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with K O Neill they are not certain weather or not he'll be back yet

What, at all!!?? 

Brady didn't mention the injury on Sunday Sport (big report on it from Ballina Stephenites), so hopefully it's not going to keep him out for too long. He's had no long run without injury for the last couple of years, so it's very worrying that midfield seemed to fall apart without him on Sunday.

Happy enough with yesterday's performance.
Thought Kilcullen cleaned Quirke completely. But it must be said Quirke was awful - he couldn't jump off the ground, and Kilcullen broke everything, and there was always a Mayo players there to pick up the break. Kilcullen will play FB again on Sunday I hope, hopefully he can keep up the good form.
BJP did well at CHB as well - overall I thought the defense were very good, and were rarely under serious pressure.
Brady did well at midfield, a pity McGarrity was injured, himself and Brady will make a very strong pairing.
I agree about the forwards - there were some good balls put in and by and large the Mayo men were out in front to take the ball, but seemed to be stuck then. There didn't seem to be much of a plan for the forwards. This is something that JOM noticed I'm sure and will be working on.
Great to see Austin playing well again. Conor Mort was poor I thought. He needs to bulk up. He made a few runs across the pitch with the ball, but very little ground made in reality.
I thought Trevor played well. He does have a tendency to over carry the ball, but I didn't think he did it more often than usual yesterday.
Next Sunday against Donegal will be very difficult I think. They'd be doing extremely well to come back with 2 points.

RTE.ie's predictions are often way out and contain incorrect info (see Mayo injuries!), but out of interest, this is what they have to say about Mayo v Kerry:

Mayo v Kerry (Sunday)

It's an opening round that was picked to help preview writers ease into the Allianz NFL Division 1A as Mayo and Kerry meet in Castlebar in a repeat of the 2006 All-Ireland final, throw in 2.30pm.

Kerry's Pat O'Shea has selected ten of the team who ran out in Croke Park in September 2006, with debuts handed to Cillian Young and Brendan Guiney. Kieran Donaghy, last year's player of the championship, will be slotted into the midfield for the Kingdom alongside Darragh O Sé.

This fixture  certainly wasn't designed to help heal the fractured psyche of Mayo's footballers. On paper the men from the West are capable of beating Kerry. After all, though Kerry are the kings in the championship, the power relationship switches in the league, where Mayo have always dominated.

But unlike most league openers, the course of this game will depend on how Mayo have recovered from the All-Ireland final, which must still sting. Moreover, they're missing Ronan McGarrity, Pat Harte, Keith Higgins, Liam O'Malley and Ciaran McDonald.

The heart, once again, wants Mayo; but the head . well, you know.

Verdict: Kerry

I would have liked to have seen Kilcullen given a run, but maybe Johnno thought that would be a bit too much too soon.
This is a high profile game with a fair bit of pressure on the team already, so he prob wants to put out the tried and tested players for this one.
I'd imagine you'll see the likes of Kilcullen, Campbell, Mickey Mullins etc in lower profile games to ease them in that way. A bad start could knock their confidence

MAYO (SF v Kerry): D Clarke; D Heaney, L O'Malley, K Higgins, A Moran, BJ Padden, P Gardiner, D Brady, R McGarrity, P Harte, T Mortimer, A Dillon, C Mortimer, A O'Malley, K O'Neill (capt).


Strong team. Andy Moran in the half back line is a big surprise. Interesting to see how that goes. Very strong midfield and forward lines. It's the FB line I'm still not convinced about, it will be interesting.... 

Very sad news.
Just makes you think - you expect lads to go out and perform every time, and you rarely stop to think that maybe something much bigger that a game of football could be effecting them.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam

Great interview with JOM in this week's Mayo News. He talks pure sense, I can't wait to see how things develop this year.

Following the leader

INTERVIEW
Mike Finnerty
mikefinnerty@mayonews.ie

WEDNESDAY morning in Claremorris and the wind sweeps through the streets. People scurry from their cars to the shops and life in the South Mayo town carries on regardless.
You step through a small door on D'Alton Street and arrive in a warm, cosy room. It is simply decorated, yet welcoming and a local newspaper lies casually on the table.
On the walls are pictures. Dozens are crammed with faces from around the region, one is of the Fine Gael leader, and most others feature the man of the moment.
Only one has an obvious football connection. It may be over 17 years old now but it still retains its energy and colour. It was taken in Croke Park just after the 1989 All-Ireland Final. A track-suited 36 year old is standing in the foreground, his emotions sketched across his face.
People mill around him. One holds a sign above his head. 'John Says Keep The Faith' reads the banner.
That picture may paint a thousand words but now it nestles in the corner of the Mayo manager's Dáil election office. And John O'Mahony has little time to dwell on the past.

SO how busy is the Mayo manager as he attempts to lead the county footballers to their first All-Ireland in 56 years and get elected to Dail Eireann at the same time? He smiles and tells you a quick story to set the scene.
"I'm learning the ability to switch instantly from one to the other," he explains. "I had training on Tuesday night in Castlebar and drove to Knock afterwards to a farmers' meeting about lactose content in milk. You switch totally. It meant that I didn't get any food after training but that's probably no harm, it'll help the diet," he chuckles.
"What I'm enjoying is the little bit of freedom. In the past I'd have been in the classroom all day and going off to training after. I didn't even have a mobile phone back in those early days with Mayo; I have two of them now."
We sit and talk for almost an hour, our conversation interrupted only by a telephone call from party headquarters and a constituent that drops in for a quick word. The local postman, who has Davitts GAA club roots, also shoots the breeze with O'Mahony for a few minutes about a game that was played many moons ago against Ballaghaderreen. If Johnno' is under pressure he is hiding it well.
"I don't know to be honest," he says when asked if this Mayo squad is good enough or mentally strong enough to win this year's All-Ireland. "This is how I put it to the players, I'm not appearing here to wave a magic wand and say, 'This is the way that this is done'. But I would be confident that I have a fair idea of how to help the players to find the solution to why they haven't won the ultimate prize.
"Everyone is asking at the moment, 'Can we bring back Sam?' My answer is that Mayo will bring back Sam. The question is when. I can't guarantee immediate success. What I will guarantee is that we will do everything right to have a real assault on the championship this year. And that's not being evasive.
"People look back on the disappointment of the Kerry game last year as if that's the only thing to solve," he continues. "I would love to be in the situation where it was now the morning after the Dublin match and take it from there.
"But that's not what I'm doing. What I'm doing is getting the squad back together, dealing with the after-effects of the final, bringing in new players, and putting the jigsaw together from the very start.
"When we get to the stage of getting back into finals again we'll deal with them. But that's not what's to be solved now. Right now we have to get consistency into our game, get a game-plan, get everybody working together. Once we get that we'll move on to the next stage."

THE Mayo manager will be 54 in June. He was appointed to his current position eight weeks ago and has looked at 55 players so far.
He knows what men like David Heaney, James Nallen, David Brady, Ciaran McDonald and others like them bring to the table. It is the new faces that he is trying to read.
"What's needed is ambition, dedication, commitment and a basic amount of talent," offers O'Mahony. "Pace is an important commodity in the modern game, as is physical strength. But that doesn't mean that we won't have some light guys on the team, it's about balance.
"Character would be another thing," he adds quickly. "There will be setbacks along the way and mental strength is a huge thing, especially in Mayo.
"We have taken a buffeting over the years. We have done tremendously to get so close but there is something that we need to get into the heads that when we get to that stage again that we put in the performance that will get us close. That's all you can do; get the performance.
"That's what Mayo did against Dublin, they got themselves into a position to win the game. That didn't happen against Kerry.
"People ask, 'Are you going to win an All-Ireland if you get into it again?' First of all you have to get into a position to do that. Stage two is to close the deal. We didn't do either in 2004 or 2006. But I'm not even thinking about that yet."

IN the run-up to last year's All-Ireland Final the late Johnny Mulvey was asked what his life would have been like without Mayo football. 'Sure it wouldn't have been a life at all," was his heartfelt response.
O'Mahony seems to share a similar philosophy. Football permeates every second of every day for him. He is fascinated by its minute details, intoxicated by its unpredictability, and convinced of its ability to bind people together.
"Mayo people are unique in the sense there's huge passion, we've come so close, the hopes have been raised so many times...
"Last year was a big year in that the U-21 title was won. Mayo don't have a divine right to get to finals and lose them all the time. They don't have a divine right to win them but they don't have a divine right to lose them and the U-21s showed that.
"The one thing that I would want people to remember is that anything I've achieved in football is with people working together. Let nobody think that Mayo's football problems are solved because John O'Mahony is back.
"If Mayo are to be successful while I'm around it'll be Mayo's success, not mine. It'll be the people all around doing various jobs that come together. This individuality has to be got out of every level, including management. When I'm gone it will have been the county that will have been successful, not me. I'm not saying that for the sake of saying it, I'm not being patronising."
His voice raises just a notch as he warms to the theme.
"There is no chance of success if anybody is seen to be above anybody else's station. Any conflict anywhere along the line cannot be allowed. That was one of the things that has been mentioned in relation to my previous time in Mayo. I am convinced that that's not there now."
Debate among Mayo supporters is intense just now as the National League and another season is about to dawn. One of the more interesting subjects is how John O'Mahony, renowned for his man-management skills, will marry the striking individuality of some of his squad with the needs of the team. How will be convince everyone of the benefits?
"You encourage individuality, of course you do. Every player must be pushing themselves to the maximum. How to put that together into the maximum effort of the team is the trick. But there isn't a formula that you can present to the lads and say, 'Boys, this is the way to do it.' It's a slow process. But if you're successful then everyone is a winner. The great example was TJ Kilgallon in 1989 who sacrificed his midfield game to play centre-back in the All-Ireland."

WE have run out of time. John O'Mahony has people to meet and his first game of the new season with Mayo is just hours away now.
It signals the beginning of a three year term during which time he hopes to deliver Sam Maguire. And if he doesn't, will his second coming have been a failure?
"I'd die happy if it could be achieved. But I would have no worries if there was a momentum being built and structures put in place over three to five years that eventually led to Mayo winning an All-Ireland.
"I don't have to be central to that success. Of course you'd love it to happen in your era but the important thing is that it happens."

JOHN O'MAHONY
Quoteunquote

Being Mayo boss
"Let nobody think that Mayo's football problems are solved because John O'Mahony is back. If Mayo are to be successful while I'm around it'll be Mayo's success, not mine."

May 20 v Galway
"I have great memories of my time in Galway but the only thing that will count for me that day is for Mayo to be successful."

All-Irelands lost
"My thoughts would be that that doesn't have any lasting impact. It's something that needs attention and it's something that I am and will be giving attention to."

Filling positions
"There are plenty of different opinions on how we should pick from full-back right up to full-forward. Right down the centre are open books."

Getting elected and winning Sam
"I'm not a betting man. What are the each-way odds?"

Most important thing learned in management
"Try and earn respect, not demand it."

3 Connacht men, and 1 from each of the other provinces. We're on top on one stat anyway! 

A surprise choice really, but fair play to O'Neill. It's been some couple of years for him!
He obviously still has the drive and determination, even if there must be huge doubts about his ability to last a full game.
But it must be remembered he was one of the few players to really perform last Sept

What Mulvihill said, is that if both Kerry and Dublin are both still in the running for the league (i.e. a meaningful match for both teams), then it might be a possibility.
So I wouldn't assume it will be there. As Kerry Mike said, it's unlikely the Kerry crowd would bother to travel in large numbers

Has Andy Moran been officially apointed captain?

I saw that on the hoganstand message board, so I would have no confidence in that story. Someone else posted that K O'Neill is captain, again unlikely I'd have thought. 

Mayo team lined out as follows:
Clarke
A Higgins
L O'Malley
Cafferkey
Mullins
BJP
Gardiner
Heaney
D Brady
A Campbell
T Mort
Kilcoyne
Conroy
AOM
Marty Mc

Mickie Mullins replaced Marty Mc (who was pretty ineffective). Mullins looked pretty good though. Aidan Kilcoyne was excellent from placed balls. Aidan Campbell looks a great prospect.
BJP was excellent I thought. Finneran was the most impressive midfielder. Heaney didn't really impress. Brady sent a lot of misplaced passes in the first half, improved as game went on.
Cafferkey struggled a little. Overall, pretty good performance. Hard to know how good/bad Mayo are, as Ros were v poor once Mayo got going

Fair enough, I read it again and I may have been a little bit quick to have a go at you- as you were earlier to Abbeysider! 
Just agree with the locals next time you're in Ballintubber, and there'll be no problems! 

I appreciate you're only doing what you think is best and I probably jumped the gun a bit with the Ballintubber conspiracy for what its worth. Most of us want the same thing, just have different ideas of how to get there . . .

'for what its worth'. Doesn't seem to be worth much, seeing as you go on to repeat your accusation in the next sentence that Ballintubber only came up with this proposal so that the club would be in with the 'big boys'.

Yeah, that's a pretty strong team.
It will be interesting to see how some of them get on:
Kilcullen at FB - We need to try out a new FB, so this is a big chance for Kilcullen to stake his claim.
Enda Devenney - For a man who has never been a permanent fixture on the squad, there's been an awful lot of talk about him. Hopefully he'll prove all that talk was justified.
Aidan Campbell - Still v young, but a lot of potential. Unlikely to get a starting place when the real action starts, but definitely one for the future, so good to see him getting a chance.
Whole FF Line - Great to see Marty Mc back again after all his injuries. Not sure he'll break into the team, but a good man to have on the bench.
I'd have thought Aidan Kilcoyne would be given a HF line position. He may play there yet. Was excellent when brought on against Laois and Dublin in Croker last year, and vital to the U-21 win. Could be his year to nail down a starting position.
Mickie Mullins - Know very little about this guy, don't think I've ever seen him play.