Galway v Mayo, Tuam NFL Round VI 29 March 2009

[Farrandeelin]

This management has been inept from day 1 and the problems continue. I cannot think of one positive impact that they have made on Mayo football

The manager has spent two years working to assemble a squad and cannot cobble something together out of a couple of very good u21 sides and a core of players who were good enough to reach a couple of All Ireland finals?
You wouldn't find the likes of it in the Dandy!

Ye lads should be working for some red top paper's with this sort of overreaction.  One would think that we were just after getting knocked out of round 1 of the Tommy Murphy Cup based on some of the statements posted here.

As I've mentioned earlier it is still windy and wet March Football and far too early to judge.

In 2007 no one would have expected Mayo to win the All Ireland. In 2008 huge progress was made and an inexperienced Mayo team were knocked out of the competition by the eventual winners by a single point (probably a game we should have won). The main reasons we lost to Tyrone last year was player inexperience, fatigue and lack of physical presence.

It is clear from looking at the lads during this league that they have bulked up over the Winter and are clearly unphased by these league match's and don't really care to much about them. If people here want a league title then so be it but I amongst many others couldn't give a damn about the league.

The plan in the league is to stay up and avoid any serious injuries and to focus on fitness levels and peeking in the summer.

If people want to be critical it is best to judge JOM and his management after the championship as the critics here I'm sure were good footballers on their day and probably know a small bit about management but i can't understand how they are been critical about sectors of the Mayo management when they don't even know what the plan is.

Fair enough to add critical comments at the end of the season , i.e. the end of September, hopefully the only criticism will be how long people took to get back west following SAM as I for one feel that this will be our year and that JOM sense's this also and is already playing with the media and talking down our chances.

As for the Game on Sunday, the result is irrelevant but Mayo to start a good punch-up with a good few yellow and red cards would be beneficial.

Well yes it is you for one!! I couldn't see anything that resembled a plan in Ballina on Sunday. As I've stated that may be the kick up the arse management and players need esp against Galway. If not then it's doom and gloom once again.

[IolarCoisCuain]

Here's Ray Silke's two cents in the Galway Advertiser: http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/10042



Old Connacht foes clash again
Galway Advertiser, March 26, 2009.
Ray Silke

After the NFL game in James Stephens Park in Ballina last Sunday, where Mayo and Dublin had just drawn in a dull, tedious, error-ridden pile of manure, I got chatting to a few local Maors and Ballina club men.

They were in feisty form and not too impressed with what they had just seen.

No one was. To be honest, neither side looked like they would be within an ass's roar of being involved in the latter stages of this year's All-Ireland series.

They looked like two poor sides and if Jack O'Connor saw the highlights package or the DVD of the game he would not be chastised for saying, "We would beat the best 15 men from both sides".

Anyway, I was happy to be heading home and had no nets to take down or flags to collect, so the form was a tad better on my side of the fence.

We got slagging. Good natured auld Galway and Mayo banter, and I told them we'd have a few good steaks done for them this Sunday before the game. Or after, if they preferred.

One well built man who seemed to have taken a bit of pain at the hands of Galway men down through the years, turned to me and scornfully replied;

"The only thing we ever got off ye in Tuam was soft chat. Feck-all-else. And the only steak ye'd give us up there - is a stake in the heart".

I mentioned how we'd given them a bloody soft Connacht championship in 1999, for all the good it did them, and rapidly retreated to Foxford while things were still cordial and civil.

The encounter reminded me that while Mayo and Galway men might work cheek by jowl or barter with each other all week, when there is an important, or maybe even a not so important, football match between the counties, close ties are put on hold for a day or two. This Sunday will be no different.

Mayo badly need the points to drag themselves away from any fear of relegation. They face Tyrone in round seven and if other results went against both John O'Mahony and Mickey Harte, they could easily find themselves in that last round with the loser going down.

Westmeath already look doomed as they have no points on the board and they face Donegal and Dublin in their final two games.

Therefore O'Mahony will try to have his charges locked-on and fully focused for the short jaunt up to Tuam stadium.

Mayo showed good work-rate and conviction to battle back from being five points down against Dublin at one stage the last day. However they were massively over-dependent on Ballintubber's Alan Dillon for any inspiration up front.

Austin O'Malley had a poor day at full-forward. The Louisburgh man hit a horrific wide in the second half and was subsequently hauled off, while neither Conor nor Trevor Mortimer could muster a single score from play, and both men were very fortunate to finish the full 70 minutes.

There was a real lack of direction in the full-forward line until big Aidan O'Shea, a Leaving Cert student at St Geralds's College in Castlebar, ambled on and took up his position on the edge of the square. He is some talent and a huge man for a young fellow just out of minor ranks. The question should be asked though; whether it is fair to ask him to be pulling on a county senior jersey in league action eight or nine weeks before his Leaving Cert.

The Mayo U-21 players will probably be available for this game as the Connacht final against Sligo is not fixed until Saturday April 4, and those youngsters would provide options for the Mayo management team.

Liam Sammon is unlikely to make many changes to a side that is unbeaten in five league outings and showing good form up front, although he will be delighted to have Moycullen's Gareth Bradshaw back after exams.

If Joe Bergin and Barry Cullinane are again selected at eight and nine, they will probably be pitted against Pat Harte and Ronan McGarrity unless Tom Parsons is back from injury and if they break even, then you'd fancy Michael Meehan to rack up another good innings.

He is sparkling with confidence and is now just as important to Galway's challenge for major silverware as Steven Gerrard is to Liverpool's. Both men are at the top of their respective codes, with the main difference between them being that Meehan doesn't get €150k a week for his efforts.

Mayo are never ever easy to beat in Tuam and their backs are to the wall in this one. The mood in the county is dark and dangerous, and there are lots of mutterings about discontent in the camp and beyond.

Even if that is true, the sight of a maroon jersey will unify their hearts and minds and a victory on Sunday would be a great fillip for morale inside and outside the camp.

The spine of Galway's team is much more settled, though, and you'd take Meehan and Joyce to show their class once again.

[AbbeySider]

Mayo are never ever easy to beat in Tuam and their backs are to the wall in this one. The mood in the county is dark and dangerous, and there are lots of mutterings about discontent in the camp and beyond.

I dont really last that last bit...
What does he mean by the mood in the county is dark and dangerous? Is he trying to say that we consider ourselves dark horses or a danger team?
I dont think so Ray!

And mutterings about discontent... in the camp and beyond?
Beyond where? Australia ? 

[Barney]

Ray Silke has about as much credibilitly as I have All ireland medals.

As for the Game on Sunday, the result is irrelevant but Mayo to start a good punch-up with a good few yellow and red cards would be beneficial.

..even though we need to have everybody fresh and available for the championship!

You lost credibility highorlow when you said this was "our year". I would so dearly love that to be true but if you spout stuff like that even Ray will be seen to have of a clue.

A mark needs to be set down on Sunday - crucial game, not for survival but for Summer intentions.

[IolarCoisCuain]

Ray Silke has about as much credibilitly as I have All ireland medals.

What's your issue with Ray Silke Barney? I like him. I find him a very creditable analyst.

1. Ray Silke and Weeshie Fogarty were discussing the Galvin / Paddy Russell affair on Des Cahill's radio show last summer. Weeshie was coming out with all this old blather about "Paul Gallivan [sic] was wired to be moon Des, you have to understand how much he loves being Kerry captain." Silke cut to the chase by pointing that was no excuse, that being "wired to the moon" was no way to act as a player, to say nothing of a captain.

2. Silke was doing colour commentary on some game - I think it could have Cork v Cavan, not sure - on Setanta, and made a remark in passing about the long winter nights being passed naming the father and son All-Stars, or the All-Stars won by players as both backs and forwards. Sign of a good GAA man.

3. But the time I really took to Silke as an analyst was when he was debating the opening of Croke Park on Matt Cooper's show some years ago. Silke was one of very few to challenge the "it's a great day for Ireland" orthodoxy. Silke made the point that the GAA owes nothing to anybody, and that the stadium is the GAA's to promote its sports, not somebody else's. Cooper tried to browbeat him over it, but Silke wasn't for turning. He's alright.

But that's just my opinion Barney, as I say. What's your beef with him?

[RedandGreenSniper]

Silke is good I think. Calls it fairly decently and is a lot more informed than a lot of the pundits. He can come out with some howlers when he is trying to be too clever but overall I think he's one of the better bucks around.

[rosnarun]

In 2008 huge progress was made

only because of the complete dister of the championshio the year before

Fair enough to add critical comments at the end of the season , i.e. the end of September

and i thought i was the optimist , what are the odds of that being 11th May . sure ly our role if we have one at all is to keep the bastard on his toes.
Good to see the JOm loyalist though falliing like flies are still out there . though I think weve seen the last of the AOM ones.
so now i have to say i admire the mans dedication to the cause After all the abuse you guys and others have given him( this is an example of Irony)  he is still there unlike some  of the more talented guy JOM seem to have dispensed with eg.Campbell kilcullen(x2) PAt kelly and he who shall not be named - who is flying in training
but a good point was made. this is far from the champioship team would anyone be suprised if the defenece in summer conatined only 2 of the players we saw sunday? and the attack 3 ?

[GalwayBayBoy]

Galway team to play Mayo

Adrian Faherty    
Niall Coyne    
Finian Hanley    
Damien Burke    
Gareth Bradshaw    
Diarmuid Blake    
David Reilly    
Barry Cullinane    
Joe Bergin    
Sean Armstrong    
Padraic Joyce
Damien Dunleavy    
Paul Conroy    
Michael Meehan    
Matthew Clancy    

Subs    
Paul Doherty    
Declan Meehan    
Kieran Fitzgerald    
Gary Sice    
David Finnegan    
Gary O'Donnell    
Fiachra Breathnach
Mark Lydon    
Conor Healy

A few changes. No sign of Nicky Joyce, Darren Mullahy and Cormac Bane in the team or subs. Must be nursing injuries.

[Duine Eile]

Subs bench isn't looking too hectic.   Fiachra looks to be the only option we have to bring on, Lord help us. Just heard on the radio Cormac Bane is suspended, didn't hear anything about that, and Mullahy has work commitments, I'm guessing Nicky's back is still bothering him.

[Lar Naparka]

Subs bench isn't looking too hectic.   Fiachra looks to be the only option we have to bring on, Lord help us. Just heard on the radio Cormac Bane is suspended, didn't hear anything about that, and Mullahy has work commitments, I'm guessing Nicky's back is still bothering him.

Janey, it doesn't look too unhectic or whatever you'd call it to me.
Most of them are regulars on the team and the overall squad looks very settled as well. It is as strong as Sammon can field at this time of year, I'd say. If Johnno can pull one this off, I'll give up slagging him. Okay, I'll shut up for a week at least.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Subs bench isn't looking too hectic.   Fiachra looks to be the only option we have to bring on, Lord help us. Just heard on the radio Cormac Bane is suspended, didn't hear anything about that, and Mullahy has work commitments, I'm guessing Nicky's back is still bothering him.

Small bit short up front alright with Nicky and Bane out. Not sure Mattie would be starting a game this soon otherwise after his long lay off.

[Duine Eile]

The backs are ok I suppose but we have no forward cover, if Fiachra Breathnach is the best we have to call on God help us! No harm to the lad, he tries his best but I don't think he's up to it. Where did Bane's suspension come out of though, wasn't it a yellow he picked up in Derry? He got one against Donegal he week before as well, would that be it?

[moysider]

In 2008 huge progress was made

only because of the complete dister of the championshio the year before

Fair enough to add critical comments at the end of the season , i.e. the end of September

and i thought i was the optimist , what are the odds of that being 11th May . sure ly our role if we have one at all is to keep the b**tard on his toes.
Good to see the JOm loyalist though falliing like flies are still out there . though I think weve seen the last of the AOM ones.
so now i have to say i admire the mans dedication to the cause After all the abuse you guys and others have given him( this is an example of Irony)  he is still there unlike some  of the more talented guy JOM seem to have dispensed with eg.Campbell kilcullen(x2) PAt kelly and he who shall not be named - who is flying in training
but a good point was made. this is far from the champioship team would anyone be suprised if the defenece in summer conatined only 2 of the players we saw sunday? and the attack 3 ?

I suppose most of us would not be surprised if this happened. Its happened the last 2 years that we were still experimenting with the team in the championship and it may well happen again. Does nt mean it s a good way to be. Galway have settled early in the year(PJ involved from FBD league) and in the last 2 years have taken us out before we got off the runway so to speak. Again this year with April upon us we and 2 rounds of the league to go we hear James Nallen and Heaney will be back presently. Welcome news naturally. But why so late? Why do we do things so differently?

[rosnarun]

not defending JOM  GOd forbid
but maybe his thinking is in the few years prior to his arrival mayo peaked too early. there was a few years where mayo started the league flying winning all before them and even by the end of the league looked to have lost their way . even though qualtfing for the league final  with JOM in 2007 before suffering the humiliation of losing to donegal and feck all good it did them in the championship either , remember derry

I still have nightmares

[AbbeySider]

Mayo Team Vs Galway

1   David Clarke               
2   Liam O'Malley               
3   Ger Cafferkey               
4   Kieran Conroy               
5   Peadar Gardiner               
6   Tom Cunniffe               
7   Andy Moran               
8   Patrick Harte               
9   Ronan McGarrity               
10   Mark Ronaldson               
11   Trevor Mortimer               
12   Alan Dillon               
13   Austin O'Malley               
14   Aidan O'Shea               
15   Michael Sweeney           

No Connor Mortimor? Whats the story there?
Kieran Conroy - Corner back? 

O Shea at FullForward, was probably an obvious choice but I still think he is a bit young.