Mayo v Galway, 18/06/16, McHale Park

[Beffs]

"Agree 100% moy about players being isolated - our forwards played like individuals rather than as a unit. Part of that is down to coaching but ffs when players see the ball going in to AOS in the FF, they should have enough savvy to play off him. When we did support the man in possession, we got easy scores - Boyle and Keegan for example. "

It beggars belief and it's getting so frustrating to watch , it's just complete nonsense , very bad coaching . I'd like to ask what do they see as an end result when you pump a ball into AOS , telling both your corner men to leave him on his own , what's going to happen , what's the end result , we can't score unless Aido does everything in this play catch , beat two maybe 3 and gets his shot away . What's the % chance of that , why can't Regan make a dart off the shoulder as Aido is in the air ?

A difference between AOS and Donaghy though is when AOS catches a ball his first reaction is to head towards goal. Donaghy's first reaction is to lay off to a teammate.

Okay, sometimes (too often for sure) AOS has nobody to pass to, but other times he allows himself to be surrounded so he can neither go forward nor release the ball - whereas if his mindset was to instantly release the ball I'd say he'd often have a good option.

Agree 100%. For such a big man, Donaghy has lightening quick reflexes, very fast hands, nimble feet & great vision. He's cute as a fox too. You get the sense that he knows what he wants to do with the ball, before he even gets it & has all the options figured out. He is a very unselfish player too. I've often wondered if it comes from his basketball background.

Can we say all of that about Aidan O'Shea? He only seems to have one direction, one speed & one option - bulldoze his way towards goal. That generally results in being called for over carrying, or spilling the ball. The other forwards get criticism for not giving him options, when he gets double and triple teamed.  But if his first instinct is to hang onto the ball & do it all himself, what is the point of their giving him support & then running into traffic themselves?

It's a tough nut for Mayo to crack and I don't claim to have the answer to it. But we are a year on from last years champo & the Aido as a forward experiment. If you include this years league, they seem to be no nearer to cracking it. At what point, do you apportion more blame to the players own deficiencies & less to management or teammates?

[Mac2]

He could spare all the gibberish which I writes in that article in an attempt to set him apart from the rest , which he always does and just say , this is a defining moment in this Mayo teams life cycle . Although I'd also agree with him on the twin towers type tactic , it's unforgivable of management that they let a novice full back line away with settling in so handy.

thats Jimmy still squeezing every last drop out of the great one in a row Donegal team,

He certainly had our number when it counted.

[seafoid]

Donaghy can pass to scoring forwards. Can O'Shea? They are usually poor but they were atrocious on Saturday .

[seafoid]

I wonder when the first wave of Mayo secondos will turn up  on the Galway team.

[bucko]

"Agree 100% moy about players being isolated - our forwards played like individuals rather than as a unit. Part of that is down to coaching but ffs when players see the ball going in to AOS in the FF, they should have enough savvy to play off him. When we did support the man in possession, we got easy scores - Boyle and Keegan for example. "

It beggars belief and it's getting so frustrating to watch , it's just complete nonsense , very bad coaching . I'd like to ask what do they see as an end result when you pump a ball into AOS , telling both your corner men to leave him on his own , what's going to happen , what's the end result , we can't score unless Aido does everything in this play catch , beat two maybe 3 and gets his shot away . What's the % chance of that , why can't Regan make a dart off the shoulder as Aido is in the air ?

A difference between AOS and Donaghy though is when AOS catches a ball his first reaction is to head towards goal. Donaghy's first reaction is to lay off to a teammate.

Okay, sometimes (too often for sure) AOS has nobody to pass to, but other times he allows himself to be surrounded so he can neither go forward nor release the ball - whereas if his mindset was to instantly release the ball I'd say he'd often have a good option.

Agree 100%. For such a big man, Donaghy has lightening quick reflexes, very fast hands, nimble feet & great vision. He's cute as a fox too. You get the sense that he knows what he wants to do with the ball, before he even gets it & has all the options figured out. He is a very unselfish player too. I've often wondered if it comes from his basketball background.

Can we say all of that about Aidan O'Shea? He only seems to have one direction, one speed & one option - bulldoze his way towards goal. That generally results in being called for over carrying, or spilling the ball. The other forwards get criticism for not giving him options, when he gets double and triple teamed.  But if his first instinct is to hang onto the ball & do it all himself, what is the point of their giving him support & then running into traffic themselves?

It's a tough nut for Mayo to crack and I don't claim to have the answer to it. But we are a year on from last years champo & the Aido as a forward experiment. If you include this years league, they seem to be no nearer to cracking it. At what point, do you apportion more blame to the players own deficiencies & less to management or teammates?

I think the O'Shea at full forward experiment needs to end IMO. I've always thought that we just don't have enough players with the ability to consistently deliver quality long ball that he would have greater than 50/50 chance of winning. I agree with what was previously said about O'Shea's first instinct is to turn into and take on his man, he never steps out away from goal even to try and give himself some space. I think the best we've ever benefitted from O'Shea in an attacking sense, last year's performance against Sligo aside, is having him coming onto the ball around the forty and carrying at the opposition. Once he has momentum he's very hard to stop and will usually draw 2-3 defenders onto him. His fault though previously when he's done this is not passing to a supporting player, usually going into contact and getting turned over, or maybe getting a free. There's no doubt in my mind about his ability, the challenge is figuring out how best to use him, getting him to buy into it and perform more consistently than he has in the past.

[Maroon Manc]

What a result for Galway football, I'd have been happy with a decent performance that would have given us some hope for the summer; I really didn't see that coming and thankfully I was over for it.

KW has taken plenty of stick and even a few claimed that we hadn't progressed under him which was nonsense and he was right when he said we were a lot closer to beating Mayo last year than many though. Tactically he got it spot on and when he analyses the game he'll probably be disappointed we weren't 6 or 7 points up early on as we missed a lot of easy chances and that continued into the 2nd half with Heaney & Bradshaw hitting wides when they shouldn't. I haven't managed to watch the 1st half again but have seen the 2nd half; Power's kickouts were superb, a bit of brilliance by KW to bring in a man who isn't 1st choice for his club although because of Mayo's tactics there was a little more space to pick out a Galway man as opposed to last year. The fullback line grew in stature as the game went on, from memory Regan appeared to beat Kerin to the ball for the first 45 minutes but Kerin eventually got to grips with him and along with Wynne they broke with pace into Mayo's half several times and along with Kyne look very comfortable on the ball. Kyne was outstanding but he's certainly going to have a lot tougher tests ahead. We've certainly improved in the tackle and were very unlucky with some of those frees COC scored with as a couple looked debatable and several were given when Mayo were going nowhere, apart from that 10 minute spell in the 1st half Mayo found it very difficult to find any space from scoring positions. Keegan did miss in the 2nd half from a scoring position and Regan was in 2 minds what to do when bearing down on Galway goal but can't recall too many easy chances Mayo missed in the 1st half, they appeared to be shots from tough positions.
   In comparison to Mayo's 0-5 from play Galway hit 1-9 which really should have been a lot more, we found it a lot easier to find space than Mayo did. The goal gave the players great belief, I still don't think they believed they could win until the goal went in and from then on Galway were superb, from when we went 4 points up it was a very mature performance from a very inexperienced team and Mayo never got close to creating a goal chance. I doubt anyone will be getting carried away but the one thing we now have is a bit of hope for the future and its not all doom and gloom.
   

[Dubhaltach]

A few points on the match

-The Mayo transition from defence to attack really let us down on the day. The players seemed very hesitant once an initial turnover or short kick out had been won. It was as if they were often unsure of whether to run it or kick it. This was a pattern that was present during the league and I had hoped that it would have been ironed out by the time the championship came around. Unfortunately it hasn't. Either the players are still unsure of the new system that mangement are trying to implement or they are aware of it and they just havn't bought into it. I personally hope it's the former as the latter would have larger repercussions for the year ahead IMO.

-I couldn't believe that we didn't properly push up on their kick outs. This has always been one of our big strengths. Against London, our two goals came from this tactic. Granted, London were always going to be a different proposition to Galway but if it aint broke....etc. McLoughlin's absence from the half forward line meant that the likes of Bradshaw won a number of clean kick-outs. I am aware of the neccessity for a sweeper but surely a system could be devised whereby the sweeper immediately drops back once the kick-out has been lost. Thus allowing you to push up and use a sweeper simultaneously.

-Our forwards had an off day on the shooting front. In fairness to this team, it's not often you see a stat showing that only one forward scored from play. It was always going to be tough to win when that was happening and hopefully that shouldn't be the case the next day.

In saying all that though, I actually felt comfortable enough mid way through the second half when we were 4 points up. I'd imagine the bookies live odds would have shown that. In reality, the goal changed everything, had it not gone in I'd say we probably would have held on. Once an underdog with a massive stock pile of motivation gets gifted a momentum swing at the right time, it's always going to be tough to turn it around. Fair play to Galway, once they got their chance they took it.

As each year passes, I increasingly believe that the kick-out is the single most important aspect of play in the modern game. As we all know, the foundation of the current Dublin team is based on Cluxton's Kick-out. The 2014 All-Ireland was decided on one. Galway have been plagued by this issue in recent years and have tried out God knows haw many different keepers (Although they seem to have finally sorted it out). I also think that kick-outs have played a big part in our last 2 championship exits. Unfortunately, it came back to haunt us again the last day. While I would personally start with Clarke in goal, I think it's unfair to lay the blame fully at Hennelly's door. I was listening to an interview Robbie gave on radio earlier on in the year. When he was questioned on whether he had any regrets about the Dublin replay last year, he said no. Something along the lines of 'when Dublin started to come at us, I made sure to kick the ball as far away from our goal as possible.' This suggests to me that he just followed previous management team(s) instructions. After that match Darragh O Sé stated that Kerry always had a fail safe kick-out, practiced in training, that was only used when they badly needed to retain possession e.g. during vital periods of a game where momentum looks to be going against you or after the concession of a bad score. Long kick-outs never guarantee you more than a 50/50 chance of retaining possession, this is the reason Cluxton never goes for them. Just after Galway got their goal the last day, Robbie kicked a big long one down the middle which Conroy caught and kicked over the bar. This denied us the chance to calm things after the goal and instead copperfastened the momentum swing in Galways favour. It also leads me to believe that current management are continuing on with some of the negative trends of the past.

[macdanger2]

Good post dubhaltach, hard to disagree with any of that

[Syferus]

Do Mayo fans think Rochford should stay on? if so why? IMO Mayo have gone back so far since he took over its frightening he is way out of his dept.

What is going on with Aidan O'Shea and COC both were terrible again, All Aidan seems to do is want talk to media and rumours of him trying to pick the team and not been happy the brothers weren't starting circling dont sound good when he was one main players that removed previous management.
COC although I never rated him he is highly rated in Mayo how many wides did he kick? Don't know how he is Captain and how he lasted the 70mins he does nothing from play and wouldn't score in whore house during play.

When Mayo have Zero forwards where are lads like Liam Irwin? Regan is NOT county standard got man of match against a shite down and London sides and against us because he scored a goal that should have been a free out for over carrying and people reckoned he was next big thing.

You're making a show of yourself again.

[oliverkelly]

Do Mayo fans think Rochford should stay on? if so why? IMO Mayo have gone back so far since he took over its frightening he is way out of his dept.

What is going on with Aidan O'Shea and COC both were terrible again, All Aidan seems to do is want talk to media and rumours of him trying to pick the team and not been happy the brothers weren't starting circling dont sound good when he was one main players that removed previous management.
COC although I never rated him he is highly rated in Mayo how many wides did he kick? Don't know how he is Captain and how he lasted the 70mins he does nothing from play and wouldn't score in whore house during play.

When Mayo have Zero forwards where are lads like Liam Irwin? Regan is NOT county standard got man of match against a shite down and London sides and against us because he scored a goal that should have been a free out for over carrying and people reckoned he was next big thing.

You're making a show of yourself again.

What you mean again? When have I in the past and how did I yesterday morning when I posted that?

I see you havnt been back to stolensheep since whole forum rip the piss out of you earlier for been such a clown. You really havnt got a clue. Over here trying put spot light on me because you got laughed off Roscommon forum Knobhead

[Rossfan]

Two embarrassments now

[Ballaghman]

Lads does anyone know what's wrong with Caff? I heard it's his hamstring but must be serious to be season ending. Really bad news as he was probably our best player, certainly defender, in the league and looked to be back to his best.

[moysider]

He must have ripped it from the bone like Paul O Connell did. He was on crutches after so it looked fairly catastrophic from word go.
Gibbons dislocated the shoulder and is finished for the year as well. When wheels start coming off ........

[Ballaghman]

He must have ripped it from the bone like Paul O Connell did. He was on crutches after so it looked fairly catastrophic from word go.
Gibbons dislocated the shoulder and is finished for the year as well. When wheels start coming off ........

Thanks Moy, was hoping it wouldn't be that serious. Brutal news if that's the case, best wishes to them both. I hope we can find a replacement, especially for Caff. We have plenty of cover for Gibbons but can't think of anyone better who can do Caffs job in the white Heat of battle in Croke Park. Caps off a bad few days!

[macdanger2]

I think we mentioned this before the match, we're very weak on cover for the FB line.

Keane, Harrison, Higgins and Barrett are our only out and out full back line men. Vaughan, Hall and Coen can probably do a job there but after that, you're struggling