All Ireland Football semi-final;Mayo v Kerry,Sunday Aug 20

[johnpower]

Youre right syf, cillian is overrated . Sure rossie would of beaten that kerry team.
[/quote

God just realised that man has no life
I

[Zulu]

I think they'll beat the fund in the final this year IF they make it.  Not so sure if they'll beat the red hands

Mayo would definitely beat Tyrone IMO but they'll need a bit of form or luck to beat Dublin. Tyrone would make it attritional which Mayo win every time but Dublin would be down to scorers and they've more of them.

Winning championship comes down to defences also and both Tyrone and Dublin are way better defensively than the current Kerry team. Mayo don't have scoring power to win can't be used going into final. C O Connor is top scoring forward in this years championship by some distance and Mayo as a team this summer have scored more than any team now in history of championship football and then they have Andy Moran in peak form the top scoring forward from play this summer.

Two OGs aside Mayo will need to defend as well as they did in both AI finals last year to win Sam.

Wouldn't agree either are better defensively. Tyrone get 14 back, anyone would be hard to score against with 14 back. Dublin are excellent but Mayo can go toe to toe with anyone defensively, the problem is only Moran is a genuine scoring threat from play.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Great display Mayo, very well deserved, and what a bunch of truly gifted players.

[johnpower]

Great display Mayo, very well deserved, and what a bunch of truly gifted players.

I agree Fear great guys best of luck tomorrow

[yellowcard]

Great display Mayo, very well deserved, and what a bunch of truly gifted players.

Epitomised by Andy Moran who has been magnificent this year and continues to play the game the right way. Whatever the merits of Shane Enrights defending I thought he was the best player on show over the 2 games. Higgins very good also over the 2 matches, he has consistently been the best defender in Ireland over the last decade.

[mrhardyannual]

Another great performance from Mayo today. There has been an upward curve since the Galway game. Ironically if Keith hadnt been sent off we would have beaten Galway and might not have improved as much. I suggested after the drawn game with Ros that the problem was one of lack of concentration and focus. Getting back to the All-Ireland Final was the only target this year but focussing on the steps  needed to get there proved troublesome. As Rochford said on RTE this evening there were signs there that things were coming together and that individual players were working their way back to top form. In different games starting with Derry, AOS, DOC, Keegan, Durkan, Boyler, Andy and McLoughlinn have shown that they were back. The icing on the cake for me was the improvement in Harrison after injury and in the past few weeks the form of SOS, Vaughan  and Doherty who was superb again today. The AOS to full back ploy settled the back line, not because Aido was brilliant there but because the knowledge that he would challenge Star physically and aerially allowed the rest of the backs concentrate on their own individual battles. Today the sideline can take credit for timely changes and good tactics.

It is laughable that so many posters who have being writing off this team all season are now reduced to carping that Mayo were poor because they didn't finish Kerry the first day or hammer them today. As I have been confident all year I will carry on in the same vein for the next three weeks regardless of the opposition. We have a fighter's chance.

[Halfquarter]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/mayo-finally-land-knockout-blow-on-kerry-1.3199581

Some nice photos of hits on AOS in this article

[PW Nally]

Wouldn't agree with those calling Kerry poor. Mayo are a serious team with plenty of experienced proven IC footballers and will challenge anyone, yet Kerry were very unlucky not to get two goals, and bring this to the wire. Moran, Geaney, O'Donoghue, Walsh, Crowley, Young, Donaghy and (probably) Morley, Griffin are quality IC players. Moran, Geaney and O'Donoghue would probably make an Irish team, Geaney would be the main forward. If they can bring through a few players from their recent successful minor teams they'll win senior championships pretty soon.

How could you leave possibly one of the best of them Paul Murphy out of that long list is beyond me.

[mrhardyannual]

Wouldn't agree with those calling Kerry poor. Mayo are a serious team with plenty of experienced proven IC footballers and will challenge anyone, yet Kerry were very unlucky not to get two goals, and bring this to the wire. Moran, Geaney, O'Donoghue, Walsh, Crowley, Young, Donaghy and (probably) Morley, Griffin are quality IC players. Moran, Geaney and O'Donoghue would probably make an Irish team, Geaney would be the main forward. If they can bring through a few players from their recent successful minor teams they'll win senior championships pretty soon.

How could you leave possibly one of the best of them Paul Murphy out of that long list is beyond me.

+1

[FL/MAYO]

Jason Doherty has been invaluable the last two games, when Cillian went off today he scored a free and a 45 that settled the the team when Kerry were making a run at Mayo.

[maigheo]

Would agree on Jason Doc.Had to laugh when people were speculating before the drawn game on who would drop out for Keegan Dochertys name was constantly mentioned.Anyone who follows this Mayo team would have known that there was no chance of that happening as he has become such a vital member of this forward unit

[Armamike]

Mayo were magnificent today. They will be hard to beat.

[Denbobjoe]

Kerry instincts say don't do it, my heart says #mayo4sam

[From the Bunker]

Still buzzing after yesterday. Knew we could/would do it.

[Hound]

Is there anyone else playing for Kerry apart from Donaghy. This Mayo obsession with Donaghy is getting tiresome and must be music to kerry's ears

I think it's the media's obsession with how Mayo deal with Kerry - to be fair!

The media love writing/talking about Mayo, definitely more than any other team in either code. Though mostly to take the mick out of them it seems! If they lose to Kerry, it'll all be about what Mayo did wrong. But if they beat Kerry, they will praise them to high heaven and build them up to the sky.

It reminds me a lot of Pillar's Dubs, who were probably also the most entertaining team of their time. And also, like the current Mayo team, always seem to (inadvertently perhaps) do things that brings even more media attention to them!

Really looking forward to the game. Very hard to call, two very evenly matched strong teams. I'm edging towards Mayo, but if Kerry win it'll be Geaney man of the match.

I dunno Hound that Dublin team has a very soft core with the semi loss to us being the perfect example. Pillar's team took a few hammerings against Tyrone and never reached a final. That team probably never reached it's potential and was liked by the neutrals. This Mayo team constantly punches above it's weight through workrate and hunger. Kerry, Dublin and Tyrone are all more talented on paper than Mayo but yet Mayo push them all the way!! Also Mayo are pretty much the most hated team around at the moment by the media and the neutrals! The most disingenuous sentence by far in Ireland today is "sure we would love to see Mayo win an All Ireland" and to be fair to the Dubs, Rossies and Galway at least they are honest about how little they like this Mayo team.

Little late replying to this Crete. Agree that this Mayo team is better than Pillar's Dublin, but just think the media attention is similar.

Disagree totally with your comment that Mayo have less talent than the other top teams! Also don't think they work harder than Dublin or Tyrone, as I think all 3 work as hard as they possibly can.

Don't necessarily agree with you that Mayo are the most hated team. Certainly there is an element of Dublin fans that would have Mayo as public enemy number 1, because there is a view that Mayo fans are the biggest whingers. But still I'd say the majority would prefer Mayo to Kerry. (Obviously being huge rivals inevitably leads to some animoisty). Outside of the semi-finalists I'd imagine Mayo would have the biggest neutral support.

I said to a mate before the match that if I thought Tyrone would beat the Dubs, then I'd definitely support Mayo in the replay. But if Dublin were in the final I'd prefer Kerry, as I think we match up better against them. Yet when the match threw-in I found myself cheering on Mayo from the beginning.