Mayo

[moysider]

Good sense prevails.

Very well articulated press release. Well done.

[Rossfan]

Hope the Final ends in a draw - replay 1st October?

[moysider]

Hope the Final ends in a draw - replay 1st October?

T'would be no bad thing. Shorten up doul winter.

[Lar Naparka]

So the consensus form Mayo posters is club games don't go ahead 3 weeks ahead of the final thus meaning club games will be postponed at least 5 weeks?? If that's the view then I'd suggest you don't care about club football or club footballers. This is a down week with the county and with games on this weekend it will be a down week for clubs too. Then they play a game on the weekend, which they'll do two or three times between now and the final through in-house games so I don't see that as being an issue. If any player is injured they shouldn't be training or playing anyway.

I think there is one major difference between club championship matches and ones of the AvB sort.
While competition for places on the senior side is keen, nobody (I hope) is out to flatten a member of the opposition= to stop him by fair means or foul.
It stands to reason that a member of the county squad will be a key player on his club team and that he will be targeted by the opposition in order to limit his contribution to the game.
I mean that if Pollawaddy is playing LIsheenabrone, for the vast majority of players the result of the game in hand is of far more importance than the outcome of the All Ireland final.
Club rivalries can go back a longer way and be more bitter than any intercounty animosity. Not saying that Mayo is worse in this regard than any other county but it's hard to see the entire county panel going through a round of club championship matches without a half dozen at least county players suffering collateral damage of some sort,  whether the damage was accidental or not.

[Maroon Manc]

Its the sensible decision, there's a couple of those Mayo players carrying injuries who would have played for the club this weekend in must win games which could have ended up in disaster.

[Fuzzman]

I think it's easy for posters outside of Mayo to say they should play their club games this weekend but when you look at Mayo's record of being beaten by the overall winners of Sam in the last 4 years, then it would take a brave man in their county board to not give them every chance of winning Sam. Small margins often decide matches at this level and to risk one of your top players getting injured seems crazy to me.

I was just looking at Mayo's performances over the last 10 years and they really have moved up a level in the last 5 years but still can't get across that line, while watching Donegal come from nowhere to win 1 and get to a second final.

10 years ago Mayo lost the final to Kerry but then went 4 years without making it to the semifinals. However, like the Dubs, 2011 seemed to be the start of something different with them winning their province every year & going on to challenge 3 AI finals and 3 semifinals. I thought Tyrone in 2008 looked quite flakey through the whole championship but then they put on a great display in the final v Kerry. How often have we saw a new manager take over a team that were so close to eventually push them over the line?

[Croí na hÉireann]

I think it's easy for posters outside of Mayo to say they should play their club games this weekend but when you look at Mayo's record of being beaten by the overall winners of Sam in the last 4 years, then it would take a brave man in their county board to not give them every chance of winning Sam. Small margins often decide matches at this level and to risk one of your top players getting injured seems crazy to me.

I was just looking at Mayo's performances over the last 10 years and they really have moved up a level in the last 5 years but still can't get across that line, while watching Donegal come from nowhere to win 1 and get to a second final.

10 years ago Mayo lost the final to Kerry but then went 4 years without making it to the semifinals. However, like the Dubs, 2011 seemed to be the start of something different with them winning their province every year & going on to challenge 3 AI finals and 3 semifinals. I thought Tyrone in 2008 looked quite flakey through the whole championship but then they put on a great display in the final v Kerry. How often have we saw a new manager take over a team that were so close to eventually push them over the line?

Peter Acheson broke a bone in his hand recently training with Tipperary, so unless Mayo are going to wrap them up in cotton wool for 4 weeks...

[Cunny Funt]

. I thought Tyrone in 2008 looked quite flakey through the whole championship but then they put on a great display in the final v Kerry

Tyrone 2008 and Kerry 2009 laid down markers in their All Ireland quarter final wins against Dublin they showed then they were sides capable of winning the All Ireland plus and most importantly both Tyrone,Kerry had past experience within their panels of winning Sam already.

[Hound]

It seems though a lot of people have disregarded that Mayo beat the Ulster Champions. This nonsense about "haven't beaten a Division 1 side" is just that - nonsense. Tyrone are the 4th best team in the country - neither Dublin nor Kerry have yet beaten a side better. Mayo beat Tyrone, who were regarded by many as genuine All Ireland contenders, and thus Mayo have laid down a marker.

Sure, the last 7 or 10 minutes of that match, Mayo played none. But all they had to do was win. So long as Tyrone kept missing, Mayo didnt have to do anything else. And for all Tyrone's apparent dominance in the last part of the match, they didn't create a gilt edged chance, they were all from tight angles or from mid/long distance or under a lot of pressure from a Mayo defender.

Mayo turned out to be the best team in that half of the draw.

[Blowitupref]

It seems though a lot of people have disregarded that Mayo beat the Ulster Champions. This nonsense about "haven't beaten a Division 1 side" is just that - nonsense. Tyrone are the 4th best team in the country - neither Dublin nor Kerry have yet beaten a side better. Mayo beat Tyrone, who were regarded by many as genuine All Ireland contenders, and thus Mayo have laid down a marker.

Sure, the last 7 or 10 minutes of that match, Mayo played none. But all they had to do was win. So long as Tyrone kept missing, Mayo didnt have to do anything else. And for all Tyrone's apparent dominance in the last part of the match, they didn't create a gilt edged chance, they were all from tight angles or from mid/long distance or under a lot of pressure from a Mayo defender.

Mayo turned out to be the best team in that half of the draw.

Dublin beat Donegal and there is nothing between Donegal or Tyrone. Neither side were a genuine AI contender this year IMO and lets be honest Mayo beating a 14 man Tyrone side by one point scoring just 0-13 was hardly laying down a marker.

[highorlow]

Hound is clearly starting to talk us up early as the weekends game is just a warm up for the final for Dublin.

I agree to a certain extent, and we have beaten the team that beat Galway who were genuine AI contenders in a lot of people's view.

The reality is we need Sunday's game to be a dogfight and end up in a draw. We also need the replay to be a draw. We need a wet day and the opposition to have an off day and we play at our best. Our scoring potential is only about 1-13 on average and we haven't conceded many goals to "weaker" teams but we have major cause for concern in our backline still.

maybe if we start with a gang of the younger lads we might stand a better chance, loftus, Regan and young o'shea all came on the last day, I wouldn't be surprised if Rochford starts all 3 in the final. 

Our weakness this year is the 2nd half of games so it makes sense to bring on the like of andy, donie and Doherty for this period.

[blast05]

"Laying down a marker" .... this seems to be the sexy new phrase to bandy about regarding Mayo. It feels however like something ultimately meaningless like "fiscal space" ....

Is it meant to mean a marker in the minds of the Kerry or Dublin lads that will ensure they will actually give Mayo respect and ensure that the the mindset will be fully focused for the final ?
Does anyone really think that is required and that Dublins most recent memory of the semi last year (with Dublin now a less imposing side in my view and Mayo - if nothing else - a tactically smarter side) will be the most immediate reference point while for Kerry they will surely be casting their minds back to the 2014 epic semi-final


Is it a marker in the minds of the Mayo players to convince themselves that can they put in an All-Ireland winning performance if they need to.
Does anyone really think that the Mayo players will be nothing other than supremely confident that they can go out and play to their max potential when the day comes ? That now, at the end of August, that they are where they wanted to be at the start of the season ? They are long enough at this game to know there is only 1 stat that counts and shooting the lights out against Tipperary would count for nothing (does anyone really belief that any Mayo player that left that dressing room v Tipp for the 2nd half was mentally tuned in enough to give every last fibre of their being to secure a massively comprehensive victory ... something that would have been completely unnecessary ?!).


And if Dublin put an unconvincing performance in against Kerry but still win by 3 or 4 points, will people be questioning the fact that they have been unable to put down a 'marker' against either Donegal or Kerry - the only 2 games they have had this year to date. Of course they won't.


Marker ? ? ? Wheres the bloody tiippex


I'm not talking up our team .... the reality is regardless of who we would play in the final that if we were to play them 4 times, it would end up something like 2 wins to them, a draw and 1 win to us (someone can calculate what odds that would equate to)..... but lets not be disingenuous in any discussions between now and the final. We can leave that to the Dublin or Kerry boys

[Jinxy]

"Laying down a marker" .... this seems to be the sexy new phrase to bandy about regarding Mayo. It feels however like something ultimately meaningless like "fiscal space" ....

Is it meant to mean a marker in the minds of the Kerry or Dublin lads that will ensure they will actually give Mayo respect and ensure that the the mindset will be fully focused for the final ?
Does anyone really think that is required and that Dublins most recent memory of the semi last year (with Dublin now a less imposing side in my view and Mayo - if nothing else - a tactically smarter side) will be the most immediate reference point while for Kerry they will surely be casting their minds back to the 2014 epic semi-final


Is it a marker in the minds of the Mayo players to convince themselves that can they put in an All-Ireland winning performance if they need to.
Does anyone really think that the Mayo players will be nothing other than supremely confident that they can go out and play to their max potential when the day comes ? That now, at the end of August, that they are where they wanted to be at the start of the season ? They are long enough at this game to know there is only 1 stat that counts and shooting the lights out against Tipperary would count for nothing (does anyone really belief that any Mayo player that left that dressing room v Tipp for the 2nd half was mentally tuned in enough to give every last fibre of their being to secure a massively comprehensive victory ... something that would have been completely unnecessary ?!).


And if Dublin put an unconvincing performance in against Kerry but still win by 3 or 4 points, will people be questioning the fact that they have been unable to put down a 'marker' against either Donegal or Kerry - the only 2 games they have had this year to date. Of course they won't.


Marker ? ? ? Wheres the bloody tiippex


I'm not talking up our team .... the reality is regardless of who we would play in the final that if we were to play them 4 times, it would end up something like 2 wins to them, a draw and 1 win to us (someone can calculate what odds that would equate to)..... but lets not be disingenuous in any discussions between now and the final. We can leave that to the Dublin or Kerry boys

Don't forget they'd more than likely win the replay.

[moysider]

I think it's easy for posters outside of Mayo to say they should play their club games this weekend but when you look at Mayo's record of being beaten by the overall winners of Sam in the last 4 years, then it would take a brave man in their county board to not give them every chance of winning Sam. Small margins often decide matches at this level and to risk one of your top players getting injured seems crazy to me.

I was just looking at Mayo's performances over the last 10 years and they really have moved up a level in the last 5 years but still can't get across that line, while watching Donegal come from nowhere to win 1 and get to a second final.

10 years ago Mayo lost the final to Kerry but then went 4 years without making it to the semifinals. However, like the Dubs, 2011 seemed to be the start of something different with them winning their province every year & going on to challenge 3 AI finals and 3 semifinals. I thought Tyrone in 2008 looked quite flakey through the whole championship but then they put on a great display in the final v Kerry. How often have we saw a new manager take over a team that were so close to eventually push them over the line?

Good post Fuzzman. The 2006 - 2010 years were the Johnno years in Mayo, and I believe they cost us big time. The players were talented enough to stay in div.1 2006-2010 but in championship we were stone-age. Horan managed to get us competitive again in the championship quickly but coming from such a bet-down championship base probably cost us. We went from losing to Sligo and Longford in 2010 to knocking out AI champions in 2011 and getting to AI final in 2012. Likes of Dublin, Kerry and Tyrone never have had to deal with a 4 year dysfunctional gap like that.

[iorras]

"Laying down a marker" .... this seems to be the sexy new phrase to bandy about regarding Mayo. It feels however like something ultimately meaningless like "fiscal space" ....

Is it meant to mean a marker in the minds of the Kerry or Dublin lads that will ensure they will actually give Mayo respect and ensure that the the mindset will be fully focused for the final ?
Does anyone really think that is required and that Dublins most recent memory of the semi last year (with Dublin now a less imposing side in my view and Mayo - if nothing else - a tactically smarter side) will be the most immediate reference point while for Kerry they will surely be casting their minds back to the 2014 epic semi-final


Is it a marker in the minds of the Mayo players to convince themselves that can they put in an All-Ireland winning performance if they need to.
Does anyone really think that the Mayo players will be nothing other than supremely confident that they can go out and play to their max potential when the day comes ? That now, at the end of August, that they are where they wanted to be at the start of the season ? They are long enough at this game to know there is only 1 stat that counts and shooting the lights out against Tipperary would count for nothing (does anyone really belief that any Mayo player that left that dressing room v Tipp for the 2nd half was mentally tuned in enough to give every last fibre of their being to secure a massively comprehensive victory ... something that would have been completely unnecessary ?!).


And if Dublin put an unconvincing performance in against Kerry but still win by 3 or 4 points, will people be questioning the fact that they have been unable to put down a 'marker' against either Donegal or Kerry - the only 2 games they have had this year to date. Of course they won't.


Marker ? ? ? Wheres the bloody tiippex


I'm not talking up our team .... the reality is regardless of who we would play in the final that if we were to play them 4 times, it would end up something like 2 wins to them, a draw and 1 win to us (someone can calculate what odds that would equate to)..... but lets not be disingenuous in any discussions between now and the final. We can leave that to the Dublin or Kerry boys

Great post
Theres also a distinct contradiction in the reaction to the Mayo Tipp semi final. Everyone should be respectful of Tipps performance, they are a good team we were told. Mayo beat them by 5 points, as it was only 5 points and Mayo never got out of third gear Mayo are now bad. So which is it? Tipp are not actually a good team and Mayo should have hammered them therefore Mayo are a bad team because we didnt, or Tipp are actually a good team and Mayo beating them by 5 points was a reasonable result? I'm confused as to what way we are being told we are supposed to think by our overlord masters in RTE, the Irish Independent and twitter. Can they put out a statement clarifying soon please as I need to know if there is any point having the dinner early and cycling to Croke Park on the 18th or not.