All-Ireland SFC Quarter Final Mayo v Cork

[Jinxy]

Why are the Meath boys so interested in this thread?

We're filling in for the non-existent Cork posters.

[spuds]

The best thing for the development of this Mayo team would be if they give Cork a right rattle and lose by 3/4 points.
Gives them something to build on.

That's the best possible scenario that's been played out in my head. I cannot see us beating Cork, however as you stated in your post jinxy, Mayo are ayoung team and hopefully they won't throw in the towel. It's very hard to give a detailed preview because nobody really knows how good Mayo are.

Yet if Cooper or anyone from any other county scored 0-8 from frees in that kind of weather (and won a few as well) he'd be canonised. But because he's from Mayo it's a case of 'he got lucky' or some other shitty excuse. Also, if any goalkeeper caught a ball bouncing over the bar he'd be praised from the highest heavens. We're written off, sure Cork only have to show up and wipe the floor with us, and given their strength in punishing Down's open gaps all over the pitch they very well might. Where there's life there's hope, albeit a very small proportion of it regarding Mayo winning. An honourable defeat would be ok in my opinion.

In the same breath as you saying Mayo are underrated at national level, you're settling for an honourable defeat? We're either good enough to be able to compete with Cork or we're not.

This old sh1t comes out year on year, no wonder we underachieve with fans like this. Man up and have a rigt cut at it and give ourselves an opportunity of doing what we did in 2004 to Tyrone and 2006 to Dublin. No point in blaming everything else if the bar is set so low. Killing me that cannot make game, would love to be up in Dublin for weekend. The tingle down the spine when Amhrán na bhFiann is being sung and the whole story is about to unfold before your very eyes. Hard to beat the summer football with knockout championship.

[Farrandeelin]

Well there's the thing RGS and spuds. If we compete and lose it'll be kind of ok by me if ye understand me. if we end up losing by a point Sunday evening no doubt I'll be raging like a bull etc...

[Frank Casey]

STOP PRESS

Langerload* of Langers to Travel at the weekend.


From today's De Paper.

Shields: Fans will be back for Mayo clash

By John Fogarty

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

IF Michael Shields read the newspapers he might have something to say about what Joe Brolly thinks of Cork but he doesn't so he's oblivious to his team being referred to as primitive and "crash, bang, wallop".

But on the subject of the paltry number of supporters who watched them win in Croke Park, he did have an opinion.

Their numbers couldn't have been more contrasting to the droves who turned up in Fitzgerald Stadium last month but Shields wasn't surprised. First thing, it's something he's got used to over the years. Second of all, he suspects they were keeping their money for this weekend's All-Ireland quarter-final against Mayo.

"Look, that's just the way it is," shrugged the defender. "Cork fans, to be fair to them, have hurling and football down through the years. It is a lot on the pocket especially in today's economic times. They can't go to every game and we're All-Ireland champions so they might have been expecting us to win, and probably saving up for the next round."

Shields says the supporters weren't helped by the late Saturday evening throw-in in Dublin.

"At 6pm it's hard for families to get up with kids and transport them up and down on a Saturday. A Sunday afternoon, at two or four o'clock, probably would have been more appropriate. But it wasn't in our hands."

Widely described as having the best panel in the country, managing to play three more games is a massive test for Cork considering the injuries to Colm O'Neill, Ciarán Sheehan and now Daniel Goulding.

"They are big losses to us," acknowledged Shields. "We have some good young players there who came in and did well. Barry (O'Driscoll) was unfortunate he had to come off injured as well but Fiachra Lynch and Mark Collins did well so that's great plusses for us."

Beating Down was a sure-fire way of getting the Munster final defeat out of their system.

"If you lose the Munster final you can always say that you have a qualifier in three weeks as opposed to a quarter-final in four weeks. You know what the scenario is, you know you're not out of it."

As for what happened on Saturday, Shields admits Cork were expecting more of a fight from Down.

"We thought it was going to go to the wire, the last five or 10 minutes maybe. We were hoping to be two or three points ahead and we'd have been happy. Going in at half-time we were five points up whereas last year we were three points down so they were big plusses for us."


http://irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/shields-fans-will-be-back-for-mayo-clash-162165.html

* Translation = rakes

[Kerry Mike]

Meath Langers

[Jinxy]

Mangers.

[Dinny Breen]

Hardy

[spuds]

Meath Langers

Would that make Larry Tompkins a Klanger ?

[Dinny Breen]

Nope he's a Klingon.

[macdanger2]

All things being equal, Cork should win this - it'll be a major shock if anything other than that happens. That's not being defeatist or raising the white flag, simply telling it as it is - if both teams play to their potential, Cork will win.

As I see it, Mayo's main advantage going into this is that Cork are expected to steamroll us (as they did in our last meeting in Croker) and they may well have one eye on their re-match with Kerry. We also need at least 12 players playing close to their best and every player being right in the face of their man.

I'd be a little worried about Vaughan at CHB, he was fairly poor against Roscommon and he needs to be a lot sharper on Sunday. Mort is loose as well but should make up for that with his ball-winning ability and hopefully holding the centre - someone will need to drop back if he bombs forward though. Even though Cunniffe played v well against Ros, I don't think he's tight enough for corner back - Goulding being out is a big bonus for us though. I'd have the match-ups (presuming Cork start they finished last week) as:

Higgins / O'Connor
A Feeney / Lynch
Cunniffe / Kerrigan
R Feeney / Gould
Vaughan / Kelly
Mort / O'Neill

When you match it up like that, it demonstrates how big of a challenge this will be for us. McLoughlin will drop back to help out and I presume Miskella will follow him unless we're winning MF. It's crucial for us not to concede goals - Roscommon should have scored one at least.

The two O'Ses will need big games in MF (presuming they start) but I think they provide a lot of extra physciality there that we have lacked since DB hung up his boots.

The half forward line, Moran and Dillon in particular will need to start scoring - they haven't contributed as much as expected on that front this year.

I'm hoping that Doherty & Freeman will finally click in the FF and with good fast low ball into them on a dry day, they'll do damage to that Cork FB line. CO'C just needs to reproduce his performance from Hyde Park.

From a physical point of view, Cork are much stronger than us and could well tear us apart as they did to Down last weekend. This, along with their extra experience will probably tell in the end but we have a fighting chance of springing a surprise in this.

Anybody know if there are any changes to the team that started in the Hyde? McG, Caff or Varely probably the ones most likely to come in.

Maigh Eo Abú

[RedandGreenSniper]

McGarrity won't be starting anyway - according to Horan he's still not fit enough. I'm led to believe that Ger Caff is pushing Alan Feeney and Enda Varley is pushing Jason Doherty very hard for a spot. Team due to be released this afternoon I think.

[AbbeySider]

I have not posted on this thread yet as I cant decide how this one is going to go. My head says Cork will win easily, but my heart is telling me there could be a big game in this Mayo team.

When you think about it, the games we played against Galway and Roscommon were played in atrocious conditions so Mayo have not yet been able to show what they can do on a fine day which will make Sunday all the more interesting. The quality in those Connacht championship games was as good as the weather allowed, which was poor by anyones standards and that would have lowered expectation and the opinion of Mayo even in oppositions heads, so I think we could surprise.

As was eluded to, Cork are a better team on paper even though they have a few injury worries which may even up the odds a bit for us.

What I am hoping out of this is an honest performance, and thats all we can ask for. If we play at our best and fall short then so be it. But if we collapse and get steamrolled it will be very depressing, but I dont think that is going to happen. Horan has them playing with hunger and belief in the last few games and we have shown good character to come back against the Rossies and wearing Galway down, all be in in terrible conditions which made it all the harder.

The big divider between teams is Corks physicality, strength and conditioning at the minute with which Mayo are a couple of years behind. We could make up for it with dogged workrate and hunger which again, could surprise Cork.

Mayo should be very fit, have pace in the required areas and the space in Croke Park might suit our forwards. At midfiled I am not sure the space will suit the O Sheas so hopefully McGarrity is fit enough to see more action than he did in the last couple of games and we can get a strong 20 minutes out of him.

I can see Cafferkey come in for Alan Feeney and Varley for Doherty but I dont think McGarity could be fit enough to start. On those changes I think Doherty deserves a few minutes to prove himself again but some time on the bench might be the kick in the ass he needs to improve on his recent form.

The other change is exactly what I would have done after the Roscommon game. Alan Feeney has some good attributes as a full back, he is good in the air and good enough on the ball, but he was miles off Donie Shine at times. What I cant understand is the rubbish that was written by Noel Connelly about the "Backs driving Mayo Forward" in last weeks Mayo News, describing Mayos defence as "outstanding" and saying Feeney did well on his direct opponent and also saying he did very little wrong. I dont think so; it was obvious Feeney struggled all be it against one of the best full forwards in the country, but if you were reading that article the defence won the game for Mayo which is untrue. Cillian O Connor won the game for Mayo.

Just to finish off, I do think Vaughan is another worry at CB. He did Ok against Galway but was exposed again against Roscommon. I would like to see what Richie would be like there and push Vaughan to the wing if he is struggling.

[RedandGreenSniper]

I have not posted on this thread yet as I cant decide how this one is going to go. My head says Cork will win easily, but my heart is telling me there could be a big game in this Mayo team.

When you think about it, the games we played against Galway and Roscommon were played in atrocious conditions so Mayo have not yet been able to show what they can do on a fine day which will make Sunday all the more interesting. The quality in those Connacht championship games was as good as the weather allowed, which was poor by anyones standards and that would have lowered expectation and the opinion of Mayo even in oppositions heads, so I think we could surprise.

As was eluded to, Cork are a better team on paper even though they have a few injury worries which may even up the odds a bit for us.

What I am hoping out of this is an honest performance, and thats all we can ask for. If we play at our best and fall short then so be it. But if we collapse and get steamrolled it will be very depressing, but I dont think that is going to happen. Horan has them playing with hunger and belief in the last few games and we have shown good character to come back against the Rossies and wearing Galway down, all be in in terrible conditions which made it all the harder.

The big divider between teams is Corks physicality, strength and conditioning at the minute with which Mayo are a couple of years behind. We could make up for it with dogged workrate and hunger which again, could surprise Cork.

Mayo should be very fit, have pace in the required areas and the space in Croke Park might suit our forwards. At midfiled I am not sure the space will suit the O Sheas so hopefully McGarrity is fit enough to see more action than he did in the last couple of games and we can get a strong 20 minutes out of him.

I can see Cafferkey come in for Alan Feeney and Varley for Doherty but I dont think McGarity could be fit enough to start. On those changes I think Doherty deserves a few minutes to prove himself again but some time on the bench might be the kick in the ass he needs to improve on his recent form.

The other change is exactly what I would have done after the Roscommon game. Alan Feeney has some good attributes as a full back, he is good in the air and good enough on the ball, but he was miles off Donie Shine at times. What I cant understand is the rubbish that was written by Noel Connelly about the "Backs driving Mayo Forward" in last weeks Mayo News, describing Mayos defence as "outstanding" and saying Feeney did well on his direct opponent and also saying he did very little wrong. I dont think so; it was obvious Feeney struggled all be it against one of the best full forwards in the country, but if you were reading that article the defence won the game for Mayo which is untrue. Cillian O Connor won the game for Mayo.

Just to finish off, I do think Vaughan is another worry at CB. He did Ok against Galway but was exposed again against Roscommon. I would like to see what Richie would be like there and push Vaughan to the wing if he is struggling.

I agree with your first par but can't agree with you on Noel Connelly. He may have been a bit soft on Alan Feeney but Mayo's defenders were as significant, if not more significant, a reason for Mayo's win than Cillian O'Connor - who was immense too. Mayo kept the Rossies to two points in the whole second half. They kept Galway to one point in the second half. That needs to be remembered. Sunday will be another question and they will be much more severely tested but Mayo's defence has been very good in the championship up to now. Against Roscommon Richie Feeney, Trevor Mort, Keith Higgins and Tom Cunniffe really stood up when they were needed. They did drive Mayo on.

[Stevie g 8]

is anthony lynch still involved with cork,i kow he was injured the last year or 2 but was togged out in the final last year,i always thought he was a great corner back and man marker

[Hardy]

He was togged out on Saturday.