Connacht SFC Q/Final London v Mayo 29.5.11 in Ruislip

[Tubberman]

K O'Malley
R feeney A feeney K higgins
P gardiner D kilcullen K Mcloughlin
  S o'se J kilcullen
t mort  A o se dillon
e Varley A Freeman andy

I think its the fact that he simply knows nothing about football.
A few things:
Kenneth O Malley and David Kilcullen are not even on the panel.
Not starting Doherty is insane.

If he is a WUM its fairly pathetic

I can't remember whether I read it in The Mayo News or The Western People, but David Kilcullen was invited to train with the panel early in the year and declined. That's fair enough, but it's a bit daft for people to be naming him in their championship team on the back of a couple of Mayo junior matches - he wasn't even playing for Ballagh last year!
But if he gets back to full fitness, he is definitely worth a look - he has the physicality and the ability.

[the Deel Rover]

Rosnarun will always start his team picking process by ensuring there are no Ballina Stephenites listed and go from there

it does seem to be part of his selection policy allright

[moysider]

Rosnarun will always start his team picking process by ensuring there are no Ballina Stephenites listed and go from there

it does seem to be part of his selection policy allright

Must introduce him to the delights of Ballina sometime. A nice housin estate girl would ease his woes.

[mannix]

any particular estates in mind?  careful now because i know people and can have a gypo at your door in two shakes of a ferrets tail. only kiddin, nicks.

[Farrandeelin]

He did pick Enda Varley, and himself, Doheerty and Alan Freeman could be a lethal full-forward line. They'd be my full-forward line if I was picking a Mayo team this year unless one of them is injured. I'd have A O'Shea and McGarrity in midfield.

[moysider]

He did pick Enda Varley, and himself, Doheerty and Alan Freeman could be a lethal full-forward line. They'd be my full-forward line if I was picking a Mayo team this year unless one of them is injured. I'd have A O'Shea and McGarrity in midfield.

We wont have the luxury of playing a 3 man full forward line imo. It might look deadly but easier anyway to defend than 2 inside. One of our forwards is going to have a deeper role and that should mean 2 inside. Unless we go back to the 90 s when our 11 played behind midfield. Let s put it this way. That wont be in any coaching manual any time soon.

[maigheo]

A bit harsh there moysider with the dig at Maughan.Colm mc was m.o.m in the connacht final and also had a very good game against kerry in 1996.He also played reasonably well against meath but unfortunatly mcmanus hoovered up alot of breaking ball in the last 20 min. which led alot of people to deem colm mcs role a failure which was far from true.Jeez i can not believe I am bringing this up again 

[IolarCoisCuain]

Decided to come out of retirement for the Championship.

It's giong to be a big Summer and an interesting Summer for Mayo.

Very hard to know where we are at. I think we are better placed than last year, I also think that management are gearing everything towards a serious shot at the Connacht Championship and so we were not as sharp in the league as a result.

Assuming we beat London the Galway game is a massive one for both counties. Two years without a Connacht Final appearance would be a blow for either.

Losing to Galway is not a massive blow. The season for Mayo is all about their quarter-final. How they get to the quarter-final doesn't matter. If they win the quarter-final, the season's been a success, beyond all question. If they lose it - well, it depends on how they lost it and to whom I suppose. It's hard to see them capitulate as they did against Meath but then, I certainly didn't expect them to capitulate against Meath and still don't understand how it happened (and I certainly don't blame the ref).

If Mayo lose to Galway they can't meet either Cork or Kerry until the quarter-final stage, but it's a three game trip though the qualifiers. Ulster teams in Ulster would be bad draws. Otherwise, it's hard to particularly fear anybody. I think it would be good practice not to place too much store in the game against Galway and to release there is a back door option in the Championship.

Of course, beating Galway and winning Connacht would be a lovely way to get to the quarters. Of course. But if you only have an even money chance of beating Galway it's a mistake to beat the season on that one game, when you have access to a back door and in which the chances of your drawing a team against which you match up better are much higher.

Mayo, above all contending teams (Mayo have won four All-Ireland semi-finals in the past fifteen years - that makes them contenders, even though we in Mayo are loathe to give ourselves credit for what we've achieved), have made the least use of the back door. We need to expand our thinking to make the most use of the Championship as its presently constructed. Viewing a game against Galway as an all-or-nothing encounter when it's not an all-or-nothing encounter at all is a mental mistake and bad preparation.

[Farrandeelin]

He did pick Enda Varley, and himself, Doheerty and Alan Freeman could be a lethal full-forward line. They'd be my full-forward line if I was picking a Mayo team this year unless one of them is injured. I'd have A O'Shea and McGarrity in midfield.

We wont have the luxury of playing a 3 man full forward line imo. It might look deadly but easier anyway to defend than 2 inside. One of our forwards is going to have a deeper role and that should mean 2 inside. Unless we go back to the 90 s when our 11 played behind midfield. Let s put it this way. That wont be in any coaching manual any time soon.

True I suppose, it's all gone very defensive these days unfortunately, trying to get men behind the ball at all times.

[moysider]

A bit harsh there moysider with the dig at Maughan.Colm mc was m.o.m in the connacht final and also had a very good game against kerry in 1996.He also played reasonably well against meath but unfortunatly mcmanus hoovered up alot of breaking ball in the last 20 min. which led alot of people to deem colm mcs role a failure which was far from true.Jeez i can not believe I am bringing this up again 

Cant believe I brought it up either. It may have been a bit of a dig at Stylish John but I would be the last in the world to have a go at Colm Mac. 2 All Irelands in a row 2 of the most ordinary no 6s to ever play in a final had huge games against us because we left the forty vacant. If Colm had played the role from 15 with an 11 playing in position it would have been perfect and history probably would have been very different.

[rosnarun]

any particular estates in mind?  careful now because i know people and can have a gypo at your door in two shakes of a ferrets tail. only kiddin, nicks.

are there differences in the pecking order in the ballina estates ?  unless you are including the Quay in the equation , but isn't that rugby land anyway
sorry if i failed to  give ballina their Quota picking the team .  Stick Devenny in any position you want im sure it'll improve the team

in football news  from Mayo Gaa twitter
Mayo 0-15 to Offaly 2-12
Mayo team to face Offaly: David Clarke, Ronan Rochford, Ger Cafferkey, Cathal Hallinan, Chris Barrett, Tom Cunniffe, Donal Vaughan, Jason Gibbons, James Kilcullen, Alan Dillon, Aidan O'Shea, Aidan Campbell, Enda Varley, Alan Freeman,howley

Some more info from todays game: Other Substitutes introduced (Hard to know who replaced who as so many came on) Eoghan Reilly, Alan Feeney, Peadar Gardiner, Dermot Geraghty, Trevor Mortimer, Seamus O'Shea, Neil Douglas, Kevin McLoughlin & Kevin Dolan. Todays Scorers: Aidan Campbell (4 points) Alan Dillon (6 points) Alan Freeman (2 points) Chris Barrett, Enda Varley & Peadar Gardiner (1 point each)

[maigheo]

(Cant believe I brought it up either. It may have been a bit of a dig at Stylish John but I would be the last in the world to have a go at Colm Mac. 2 All Irelands in a row 2 of the most ordinary no 6s to ever play in a final had huge games against us because we left the forty vacant. If Colm had played the role from 15 with an 11 playing in position it would have been perfect and history probably would have been very different.)[/quote]  Moysider I did not mean to imply that you were having a go at colm mc one of the more underrated footballers in mayo.I take your point about him playing that role from no. 15 but I will always maintain that if Maughan had not become manager in 95 we would not have got out of connacht never mind contest all irelands during those years so any mistakes he made should be seen in that context and it would have been an era that would have been long forgotten  and saved us all this anguish    :

[Barney]

Anybody in Ballintubber on Saturday.

Are backs are a massive worry! The chopping and changing at this stage is the kind of thing I hoped we would move away from. Very uncertain few weeks ahead.

[Tubberman]

Anybody in Ballintubber on Saturday.

Are backs are a massive worry! The chopping and changing at this stage is the kind of thing I hoped we would move away from. Very uncertain few weeks ahead.

Yeah I was at it and it was a very poor performance all round I'd have to say.
Offaly were certainly far more 'up for it' - they were pulling jerseys off the ball, not letting a Mayo player make a run at all. They were in Championship mode (Jason Ryan, Wexford manager, was there taking notes). It might have been no harm at all - it certainly will focus the minds of management and players alike.
All those Mayo players had club league games the next day, perhaps they had one eye on that and were holding back a small bit.
But the defence is definitely still a major concern based on Saturday - Offaly scored 2 goals and could have got another couple - they got in behind our defence far too easily.
I'm reluctant to read too much into challenge matches, so probably shouldn't draw too many conclusions, but I wasn't dreaming of September leaving the pitch (fantastic facilities by the way).

[AbbeySider]

I dont think the backs are a massive worry as the game last Saturday was again used to experiment so we will probably see a more settled and solid defence for London and Galway so I wouldnt worry just yet.

I have mixed feelings about the Offaly game, its hard to read that much into it as there was so much chopping and changing.

One thing is for sure; Offaly seemed well up for it and the game was played at a good pace. Mayo did look a bit flat, which could have been down to hard training during the week and the thoughts of a club league game the next day, whereas Offaly seemed much fresher and as Tubberman said were in championship mode.

At the very least it was a decent and competitive game for Mayo and a few guys got game time like Ronan Rochford, Kevin Dolan, Trevor Mortimor, Dermot Geraghty etc

A couple of things would worry me though.

The injury list seems to be piling up with a serious amount of players getting niggles and strains. I dont know is this down to how hard they are being pushed training wise but there seems to be a lot of players picking up injury's.

On that point, Douglas went off after just a couple of minutes and seemed to be in serious distress, does anyone know what happened?

Similarly Seamus O Shea lasted only seconds before he took a big hit and went off with a shoulder injury. R&GS might let us know the extent of it...