Maigh Eo V Muineachán 28/3/2010

[Foreverhopeful]

i don't know how you can put cafferkey as a no. 5 tbh. There are better options there. Ger isn't good enough on the ball. The accuracy of his passing from the foot isn't great. Vaughan and Barrett provide better options and can give you a point or two a game ala Peadar Gardiner. Could you see Caf taking the point Vaughan got y-day or the goal. No - nose bleed territory for Caf unfortunately. I do think he would do a job at corner back.
I think that Mcloughlin may be best served in the corner this year the more i think of it. He is very light and it would be better for him to be in the corner. He would be one of the better options. He will, in a very short space of time, become one the focal points in this mayo team but for now he should prob serve his apprenticeship in the corner. Big ask for him to be in around some of the giants of the game in the middle third.

[moysider]

i don't know how you can put cafferkey as a no. 5 tbh. There are better options there. Ger isn't good enough on the ball. The accuracy of his passing from the foot isn't great. Vaughan and Barrett provide better options and can give you a point or two a game ala Peadar Gardiner. Could you see Caf taking the point Vaughan got y-day or the goal. No - nose bleed territory for Caf unfortunately. I do think he would do a job at corner back.
I think that Mcloughlin may be best served in the corner this year the more i think of it. He is very light and it would be better for him to be in the corner. He would be one of the better options. He will, in a very short space of time, become one the focal points in this mayo team but for now he should prob serve his apprenticeship in the corner. Big ask for him to be in around some of the giants of the game in the middle third.

To be honest I think that it s unlikely that Caff will be no 1 choice for any jersey at this stage. I put him down as an option for 5 but at this stage he s caught between a rock and a hard place. I believed from the start trying to make him into a full back would do him no good in the long run. I ve said it here often enough and I doubt many know his game better. I should. Younger he looked like a 6 in the making but necessity meant he was used as a 3 because he could cope there well underage while others couldn't at all.  Hopefully he ll recover from this and play in a position that suits his abilities. He s a great lad to cover ground when he bursts onto ball. I would have seen him as a probable successor to James Nallen. I don t know how anybody could have seen him as an adult full back.

[rosnarun]

jesus Lads your hard pleased. some Crazy stuff being suggested. I suppose that the Difference between being a manager and a keyboard Warrior.
Top of the league and you want to change every single one of the backs including 3 people in one position a slighly wayward forward and a   player who has never played  a senior game for mayo.
If JOM did that and lost he would be rightly strung up from the nearest lamppost.
Having said that i would like to see keane given a run at full back. He looked Very assured in the u21 match and hes an out and out defender unlike the many wannabe attackers mayo seem to favour. Cafferkey is Just not an option at the moment and has shown nothing to suggest he will be .even Shane Mchale would be a better bet . most likely though Conroy will  fill in and do a very good job in certain Circumstances but would need to develop very quickly if he wants to be there come summer.
Assuming all fit  i would consider the following definite starters
Clarke
Liam omalley  K higgins
P gardiner T howley K mclouglin

Andy A dillon T mortimer
E varley A osé
In other words i think the only debate is over full back, midfield and corner forward
or possibly as early in the league Seamie and 11 leaving dillion at 15 and Ronan and tom at centre field
which would just leave us a Full back short of winning SAM
Full back options conroy, Keane Cafferkey(wouldnt it be great to have BJP as a back up or following up the left field suggestions David Kicullen)
and on current Known form Conroy is our best performer
would love to see Ronaldson  playing but he too similar to dillion who cant be dropped if fit at least It eases our dependence on Dillion

[Foreverhopeful]

if so many people can see Kevin Keane as a very possible answer to our full-back problem then why hasn't he been called into the panel. why is JOM so blinkered on these matters?
We seem well-equipped at half back so maybe Lee Keegan could be dropped for Keane.
Ger McDonagh and Mikey Sweeney are not going to offer us anything of impact from the bench so they could be axed from official squad. Let them train away with squad if they want for the experience (don't see Sweeney as a prospect -sorry)
With the leagues starting in mayo this weekend we will hear more names being thrown in the hat i.e. A Higgins, D Kilcullen, A Campbell, J Kilcullen - Take 3 out of these 4 instead of Ger McDonagh, Lee Keegan & Mikey Sweeney and that is one impressive panel Mayo will have going into the championship.
I wonder is BJP still playing away. Don't think he's the worst option to have on the bench. Very clever and versatile footballer.

[moysider]

jesus Lads your hard pleased. some Crazy stuff being suggested. I suppose that the Difference between being a manager and a keyboard Warrior.
Top of the league and you want to change every single one of the backs including 3 people in one position a slighly wayward forward and a   player who has never played  a senior game for mayo.
If JOM did that and lost he would be rightly strung up from the nearest lamppost.
Having said that i would like to see keane given a run at full back. He looked Very assured in the u21 match and hes an out and out defender unlike the many wannabe attackers mayo seem to favour. Cafferkey is Just not an option at the moment and has shown nothing to suggest he will be .even Shane Mchale would be a better bet . most likely though Conroy will  fill in and do a very good job in certain Circumstances but would need to develop very quickly if he wants to be there come summer.
Assuming all fit  i would consider the following definite starters
Clarke
Liam omalley  K higgins
P gardiner T howley K mclouglin

Andy A dillon T mortimer
E varley A osé
In other words i think the only debate is over full back, midfield and corner forward
or possibly as early in the league Seamie and 11 leaving dillion at 15 and Ronan and tom at centre field
which would just leave us a Full back short of winning SAM
Full back options conroy, Keane Cafferkey(wouldnt it be great to have BJP as a back up or following up the left field suggestions David Kicullen)
and on current Known form Conroy is our best performer
would love to see Ronaldson  playing but he too similar to dillion who cant be dropped if fit at least It eases our dependence on Dillion

Why the question marks? Sure that s what this  it s all about. Why not pick 3 certainties and leave 12 ? marks. Nothing crazy was suggested by anybody. Only reasonable alternatives. Since when did you become a champion of JOM? Youv'e practically picked the team he does ,apart of course  the obvious selection of Dillon as 11. Most counties would clone Dillon for an 11 but we ve just have never appreciated him at all.
  Look we all know that there will have to be tweaking for the championship. All teams will be different come championship. I could name you the starting Tyrone 6 backs for the championship( Ricey, McMahon,Carlin, Harte, Gormely, Jordan - with Sean O Neill as cover for 3 positions and the other McMahon to be redeployed as needed.)  but with Mayo it still is guess a player, guess his number. You know as well as I do that that what we saw last Sunday will not get us far come championship. So if Johnno does what he s doing now and loses he will get the Il Duce treatment anyway. He d d be well served to go with some suggestions here, but of course he wont. Jut because we re doing well in the league does nt mean damn all. You should know that by know. I notice you left out Vaughan that scores 1-1 from play the last day. And was MoM in a lot of people s estimation. Why is that?
It might also be an issue that of the 11 players you pick 9  are about 5' 8'' - 5'-11''

[macdanger2]

if so many people can see Kevin Keane as a very possible answer to our full-back problem then why hasn't he been called into the panel. why is JOM so blinkered on these matters?

Keane is a good prospect but he's very young - he didn't get the no 3 jersey for the U-21s either.......if you were bringing in somebody new, Kilcullen might be the best bet.....

[Tubberman]

Great discussion lads. You'd be hoping that by the end of the league we'd be almost closing these questions off, rather than reopening them, but as FF spindoctors would say "we are where we are".
Just to throw another name into the mix that seems to be forgotten, Tom Cunniffe is back training with the squad. I have to say, I think he's a better option than Howley at CB (when on top form at least). He's taller, faster and can turn better than Howley. If Keith is out, we could have Cunniffe at CB and move Howley to the corner, or to the wing with McLoughlin/Barrett in the corner.

Hopefully it doesn't come to that - we should know more about Keith's injury later this morning. Fingers crossed.

From The Mayo News:

MAYO'S dual star Keith Higgins will find out this morning (Tuesday) just how long he will be on the sidelines after sustaining a knee injury during the second half of last Sunday's NFL victory over Monaghan.
The 24 years-old defender was helped off the field after twisting his left knee when he landed awkwardly.
Speaking to The Mayo News last night, Mayo manager John O'Mahony admitted that it will be an anxious wait until the extent of the injury is confirmed.
"Keith is having a scan on Tuesday morning at 10.30am and we'll know more then," he said. "Obviously, there's some damage done but we're keeping our fingers, and toes, crossed that it's not serious. Hopefully, he'll be okay. Keith would be a massive loss to us if there was any long-term damage.
"All the other lads [Aidan Kilcoyne, Barry Moran and Ronan McGarrity] are coming back to fitness so it would be terrible to lose Keith to a long-term injury."
The Ballyhaunis clubman also lined out with the Mayo hurlers last Saturday, turning in an impressive performance and scoring five points during the course of a heavy defeat to London in Division 3A of the NHL.
Meanwhile, Tom Cunniffe returned to full training with the Mayo squad last Thursday night. The Castlebar Mitchels defender, who is currently studying in Liverpool, hasn't played football for almost a year due to a Gilmore's groin injury.
John O'Mahony will also be hoping that all his squad come through next weekend's Mayo GAA league matches unscathed ahead of a trip to Cork on Sunday, April 11.

[AbbeySider]

if so many people can see Kevin Keane as a very possible answer to our full-back problem then why hasn't he been called into the panel. why is JOM so blinkered on these matters?

Keane is a good prospect but he's very young - he didn't get the no 3 jersey for the U-21s either.......if you were bringing in somebody new, Kilcullen might be the best bet.....

Thank you, you beat me to it.
All this talk of Keane is crazy. He had a good season at minor but has a lot to prove to cut it at Senior level.

[Farrandeelin]

Arah yea sure no point in bringing anyone until they've gotten at least 3/4 years experience of playing senior football for the county. Just ask Darren Fay in 1996.

[seafoid]

Is the gilmore's groin injury anything to Tom Joe ?

[INDIANA]

Only watched this last night. I though Mayo showed impressive resolve- they'd have lost that game 2 years ago by about 8 points.

Some of the newer players are made of the right stuff from what i can see. No longer solely reliant on Dillon and blondie. Could go quite well this year. I think Galway and Mayo Connacht final will be a cracker this year. Both of them definitely on the up.

[Mayo4Sam]

So ye want Keane in, cant make the U-21's, no senior experience at all but give him 2 games in the league and he's ready for championship?

As for moving Howley out of CB, another ridiculous one. Howley has been the reason that we've been so tight this spring, he covers acres in the back line, covers every spare man, reads the ball coming in well. He has to work on winning breaking ball but him and Kevin Mc have been our top performers in the league and moving either of them out of the HB line would deprive us of a lot of forward ball.
Moving Andy or Trevor to CB would just be stupid, they are forwards and u want to move them into one of the most important spots on the team?

As for planning for without Higgins, is conroy an option? Other than that barrett?

I think Caff is our only option at FB, he was backed since last yr and he needs time to get experience without being dogged out of it.

[heineken_on_tap]

Only watched this last night. I though Mayo showed impressive resolve- they'd have lost that game 2 years ago by about 8 points.

Some of the newer players are made of the right stuff from what i can see. No longer solely reliant on Dillon and blondie. Could go quite well this year. I think Galway and Mayo Connacht final will be a cracker this year. Both of them definitely on the up.

Do you know what time it is on Indiana?

[Farrandeelin]

It is definitely going to be a Ros v Sligo Connacht final this year heineken. And I don't mean U-21s.

[heineken_on_tap]

I'd doubt it Farrandeelin but sure I suppose ourselves, Letrim or indeed London will turn up on Connacht final day alright, god knows what will happen after that