Mayo Football and Hurling - Discussion pages

[mannix]

Great post Moysider. You could be a journalist, easily.

[Mayo4Sam]

Moysider you're depressing me something fierce here.

To talk about stats since '51 take in the 20 worst years of mayo football.
If you take the last 20 ur talking about the one of the 3 best periods for mayo football, 8 connacht titles and a parity with galway, they beat us in galway we beat them in castlebar, you cant let last years final taint all that.
And you've left out the league final of '01 and more importantly the 2004 final when we ripped them a new one after they were so far ahead

And talking about ros as having a rookie manager is leaving out important points, ros football is on an upturn, theres a great feeling of something coming from them, they have a man in that won an AI with the minors and they have a few decent minors coming thru along with the likes of henegan there already

Moysider on the flip side its easy to get depressed about mayo football, we have more reason than most to be depressed. There are 2 kind of people in mayo, one kind is constantly saying how shite we are, this lad is a bollix, that lad isn't good enough and the other type, eternally optimistic, every spring starts with "Well i think we could win it this year".
Maybe its time to have a middle of the road supporter?

[RedandGreenSniper]

Moysider I don't see the point in looking as far back as you have with regard to the 60's and the 70's. Immaterial at the moment in my opinion. We've enough to be getting concerned about now without reflecting on previous depressions, which aren't really connected with the current day.

I do take you point about beating Galway though - they can beat us playing middling, we have to play well to beat them. At least generally.

[stephenite]

"Tradition - do ye understand it now?"

Kevin Heffernan to Robbie Kelleher.

[moysider]

"Tradition - do ye understand it now?"

Kevin Heffernan to Robbie Kelleher.

I ll admit lads that my last post was no barrel of laughs but I m sticking to my guns. I think we have underachieved bigtime since 1999 in the province after decent 80s and 90s. 2 Connachts in this decade is a poor return considering that Galway stagnated after 2001 while the last few years have seen Roscommon at possibly their worst ever ( certainly the worst I ve ever seen them) At least in the 70s Galway were good enough to lose a few All Ireland finals while Ros produced one of the provinces finest teams.
 Of course our underachievements in the Connacht Championship would not be such a big deal if we could handle ourselves in the qualifiers but we ve been mostly fairly dismal and exit at the hands of the first serious team we encounter. Then there has been some less than enthusiastic comments from players about the qualifiers as well. There has always been a whiff of martyrdom about us since 2001 in the qualifiers. Gerry Lohans late goal seems to have done an awful lot of damage to our psyche regarding the back door. This is in marked contrast to the runs of 04 and 06 when we progressed as Connacht Champions. Some people wish that the 04 and 06 runs did nt last quite as long as they did but thats academic at this stage. Perhaps if we had won a couple more Connachts around 04/06 we would have been further along the road and more streetwise in those finals.
 Anyway lookin forward to this Derry game back in the local. Thought these League games in the park were gone for ever and this is to be cherished. It might be a bit early for Joseph s icecream van though .   We ve hardly lost here ever while Castlebar is a very dry venue with a few thousand souls. I cant remember Ballina or Knockmore lose here either in provincal Club championship. Lookin forward to seeing Cafferkey start. I think McLoughlin should too as its a local venue for him as well. A good start would serve them well.
 The U21 will start soon as well. Galway first round ( away?) early March in Prelim round with winners playing Ros. If its us playing Ros it will be home venue. I d say play it in Ballina but then again I would. Give them a bit of Kiltoom back - see how they like it. Besides we owe them one for an U21 defeat here in late 70s (must stop mentioning the 70s). Tony Mac and Micheál Finneran playing that day and Jigger O Conner maybe? Gerry Fitzmaurice? Must ask the lads on Sheepstealers about it sometime - cheer them up. Sligo strong this year as well and will fancy being in final at least. But we look like being as strong as in recent years. The Galway game is winnable and with home advantage v Ros .........

[RedandGreenSniper]

There's no doubt that in 2002, 2003, 2005 and, perhaps, last year, we should have won the games we exited from Connacht in - all against Galway. Which reinforces what you were saying Moysider about having to be at our best to beat Galway and them only needing to be middling to beat us.
I won't even go into 2001, like 1996 that's fairly bitter to taste even now.

If you asked a typical non Connacht observer which county in the province has been most successful in the noughties, they would probably say Mayo on account of our appearances in two All-Ireland finals in 04 and 06. While Galway have failed to hit the same heights (and lows) on national level as us, they've won 5 Connacht titles to our 2. And they'd be the shorter price for making it 6-2 than us making it 5-3.

I think a lot of this comes down to our opinion of Galway. We don't hate them for some bizarre reason. They should be our mortal enemies but most Mayo people would have been delighted to see them win in 1998 (with obvious regrets about Mayo having come so close but fall short the two years previous). I certainly was glad for them. They don't seem to have any fondness for Mayo, if anything they look down on us. If there's a team we hate its Roscommon. Why is that, all joking aside?

Is it perhaps because a lot of us would have and still do follow the Galway hurlers because they'd be the team we watch at a national level? As a result its hard to engender hatred of them. I've no doubt around the border areas, Mayo lads can't stand losing to Galway - Conor and Trevor Mortimer for instance. But it ain't the same all around Mayo.
David Brady said before last year's Connacht final that for those seventy minutes everyone in Mayo would hate every single man, woman and child in Galway. It was a great soundbite but was it true? I fear not.

[rosnarun]

to be honest I think i despise leitrim more than Ros and they are an uppity shower of wankers . but when we were trying to be happy for 'muck eaters' when they won their connaught thry were such arrogant bastards  it was great to see them getting hammered in the semi's. (though i think west meath retain the tiltle of having the worst ballix's of fans in the country)
with both sides of the family from galway i'd find hate to be too mean to them.

[RedandGreenSniper]

I'll take your word for it on the Laytrums. Cork would be a personal hate of my own. But we'll be wating I'd say for someone to say they hate Galway

[moysider]

There's no doubt that in 2002, 2003, 2005 and, perhaps, last year, we should have won the games we exited from Connacht in - all against Galway. Which reinforces what you were saying Moysider about having to be at our best to beat Galway and them only needing to be middling to beat us.
I won't even go into 2001, like 1996 that's fairly bitter to taste even now.

If you asked a typical non Connacht observer which county in the province has been most successful in the noughties, they would probably say Mayo on account of our appearances in two All-Ireland finals in 04 and 06. While Galway have failed to hit the same heights (and lows) on national level as us, they've won 5 Connacht titles to our 2. And they'd be the shorter price for making it 6-2 than us making it 5-3.

I think a lot of this comes down to our opinion of Galway. We don't hate them for some bizarre reason. They should be our mortal enemies but most Mayo people would have been delighted to see them win in 1998 (with obvious regrets about Mayo having come so close but fall short the two years previous). I certainly was glad for them. They don't seem to have any fondness for Mayo, if anything they look down on us. If there's a team we hate its Roscommon. Why is that, all joking aside?

Is it perhaps because a lot of us would have and still do follow the Galway hurlers because they'd be the team we watch at a national level? As a result its hard to engender hatred of them. I've no doubt around the border areas, Mayo lads can't stand losing to Galway - Conor and Trevor Mortimer for instance. But it ain't the same all around Mayo.
David Brady said before last year's Connacht final that for those seventy minutes everyone in Mayo would hate every single man, woman and child in Galway. It was a great soundbite but was it true? I fear not.

Christ Sniper I could have written that post myself. I have never fathomed the Mayo/Galway relationship. While most Galway people have a certain grá for Mayo football they dont take us that seriously. Good individuals, poor teams but mostly beatable.Sawdoctor territory i suppose. Willie Joe played his best games for Mayo on teams that lost in a whimper to average Galway sides.

They dont fear us like we fear the Joyces, Meehans, Donnellans, Fallons.  Like ourselves they reserve their hatred for Roscommon. Rightly or wrongly Ros has acquired a reputation for the darker arts down the years and it has stuck.

   I was in Croke Pk. When Galway won 98 and was delighted. Something I now regret. I went to College there and some of my ...er... old friends were delighted with results of 04/06 AIs. I ve brothers live in Galway and a nephew who plays underage with the county and the common view even before the games was that Galway folk did not want to see Mayo have similar success to them. Human nature I ,suppose.

 This may well open a can of worms but does anybody recall a Galway footballer who went to boarding school in Mayo when there was still boarding schools in Mayo? Thought not. On the other hand some of the best Mayo players streamed across the boarder to Jarlaths in particular. Maybe it made our relationship with Galway players too cosy. Almost like the ward/fosterage system of medieval times. I think Galway benefited more than we did from this. Many of these Mayo boarders underachieved after but they helped make Jar very successful and Galway lads learned how to win. I believe mayo football would have been better served if they went to one of the more serious teams in their own county. I think I should put my head down now. By the way Sniper I added a paragraph to my last post. Believe it or not I still enjoy football and this is a big week for me.

[moysider]

to be honest I think i despise leitrim more than Ros and they are an uppity shower of w**kers . but when we were trying to be happy for 'muck eaters' when they won their connaught thry were such arrogant b**tards  it was great to see them getting hammered in the semi's. (though i think west meath retain the tiltle of having the worst ballix's of fans in the country)
with both sides of the family from galway i'd find hate to be too mean to them.

F*** Ros you have it rough. You mean both parents from Galway?
The most fans that ever annoyed me( apart from a Ros fan in 89. The older bro is a bit testy at matches - I dont know where he s comin from. He pointed out the ambulance under the stand and declared his intentions to yer man ) were Fermanagh. These rigs were singing 'there ll be no Sam Maguire in Mayo' on north Circular before the game. What was that about? We d played them maybe 5 times ever. And I dont approve of singing as a rule unless I choose to.
 I cant agree entirely about Leitrim followers but I ve come across a few who think we re a joke. Because of their size leitrim can not be criticised, and that s the way it should be. On the other hand if we showed their resolve at times we d probably be in a better place. You can understand their frustration as they often follow us if we re provincal winners. I ve heard it from them many s the time and I can see where they re coming from.

[Mayo4Sam]

Was just thinking about how underachieving we are at colleges football, i was on a muredachs team that played in a C Connacht final, pathetic for one of the biggest schools in mayo with a lot of county minors. I think the problem there was that we couldn;t fcukin stand eachother, I remember 2 of the ballina lads, one a future intercounty footballer, telling me that they hoped we (K'more) got hammered in the AIF in '97 the week before the match. Left a sour taste.

I think we despise our own neighbours, esp in North Mayo more than we do Galway, we'd sooner see our team beat Cross/Ballina/K'more than see Mayo beat Galway.

As for who we hate, in Connacht by far and away the Rossies, they are in the main a hateful show of c**ts. Slightly off the point a typical example. Met a few rossie lads when travelling, it was the day liverpool played porto in the CL and arsenal were playing real madrid, so the pool match was deferred. End of arsenal match, i turn my back to the telly so as not to see the result of the pool match tellin those in my company i didn;t want to hear the result, ur man, Knob features we'll call him, comes round to me shouting in my face that we're out, and then goes "well i didn't tell you the result". Summed up Rossies for me

Outside of mayo i have a real hatred for cork, '89 was real heartbreak, neptune always seemed to be there to beat longnecks in the basketball and above all the 2 d**ks who sat beside me in '93 and '99, really hateful f**kers

As for leitrim, you;d have to wonder how gracious we'd be in victory if we managed an AIF, maybe not as good as we'd like to think, its very easy be the gracious loser when ur used to it

[the Deel Rover]

Would you really despise Cross Mayo4Sam To tell you the truth i would never despie either Knockmore or Ballina when we would be playing either you would definately be up for the game but once it was over thats was that. I would have made a good few friends from both sides through the football  and i think there would be a bigger rivaly between Ballina And Knockmore as a lot of the lads would have gone to school together. When i was young lad ballina and Knockmore definately didn't fear Cross as they used to Kick or asses on quite a regular basis. It was only when we got a special group of players at underage the Likes of Tom Nallen, Jimmy, Ciaran MC, Hoggy ,Moff, Whitty, Mulligan,Joe Keane  that the big boys started to worrk about us

[MacDanger]

I think we despise our own neighbours, esp in North Mayo more than we do Galway, we'd sooner see our team beat Cross/Ballina/K'more than see Mayo beat Galway.

I was just saying something similar the other night. We always complain about Mayo players not being physical enough, too easily bundled off the ball, soft etc but you can go to a club game and see the very same county players hammering lumps out of each other.

Just reading some of the comments earlier, I thought it was interesting that Maughan was considered by some to have "brought on" new players like Horan/Nallen whereas Joyce and Donnellan were apparently ready-made for JOM to slot into the team!

The fact of the matter is that any manager will play players who look like they are good enough but whether they actually make the grade or not is largely up to themselves. Kilcoyne, AOM and  Devenney are good examples, anybody here would have expected them to make a big impact yet under two management teams, none have really made the grade when it counts.

Any word on the starting team yet?

I'd go for Mayo by two points simply based on home advantage although the rte.ie game preview may have already put the hex on us.....

[RedandGreenSniper]

Mayo team picked, I've it posted on the main Mayo Derry thread
Clarke, O'Malley Cafferkey Vaughan; Gardiner Cunniffe Kelly; McGarrity, Parsons; Padden Trevor Mortimer Dillon; Andy Moran, Barry Moran, Sweeney

[stephenite]

Was just thinking about how underachieving we are at colleges football, i was on a muredachs team that played in a C Connacht final, pathetic for one of the biggest schools in mayo with a lot of county minors. I think the problem there was that we couldn;t fcukin stand eachother, I remember 2 of the ballina lads, one a future intercounty footballer, telling me that they hoped we (K'more) got hammered in the AIF in '97 the week before the match. Left a sour taste.

Fair points but I'd agree with Deel that the animosity between K'more and Ballina would be stronger than with Crossmolina. Of the two, each club would have their own protaganists but suffice to say neither would be entirely blameless, the reaction of some of the Knockmore crowd to Liam McHales sending off in the AIF replay on '96 and him suspended for the county final the following week, not to mention half of Knockmore trying to crowd into Timmy's that night and Tim himself getting a few slaps from former Knocmore team mates would have left a sour taste also