Maigh Eo v Ciarrai, 1700, 30ú Lúnasa, Gaelic Grounds

[moysider]

Your quiet right mick. Appears that verbals went on between reilly and our line early in 2nd half also which further swayed his bias id say.

Reilly was hardly holding a grudge against jh after his post match comments about the refereeing during the dublin league game? Sad state of affairs if that's the case.

You never know what he'd have in his (uncovered bald) mind.

That Bannon column damning alright.

To get back to the blood sub issue. Mayo doctor was not happy about either player resuming and it was the 2 players insistence they got back on. Horan could not overrule his medic- not saying he wanted to or anything. If O Shea was out over a time limit then Reilly was correct to observe it. Pity he wasn't as thorough with Enright - who should have been sent off twice.
We came out worse and unfortunate I have to suspect it was personal after the Keegan thing. Probably destroyed his career as a top referee.

[Syferus]

Have to say the Commentary on the performance of the Referee in the media has been underwhelming! Most have completely ignored the whole issue or brushed it off as to the bearing it definitely had on the outcome. Like some uncomfortable issue that would give a so called good game a bad name!

Just read Eugene McGee's column.. he actually praised Reilly and said nothing took away from the majesty of the occasion. Best game of football he's ever seen too.

[highorlow]

Aye. The newstalk lads attempted the same particularly parkinson. I think he said it didn't affect the outcome!

Thankfully DB didn't hold back and mossy Quinn said that he didn't mind some of the double hops and mistakes on fouls but to let a personal opinion interfere with a clear sending off offence is unforgivable.

[ballinaman]

Think we contributed to our own demise moreso than the ref, as bad as he was. It did contribute but if we had our house in order we would have squeezed by.

Shocking to see it laid bare in that article though. Thought it might have just been my bias on Saturday.

[Syferus]

There wasn't much fairness on that mad 'tackle' on AOS in the first half that the referee entirely ignored in the lead-up to COC's goal from play. Don't get this obsession with people trying to present the game as some clean, 'manly' contest. If anything I thought it was relatively dirty and ill-tempered and you get a better sense for the emotions of teams at the match rather than on tv. Lots of off-the-ball stuff and afters. It was the same attitude that was in full view when players were diving after breaking balls or putting in hard shoulders. They don't switch that part of themselves off when the ball isn't there.

And none of it means it wasn't a classic, epic match. But no team gets to this level being angels.

[moysider]

Epic match my hole.

[Captain Obvious]

Wasn't Cormac Reilly also the ref for Mayo quarter final against Cork? Blew up early and ignored a number of fouls on Cork men. The best side won that quarter final likewise with the semi final on Saturday, time to move on guys can you regroup and return to the level of last year or will the new manager rebuild and start again?

[larryin89]

Is it  true or just social media b/s that reillys wife is a kerry woman?

[SouthDublinBro]

All of the moaning about the ref is getting embarassing. You would think the Mayo fans would be well used to defeat by now. Sour bunch of losers.

[AZOffaly]

Lads, before we get carried away about that piece in the Examiner, can we pause to recall Eamonn Bannon, the ref?

[Dinny Breen]

Lads, before we get carried away about that piece in the Examiner, can we pause to recall Eamonn Bannon, the ref?

John?

The p***k robbed us of an All-Ireland in 98' *




* He didn't but just getting into the swing of the thread

[Hardy]

Lads, before we get carried away about that piece in the Examiner, can we pause to recall Eamonn Bannon, the ref?

Exactly. A neck like a jockey's undercarriage.

[Crete Boom]

 It has taken me a while to gather any thoughts on the match as it was real gut wrenching way to lose a semi final after 4 years on the road searching for Sam. My initial reaction after the game was like most Mayo people the ref performance was terrible but I held off commenting anywhere till I calmed down a bit. Look Cormac Reilly's performance was terrible and he did probably contribute about 1-4 to Kerry but they did manage the other 2-12 by themselves. Also Jason Doc was a nailed on black card and he scored 0-3 so it wasn't all going for the green and gold either. I thought he lost control of the match early on but the unforgivable mistakes were not sending off the Kerryman after he hauled down Cillian ( black or second yellow was merited here) and the first Kerry penalty which O'Donoghue just fell over ( almost the exact same as the correctly not awarded penalty in the Connacht final when Keegan took a similar tumble).Then lastly not giving David Moran a free in the lead up to awarding us that last free of the game which we nearly scored.

Even allowing for one of the worst performances form a ref in such important championship game that I can remember it didn't cost us the match in my view. Firstly we were well warned about just how good David Moran (ably assisted by Maher) was going to be in the middle yet we had no answer. Hennelly slavishly fired kickouts down on top of the Kerryman and he gobbled them up. I think he won something like 11 of our kickouts!! Why we left Caff , who is a my own clubman and a great fullback but he has been struggling all year with form and injury, one on one with Donaghy was unforgiveable. The first thing you do with Donaghy is at least match his physique like Tyrone did with putting the McMahons on him. Everyone knows to beat Mayo you dominate or break even in midfield which pins back our halfback line and drags out our half forwards which wipes out our running game. We seemed unable to deal with this problem and in the end this was what undid us.

I would like to say though in terms of heart and steel we were immense. How the hell we were leading in the second half let alone taking the game to extra time after being dominated in the middle third was borderline ridiculous and I am sure will occupy Fitzmaurice a little over the next three weeks. We had our chances though and again we failed to take them. We really needed Dillion or McLoughlin to have the game that Cillian and Andy had to push us over the line but sadly it was not to be.

Well done Kerry and good luck in the final , savage performance from 1 to 26 to finish off such an intense game.

[Mayo4Sam]

Good article

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/columnists/kieran-shannon/kieran-shannon-farewell-james-but-your-mayo-marvels-will-finish-the-job-284511.html

Farewell James, but your Mayo marvels will finish the job
Tuesday, September 02, 2014

By Kieran Shannon

I could have bluffed it this week.

This column could have been on the All-Ireland hurling final, or Donegal's tactical masterclass last Sunday, or at a stretch, Man United's scattergun buying policy or Caroline W's big W over Sharapova and how she too has marched on after that break-up.

But I can't fake it. The last few days it's been hard to register events from Flushing Meadows or Old Trafford or even the more familiar turf of Croke Park when my mind is still in Limerick and the heart still in Mayo.

For the last three years I've had the privilege of a lifetime of being part of James Horan's backroom team. Last Saturday night, a little bit after 9.15 in a room in the Radisson Blu Hotel on the Ennis Road, James gathered the whole group around to thank us and announce he was stepping down.

Like so much else over his four years in charge, he did it the right way. He resisted telling the press in the Gaelic Grounds. He didn't tell us in the dressing room either. We literally needed more space and time so instead he waited until we ate some food and had dried our tears before we'd shed some more. In the dressing room we merely had to come to terms with the fact our year was over. In the hotel room we had to face the brutal reality that so was our journey as a group.

I'm fortunate that my two parents, two siblings and two kids as well as my wife are still alive, so I can safely say that last Saturday night was the nearest thing to a family funeral I've known, probably because for the last few years this group had become family. We thanked each other, embraced each other, and I won't lie, wept with one another. It was rough, but it was right.

Rather than reveal his decision "in the cool light of day" through mail or text during the week, James knew that we needed to simultaneously treasure each other and grieve together to help us all move on with our lives.

The irony of it all is that only a few hours earlier from that quasi-wake we'd all never before felt more alive. In the Gaelic Grounds, in extra-time, in the arena, in a battle with a worthy opponent; as James would have grinned to the group "Where else would you rather be?!"

This team have been in some games and places through the years – All-Ireland finals, beating Cork in 2011 and 2014, the Dubs in 2012, Donegal in 2013, Croker just the week before – but Limerick was as good and as heightened as any match or occasion we've known.

You have to hand it to Kerry. They are without probably the greatest player ever in Colm Cooper. You think of the injuries the Tralee tandem of David Moran and Kieran Donaghy have had to endure in recent years and how they performed the last two weekends and you can only admire their persistence as well as talent. They would not have deserved to lose last Saturday.

What I also know is that our lads didn't deserve Cormac Reilly. When I think of Colm Boyle, probably the most honest and bravest football warrior in the country and how three calls on him alone were so costly and poorly adjudicated, it doesn't seem right that he's not playing into September.

To credit James, he refrained from criticising Cormac afterwards, just as he did with Maurice Deegan after both the 2012 league and All-Ireland finals that you could argue swung on a couple of non-calls that seconds later resulted in goals for our opponents. He had the sense and grace to accept that ultimately the other side was still that bit better on those days and the referee is largely out of your control while a lot of other things are within it.

That's one of his greatest legacies. It's now instilled into the lads' psyche the importance of looking in the mirror and trying to be the best you can be because it'll take you to great heights, if not the ultimate spot. Even three years ago Keith Higgins was still a bit casual with his talent; now he is a killer, the supreme defender in the country and a certain All Star for a third straight year. Three years ago Colm Boyle was in the intercounty wilderness, finished; look at him now.

They all grew under James.

Much of the credit for that has to go the players. They were certainly the most open-minded and tough-minded group of people I've ever worked with, in any environment. There'll be other opportunities to wax lyrical about some of the side's household names but when I think of the honesty of the group I think of men like David Clarke and Kenneth O'Malley, our back-up goalkeepers this year, working with such focus and intensity at the top end of the pitch with Rob Hennelly and goalkeeping coach Peter Burke.

We had a lad called Shane McHale who would burst himself and everyone around him in training. As long as I live I'll see him collapsing past the finishing line of an indoor hall in Claremorris having emptied himself in a gruelling fitness test; the pool of sweat he left like a chalked outline of a dead body at a crime scene. Even this summer when he was recovering from a shoulder injury he'd be there at the side of the pitch with an eye patch catching a tennis ball working on his hand-eye co-ordination.

Another one of our warriors was Enda Varley. In some quarters of the Mayo public he was maligned, especially after the quarter-final against Cork last month didn't run so well for him, but the stats show he's been one of the highest-scoring impact subs in the country in recent years and in his penultimate start for the county he scored 1-3 in Salthill last year. When I think of the dedication of this group I picture Enda on his foam roller before training and then out on the pitch kicking ball after ball before the ever-enthusiastic Donie Buckley whistles the boys in; Enda was a pro on a team of a pros, the kind who needs to be retained when the uninformed eye could have him discounted.
That is going to be the trick and the challenge for the new manager. To get the right blend of continuity and change. There will inevitably be four or five changes to the playing panel but it would be a mistake to make a cull of nine or ten. The medical team being the best in the country should be retained en masse. Ed Coughlan may be Munster-based but there isn't a better S&C coach and he could even have his expertise as a skills acquisition coach unleashed; certainly the new management should meet with him for a handover session at the least.

Who will that manager be? It comes down to what the side and county needs. Back in 2010 Mayo needed a transformational leader and James with his vision, organisation, strength and suitable stubbornness provided just that. Although there will always be the odd pop from the odd buffoon or cold timid soul about Mayo's fortitude or temperament until they deliver the big one, under James and his faithful assistant Tom Prendergast Mayo dismissed virtually every negative stereotype relating to the county. His footballers became winners. With the right appointment they will become outright champions. Maintain the culture James established and throw into the mix a little more flexibility and sophistication in how the side sets up and the lads will close the deal either next year or the year after, if not both seasons.

In these eyes the two men best fitted for that job are recent All-Ireland club winning managers.

Tony McEntee is one of the best football brains in the country and both a suitable admirer and critic of the Horan project. But he's based in Armagh and, combined with having a young family, that probably rules him out. The other outstanding candidate is Kevin McStay. With St Brigid's he underlined impressive tactical acumen while he would provide a level of communication and organisation that the players have come to expect from their time with James. The big call for McStay will be whether to include his wingman Liam McHale on the ticket. Liam has so much to offer with his coaching and sideline insights but the players would need to know he has left any House of Pain complex outside the gates of MacHale Park.

Because that's the thing with these group of players. As the constantly-smiling Lee Keegan noted, they are less burdened by past defeats as empowered and sustained by all the games they've won, even if there hasn't been a summer yet that they've won them all. Under James these players came to love playing in Croke Park. And more so they relished coming every night to MacHale Park. When you've jokers like Mickey Conroy and Barry Moran in the ranks you didn't exist in a House of Pain but a House of Fun, Joy. Aidan O'Shea said it in that teary-eyed hotel room in Limerick, the lads loved going in there every night; the craic, the training, the ball, the honesty, camaraderie and company.

So did we, kid. Loved it. Love ye. Forever.

[Rossfan]

Lads, before we get carried away about that piece in the Examiner, can we pause to recall Eamonn Bannon, the ref?

John?

The p***k robbed us of an All-Ireland in 98' *




* He didn't but just getting into the swing of the thread

We used to call him John Galway- Bannon