Messages

Good draw for United.

Great start for Lukaku, lost count of how many told me he only scores against the smaller clubs. Given what happened last season thats exactly what we need. Matic has settled in brilliantly but still think we could do with one more whether it be a wide player or preferably a left back.

Good to see Martial back to his form from his first season, would be like a new signing after how average he was last season.

Take out the free taking and thats the true scoring stat, Kerry look out ye are beaten already, Mayo supporters offering to exchange hurling final tickets for football final tickets with Galway supporters

Frees count , most frees scored  are caused by a foul when the opposition are in a scoreable position sometimes in with a goal chance .
the vast majority of the time the top scorer is the free taker
It only when your free taker is  off form you realize his  Value

Can't remember what last years stats were but COC's free taking isn't what it used to be. Think the stat I saw earlier was he's 33% from over 35m, i'd be very confident that he was a lot better than that 2 years ago.

No more than Mayo, I'm sure Galway fans don't know where they are at yet, apart from CP on Sunday. Did they take Ros for granted? We won't know I suppose (Ros v Mayo won't be much of an indicator either). I didn't see the Connacht final, nor the Galway Donegal game so I assume they may be better than they fared against Ros. Saying all that, I can't see them giving Kerry much bother, and unfortunately for Galway that's all that counts really.

I don't know how lightly Galway took Roscommon if they even did take them lightly but there's no denying Galway in those first 15 minutes were appalling and could easily have been 12 or 13 points down they were that bad.

Unfortunately you can't trust this Galway team yet which is fairly obvious given the Tipp & Roscommon games in the last 12 months and even the Donegal defeat in 2015. I'm hoping the current crop will improve with the more games they play in Div 1 and with a better defensive structure they should close the gap on those above them but until a few better defenders come along Galway won't be contenders for the big prize.

It's great to be there and we could have a punchers chance but if KW stubbornly persists with picking underperforming players in defence yet again, it's really a forlorn chance.

Not sure much can be done personnel wise at this late stage. We don't even have that many defensive options on the bench.

Sean Andy will get his shot at full-back during the league. Bigger, quicker and more athletic than Kyne. But Walsh still needs to find two new corner-backs from somewhere for next year.

I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of Kerin, its a shame he's missed most of the year through injury. He is quick and strong and has the makings of a good corner back. Sweeney did very well in 2015 and had good games on COC, Jamie Clarke & McBrearty but unfortunately hasn't got back to those heights. Sean Andy will likely get his chance in the league but i'm hoping KW has someone else lined up for that full back line.

What concerns me most is that KW is fully aware of the limitations of Kyne & Sweeney yet leaves them wide open time and time again, by now he should have a system in place that offers them some sort of protection. Galway conceded 8 goals in those championship defeats to Donegal, Tipp & Roscommon and the majority of those goals could easily have been avoided.

No more than Mayo, I'm sure Galway fans don't know where they are at yet, apart from CP on Sunday. Did they take Ros for granted? We won't know I suppose (Ros v Mayo won't be much of an indicator either). I didn't see the Connacht final, nor the Galway Donegal game so I assume they may be better than they fared against Ros. Saying all that, I can't see them giving Kerry much bother, and unfortunately for Galway that's all that counts really.

I don't know how lightly Galway took Roscommon if they even did take them lightly but there's no denying Galway in those first 15 minutes were appalling and could easily have been 12 or 13 points down they were that bad.

Unfortunately you can't trust this Galway team yet which is fairly obvious given the Tipp & Roscommon games in the last 12 months and even the Donegal defeat in 2015. I'm hoping the current crop will improve with the more games they play in Div 1 and with a better defensive structure they should close the gap on those above them but until a few better defenders come along Galway won't be contenders for the big prize.

AZ, you sound like me after watching a game live in that you missed a whole lot of things. I thought Petey Harte didn't have a good Ulster final but when i watched it again on TV I completely changed my mind.
It's good to be at games cos you see things that you miss on TV but you get a better all round view of the game from tv coverage I feel.

I agree with mrhardyannual and Tomás O'Se on TSG in that Rochford nearly cost Mayo that game with his crazy changes in the second half. I don't know what to make of him as a manager as in one way I thought he got his tactics right against Tyrone and Dublin last year but then he tends to make some very rash decisions. I think maybe he thought Cork will play a very open game and so they were happy enough to do the same and for the neutral it was a very entertaining game of football.

I thought CoC had an excellent game and really looks a top notch all star forward these days. He looks to already have top scorer for the season wrapped up with 2.40 after 5 games and I'd say he fancies his chances getting to an AI semifinal. Conor McManus is the next player still in the championship with 2.17.

Aidan O'Shea looks to have reacted to his criticism and has upped his game this year and is playing much better as a team player.
Mayo have got back to the quarterfinal stage again, the long way and I think they are actually benefitting from getting momentum from the qualifiers. I think Roscommon will suffer from their lack of matches as they've only really had one decent game all season going into a big game in Croker. When was the last time they won a quarterfinal in Croker?

Fair play to Connacht for getting 3 of their teams into the quarterfinals though it looks like Mayo will have to beat Roscommon and Galway again to get to the final. 

I'm not sure Rochford can take all the blame on the subs, it's not like he was throwing on complete mugs. The game was as good as won so if you can't give players game time in that situation, how can you be expected to rely on them in the dying minutes against Dublin.

You'd think he'd brought on average players with some of what I've heard in the media. Durcan & Vaughan were the first 2 subs to come on in that half back line and I don't need to tell any of the Mayo lot that both started in the AI finals last year. The rot had already set in well before Keegan received his black card.

Did Corks comeback coincide with SOS substitution? He came off after 50 minutes when I think Mayo were 7 points clear.  I heard James Horan mention on one of the podcasts about SOS coming off and how it affected the half back line. Given what we've seen this summer SOS would do well to last more than an hour and as its his 4th game in 5 weeks this will only exacerbate the issue.

I think it's more like Donegal and Cavan don't have the players or the system at the moment. Neither did much in the league. Monaghan are a bit off their peak of a year or 2 ago.

Ros targeted Galway's weak point which was the kickout. They scored 1-3 from it.
that gave them the momentum to win the match.

Cavan won 4 in a row Ulster U21 titles 2011 to 2014, don't have the players? this year was their first year back in Div one for a long time, they were still in with a chance of staying up in round 7 having beaten Mayo in MacHale park,drew with Monaghan and Kerry. Donegal finished 3rd in Div one this year only missed out on the final on scoring difference. Jury is out on Monaghan if they have peaked or not they have a mixture of youth and experience on their team now and another All Ireland quarter final appearance for them has to be considered another good years work.


Generally to win any match you must play to your strengths and attack the weak points of the oppsotion as best you can.

Galway won 3x u21 all Irelands recently and don't have all the players they need
4x u21 provincial might get you 2 or 3 seniors

Playing to the right system to get the best out of your players has been Galways problems over the years. You are doing something seriously wrong if you only get 2 or 3 seniors out of 4 provincial winning U21 teams.

From the 2011 & 2103 AI wining u21 teams only Flynn, Walsh, Comer & Burke started  with Cummins coming off the bench. FOC was injured on Saturday. I'd say thats a fairly disappointing return from those 2 teams. Daithi Burke would more than likely be on the panel if he wasn't such an outstanding hurler. Yet there was 5 players from the 2015 u21 team who didn't win Connacht playing against Donegal last Saturday in Comer, Kerin, Brannigan, Heaney & Silke.

On a positive note Mayo's point taking was fantastic on Saturday with very wides but the alternative view is that despite Mayo's impressive display in front of the post they were taken to extra time by an average div 2 side.

The only problem with the ignore user function on here is that you unfortunately still have to view their quoted posts.

Very true.
A Dose dot com

Attention seeking requires attention, why oh why posters bother responding is beyond me.

Mayo's 4th game of the month, going to extra time in 2 of them isn't ideal preparation for a team with a lot of mileage.

Galway v Cavan is on in Carrick on Saturday the 5th at 2pm.

For Galway to have a chance Kerry would have to have a serious off day and that won't happen. Lets hope we can give them some sort of a game and then its back to the drawing board for KW over the winter to try and come up with a serious structure to protect that full backline going forward. Anytime quick ball is delivered into the oppositions full forward line Galway are in serious trouble, Galway have to play far more cautiously otherwise like in 2014 the game will be out of reach very quickly.

Some contrast from the Derry game in terms of shooting, Mayo had very few wides all day. Mayo couldn't have asked much more from Moran & COC, they got a great return from play from the both of them.

I thought Cork would cause Mayo problems when they ran at them but didn't expect that in the 2nd half. Cork scored 2 goals, missed 2 other great chances and perhaps would have created 2 more great chances if it wasn't for Mayo defenders bring the Cork player down. Cafferkey was appalling, is O'Connor really 36? He gave Cafferkey the run around and he's not as quick as he used to be, looked very slow to turn last night.

You have to give Mayo credit though as it did look like Cork were going to push on in ET when they went 2 points up.

Great to see Galway respond to the horror show the last day although surprised at how poor Donegal were but the warning signs were their with the dreadful display against Tyrone.

Power did well, kickouts were good and he hits them with a better trajectory then Lavelle does and the pen save and follow up save were great keeping. That was easily Flynn's best performance in a while, playing with FOC & Conroy clearly doesn't work and I hope we never see the 3 of them starting again. I thought Ian Burke did well, his pass for Heaney's first goal was superb and not many players would have taken it on. Once again we're all fully aware of the limitations of the full back line and how it will be exposed next Sunday but its great to see a bit of fight in this bunch and there's plenty of hope for for the future.

This era started with a win over Cork for Mayo, will it finish with a defeat to the same side....I extremely doubt it.

Sludden
Kilkenny
Clarke
Murphy
McManus
A O'Shea
Geaney
Fenton
Keegan
Moran

Which Clarke & Moran?