Mayo V Kerry- 8/4/12

[mannix]

Well done mayo, not giving up on lost causes is the reason they won. A little more composure and they could be contenders in the summer.

And no doubt ye'll definitely be contenders in the Autumn . Maybe even the start of a 3 in a row.
Time for a " Who can stop...." thread 

Well if they could stop panicking when they see a Kerry jersey in summer who else is there to frighten them? Roscommon?  Mayo are a good enough team, not a great team but then neither are Dublin.

[Syferus]

Well done mayo, not giving up on lost causes is the reason they won. A little more composure and they could be contenders in the summer.

And no doubt ye'll definitely be contenders in the Autumn . Maybe even the start of a 3 in a row.
Time for a " Who can stop...." thread 

Well if they could stop panicking when they see a Kerry jersey in summer who else is there to frighten them? Roscommon?  Mayo are a good enough team, not a great team but then neither are Dublin.

Got it in one. You're a sharp one, I hope you're never managing Mayo or we might have some trouble with ye!

[mannix]

Well done mayo, not giving up on lost causes is the reason they won. A little more composure and they could be contenders in the summer.

And no doubt ye'll definitely be contenders in the Autumn . Maybe even the start of a 3 in a row.
Time for a " Who can stop...." thread 

Well if they could stop panicking when they see a Kerry jersey in summer who else is there to frighten them? Roscommon?  Mayo are a good enough team, not a great team but then neither are Dublin.

Got it in one. You're a sharp one, I hope you're never managing Mayo or we might have some trouble with ye!

Thanks, I get that a lot.

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

Just a quick word to sans pessimism and a few others talking about Kerry players feigning injury...
Clearly none of you were at the game in Tralee when Mayo players were dropping like flies throughout the 2nd half...to quote a man seated near me "I hope Mayo's physio did the warm-up"!!
As to Kerry feigning injury yesterday, Young, Crowley and Darran O'Sullivan all went off injured so if they were faking it, they did a very convincing job!

Watched the game back there earlier...general play was more evenly balanced than I thought to be fair. Kerry's goal came of a fortuituous bounce of the ball so scores would have been close enough in last 10 mins of normal time regardless I think. The ref really was appalling..I hate criticising refs (especially when you lose) but he was terrible for both sides. Killian Young got a free near the end of normal time after falling on the ground...could have been a game changing decision. He was seemingly unable to spot players "engineering" frees in the most glaring fashion right under his nose...at one stage Alan Dillon jumped into his opponent and got a free. This wasn't unique to this referee of course. Very few of them seem to have the awareness of the game or cop on to see what's happening.
Boyle's goal really was crazy..still no idea how he managed to get a shot off! Once that went in, the momentum was with Mayo, but a draw should still have been the outcome, Johnny Buckley should have fisted over and Sheehan of course would knock over the '50 9 times out of 10..but that sport. The prospect of a final with Cork in Dublin would have lead to mixed feelings anyway, so 1 positive is we keep the powder dry on that front for now...aside from that, happy enough with the league overall. Used a lot of players and have some real options we didn't have last year if everyone is in form.

[Declan]

http://www.joe.ie/gaa/gaa-news/the-lads-at-croke-park-couldnt-believe-mayo-won-yesterday-heres-the-proof-0023515-1

[rosnarun]

I would not pass too much heed on keyy missing players . to go in against kerry without probably our 3 1st pick choices at midfield  and still  hold out own in the sector was a big boost . in fact mayo wer missing about 6 players that we would have consider probaly starters at the biginning of the league oSE x2 mc garrity TMort  Cunniffe and Howley but time waits for no man .
the constant renewal of the team that gives us all hope . the reintroduction  of Boyle and conroy and addition of Keegan and Keane  has been massive this year
Word of warning though
but we are still only at the same stage that we were in 2 years ago at this point and rember how badly that went wrong

[muppet]

Just a quick word to sans pessimism and a few others talking about Kerry players feigning injury...
Clearly none of you were at the game in Tralee when Mayo players were dropping like flies throughout the 2nd half...to quote a man seated near me "I hope Mayo's physio did the warm-up"!!
As to Kerry feigning injury yesterday, Young, Crowley and Darran O'Sullivan all went off injured so if they were faking it, they did a very convincing job!

Watched the game back there earlier...general play was more evenly balanced than I thought to be fair. Kerry's goal came of a fortuituous bounce of the ball so scores would have been close enough in last 10 mins of normal time regardless I think. The ref really was appalling..I hate criticising refs (especially when you lose) but he was terrible for both sides. Killian Young got a free near the end of normal time after falling on the ground...could have been a game changing decision. He was seemingly unable to spot players "engineering" frees in the most glaring fashion right under his nose...at one stage Alan Dillon jumped into his opponent and got a free. This wasn't unique to this referee of course. Very few of them seem to have the awareness of the game or cop on to see what's happening.
Boyle's goal really was crazy..still no idea how he managed to get a shot off! Once that went in, the momentum was with Mayo, but a draw should still have been the outcome, Johnny Buckley should have fisted over and Sheehan of course would knock over the '50 9 times out of 10..but that sport. The prospect of a final with Cork in Dublin would have lead to mixed feelings anyway, so 1 positive is we keep the powder dry on that front for now...aside from that, happy enough with the league overall. Used a lot of players and have some real options we didn't have last year if everyone is in form.

I completely agree. He drive me mad at times, he gave some of the softest frees I've seen to both teams. He fell for everything. I was critical of the Mayo team after the loss to Down because that day Down played the ref very well.  This time Mayo were much better in that regard.

This was a great win but what made it even better was the you felt there are even better performances in some of the players. Some have been named above but you would feel a fully fit Cillian O'Connor and Aiden O'Sé would seriously improve things.

I have been critical of Pat Harte pin the past but I have to hold my hand up and acknowledge the massive role he played while he was on the pitch. We would not have won without him.

Clarke made a big save when a goal would have killed us. I think the back 6 all finished the game which tells you how happy the sideline were with them, and we even had Richie Feeney on as well. I think he was actually at midfield marking Sheehan but I could be wrong.

I am much happier seeing Andy in the HF line and although this line faded later in the game they had a good day overall. The FF line of Mort, Doc and Conroy only had one scorer. That is worrying, although Cillian O'Connor will undoubtedly play, and more importantly score, if he is fit.

Our midfield injuries are becoming a serious problem. Both O'Sés, Pat Harte, Barry Moran doesn't look right and McGarrity make a long list of issues in that area. Hopefully the two months to the Championship will see that improve but unfortunately we have only two weeks to find a midfield to play Cork.

Anyway, a victory in Croker against Kerry is a rarity and something to savour. Well done lads.

[Mayo Mick]

Good win made hard work of it - a bit more perspiration than inspiration. Midfield and forwards still not right but we can work on that before AI qtr final.

[ballinaman]

Fair play to the lads. Showed some serious bite out there yesterday, great to see.

Boyler, some man....would gladly get his head taken off than shirk a 50/50.

More to come yet hopefully from a few lads and a few current injury problems. Kicked a few high balls aimlessly when searching for the equaliser, won't get away with that come championship. Kerry were cuter with there shot selection and build up play.

[mannix]

Fair play to the lads. Showed some serious bite out there yesterday, great to see.

Boyler, some man....would gladly get his head taken off than shirk a 50/50.

More to come yet hopefully from a few lads and a few current injury problems. Kicked a few high balls aimlessly when searching for the equaliser, won't get away with that come championship. Kerry were cuter with there shot selection and build up play.

Kerry are smarter, they seem to gets scores so much easier and play long ball a lot more fluidly. Mayo won a game they should have lost, simple as that.

[muppet]

Kerry are more experienced. That is the difference. Our players will learn from playing in these big games. Look at the way Galvin effortlessly pulled the strings yesterday. Ability is a big part of it obviously but so is his experience.

[bucko]

Definitely nice to be talking about a Mayo win against Kerry. While keeping in mind that it was a league semi and our display wasn't faultless, a lot of positives can be taken from it. The quality of some our play, especially in the 1st quarter, was very good. Long low ball into the corners, a lot of it coming from Andy, which Mort and Conroy thrived off. Mixed that with some quick short play, ball being laid off on to guys coming at pace. That period showed we play at our best when we use space and move the ball quickly and keep it going forward, keep the momentum in the attack. Clarke was solid, not a lot he could do about the Kerry goal but pulled off a great save to keep us in it.Varied the kickouts tho I still think his long kickouts tend to hang a bit too long which makes clean fielding on our own kickouts that bit more difficult. Otherwise he is most definitely our number 1 for the championship. Our back six is pretty much set in stone at this stage. Yesterday, aside from Vaughan who struggled a bit with having to follow Donaghy all over the shop, they were excellent. Tight, tenacious, it's good to see us finally having a backline that focus on their primary job of defending first but at the same time picking the right times to go forward. Boyle was the stand out player in the defence (how he ever got that shot off for the goal was incredible), Higgins was his usual self while Caff is certainly developing into a top class full back. Keane and Keegan put in a very good shift and have developed well over the league. Their fitness levels were superb, considering the back 6 played the full 90 minutes without ever looking like they were tired is a credit to Cian O'Neills conditioning programme. Half forward line looks set as well, Andy looks like he'll be the 11 for the summer. Pulled the strings there yesterday, always looked to kick the ball in. Job is now to sustain our quality play and dominence for longer, we still have periods were our performance/concentration/intensity level, call it what you will, drop way off. We start playing cagey, short passing football, playing to static men or going lateral. We tighten up the play which results in areas of the pitch getting very congested. We then tend to play the short game through those areas, playing high risk short passes, a fair percentage of which get turned over and which did result in Kerry scores yesterday. Put simply we stop doing what works! Midfield is a bit of an issue, obviously O'Shea was a big loss and while Gibbons didn't do a whole lot wrong and looks the most likely partner now for a fit AOS, our options outside of that and SOS become limited. Harte did well when he came in but is he regarded as a first choice option? The only other con we have is we are lacking a direct, hard running half forward. There were times yesterday when Mort had the ball in a position that was screaming for hard runner inside to take a pass and none there. We're depending on Vaughan, Higgins, Keegan and Boyle to make those runs from the back. If we had these runs coming from the half forward line we could be creating a lot more, clear cut goal opportunities. But overall, a good performance, a satisfying result and hopefully we can reproduce and improve on it against Cork.

[Champ15]

Well done to the boys yesterday a very good win showing heart and determination when 5 points down in the 2nd half and 3 points in et something that in previous years would have seen us crumble! It is only the league but its nice to see us progress! The last thing we want is hype coz we all know what happened last time in league final against cork and the summer we had! What we got yesterday was another day out in croker in a national final and for a relativity young team its an experience which will stand them in good stead especially if they win the confidence they will get of knowing on there day they can beat top level teams! Talk of winning all irelands should be non existant as we've being too inconsistent over the years but its encouraging to see us going in the right direction.
On yesterdays game after starting well we were over ran at midfield Kerry and inparticular Maher cleaned up,its an area for concern for me and showed how much we missed aidan o shea! Gibbons did alright but is still learning at this level but its my opinion Barry Moran doesn't cut the mustard for me! Some may disagree with me but he offers nothingand doesn't stand out like he does a club level!
The tactic of putting him ff backfired as before that we put low accurate ball in we were a big threat especially Conroy who had his marker ran ragged and mort who done the scoring but when Barry went inside we kicked in aimless high balls which were turned over and which Kerry got a few scores from.
Our half forward line flitted in and out of the game which was a bit worrying but I'll put it down to an off day! Our backs were very good especially boyle who looks like he'd go through a brick wall for the cause and ger caff who kept gooch to 1 point from play and quiet in general play.
Like i stated earlier it was a very good win but a lot more hard work to do yet before we become contenders! Heres hoping they continue improving the wa they have done!

[emmetryan]

There's no thread on the other semi so I'll post this here, here's my tactics piece on Cork's win over Down http://action81.com/blog/?p=5699

[omagh_gael]

What's the story with this Boyle fella? What age is he? Was he a stand out minor? Why has he only rejoined the panel recently? Looks like a gem of a player.