Mayo v ????? All Ireland Quarter Final Official Thread

[Farrandeelin]

Lads, I think AOS should be left at midfield. How is Seamie O'Shea coming on?

[kevmy]

If AOS is fit he starts at midfield end of, we dont' have the luxury of using the likes of him up front.

You obviously missed the first half of the Sligo game? We dominated a midfield that previously dominated the Galway midfield and this was throughout the whole game even prior to A.O'Shea coming in.

Most of our problems over the last few years were down the middle, even if we had the forwards up front we weren't getting enough ball to them.

Galway haven't had a decent midfield since Kevin Walsh left so I wouldn't get too excited about besting them. We have to be aiming at beating Cork, Kerry and Dublin around midfield. While Barry Moran has done great the last couple of games he is still in the mould of a traditional midfielder. AOS gives us more mobility, on the ground ball winning ability and the possibility of putting a few lads on their arse which we'll need to beat the serious contenders.

I don't think he's suited to FF as he's not facing the goal that much in there. He might be a possibility at CF but I'd leave him at midfield cos he'd best there.

What is it about us that we spend 5-10 yrs looking for a FB,CB and MF and when we finally settle on them people are saying move Keane to FB and move Vaughan away from CB and take our best MF and put him in FF.

For me we are only missing one of the the central 7 positions. Clarke, Caff, Vaughan, B Moran, AOS and Andy are all nailed on certainty through the spine. We do need to find a CF (or FF) to do the job for us. I think of our available resources either Freeman or SOS at CF are our best options to fill this gap.

[Cosmo Kramer]

Down for us.

Kerry/Donegal/Cork/Kildare all on the other side of the draw.

Laois/Dublin/Down and ourselves on our side.

Not too bad...although Down will feel the same way.

Almost certainly a crack at Dublin for the winners.

[Farrandeelin]

The team who doesn't win in Croker v the team that doesn't lose there. Only one winner I'm afraid...

[Halfquarter]

The team who doesn't win in Croker v the team that doesn't lose there. Only one winner I'm afraid...

If a team cannot win in Croker ,it does not matter who the opposition are,ditto if a team doesn't lose there.!!!

[Cosmo Kramer]

Mayo now into 8/1 for the cup after that draw. Down still out at 33s. Don't know if there's an each way bet available but, if there is, e.w. on Down at 33s seems like value.

Mayo 4/7 for this game.

[From the Bunker]

The team who doesn't win in Croker v the team that doesn't lose there. Only one winner I'm afraid...

Sorry, we're the team that don't win finals at Croker. We've done quite well in Quarter and Semi finals. Ask Kerry '96, Offaly '97  Tyrone '04 Dublin '06 Cork '11.

[whitegoodman]

Both teams will be happy with the draw, should be a good close game.

[ross4life]

Both teams will be happy with the draw, should be a good close game.

True. Will the league game between the two count for anything, maybe Mayo will have a point to prove?

[whitegoodman]

Can't see it having much of an effect, league and championship football are different animals.

Both teams will fancy their chances, mayo having seen downs second half performance against donegal will see them as vulnerable whereas down may believe mayo have not been tested yet and their win against Sligo might be put into some perspective with sligos defeat tonight.

An interesting game.

[Aristo 60]

It i remember rightly Mayo lost a man in the first half in the league game. I think Mortimer got a fair few frees that day too (which he took forever to take). At least Down won't have to look at him.

[ballinaman]

Previous championship meeting lads? Can't think of one off the top of my head.

Interesting game. Down will fancy their chances I'd say, no harm in that at all.

[Cosmo Kramer]

I think we're going to have to show our tougher physical side to win this one. Looking at the teams that have put up big wins against Down in recent times - Cork and Donegal. Obviously both good teams, but they both play with a real physical intensity that Down just can't deal with. The same way we played against Cork last year and against Dublin in this year's league. If we get the tactics and the heads right and take the game to them physically I think we will win this. If we let it turn into too much of a game of football, that'll suit Down perfectly. If its an open game it could go either way, I'd maybe even make them slight favourites in that situation because of the strength of their full forward line compared to ours.

Hopefully James will be wise to this and will set us up to win. I would definitely look at starting Seamus O'Shea on the 40 now, we need to put some muscle into the half forward line. A Dillon/O'Connor/McLoughlin half forward line is too lightweight for the kind of game we need to play from here on out.

Ballinaman - I'm fairly sure there hasn't been a previous championship meeting.

[Collins]

Mayo don't have the physical game to blow us out of the water the way Cork and Donegal have done.

But they simply might have the skill, ability and individual quality to beat us.

Having said that I'm going to say Down can win this by a point or 2. Going to be close. Should be an exciting game, if lacking the quality of the other quarter finals.

teacht ar tú fir ón Morne

[Farrandeelin]

This will be our first ever championship meeting. Hopefully we can do the job, but our forwards would want to improve big time. AOS got sent off in league game reffed by Barry Cassidy in the Spring.