Mayo V Kerry semi final

[rosnarun]

Yeah. Manos de Piedra should get a great boost of confidence after that display.

as long as he play donaghy Every week. its every other player in the country that seems to bother him.

[moysider]

Yeah. Manos de Piedra should get a great boost of confidence after that display.

as long as he play donaghy Every week. its every other player in the country that seems to bother him.

Didn t do too badly when Dec was moved in either and he ended up on Gooch. I take your point though - but he s not our biggest concern.

Anyway welcome back Ros. But surely you have more than that to say about the whole business?

[rosnarun]

ya smoked me out .am enduring the painful process of rewatching . Cafferkey was excellent . 1st half mayo were for the most part excellent . some dodgy finishing  and a couple of guys not at the races freeman and feeney in particular but they have had good days . i hadn't realise what a good half dillon actually had .
overall whil disappointed . i think it was an ordinary defeat  would not heed the score too much . we were beaten by a better team on the day who pulled away after the match was won .unlike other defeats where we made up ground when it was too late. huge potential in this team let hope they are given a chance to meld and strengthen  rather that a whole now raft of players coming in again/ like my point about caff we cant pick the team solely on the basis of how they did again individual kerry  players.
maybe more after i can bring myself to rewatch the second half

[macdanger2]

First off, congratulations to Kerry who were well worth their win and thanks to JH & the Mayo team for an enjoyable summer supporting them – hard to believe when you think of the debacle that was almost Ruislip!!

Watched the 2nd half of the match on TV last night and wasn't as disappointed as I was after the match. There was 6 points (not that there's any pride in a 6 point defeat) in it with 71:30 on the clock and the late points for Kerry may not help them greatly when preparing for the final.

I think the big difference between the sides was that when Kerry made mistakes and gave away soft ball, Mayo didn't punish them; Mayo made more mistakes and Kerry were able to punish them for it a lot of the time. For example, A. Moran came as close to skinning MO'S as possible and scored 0-2, Gooch skinned Cunniffe in the 2nd half and scored 1-7.

I thought the team looked quite tired in the 2nd half and once Kerry started tacking on a couple of points, the gaps really started to appear as lads couldn't keep with the runners. Also, our tackling went down a level and we started giving away some soft frees. We also lost more ball in the tackle than Kerry. Mayo looked like a team trying to play a Tyrone-style game but it's not quite perfected it yet. They managed to maintain the intensity for the most part however.

I thought Mayo played a lot more cynically (e.g. forward checking the runner as the ball is played out of defence) than normal which is good to see – every team (incl Kerry e.g. Donaghy holding on to the ball for Mayo frees in the 2nd half) does it – like it or not, it's part and parcel of the game now. I thought AO'S was lucky not to get the line for the elbow, he didn't really connect but the intent was there. I thought Higgins' knee on DO'S wasn't that bad, it was little more than handbags stuff from what I saw, maybe a yellow but no way a red for me.

Hennelly: Could have done better in the lead up to the goal, needed to take both Cunniffe and Gooch out of it when he came for the ball. Was excellent with some very accurate short kickouts in the 2nd half.
Cunniffe: Struggled with Gooch when left without cover as most defenders would have. Has had a v good year in the corner though.
Cafferkey: Did very well on Donaghy although the pressure on the kicker from out the field also helped. Two good games in Croker, hopefully he can continue to improve there.
Higgins: Did well on the "danger man" DO'S and stopped him scoring a goal for the first time this year (Hennelly did help on that though!!). Overall has had a good year but needs to improve his discipline.
Feeney: Struggled a bit yesterday but has had a great first year.
Vaughan: Improved immensely in the last two matches and 0-3 is great going......should have been 1-2 though.
Mort: Played ok but not the stormer we needed him to have. Adds great physicality to the half back line and hopefully will pick up where he left off next year.
AO'S: I think some of the criticism of him has been a bit harsh. He gave it all to the very end and has a great knack of getting a hand in when tackling a player. Can he become more mobile though? Needs to lay off the ball sooner as well. Showed great power to burst through about 4 Kerry defenders before Brosnan got a good block in – could have squared the ball though.
SO'S: Unlucky to be taken off, I thought he had a good game. Hope he doesn't pick up any more injuries.
McLoughlin: One of Mayo's better players I thought and I think there's more to come in a Brian Dooher style role.
Dillon: I know someone said he had a v good half in the 1st half but I haven't re-watched that yet. Very quiet in the 2nd half. Considering he's our go-to man, he has had an average year and may not be a nailed on starter for next year.
Moran: Excellent year and left the best man-marker of the past 10 years in his wake a few times but should have made it count on the scoreboard.
Varley: Started very well and was well able to win his own ball against TO'Sull. Faded in the 2nd half but will be happy enough with his year, the competition between himself, Doc and the pretenders will be good next year.
Freeman: Disappointing year after being one of our few lights last year. Has the talent and will hopefully be better next year. Did well winning clean ball in the 2nd half but his distribution was desperate and should have been off earlier.
CO'C: Great goal, caught the Kerry lads napping. Massive first year, looks like a real good player.

McG: Tackled hard when he came on but didn't make the impact we needed from our star sub. Hopefully will stay fit for next year to challenge the O'Ses.
Keegan: Thought he did well enough when he came on. I haven't seen him play much but JH seems to like him.
Campbell: Did ok when he came on but the game was over.
Doherty: Poor enough when he came on but he's young and will be back for more.

Horan: Great first year, has learned from every game. Good tactics in the first half and obviously decided that we needed more up front in the 2nd half to try to put Kerry the back foot and in particular stop their short kickouts. Next year and the increased expectation will be tough for him.

Of the 19 players who played on Sunday, I'd say only 5 are older than 26/27? (McG, Moran, Dillon, Feeney & Mort) And although there's nothing to say we'll be back in Croker next year, it leaves us in good shape all the same.

Apart from the players mentioned in previous posts, off the top of my head there are some good footballers (not including the likes of Howley, Douglas etc who were on the panel this year) who will hopefully be back in with a shout next year if they can get back on form and if they want it:
Parsons
Harte
Killer
C Mort
Freeman
Benson
M Sweeney
K Keane

On Kerry, I'm not being sour when I say that a performance like Sunday's probably won't be enough to win the AI. They'll need to improve vastly but if there's one team & manager that can do it it's those cute hoors.

Maigh Eo abu

[rosnarun]

 Cant agree with ya ther macdanger2 that Performance by kerry would probably have won the last 10-15 alIrelands for keryy as long as they were not playing Kerry

[highorlow]

Looks like we were on the wrong side of the draw.

Pity, we would have taken Kerry in a Final.

[Kerry Mike]

Looks like we were on the wrong side of the draw.

Pity, we would have taken Kerry in a Final.

Great stuff we all need a laugh from yesterday.