Div 1 - Mayo v Kerry, McHale Park, 20/02/2011 @ 2.30 pm

[Tubberman]

Just saw the penalty incident. O'Sullivan jumped into Hennelly and they both fell over. No penalty.
But overall it looked a scrappy game played in bad conditions. Mayo trying to play the quick long ball into the forwards but 8 times out of 10 it didn't come off.

[Cosmo Kramer]

The way Hennelly wrapped his arms around him meant that the ref was always likely to give the penalty. No need for it, he should have been able to guide him over the end line more easily than that, O'Sullivan wasn't heading towards goal at all.

Here's the penalty incident, judge for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF1v3-z7Rb8

and here's McLoughlin's earlier point after a good take down the other end by Alan Feeney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg1KFrKaAJE

Thought the Mitchels trio in the full back line looked solid all the way through despite the conditions, that full back line would be worth sticking with against Galway. If they settle as a unit Higgins can move to the half back line when he comes back from his travels.

Looking at the table tonight, the loser of the game in Tuam next Sunday will need a massive finish to the league to avoid relegation.

[Maguire01]

Keeper made a terrible blunder of that - all he had to do was stay between O'Sullivan and the goal as O'Sullivan had nowhere to go.

I only caught the last 20 minutes but Mayo's shooting was brutal. Marc O'Sé did a great job clearing up at the back. Sheehan's last point was great - serious pace and a nice finish.

[RedandGreenSniper]

O'Sullivan charged into Hennelly (free out) at which stage Hennelly wrapped his hands around him which is what the penalty was given for. Harsh in the extreme in my opinion.

If Mayo had a decent outlet in the full-forward line, they'd have won today.

Excellent performances from Cunniffe, Gardiner, Cafferkey, McLoughlin, McGarrity and Campbell. Hennelly, Richie Feeney, Alan Feeney and Jason Gibbons can also be happy with how they did. Sadly five out of our six forwards were below par and that's why we lost. But our workrate was great to see and there's a very definite team spirit in evidence in this Mayo team. Work to do, yes, but we're going in the right direction.

And I don't know of any inter-county football with the blinding pace of Tom Cunniffe, mother of God!

[Shrewdness]

Mayo didn't score in the first 19 minutes or the last 19 minutes, so with those stats we were always up against it.

Andy Moran 
He's leaving nobody in any doubt as to his position to the west of the Ballagh county fence either!

The clown called himself a Mayoman, yet next Friday in his own home town, he'll be voting in his own home constituency of Roscommon/South Leitrim.

It must be killing him that he can't vote in Mayo

[RedandGreenSniper]

Mayo didn't score in the first 19 minutes or the last 19 minutes, so with those stats we were always up against it.

Andy Moran 
He's leaving nobody in any doubt as to his position to the west of the Ballagh county fence either!

The clown called himself a Mayoman, yet next Friday in his own home town, he'll be voting in his own home constituency of Roscommon/South Leitrim.

It must be killing him that he can't vote in Mayo

Jesus ye are way too touchy about the border.

[Zulu]

O'Sullivan charged into Hennelly (free out) at which stage Hennelly wrapped his hands around him which is what the penalty was given for. Harsh in the extreme in my opinion.

Ah now R&GS, there isn't a hope he was charging. I think Hennelly came out to narrow the angle and positioned his body to make himself big for a possible shot from O'Sullivan. When this didn't happen and instead O'Sullivan kept moving forward the inevitable collision between the two made it appear as if Hennelly was rugby tackling (poorly). Therefore, the keeper was a bit unfortunate but probably should have done better and in the circumstances I can understand why the ref gave it. Whatever it was it wasn't a free out!

[ross4life]

I was in Hyde park today so i know first hand how terrible the weather was but Mayo 8 scores to kerry 10 scores shows how poor of fair that was in McHale park no doubt both will have to improve on that showing.

[RedandGreenSniper]

O'Sullivan charged into Hennelly (free out) at which stage Hennelly wrapped his hands around him which is what the penalty was given for. Harsh in the extreme in my opinion.

Ah now R&GS, there isn't a hope he was charging. I think Hennelly came out to narrow the angle and positioned his body to make himself big for a possible shot from O'Sullivan. When this didn't happen and instead O'Sullivan kept moving forward the inevitable collision between the two made it appear as if Hennelly was rugby tackling (poorly). Therefore, the keeper was a bit unfortunate but probably should have done better and in the circumstances I can understand why the ref gave it. Whatever it was it wasn't a free out!

Looked at it again there on YouTube and once O'Sullivan half lost control of the ball he did drive into Hennelly with the shoulder - maybe it was a fair challenge, but I dunno. As he had the momentum from there, he knocked Hennelly and went down with him at which stage Hennelly wrapped him. If you didn't consider him to have charged, then it was a penalty. I reckon he did charge myself but it was all in a split second so while I do think the referee gave the decision the wrong way, it was a tough decision to make in the moment.

[Maguire01]

O'Sullivan charged into Hennelly (free out) at which stage Hennelly wrapped his hands around him which is what the penalty was given for. Harsh in the extreme in my opinion.

Ah now R&GS, there isn't a hope he was charging. I think Hennelly came out to narrow the angle and positioned his body to make himself big for a possible shot from O'Sullivan. When this didn't happen and instead O'Sullivan kept moving forward the inevitable collision between the two made it appear as if Hennelly was rugby tackling (poorly). Therefore, the keeper was a bit unfortunate but probably should have done better and in the circumstances I can understand why the ref gave it. Whatever it was it wasn't a free out!

Looked at it again there on YouTube and once O'Sullivan half lost control of the ball he did drive into Hennelly with the shoulder - maybe it was a fair challenge, but I dunno. As he had the momentum from there, he knocked Hennelly and went down with him at which stage Hennelly wrapped him. If you didn't consider him to have charged, then it was a penalty. I reckon he did charge myself but it was all in a split second so while I do think the referee gave the decision the wrong way, it was a tough decision to make in the moment.

The keeper made a mess of it by wrapping his arms around O'Sullivan when he didn't need to.

[ross4life]

Looking at the Youtube video the ref had little option but to award the penalty! silly mistake by the keeper that clearly cost Mayo the game.

[maguire 4 mayo]

From Mayo Advertiser...By Colm Gannon, Mchale Park

Mayo 0-8

Kerry 1-9



Mayo went down to Kerry in their second game in the National Football League in McHale Park on Sunday, and when they look back on the game they will know that they had only themselves to blame for the four point defeat. After taking control of the game from the middle of the first half until right at the death, they failed to convert numerous scoring chances in to scores on the board. Mayo kicked and fisted eleven wides over the seventy minutes in a bitterly cold and wet McHale Park. The result of the game swung dramatically in the Munster mens favour seven minutes from the end when Robert Hennelly was harshly adjudged to have fouled Darran O'Sullivan for a penalty. The decision looked harsh and was one that Mayo manager James Horan described after the game as an unbelievable decision. Bryan Sheehan who had only come on as sub stepped up and calmly slotted the ball to the net sending Hennelly the wrong way. Kerry kicked on from there and added on two more points from Sheehan and Kieran O'Leary to wrap up a 1-9 to 0-8 win. Mayo's inability to convert their possession was the root cause of their failure to take the points from a game that was there to be won.

Both from play and from placed balls Mayo, were not at the races at all in the shooting stakes when it mattered. There were however a number of positives to be taken from the game, with the Mayo defence doing very well after a shaky opening quarter. Alan Feeney, Richie Feeney and Kevin McLoughlin all put in very good performance's with those around them grafting hard all day. Normally if a Mayo team could keep Colm Cooper to a point and Kieran Donaghy scoreless you would have assumed they were well on their way to a victory, but not this day.

Mayo going in level at the break didn't look like a possibility after the opening 15 minutes where at times Kerry looked to be toying with Mayo. The changing point in the half came after a quarter of an hour. Kieran Donaghy won the ball and played in Darren O'Sullivan who laid it off to David Geaney who shot for goal. Robert Hennelly pulled off a great save with his foot to send the ball high and away. At that stage Kerry were leading by three points and Mayo were struggling to make inroads at all, they were failing to clear the ball out of their own half on too many occasions. The visitors got their first score of the half when Geaney kicked a point from out on the right two minutes in, then four minutes later Darren O'Sullivan pointed after Colm Cooper took a quick free to set a move in motion. The Dr Crokes man got his only score of the day 12 minutes in when he tapped over a free from close range. Mayo finally got themselves on the scoresheet in the 20th minute when Ronan McGarrity put over a point from that little pocket of the field where his deadly accurate, coming in from the right hand side on his right foot between the 45m and 21m lines. Aidan Campbell added a free shortly afterwards and that was followed by another pointed free from Ronaldson to level the game up with ten minutes left in the half. David Geaney put Kerry back in front with a good point from play after a quick Darren O'Sullivan free was knocked into his path by Donaghy. Andy Moran leveled it up with the best Mayo score of the afternoon a huge point from out on the left hand side, then Aidan O'Shea finally got the ball under control to slot his only score of the day to put Mayo into the lead for the first time with four minutes to go before the break. The Kerry men did level it up before the midway mark through A Geaney free after McGarrity was judged to have over carried the ball coming out of defence. Mayo's inability to clear their lines lead to five of Kerry's scores in the game according to James Horan after the match.

The opening exchanges of the second half saw Kevin McLoughlin and Geaney exchange scores inside the opening six minutes. Mayo retook the lead through Aidan Campbell with 22 minutes left on the clock but that was soon counteracted by a Darren O'Sullivan point. The last Mayo score came from the boot of Neil Douglas who came on after 41 minutes for Mark Ronaldson with 18 minutes left on the clock. But that was to be the last time that Mayo troubled the umpire in the Albany end to raise the white flag. With a trip to Tuam and old rivals Galway next week a lot of work will have to be done, to ensure that that this years league campaign doesn't turn into a slog to avoid relegation.


Mayo: R Hennelly, R Feeney, A Feeney, T Cunniffe; P Gardiner, G Cafferkey, K McLoughlin (0-1); J Gibbons, R McGarrity (0-1); A Campbell (0-2), A Moran (0-1), A Dillon; A O'Shea (0-1), A Kilcoyne, M Ronaldson (0-1,1f). Subs: N Douglas (0-1), T Parsons, J Doherty


Kerry: B Kealy; P Reidy, M O'Sé, S Enright; A O'Mahony, E Brosnan, J Lyne; S Scanlon, D Moran; G O'Driscoll, D O'Sullivan (0-2), D Walsh; C Copper (0-1,1f), K Donaghy, D Geaney (0-4, 2f). Subs: A Maher, D Casey, B Sheehan (1-1), K O'Leary (0-1)

[Farrandeelin]

I don't know. Our handling errors and our shot selection let us down.

I thought the keeper had a good day, despite letting in a goal from the penalty. There can be debates about it all day but it's standing now and that's that...

Full-back line coped well, I thought Alan Feeney was lucky to have gotten Billy Fitz's motm on the radio (I tuned in on the way home) as he was lucky enough the ball bounced his ways on occasions. Cunniffe was mighty today.

Halfback line was good too, McLoughlin would have been up there for motm in my opinion. Cafferkey stuck with O'Sullivan as well and didn't let him in for anything (apart from the peno) but he was solid all through I thought.

Midfield, McGarrity had a great game in my opinion, he was ploughing a lone furrow for most of the match as Gibbons didn't seem to be in the game at all. McG seemed to be everywhere up and down the field.

Campbell was okish in the half-forward line. Andy Moran, Christ if he could carry the spring form into Summer he'd be a mighty man. Dillon had one of his worst games in a Mayo jersey. Nothing worked for him. I'm sure it was just one of those days.

Inside forward line, AOS AAAAAH!!! He has no dash of pace, he couldn't catch a ball without dropping it, but he did score a sweet point in the first half when he actually did catch the ball. If only he did it all through the game. Kilcoyne didn't have his usual impact he has on Mayo days either. Ronaldson is just a bit too small for intercounty stuff imo.

Pity Douglas got injured, hopefully it's not too serious. Game definitely changed with the penalty. Kerry seemed to score any time they liked to and despite leading 8 pts to 7 I always got the feeling that Kerry would score again if they wanted to level it up. But they got the penalty and that was that.

[moysider]

I m far too annoyed to take many positives from the game at this stage. The same things are doing us in over and over again. It s like f**king Groundhog Day going to Mayo games.

[saffronandblue]

I hate to say it, but there will be no All Ireland win with this team imo.  A full strength Kerry team could beat us by 20 points if we met them in a final.  Our lads try hard in fairness but me might as well accept that we are just not good enough.

Declan O' Sullivan, Thomas O' Se and Galvin were missing today and Gooch and Donaghy were hardly killing themselves.  I'm depressed.  I thought we might be bridging the gap but it looks like we are heading no where fast at any rate.......I hope I'm wrong.