Ciaran McDonald not named in Mayo panel

[AbbeySider]

Never mentioned winning an All Ireland. All i expect is to be as competitive as possible and get our best team out each year and see what happens instead of talking about longterm rebuilding rebuilding programmes.

That sounds great... in Theory. And its what we have always done, only to fall short on All-Ireland final day.
Why not give younger players a chance to develop and give a new younger team a chance to settle?
Its not going to happen this year or the next but our day will come when the current players and newer additions mature.
We cant be reverting back to, and depending on older players.
A new fresh approach is being taken with a younger panel that needs time.

[ludermor]

Moysider,
You say we got hammered in 06 as much due to tactical naviety as much as quality, as a few other counties posters have commented on us mayo lads that is delusional. If you went man on man against the kerry team they would win the vast majority of encounters.  The least we should expect is to be competitive but we need to be realistic as to our ambitions. Are you saying if we had JOM or whoever we would have beaten kerry that year?

[moysider]

Moysider,
You say we got hammered in 06 as much due to tactical naviety as much as quality, as a few other counties posters have commented on us mayo lads that is delusional. If you went man on man against the kerry team they would win the vast majority of encounters.  The least we should expect is to be competitive but we need to be realistic as to our ambitions. Are you saying if we had JOM or whoever we would have beaten kerry that year?

Other counties dont go man on man when they play Kerry. They use tactics like blanket defence and sweepers and sometimes beat them like Tyrone did in 05. Maybe you dont want to win that way but I could nt care less as long as we won. I ve already said I dont believe we would have won anyway but we would nt have been blown away in first 10 and would have given us a chance to settle into the game. Of course most mayo people are too proud to contemplate anything 'negative' tactically. Instead they want to try to build a team for the future that will go man for man with Kerry. They re the ones that are delusional.

[Maradona]

Agree we should go all out to win the AI every year, I think that is what we do, hope so anyway.

Reality is that the 04/06 generation of players did not produce and we really have to rebuild. Think we are good enough to win Connaught this year and who knows from there, but there are a lot of young players being bedded into very key positions and they will need time to prove they are up to it. Biggest worry is that we are trying to fit round pegs into square holes all over the pitch (Corner backs / full back / half forwards / full forward to some extent) and some of these players are not exceptional in their natural positions. We have absolutely nothing coming through in the forward division which is a great worry as it has always been our downfall.

Agree that we have been niave to go 'man against man' v Kerry - but should we not have learned that in 04? How many times do we have to get humiliated before we learn that? However if we had gone the 'Tyrone' route, did we have the type of player who could do that? First of all we are not disciplined enough. look back at a video of 06 and its so evident that players were not playing to unified plan, niave plan or not. In fairness to the tyrone model, they were united in everything they did and everyone pitched in from start to finish. Blame management or whatever, but too many times over the years we were left guessing over players well into the year, and to me that is not the way to properly prepare for the championship. Dont get me wrong, not blaming individuals, but if we are serious as a county we have to get serious.

While on the subject of Tyrone - was in healy park a few weeks ago - very impressed by the facilities, pre-match effort, atmosphere, etc - really felt like I was at an event. Hope our Co Board took note - is there a worse county ground than McHale to go to these days?

[Lar Naparka]

Lads, there are a few things we have to keep in mind about Mayo football.
We fans are a very hard lot to satisfy!
We want an AI every year and feel disappointed if we only go close. There is no pressure like this put on any other manager or panel. And if there is pressure is coming form the fans, the county board seem to be a hard lot to get on with also.
Think of every manager back to Johnno and the 89’ final: Did a single one of them leave the scene without bad feelings of some sort?
I think it was brave or foolhardy of Johnno to take on the job for a second spell; already there is a backlash growing. It would appear that Ciaran has left of his own free will. Good luck to him if he did; that’s his decision. 
Whatever the reason, O’Mahony knows he will blamed by many if we don’t win an A1 this year.
O’M did say he was in for a three year haul and I don’t seem him extending his term beyond that. I hope we all now row in behind him and his team and urge them on to go as far as they can this year. Speculation will always be a fact of life in Mayo football circles but it is time to put this controversy to bed and move on.

[moysider]

Lads, there are a few things we have to keep in mind about Mayo football.
We fans are a very hard lot to satisfy!
We want an AI every year and feel disappointed if we only go close. There is no pressure like this put on any other manager or panel. And if there is pressure is coming form the fans, the county board seem to be a hard lot to get on with also.
Think of every manager back to Johnno and the 89' final: Did a single one of them leave the scene without bad feelings of some sort?
I think it was brave or foolhardy of Johnno to take on the job for a second spell; already there is a backlash growing. It would appear that Ciaran has left of his own free will. Good luck to him if he did; that's his decision. 
Whatever the reason, O'Mahony knows he will blamed by many if we don't win an A1 this year.
O'M did say he was in for a three year haul and I don't seem him extending his term beyond that. I hope we all now row in behind him and his team and urge them on to go as far as they can this year. Speculation will always be a fact of life in Mayo football circles but it is time to put this controversy to bed and move on.

Agree Lar but you know as well as I do that it wont happen that way. Everybody knows that Mac would never do what DB did and announce his retirement and get the 2 page Western spread. And as long as he says nothing there will be speculation from some  fans about a possible comeback as long as we re alive in the championship. Other people I talked about him being not in the panel we re not too bothered. 'No harm' was one remark I remember. Realistically if he were to be involved he should have been involved a couple of months ago in some way or other. I have never agreed with his late returns to the panel. Compare that to Padraig Joyce s early appearance every year and how Galway have a settled team most years for the league rounds. On the other hand Mac is such a good player it ll be always tempting to have him back - late or not. As I said, management would have preferred a quick kill on this with an announcement of retirement but that s not going to happen and its bound to get messy and drag on for this summer at least. The fact that the best attacking talent we ve produced since Mac came on the scene a decade and a half ago[ and the best we re likely to see for some time] has gone to Aussie rules makes it more difficult for some fans to accept that Mac is  not going to be there either anymore.

[Farrandeelin]

Just in response to moysider's post regarding 'reasonable and sustainable pushes'. He is damn right you know. I wasn't in Celtic Park last year, had to make a few bob. Anyway, I felt that we had gone backwards last year, getting hammered by Galway live on RTE and hammered by Derry again. I often wonder do the likes of Leitrim and Sligo and other counties even Ros enjoy watching other counties getting to AIFs? I doubt it somehow. However, our record in finals is shocking and I for one am sick of getting the piss taken out of me by fellas from Meath, Kilkenny, Kerry etc. teams who have won AIFs. No harm in expecting to win every game. Certainly I always think that we will happen to emerge on the winning side even if it is a second before the match that I come around to thinking that way. I don't see any harm in it either. In fact, I wouldn't go to championship games if I thought any different.

(PS, that's not the reason I wasn't in Celtic Park last year, despite my worries on here and I certainly didn't expect Mayo to be hammered by 10 points that day...)

[ludermor]

Moysider,
You say we got hammered in 06 as much due to tactical naviety as much as quality, as a few other counties posters have commented on us mayo lads that is delusional. If you went man on man against the kerry team they would win the vast majority of encounters.  The least we should expect is to be competitive but we need to be realistic as to our ambitions. Are you saying if we had JOM or whoever we would have beaten kerry that year?

Other counties dont go man on man when they play Kerry. They use tactics like blanket defence and sweepers and sometimes beat them like Tyrone did in 05. Maybe you dont want to win that way but I could nt care less as long as we won. I ve already said I dont believe we would have won anyway but we would nt have been blown away in first 10 and would have given us a chance to settle into the game. Of course most mayo people are too proud to contemplate anything 'negative' tactically. Instead they want to try to build a team for the future that will go man for man with Kerry. They re the ones that are delusional.

i didnt mean mark man on man i meant compare each team man to man and you will see they were/are far superior. A bit of realism is no harm. Where is gods name did anyone mention anything about mayo not wanting to win ugly? You have lost the run of yourself and are arguing with yourself!

[moysider]

Moysider,
You say we got hammered in 06 as much due to tactical naviety as much as quality, as a few other counties posters have commented on us mayo lads that is delusional. If you went man on man against the kerry team they would win the vast majority of encounters.  The least we should expect is to be competitive but we need to be realistic as to our ambitions. Are you saying if we had JOM or whoever we would have beaten kerry that year?

Other counties dont go man on man when they play Kerry. They use tactics like blanket defence and sweepers and sometimes beat them like Tyrone did in 05. Maybe you dont want to win that way but I could nt care less as long as we won. I ve already said I dont believe we would have won anyway but we would nt have been blown away in first 10 and would have given us a chance to settle into the game. Of course most mayo people are too proud to contemplate anything 'negative' tactically. Instead they want to try to build a team for the future that will go man for man with Kerry. They re the ones that are delusional.

i didnt mean mark man on man i meant compare each team man to man and you will see they were/are far superior. A bit of realism is no harm. Where is gods name did anyone mention anything about mayo not wanting to win ugly? You have lost the run of yourself and are arguing with yourself!

Tyrone in 2005 would have compared unfavourably to Kerry in the majority of positions in most people s estimation before the AI final of that year. Tyrone were struggling at full back and at midfield but managed to win through inspiration, work ethic, tactical nous and maybe a bit of the darker arts thrown in as well. That was realism. And yes lots of Mayo people dont want to win ugly. Example. Before the appointment of M. Moran a committee was established to find a new manager. County Board PJ McGrath was reported in local papers as saying that the incoming manager should be instructed as to the style of football mayo fans expected to see from Mayo teams. Now PJ was nt just washed in off the side of the road. An All Ireland ref.a former president of Connacht Council if memory serves me correctly his views hold some clout. They are not to be taken lightly and you can be sure he was voicing concerns that were brought to his attention by others too. I assume he wanted the traditional style of Mayo- off the cuff, free flowing ,open, skillful football  - to continue and any 'negative,  stuff would be frowned upon. Board Chairman Paddy Naughton put him in his place and said that it was winning football that counts. But there is still a huge number of Mayo fans who want to play and win pretty.

[stephenite]

From todays Indo/Rag :

By Exclusive


Wednesday April 30 2008

CIARAN McDonald's days in a Mayo jersey are almost certainly at an end but he insists that it's not his choice and that he is deeply disappointed with what has unfolded in recent months.

He is also unhappy with the manner the matter has been handled by John O'Mahony, with whom he claims he has had only one conversation in over five months.

"If John O'Mahony doesn't want me on the Mayo panel let him tell me to my face. If he said to me 'Ciaran, I'm going with younger lads this year' I'd be disappointed but I'd put out my hand to him and say that's fine. If he thinks I'm not good enough anymore, let him come out and say it.

"I would have loved to play with Mayo again this year but obviously he doesn't want me which is fair enough but I don't want Mayo people to think that I wouldn't play for him because it's not true. Playing for Mayo meant an awful lot to me," he said.

Gifted

One of the most naturally gifted forwards of his generation, McDonald has always avoided interviews in a career where he preferred to express himself through his exquisite talents but decided to break his silence on what looks like the end of his illustrious inter-county career.

Speaking exclusively to the Irish Independent, he said it was important to him that Mayo people understood his position.

"I don't want to be walking down the street later on and having lads coming up to saying 'what sort of Mayoman are you when you won't even play for your county'. It's the management's decision that I'm not there and people should know that," he said.

He revealed that he had a phone conversation with O'Mahony some weeks ago during which they agreed to meet up to discuss his situation. However, the meeting didn't materialise and some time later, he received a text inviting him to a trial game on a Tuesday night.

"I was working in Dublin at the time and couldn't make it and anyway I thought it very strange that after playing for Mayo for so long the management would want to see me in a trial game. I have always looked after myself and am in good shape and playing decent football with my club so I would have thought the management would make up their minds on that rather than on a trial game where I'd be playing with a lot of lads for the first time."

McDonald was surprised when he started receiving texts last week from people who thought he had retired.

"They had heard that my back was supposed to be bothering me and that I had decided to retire. I don't know where that came from but it wasn't true.

"My back is okay because I got it sorted out myself and there was never any question of me walking out on Mayo for as long as they wanted me. There were also stories about how the panel had to be finalised so that the players' grants scheme could be sorted out.

"That had nothing to do with me. I have played for Mayo for 15 years and never claimed a penny expenses. And if I played this year, I couldn't care less about whether or not I got grant money.

"For me, it was all about playing for Mayo and I still feel that I can play at county level. I'm playing away for my club and would feel quite confident about stepping back with the county panel too."

His 2007 season was ravaged by injury and while he came on as a sub against Galway in the Connacht championship, he couldn't do himself justice after missing so much action earlier on. However, the back injury has cleared up but it still looks as if his county days are over.

"It's not my choice. At no stage was there an invite onto the panel. That's the truth of the matter. I haven't retired but nobody told me I wasn't wanted back either and that's what I find disappointing.

"It's important to me that the Mayo public know that."

McDonald, who will be 33 this year, made his debut 15 years ago and developed into one of the star acts of Gaelic football.

His blonde hair made him a readily identifiable figure, as did his elegant kicking, his measured style and his capacity to craft scores from the most unlikely angles.

He played in five All-Ireland finals (1996 draw and replay, 1997-2004-2006) but ended up on four losing sides. However, he did win an All-Ireland medal with his club, Crossmolina in 2001. He won a Vodafone All Star award in 2004.

[stephenite]

My own take on this is WOW!!

However, my own opinion is that while O'Mahoney has played this one quite badly - he has done nothing wrong per se. There was an invite to a trial game sent out via SMS which is the standard mode of communication for most inter county and club teams.

The comment that strikes me most however is this

and anyway I thought it very strange that after playing for Mayo for so long the management would want to see me in a trial game. I have always looked after myself and am in good shape and playing decent football with my club so I would have thought the management would make up their minds on that rather than on a trial game where I'd be playing with a lot of lads for the first time."

I've already said that Mac should not be picked on second hand reports and past performances. I would ask Ciaran one question, why is it that 2 time All Star James Nallen who has played for as long as you (in fact longer if you take into account the actual amount of games played) with Mayo did not find it strange that management would request to see his form in a trial game. James too has always looked after himself and is always in good shape, and playing decent football with the club.
I feel it is incumbent on the management to ensure that every last person on the 30 man panel has the requisite fitness at the level they will be competing at.

Fair enough, if it was held mid week and the man was working away, but I do not doubt that if Ciaran Mac called John O'Mahoney and explained his predicament another trial game would be arranged to suit him, was this done?

Anyway - maybe they can arrange one now, he wants to play and he's injury free - he should be playing for Mayo. Let them organise Ciaran to participate in a trial/challenge game as soon as he can get himself free from work and get him back on the panel.

O'Mahoney would need to win the All Ireland without him to get re-elected at this stage, this'll f**k him up big time come next election I reckon

[the Deel Rover]

Jesus just got the paper . Ye john o has handled it badly however i think the fact remains that he does not want mc there however he knew this would affect him down the road if he was seen to drop mc so he put the onus on mc by going to the press a few weeks ago saying that he was going to invite him to a trial game say if mc did go john o could say if was not fit so he was in a win win situation . Ciaran s a smart guy so he knew that one phone call in 5 months meant he was not in their plans  .  John o should have been a man and just said mc is dropped. I'd say he is shocked that mc did an interview the thing is that if he really wanted mc there he could have handled it better however its obvious if does not . Thats definately the end of mc s career

[stephenite]

So was John O'Mahoney in more contact with James Nallen than he was with Ciaran McDonald over the last 5 months? I don't buy that to be honest

[mannix]

I buy it, macdonald is not telling any lie in this, he was dead right to come out and say this. I am a fan of jom but really he will be hated for this unless Sam arrives.
Macdonald was right, trial game? who needs a trial game, certainly not macdonald.
This really finishes it for Ciaran, he was very exciting to watch and  he was right to hit back, the 2 will not be talking again after this.
Sad for Mayo football, both men had the good of Mayo in heart.

[stephenite]

My point was that I'm sure Johnno was in touch with Ciaran as much as he was in contact with James Nallen or anyone else who had yet to return to the squad,I never once intimated that Ciaran McDonlad was teliing a lie.

This notion of Ciaran Mc not needing a trial game is crazy talk IMO. He's 33 years of age and the gap between scoring points at club level and inter county is a wide one, his last foray into inter county football was indifferent to say the least (albeit he was carrying an injury) so it's been September 2006 since he last played any meaningful full games at Inter county level - that's too long a gap for any man to be allowed back into a team without proving himself against players at that level.

JOM was right to ask him and anyone else inetersted in playing to attend trial games - and he still can attend a trial game. He said he wants to play for Mayo this year - I think this interview was a great move by McD, he's put the gun to O'Mahony's head now and he has to give Ciaran the opportunity to prove himself for a place on the panel this year