about Barry Moran.  I have not seen him play IC football for a very long time.
Even at that where are the leaders?

I agree changes need to be made but the biggest change wont be made. The thing is will changes change the state of mind of this lot? I always believed that our only hope with Johnno is that he might stumble on a good team by chance. Like Alan Freeman came up trumps the last evening. He needs to select 6 or 7 Alan Freemans the next day. For instance he is as well to select Alan Feeney at 6 the next day and let him belt away. Who knows. He might be man of the match. With this Mayo team it seems nobody knows nothing as a great Hollywood man once said about what formula worked in cinema. Although I have been critical of management and rightly so you d have to wonder about the cop of some of these players and their grasp on things even after all they ve been through down the years. Just a few days before the Sligo game one of the players said to me that he hoped Sligo gave them a good test - that an easy win would do them no good. I let it go but thought it strange at the time. To me it seemed he was expecting to win the game anyway. If even a handful were in that state of mind they could nt readjust during the game. FFS in championship you bury a team when you can and worry about later, later.Cork and Kerry expect to beat us but go out and give us a good hiding and talk about lack of a test after. That ' needing a hard game'  is alright for pundits. Players should be going out to win as clinically as they can, not be second guessing how good the opposition is. I wonder if we ever cop on.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Those who praise management for 'unearthing' Alan Freeman ought to remember that the very same management nearly ruined him earlier this year. The weekend of the Dublin game he had a stomach bug. Passed it but the feeling was he was far from 100%. To add to the pressure of his first senior start, he was put on frees. He had a mare. But he was left on the frees, even when an accomplished freetaker in Neil Douglas, who took the frees for the same U-21 team Freeman was on, was on the field. Management allowed him to suffer and suffer.

In a perverse way it was a good thing because it put Freeman well down the pecking order for the rest of the league and he wasn't ruined. Seamus O'Shea and Enda Varley had excellent leagues yet management prety much informed them in the run u to the Sligo game that they weren't in their first XV. That other players who featured less and did very little to prove themselves THIS YEAR were ahead of them in the pecking order. O'Shea and Varley both made the team in the end but with nothing in the way of any ringing endorsement from management. If Barry Moran and Alan Dillon were fit, neither O'Shea nor Varley would have started. Freeman, too, may have been in bother.

[Farrandeelin]

Would I be correct in saying that this year is the first time Mayo are in the 1st round of the qualifiers?  i.e. the first time they failed to make the provincial semi-final since qualifiers began in 2001?

I think that's true yes. No wonder we're still in such a low ebb. Only the championship on next Sunday can lift spirits if Knockmore beat Ballina.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Mayo News podcast is strong enough in terms of criticism of management and players.

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9990:audio-football-podcast-11-mayo-v-sligo-reviewed&catid=87:sport-football-podcast&Itemid=100166

[AbbeySider]

Mayo News podcast is strong enough in terms of criticism of management and players.

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9990:audio-football-podcast-11-mayo-v-sligo-reviewed&catid=87:sport-football-podcast&Itemid=100166

The comments in the Podcast about Cunniffe is a bit rich after the big write up Mike Finnerty gave Cunniffe during the week.
Finnerty had an article about how great Cunniffe is and described his "natural ability" yet Cunniffe gets a lot of criticism from him in the Podcast.

Please, lets call a spade a spade for a second.

From the Podcast re Cunniffe
"A strong Stylish Footballer" [Finnerty] - Stylish?...
"A good under-age player" [Rice] - What? (Didnt make the Mitchles U15 & U16 team)
"I have no idea why he wasnt taken off" yet in the same breath "He is a fine stylish footballer" - Thats a typical oxymoran

Its wasnt his pace and fitness that let him down. In fact he was moving fine, he just hasnt the footballing ability for CB.
Maybe he could be used as a wing back with that kind of pace, and Vaughan could be suited to CB but that kind of talk from pundits is a little troubling.

And WTF was Rice saying that Ger Cafferkey had this outstanding game when he was the free man during the game marking NOBODY? He wasnt making half the penetrating runs he should have been making, but again he would have the experience or be used to that role. Should we have been using an extra defender with the wind was the question?

I dont think they went near hard enough on JOM in that Podcast regarding tactics.

But the local media have to take some responsibility of building players up instead of asking the serious questions of management as to is the likes of Cuniffe or BJP ready or even good enough?

Its Ok saying it afterwards but it wont stop the local media writing crazy things about Alan Freeman or the next player that comes along in Mayo.
I felt sorry for McGloughlin when Rice said what he did was a "disgrace" when he tried to take on some responsibility and have a shot.
If the forwards moved for him he wouldnt have to have taken the shot but in either case a disgrace is a bit strong.
And this is all after the big writeup that McGloughlin would have had after the Cork game.

Another example of the local media hype is when Galway Minors won the All Ireland hurling final last year; I scanned the local papers in Galway and you would barely find a column donated to their success. The same with the minors winning the football in 2007; hardly a mention.
Compare that with the local papers in Mayo?
There is magazines and pullouts and player profiles and promises of big futures... BEFORE the final.
Crazy...

[GBXII]

Ah that's the media, it's the same in every county in fairness and that's not going to change.
What I'd take from that podcast is the fact that the lads haven't a notion what they're talking about. I mean they allude to all the problems, fair enough, but their suggested solutions were a load of rubbish. They point out all the players who should have been taken off (about 9 or 10 players probably) but then don't tell us who this great player is that they want to come on. Crap analysis in my opinion.

The problem is coming from above, as long as you believe that the players have ability, which I do. We don't have the talent that Kerry and Cork have but we are as good talent-wise as anyone else and we are especially more talented than Sligo. However, the players are just not anywhere near motivated enough or tactically prepared to be able to compete with any of the big teams or even improving ones like Sligo, as was proven at the weekend. Thus, the need for new management, ones who can inspire, lead and drive the players.

Finally, I think Cunniffe is a good CHB but wasn't great on Saturday, mainly in the 2nd half. I also think Parsons is a very good footballer, as are McLoughlin and Cafferkey. They were poorly prepared and motivated for the game and it seems they don't believe in the management anymore (if they ever did). The injuries we had; Dillon, Kilcoyne, B Moran, Harte were all very big loses too, as well as an out of form Aiden O'Shea (he should be the 1st forward on the team sheet) who is being poorly developed by the management, no more than the aforementioned young players. Can't see us doing anything in the qualifers but it will interesting to see the response...

[RedandGreenSniper]

The comments in the Podcast about Cunniffe is a bit rich after the big write up Mike Finnerty gave Cunniffe during the week.
Finnerty had an article about how great Cunniffe is and described his "natural ability" yet Cunniffe gets a lot of criticism from him in the Podcast.

Please, lets call a spade a spade for a second.

From the Podcast re Cunniffe
"A strong Stylish Footballer" [Finnerty] - Stylish?...
"A good under-age player" [Rice] - What? (Didnt make the Mitchles U15 & U16 team)
"I have no idea why he wasnt taken off" yet in the same breath "He is a fine stylish footballer" - Thats a typical oxymoran

Its wasnt his pace and fitness that let him down. In fact he was moving fine, he just hasnt the footballing ability for CB.
Maybe he could be used as a wing back with that kind of pace, and Vaughan could be suited to CB but that kind of talk from pundits is a little troubling.

And WTF was Rice saying that Ger Cafferkey had this outstanding game when he was the free man during the game marking NOBODY? He wasnt making half the penetrating runs he should have been making, but again he would have the experience or be used to that role. Should we have been using an extra defender with the wind was the question?

Cunniffe was a good underage player - he played in an All-Ireland Minor Final and six months later won an Under 21 All-Ireland, both times at centre-half back. I think the point is it is all good and well being a decent underage player, which Cunniffe was, but that doesn't mean it will carry to senior. That's the debate. Pace didn't let him down but lack of sharpness did. He shouldn't have been picked after not playing for 14 months. I'm not sure he's the solution at chb, in fact I don't think he is. But he's better than he showed on Saturday too. But I'd agree with you, Vaughan may be worth a go at centre-half backk. How it will go I don't know but try it. I think that was suggested by Rice.

Regarding Cafferkey, I'd agree with Rice. He was the free man for about ten minutes before Caff was moved onto McGee and Higgins went free. In the second half Sligo reverted to a three man full-forward line for the first fifteen minutes and Cafferkey was on Sweeney. Then, I think, he was on McGee and Higgins was again the spare man.

[AbbeySider]

Ah that's the media, it's the same in every county in fairness and that's not going to change.
What I'd take from that podcast is the fact that the lads haven't a notion what they're talking about. I mean they allude to all the problems, fair enough, but their suggested solutions were a load of rubbish. They point out all the players who should have been taken off (about 9 or 10 players probably) but then don't tell us who this great player is that they want to come on. Crap analysis in my opinion.

Dont gat me wrong, I think the Podcasts in general have been good, an they are a breath of fresh air in the local media and its a great free service. In fairness the Mayo News is generally good, and it can be argued that you write whatever sells papers, but the fact remains that the local media have a greater responsibility to call it how it is, stop pressurising players with big write ups and cease with the hype.

The problem is coming from above, as long as you believe that the players have ability, which I do. We don't have the talent that Kerry and Cork have but we are as good talent-wise as anyone else and we are especially more talented than Sligo. However, the players are just not anywhere near motivated enough or tactically prepared to be able to compete with any of the big teams or even improving ones like Sligo, as was proven at the weekend. Thus, the need for new management, ones who can inspire, lead and drive the players.

I dont agree with that general consensus as I think we have the players, its just that in Mayo if your not winning the sprints or long runs, or if your not a small nackey, wirery player we dont want you.
The likes of JOM, Noel Connelley etc all pick these athletes and try to make them footballers.

WHY DONT WE PICK THE FOOTBALLERS AND TRY AND GET THEM FIT INSTEAD??
The Kilcullens, Barry Regan, Ginger Tiernan etc - there are loads of examples of guys with natural ability, natural brawn and balls yet they slip through the net. We are nice footballers and will stay that way until attitudes change, from referees to the manager of the county team.

Finally, I think Cunniffe is a good CHB but wasn't great on Saturday, mainly in the 2nd half. I also think Parsons is a very good footballer, as are McLoughlin and Cafferkey. They were poorly prepared and motivated for the game and it seems they don't believe in the management anymore (if they ever did). The injuries we had; Dillon, Kilcoyne, B Moran, Harte were all very big loses too, as well as an out of form Aiden O'Shea (he should be the 1st forward on the team sheet) who is being poorly developed by the management, no more than the aforementioned young players. Can't see us doing anything in the qualifers but it will interesting to see the response...

Ill agree on the last bit but ill never be convinced with Cunniffe at CHB.
Can you imagine what Declan O Sullivan/Pearse O'Neill or the likes could do to him?