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Strangely I believe more than ever after that game that we will win the AI next year.

Yes we need to improve and push on. Yes we need to find/improve a couple of forwards. But I think there is something different about this Mayo team. The tenacity and mental fortitiude show nby the likes of Boyle, Keegan, O'Se, Moran, McLoughlin and Higgins was great. I think we'll need to have Andy in FF and find a couple of more options. Our goal scoring opportunities went with Andy, a great man to make ball stick and lay it off.

I hope Keegan will start (I expect him too though - a finger injury while nasty wouldn't prevent him from doing most of the training). Boyle on the other hand I'm not certain about - having a virus can really drain you. I'm not sure he will have the 70 mins in him. Barrett may start with Boyle as impact sub.

Also a very nice touch for Mayo to name Andy Moran as a selector in the team sheet.

I've a funny feeling either Jimmy Nallen or JH asked Mac to do those interviews yesterday. Media go crazy looking for an interview with the man, loads of talk of '06 and JoM and no talk at all about Mayo 2012. Maybe those rumours about a call going into Mac to help out weren't complete bull after all

Getting back to Sunday can anyone recall the match-ups for the league game, specifically who picked up Connolly? I've a feeling it was either Keane or McHale. Whoever it was Connolly didn't fancy him much.

For the next day I'd like to see Keane take Connolly and Caff take B Brogan. I would assume A Brogan will play at CF and I'd have Keegan take him. If McAuley goes out the field I'd have Zippy follow him out. We need to go man-to-man in my view. You cannot sacrifice a forward or midfielder against Dublin because of their short kick-out strategy. The haven't the best fielders of the ball at midfield but both McAuley and Bastick are mobile and if we leave them free they will have an extra man off their kickouts.

We lost the game doing this against Cork in the regular league game but JH had copped onto it by the Dublin game. However Dublin played a standard formation that day. We'll have to adjust if McAuley is played as a third midfielder.

I think Andy Moran was always a good footballer. I think in recent years he's become an even better one. Maybe some of it is down to James Horan but surely alot of it is down to the lad himself? To me he seems like a player that has worked very hard on his own on both his game and his athleticism. Become physically stronger as the years have gone by. Improved skill on winning and turning with the ball etc. More than anything else he has developed his leadership skills.

That's why Moysider is correct in saying he can't be replaced. He is quite unique. It's not to say Mayo wont bring in a replacement that will do well but it will be in a different role. Anyway best of luck to Andy in his recovery and to Mayo on Sunday.

Apparently Andy puts quite a bit of his physical improvement down to doing less weights which makes him a bit more nimble and quicker over a few yards. The way Andy wins ball is by getting ahead of his man, judging the flight of the ball and then using his strength to hold his marker off. If he can't get ahead of his man he won't win too much ball.

He could always kick scores and was usually a player to demand the ball. I'll agree his leadership skills have also come on - but this often happens naturally as players get older.

In terms of the Sligo game. We absolutely dominated the game from number 1 to 9. Our problem was we didn't take our chances efficiently enough.

It wasn't even the old (and at this stage it is old) Mayo failing of passing the buck and shooting terrible wides. It was trying to engineer goal chances when points were on. Add in the disallowed goal early on. If that had been allowed I think we would have kicked on and defeated Sligo easily enough.

And I think that Sligo backs unit gave us a much tougher day than the Down one will. The problem is the Down midfield is miles better than Sligo's and they also have a couple more handy forwards.

The little bit I've seen of Down this year seems to indicate that their forwards are capable of putting up a good score provided they have a stable base at midfield. Their defence will leave some gaps - despite being a Northern team - they stay somewhat true to Down tradition and can be exploited if midfield dominance is gained.

A couple of years ago Marty Clarke made them very dangerous even if they got limited ball as he was very good at using it and took some pressure off Coulter. He also added some bulk to a relatively small forward unit. He's gone now and is a serious blow to Down.

People talking about playing O'Sé at 11 should think again in my view. Geragthy won't win that much ball for us and Barry Moran has not yet proven himself against a top team (although I grant that I'm much less worried about him now than I was 2 months ago). Play Moran and O'Sé at midfield, get dominance there early and leave it in to Andy at FF. Hopefully O'Connor and Conroy are playing off him in the corners and we shouldn't get the ball held up in the half-forward line. That should be Plan A. I'd play Freeman at CHF (possibly a fully fit S O'Sé)

Plan B can involve taking off an under-performing forward and moving A O'Sé to CHF and getting him (and McLoughin) running at Down with aid from the attacking HB's. 

If AOS is fit he starts at midfield end of, we dont' have the luxury of using the likes of him up front.

You obviously missed the first half of the Sligo game? We dominated a midfield that previously dominated the Galway midfield and this was throughout the whole game even prior to A.O'Shea coming in.

Most of our problems over the last few years were down the middle, even if we had the forwards up front we weren't getting enough ball to them.

Galway haven't had a decent midfield since Kevin Walsh left so I wouldn't get too excited about besting them. We have to be aiming at beating Cork, Kerry and Dublin around midfield. While Barry Moran has done great the last couple of games he is still in the mould of a traditional midfielder. AOS gives us more mobility, on the ground ball winning ability and the possibility of putting a few lads on their arse which we'll need to beat the serious contenders.

I don't think he's suited to FF as he's not facing the goal that much in there. He might be a possibility at CF but I'd leave him at midfield cos he'd best there.

What is it about us that we spend 5-10 yrs looking for a FB,CB and MF and when we finally settle on them people are saying move Keane to FB and move Vaughan away from CB and take our best MF and put him in FF.

For me we are only missing one of the the central 7 positions. Clarke, Caff, Vaughan, B Moran, AOS and Andy are all nailed on certainty through the spine. We do need to find a CF (or FF) to do the job for us. I think of our available resources either Freeman or SOS at CF are our best options to fill this gap.

Not a good game, especially in the first half - it did pick up a bit in the second however, but the most important thing is we got the victory.

As mentioned previously 1-9 were all good, some very good. I thought Keane, Caff, Boyle and B Moran the best in this sector. Add McLoughlin, Dillon and A Moran to that in the forwards, along with Aido when he came in and it doesn't look like a bad performance. And overall when we look back on it it wasn't that bad of a performance.

I felt initially (first 10 mins or so) our quality of ball into the forwards was poor but it improved after that. The main problem all day was the options we took up front. Sometimes we went too much for goals, sometimes we rushed our shots, sometimes there was plain bad finishing.

On the going for goals too much front I would say it happened maybe 3 or 4 times. One in particular memorably with Donie Vaughan and another time when Doherty shipped a huge shoulder of Donovan (I think). However I think this is a tactic to be honed rather than abandoned. I have felt we've suffered from not taking our goal chances over the years - think of last years Semi with Kerry 5 good goal chances and only one taken.

The other extreme was rushing our shots. Conroy was guilty of this when he came on but Doherty snatched at one in the first half as well. I thought Conroy did well when he came on - he made lots of good runs and showed well for the ball. Maybe however he's better as a sub coming on fresh against tired legs considering if he misses a couple of the start of the game his confidence appears shot.

Bad finishing came about mainly from O'Connor (surprisingly) three frees wide (I think) and one passed short along with another from play. We all know he has the talent and there is no-one else on the squad that would have nailed the '45 near the end. I'd agree with moving him into the corner. Keith and Andy also had two bad misses from fisted attempts which shouldn't happen really.

I'd hope that the tough game and the extra couple of weeks should help in ironing out some of these problems. I'm not overly worried about who we get in the QF's. Kerry, Tyrone and Kildare would be the main threats obviously but one of them will be gone by then. And tbh if we are looking to cement a place alongside Cork and Dublin as part of the best teams in the country we have to be beating any of them.

I think the majority of Mayo people know/expect our 1-8 if all fit. After that there is some discussion. Most, if not all, would also feature Andy somewhere. Personally I'd add Dillon, McLoughlin and O'Connor (if properly fit) to that. In fact I think McLoughlin is the most underrated forward we have - consistent, hard working, wins ball, chips in with a couple of points, pacy.

The issues really revolve around where those 4 should play and who should take the 2 corner spots and the other midfield spot. Personally I'd have McLoughlin and Dillon at 10 and 12 as they seem to play their best football there. Andy is probably our best CF and best FF but can only play in one position. While I think he's more effective out the field but I think he might be more useful at 14 because of the game I think Horan is trying to play.

I think Horan is going for goals. Everything about his teams are set up for taking goals. It's been our Achilles heel for the last 15 yrs - a lack of goals and goal takers especially at crucial times in big games. Watch the drills the forwards will do in the warm up before the game on Sunday. They will do two in particular - roll on the ground and pop the ball up (this is for not losing the ball under pressure of 5 men) and the other will be a 2-on-3 goal taking session involving all the forwards at least twice. This is why he'll pick at least one from Doherty/Freeman in the corner spots. Conor for all his score taking ability down the years was never a great - even good - goal scorer, Conroy from what I've seen is similar.

Andy as has been pointed out is generally great at winning ball (better than O'Connor at this stage) and will be used to win the ball at FF and lay it off for Doherty/Freeman, or go himself, to get goals.

I would say it's between Rory O'Caroll and Cillian O'Connor.

As a Mayoman I've seen more of O'Connor so obviously I think he should get it. Played very well against Galway and Ros and got a great goal against Kerry. Add to that his freetaking under pressure and in terrible conditions.

I think his overall point is correct. If Donegal came out and played a 15 v 15 man game the last day they wouldn't have stood a chance. In fact if they played that way they wouldn't be in a semi if we judge them on their last 20 yrs worth of performance.

McGuinness set them up they way he thought got the most out of them. And he's not far wrong. People can call it negative and that ideally its not the way to play football but Donegal don't exist in an ideal world. And Lacey going off was probably a bigger turning point than the sending off but got very little coverage.

And for Spillane to call it Shi'ite and war crimes and stuff like that is insensitive and insulting to a large minority of people. I can't believe he gets away with this cringeworthy stuff that passes as analysis.

Also history has turned the Meath team of O'Rourke's era into heroes despite a style of playing that was distasteful too many. Why is that? Because the won? Or because of a Leinster bias? I don't know.

Donegal aren't the harbingers of Armeggedon any more than Tyrone or Armagh or Meath or anyone else. Generally the best team in the country wins the AI and every other one tries their best along the way but ultimately they fail. And for whats its worth I believe we do have the two best teams in the country in the AI final.

Aidan Walsh,Neil Douglas were two fine under aged Mayo forwards why are these guys not getting a chance at senior level?

We haven't really seen Aidan Walsh at senior level yet. Douglas got a bit of a run in the league but picked up an injury. We also have Cathal Freeman who is another good young player who's injured this year.

I think thats part of the reason why Mayo folk aren't too disappointed. In '04 and '06 that was that teams peak, they weren't going to get much better. This team is young enough, with talent still coming through to improve considerably, which will be needed to win an AI

At this moment in time it's difficult to see how exactly the team or squad will develop to one which can challenge kerry. Mortimer and Andy, the best players this year are probably the longest serving and cant improve further. The O'sheas are'nt mobile enough for midfield. Freeman has gone back from last year and Doherty has not held any consistancy. Mark R is probably still one of the best club forwards but it looks like he's not in the plans, who can be drafted in to score 5-6 points from play in big games. While Horan has made strides, the first year seems to be the one where the biggest gains are made for any manager and next years will tell alot. We still need another top class defender and scoring forward and elimating  the bad mistakes and then some luck against the better teams

The blueprint is there from Cork and Armagh.

Keep developing, keep working on fitness and physicality, gain more experience, cut out mistakes, gain a couple of more young players (and they are out there from minor teams of 08/09), hold onto your more senior players.

At least 6/7 of Kerrys points from the 30 to 50 mins came directly from Mayo mistakes/stupid frees. Cut that in half next year and instead of the goal getting it back to a 5 point gap its a 1 or 2 point gap. Do that and your in the game with 10 mins to go.

Interesting Mayo4Sam - shows the ambition and belief present in this Mayo setup.

I hope we take a leaf out of Armagh and Cork's (and to a certain extent Dublin's) book and come back next year. And if we fail to win an AI next year fail better and keep failing better til we win Sam.

Andy Moran deserves one.

Cillian O'Connor has a chance at Young Player of the Year.

T Mort has a shot - mainly based on a lack of outstanding wing backs and the bit of sentimentality that sometimes comes into play. If he does get one it would mean all three Morts would have an All-Star.

After that I don't think any other Mayo player played consistently enough to get one (bar Kevin McLoughlin possibly)