IS JOHN O'MAHONY OVERRATED AS A MANAGER???

[Shrewdness]

Is Johno one of football's greatest ever managers, as evidenced by his 2 All Ireland's with Galway, and a famous 1994 Connacht Title with Leitrim??.........or in the case of Galway, was he just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time as an exceptional crop of players emerged such as Meehan's , Joyce, Donnellan, Divilly etc?.......Could most top managers have won an All Ireland with those players?

Have Mayo really progressed in his second coming, or did the Mayo Co.Board make a big mistake in shafting Mickey Moran in 2006?.......Is O'Mahony hanging on to the Mayo job for fear of alienating voters by packing it in, or is he more likely to alienate some of them by staying on?

DISCUSS.

[magpie seanie]

YES, YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!!!!

Many here will know this is my long held opinion. He is a cute hoor though. Chose his jobs well. The current job is one that was forced upon him and he had to take it in order to get elected.

Can you imagine if someone like Mickey Harte was managing that Galway team of the late 90's/early 2000's?

[ross4life]

i wonder what John would have won if Derek Thompson didn't pass the Ball to Michael Donnellan in 1998 or if the backdoor wasn't introduced in 2001 what if indeed?

[BallyhaiseMan]

Hes a manager who has had great success in the past,but he hasnt moved with the times,
His Galway teams of 98-01 played great open and attractive football. That alone will not do anymore,Kerry for example have moved with the times and whilst playing attractive football,they also do the dirty defensive work,that the likes of Tyrone/Armagh have been criticised for,even though  those cute hoors will never admit to doing it.
His style of open football is nice to watch,and will win some games against inferior opposition,but at the very highest level in August/September he will continute to come up short,until he moves into the modern era,of no fixed positions/13 men behind the ball/cynical fouling to stop build up play etc.

[Farrandeelin]

Yes.

[muppet]

If Mayo are constant underachievers and are criticised for always failing on the big day, how can JOM be an overrated after winning 2 AIFs? Note that not only have Galway won nothing else since 1966, neither has Connacht. He has more All Irelands than Armagh and Donegal and the only living managers with more than O'Mahoney are O'Dwyer, Harte, Boylan, Heffernan & O'Connor (I may have missed some, feel free to add them).

Ye must be some mighty men to be able to trample on his achievements.

[Zulu]

No. Every manager that ever won an AI had brilliant players but some of them won their AI's when the4 opposition maybe wasn't as great at other times in the history of the GAA. Recently Mayo have had to compete in at a time when both Kerry and Tyrone had serious teams and now that they are fading a bit an even better team is coming over the horizon from Cork. JOM has done a remarkably good job with a decent squad but entirely lacking the top of top drawer players that Tyrone, Kerry and now Cork have.

[ross4life]

If John Maughan & Mickey Moran can take Mayo to All Ireland Finals then was hasn't O Mahony taken the current Mayo team there? (maybe the Mayo County board are still happy with what he done in 1989)

Will he be out if he doesn't at least get them there this year?

[Shrewdness]

No. Every manager that ever won an AI had brilliant players but some of them won their AI's when the4 opposition maybe wasn't as great at other times in the history of the GAA. Recently Mayo have had to compete in at a time when both Kerry and Tyrone had serious teams and now that they are fading a bit an even better team is coming over the horizon from Cork. JOM has done a remarkably good job with a decent squad but entirely lacking the top of top drawer players that Tyrone, Kerry and now Cork have.

Don't forget that this is his second spell as Mayo manager, and close though he came in 1989, he didn't get an All Ireland in that spell from a Mayo team that was far superior than the team he currently has.

He deserves credit for his achievements in Leitrim and Galway, but i can't help feeling that those young Galway players made him the name he is today, because i have no doubt that they were destined to win All Irelands with or without O'Mahony, which is why i believe he was in the right place at the right time when he got that job.

Some of his gamesmanship left a sour taste in the mouth. Who can forget a Connacht Final against Mayo, when he lined up 16 players in the pre match introduction to Mary Mc Aleese in order to try and confuse Mayo as to who was actually playing....A little bit pathetic imo.

Also remember a midweek u-21 hurling championship match ,Galway v Offaly being postponed at his request because David Tierney was on the Galway Senior Football panel the following weekend, and he was afraid Tierney would get injured. It was postponed, yet Tierney never kicked a ball the following Sunday.

For what it's worth as a Rossie, i think he's trading on past glories, and is NOT the man to lead Mayo into the future.

[Zulu]

No. Every manager that ever won an AI had brilliant players but some of them won their AI's when the4 opposition maybe wasn't as great at other times in the history of the GAA. Recently Mayo have had to compete in at a time when both Kerry and Tyrone had serious teams and now that they are fading a bit an even better team is coming over the horizon from Cork. JOM has done a remarkably good job with a decent squad but entirely lacking the top of top drawer players that Tyrone, Kerry and now Cork have.

Don't forget that this is his second spell as Mayo manager, and close though he came in 1989, he didn't get an All Ireland in that spell from a Mayo team that was far superior than the team he currently has.

He deserves credit for his achievements in Leitrim and Galway, but i can't help feeling that those young Galway players made him the name he is today, because i have no doubt that they were destined to win All Irelands with or without O'Mahony, which is why i believe he was in the right place at the right time when he got that job.

Some of his gamesmanship left a sour taste in the mouth. Who can forget a Connacht Final against Mayo, when he lined up 16 players in the pre match introduction to Mary Mc Aleese in order to try and confuse Mayo as to who was actually playing....A little bit pathetic imo.

Also remember a midweek u-21 hurling championship match ,Galway v Offaly being postponed at his request because David Tierney was on the Galway Senior Football panel the following weekend, and he was afraid Tierney would get injured. It was postponed, yet Tierney never kicked a ball the following Sunday.

For what it's worth as a Rossie, i think he's trading on past glories, and is NOT the man to lead Mayo into the future.

He won two AI's with that Galway team, which is a fair achievement and no team is destined to win an AI. Micko won a good few AI's with Kerry but has yet to win one with another county. Joe Kernan won't win an AI with Galway yet he brought Armagh to two in a row. You can be a brilliant manager and not win an AI if you don't have the players and he doesn't have the players in Mayo. He has got them to two national league finals and won a Connacht championship which isn't a bad record.

We seem to be aping the soccer fraternity by blaming managers for not winning x, y or z. They have a major role to play and with good team selection and tactics you can get more out of teams than what they might seem capable of but you won't win anything unless you have a certain standard of player and they have the right mental attitude. Mickey Harte gets all kinds of plaudits and he is certainly a fine manager but a team with SON, Cavanagh, Canavan, Gormley, Ricey, Jordan, Brian McGuigan etc. should have been there or there abouts.

JOM is doing as good a job as can be expected given the players. Christ, he hasn't got even one decent scoring forward abd don't tell me C Mort is, he wouldn't be next nor near the Cork team.

[ross4life]

IMO the Turning point in John O Mahonys career

Extra-time goal clinches
title for Tribesmen

Galway 1-17
Roscommon 0-17
GALWAY manager John O'Mahony offered consolation in the promise that they would do Roscommon justice in the All-Ireland semi-final after the extra-time goal left them reeling at the wrong end of a 1-17 to 0-17 scoreline in a pulsating Connacht senior football championship final replay at Dr Hyde Park on Saturday.
Call it opportunism personified on the part of Galway centre-forward, Michael Donnellan, or a blunder on the part of Roscommon goalkeeper, Derek Thompson, but the vital score, a minute into the second half of extra-time, gave Galway the title. Thompson, who had an otherwise impeccable game, had the ball in his hand when he was surrounded by three Galway forwards, Niall Finnegan, Michael Donnellan and extra-time substitute Shay Walsh.
"It was definitely the turning point of the game,'' Finnegan insisted afterwards. "Shay Walsh has to take most of the credit for it. He robbed the goalie who was coming out with the ball and he flicked it away from him. Myself and Don were coming forward. It was a combined effort. He got the main connection on it. Donnellan made no mistake with a first-time effort to the roof of the open net as Thompson threw himself on the ground in despair.
"I think it was the pass that went wrong,'' a distraught Derek Thompson explained. "I had the ball on my chest. I can't remember what happened afterwards. I don't know whether I slipped or somebody got a hand to it or whatever. Next thing it was in the net.''
At half-time, Galway led 0-5 to 0-4 and then, 13 minutes into the second-half, Roscommon drew level through an Eddie Lohan free and they were in total control when they went 0-10 to 0-8 in front 22 minutes into the second-half. Throughout the first-half they were continuously breaking the ball at midfield, but this tactic, obviously designed to cope with the highfielding of Kevin Walsh and Seán O´ Domhnaill, only played into the hands of Seán O´g de Paor, who was having the game of his life at right half-back for Galway.
And he continued to assert himself in the second-half when his 34th minute point restored Galway's lead. Eddie Lohan, who again ended up with a total of eight points, provided the equaliser from a free 35 seconds into injury time. Jarlath Fallon, who had a quiet second-half after scoring two points in the first, got Galway off to a flying start in extra-time with the first of three points in the second minute. Nigel Dinnen equalised for Roscommon, but Galway were two points up, 0-16 to 0-14, at half-time.
John O'Mahony said he knew fitness would not be a problem for Galway. They had trained systematically.
The goal break gave Galway a five-point lead. Eddie Lohan drove over two points for Roscommon — one from a '45 — and Nigel Dineen cut the deficit to two points when he finished off a great move with just a minute left. Time ran out, however, and Michael Donnellan put the issue beyond all doubt when he closed the scoring with another great point.
At the end of it all the statistics will show that Galway hit 20 wides to 13 for Roscommon.
"We know we have to improve,'' John O'Mahony insisted. "The very people that put us up on a pedestal are the people who will knock us down at the end of the day.''
He said the lads showed a lot of character after what was said about them in the last fortnight in particular.
"We are only a crowd of young players who are working very hard and people put a lot of mantles on them that we have yet to earn, but we responded well,'' he said.
"My heart goes out to Roscommon,'' he added.
"I hope that we can go on and represent Connacht in a way that Roscommon deserve — and Mayo and Leitrim — Connacht football was the winner out there today.
He was the first to admit it was a tough game: "The turning point was when the referee blew the final whistle. There were lots of turning points. I felt in the actual drawn part of the game when Roscommon went two points up there was a turning point when we got back up level.
"The questions about the character of this team were answered in the heat of the battle out there — I am talking about five under-21s — and answered them and got back level and might have won it in ordinary time. The last fortnight we had a lot of talking and a lot of soul-searching to do. We knew Roscommon were a great team.''He said they had proved there was a lot of character in the team. They were a young team and they were learning. For many of them it was their first championship campaign and second championship for most of them."I'd like to pay tribute to older guys, men like Gary Fahy, Kevin Walsh, Ray Silke, Tomás Mannion, who have been around for a few years and have played a major part in bringing along the kids, as I call them."
He admitted that he was happy with the drawn games.
"We did not plan it that way but if we did not have them we would have been looking for challenge games today. I'm delighted that we are going in against a Derry team that will be outrageous favourites. We'll be glad to pass over the favourites tag.
"We've had it for the last few weeks, and for lads of 19, 20 and 21 to carry it is maybe asking a little bit much."
"We are all very disappointed,'' said Roscommon centre-forward, Fergal O'Donnell.
"We did our best but it just was not good enough today.
"But things are looking up. We lost players and we lost fans. We were relegated to Division Four of the National League and there was a lot of slagging.
"There was not much belief in this team. But we had belief. Today we could have won it. Let there be no doubt about it the goal was the difference.
"People might say Galway were going ahead at that point, but if that goal had not gone in we have a good fighting spirit and who knows what would have happened," he said.
"I hope that Galway will go on and do well in the remainder of the campaign and that will show how good we are.
"I reckon Sligo were a good team, Mayo were a good team. Today things did not go the way we wanted them to go, and all we can do now is wish Galway the best.
"I know we restored pride in Roscommon football but, having said that, Galway have the cup. A lot of people thought we would get well beaten today like the Clare-Waterford replay, but we did not. We are good fighters. This will be a big boost to Roscommon football. We have a lot of good young footballers in the county — lads like Eddie Lohan's brother, Gerry, and they will be serious players when they join the squad."

Scorers for Galway: M. Donnellan 1-3 (0-1 frees), J. Fallon 0-5, D. Savage 0-3, S. O´g de Paor and N. Finnegan (0-1 frees) 0-2 each and P. Joyce and S. Walsh 0-1.
Roscommon: E. Lohan 0-8 (0-7 frees), N. Dineen 0-3, F. O'Donnell and T. Grehan 0-2 each and L. Dowd and V. Glennon 0-1 each.
GALWAY: M. McNamara; T. Meehan, G. Fahy, T. Mannion; R. Silke, J. Divilly, S. O´g de Paor; K. Walsh, S. O´ Domhnaill; J. Fallon, M. Donnellan, T. Joyce; D. Savage, P. Joyce, N. Finnegan. Subs: D. Mitchell for J. Divilly; S. Walsh for T. Joyce.
ROSCOMMON: D. Thompson; D. Gavin, D. Donlon, E. Gavin; C. Heneghan, C. McDonald, M. Ryan; G. Keane, T. Ryan; D. Connellan, F. O'Donnell, E. Lohan; T. Grehan, N. Dineen, L. Dowd. Subs: D. Duggan for T. Grehan, V. Glennon for T. Ryan.
Referee: Séamus Prior (Leitrim).

P.S in the First Game in Tuam 14 man Roscommon had the game Won only for Seamus Prior to give a free in to Galway when it was a Roscommon Free  (Even today in Ballinamore Prior still laughs at the award of the Free )

[Zulu]

You could probably find one of those games for every manager in every sport in the world. I seem to remember something about Alex Ferguson being on the verge of being sacked when Utd got a lucky win to keep his job and he hasn't looked back since, though he has got more than his fair share of luck since. There's thousands of others too, would Eugene McGee have an opinion piece in the Irish independent if Darby hadn't hung up that goal? We'd be asking Eugene who?

[seafoid]

He deserves credit for his achievements in Leitrim and Galway, but i can't help feeling that those young Galway players made him the name he is today, because i have no doubt that they were destined to win All Irelands with or without O'Mahony,

No way. Galway and Mayo were neck and neck from 95 on. in 1998 it was a bonus to win Connacht. Getting to the final was like a dream. On the day of the match all the money was on Kildare. Very few people gave Galway a chance. Leinster fuball was superior. It was the same in 2001. Mead were going to destroy Galway again because of Leinster fuball.

If JOM had been in charge of the hurlers they would probably have beaten Tipp in 2001. Confidence on the big day is priceless. Of course Tomas Mannion was nice to have as well  

[SLIGONIAN]

IMO the Turning point in John O Mahonys career

Extra-time goal clinches
title for Tribesmen

Galway 1-17
Roscommon 0-17
GALWAY manager John O'Mahony offered consolation in the promise that they would do Roscommon justice in the All-Ireland semi-final after the extra-time goal left them reeling at the wrong end of a 1-17 to 0-17 scoreline in a pulsating Connacht senior football championship final replay at Dr Hyde Park on Saturday.
Call it opportunism personified on the part of Galway centre-forward, Michael Donnellan, or a blunder on the part of Roscommon goalkeeper, Derek Thompson, but the vital score, a minute into the second half of extra-time, gave Galway the title. Thompson, who had an otherwise impeccable game, had the ball in his hand when he was surrounded by three Galway forwards, Niall Finnegan, Michael Donnellan and extra-time substitute Shay Walsh.
"It was definitely the turning point of the game,'' Finnegan insisted afterwards. "Shay Walsh has to take most of the credit for it. He robbed the goalie who was coming out with the ball and he flicked it away from him. Myself and Don were coming forward. It was a combined effort. He got the main connection on it. Donnellan made no mistake with a first-time effort to the roof of the open net as Thompson threw himself on the ground in despair.
"I think it was the pass that went wrong,'' a distraught Derek Thompson explained. "I had the ball on my chest. I can't remember what happened afterwards. I don't know whether I slipped or somebody got a hand to it or whatever. Next thing it was in the net.''
At half-time, Galway led 0-5 to 0-4 and then, 13 minutes into the second-half, Roscommon drew level through an Eddie Lohan free and they were in total control when they went 0-10 to 0-8 in front 22 minutes into the second-half. Throughout the first-half they were continuously breaking the ball at midfield, but this tactic, obviously designed to cope with the highfielding of Kevin Walsh and Seán O´ Domhnaill, only played into the hands of Seán O´g de Paor, who was having the game of his life at right half-back for Galway.
And he continued to assert himself in the second-half when his 34th minute point restored Galway's lead. Eddie Lohan, who again ended up with a total of eight points, provided the equaliser from a free 35 seconds into injury time. Jarlath Fallon, who had a quiet second-half after scoring two points in the first, got Galway off to a flying start in extra-time with the first of three points in the second minute. Nigel Dinnen equalised for Roscommon, but Galway were two points up, 0-16 to 0-14, at half-time.
John O'Mahony said he knew fitness would not be a problem for Galway. They had trained systematically.
The goal break gave Galway a five-point lead. Eddie Lohan drove over two points for Roscommon — one from a '45 — and Nigel Dineen cut the deficit to two points when he finished off a great move with just a minute left. Time ran out, however, and Michael Donnellan put the issue beyond all doubt when he closed the scoring with another great point.
At the end of it all the statistics will show that Galway hit 20 wides to 13 for Roscommon.
"We know we have to improve,'' John O'Mahony insisted. "The very people that put us up on a pedestal are the people who will knock us down at the end of the day.''
He said the lads showed a lot of character after what was said about them in the last fortnight in particular.
"We are only a crowd of young players who are working very hard and people put a lot of mantles on them that we have yet to earn, but we responded well,'' he said.
"My heart goes out to Roscommon,'' he added.
"I hope that we can go on and represent Connacht in a way that Roscommon deserve — and Mayo and Leitrim — Connacht football was the winner out there today.
He was the first to admit it was a tough game: "The turning point was when the referee blew the final whistle. There were lots of turning points. I felt in the actual drawn part of the game when Roscommon went two points up there was a turning point when we got back up level.
"The questions about the character of this team were answered in the heat of the battle out there — I am talking about five under-21s — and answered them and got back level and might have won it in ordinary time. The last fortnight we had a lot of talking and a lot of soul-searching to do. We knew Roscommon were a great team.''He said they had proved there was a lot of character in the team. They were a young team and they were learning. For many of them it was their first championship campaign and second championship for most of them."I'd like to pay tribute to older guys, men like Gary Fahy, Kevin Walsh, Ray Silke, Tomás Mannion, who have been around for a few years and have played a major part in bringing along the kids, as I call them."
He admitted that he was happy with the drawn games.
"We did not plan it that way but if we did not have them we would have been looking for challenge games today. I'm delighted that we are going in against a Derry team that will be outrageous favourites. We'll be glad to pass over the favourites tag.
"We've had it for the last few weeks, and for lads of 19, 20 and 21 to carry it is maybe asking a little bit much."
"We are all very disappointed,'' said Roscommon centre-forward, Fergal O'Donnell.
"We did our best but it just was not good enough today.
"But things are looking up. We lost players and we lost fans. We were relegated to Division Four of the National League and there was a lot of slagging.
"There was not much belief in this team. But we had belief. Today we could have won it. Let there be no doubt about it the goal was the difference.
"People might say Galway were going ahead at that point, but if that goal had not gone in we have a good fighting spirit and who knows what would have happened," he said.
"I hope that Galway will go on and do well in the remainder of the campaign and that will show how good we are.
"I reckon Sligo were a good team, Mayo were a good team. Today things did not go the way we wanted them to go, and all we can do now is wish Galway the best.
"I know we restored pride in Roscommon football but, having said that, Galway have the cup. A lot of people thought we would get well beaten today like the Clare-Waterford replay, but we did not. We are good fighters. This will be a big boost to Roscommon football. We have a lot of good young footballers in the county — lads like Eddie Lohan's brother, Gerry, and they will be serious players when they join the squad."

Scorers for Galway: M. Donnellan 1-3 (0-1 frees), J. Fallon 0-5, D. Savage 0-3, S. O´g de Paor and N. Finnegan (0-1 frees) 0-2 each and P. Joyce and S. Walsh 0-1.
Roscommon: E. Lohan 0-8 (0-7 frees), N. Dineen 0-3, F. O'Donnell and T. Grehan 0-2 each and L. Dowd and V. Glennon 0-1 each.
GALWAY: M. McNamara; T. Meehan, G. Fahy, T. Mannion; R. Silke, J. Divilly, S. O´g de Paor; K. Walsh, S. O´ Domhnaill; J. Fallon, M. Donnellan, T. Joyce; D. Savage, P. Joyce, N. Finnegan. Subs: D. Mitchell for J. Divilly; S. Walsh for T. Joyce.
ROSCOMMON: D. Thompson; D. Gavin, D. Donlon, E. Gavin; C. Heneghan, C. McDonald, M. Ryan; G. Keane, T. Ryan; D. Connellan, F. O'Donnell, E. Lohan; T. Grehan, N. Dineen, L. Dowd. Subs: D. Duggan for T. Grehan, V. Glennon for T. Ryan.
Referee: Séamus Prior (Leitrim).

P.S in the First Game in Tuam 14 man Roscommon had the game Won only for Seamus Prior to give a free in to Galway when it was a Roscommon Free  (Even today in Ballinamore Prior still laughs at the award of the Free )

What are you on about? Ye should of never got near that final and ye thank mickey moran for that. In 1998 were 1-14 to 10 up in hyde with 5mins left, he takes of 3 of our best players on the day thinking of the connacht final and bam wallop 2-2 and we equalise. We were far superior to ros that yr and bearing in mind we threw it away that day ye had the momentum for the replay.

[rosnarun]

no hes not overrated
but he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong reasons