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Republicans law and order party!
I suppose this is how you own the libs and it surely has to be somehow the problem of all these woke BLM people doesn't it?

David Clarke retired too! 

Sad to see Clarkie go, probably our greatest ever keeper and it is no accident that Ger Caff and Brendan Harrison won their All Stars with Clarkie between the sticks. I am not as worried about his inevitable exit as I was a couple of years ago because I think the likes of Luke Jennings, Matthew Flanagan and Colm Reape should insure there isn't much drop off in goalkeeping for Mayo over the next 5 to 10 years.
At least we won't have to be bored to death about the flight/trajectory of his kickouts anymore from the anit Clarke faction in Knockmore Mayo!!

For all the giving out people did about us not blooding a new goalkeeper, Clarke and Hennelly were clearly the top 2 in the county for the last decade. As you say, I'd be more optimistic about the younger goalkeepers around currently. Between Reape, Flanagan, Jennings and possibly Conor O'Malley who is finished up with Peterborough. Surely we can make one of them into a top keeper.

I alwas thought Rory Byrne and Brian Walsh looked every bit as good as Hennelly in club football and Clarkie when fit was a level above all of them. Hennelly had plenty of talent probably as much as Clarkie but he was too inconsistent and always seemed to fold under pressure in big games leading to fatal mistakes which cost games. Hennelly is terrible under the high ball and too many times easily beaten at his near post and really his potential rather than performance kept him in the county squad this long.

David Clarke retired too! 

Sad to see Clarkie go, probably our greatest ever keeper and it is no accident that Ger Caff and Brendan Harrison won their All Stars with Clarkie between the sticks. I am not as worried about his inevitable exit as I was a couple of years ago because I think the likes of Luke Jennings, Matthew Flanagan and Colm Reape should insure there isn't much drop off in goalkeeping for Mayo over the next 5 to 10 years.
At least we won't have to be bored to death about the flight/trajectory of his kickouts anymore from the anit Clarke faction in Knockmore Mayo!!

In fairness the gulf in talent/s&c is probably the same or a little bigger than last year. The main reason there was no blitz in the 2nd half is Clarke is much more composed when the Dubs put the pressure on than Hennelly. Aside from that the Dubs are just a good bit better than us and can keep us at arms length for as long as they want to and never really were in danger of losing this game.

But has lived in Roscommon for many years

Makes it all the more logical that despite all the final defeats and ridicule that goes along with it he is till proud to be from Mayo!

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/kevin-mcstay-dublin-may-be-a-bridge-too-far-but-mayo-s-spirit-will-never-be-broken-1

Kevin McStay: Dublin may be a bridge too far but Mayo's spirit will never be broken
Mayo will be defined by football as long as the game exists – there will always be another year


One of the unexpected joys of lockdown was that I found music again. Like most teenagers, I was nuts about music. But then I lost it. So during the first lockdown – the fine weather and endless walks – I started listening to old heroes like Ry Cooder and Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Why did I stop? Life got in the way. Instead of putting music on in the car you'd stick on a podcast or the news. So it felt like finding an old friend.

And this time I began to listen to Leonard Cohen properly for the first time and, in particular, his end of life album, You Want It Darker. No question mark. It's been the soundtrack to my winter and it occurred to me that it is almost the perfect soundtrack and title to the last decade of following Mayo's All-Ireland final story. They have been played an unholy hand of cards in those games.

In the first three years from 2011 to 2013, they beat the reigning champions but failed to win a final. In 2015, they a lost semi-final to Dublin who went on to win and start this historic sequence. I think the 2017 All-Ireland final might well be the best game of football I have ever seen. That Mayo team took us to the brink and they were breathtakingly close to taking the final magical step. But by autumn, the All-Ireland winners were somewhere else and we had to wait for Mayo to come again. If you want it darker, give us another 12 months.

That sense of failing or not quite getting there goes back all the way back to 1951 in terms of All-Ireland senior finals we have lost. But there is a contradiction in the recent chapter. Those 10 years also provided so many great, great days. The days of our lives. It is impossible to break the faith of a Mayo supporter. They may grouse and swear never again and admit that it is too much to keep going "up" to see them fall short in some final or other. But try and keep them away! Only a pandemic could keep Mayo people away from Dublin on an All-Ireland final weekend in which the green and red is flying. If this was a normal year, there'd be bucks landing in from JFK and Heathrow all week.

It's a funny thing. We think of 1951 as an untouchable past. But I was raised with All-Ireland winners all around me. Gerald Courell and Jackie Carney lived in Ballina. I was Gerald's messenger boy in his drapery shop when I was in national school. And he had talked to me for ages about winning All-Irelands as if that was the most natural thing in the world. But for him, it was. Seán Wynne was chairman of Bord Na nÓg and he was the goalkeeper on that double team. I met Seán Flanagan as a child. My father knew him and he was captain of those teams. And the confidence Seán exuded about Mayo's place in football was just magnificent.

When I was seven I got a brand new set of Mayo gear. I felt dynamite wearing it. I had to use elastics to keep the sleeves up and the white sole of the socks rolled up above my ankles and the shorts were far too loose. But I loved that rig-out. The only Mayo player I knew was Tommy O'Malley. I assumed he was the greatest footballer in Ireland. It was only when I grew up that I realised how tough his Mayo experience was. Tommy played from 1969 to 1981 when the team failed to win a single Connacht championship. It was barren. And I remember my father often saying, 'come on we will go to Tuam'. That was the height of adventure for Mayo supporters then.

And another highlight was doing the scoreboard in the park in Ballina during league games. I saw Seán O'Neill of Down play and that was a thrill. My first actual championship match was the Connacht final in 1975. A silver Ford driven by Mr Maughan, our teacher. Three kids squeezed into a car already filled with adults. Mayo had resurgent under age teams: an All-Ireland minor title in 1971 and an under-21 All-Ireland title in 1974.
     
The future looked brilliant. We were playing Sligo that day. The feeling was that it would be a handy one. They drew on a hot day. And a week later they were dumped out in Castlebar. A year after that, they lost to Leitrim. After that defeat, I later heard of a player and his mates who headed to Achill so they could nurse their wounds unnoticed. Fat chance. In the hotel toilets, the player was rumbled by a few irate islanders who wanted to have words and more over the disgrace brought to the jersey. They had to fight their way out of the jacks. That's what playing for Mayo was like then.

Tradition
And yet it pulls you in. Why? I keep coming back to the colours and that tradition and the oversized crest on the shirt – too big and uncool but gorgeous at the same time. And we kind of knew, as children, we were good or supposed to be good at this game. 'The double' was a conversation piece. The photographs were everywhere.

And 10 short years after that '75 game, I found myself playing for Mayo. And I remember we drew with Dublin in the 1985 All-Ireland semi-final. We were in the Ashling Hotel on the Liffey that evening. The squad was there and there was a lovely afterglow: a sense that we were back. When was the replay, someone asked. Who cares, he was told. I worked 200 yards from the Ashling, up in Collins Barracks. I was expected to report for duty at 09.00 hours the next morning. But by 21.00 hours that night I was in the Beaten Path outside Balla in the heart of Mayo. For the recovery session! I think we lost the replay around then.

In later years, when I was a pundit, I stopped going to Mayo finals. I volunteered to stay in the RTÉ studio. And often, when it looked as if the impossible might happen, I began to entertain ideas of grabbing a taxi over to Croke Park from Montrose, to hear the end of the speech or just breathe the air. But then the final whistle went and we would be back in the same place, all of us.

It is an addiction. If I stop for petrol in Swinford or Ballindine this week, someone will bump into me and want to know what I think about the game. Everyone wants to talk about football all the time in the county. And I admit: we become half mad with excitement and anticipation because we are very proud of our place in the game. Every town has their specific hero. Belmullet has Willie Joe. Ballindine has Colm Boyle. Ballintubber has Prendergast. Ballinrobe has O'Malley. Ballyhaunis has Zippy Higgins. Balla has TJ. Ballina has Liam Mc. Ballycastle has Tom Langan. Ballagh' has Johnno. That's just the Bs! Claremorris has John P. Crossmolina has McDanger. Moygownagh has Larry. Shrule has the Morts. Gilvarry from Killala. And the Flying Doctor in Swinford.

They are everywhere. But when you remove yourself from the lifelong connection and love for Mayo and try and be rational, it is very difficult to look at Saturday four days out and coldly say: this is the year.

Now, this Mayo team has a lot going for them. They are full of pace and youth and running and I think we have a proper full forward line maybe for the first time since . . . ever. But for all that, it appears like an almost impossible challenge. So many things have to happen.

Can they find the right players to mark Fenton, Kilkenny, O'Callaghan and Rock and James McCarthy? Can we get our long kick out sorted? Can we function at midfield like you have to function in an All-Ireland final? Can we have several key players give the performance of a lifetime? Can we get any kind of kick from the bench? We have got 0-3 from our bench so far using 20 substitutes. All of these are real concerns and reasons to steel yourself for another year of waiting.

So what if we lose again on Saturday? Well, Mayo will keep going on. I was training Mayo in 1995 and we took an awful trimming against Galway. Marty Morrissey asked me: what now? And I remember saying on television: what do you think we will do? Will we give it up and try cricket or something? This is what we do.

No choice
There is no choice here. Mayo will be defined by Gaelic football for as long as the game exists. There will always be another year. Toby McWalter is a famous Mayo supporter. We had lost a final again. It was '04 or '06 and he came up to a gang of us in Citywest. It was late. We were shook. And he said: "Come on lads. Chin up. I just checked. You are all under age again next year."

And maybe I am just steeling myself here in this column. It's a process you go through as a Mayo supporter. You rationalise why the team probably won't win. Then, by Friday, you have produced a counter logic and you are convinced they can do it.

All I do know is that thankfully the players and management are in a bubble that this mood or this stuff does not permeate. They are thinking, as all teams must, that everything is going to just fall right and that they have a plan and are going to beat this crowd of Invincibles. And, of course, that is the point of sport. Sports people have unreasonable belief in themselves. The evidence is that this will be Dublin's sixth title. But unreasonable belief sometimes triumphs over logic.

Every so often I wonder about the collective experience the county has undergone since we flew home after losing the 1989 final. It was a dismal night but as the plane descended into Knock we could see the crowd, vast and loyal, in the drizzle. It was one of the most affecting things I have ever seen. We weren't favourites to win in 1989.

And the peculiar truth is that we have never been favourite to win any of the All-Ireland finals we played in since. No Mayo team has lost an All-Ireland final it was 'supposed' to win. But there were a few days when they could have won anyway. And I just wish we had experienced that joy that other counties have had.

Just that sense of accomplishment and completion and radiant happiness for your group of footballers and people. And yet there is outrageous pride that we keep on coming back. I absolutely take my hat off to that fearlessness.

There are players on that Mayo team who have every reason not to want to put themselves through another All-Ireland final against Dublin. But I know they can't wait for it and I know they believe just as much now as they did the first time. It's probably their greatest strength.

I know I love that about Mayo. And that I wouldn't be from anywhere else.

Kevin McStay

One unknown going into the match is Dessie Farrell - is he as good on the line as Jim Gavin if things get tight?

He was poor in tight matches at underage level. 2011 All Ireland minior final against Tipperary. 2013 Leinster U21 championship v Longford and All-Ireland U21 semi final in 2015 against Tipperary.

Was Farrell manager when Mayo beat Dublin in the U21 semi in 2016?

Can it not be played in Parnell Park so the Dubs can have home advantage as reigning champs ?

Jesus Gerome Henry reffing this game, this could be fun!!

It's a shame Mayo don't play like this in AI finals.

It's a shame the GAA gave ye loads of money and make the AI Championship a farce. But hey these things happen. I'll be cheering for ye to win the 6! How are the Dublin GDO's getting paid this year? 

Well the dubs are doing their bit for the Mayo economy anyway. People buying their new jersies online from Elverys are getting them shipped from their Castlebar warehouse.

Good to see Mayo are getting something from the dubs off the pitch considering they can't get anything out of them on the pitch

I think the Elverys warehouse is on the Tuam road in Galway so maybe all you are doing is paying for Jimmy MGuiness to take training sessions for the football team!!

Good Castleconnor blood!

Which part of Castleconnor though, the good(Mayo) part or the bad (Sligo) part?? 
Good pickup for Sligo, he was quality any time I saw him play for Knockmore. Very skillful, two footed and always seem to do the basics perfectly as well the skilful stuff.

Well done to the noisy neighbors. Really were the better team all over the pitch and we weren't really as close as the score suggests. McLoughlin was brilliant and we couldn't lay a glove on him. Naughton started well by was quiet after Swanny went back on him. Stadler did a great job on Evan Regan and our half forward line was wiped out by the Knockmore half back line.
Apart from Swanny the only other Stephenites player that can hold his head high is Clarkie ( who is having a great season), made a couple of great saves to stop this being a real beating.
I really hope Horan gives Orme and King a go in the Mayo team sooner rather than later.

Does Padraig O'Hora play with Ballina?

Am I right in thinking that's the same fella who won the Special Forces army training thingy on RTÉ?  He was brilliant on that, came across as really likeable.

Yeah he would be one of the main men for us at this stage. He has been playing great stuff for us since 2015 but injuries have blighted him from 2016 till last year. Was on the Mayo panel in 2016 before shoulder and knee injuries ruled him out for the guts of a year.

Cheers Bunker,
Yeah that is Ciaran Sweeney standing on the back left with a subs top on. Also on the other end of the back row is Brendan O'Hora (cousin of Padraig) who was on the bench against Aghamore the last day so that would make 4 from 2007 winning team who could be involved the next day. I don't see Ger Caff in that team photo and I don't remember him in the knockout stages of the county championship. I do remember him starting when we got hammered out the gate by Nemo rangers in the All Ireland semi final.

A couple of my Aussie mates are from rural Victoria and are huge footie fans(Magpie fans). They always rated Hanly as the best Irish player actually able to play Aussie rules as opposed to being a super athlete who was an average player with some GAA tricks. Injuries always held him back thought but still he had a great career.