Galway v Mayo Sunday May 19th 2013 - Pearse Stadium

[highorlow]

As someone who has played club football in Galway for a long time and been a huge follower of the Galway footballers for many years I take no pleasure in saying that I agree fully with GBB.
This is the worst Galway senior team that I can ever remember seeing. It is true that Galway-Mayo games have generally been close over the years (whether at minor, u21 or senior) and prior to this year I would always have given us a chance against Mayo regardless of our form in the run-in but this year is different.
Mayo are operating at a different level altogether than us. Although we hammered Roscommon last summer, I also believe that they would now beat us if we met them.
The fact we are playing at home to me means that the scoreline will probably be closer than it would have been had the game been played in McHale Park. But Mayo will still win simply because they are a better team than us at the moment.

I do think we will come again and be a force at senior level in years to come but it will take a few years.
We were absolutely dreadful away from home in the league this year - only scraping past Longford who lost all their games. We weren't even competitive in the other away games - hammered by Laois, Louth and Armagh - none of whom are exactly giants of the game at the moment!

Am not poor mouthing here - just giving an honest opinion on where we're at. I was at most of the league games this year - missed the Armagh game.
We don't have a settled team at the moment either.  Midfield has been chopped and changed constantly and we don't seem to be any closer to deciding on a partnership here. Likewise in the forwardline - Conroy has been moved all over the place & was even dropped for one of the games.
Cummins, Martin etc have been in and out of the team.
I dunno - my optimism is the lowest it's ever been as a Galway supporter.

The thing about it is that I don't believe Mayo are anything special themselves. It's just we are so poor at the moment.

Best post I've read in a long time. I enjoyed that read. Great days when Galway and Meath are at such a low ebb. Long may it continue.

[seafoid]

As someone who has played club football in Galway for a long time and been a huge follower of the Galway footballers for many years I take no pleasure in saying that I agree fully with GBB.
This is the worst Galway senior team that I can ever remember seeing. It is true that Galway-Mayo games have generally been close over the years (whether at minor, u21 or senior) and prior to this year I would always have given us a chance against Mayo regardless of our form in the run-in but this year is different.
Mayo are operating at a different level altogether than us. Although we hammered Roscommon last summer, I also believe that they would now beat us if we met them.
The fact we are playing at home to me means that the scoreline will probably be closer than it would have been had the game been played in McHale Park. But Mayo will still win simply because they are a better team than us at the moment.

I do think we will come again and be a force at senior level in years to come but it will take a few years.
We were absolutely dreadful away from home in the league this year - only scraping past Longford who lost all their games. We weren't even competitive in the other away games - hammered by Laois, Louth and Armagh - none of whom are exactly giants of the game at the moment!

Am not poor mouthing here - just giving an honest opinion on where we're at. I was at most of the league games this year - missed the Armagh game.
We don't have a settled team at the moment either.  Midfield has been chopped and changed constantly and we don't seem to be any closer to deciding on a partnership here. Likewise in the forwardline - Conroy has been moved all over the place & was even dropped for one of the games.
Cummins, Martin etc have been in and out of the team.
I dunno - my optimism is the lowest it's ever been as a Galway supporter.

The thing about it is that I don't believe Mayo are anything special themselves. It's just we are so poor at the moment.

Best post I've read in a long time. I enjoyed that read. Great days when Galway and Meath are at such a low ebb. Long may it continue.

Schadenfreude never won anything. I would love to see Mayo win Sam. A wonderful county where the people deserve to experience that 5 past 5 feeling on a sunday in late september.

[moysider]

As someone who has played club football in Galway for a long time and been a huge follower of the Galway footballers for many years I take no pleasure in saying that I agree fully with GBB.
This is the worst Galway senior team that I can ever remember seeing. It is true that Galway-Mayo games have generally been close over the years (whether at minor, u21 or senior) and prior to this year I would always have given us a chance against Mayo regardless of our form in the run-in but this year is different.
Mayo are operating at a different level altogether than us. Although we hammered Roscommon last summer, I also believe that they would now beat us if we met them.
The fact we are playing at home to me means that the scoreline will probably be closer than it would have been had the game been played in McHale Park. But Mayo will still win simply because they are a better team than us at the moment.

I do think we will come again and be a force at senior level in years to come but it will take a few years.
We were absolutely dreadful away from home in the league this year - only scraping past Longford who lost all their games. We weren't even competitive in the other away games - hammered by Laois, Louth and Armagh - none of whom are exactly giants of the game at the moment!

Am not poor mouthing here - just giving an honest opinion on where we're at. I was at most of the league games this year - missed the Armagh game.
We don't have a settled team at the moment either.  Midfield has been chopped and changed constantly and we don't seem to be any closer to deciding on a partnership here. Likewise in the forwardline - Conroy has been moved all over the place & was even dropped for one of the games.
Cummins, Martin etc have been in and out of the team.
I dunno - my optimism is the lowest it's ever been as a Galway supporter.

The thing about it is that I don't believe Mayo are anything special themselves. It's just we are so poor at the moment.

Best post I've read in a long time. I enjoyed that read. Great days when Galway and Meath are at such a low ebb. Long may it continue.

Ah now. Haven t we enough to deal with our own miseries without gloating in others' poor run.

Saying that though the only satisfaction I seem to get from sport anymore is when teams I dislike lose 

[muppet]

Page two already and no Farran or Barney (where is he?) pessimistically expecting a hammering?

[mayoman dan]

How would the Mayo posters here like to see us line up for this match.Personally i would like
                     
                                                               Clarke
                                          Barrett          Caff          Walsh
                                          Keegan        Higgins       Boyle
                                                        AOS    Moran
                                           Mc Loughlin Feeney     Dillon
                                            Conroy        COC        Kilcoyne 

[moysider]

Nice one Muppet.

Don t know what to make of this really. Of course the fear factor of the knock out is gone. You ll never get the atmosphere of 96 - 99 again in a Mayo/Galway clash. Not even if it were an AI final. Fine and well restructuring the AI format but some good stuff was lost. I like the way things are now too but a few gems were lost. The games against the likes of Galway and Ros have lost the 'fear', that put butterflies in yer belly 10 days before the game.

I couldn t even give an informed opinion about this game because I m no longer that familiar with Galway personnel. I might recognise half the team at a push. I expect we will be favourites. And based on our league positions alone that is how it should be too. That doesn t bother me either. And more importantly it wont effect these players either. If they re good enough on the day they ll win. But they ve won enough and lost enough not to go in and lose it soft by being cocky and that s important.

[Crete Boom]

 I think Galway will give us a good rattle and if we are anyway disinterested (personally don't see this happening under Horan's watch) they have enough talent between the old guard and the emerging young guns to turn us over. Mayo are probably stronger at the moment but I rate Mullholland so he'll have them well organised so we won't see the lifeless performance like we saw in 2011 where they almost waited to see if we could find our accuracy and confidence in that first half.

I was thinking what type of team I'd like to see and what Horan is likely to pick so I though I'd try and marry the two together with a selection along these lines:
                                                                           Clarke
                                                        McHale          Caff        Walsh
                                                       
                                                        Keegan       Cunniffe     Boyle
                                                         
                                                                           Higgins
                                                               
                                                              A O' Shea      Barry Moran
                                                       
                                                             Kevin Mac             Dillion
                                                         
                                                                          C O' Connor
                                                             
                                                              Evan Regan      Mikey Conroy

   Now I know you you're probably looking going what the hell but I do think this could work for us based on the fact that in all probability we won't see Andy Moran back in the green and red unless we make it to the last four and even then I would say he wouldn't be fit enough to start. I would give Higgins the no 11 shirt but would give him a sweeper/ auxiliary attacker role as he is a superb reader of the game in defense and his lightning speed would make him a serious weapon in our running attack. Having watch a fair amount f Mayo club hurling Keith is more than comfortable in the oppositions half.
  I have been mightily impressed with Cillian's distribution into Conroy in the last few games so I think he would suit the withdrawn role well and I'm definitely with moysider as regards the need for a two man fulforward line to help Conroy with Regan a perfect foil for him. To me this would give a good balance for our man isolation tactic on defense and allow us to counter though the speed men on the ground or diagonal ball to Conroy and Regan.
                                                       
           

[Syferus]

I think it's a luxury Mayo can't afford to move their best man-marker out of the back line and into the half-back line. If your team was running some sort of free-wheeling and free-scoring system it might make sense but Mayo's game is about containment, much like most top teams at the moment and its best defenders need to be their primary markers.

Keith Higgins would be a fine HB but if he's named there I can see the opposition's manager putting the house on breaking down the back line with a lot of long balls, high and low, and with good reason.

[seafoid]

Nice one Muppet.

Don t know what to make of this really. Of course the fear factor of the knock out is gone. You ll never get the atmosphere of 96 - 99 again in a Mayo/Galway clash. Not even if it were an AI final. Fine and well restructuring the AI format but some good stuff was lost. I like the way things are now too but a few gems were lost. The games against the likes of Galway and Ros have lost the 'fear', that put butterflies in yer belly 10 days before the game.

I couldn t even give an informed opinion about this game because I m no longer that familiar with Galway personnel. I might recognise half the team at a push. I expect we will be favourites. And based on our league positions alone that is how it should be too. That doesn t bother me either. And more importantly it wont effect these players either. If they re good enough on the day they ll win. But they ve won enough and lost enough not to go in and lose it soft by being cocky and that s important.

Those matches were unmissable. Galway were a bit of a surprise in 95. Somewhat flaky but at least they had a bit of mojo. Mayo roared back in 96 and did back to back in 97. They got so close. Just the kick of a ball in 96.  It showed Galway what was possible.  It was also a great atmosphere in which to test players. Johneen Donnellan , for example.  He didn't make it to the promised land. 

I remember Val Daly getting roasted- it must have been 96 - that was the end of an era. But thankfully Ja was still improving.. 

98 was even better . By the time we were up against the Lilies it all came in very handy.  Poor Kildare had no chance.   

[Lar Naparka]

Page two already and no Farran or Barney (where is he?) pessimistically expecting a hammering?

Arra, Farran is still coming to terms with the loss on Sunday and Barney's missus  is keeping him on the straight and narrow.

[ross4life]

Nice one Muppet.

Don t know what to make of this really. Of course the fear factor of the knock out is gone. You ll never get the atmosphere of 96 - 99 again in a Mayo/Galway clash. Not even if it were an AI final. Fine and well restructuring the AI format but some good stuff was lost. I like the way things are now too but a few gems were lost. The games against the likes of Galway and Ros have lost the 'fear', that put butterflies in yer belly 10 days before the game.

I couldn t even give an informed opinion about this game because I m no longer that familiar with Galway personnel. I might recognise half the team at a push. I expect we will be favourites. And based on our league positions alone that is how it should be too. That doesn t bother me either. And more importantly it wont effect these players either. If they re good enough on the day they ll win. But they ve won enough and lost enough not to go in and lose it soft by being cocky and that s important.

Those matches were unmissable. Galway were a bit of a surprise in 95. Somewhat flaky but at least they had a bit of mojo. Mayo roared back in 96 and did back to back in 97. They got so close. Just the kick of a ball in 96.  It showed Galway what was possible.  It was also a great atmosphere in which to test players. Johneen Donnellan , for example.  He didn't make it to the promised land. 

I remember Val Daly getting roasted- it must have been 96 - that was the end of an era. But thankfully Ja was still improving.. 

98 was even better . By the time we were up against the Lilies it all came in very handy.  Poor Kildare had no chance.

Val Daly was great player up their with the best Galway players i've seen. His son is playing for Galway minors this year scored 1-2 against us recently the goal was as good as you are likely to see & the points were two superb efforts from distance. 98 should have ended in Tuam.

[Rossfan]

Pr*** 

We will never forgive we will never forget 

[ballinaman]

Any idea when we'll know the throw in time? Hope it's the later one, dose of a journey to Salthill.....those roadworks in Claregalway still on?

[ross4life]

Any idea when we'll know the throw in time? Hope it's the later one,

4pm throw in the Connacht junior final will be on before it.

[ballinaman]

Any idea when we'll know the throw in time? Hope it's the later one,

4pm throw in the Connacht junior final will be on before it.

Great. Thanks r4l