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

[Lar Naparka]

Without a doubt Clarkie's kickouts were a bit ropey yesterday. But it struck me that there appeared to have been no understanding between the goalie and those around the middle third. There are two sides to every story and maybe here Clarke isn't the only one at fault. On some short kickouts, the receiver reacted slowly as if he wasn't expecting the ball to come in his direction and on long ones the problem was even worse. Shouldn't it be possible to have some sort of code devised so that those outfield would know in advance what Clarke intended doing?
There was little or no sign of any system being used yesterday
Another thing, there is no law that says that the goalkeeper must take every kickout.
Time was not so long ago that some back, usually one of the cornerbacks, was the one to do so.
You won't win anything without Clarke in goal but it might be very hard to win also unless the quality of the kickouts improve.

[joemamas]

Shane Nally excellent during the league, canon of a left peg off the bench vs Roscommon.

Coen/Drake are not shooters when the pressure is on, contrast Coens attempt to Barry John Keane down the other end. Very frustrating substitutions.

Could not agree more.

Coen may eventually end up full back, but not a guy you want with the ball anywhere near the opposing goal. Just too flat footed with no dummy in his arsenal.
I just mentioned to someone last night that if Regan or Loftus got that ball at that stage of the game v a tired back it could have easily ended up un the net.

[Mayo4Sam]

I read a lot of the comments last night. Regarding the fullback conundrum, I was more than surprised to see AOS back there. I didn't work in my opinion as he stood off Donaghy too much. I can understand ONeill's opinion of O'Shea negating the high ball in on top of Donaghy influence though. I maintain that O'Shea should be midfield, period.

Clarke was poor on kickouts imo yesterday. Kerry pressed up well on them so I could be harsh on him. The other backs did well enough. 2-14 conceded probably tells another story however. One thing I cannot understand is the persistent substituting of Colm Boyle. I just can't get my head around it. I thought he was one of the better performers we had yesterday. Keegan wasn't influential either. Maybe the illness/injury took a bit out of him.

Midfield was always going to be a battle. Thought we did well enough there. But how we missed AOS in that department. He has to start there the next day.

The half forwards didn't do much apart from Doherty in the first half imo. McLoughlin got on a lot of ball but he should have done more with it in scoring positions (I.e. score). Diarmuid O'Connor wasn't at the races I thought. Could have been taken off earlier. Andy Moran more than made up for them. 1-5 from play. Amazing from a man in the twilight of his years in a Mayo jersey. He's playing the best football of his life at the minute! Cillian was ok. Missed a sitter of a free early on. Fine margins and all that.

Rochford's continuing 'seeing something' in Drake which most others don't is quite worrying. He's not the man to put on to get a score. Loftus should have been brought on in his stead at the time for DOC. Agree with Bomber about Coen. He sadly hasn't lived up to his potential yet and I think Nally would be a better option than him.

I knew Kerry's defence was poor, but I never realised how bad the full back line were. I hope Mayo haven't missed the boat. Sadly though I think they have. In saying that no team deserved to lose it given the conditions yesterday. Up Mayo.

Farr, Boyler was blowing black smoke coming up to HT, at one stage Harrison had the ball and Boyler told him to pass it across the goal to Higgins rather than come up their wing

I also heard from reliable Westport people that Keegan was sick the last couple of days


Syf, are you really suggesting Doherty should be dropped? Outstanding yesterday again, what does the lad have to do

[shark]

Very unfair headline in the Sindo this morning about lions being led by donkeys.Article written by Eamonn Sweeny who usually is good but this is way below the belt.

Agreed. Poor article. It wasn't just the headline, he used the same terminology in the main piece.

[Mayo4Sam14]

Whats the most amount of matches a team has played in a single seaaon? If Mayo win the replay, after the final (barring any further replays) will have played 10 matches, two of which have gone to extra time

[sensethetone]

Whats the most amount of matches a team has played in a single seaaon? If Mayo win the replay, after the final (barring any further replays) will have played 10 matches, two of which have gone to extra time

Tyrone played 10 championships matched in 05.

[JoG2]

I read a lot of the comments last night. Regarding the fullback conundrum, I was more than surprised to see AOS back there. I didn't work in my opinion as he stood off Donaghy too much. I can understand ONeill's opinion of O'Shea negating the high ball in on top of Donaghy influence though. I maintain that O'Shea should be midfield, period.

Clarke was poor on kickouts imo yesterday. Kerry pressed up well on them so I could be harsh on him. The other backs did well enough. 2-14 conceded probably tells another story however. One thing I cannot understand is the persistent substituting of Colm Boyle. I just can't get my head around it. I thought he was one of the better performers we had yesterday. Keegan wasn't influential either. Maybe the illness/injury took a bit out of him.

Midfield was always going to be a battle. Thought we did well enough there. But how we missed AOS in that department. He has to start there the next day.

The half forwards didn't do much apart from Doherty in the first half imo. McLoughlin got on a lot of ball but he should have done more with it in scoring positions (I.e. score). Diarmuid O'Connor wasn't at the races I thought. Could have been taken off earlier. Andy Moran more than made up for them. 1-5 from play. Amazing from a man in the twilight of his years in a Mayo jersey. He's playing the best football of his life at the minute! Cillian was ok. Missed a sitter of a free early on. Fine margins and all that.

Rochford's continuing 'seeing something' in Drake which most others don't is quite worrying. He's not the man to put on to get a score. Loftus should have been brought on in his stead at the time for DOC. Agree with Bomber about Coen. He sadly hasn't lived up to his potential yet and I think Nally would be a better option than him.

I knew Kerry's defence was poor, but I never realised how bad the full back line were. I hope Mayo haven't missed the boat. Sadly though I think they have. In saying that no team deserved to lose it given the conditions yesterday. Up Mayo.

Farr, Boyler was blowing black smoke coming up to HT, at one stage Harrison had the ball and Boyler told him to pass it across the goal to Higgins rather than come up their wing

I also heard from reliable Westport people that Keegan was sick the last couple of days


Syf, are you really suggesting Doherty should be dropped? Outstanding yesterday again, what does the lad have to do

that's more a sign of recovery from another gut busting run. Boyle was immense yesterday, a real warrior and leader on the pitch. I was surprised that he was left on the entire game inc et against Derry in Castlebar as he usually is brought off between 50-60 mins

[joemamas]

Very unfair headline in the Sindo this morning about lions being led by donkeys.Article written by Eamonn Sweeny who usually is good but this is way below the belt.

Agreed. Poor article. It wasn't just the headline, he used the same terminology in the main piece.

Agree really disgraceful from someone who I thought was a decent writer.

Did the Mayo back room team make some mistakes, yes but to call Donie Buckley a donkey, or Mcentee or Rochford is just wrong. If he has any balls he would apologize.
As in " I went over board with my criticism"

Just read both the Irish times and independent, a lot of lazy one sided comments on the placement of Aiden o Shea on square and all Donahey did. clerkin the bandleader in the times.
He attributed Donaghy to being directly involved in 2-5 and oh btw it was all AOS fault. Pure Bullshit lazy reporting.

First goal was a turnover by Seamus o Shea's around 60 yards from Mayo goal. Donaghy who had been tracking back to tackle gets the ensuing ball. Aiden o Shea stayed on the Mayo 21 yard line as he should have as Mayo had the ball and were attacking. Was that goal his fault definitely not.

Second goal was caused by AOS not either judging a pass properly or not allowing for the greasy surface. It was not because he was full back, it happens on the 50 by then Cusack stand.
The ball was kicked in Seamus o Shea out jumped Donaghy and it happened to break to David Moran, who showed an excellent dummy to Boyle and we know what happened next.

I don't have the time to go and argue the 5pts that he said Donaghy was responsible for, it was more like 3pts.

IMO the experiment worked in the first half as, Mayo did not give up many scores due to the anticipated Ariel bombardment, in addition they controlled the middle third, so much so that Anthony Maher was removed at half-time.

Could he have been brought out in second half , maybe.
I also heard last night that AOS had the flu during the week. Could not verify that.

I have a bigger issue with Rochfords substitutions as in Coen and Drake. As opposed to Loftus and Regan (the latter was not on the 26).

[Syferus]

I read a lot of the comments last night. Regarding the fullback conundrum, I was more than surprised to see AOS back there. I didn't work in my opinion as he stood off Donaghy too much. I can understand ONeill's opinion of O'Shea negating the high ball in on top of Donaghy influence though. I maintain that O'Shea should be midfield, period.

Clarke was poor on kickouts imo yesterday. Kerry pressed up well on them so I could be harsh on him. The other backs did well enough. 2-14 conceded probably tells another story however. One thing I cannot understand is the persistent substituting of Colm Boyle. I just can't get my head around it. I thought he was one of the better performers we had yesterday. Keegan wasn't influential either. Maybe the illness/injury took a bit out of him.

Midfield was always going to be a battle. Thought we did well enough there. But how we missed AOS in that department. He has to start there the next day.

The half forwards didn't do much apart from Doherty in the first half imo. McLoughlin got on a lot of ball but he should have done more with it in scoring positions (I.e. score). Diarmuid O'Connor wasn't at the races I thought. Could have been taken off earlier. Andy Moran more than made up for them. 1-5 from play. Amazing from a man in the twilight of his years in a Mayo jersey. He's playing the best football of his life at the minute! Cillian was ok. Missed a sitter of a free early on. Fine margins and all that.

Rochford's continuing 'seeing something' in Drake which most others don't is quite worrying. He's not the man to put on to get a score. Loftus should have been brought on in his stead at the time for DOC. Agree with Bomber about Coen. He sadly hasn't lived up to his potential yet and I think Nally would be a better option than him.

I knew Kerry's defence was poor, but I never realised how bad the full back line were. I hope Mayo haven't missed the boat. Sadly though I think they have. In saying that no team deserved to lose it given the conditions yesterday. Up Mayo.

Farr, Boyler was blowing black smoke coming up to HT, at one stage Harrison had the ball and Boyler told him to pass it across the goal to Higgins rather than come up their wing

I also heard from reliable Westport people that Keegan was sick the last couple of days


Syf, are you really suggesting Doherty should be dropped? Outstanding yesterday again, what does the lad have to do

Not really, but if you want to make room for Loftus it's not going to be COC (in poor form in general this year, but will remain for his frees if nothing more), Moran, McLouglin or AOS (he was named at 11..) so the options for a switch would be Doherty and Diarmuid O'Connor, whose main roles are as workhorse linkmen. Doherty is playing better than O'Connor, whose form has been questionable for the bones of two years now and is prone to very poor fouls as well. But we've seen in the past that Mayo managers have seen Doherty as expendable in the past so were his form to dip it's not an unimaginable change.

[yellowcard]

Sweeney is usually a very good writer but that comment calling the Mayo management donkeys is a disgrace. You can disagree with their decisions but that terminology was uncalled for.

[highorlow]

I also heard from reliable Westport people that Keegan was sick the last couple of days

I heard that before the match also.

[Keyser soze]

I thought that putting O'Shea to fb worked out ok for Mayo.

Firstly it negated the high ball into Donaghy on the square. Donaghy getting the ball 40 yards out on the wing is a completely different proposition to him getting the ball on the edge of the small square. The first goal was a result of S O'Shea sleeping on the ball and getting turned over, 2 or 3 Mayo players made no effort to get back with O'Brien leaving Aidan exposed. I definitely wouldn't blame him for that goal. His poor effort to stop the ball going over the line prior to the 2nd goal was a pure joke, lazy big ++++. Nothing to do with being fb tho.

Secondly I think Aidan O'Shea gets a lot of possession in most games but is is far too slow to move the ball, his default setting is a solo, maybe 2 and then a 3rd with his right foot before looking to part the ball, I feel it's no coincidence that Mayo tore Kerry apart with fast first time ball and lots of running support when he wasn't there to slow it down.

[Keyser soze]

Sorry forgot to say that these were 2 relatively well matched teams playing in poor conditions who produced a real humdinger of a game that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Yet it appears that both of these teams are managed by complete fools, according to journalistic luminaries such as Joe.ie, social  media like Gaaboard and numerous commentators in MS media. 

[Zulu]

Thought AOS did ok at FB as well. I wouldn't go with that option myself but for those tearing into management what would be your alternative? If Kerry got two goals off high balls into Donaghy with a different marker AOS would have to have done a hell of a lot out at midfield to justify putting someone else on Donaghy.

I don't necessarily subscribe to the theory that Kerry have more scope from improvement. I think Mayo are very likely to do what they did to a lot of Kerry players again this Saturday and have players like Keegan, AOS, DOC and COC who can do better. The problem for Mayo is they don't have enough scoring forwards and no real impact subs.

For the replay I think they need to have AOS in the middle 8 and find a way to start Durcan. I think I'd put Vaughan to FB with Harrison and Barrett either side, Keegan, Boyle, Durcan in the HB line, SOS and Parsons at midfield, Doherty, AOS and McLoughlin in the HF line with COC, Moran and Higgins in the FF line with Higgins playing as an attacking sweeper. If Higgins was sweeping in front of a high ball into Donaghy I think they could deal with him even if he actually won more of those balls than he would against AOS. It would also give Mayo 4 strike runners from deep, Higgins and all the HB line.

You can't set up in a way that guarantees you'll win but I think Mayo are good enough that they should be more concerned about how they get their best players on the front foot rather than worrying too much about their opponents.

[Syferus]

I know it's revolutionary Zulu, but I'd put a fûcking back at FB.