Mayo v Westmeath, Sunday March 9th.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Gallagher point.

Boyle wins a free.

MWR says that Westmeath score was the first in 32 minutes.

Freeman misses free, still 5 points in it.

Game Over.

[Tubberman]

Thanks for the updates. A win is a win and is always welcome, but that didn't sound too convincing. Nor does conceding 3 goals

[moysider]

A bizzare first half. Great start for us. Don t think Westmeath got out of their own half for first 5 mins. After about 15 mins we were 9 points up and in complete control.

What happened? Well the first goal gave them a lifeline and even in the conditions it looked a dreadful mistake. A high ball not dealth with. An og. This gave Westmeath hope where there should not have been any.

But in fairness WM did tighten things up considerably and tactically got it right by filtering back to stop runners and pilfering scores on the counter-attack. Usually from frees. It may have been a mistake on Mayo's part to keep playing a dry ball game in the conditions. The WM full back line was very good when they settled.

The good thing is that the team should great character to come back from 2 points down early in the second half to win quite comfortably in the end. They ll learn more from todays struggle that if it had been a landslide like it looked like it was going to be in first quarter. But we should have scored at least 1 more goal in the second half. There were several very good Mayo performances. AOS was savage at times and I thought Keegan was class. Boyle kept taking the game to WM and prevented 2 certain scores, one a block, the other a perfect shoulder. Caff was clever and assured and Harrison did well in trying circumstances. Impressed by Drake when he came on at ht. He has pace and he looks like he wants to be there.

Freeman was probably the pick of the forwards. McLoughlin played well and Higgins had a few moments but does not seem to have the same impact yet from here. Good to see Cillian O Connor back. Important addition as he seemed to settle the team as the crowd! He kicked a peach of a free.
Thought Gibbons did well before being replaced by Seamie.

Unreal Mayo crowd at the game. It was like a home game - only better because a much more intimate venue for a league match. Enjoyed it in spite of the soaking.

[joemamas]

Moysider,
thank you for report, you don't always get a good read on the game listening to midwest, billy fits was very critical of our back line at half time, said they were not focussing on their primary job defending, ant thoughts??

[macdanger2]

Considering the way the game has gone since the new rules have come in, with scores seemingly getting higher (16 goals in D1 & 8 in D2 this weekend), has the value of a corner back increased?? Lads who used to get away with a sneaky aul pull here and there aren't risking it anymore

[moysider]

Moysider,
thank you for report, you don't always get a good read on the game listening to midwest, billy fits was very critical of our back line at half time, said they were not focussing on their primary job defending, ant thoughts??

The way I see it our half back line launches so many of our attacks and raid forward at will that there is bound to be a prolem when attacks break down. Then there is any amount of room for the opposition to kill us on the counter attack. The amazing thing is that out fb line manages to cope as well as it does under the circumstances. Today because of our early dominance, both our midfielders and all half backs were raiding at the same time and the attacks began to clog up and break down. The conditions did not help.
Unless we change the way we play this could continue to be a problem. Maybe if we had a couple of corner forwards who could win their own ball consistently we wouldn t have to rely on the running game as much to create scores. Today was a bit like the Tyrone AI semi. When WM got bodies around us and squeezed us we squealed.
But we should never have alllowed WM into that game today.

[larryin89]

I don't think because of our attacking hb line it excuses our full back line and keeper for not being able to deal with a straight forward high ball tactic , which is happening with our lot.

[Mayo4Sam]

Miserable day in Mullingar

I wouldnt think we can read a massive amount into the performance of the team as a whole. Croi will know I have a fair bit of experience with bad teams and this Westmeath team are as poor a team as has been in Div 1 for a while. For the first ten minutes we ran riot, lovely short, crisp hand passing, they couldnt get out of their half and we were winning everything at midfield.

And then we just stopped, they got a lucky goal (reminiscent of the minor replay for Hennelly unfortunately, which is becoming a theme) and we stopped running the ball at speed.

The second half we picked it up again and blew them out of the water. James Dolan is a fine player for them and caused a lot of trouble.

I think we can take a lot from the individual performances.
Keane - just not good enough, tried hard but hes getting roasted a lot, and when it goes wrong it goes really wrong. We wont win an all-ireland with him in the full back, its that simple and if you accept that is the case then why are we persisting?

HB line - looked amazing in full flow yesterday and do great tracking but when they all go forward, while they are quick enough to track runners back they are leaving acres of space for the opposition to kick ball into a FF line which is 3v3. One mistake and we are wide open. I;m not sure what the solution is

Midfield - we have great options, Gibbons and O'Shea played well yesterday but I'd like to see us being smarter with knocking the ball down to players, we dont have to win a clean catch everytime

Forwards - This is where the trouble starts

DOC - played well but end product is missing too often. You'd hope that will come
McL - an extra half back basically and wins a sight of ball - definite starter
Higgins - I havent been impressed by him this year in the HF, does solve the problem at corner back
Freezer - good game again yesterday
Varley/Mikey Sweeney - I'm not sure why we kick long high ball into these guys, it makes no sense, esp on a wet day. I dont think either offer enough to make the first team and i wouldnt rely on either to come off the bench, they might do it but its hit and miss. (Maybe a little harsh on sweeney)
Conroy - WTF?? I'm not sure what was up yesterday but he looked like he was drunk/stoned/a junior B footballer.
I'm a fan of his ball winning and think hes a good man to come off the bench, esp if he can get his decision making in order

COC - great to see him back and u can even see from his few passes what he brings to the team - he will be our marquee forward this year and be the reason we can win the AI

That leaves me with a starting forward line of KMcL, COC, Freezer, Andy, Gallagher
with one from Dillon, Doc, Conroy, Feeney, B Moran, Parsons??

[moysider]

I don't think because of our attacking hb line it excuses our full back line and keeper for not being able to deal with a straight forward high ball tactic , which is happening with our lot.

I wouldn't excuse that either. There is one obvious redial action that could be done.
Maybe Alan Feeney could bring more authority under a high ball too. But it won't stop the problem of teams hurting us on the break.
A lot of those breaks is down to some of our forwards losing the ball or not being able to win it in the first place and shot attempts dropping short. When we are back to full strength in the forwards this mightn't be as much of a problem.

[Croí na hÉireann]

this Westmeath team are as poor a team as has been in Div 1 for a while

Dunno about that, the players are certainly no worse than the Downs of this world. Apart from Glennon, Dolan and Duffy they are largely under 25 playing under a manager who is just in the job and is still getting to know them and their best positions, e.g. Heslin started ff against Cork, half forward against Dublin then moved to midfield the last day; Ger Egan and Martin were in the corners against Cork and are now out around the middle (it was them two in particular who dragged us back in to the game in the second quarter); James Dolan played the first 3 games at wing back and is now full forward; Sharry has gone from half forward to midfield and is now half back. What has also being killing us is how defensively we are set up, whereas the game has changed massively in the last 12 months.

We are also extremely slow out of the blocks (this was also an issue in Div 2 last year but we were able to drag ourselves back into games down there). As has been said we couldn't get out of our own half in the first 10 mins. We were the architects of our downfall here tbh as unbelievably we kept kicking the ball out to Aidan O'Se. Duffy looked to be carrying an injury all game which may be why we kept it away from him but it was criminal to kick down on top of the man mountain that is O'Se. We should have loaded one side of the pitch and got runners breaking into space on the other. Mayo like Cork, Dublin and Derry looked to take the game to us early and they made hay. What was encouraging though is that we stuck at it and started competing in the middle. It was great to see Ger Egan get the hunger back, Kieran Martin as well. When we started putting pressure on in the middle the fb line were able to get a foothold and compete with their men. We went away from what worked for us in the second half, i.e. taking points. Glennon was guilty here more than most. McCormack should take his place one he's fit. Mayo kept the scoreboard ticking over in the second half and they were out to seven points while we foostered up front.

First time seeing Mayo up close in a few years. Very impressive. O'Se and Keegan are diamond footballers, McLoughlin is bigger and more fundamental to Mayo that he looks on the box. Freedman has to be first choice ff now. Kevin Keane is not up to it in the corner.

Imperative we get points on the board before championship. We showed at times we can compete with the big guns. We need to stay at that level, get more clinical upfront and start stronger, much stronger.

[joemamas]

Miserable day in Mullingar

I wouldnt think we can read a massive amount into the performance of the team as a whole. Croi will know I have a fair bit of experience with bad teams and this Westmeath team are as poor a team as has been in Div 1 for a while. For the first ten minutes we ran riot, lovely short, crisp hand passing, they couldnt get out of their half and we were winning everything at midfield.

And then we just stopped, they got a lucky goal (reminiscent of the minor replay for Hennelly unfortunately, which is becoming a theme) and we stopped running the ball at speed.

The second half we picked it up again and blew them out of the water. James Dolan is a fine player for them and caused a lot of trouble.

I think we can take a lot from the individual performances.
Keane - just not good enough, tried hard but hes getting roasted a lot, and when it goes wrong it goes really wrong. We wont win an all-ireland with him in the full back, its that simple and if you accept that is the case then why are we persisting?

HB line - looked amazing in full flow yesterday and do great tracking but when they all go forward, while they are quick enough to track runners back they are leaving acres of space for the opposition to kick ball into a FF line which is 3v3. One mistake and we are wide open. I;m not sure what the solution is

Midfield - we have great options, Gibbons and O'Shea played well yesterday but I'd like to see us being smarter with knocking the ball down to players, we dont have to win a clean catch everytime

Forwards - This is where the trouble starts

DOC - played well but end product is missing too often. You'd hope that will come
McL - an extra half back basically and wins a sight of ball - definite starter
Higgins - I havent been impressed by him this year in the HF, does solve the problem at corner back
Freezer - good game again yesterday
Varley/Mikey Sweeney - I'm not sure why we kick long high ball into these guys, it makes no sense, esp on a wet day. I dont think either offer enough to make the first team and i wouldn't rely on either to come off the bench, they might do it but its hit and miss. (Maybe a little harsh on sweeney)
Conroy - WTF?? I'm not sure what was up yesterday but he looked like he was drunk/stoned/a junior B footballer.
I'm a fan of his ball winning and think hes a good man to come off the bench, esp if he can get his decision making in order

COC - great to see him back and u can even see from his few passes what he brings to the team - he will be our marquee forward this year and be the reason we can win the AI

That leaves me with a starting forward line of KMcL, COC, Freezer, Andy, Gallagher
with one from Dillon, Doc, Conroy, Feeney, B Moran, Parsons??

Have a lot of respect for Andy Moran and Alan Dillon and the time they have dedicated to the Mayo cause, but have to wonder if they really have pace and in Alan Dillon's case strength to start a championship game. They may be far better coming off bench with 15-20  mins to go, when pace of game has dripped slightly. In today's non contact game. managers may need to be looking at footballers that have the ability to sprint up and down the field for an hour, crazy analogy, but the way the game is going it may not be a stretch.

Impressed with Gallagher, but he may need some time to develop. If I had my choice, I would be tempted start Barry Moran, Alan Freeman and Conroy in full forward line, or Richie Feeney and let him play between half and full forward line.

[Lar Naparka]

Moysider,
thank you for report, you don't always get a good read on the game listening to midwest, billy fits was very critical of our back line at half time, said they were not focussing on their primary job defending, ant thoughts??

The way I see it our half back line launches so many of our attacks and raid forward at will that there is bound to be a prolem when attacks break down. Then there is any amount of room for the opposition to kill us on the counter attack. The amazing thing is that out fb line manages to cope as well as it does under the circumstances. Today because of our early dominance, both our midfielders and all half backs were raiding at the same time and the attacks began to clog up and break down. The conditions did not help.
Unless we change the way we play this could continue to be a problem. Maybe if we had a couple of corner forwards who could win their own ball consistently we wouldn t have to rely on the running game as much to create scores. Today was a bit like the Tyrone AI semi. When WM got bodies around us and squeezed us we squealed.
But we should never have alllowed WM into that game today.

Isn't that the main problem in a nutshell?
I think JH had realised before his first season was over that he didn't have the forwards needed  to do serious damage to anybody bar themselves and he went about trying to minimise the problem.
If you remember, the talk in 2012 was about the way Mayo had changed their style of play with the emphasis on scoring points from a distance rather then trying to work the ball in close and going and going for goals. That's when the hbs started breaking forward on the attack.

Of course, it helped that he had the best hb line in the country and, IMO, he still has. As poor Conoreen found out, JH put more emphasis on work ethic rather than individualism and I think he had settled on all positions bar the corner forward ones when we met Down in the QF in 2012.
I think Andy's injury upset the apple cart in a serious way as he was then the only one capable of going for goals from open play.
Cillian's injury problems last year were another grievous blow and it remains to be seen if Horan can get back on track and improve on last year's showing.
But when you try to analyse yesterday's performance  there's a few worrying parallels with semi against Tyrone. When Mayo get caught on the hop and the opposition is tougher than anticipated, the management and players seem unable to react promptly and change their game plan. It's as if they don't have a plan B when things aren't going their way.

Better teams in each game would have been out of sight before Mayo realised they had a problem.
Still, I'd say all is not lost yet as JH will have better options in the forwards than he has had to date. It was good to see Cilian in action again -; let's hope he hasn't returned too soon and gets injured again. Having him and Andy at 100% fitness if Mayo are to have any chance of going the distance. Dunno what the story is with Alan Dillon but if he's fit, he will be needed.
A good win against Cork on Sunday, will greatly help the cause

[moysider]

Yeah, time to look forward to the Cork game.

I see James Horan is very critical of the team conceding so much.

' we re very open and every time a team attacks against us it can be a goal.................. if we play like that against Cork next Sunday we'll concede something like 3-20 or 21 or 22 easily and that will be a big focus for us during the week'

Look, nobody really pays too much heed to manager speak but ........ It s like James sometimes distances himself from what s happening on the pitch. It reminds me of the Brian Ashton quote after an error laden loss to Scotland while coaching Ireland.

"I'm not quite sure whose game plan that is but it's nothing to do with me."

I m sure he knows the buck stops with him. It does, so it s no good pointing out the errors of the ways of players that he coaches and selects and the unsustainability of the teams tactics s. He is responsible for results and in fairness he usually gets them.

However if you compare ourselves with the alpha team, Dublin. Dublin play Cian O Sullivan as mostly a holding midfielder and link player. We don t do that. Dublin play Ger Brennan as a defensive anchor at 6 who is important for working ball out of defence but seldom crosses the half way line. We don t do that. The Dublin corner backs hardly ever go on raids up the field. We don t do that.

Not saying we have to play like Dublin but every serious team needs to get the defense right. That is what Horan has to do.

From what I ve seen so far and from what s available ( I m assuming Andy has some injury and Cillian is good to go) I d like to see this line up to start the next day.

Hennelly, Harrison, Caff, Drake/Higgins, Keegan, Vaughan, Boyle, AOS, Gibbons, McLough, O Connor, Gallagher/Higgins
Doherty, Freeman, Sweeney.

Not saying that will be the starting XV for championship in Summer but I d like to see us have a proper cut at this home match. But there are tough calls to be made. One of the midfielders and whoever is at 6 is going to have to play a holding role if we are not to concede a serious score.

[Dubhaltach]

Miserable day in Mullingar

I wouldnt think we can read a massive amount into the performance of the team as a whole. Croi will know I have a fair bit of experience with bad teams and this Westmeath team are as poor a team as has been in Div 1 for a while. For the first ten minutes we ran riot, lovely short, crisp hand passing, they couldnt get out of their half and we were winning everything at midfield.

And then we just stopped, they got a lucky goal (reminiscent of the minor replay for Hennelly unfortunately, which is becoming a theme) and we stopped running the ball at speed.

The second half we picked it up again and blew them out of the water. James Dolan is a fine player for them and caused a lot of trouble.

I think we can take a lot from the individual performances.
Keane - just not good enough, tried hard but hes getting roasted a lot, and when it goes wrong it goes really wrong. We wont win an all-ireland with him in the full back, its that simple and if you accept that is the case then why are we persisting?

HB line - looked amazing in full flow yesterday and do great tracking but when they all go forward, while they are quick enough to track runners back they are leaving acres of space for the opposition to kick ball into a FF line which is 3v3. One mistake and we are wide open. I;m not sure what the solution is

Midfield - we have great options, Gibbons and O'Shea played well yesterday but I'd like to see us being smarter with knocking the ball down to players, we dont have to win a clean catch everytime

Forwards - This is where the trouble starts

DOC - played well but end product is missing too often. You'd hope that will come
McL - an extra half back basically and wins a sight of ball - definite starter
Higgins - I havent been impressed by him this year in the HF, does solve the problem at corner back
Freezer - good game again yesterday
Varley/Mikey Sweeney - I'm not sure why we kick long high ball into these guys, it makes no sense, esp on a wet day. I dont think either offer enough to make the first team and i wouldn't rely on either to come off the bench, they might do it but its hit and miss. (Maybe a little harsh on sweeney)
Conroy - WTF?? I'm not sure what was up yesterday but he looked like he was drunk/stoned/a junior B footballer.
I'm a fan of his ball winning and think hes a good man to come off the bench, esp if he can get his decision making in order

COC - great to see him back and u can even see from his few passes what he brings to the team - he will be our marquee forward this year and be the reason we can win the AI

That leaves me with a starting forward line of KMcL, COC, Freezer, Andy, Gallagher
with one from Dillon, Doc, Conroy, Feeney, B Moran, Parsons??

Have a lot of respect for Andy Moran and Alan Dillon and the time they have dedicated to the Mayo cause, but have to wonder if they really have pace and in Alan Dillon's case strength to start a championship game. They may be far better coming off bench with 15-20  mins to go, when pace of game has dripped slightly. In today's non contact game. managers may need to be looking at footballers that have the ability to sprint up and down the field for an hour, crazy analogy, but the way the game is going it may not be a stretch.

Impressed with Gallagher, but he may need some time to develop. If I had my choice, I would be tempted start Barry Moran, Alan Freeman and Conroy in full forward line, or Richie Feeney and let him play between half and full forward line.

You would start a young fella who has only played 2 league games ahead of a two time all-star who is still only 31? big call. Dont get me wrong, I think Gallagher has a lot of potential but Id be holding off for a while yet before saying he's a championship starter. Dont forget either that Dillon was carrying an injury for most of last year. The time off will hopefully have sorted it out.

An interesting point made there that our over reliance on the running game is due to JH not having faith in his full forward line options. Possibly so, however I think last years final proves that we wont win it without mixing the game plan up a bit, I hope JH sees it that way too. Anyway, as was said, this year should be the first time since the bank holiday 2012 that we have a fully fit Andy and COC. Slot Dillon back into the half forward line and push Andy forward, that leaves you with a Freezer/Andy/COC trio. It is absolutely vital that we get a settled full forward line ticking. Have faith in those 3, their the best hope we have.

[moysider]

Miserable day in Mullingar

I wouldnt think we can read a massive amount into the performance of the team as a whole. Croi will know I have a fair bit of experience with bad teams and this Westmeath team are as poor a team as has been in Div 1 for a while. For the first ten minutes we ran riot, lovely short, crisp hand passing, they couldnt get out of their half and we were winning everything at midfield.

And then we just stopped, they got a lucky goal (reminiscent of the minor replay for Hennelly unfortunately, which is becoming a theme) and we stopped running the ball at speed.

The second half we picked it up again and blew them out of the water. James Dolan is a fine player for them and caused a lot of trouble.

I think we can take a lot from the individual performances.
Keane - just not good enough, tried hard but hes getting roasted a lot, and when it goes wrong it goes really wrong. We wont win an all-ireland with him in the full back, its that simple and if you accept that is the case then why are we persisting?

HB line - looked amazing in full flow yesterday and do great tracking but when they all go forward, while they are quick enough to track runners back they are leaving acres of space for the opposition to kick ball into a FF line which is 3v3. One mistake and we are wide open. I;m not sure what the solution is

Midfield - we have great options, Gibbons and O'Shea played well yesterday but I'd like to see us being smarter with knocking the ball down to players, we dont have to win a clean catch everytime

Forwards - This is where the trouble starts

DOC - played well but end product is missing too often. You'd hope that will come
McL - an extra half back basically and wins a sight of ball - definite starter
Higgins - I havent been impressed by him this year in the HF, does solve the problem at corner back
Freezer - good game again yesterday
Varley/Mikey Sweeney - I'm not sure why we kick long high ball into these guys, it makes no sense, esp on a wet day. I dont think either offer enough to make the first team and i wouldn't rely on either to come off the bench, they might do it but its hit and miss. (Maybe a little harsh on sweeney)
Conroy - WTF?? I'm not sure what was up yesterday but he looked like he was drunk/stoned/a junior B footballer.
I'm a fan of his ball winning and think hes a good man to come off the bench, esp if he can get his decision making in order

COC - great to see him back and u can even see from his few passes what he brings to the team - he will be our marquee forward this year and be the reason we can win the AI

That leaves me with a starting forward line of KMcL, COC, Freezer, Andy, Gallagher
with one from Dillon, Doc, Conroy, Feeney, B Moran, Parsons??

Have a lot of respect for Andy Moran and Alan Dillon and the time they have dedicated to the Mayo cause, but have to wonder if they really have pace and in Alan Dillon's case strength to start a championship game. They may be far better coming off bench with 15-20  mins to go, when pace of game has dripped slightly. In today's non contact game. managers may need to be looking at footballers that have the ability to sprint up and down the field for an hour, crazy analogy, but the way the game is going it may not be a stretch.

Impressed with Gallagher, but he may need some time to develop. If I had my choice, I would be tempted start Barry Moran, Alan Freeman and Conroy in full forward line, or Richie Feeney and let him play between half and full forward line.

You would start a young fella who has only played 2 league games ahead of a two time all-star who is still only 31? big call. Dont get me wrong, I think Gallagher has a lot of potential but Id be holding off for a while yet before saying he's a championship starter. Dont forget either that Dillon was carrying an injury for most of last year. The time off will hopefully have sorted it out.

An interesting point made there that our over reliance on the running game is due to JH not having faith in his full forward line options. Possibly so, however I think last years final proves that we wont win it without mixing the game plan up a bit, I hope JH sees it that way too. Anyway, as was said, this year should be the first time since the bank holiday 2012 that we have a fully fit Andy and COC. Slot Dillon back into the half forward line and push Andy forward, that leaves you with a Freezer/Andy/COC trio. It is absolutely vital that we get a settled full forward line ticking. Have faith in those 3, their the best hope we have.

Or maybe it happens that many of our better players are fellas that are brilliant at running the ball.

Who knows how the forwards will evolve into the Summer but I hope we develop around Cillian at 11 and Freeman at 14.