Mayo Club Football.

[Peter Solan the Great]

Bullshit that you cant criticise the county final because some scum take exception to it and then try to justify it by using the tragedy preceding the match. Everyone knows Castlebar Mitchels policy in the Mayo county under-age set-up, its well known about their rent a player policy that last time they tasted a bit of success. I'm 100% glad that Castlebar Mitchels arent representing Mayo in Connacht. I see the lad has taken down his post too, justifying his wrongness by making something out of a nothing comment.

[muppet]

Bullshit that you cant criticise the county final because some scum take exception to it and then try to justify it by using the tragedy preceding the match. Everyone knows Castlebar Mitchels policy in the Mayo county under-age set-up, its well known about their rent a player policy that last time they tasted a bit of success. I'm 100% glad that Castlebar Mitchels arent representing Mayo in Connacht. I see the lad has taken down his post too, justifying his wrongness by making something out of a nothing comment.

I took down the post after a sensible request from Spuds. I don't think anyone will ever use the word sensible in relation to you. You screwed up and continue to justify and even add to your filth on this site.

[REDCOL]

Jesus Lads, can we take the hoganstand stuff off here, let it go. No need for personal attacks on both sides this is a gaa forum, send each other Pm's if you want. We all know the tragedy that affected the final, but these attacks over and back need to stop

[Peter Solan the Great]

Bullshit that you cant criticise the county final because some scum take exception to it and then try to justify it by using the tragedy preceding the match. Everyone knows Castlebar Mitchels policy in the Mayo county under-age set-up, its well known about their rent a player policy that last time they tasted a bit of success. I'm 100% glad that Castlebar Mitchels arent representing Mayo in Connacht. I see the lad has taken down his post too, justifying his wrongness by making something out of a nothing comment.

Hmm, there was me thinking you were half admitting your mistake. You are a dispicable excuse for a human being. There is a time and a place for your spurious argument. It most certainly is not now. f**k off back to Islandeady or Westport or wherever you're from and stop making things worse.

What mistake? that Castlebar  town itself is a national embarrassment. The town that gave us Pee flynn and Charlie Haughey. The club that sucked any talent it could find from surrounding clubs in the eighties and early ninties. No mistake on my behalf. Thank god for Westport in Mayo it gives some bit of respectability.

[moysider]

GAELIC GAMES: THE NETWORK of sub-committees appointed to conduct a comprehensive review of Mayo GAA will present their recommendations to the county board by next January.

Journalist and broadcaster Liam Horan, chair of the Mayo GAA Strategic Action Plan Steering Group, says the idea is to address general governance within the association in the county as well as to address disappointment on the playing field.

"The impetus comes from the national Strategic Action Plan, under which all counties are obliged to make proposals but also from a feeling after the championship defeat by Longford that a root-and-branch reform of the GAA in the county was needed."

He is anxious to dispel any notion that the initiatives are just another example of All-Ireland mania in the county.

"This isn't focused on winning an All-Ireland. We could win one and still have a lot of flaws within the system but we believe that if we set out to improve things across the board in the county then everything will benefit.

"Mayo has come through a very unusual 15 years. Reaching four All-Ireland finals means that we've been doing a lot right but equally we can do better. Back in the mid-1990s we could have been compared with Tyrone, coming up just short in a couple of championships and both having a vocational schools' power base.

"But quite clearly since then, they have moved on and not just on the playing field but in their approach to all GAA activities in the county. The purpose of this exercise is to identify what's working and what new developments are needed."

Among the issues to be addressed by the 10 sub-committees are: urbanisation, developing high-performance players and harnessing the support of Mayo people worldwide.

The Finance and Funding sub-committee will be based in Dublin and includes former county player PJ Monaghan, managing director of Leading Edge Project Directors, and features well-known names such as Mary Davis, CEO of the 2003 Special Olympics whose brother, Eugene Rooney, played for Mayo, Tom Mitchell, former provost of Trinity College, Dublin, former All Star Kevin O'Neill, and accountant Frank Walsh, brother of pop impresario Louis.

"Everyone involved in all of the sub-committees is committed to taking a fresh look at the way we do things and making recommendations," says Horan. "The county board will decide to accept or reject and then organise implementation. It's an open process and everyone who feels they have something to contribute is encouraged to visit the website, www.mayogaa.com, and make their own submissions on any of the issues under consideration."

What's he on about? Not a good sign when we get low level idiotic spin before the process starts, from the guy that s doing the gig. Christ I thought he knew better than this.

AI mania my hole. Why does he feel the need to mention AI mania? WTF is that brought up? Has he been conscious the last 4 years? Was he in Longford? OK he is a Mayo journalist  but if he is that institutionalised/out of touch, we would be as well off with one of the boys from the red tops or Martrin Brehony to review our position

.And there was never a vocational school power base in football in this county. In the mid 90s local colleges used to play the vocational school county team in challenges before their championship. If you couldn't beat them you were in trouble. Back then very few vocational school players made the Mayo minor team. The Dillon brothers and Paul Cody being exceptions. How many have made it since? Awful silly stuff by Horan.  If he was misquoted he needs to sort it out. If he is that scatty with events forget about it.

[AbbeySider]

What's he on about? Not a good sign when we get low level idiotic spin before the process starts, from the guy that s doing the gig. Christ I thought he knew better than this.

AI mania my hole. Why does he feel the need to mention AI mania? WTF is that brought up? Has he been conscious the last 4 years? Was he in Longford? OK he is a Mayo journalist  but if he is that institutionalised/out of touch, we would be as well off with one of the boys from the red tops or Martrin Brehony to review our position

.And there was never a vocational school power base in football in this county. In the mid 90s local colleges used to play the vocational school county team in challenges before their championship. If you couldn't beat them you were in trouble. Back then very few vocational school players made the Mayo minor team. The Dillon brothers and Paul Cody being exceptions. How many have made it since? Awful silly stuff by Horan.  If he was misquoted he needs to sort it out. If he is that scatty with events forget about it.

Breath Moy, Breath... 

I think what Liam is trying to get at is that the review of Mayo GAA wont be focused on the question of why Mayo have not won All-Irelands as thats an outcome based approach. The AI Mania is a thing that grips us as a county any time we get within a sniff of Croke Park and I think the mania includes local media as well as supporters. There is a naivety in the county that assumes that we should be contesting All-Ireland finals every year and I think that we need to get fundamentals right first before we should be asking the bigger questions. An audit from top to bottom from Born Na Nog structures to performance by committees; everything should be given a proper critique. If we started off reasoning why we lose All Irelands and work backwards we would go around in circles.

Calling our mid-90's Vocational Schools a power-base is definitely a stretch but is he just drawing a comparison between the two counties in the sentence or is it taking it out of context to focus on it? Is he saying that a lot of Mayo players came through the vocational schools program in the 90's and was therefore a power-base in that context?

[moysider]

They didn't. At least I ve moved things on from that row - I hope.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Jaysus Moysider you're in fierce bad form!!

I'd say the All-Ireland mania thing was merely a response to a question from a Dublin journalist. Which is a cliche at this stage. A small ring of truth in it.

Re Voc schools, neither county in question had the main power base in Vocational Schools but both Tyrone and Mayo colleges were regularly competing at All-Ireland Vocational Schools and Inter County Vocational Schools level.

Billy Padden, Marty McNicholas, Alan and Gary Dillon, Paul Coady, Shane Lindsay, Edmond Barrett, Barry Jordan would be some of the players who played county minor from a Vocational Schools background. I wouldn't base opposition to the entire proposals just because of a line like that which has some merit.

[AbbeySider]

I wasnt even going to post anything about the match after some of the comments posted on the board. Some of us are years posting here, going back to the old board around 2004 and even longer I think, but in all that time we have never seen such abuse and language that was written here in the past few days. Thats all im going to say about it apart from asking that people ignore comments that are personal or hurtful and dont rise to it as if we go down that road it will be the end. There is rules and an etiquette involved in posting abusive comments so I suggest they should be enforced.

I was back at work today after brilliant celebrations in local villages since the final on Sunday.

Many of the match reports dont read well and there is no defending it; the county final was a bad game. End of.

The amount of pressure on both teams, especially Castlebar, the build-up after the tragic and untimely passing of Ger Feeney and Donal McEllin, as well as it being a local derby, all had a negative effect on the game. The nerves were obvious on both sides and that lead to bad mistakes for both teams in the first half. For Alan Dillon and Douglas to miss their opening frees you could tell that the legs were jittery. It happens to the best of sports people and at the end of the day its an amateur sport and players are only human.

Saying things like the final, was any type of reflection on the "state" of Mayo football is so far out of touch its madness. St Galls are the current All Ireland club champions but that does not mean that Antrim are suddenly contenders for Sam? When was the last Tyrone club to make an impression on the All Ireland Senior club championship; and has that hindered them? It wouldnt worry me in the slightest that the county final the last day was a poor game, anyone that followed club football in the county knows both teams are capable of far more than they showed.

As a tactic, playing an extra man as a sweeper may have seemed negative but you have to play to your strengths. Our averages in scoring was a bit low so you counter that by making us a hard team to beat and crack defensively. We didnt always play a sweeper and we have gone through various tactical facets in the last 4 years under James Horan and when Tony Duffy was involved.

We didnt lose a league game last year and that was largely due to having a big man in the fullforward line in Kevin McGuinness and sending in long balls to him. Teams eventually studied us and countered that tactic so we had to change it again this year. Having a sweeper is a tactic that worked for us all year and we were only conceding a handful of points during games while grinding and edging out victories. We wont apologise for it.

If M&M or Maughan had played a sweeper in front of the Kerry full forward line in '04 and '06 and we had won those games would anyone be complaining?

Im not saying for a second that at county level in Mayo, such a tactic will be employed but I dont see anything wrong with working hard, containing a team
and hitting them fast on the break. Horan and Tom Prendergast are innovators IMO and depending on players they have at their disposal at county level, im sure they will use whatever tactics necessary to win with Mayo.

[muppet]

Good post Abbeysider and I hope you enjoyed the celebrations.

[stephenite]

Many of the match reports dont read well and there is no defending it; the county final was a bad game. End of.

Most County finals are bad games, in fact in a lot of sports, finals can be the hardest to watch -it's not a hard and fast rule but it's the general nature of these things and the failure of individuals to comprehend this fairly basic fact merely reinforces the view that they should be ignored as they haven't the wit to contribute sensibly.

[moysider]

Fair play Abbeysider. Great post.

[twotwocharlie]

check out www.winonehundredthousand.ie  great value for 20 euro

potential income for any club willing to promote this draw in their own area.

[Peter Solan the Great]

Many of the match reports dont read well and there is no defending it; the county final was a bad game. End of.

Most County finals are bad games, in fact in a lot of sports, finals can be the hardest to watch -it's not a hard and fast rule but it's the general nature of these things and the failure of individuals to comprehend this fairly basic fact merely reinforces the view that they should be ignored as they haven't the wit to contribute sensibly.

Ha this gets better, the reason the skill levels were so low was because it was final! pathetic no wonder Mayo football is where it is, with deluded fans such as yourself.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Many of the match reports dont read well and there is no defending it; the county final was a bad game. End of.

Most County finals are bad games, in fact in a lot of sports, finals can be the hardest to watch -it's not a hard and fast rule but it's the general nature of these things and the failure of individuals to comprehend this fairly basic fact merely reinforces the view that they should be ignored as they haven't the wit to contribute sensibly.

Ha this gets better, the reason the skill levels were so low was because it was final! pathetic no wonder Mayo football is where it is, with deluded fans such as yourself.

Maybe if more Covies played football instead of soccer and rugby it might be better.