All-Ireland SFC Quarter Final Mayo v Cork

[Chimley]

FFS. We shouldn't be running up the White flag before a ball is kicked. Should we withdraw from the championship a la Kilkenny for fear of meeting teams like Cork? Remember that they have everything to lose because nobody expects us to come within 10 points.

[Barney]

Talk about a pathetic attitude on here from Mayo fans.

We are Connacht champions, one of four unbeaten teams in the Championship with the chance to knock the All Ireland champions off their perch.

It is very very unlikely that we will succeed but by God we should be going out there chomping at the bit looking to put up a show. What if we were to beat them? How good would that feel? What's the point of even playing football or supporting a team if you don't meet these challenges head on.

And the fellas that are hiding behind their sofas afraid of what lies ahead are the very ones that will criticise the players if they do go and lose, and lose heavily. How can we build a winning mentality if we don't even have the desire to push ourselves towards doing everything possible to win in the first place?

I think it would be mad to play the game in Croke though. Yesterday showed how dead the stadium looks with a small crowd. The latter stages of the championship don't need that. Look at how the Meath/Kildare game looked in Navan, compared to in Croke Park earlier in the year. The small grounds with bigger crowds are definitely the way to go. The Mayo support in Roscommon was pathetic and has been dwindling. The Cork support will be non-existant.

On the pitch there is not much analysis you can do. Basically we need every one of our lads to play out of their skins, go for every ball, keep the head up when things go wrong and hope that they are close enough at the end that they have a chance to get over the finish line. Many of these players played in the 2006 All Ireland under 21 Final and Mayo won, Mayo beat Cork in the league 4 of the last 5 times we have met, but of course we did comfortably lose last years Final. While James Horan and his team will know they are up against it they won't be showing the white feather and we should stand toe to toe with them every step of the way. They have given us some pride back after the nightmare of last year, now lets repay their efforts.

[moysider]

It was always going to be Cork. No harm. We're years behind them in championship football.

The following is the Mayo team that beat Cork in the league a few months ago. Taken from the Red and Green blog.


Mayo 1-13 Cork 0-14 (McHale Park, 3/4/2011). MAYO: Robert Hennelly; Tom Cunniffe, Alan Feeney, Keith Higgins; Richie Feeney, Ger Cafferkey, Lee Keegan; Aidan O'Shea (0-1), James Kilcullen (0-2); Kevin McLoughlin, Alan Dillon (0-5, one free), Andy Moran (0-2); Cillian O'Connor (0-1, free), Alan Freeman (0-1), Jason Doherty (1-1).

It was one of the very few times that Horan put his 'championship' side out in the league and they did very well against a strong Cork side as I recall. We re improved since with the return of Trevor and Seamus O Sé. McGarrity would improve things a lot too. We actually more than held our own in April with Aidan O Sé well able to compete with the big men and Caff giving O Neill plenty of it.

But as we re reminded often enough championship is a different ball game altogether and thanks to the events since 06 we ve been starting from a very low place indeed. Because of the weather conditions last games out it is difficult to know where we are. It s a case of wait and see what we can do. We d also expect an improvement in our conditioning compared to recent years.

At least expectations will be nonexistant. Very few will bother travelling. I m away so I ve an excuse not to be there But the reality is for a team like us there will always be a Cork, Kerry or whatever. You cant avoid them and an ambitious county will try to take them out. It s too soon for us though. For what it is worth I believe Cork and Kerry will have to come back to the pack to be beaten in the next couple of years. Cant see the improvement in other teams. At the same time Mayo might surprise a few people next evening and keep it to less than 8/10 points by the end.

[kevmy]

Look we will be huge underdogs but there is no use in waving the white flag just yet.

Cork are good, very good, All Ireland Champs.

But I feel they aren't as good as last year, they are missing a few key forwards - which is probably their weakest sector, and they probably lack the same sense of mission of last yr after a good few yrs on the road.

I believe they are the best team in the country but that overall the standard of football now is not as good as it was a few yrs ago. The Kerry, Tyrone and Armagh teams of the mid-00's, at their best, were better than this Cork team is now.

On the other hand we don't know how good Mayo are. I think Horan has instilled a bit of grit into the team and more than anything I would like to see this in the QFs. If we have this then we won't do too badly.

[ballinaman]

Ouch. No harm though, you have to play teams like Cork eventually. Hope our boys go out there and give it a go, ala Tyrone 04. Nothing is sure in sport and I'll be there anyways. Alan Feeney, SOS have Caff and McGarity breathing down their necks for a starting position I'd say. I'd be inclined to leave Doherty and Freeman, dry day in Croke park could suit them, we need goals to have any hope, Cork will definitely beat us hands down on points anyways.

Wee Conoreen scored 2-4 for Shrule today by the way......

[ross4life]

Speaking of 2004 i was at the double header that day & all the talk was about Tyrone,Armagh & who would win when they met in the Semi finals. Well the favourites that day where beaten by Mayo,Fermanagh to set up a unlikely Semi final.

[ildanach]

Look we will be huge underdogs but there is no use in waving the white flag just yet.

Cork are good, very good, All Ireland Champs.

I agree. we are a better organised team than we have been for a long time and there is a work ethic that has not been there before. I am not saying we will beat cork but i think we will not get the beating we did in 1993.
This year we kept our division 1 place and won the connact title. we are a work in progress and cork are the all ireland champions.
But the defeatist attitude on here is pathetic. Cork won an all ireland last year after knocking on the door for a few years. The bar has been set for us for this year now. Are we as bad as Liam Hayes and Spillane and the likes of those pricks say we are or are we a new mayo who will go to croke park and be competitive and not the teams of the past clueless, squandering chances and not able to seal the victories.
I don't think we will win the quarter final this year, but i do not think we will be beat off the pitch either.
One more point, I think it will be an insult to mayo football and our footballers if the supporters stay away for fear of an awful beating. In the words of Ciaran Fitzgerald -where is your f**king pride

[Mayo4Sam]

There's no sign of the White flag and I'll be there, wherever there is, I'd say a double header with kildare in croker. I'd have to disagree with people calling for it outside croker, FFS it's hard enough to win Connacht without being told to piss off down to f**king tullamore or port laoise, we deserve our day up there.
I know we've beaten cork a lot in the league but last year was a terrific example, we competed well down in cork but two weeks later in croker we were given an awful lesson, I'm expecting more of the same. If Goulding is out it's a big bonus for us but d o'connor is a serious operator, hopefully a Walsh and Kerrigan will do plenty of shooting, IMO they're both equally terrible.
I think all this talk of grit is premature yet, coming from a few points down from Roscommon & Galway doesn't constitute grit IMO, however the 2nd half display against down in the opening league match did.
Look I'm not trying to be pessimistic but I don't see us bearing cork and if any of us has been asked yesterday would we come close to cork we'd have said no but it's in our nature to hype our chances as the day arrives....................sure come Friday I'll prob have us winning by a couple of points   

[INDIANA]

Based on what I saw yesterday pitchside.

Mayo need a miracle.

A good performance would round off a good year for Mayo. Its all they can hope for in my view.

I cant see anyone beating Cork.

[Goin Down]

Speaking of 2004 i was at the double header that day & all the talk was about Tyrone,Armagh & who would win when they met in the Semi finals. Well the favourites that day where beaten by Mayo,Fermanagh to set up a unlikely Semi final.

Ah the green and red against the green and white, hmmmm...

[ross4life]

Based on what I saw yesterday pitchside.

Mayo need a miracle.

A good performance would round off a good year for Mayo. Its all they can hope for in my view.

I cant see anyone beating Cork.

On that form yes but the Cork injury list is getting longer even Tony Davis  looked worried on the Sunday game.

[bucko]

Brolly reckons Cork'll wipe the floor with us, Davis is more cautious but reckons a win for Cork as well. Bookies will obviously make Cork unbackable favourites and we'll go in with no more than a snowball's chance in hell of winning. We'll be the complete underdogs and sure we'll have nothing to lose. Does that mean we should not bother turning up? No! We do that we definintely have no chance. It's unlikely we'll beat Cork, but it does'nt mean the lads should'nt give it everything, get in their faces and make them realise they're in a match. If Cork win having been made to work for it and we give it our best, then we'll have been beaten by a better team. Who knows, we may pull off a shock and then we'll be seriously in to bonus territory as far as this year is concerned. But taking the defeatist, don't have a hope attitude, then whats the point of bothering with it all?

[INDIANA]

Based on what I saw yesterday pitchside.

Mayo need a miracle.

A good performance would round off a good year for Mayo. Its all they can hope for in my view.

I cant see anyone beating Cork.

On that form yes but the Cork injury list is getting longer even Tony Davis  looked worried on the Sunday game.

Who will they be missing?

Goulding's injury isnt serious and they can probably get away with not playing him next week.

Colm O Neill is  a loss but he didnt start for Cork last year.

Sheehan is a  loss and Canty is back fit now.

This injury list is a red herring in my view.

[ross4life]

Based on what I saw yesterday pitchside.

Mayo need a miracle.

A good performance would round off a good year for Mayo. Its all they can hope for in my view.

I cant see anyone beating Cork.

On that form yes but the Cork injury list is getting longer even Tony Davis  looked worried on the Sunday game.

Who will they be missing?

Goulding's injury isnt serious and they can probably get away with not playing him next week.

Colm O Neill is  a loss but he didnt start for Cork last year.

Sheehan is a  loss and Canty is back fit now.

This injury list is a red herring in my view.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow how serious that Goulding injury is? he couldn't put any weight on his angle, his replacement O'Driscoll also went off injured.

[moysider]

Based on what I saw yesterday pitchside.

Mayo need a miracle.

A good performance would round off a good year for Mayo. Its all they can hope for in my view.

I cant see anyone beating Cork.

On that form yes but the Cork injury list is getting longer even Tony Davis  looked worried on the Sunday game.

Who will they be missing?

Goulding's injury isnt serious and they can probably get away with not playing him next week.

Colm O Neill is  a loss but he didnt start for Cork last year.

Sheehan is a  loss and Canty is back fit now.

This injury list is a red herring in my view.

I don t think it matters who is missing to be honest. Cork are not about losing to Mayo right now. While they were figuring a way to beat their neighbours and win an AI, Mayo were being stripped down and refitted for misery. It took 4 years for most people to cop on but still nobody is saying nothing. We can only hope that the current management and players have the bollocks to make a decent fight of it.

I don t see this as Mayo needing a miracle to beat Cork. What s the point of that? The nature of our matches so far means that we are held in contempt both at home and outside. A once off against Cork would do us no good long term. What we need the next day is structure, selection etc and dog performance. Stuff we didn t have in 93 and 99 v Cork for example. Back then we did our best for their self esteem and made them look really good and they still lost the finals. Maybe the next day we should give them a hard time of it like we did in the league instead of /and playing the old game 

In all the regrets about Mayo football nobody mentions 99, and yet it was set up for us but it was blown on selection and tactics at AI semi. The next day is not at that level for us, no matter how some people might get worked up about it. The next day is about this Mayo team not taking too much damage and learning a bit. There is a possibility if we tough it out big time we might be in with a chance at the end.