Messages

From Armagh

Happy to support any ulster county bar Down. Its their arrogance that I struggle with. Tyrone we love to beat but at same time will support them when they are playing a non ulster county. Out of all the other counties the only ones that I really had a bad experience with was Laois. Go home british b**tards etc in the 1994 league final. Same thing again in 03 1/4 final. Some of the best fans I have met were the Dubs, great craic and get a bad press for some reason.

I forgot about Laois.  The 2005 All Ireland Quarter Final is long forgotten because it was such a one sided game.  Basicly Armagh (at their peak) absolutely just stuffed Laois.  It was like boys against men.  At no point in the game was it even close, and Armagh who were famed at that time for hard hitting football never really had to up the ante.

This description of the match and circumstances makes the atmosphere at the game all the more remarkable.  The Laois fans were horrible, bitter, and aggressive.  They were foul mouthed and partitionist.  I've never seen the like of it before or since.

Had one fella giving out to my (at the time) 6 year old nephew outside the hoganstand bar saying f**k off back to Britain. Seems to be a thing with them. Anyway you cant let yourself be dragged down to the their level. On a more positive note best fans I think are Roscommon. The craic out of them is deadly. Plus it helps I have some friends from the disputed territory of Ballagh and the one sided town of Loughlynn. Cork fans I like for their stoutness, its like defeat is not an option but can take it when it doesn't work out for them.
Mayo I feel for. Jesus what is it gonna take.

If you have friends from Ballagh then you have friends from Mayo.

No Ballagh is inside the Roscommon border is it not ?

Basic geography isn't Mayo GAA peoples' strongest suit, God help the poor things.

Always liked the craic out of Armagh lads, by the way. Derry and Down tend to be good too but I haven't had many occasions to see our counties play.

Think it's under 23 to be eligible for YPOTY. O Connor would have another 2 years. He will probably make it 3 in a row this year.

Frightening how good he's going to be in a few years. He's taking frees off the ground with his left now in training. Expect him to be using right and left off the ground next year.

Didn't he take them from the left in the final? But yeah he should be well able for them next year.
If he can improve a few percentages over the next few years from open play he's going to be something else for us.

Taking them with his left foot off the ground I mean. 45's included. Said he's about 90% of where he is with his right at the moment.

Yeah but how long does he take over them? 

One Clux run and a half a Cake trot.

[Which would make a mockery of it all.]

Tyrone's only chance of an All Star is if Cavanagh is judiciously moved to midfield. Which would make a mockery of it all.

Sure that happened years ago!!! The All Stars are meaningless

They may have their faults but the one thing they aren't is meaningless.

I'd have McManus before O'Donoghue but he might get gifted one before Kerry made the semis and sure doesn't that mean Kerry deserve two All-Stars?

Hard to see Cian Sullivan getting a midfield All-Star. Didn't stand out much for me this year at all but people are talking about him at centre-back. I hope not.

[the All-Ireland-less neighbours]

Playing the All-Ireland-less neighbours (somethings never change, eh?) in the Connacht final,

In 1946??? You might want to check your history there

Hmm, I meant to say less All-Irelands but my story-telling prowess got ahead of me

Fixed for posterity.

Let me take you on a trip back to summer 1946, when Roscommon where Roscommon where the very-recent back-to-back All-Ireland champions and the undisputed kings of Connacht football.

Playing a team hungering after a ten-year All-Ireland famine (somethings never change, eh?) in the Connacht final, Roscommon win by a score-line of 1-07 to 0-06. All well and good and the natural order for such a match. But Jimmy (Murrary, the immortal Roscommon captain) had scored our goal but took the duty of waving the green flag into into his own hands, obviously inspiring many capers by Cake in the process.

Mayo, being sore losers, objected to this ad-hoc officiating and demanded a replay. A council surely manned by John Prenty's grandfather (just guessing here) agreed and a replay was set for August 11th 1946. Roscommon, as you would expect, won the replay handily, 1-09 to 1-02. But at half-time during the replay the teams did something quite strange:



Let's not forget that the above is the bones of both Roscommon and Mayo's greatest-ever sides. They knew their stuff and they also knew the true values of the GAA.

(Thanks to WJ for the orginal post and the pic)

[R Hennelly]

Great to see Mayo winning an All Ireland in Croke Park - a bit of a balls that it's overshadowed by the loss in the senior final though.

Have just watched the match again and Tyrone will feel they left this one behind them - when they brought it back to 3, they had chances to close it further and missed them. Similar to the senior game, the team who were able to take their scores better won the game.

Was just looking back to the 2008 / 09 minor teams and five from each team are in or around the panel although only three started last Sunday - Hennelly, AOS & COC. It will be interesting to see how many of the 2013 crop can make it....

Mayo - R Hennelly; D Dolan, K Keane, J Broderick; S McHale, E Reilly, S Nally (0-1); J Cafferty, G McDonagh; C Freeman (0-4), A O'Shea (0-2), R Geraghty (0-1); K Charlton, A Walsh (0-4, 3f), A Corduff (0-1). Subs - D Gavin (0-1) for Charlton (39), D O'Hara for Geraghty (49).

Mayo: Michael Schlingermann; David Gavin, Keith Rogers, Michael Walsh; Ciaran Charlton, Shane McDermott, Caolan Crowe; Danny Kirby, Aidan Walsh (0-6); Andrew Farrell, Darren Coen (0-1), Fergal Durkan; Daryl Herbert, Cillian O'Connor (2-0), Alex Corduff (0-1). Subs: Ian Costello, Jack McDonnell, John Carney (0-1), Michael McCormack

Not a bad return.

Hard to know with current crop. We might get a couple of seniors.
Stephen Coen looks the most likely. I think Hall and Plunkett maybe if they get the size.
Cunniffe and Cian Hanley have another year at minor and both looked very good already this year.

Eh? From a Mayo perspective no stone should be left unturned trying to develop Conroy (probably the most complete of the three FFs), Doherty (who is like a blinkered horse with the ball in hand, but obviously a very talented scorer) and Irwin who has the size and ability to develop into a senior. The other lads baring maybe Hanley would be coming into positions with good depth already.

So what exactly is that in English? Anto Farrell?

I'll climb the Reek bare-foot for ye next year, lads.

I honestly believe we were the best team in country this year. But Dublin in CP were a bridge too far.

You could make a case for how Mayo could have won the game however over the seventy minutes and all year the best team won the All Ireland. Croke park home games is what it is and Mayo were good enough to beat Dublin in front of full house last year and 2006 however on Sunday after few minutes of the second half it was clear this was another final that was a bridge too far.

People try to play this fatalistic card but Dublin for their part were severely limited, with only Brogan making much of an impact on the score-sheet. They were far from all conquering against a Mayo side hampered by injuries up front. Andy's goal may have been 'against the run of play' but how many times have we seen goals like that turn games on their head? Had Dublin not immediately responded with a goal they would have been in serious trouble when their team broke down in the final ten minutes with injuries and no remaining subs, they were in no shape to chase even a slender lead.

Dublin edged it but this was Mayo's golden opportunity. Mayo supporters should feel almost as sick as they did in 1996 as that game was there to be won.

Very likely if they (mostly) stick to positions but you could easily see them slotting in Cian Sullivan for Vaughan and moving Cavanagh to HF at the expense of Flynn or Connolly to make room for an O'Shea, with Seamie the most deserving.

[Small questions about the game....]

Well done to the Best team in the Country - Dublin. League, Leinster and All Ireland Champions. Dublin set the standard earlier in the year. And all of us knew who ever beat Dublin would end up AI champions.

For us another good year, just not a great year. Have to say the Performances from this group in this years championship were some of the best if not the best I've ever seem from a Mayo team. Made me real proud! Thanks Lads!


For Mayo it's another hard knock. My confidence in this team was on tinder hooks all year. For a county like us you need all the boxes ticked to claim an AI! We had a revolving door of new injuries and players returning from injuries. No team with aspirations can see their full forward line having constraints such as Flu (Freeman), dodgy shoulder (Cillian) and Fitness (Andy). Added to this Cunniffe going off, which stole us of Higgins in the forwards.

No player can hold his head in shame after this game. Every one gave 100%, even the players who were having a nightmare. And although it can be frustrating to watch players lose form. This cannot be helped.

Small questions about the game....

The non use of Feeney, I found baffling! He played 15 minutes in two AI finals?
Cillian not going for goal with the last kick of the game. Weather there was 30 seconds or not. Mad decision!
One of either Seamus O'Shea, Aidan O'Shea or Barry Moran not going n Full Forward toward the end of the game.
Was Cunniffe and Sheamie injured going into the game?
Why was Sheamie taken off?
Why didn't Horan do a Peter Canavan substitution with Andy? Let him be there for the start and the end!

and to next year....

Unlikely Horan to continue. Young family, responsible job, along with the energy needed to pick yourself up from yesterday.

Andy (if he stays) to get a chance to get fitter. After spending last year getting better from his injury.

Cillian, with the Pressure hopefully off. He should have time to sort out his shoulder, have proper rehab and come back complete.

We need to find a solid corner back to free up Higgins. Cunniffe has done ok this year, but seems injury prone. No sooner in any game had Higgins got into the grove of things in the HF line than he had to go back as Cunniffe had pulled up.

We need McLoughlin to return to the Mac of old. He has faded this year. Probably to much football? Trying too Hard to do difficult things? Hs best game was when he did the simple things really well.

Dillon, I'm afraid this is a bridge to far. Has been an excellent servant. And has been playing through the pain.

Conroy, Varley, Doherty, Coen, Carolan, Keane (and even Feeney) are they up to the standard to compete for us a big game?

Do we need to change our style?

If Horan stays will he Keep with this group. If he's looking at one more year, he nearly has to?

Sure Andy was on about the team planning on returning to training in November as All-Ireland champions and that they weren't planning on winning just one in an interview after the match. The Rossie is going nowhere, even questioning that he may retire when he hasn't even turned thirty is a bit much, Bunker.

I'd expect Dillon to come back stronger next year too.

I wish we had a border with Roscommon so I could say Id never cheer for them. Look at them trying to take over the thread going on about u16 tournaments!

The only neighbours I'd have time for is Leitrim and Westmeath. The rest are horrible hoors I'd never cheer for.

Cavan, Leitrim on a diet of spuds and just as spiteful

The dearth of the talent coming through has been over-egged in my opinion. I saw plenty of the U16 team this year and some of them are already good enough to be minor starters, particular the backs and the Brigids players on the team. We came back from seven down to beat the best Galway side in a 40 minute match and we were gassed against a Mayo EW (the eventual overall Ted Webb winners) team that had glorified kicking practice against Sligo's B team and still were neck-and-neck with five to go and only lost by three in the end. Players continue to be well-coached and for me that is the main thing at a level like U16. Last year's squad won the Ted Webb Shield and got to the Fr. Manning final, hardly a poor season. A good minor coach could easily make us competitive in the years ahead. Don't know much about this Fergie lad, sure we might as well try him?

On topic, Longford insisting on always playing the Manning Cup final in Longford negatively effects relations

I hear the Kildare lads are already training for the O'Byrne Cup.
They've invited members of the county board down to the K Club to watch them do star jumps and burpees.

I hear emmet bolton wants to join the mayo panel...............................

Squire, seeing as all that colluding we done with ye to turf out the Rhus worked so well, when can we expect the comprehensive list of Ros-eligible Dub players?