Mayo Season Review 2008 - O'Mahony Confirmed for Another Year

[RedandGreenSniper]

JOM sounds like a man that wants out and is trying to look for a way of leaving without losing face. Why not blame the county board so, says JOM.

I agree with Barney, if he really wants to wait then he probably should be left where he is.

But if his heart is not in it, let him go, be it walking away or pushed. And lets not worry about another 'shafting' tale going around. His heart doesn't seem to be in it going by his quotes. In three or four years I think we can be extremely competitive, we can't afford a year of going through the motions though.

[Barney]

Snippets of quotes can be very misleading. Looking at the papers a fuller picture can be painted:

Examiner

Inevitably, O'Mahony was asked about his own future after two years where his only championship wins were against Cavan and Sligo. "I took this job two years ago for a three-year term," he said.

"I have given it absolutely everything along with all my backroom team, everything I can. The way the GAA works is you might have a three-year term, but I have never stayed in any job when I wasn't wanted.

"That would be the situation now as well. I'm willing to live by my commitment. Obviously I have to sit down with the county board and see what they want, and we will go forward from there.

"I am not going to monopolise or say I had a three-year year term. All I can say is I have to sit down with (selectors) Tommy (Lyons) and Kieran (Gallagher) yet and probably say I would want to continue, see how the dust settles."

Independent

Twice in the space of four weeks Mayo had been edged out of major championship games by a point and now O'Mahony doesn't know if his masters on the county board want any more of him.

It wasn't meant to be like this. Having visited so much joy on Galway and Leitrim, O'Mahony was brought back to his native Mayo to close out the All-Ireland deal after final failures in 2004 and 2006. Two seasons on, Mayo's only championship wins were against Cavan and Sligo while they lost to Galway (twice), Derry and Tyrone.

O'Mahony still has a year to run and is keen to see it through but if the board want him out (which they won't if they have a thimble-full of sense) he'll leave quietly and quickly.



"I have never stayed in any job where I wasn't wanted. I'm willing to live by my commitments but obviously I'll sit down with the county board and see what they want," he said.

He also suggested that it was a time for Mayo to hold their nerve. His squad are a work in progress and panic trading won't achieve anything.

"I've no problem walking out the door if somebody else can come in and win an All-Ireland for Mayo next year. I've a fair idea that I know what needs to be done so it's important to hold the nerve."

[IolarCoisCuain]

The Ole Oler lunatic fringe of the Mayo support should not be allowed dictate to that extent.

Jesus Christ Barney. Lunatic fringe? Calm down, for the love of God. Things are bad enough without starting a civil war.

[IolarCoisCuain]

The biggest mistake John O'Mahony made in dropping Ciarán McDonald was doing so without having anyone better to replace him.

As such, maybe the people calling for Johnno's head now might also suggest who would replace him. Johan Cruyff, maybe.

People need to walk away from this, watch and enjoy the club Championship and see what develops from that. The most thing Mayo need are leaders. If anyone feels like making a name for himself, let him lead his parish to the Moclair Cup. That's where it's at now.

[Lar Naparka]

Lads ye need a reality check, Mayo didn't win yesterday and haven't won Sam in the last few years because ye haven't got the players. It has little or nothing to do with management and everything to with the talent available to you, the bottom line is you don't have any top class scoring forward, midfield player, centre back or full back.

If only it were that simple, Zulu. If only it were that simple.
Micheal O Muircheartaigh waxed about the greatest football game of all time when Mayo squeezed past Dublin in 2006. True, they collapsed in the final but talent doesn’t evaporate like water in the sunlight. If the team was good against the Dubs they still had the potential to be good a few weeks later.
O’Mahony was to inherit a battle-hardened and gifted squad. Mickey and Beefer were making some questionable decisions regarding both players and tactics.
Brady, Nallen, O’Neill and Gardiner, amongst others, started assuming leadership and influencing team tactics.
John O’Mahony was to inherit that team.
Furthermore, he was able to draw on recruits from a successful u21 squad that had tasted All Ireland success. What other county manager in recent times has had the same pool of talent at his disposal?
Having been given the resources he asked for, O’Mahony has managed to beat Cavan last year and Sligo this year. There his record of achievements comes to an end. There is absolutely no personal malice or any sort of begrudgery behind any criticism I level at the man. I really was hoping things would go well for him.
What really grinds my gears is that he appears to have a subtle PR campaign ticking over in the background, explaining away hiccups and distancing himself from any possible blame for the team’s performance.
He was to explain the performance against Galway in 2007 by saying he never saw a side so mentally drained before and it was down to the nightmare of the final against Kerry.
Hmm..
The same players had gotten through to a league final a short while before that and the fightback in the second half was very spirited indeed. No sign of mental meltdown I would say.
If he really wanted to drop Supermac, he could have done what the player asked for and met him face to face. Surely that was the least Ciaran deserved?
Arra, I’m sick of it all. I do wish John the Messiah and John the Deppity would meet face to face and sort out which of them takes precedence.

[Zulu]

[quoteZulu its bull to say that Dillon is the only player that we have.][/quote]

I didn't say that Barney, the point I'm making is most of the Mayo players are decent IC footballers rather than very good ones and you need at least 3 or 4 of those if you are going to beat the best. Lar Naparka you refer to the U21 AI winning side but both Cork and Laois have had a number of very good U21 sides recently yet if I mentioned them as potential AI winners many would laugh at me. The point I'm making is Mayo are doing ok for the talent they have, Mayo are good enough to compete with most teams but not good enough to beat the top 5 or 6 on a regular basis IMO.

[stephenite]

Think he's right lads - you can't replace lads like DB and Ciaran Mac, and even in their pomp we either shot ourselves in the foot by leaving DB on the bench or they didn't have the extra 2-3 lads of similair quality to back them up. And we leave Mac out of it altogether this year.

We have the guts of a good team coming together and providing that everything falls into place and lads hold form and stay injury free we can be up there challenging again.

[Shrewdness]

If Johno does want to get out, he will have to be very careful how he engineers it.

The next general election is less than 4 years away at most, and if he antagonises the Mayo public by jumping ship now, he might still be paying for last Saturday's defeat in 4 years time.

If he does go, would there be any welcome in Mayo for a third term for John Maughan?...He took Mayo to All Ireland Finals in both of his previous terms.

[stephenite]

I don't think Maughan would get a third term - but if Mayo were to win an All Ireland I think it would be great for JM to oversee it. Not going to happen in all probability though.

Heart says yes - head says no.

[ildanach]

a change in management is not the solution. JOM was given a 3 year contract and lets see out the 3 years. We are too fond of changing management. In 09 i would think heaney, nallen and aidan higgins will have retired. The rebuilding (although slowly) has unearthed some new players and hopefully will unearth somemore. IMO the problems we have now are more to do with the manner in which micky moran was shafted. He should have been given another year and then if that didn't work JOM could then have taken over - if he wanted the job.  References to politics and the sort is very unhelpful and alot of the jonno bashing is of this nature so i think it is important we stick to the football.

The CMD debate is over now the "what ifs" are irrelevent. I think we could have done with him this year and feel the issue was dealt with badly and a greater degree of transparacy on both sides would have closed this issue.

Mayo are lacking players in some key positions and a change in management at this stage will not solve this. The key to our sucess is continuity with development. We are used of defeats and i think one of our main problems is that we think we have agod given right to be participating in all ireland semi finals and finals. We lads we dont. I would rather have one or two years like what we have had and then comeback and be actually compeditive enough to win one. I am sick of winning connacht titles , qf and semis only to collapse in finals. I believe that if JOM gets us to another final that this will not happen.

For now though i would like to put out the positions i think we have nailed down players for and then leave blanks in where i feel we have found no one yet.(feel free to knock my thoughts but give a reason!- as this is only my opinion) You will notice i have no full back line as i can not honestly say i have seen anyone over the last 2 years that i have been entirely impressed with apart from keith higgins who i would rather as a half back.i have mcgarrity at ff so he can go out to the middle to help out if required leavig space for dillon to come in with the ball

                                                     Clarke
                                         ?             ?            ?

                                        D Kilcullen  T Howley    K Higgins

                                                     Parsons O'Shea

                                             BJP         Harte          Dillon

                                        C Mortimer     R McGarrity    T Mortimer

then players  bring from the bench a moran, kilcoyne, cambell.

[Zulu]

I've seen a fair bit of Seamus O'Shea at U21 and Sigerson level and he'll never make a senior IC midfielder IMO. Sorry if I'm coming across as anti-Mayo lads but I just don't think ye are realistic about the quality of player available to you. The real question is why Mayo don't produce more quality players, not decent players but players of the quality that Kerry mass produce. 

[Fenway]

Kinda glad we lost on Saturday as I dont think we have a side good enough to win this year anyways. I think the lads will be better off in the club championship than playing another game that they will probably lose. My hope is that

1 Johno stays to finish his term
2 We find a Full Back and a Full Forward
3 There is a more settled side takes the field in the Connacht opener next year. (Hell of a lot of switches in the 6 back positions all this year)
4  We are lucky with injuries as we dont have the depth that for example Kerry have (6 or more All Ireland winners on their bench yesterday)

Looking to next year we could be going the qualifier route next year anyways as we have to go to Pearse and we have a 100 % failure rate there. So if we do manage a victory down there we will know we have a strong team and things may progress to at least a semi from there - if not the management team will probably go and the new one should have a settled spine and the springboard of a home game v galway which I always think we should win ( Still think we were cheated out of it by Coldrick bottling 2 2nd yellow decisions this year). And if there is one man I want to see on the next management team and maybe even as a selector this year its Noel Connelly.
He may not be a coach but he has been at the heart of some of Mayos finest performances the past 12 years as a player and manager.

Keep the Faith people  

[INDIANA]

i'll probably be told to f**k off by mayo posters. But Mayo have a lot of good footballers Zulu, i've seen them at underage a fair bit against dublin underage teams that i've been linked with and the first thing i'll say is, mayo players tend to dis-improve on the senior side. Why that is , I don't know , but at underage either at u21 they are not far off the top4 in the country every other year at least.
To be honest i don't know ifs its a management thing,but very few Mayo players are willing or are comfortable with repsonsibility in championship football. They are always looking for someone else to step up. Mortimer is the marquee forward up front, but he dosn't want to be for some reason. He has the talent but not the willingness to lead the forward line. The defence has no leader either and there is a lack of people in that area willing to step up. nallen at 36 was mayo's best player last Saturday, that isn't  a good thing. Parsons was the only guy in my view who took responsibility last Saturday and is probably a future captain yet he's even been pilloried by his own for missing a few shots. At least he was willing to have a go, because plenty of others a lot older than him didn't want the responsibility.
But that the crux of the issue for Mayo players they always look for someone else to do it and as a result lose virtually all the tight games they are involved in. Galway have padraig joyce , thats why they won the connacht final, mayo had no-one.
The mistake Johnno made was getting rid of players that had something to offer. The number one rule of managament is you get the best players into the squad. O Mahony didn't do that, why i don't know. But don't also assume that u21 will follow into senior success. dublin reached and won 1 consecutive u21 all-ireland finals in 02 and 03 and still haven't landed the big one, possibly for similar reasons to mayo. BUt the first thing Johno has to do is find some players who thrive on responsibility in championship football and have the heart for battle down the stretch. I'm not sure Mayo have alot of them and its killing them. But its a mistake to say they don;t have talent, they do, its more mental issues in my view. But that can be as big a drawback as a lack of talent as well.

[highorlow]

Sad exit but changing the Manager is not the answer.

Many posters here saw this coming from way back in the league campaign where our full back line struggled miserably and never got sorted, that was a bad mistake and hopefully this lesson can be learned for 09.

IMO we need to find at least another 5 Natural footballers similar to Dillion, Parsons and Keith Higgins before we will be able to compete at the top six level.

Looking at yesterdays match Kerry have 20 natural footballers and no one will touch them from here on in, they will beat Galway out the gate and take the semi handy also and prob beat Armagh by 6/7 points in the final.

I'm not going to criticise individual players but as was stated earlier you have to question some lads hunger? Losing 2 match's by 1 point is possibly evidence of a lack of hunger/will to win ?  this I find is the most dissappointing aspect of the whole campaign, which is a lack of leadership.

Hopefully some lads will return back to the Mayo fold for the end of their club campaigns and stay and please god next year with the knowledge that it will be Johno's last stand they will give it their all for the County Team.

[moysider]

i'll probably be told to f**k off by mayo posters. But Mayo have a lot of good footballers Zulu, i've seen them at underage a fair bit against dublin underage teams that i've been linked with and the first thing i'll say is, mayo players tend to dis-improve on the senior side. Why that is , I don't know , but at underage either at u21 they are not far off the top4 in the country every other year at least.
To be honest i don't know ifs its a management thing,but very few Mayo players are willing or are comfortable with repsonsibility in championship football. They are always looking for someone else to step up. Mortimer is the marquee forward up front, but he dosn't want to be for some reason. He has the talent but not the willingness to lead the forward line. The defence has no leader either and there is a lack of people in that area willing to step up. nallen at 36 was mayo's best player last Saturday, that isn't  a good thing. Parsons was the only guy in my view who took responsibility last Saturday and is probably a future captain yet he's even been pilloried by his own for missing a few shots. At least he was willing to have a go, because plenty of others a lot older than him didn't want the responsibility.
But that the crux of the issue for Mayo players they always look for someone else to do it and as a result lose virtually all the tight games they are involved in. Galway have padraig joyce , thats why they won the connacht final, mayo had no-one.
The mistake Johnno made was getting rid of players that had something to offer. The number one rule of managament is you get the best players into the squad. O Mahony didn't do that, why i don't know. But don't also assume that u21 will follow into senior success. dublin reached and won 1 consecutive u21 all-ireland finals in 02 and 03 and still haven't landed the big one, possibly for similar reasons to mayo. BUt the first thing Johno has to do is find some players who thrive on responsibility in championship football and have the heart for battle down the stretch. I'm not sure Mayo have alot of them and its killing them. But its a mistake to say they don;t have talent, they do, its more mental issues in my view. But that can be as big a drawback as a lack of talent as well.

I would agree wholeheartedly with all you say. Players were never trusted with responsibility in this county. I could go into detail re. establishment v players in last 10 years but I wont.They are treated as an irritating distraction by the committee men. X players that are given managerial jobs turn into Ogres that are afraid of losing control like a virgin schoolteacher rather then cherishing the opportunity they are given to work with talented and the pick of young lads. Make you cry. There is a conveyou belt of footballers coming through as usual, 15 - 18 ,but unless we choose how we bring them along more carefully - I m being tactful here - none will make it. I mean none will have the ambition to think about AI. It ll be well knocked out of him.