Mayo v Westmeath, Sunday March 9th.

[Mayo4Sam]

You'll have to keep a spot for Ciaran Mac though

[rosnarun]

Must say I was disappointed in Shane McHale the last day. He seemed to fumble a lot of ball and was caught out for pace too. He'd want to up his game if he starts against Westmeath. Vaughan impressed when he came on for him in my opinion.

i'd worry a little about Mchale . he seems to just a little slow in his reactions so far for Intercounty football  and we are still on soft league pitches . he seems to get caught with the ball too often and is a lettle indicisive . though he did very well in the build up for Doherty's Goal
i dont think he has done enough to dsiplace Vaughan just yet .

[Lar Naparka]

Must say I was disappointed in Shane McHale the last day. He seemed to fumble a lot of ball and was caught out for pace too. He'd want to up his game if he starts against Westmeath. Vaughan impressed when he came on for him in my opinion.

i'd worry a little about Mchale . he seems to just a little slow in his reactions so far for Intercounty football  and we are still on soft league pitches . he seems to get caught with the ball too often and is a lettle indicisive . though he did very well in the build up for Doherty's Goal
i dont think he has done enough to dsiplace Vaughan just yet .

It wasn't one of his better days.
I wouldn't be too hard on the lad but he was caught for speed time after time and if you recall the Mayo defence tightened up considerably after Vaughan replaced him. The Mayo fightback only started when he came on. Not blaming McHale for everything that was going wrong up until then  but I think Vaughan has nailed down the CHB spot for the championships.

[rosnarun]

I dont meant to be hard on him but is CHB his best position? if not where is . i presume our 1st choice full back line is between Barrett cunniffe Caff and higgins .
but we may not always have our 1st choices

[Crete Boom]

I dont meant to be hard on him but is CHB his best position? if not where is . i presume our 1st choice full back line is between Barrett cunniffe Caff and higgins .
but we may not always have our 1st choices

I think fullback or corner back is his best position at intercounty and while Harrison , Keane and Higgins give good cover in the corners only Keane gives us cover for Caff unless Alan Feeney gets a recall after the Club final ( personally I hope he does).

Donie in my opinion had a rip roaring championship after a sluggish league campaign last year and I thought him Keegan , and Bolyer were heroic in the final last year under huge pressure!

[seafoid]

Mayo should throw on the u21 forwards and forget about those fellas they put on as subs in the last 2 AIFs to zero effect.
Ruthlessness is now required. And Westmeath are cannon fodder.

I d disagree with all of that seafoid.

Anyway 2 of the U21 forwards played v Kerry. Why play them 3 days before U21 championship?

Don't turn up at the next AIF with the same forwards and subs as last year. Maybe there are some u21 considerations in the short term but ye have to go for it and throw the kitchen sink into finding new fellas who can do the job with 10 minutes to go.

Players are going to get injured and those subs are not good enough.

Just reading the first time you were in Croke park- lots of fellas started going  in 85  and still haven't seen an all Ireland. Ye are so close but the forwards are the issue.

[Lar Naparka]

I dont meant to be hard on him but is CHB his best position? if not where is . i presume our 1st choice full back line is between Barrett cunniffe Caff and higgins .
but we may not always have our 1st choices

I think fullback or corner back is his best position at intercounty and while Harrison , Keane and Higgins give good cover in the corners only Keane gives us cover for Caff unless Alan Feeney gets a recall after the Club final ( personally I hope he does).

Donie in my opinion had a rip roaring championship after a sluggish league campaign last year and I thought him Keegan , and Bolyer were heroic in the final last year under huge pressure!

I think himself and Keane can't play anywhere else but corner back. Both have been on the fringe for quite some time and I can't see either getting a starting spot in the championship.   
When Cunnife got injured in the AI final, Horan took Higgins ouit of the attack to eplace him. That was hardly a vote of confidence in either of them and if Barrett and Cunniffe are free from injury, they will be automatic starters, leaving Higgins free to play upfront.
I'd say Boyler, Vaughan and Keegan are shoo-ins for the HB line. That's one line at least that shouldn't cause any headaches for JH.
Indeed, I'm confident that the six backs who started ij the AI will hold onto their places when the serious stuff begins.

[mayoman dan]

Donie in my opinion had a rip roaring championship after a sluggish league campaign last year and I thought him Keegan , and Bolyer were heroic in the final last year under huge pressure!
[/quote]

Vaughan is not a cb his positional sense is awful look at Dublins 2nd goal in the final as an example.Donies distribution is also poor although i think he has worked hard on this aspect of his game.Higgins or Cunniffe are better options at 6.However saying this i still think Vaughan is an excellent player and will be starting come summer i would like to see him given a go at mf or name him in in the ff line and give him a bit of a free role where we can best use his strenghts.

[moysider]

Ok so can we take it then that the efforts made to reform the team have not really worked out.

Keane has been caught out a couple of times.

O lot of ye think McHale has been iffy at chb.

Boyle like a fish out of water when he was in the corner.

Higgins less than a revelation at 11.

McLoughlin and Gallagher less effective in the inside line.

We haven t had much success at converting players have we? We should end up with nearly the same team again.

[seafoid]

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=13.850;wap2

Jack O'Connor came in and spoke with direct compassion about what had just happened on the field. He explained that the one, single year Kerry had been waiting since their All-Ireland final loss to Tyrone had been more cutting and salty than the half-century of constant keening that accompanied Mayo teams. He explained Kerry's need had been greater. Brady listened because he respected O'Connor, and his mind roamed back to the exchanges on the field, the uncompromising hardness of the Kerry tackling, as swift and clean and accurate as middleweight combination shots.

[Tubberman]

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=13.850;wap2

Jack O'Connor came in and spoke with direct compassion about what had just happened on the field. He explained that the one, single year Kerry had been waiting since their All-Ireland final loss to Tyrone had been more cutting and salty than the half-century of constant keening that accompanied Mayo teams. He explained Kerry's need had been greater. Brady listened because he respected O'Connor, and his mind roamed back to the exchanges on the field, the uncompromising hardness of the Kerry tackling, as swift and clean and accurate as middleweight combination shots.

A load of ould fluff that makes good newspaper pieces.  In practical terms, it means shag all.

[moysider]

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=13.850;wap2

Jack O'Connor came in and spoke with direct compassion about what had just happened on the field. He explained that the one, single year Kerry had been waiting since their All-Ireland final loss to Tyrone had been more cutting and salty than the half-century of constant keening that accompanied Mayo teams. He explained Kerry's need had been greater. Brady listened because he respected O'Connor, and his mind roamed back to the exchanges on the field, the uncompromising hardness of the Kerry tackling, as swift and clean and accurate as middleweight combination shots.

A load of ould fluff that makes good newspaper pieces.  In practical terms, it means shag all.

+1. A load of ould hokum by O Connor. Easy to go into a beaten dressing room and talk.

[highorlow]

Ok so can we take it then that the efforts made to reform the team have not really worked out.

I would say reform is a bit strong. Its a 25 man game now and with the panel we have, albeit similar enough to last year I still think we will be there or thereabouts come Aug/Sept.

What we do appear to be doing a fair bit, which is in a similar vein to last year is overplaying the ball in the middle third / centre forward position and getting dis-possessed too easily. I don't think the inside forwards were fast enough last week but the pitch look awful heavy.

If we can improve tactically and play with a bit more intelligence all through this years campaign it might be enough rather than any major reform to the personnel.

[Tubberman]

The pitch was terrible actually. I walked across it after the game and it was much worse than it looked from the stand.
Very patchy and a lot of sand. No wonder the ball wouldn't bounce. All the more reason to let the ball in quick and long you'd have thought

[Farrandeelin]

The pitch was terrible actually. I walked across it after the game and it was much worse than it looked from the stand.
Very patchy and a lot of sand. No wonder the ball wouldn't bounce. All the more reason to let the ball in quick and long you'd have thought

I couldn't fathom out why the players were hopping the ball so often either. You'd think they would get into their heads after one bad hop that they wouldn't do it again.