Mayo V Sligo - Connaught senior final - July 15th

[kevmy]

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.

[Mano]

Poor game and poor performances from both teams yesterday. Both teams had their homework done and cancelled each other out. Sligo by preventing Mayo half backs from raiding forward and Mayo by playing sweeper in front of Kelly and Marren. Game was decided in midfield where Moran and OShea dominated. We simply do not have midfielders big and strong enough to compete against the top teams. That combined with brutal kickouts from Greene allowed Mayo dominate that area.
Horans gameplan for his corner forwards is a strange one -it must not involve putting the ball over the bar. Varley and Doherty had little or no impact on the game and Donovan had Varley in his pocket from early on. Mortimer would have done lot more damage abs would have at least threatened the posts.
Ball into Kelly and Madden was atrocious in first half with the wind and our half forwards were too deep to have an impact in attack. That said Mayo full back line were very solid and didn't give much space to our inside line. Mayo will need to improve and put scoring forwards in the corner forward positions as Sligo sussed them out yesterday and future opponents will also. Nit sure if Sligo will have the appetite for the back door and have a tough draw. Time will tell

[Mac2]

Awful game, despite Mayo's dominance this was a game they could easily have lost, dodgy point and gift of a free at the start of the 2nd half helped them along. Varley had a shocker, I can't see him keeping his place, Doherty wasn't a whole lot better and once again O'Connor proves he's no CHF. I hate to see the pulling down of players near the end of a match, it's negative in the extreme.

[sligoman2]

The only positive i can glean from this was that only a few players had a good game and we still could have won it.

Donovan, ewing and egan were the only players that met expectations in my opinion. High balls into marren and kelly never have and never will work, it needs to be low and into space.

Our midfield is really struggling, which makes everything else very difficult.

Keep the heads up, we are still in it and cant see as many players having an "off day" in 2 weeks time

[Rossfan]

. High balls into marren and kelly never have and never will work, it needs to be low and into space.

I couldnt understand that at all , two small forwards being marked by lads nearly a head above them.
Overall Mwr always looked more dangerous in attack and once they equalised there was never going to be any doubt as to the winner.
Still Sligo ought to be able to give a better account of themselves v Kildare/Limerick than their abject display v Down in 2010.
I presume if it's Kildare it will be a Croker outing for ye ,

[moysider]

Awful game, despite Mayo's dominance this was a game they could easily have lost, dodgy point and gift of a free at the start of the 2nd half helped them along. Varley had a shocker, I can't see him keeping his place, Doherty wasn't a whole lot better and once again O'Connor proves he's no CHF. I hate to see the pulling down of players near the end of a match, it's negative in the extreme.

While we should avoid hanging lads out to dry the forwards are going to have to take a hit again.

We ve been trying to understand tactics and stuff but in the case of at least one forward yesterday the problem is pure and simply lack of quality. It s not going to improve and Horan is kidding himself if he persists.

We re not really playing with a CHF so O Connor going inside is not going to affect the hf line much. McLoughlin and Dillon are responsible for most craft and guile around there anyway. The thing is will O Con be an improvement inside anyway? I suspect we ll find out the next day. We have to because yesterday s stuff cannot be repeated. If O Connor had pace you could go with 2 inside. Maybe that s the way to go anyway? 2 from Andy and Conroy/Cillian. Andy has to stay inside cause nobody else can win ball and use it ( though I can t understand why Sligo did not switch a rampant Ross Donavan onto him).

Harte missing limits the options for the half forward line but Freeman should be started here. A fit again SOS would give us options too. But it is not easy to see how we can get a balanced unit from what we have, with the shortcomings that have become glaring at this stage even though they have been obvious for some time.

Evan Regan has been injured and wasn t even togged. He s slight and he s young but likes of David Kelly is no monster. A fit Rean will have to leapfrog a couple of these forwards. He could be no worse and he probably be a lot better. As a forward if he s not good enough at 19 he probably never will be. Tyrone had no issue bringing young McCurry and throwing him in against Ross.

[moysider]

. High balls into marren and kelly never have and never will work, it needs to be low and into space.

I couldnt understand that at all , two small forwards being marked by lads nearly a head above them.Overall Mwr always looked more dangerous in attack and once they equalised there was never going to be any doubt as to the winner.
Still Sligo ought to be able to give a better account of themselves v Kildare/Limerick than their abject display v Down in 2010.
I presume if it's Kildare it will be a Croker outing for ye ,

What else was going to happen? While the Mayo match up s were not like I expected I have to say Mayo management got them spot on. A lot is being made of the quality of ball into the two, I suspect that it was as good as they could manage. Walsh was annoyed about the amount of ball kicked down the throat of the sweeping player - often Higgins - surely he was expecting a covering player in the space in front of Kelly and Maren? The ball was high to get over the cover. Mayo had too much pace to kick around them. As a result K&M had to come deeper and deeper to get on controlled passses. In spite of all of that Marren managed to get on the end of a good few chances. He kicked something like 5 wides. I wouldn t be surprised if Kildare come unstuck against Lim or more probably Sligo.

[Hound]

I think Mayo will go far this year, at least the semi-finals. They only team I'd fear (from their perspective) is Cork, and they can't meet them till the final.

They played pretty much as badly as they could and still beat the 2nd best team in Connacht. They came through a pressurised situation and I never thought they'd lose (albeit gotta couple of breaks late on which probably deprived Sligo of getting a deserved last gasp draw). I think we'll see a big improvement from Mayo in the quarters in Croker in early August.

[ballinaman]

I think Mayo will go far this year, at least the semi-finals. They only team I'd fear (from their perspective) is Cork, and they can't meet them till the final.

They played pretty much as badly as they could and still beat the 2nd best team in Connacht. They came through a pressurised situation and I never thought they'd lose (albeit gotta couple of breaks late on which probably deprived Sligo of getting a deserved last gasp draw). I think we'll see a big improvement from Mayo in the quarters in Croker in early August.

And whoever they meet in the quarters will fancy that they can take Mayo handily enough, suits us down to the ground.....should be an interesting bank holiday weekend.

[moysider]

I think Mayo will go far this year, at least the semi-finals. They only team I'd fear (from their perspective) is Cork, and they can't meet them till the final.

They played pretty much as badly as they could and still beat the 2nd best team in Connacht. They came through a pressurised situation and I never thought they'd lose (albeit gotta couple of breaks late on which probably deprived Sligo of getting a deserved last gasp draw). I think we'll see a big improvement from Mayo in the quarters in Croker in early August.

And whoever they meet in the quarters will fancy that they can take Mayo handily enough, suits us down to the ground.....should be an interesting bank holiday weekend.

There ll be no problem with hype anyway after yesterday. Poor Mayo crowd in the Hyde yesterday for a Minor/Senior doubleheader.

Strange and different reactions around town last night. Most who had attended the game were happy and saw considerable merit in the way we dug out a hard win and agreed that most individuals performed well. Those who stayed at home and watched tv were dismissive and underwhelmed. Those who went fishing instead were contemptive of any suggestion that any positives could be taken from the performance! As usual the most vociferous opinion in the county comes from those       informed by The Western and local radio.
Not complaining. The more these gobshites stay home the better imo. Of course Conorgate is still the major news. Yesterday s poor showing by cornerforwards could not have been more unfortunate in its timing as far as management is concerned.

[Drummer]

You know Cosmo, you have put a decidedly positive spin on my post and seen as it's getting late. I won't state anything negative in my brief synopsis of the game. I, like yourself am having to eat humble pie about Barry Moran. Also fair play to the lads for having the guts to come back to win. Under a previous regime where Mortimer's club, this more than likely would not have happened. Anyway, well done to the lads. True there are lots of things to learn from. I'll post about them tomorrow night sometime.

Farrandeelin, would you mind clarifying what you mean in reference to "Under a previous regime where Mortimer's club"?

[Mac2]

I think Mayo will go far this year, at least the semi-finals. They only team I'd fear (from their perspective) is Cork, and they can't meet them till the final.

They played pretty much as badly as they could and still beat the 2nd best team in Connacht. They came through a pressurised situation and I never thought they'd lose (albeit gotta couple of breaks late on which probably deprived Sligo of getting a deserved last gasp draw). I think we'll see a big improvement from Mayo in the quarters in Croker in early August.

And whoever they meet in the quarters will fancy that they can take Mayo handily enough, suits us down to the ground.....should be an interesting bank holiday weekend.

I think most teams apart from Kerry would be wary enough given that Mayo surprised Cork last year as we're always capable of creating an upset when we get this far.

[ballinaman]

I think Mayo will go far this year, at least the semi-finals. They only team I'd fear (from their perspective) is Cork, and they can't meet them till the final.

They played pretty much as badly as they could and still beat the 2nd best team in Connacht. They came through a pressurised situation and I never thought they'd lose (albeit gotta couple of breaks late on which probably deprived Sligo of getting a deserved last gasp draw). I think we'll see a big improvement from Mayo in the quarters in Croker in early August.

And whoever they meet in the quarters will fancy that they can take Mayo handily enough, suits us down to the ground.....should be an interesting bank holiday weekend.

I think most teams apart from Kerry would be wary enough given that Mayo surprised Cork last year as we're always capable of creating an upset when we get this far.

And we're equally capable of having a mare of a day as well....A team which has won a few qualifiers on the bounce will always fancy their chances against us. No harm in that at all sure, we'll be the forgotten team come the bank holiday weekend I imagine.

[saffronandblue]

Two forward players gone from the panel in the form of Mortimer and Harte and still no sign of Kilcoyne coming back into the panel.  Very hard to believe when you see the performance of some of our forwards over the last 2 years never mind the last two games.  He must be considered as an option.  I know lads on the current panel cannot believe that he is not involved.

It has been preached to me on here that Horan was going to pick players on there current form.  Apart from Dillon, O' Connor, Moran and McLoughlin, when did these other forwards last have a half decent day out.  It is 2 years since some of them had a decent game in a competitive match.

Our hopes rest with one Aiden O'Shea.  A bullock of a man and not since the 'bomber' Brogan have I seen a Mayo player who is quite capable of turning a game on his own.  Fair play to him for getting over the injury and for driving the team on yesterday.

[Lar Naparka]

You know Cosmo, you have put a decidedly positive spin on my post and seen as it's getting late. I won't state anything negative in my brief synopsis of the game. I, like yourself am having to eat humble pie about Barry Moran. Also fair play to the lads for having the guts to come back to win. Under a previous regime where Mortimer's club, this more than likely would not have happened. Anyway, well done to the lads. True there are lots of things to learn from. I'll post about them tomorrow night sometime.

Farrandeelin, would you mind clarifying what you mean in reference to "Under a previous regime where Mortimer's club"?

Arra, the poor devil has so much humble pie to eat that he's probably too stuffed now to get back to you.
(I'll be waiting for his answer as well because I'm never sure what the hoor is on about at anytime. )