Mayo v Cavan

[Fishead_Sam]

Thought Pierce Hanley, Andy Moran, Trev & Conor Mortiomer, & Alan Dillon all did well.

Personally I think the Barry Moran experiement worked, but had a big argument with one of the lads after who thought he was usless, ok I don't know how we could have agreed on all of the above and such division about Barry, who do you reckon is right. I thought he touched a few nice balls into incoming players, esp. if Conor had finished that one that Barry knocked down to him. Also Barry scored our goal. Though pierce Hanley showed his class.

[From the Bunker]

Barry Moran effective in an akward way? caused levels of caos and troule. Still not the best under the high ball, but not a bad debut in the Full forward position, for a young (inexperienced) lad. McGarrity understandably looked a small bit off the pace and we had a ups and downs in the full back line. Cavan did alot of huffing and puffing but lacked the killer instinct points wise. McCabe was a powerhouse in Midfield and controled it. Mayos main positive was Pierce Hanley, bar the usual reliables. Here's to the next round!

[mylestheslasher]

Thought Pierce Hanley, Andy Moran, Trev & Conor Mortiomer, & Alan Dillon all did well.

Personally I think the Barry Moran experiement worked, but had a big argument with one of the lads after who thought he was usless, ok I don't know how we could have agreed on all of the above and such division about Barry, who do you reckon is right. I thought he touched a few nice balls into incoming players, esp. if Conor had finished that one that Barry knocked down to him. Also Barry scored our goal. Though pierce Hanley showed his class.

Just back from Match. Will post more detail when I have a chance to reflect. Just want to pull you up on one thing. Conor Mortimor did nothing today but kick a load of frees from in front of the posts (mostly soft frees from a poor ref imo). When the game was over he kicked one good point from play. Michael Hannon had him in his pocket most of the game. And what is the story with him holding out his arms for applause after kicking a 21m free over the bar from in front of the posts. Seems like he is more interested in his own glory than the teams.

Well done to Mayo anyhow, the best team won and best of luck in the remainder of the championship.

[Barney]

Mort scored 3 or 4 points from play. Won't argue with that any day of the week.

Nice to be back to winning ways but Cavan were one of the worst outfits I have seen play championship football in Castlebar. If the majority of Aidan Higgins (very disappointing -  I thought he would do a job for us in the corner), Liam O'Malley, Peadar Gardiner and Billie Joe start when we meet any kind of half decent opposition it will be curtains.

Alan Dillon was my man of the match.

Hanley very encouraging, as was our general forward play.

Just disappointed to have conceded 3 soft goals.

[mylestheslasher]

Another dissapointing exit again for us. Very depressing, especially when you consider that we won midfield easy enough and still created f**k all. We weren't helped by an extremely fussy ref who penalised any sort of attempt to tackle. I think Mayo got 5 frees in front of the posts in the 1st half which were not frees - maybe this ref should take up a non contact sport like basketball or something. Here are my ratings for Cavan anyhow....

Miller - Good kick but was again sleepy under one high ball when he should of cleaned all out of his way, the ball bobbled past the post.
Fannin - Got roasted by Andy Moran
Chesty - started FB, switched out to CB as Crowe had a tough time. Did ok - nothing more.
Hannon - As I said earlier, gave mortimor nothing. When the game was over mortimor started playing. Very Good.
Flanangan - Lost the ball in the tackle numerous occassions, most of which resulted in points the other end.
Crowe - Not athletic enough to deal with pacy runners down the middle, more suited to a wing role. Subbed after 20 mins.
Martin Reilly - Did quite well. May have a future in this position.
McCabe - Awesome. lorded midfield and forced multiple switches on Mayo team to stop him  - none of which worked. Scored a penalty and put in a beautiful ball for jasons goal. Tired near the end as expected when we were chasing the game so went in FF and caused more chaos and set up gallaghers 3rd goal.
Walsh - Very poor. Lost loads of possesion in the tackle. Kicked some brutal balls in. Hard to believe this guy was once a skillful player.
Ray Cullivan - Got a lovely point and did well in 1st half. Was taken off, Can only presume he was injured.
Forde - Showed well in 1st half but faded badly in the 2nd
McKeever - shite. 2nd half he wasn't within a mile of his man. Lost ball in the tackle. A poor season and a poor captain.
Pearson - scored the 1st point then started shooting from stuipid positions and landing them in the keepers hands. Subbed at half time. Maybe he should have been given 5/10 more minutes as he was winning ball.
Sean Brady - Won anything that went in to him. Pity he doesn't have the pace to get away from his man and score.
Larry - started well and won frees and possesion but tired badly in 2nd half and was subbed.

subs -

Dermot shierdan - went in at FB and had a stormer. He gave big barry moran nothing when he went in on him. One for the future I reckon.
Cian mackey - I've said it once and I'll say it again. This lad is no county footballer. Too light, no intelligence & Contributed zero.
Lyng - Got on the ball but wasn't fit enough to get away from his man.
Jason - Took his goal very well but that was really all he did. Obviously struggling with that Hamstring injury.
Gallagher - scored a goal but his brutal shooting was punihsed by 3 Mayo points on counter attacks.

Mayo are a mediocre team and we are worse. 5 players that played yesterday were not fit enough to play county football. How can we be training since Novemeber and blathering on about the great player commitment and then run completely out of steam after 45 minutes? In the 1st half Mayo hardly made a score for themselves - it all came from stupid Cavan mistakes (Mckeever waiting for a sideline ball to come instead of going into it, Flanagan bringing the ball into contact and losing it twice) and from very soft frees from the ref. When Mayo did have possesion they were patient and careful with their passes we were rushing around and very wasteful. The amount of ball we had turned over was unbelievable.

I hope this season thought our management something and that they learn from it next year.

As for Mayo. Well of all the pretenders for sam, mayo must be the weakest. They are extremely poor in the FB line and not much good in the midfield. The Armaghs and Tyrones will not have too much problem with  their FF line either. They do have a game plan and are well organised. They also know how to move the ball on well when they get it but their search for sam is going to yield nothing this year I fear.

[anglocelt39]

Mort scored 3 or 4 points from play. Won't argue with that any day of the week.

Nice to be back to winning ways but Cavan were one of the worst outfits I have seen play championship football in Castlebar. If the majority of Aidan Higgins (very disappointing -  I thought he would do a job for us in the corner), Liam O'Malley, Peadar Gardiner and Billie Joe start when we meet any kind of half decent opposition it will be curtains.

Alan Dillon was my man of the match.

Hanley very encouraging, as was our general forward play.

Just disappointed to have conceded 3 soft goals.


Christ Barney as a Cavan Man that is one seriously depressing prognosis because, by definition, Castlebar as a venu has seen some bloody brutal championship performances over the years. Myles-thanks for the Cavan perspective. There is something seriously amiss with Cavan football when we cannot put 15 players on the park that show a semblance of being physically fit and at the same time we are listening to all this spin/shite about committment to training/top class backroom teams etc. I will return to this in a bit more detail next week before taking the depressingly early winter break. Next year's league has the potential to be very challenging.

[Bomber2312]

as been said before, crazy system to be off for seven weeks and have two in two but at least we've progressed past Cavan.

Couple of things really, disappointing to conceed goals, 3 bad goals!
to sort it out i'd drop billy joe in front of full back line, for two reasons really, (1) We're vulnerable to high ball billy joe should be told that he must get to every breaking ball (2) with our half backs so attacking it gives us greater protection,

the other problem is midfield, Mayo scored 1-19 and got roasted for long periods at midfield! I dont think the Barry Moran experiment was overy effective but it cant be discounted on one showing. We need more bulk more options around the middle. My team for next weekend would be:

1. Clarke -- done ok v cavan, hopefully can get back to best form
2. L O'Malley -- poor v cavan, time to step up
3. J Kilcullen -- most sucessful of solutions so far, help under high ball (P Navin anyone?)
4. Howley -- had a good game, same again please
10. Billy Joe -- as stated above just in between the lines, to sweep up whatever may come
5. Heaney -- certainly cant be gardiner
6. Killcullen -- worth another look, how did people rate his performance?
7. T Mort -- played well, no place for him and Gardiner in the one half back line
8. D Brady -- must be better
9. P Harte -- would love to have seen Kilcullen here but Harte gets nod for me
15. B Moran -- another option around the middle
11.  Hanley -- done well on debut, will prob be inconsistant
12. Dillion -- another good game, one off the left boot we havent seem before
13. C Mort -- needs to show more from play
14. A Moran -- prob Mayo's best player can do it all

Now whilst this team does remove B Moran from full forward, he can always be moved if we've a dominance at mid field.
we can rely on the likes of Cunniffe, Gardiner, HIggins, Nallen, McGArrity, O'Malley, KIlcoyne, O'Neill from the bench

No reason why 11-14 cant rack up 15 points, whilst greater numbers should ensure more stifling defense. Is it better to win 15 to 10 or 1-20 to 3-7? thats what we have to decide, i'd prefer to keep the other team down to 10 points than us rack up 1-20

[blast05]

11.  Hanley -- done well on debut, will prob be inconsistant

Thats an intriguing comment !! How can you reckon he will be inconsistant. I thought he made an excellent - was always willing to come looking for hard ball. He should be left at No. 11 even if MacD is fit.

I thought Barry Moran was effective at ff - he may not have won much clean ball but his presence under high ball caused panic in the Cavan defense, in the manner for example in which Donaghy caused panic in the Cork defense under a high ball v Cork last week at the start of the 2nd half when Gooch got his goal - Donaghy didn't even touch the ball - it was his mere presence. I counted 4 clear cut goal chances that all stemmed from long ball into Moran - thats a good enough stat for me.

I didn't think McCabe dominated Brady as much as others might suggest. They were level enough in the first half imho but for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, McCabe got well on top and thus it was a fair call to withdraw Brady at that stage.

Full back line is the problem though, we're fooling ourselves if we think we can do anything with the line as it stands now. My team for the next day for what its worth:

Clarke
O'Malley
Nallen .... well who else ?
Howley (presuming Higgins still not fit)
Gardiner (was only taken off i presume cos of yellow and 2nd tick)
Heaney
Mort
Brady
Harte
Padden (playing a lot between full and half back lines as suggested)
Hanley
Dillon
Mort
Moran
Moran

I don't know what to do with MacD if he is fit. Yesterday we scored equally from a running game, from ball kicked to the half forward line (think Dillon and Hanley) & played on from these and from long ball into Moran. If Macd come back to No. 11 we revert to 1 dimension. There is no point playing him at No. 10 as he will only drift to the centre and if is then my back line needs to be revisited.

[WJP11]

For a Mayo-centric view of the match yesterday evening, see http://www.mayogaablog.blogspot.com/.

[BallyhaiseMan]

i wonder could the author of that blog have trashed Cavan anymore,

was it not possible to add any more likeminded words to descrive Cavan i wonder. 

[cavanmaniac]

I'm curious reading the various analyses of the game. I wasn't there but it seems we more than broke even round the middle and had Mayo's full back line in a welter of problems for the entire match, yet we score seven points only, and ten times in total, as against 20 times by our opponents?

It seems our expectations of giving Mayo a game of it before surrendering held true anyway.

Pleased to hear Sheridan did well, perhaps if nothing else this lame enough championship campaign has at least yielded a decent full back option. Fingers crossed Lyng and Rabbitte will be much fitter come next spring and others like Sean Brady, Hannon, Flanagan, Cullivan, Crowe, Martin Reilly continue to develop. Dunno where Cunningham from Swad disappeared to after such a promising start but hopefully he'll get another chance.

I wonder will McCabe, Forde, Jason and Larry pitch in again for next year? I think Dermot and Anthony have another year left in the tank but it's time for Jason and Larry to leave the stage or else accept cameo roles - and they'd hardly even bother breaking sweat in training if they thought that's all they'd be getting.

Hopefully the SFC at home will unearth some big men with a bit of ability. Have we totally given up on the likes of John Tierney and Paddy Brady from Gowna, I won't even mention Crowe from Lacken as it pains me to think about what he might bring to the side.

All in all, Keoghan and Grimley better get busy, and would want to think twice about carrying shirkers on the panel next year who clearly don't want to do the training or look after themselves away from the pitch. As ever, my real disappointment in this season were the abject performances of the minors and U21s.

[highorlow]

i wonder could the author of that blog have trashed Cavan anymore,

was it not possible to add any more likeminded words to descrive Cavan i wonder

Ballyhaiseman, as a Mayo supporter with Cavan connections my apoligies go out to ye for whomever this guy is.

I'm sure he will learn a bit more modesty, humbleness and graciousness towards our fellow GAA opponents for the next time.

It's not as if we have much to boast about over the last 30 odd years.

I for one won't be reading his b...sh.t again!

[mylestheslasher]

Maniac - It was a strange match. We lost it because of silly mistakes when we had possesion. We did not have the teamwork and know how to use the ball efficiently. Instead we brought it into contact and it was turned over or we'd pass over and back across the middle allowing Mayo to filter back before kicking the ball stright to them. Contrast that to when Mayo intercepted our terrible attempts, they'd hare up the field with any number of runners on their shoulders. Its funny cos teams like Waterford and Tipp gave us more problems in midfield than Mayo did on Saturday. Our forwards, when they did win possesion, are totally unable to work the ball into a decent scoring position. Instead they either kick it away, lose it in the tackle or shoot from stupid positions. This has been a growing trend over the past years. Maybe we just don't have the required skill level or maybe we don't have enough "big time" experience to keep calm heads on the big day. I tell you one thing though, we are in for worse times when McCabe hangs up his boots cos he was the best player on  the pitch yesterday and without out him we wouldn't have got half the scores we got.

[rosnarun]

I would read nothing into Satursday game/ I dont think it matters which 15 mayo players went out they would have beaten cavan. despite Mccabe being Head and shoulders the best player on the pitch .
Clarke still looks vunerable from the high ball and lang kick outs are poor but hes very inventive from short ones. omalley probaly a better bet.
the fullback line still seem contet with allowing the opposition to get the ball and then tackle you cant argue too much with 0-7 points (how many from play?) but against better teams this could be deadly.
Although T mortimer was quiet good he wasnt as synamic as usual we could do with a lttle motre spark from him. kilcullen was awfuls but maybe worth another   shot and gardiner never got a chance to get into it thought  HB is by far heaneys best poition.
Good as it was tosee Mcgarrity back it could well have cost mayo the game as he looked no where near ready to play his timing, positioning ect was well awary . but maybe long term when we won it was for the best.brady wasnt much better. we need hartes drive back there. Frwards were the real starts 1-19 will win nearly any game and again C Mortimer showed he probably the best free taker in the country and not bad from play either. People need to accept that Just Scoring 0-7  is all a forward is required to do. Dillion back to his best too  while andy moran grows and grows. I was nt as impressd with hanley as most people as i thought he did a lot of head down running and was bottled up a few time. a CHF need to have more strings to his bow.. maybe a move to the wing? as he is an undoubted talent. BJP has been so messed about this year he seems to have forgotten how to play atall/ Barry did OK in what he did but he need to become stronger on the ball. and show better for mid field.
over an imoressive performance form but most of the old problems still not solved

[BallyhaiseMan]

i wonder could the author of that blog have trashed Cavan anymore,

was it not possible to add any more likeminded words to descrive Cavan i wonder

Ballyhaiseman, as a Mayo supporter with Cavan connections my apoligies go out to ye for whomever this guy is.

I'm sure he will learn a bit more modesty, humbleness and graciousness towards our fellow GAA opponents for the next time.

It's not as if we have much to boast about over the last 30 odd years.

I for one won't be reading his b...sh.t again!

i kno we arent great,but jaysus yer man was making us out to be Kilkennyesque.