Tyrone v Mayo - Healy park, valentines day

[rosnarun]

Good win for Mayo again today. Looked more threatening up front than Tyrone in the bits I saw on TG4.
McMahon should never have been red carded. Couldn't believe Gardiner's reaction to McMahon's brush off. He hardly made any contact with him. He went down like he'd been shot

Ah yeah, those Crossmolina men drop like flies all the time!

*Runs away in case Deel Rover/venter/never beat the deeler comes along*.

thats only when beinhit by 25 year old 'minors' from backs

not an overly impressive display today but they won a dog fight against the roughest dogs in the business and that makes it a far more valuable win than last week against an out of sorts galway.
Am I still the only one who thinks cafferkey  is a Major liability in a pivotal position and seems to be immune from substitution  as the Tyrone fol are pointing out here every time the sent the ball into the mayo fullback line , there was major trouble  Vaughan and Higgins saved mayo's bacon with some last gasp Just in time defending, not ideal but cafferkey was a passive by stanger for most of the match. this cost us dearly last year .
for the benefit of the ballina folk who might think im prejudiced i thought Magarrity had his best game in years for mayo

And a wee message to the tyrone women behind me today  ' i did manage to f**k off back to the hillbilly hills of the bogs of mayo' Just like to thanks them for their concern reassure them im home safe

[longrunsthefox]

Colm Cavanagh had a good game today as did Dermot Carlin.Huge improvement from last week's horror show.

Doesn't matter how well Dermot Carlin plays, championship time he'll be put on the bench.  Remember 2007, he was their best player in Ulster and his reward was dropped for Meath quarter final. Has happened a lot to him in the summer. .

Couldn't agree more O'Neill. I think he brings a lot more to the table than say Ciaran Gourley. He's consistently a solid man marker and he's very strong carrying the ball. I just get the feeling that MH isn't too sure of his best position.

Wat's with the O'Neill. I'm the Fox, man... jees!

[ONeill]

I don't buy into the Sean O'Neill adulation. I think he's very loose. Nice on the eye attacking but can leave the defence vulnerable.

[longrunsthefox]

Ricey can be the same, when you see the damage came from Moran today

[barelegs]

Colm Cavanagh had a good game today as did Dermot Carlin.Huge improvement from last week's horror show.

Doesn't matter how well Dermot Carlin plays, championship time he'll be put on the bench.  Remember 2007, he was their best player in Ulster and his reward was dropped for Meath quarter final. Has happened a lot to him in the summer. .

Couldn't agree more O'Neill. I think he brings a lot more to the table than say Ciaran Gourley. He's consistently a solid man marker and he's very strong carrying the ball. I just get the feeling that MH isn't too sure of his best position.

Wat's with the O'Neill. I'm the Fox, man... jees!

Apologies, I'm mildly embarrassed by that.

[mrhardyannual]

i thought this was a reasonably good game when the dreadful conditions were taken into account. persistent rain for well over an hour before the game and pitch was heavy. Ref was poor, inconsistent, picky and not helped by the handpass rule. game was played in a good manner. Sending off was unfortunate. Ronaldson could be up for review for elbow to Ricey.  Ricey should get academy award nomination for his subsequent collapse. For a reputed hard man he went down easier than Sonny Liston did. Either team could have won. Mayo half backs were opened up. Thought Cavanagh did well. Tyrone were no threat close to goal. Mayo on other hand were slow to put ball into a full-forward line that scored well. Very pleased with Alan Freeman, Ronaldson, Mcgarrity and Parsons. Higgins and Vaughan were excellent. Conroy and Kelly added to the mix. We finished with possibly the smallest full forward line ever - Varley, Sweeney and Ronaldson and Douglas was there too. Its only Feb but so far so good. And i doubt if Mickey Harte is losing sleep yet. A good day out. Tyrone crowd always most hospitable even if like Rosnarun I was wished a speedy trip home once or twice. Galway again next week and then bring on the Dubs.

[tyrone86]

Most stuff has been covered so I'll be brief.

The Healy Park pitch is doing Tyrone no favours. I know it's the same for both teams, but when Tyrone are training on a good quality, hard surface like in Clogher and they have to move to that soft ( to be kind) "pitch" it's bound to effect the speed and fluidity of their game, particularly at this time of year.

A catalogue of basic errors in the simple things - pick ups, overhit fist passes, taking the wrong option etc.

Far, far too many players slabbering at the ref and trying to do his job for him. Is it any wonder the players made so many basic errors when both trying to play and referee the game?

Joey's sending off was ridiculous, Ricey took a worse whack from Ronaldson (I think) in same the passage of play and it only warranted a booking.

Dermy Carlin was the best player on show from a Tyrone perspective.
Colm Cavanagh was much improved and perhaps people will get off his back for a while.
I was impressed with Cassidy today, was less greedy when out the field and did well underneath the route 1 ball when it was required.
What is Enda McGinley supposed to be doing at Wing Forward? As it is the game is passing him by and he has very little influence compared to the way he usually does.
I'm going to stick my neck out and say McCusker will be a big player for Tyrone when he gets fully integrated into the system. The Dromore lads knew were to put the ball so he'd win it, when he starts to learn to read the rest of the lads then he'll do damage.

[Nally Stand]

I'm across the world at the min so haven't seen the game. Who came off the bench, and how did they do?

[Never beat the deeler]

Write-up of the game from WJ, although based on MadWest and TV coverage:
http://mayogaablog.com/?p=4495

[Zapatista]

RTE report. Open and close with the sending off

There poll asks - Following their win in Killarney can Dublin push on and win the Allianz National Football League? 


http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2010/0214/tyrone_mayo.html

[loughshore lad]

I don't buy into the Sean O'Neill adulation. I think he's very loose. Nice on the eye attacking but can leave the defence vulnerable.

Would tend to agree with this to a certain extent.  He got caught out going forward quite a few times yesterday and gave the ball away on a number of occasions when under not a lot of pressure.  Has yet to translate his potential but hopefully he will.

[Tubberman]

Good win for Mayo again today. Looked more threatening up front than Tyrone in the bits I saw on TG4.
McMahon should never have been red carded. Couldn't believe Gardiner's reaction to McMahon's brush off. He hardly made any contact with him. He went down like he'd been shot

Ah yeah, those Crossmolina men drop like flies all the time!

*Runs away in case Deel Rover/venter/never beat the deeler comes along*.

thats only when beinhit by 25 year old 'minors' from backs

not an overly impressive display today but they won a dog fight against the roughest dogs in the business and that makes it a far more valuable win than last week against an out of sorts galway.
Am I still the only one who thinks cafferkey  is a Major liability in a pivotal position and seems to be immune from substitution  as the Tyrone fol are pointing out here every time the sent the ball into the mayo fullback line , there was major trouble  Vaughan and Higgins saved mayo's bacon with some last gasp Just in time defending, not ideal but cafferkey was a passive by stanger for most of the match. this cost us dearly last year .
for the benefit of the ballina folk who might think im prejudiced i thought Magarrity had his best game in years for mayo

And a wee message to the tyrone women behind me today  ' i did manage to f**k off back to the hillbilly hills of the bogs of mayo' Just like to thanks them for their concern reassure them im home safe

No, you're not the only one Ros - I thought Cafferkey was our major weak point yesterday. Higgins was excellent, kept Coney to nothing, made blocks, won breaks, couldn't ask for more. Vaughan also had another good game, if not quite as good as against Galway.
Whenever Tyrone sent in high ball towards the end, Cafferkey looked in trouble. I'm assuming JOM is going to play Alan Feeney against Galway in the FBD final, and if he does well he deserves at least one half of the Dublin game.
I'm still not convinced about Howley at CHB - he put in a big effort yesterday, but he doesn't command that area at all.

McGarrity and Parsons seem to be right back in form - great to see McGarrity taking a few massive catches. I thought Seamus O'Shea got through a lot of work, and Barry Kelly did very well when he came on - caught one huge ball, but seems to lack pace which could keep him on the bench.
Andy Moran had another great game, and won his battle with 'Ricey' hands down. He has the strength and speed to hold off defenders.
That was my first time seeing Alan Freeman, and he did fairly well. He has a bit of height but has pace as well.
Ronaldson was the best forward on the pitch, took some great scores, non-stop running and a lovely pass to set up Freeman for the penalty.
I don't know what's going on with Aidan O'Shea but he is miles off the pace. He couldn't run at all, and was getting frustrated (with himself I presume). He was moved out to the half forwards, and did better when running at the defence but he wanted to do it all by himself. He had Freeman inside him completely alone but O'Shea took to much out of the ball and hit a bad wide. He can have no complaints about the substitution. But at least we know we're not reliant on him, and we know what he can do when he's on form.

So it was a great win on the road, but that was a Tyrone team missing a lot of regulars and they made an awful lot of unforced errors - they passed straight to Mayo men several times. But we were the better team (not much good playing for 10 mins tyroneman) and deserved the points.

The ref was poor for both teams, very picky and Tyrone could feel hard done by that there wasn't at least another minute played at the end. But the abuse being roared at the end wasn't acceptable. Jesus lads, the ref is capable of mistakes like the rest of us. He was bad, but nobody deserves the vitriol that was being shouted at full time yesterday (in fairness, there was one man in particular that even the Tyrone supporters seemed embarrassed about).

P.S. I drove up from Dublin. Jesus, ye'd want to get on to your councillors/MLA or whoever, and do something about those roads!    Got sent off on a diversion someplace and the signs stopped halfway through, no idea where we were going - backroads with no signs for Omagh, Fintona is the name I remember!

[goal and a point]

Was at the match yesterday - thought tyrone played better than last week. The amount of ball they handed straight to Mayo players was the main reason for loosing the game though. Ball retention was always a strong point of tyrones play but has definitely been poor this season so far.
was impressed with andy moran and ronaldson today for mayo - give them few more options.

[Man Marker]

Terrible conditions yesterday. When are the county board going to wise up and put a decent surface in that bog field. The abuse some of you gave Colm cavanagh is a disgrace. Supporters like that deserve nothing only a slap to the ear. Not so sure that it was an improved performance by Tyrone. The team we had on was a weaker team that the one that started and finished against Derry. As I said on another thread you need scoring forwards to win games and without O'neill, Mugsy and Sean canavagh we will struggle in that department. Tyrone will be fine for the championship as our fitness improves, but loosing effects confidence and we have noe lost our last three serious games ie 2 NL games and the Cork game last August. The ref was poor. I wathced the game last night on sky + and Mc Connell fisted the ball his defender. Thats one point called wrong by the ref that cused us a league point.

[mrhardyannual]

Mayo subs.
Barry Kelly replaced a leaden footed A O Sé who had been moved onto half forward line. Nothing went right for O Sé. I Dont think soft conditions do him any favours. Kelly was very active, won good ball, moved and supported well but looked hesitant when in possession near Tyrone goal. Still 6 o.r 7 out of ten.
Conroy for  a tiring S O Sé who had worked hard if not as effectively as the previous. Again like brother is not suited to boggy conditions. Conroy went to wing back with McLoughlinn moving on to hf line. Conroy added strenght, height and fresh legs. McLoughlinn had shipped some heavy but fair belts. It was one of the more troubling aspects of Mayo play - half backs and midfielders carrying ball into tackles and getting isolated. Conroy provides options. 7/10
Sweeney replaced the tired McLoughlinn. Made no impression on me. Think he is too light. Douglas replaced Freeman too late on to make any contribution.

Varley did reasonably well but missed a vital free from wide right which would have given Mayo 5 point lead with 6 mins to go.Should have taken one in first half from right which Ronnie missed. Scored at least two more. Ran well. won good primary possession and will fight for a place. Was very worried when our final 6 forwards consisted of Varley, Ronnie, Sweeney, Douglas, very tired A Moran and Kelly. No strenght or ability to hold ball and run down the clock. Trevor badly missed and even with Conor and Dillon to return I think we need to find at least one more rangy forward to compliment the lighter lads. Still work in progress but O Mahony must be pleased.

With respect to Cafferkey at full back it is easy to see why contributors are anxious. But this is the hardest position to fill and players need time to bed in. We have never replaced Kevin Cahill and he took a year or more to become comfortable in the position. He had two All-Star corner backs with him for early stages and James Nallen in front. Cafferky is trying to learn the position with rookies around him. Higgins gave excellent cover but Howley for all his hard work espec with broken ball is still unsure at centre back. Vaughan and McLoughlinn played well but have a lot to learn too. I think the full back needs the assurance of regular starts. Having watched A Feeney in the FBD i think he is some way behind and has a bad habit of batting down the ball rather than catching. Conroy is the only other option but is more suited to half back.