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

[Lar Naparka]

That's a solid post, Moysider, and I realise full well that stats can be manipulated lots of different ways. But stats do not lie.
The entire Connacht/Ulster axis fares out very badly where Sam Maguire is concerned; a combined total of 17 out of 124 is not impressive by any standards.
Ulster fares out even worse than Connacht, with just one win (Cavan) up to 1968.
However, if you were to go by stats since Mayo's appearance in '89, the figures are quite impressive: 9 out of 19 for Connacht/Ulster sides. The imbalance is being redressed and Mayo football is improving, along with the rest of them. That's what the stats tell me.
We were very harshly treated by the ref in the '96 replay and my gripe has nothing to do with Liam McHale. Remember Meath's goal near the end. It came from a quick free kick and the Mayo backs were not ready when it was taken. Does anyone recall our backs were still lining up when Geraghty struck the ball?
The player said afterwards that McEananey had gone to both dressing rooms before the game began and clearly indicated that he would not allow quick frees to be taken.
We'll never know why he did this but the subsequent history of Mayo football could well have been different.
Croke Park chokers?
In reality, we only collapsed in the last two finals; Cork did likewise last year. Meath did the same against Galway some years back and in the semi before that, Kerry collapsed against the same Meath side.  Mayo hasn't a monopoly on Croke Park blues!
When Johnno came back on board, the term, "Messiah," was being freely bandied about and was based on anticipation rather than reality. Stats haven't gone away, you know!
There has been a gradual improvement in quality over the last 20 years or so but the stats are loaded against O'Mahony. I doubt if he relishes the Messiah tag at the moment but I don't imagine he was unhappy about being called that in the lead up to the General Election. I don't criticise him if he was either; I wouldn't mind seeing him as the next Pope if he delivers the goods.
Another thing, I think he is sincerely doing his best but it's his tendency to make ill-judged decisions that worries me. Will another year with Johnno leave us better or worse off? I'm afraid it will be the latter.
Nestor Cups? Hmmm..
Okay; it is always preferable to win than to lose, but its importance has been greatly diminished by the arrival of the back door system. Galway folks won't differentiate between Sams won with a Nestor and those without.
I'm afraid we are slipping into a "Woe is us, "mode. You know what I mean, I hope; we are getting accustomed to the notion of being eternal losers and expect to get knocked out every year, only to begin the following year all over again; like Moses and his gang roaming around the desert.
Winning a Nestor is fine but shouldn't be regarded as the high point of our year.
"My annoyance is that Mayo sells itself short," is a sentiment I'd borrow from you. Why is there a tendency to drop the head and resign ourselves to our fate whenever the dreaded "Back Door" is mentioned? There are other counties, including Kerry, that don't rely on a provincial crown to propel themselves all the way.

[moysider]

Report in this weeks 'Western' about Pierce Hanley making his debut for Brisbane Lions last Saturday. Good luck to him. I was lucky to have seen him play several times since he was a kid but we ll have to resign ourselves to the fact he wont be in the green and red again. He may play for club though in Aussie off-season.

[moysider]

 With Mayo finished for 2008, two players pause to reflect
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Conor Mortimor and Andy Moran

Talking points


With Mayo finished for 2008, two players pause to reflect

The Interview
Mike Finnerty

THEY couldn't be more different. One arrives early, the other is running late. One answers every question instinctively without fear or favour while the other is eloquent and considered. One keeps his head down and just gets on with it while the other  courts the spotlight with his hair, boots and attitude.
Meet Conor Mortimer and Andy Moran, Mayo footballers and 2008 Vhi Cúl Camp ambassadors. An hour in their company teaches you that they are two very different young men with one shared ambition. Football has brought them together and winning an All-Ireland medal is why they do what they do.
But with Mayo now out of the championship for another year, they are only too happy to talk about past experiences, their present mood, and their plans for the future.


MF How did you feel after Mayo lost to Tyrone in the Qualifiers?
AM I think the major thing we have to get right is our attitude. If anyone is going to tell me that Monaghan or Fermanagh or Kildare or any of these boys are better than us, I'm just not going to buy that. You should see us at training when things come off. It's phenomenal. When we get on the field at the minute it's just not happening and that's down to the players.
CM I think when you lose a few big games you start to wonder, 'Are we good enough to be there?' We haven't beaten the teams that were put in front  of us. We haven't won a big championship match in two years. We have the players, there's no doubt about that, we've worked hard, but we're not getting the results.

MF How would you assess the 2008 season?
CM Even though we didn't win anything I wouldn't write off our season. I think we improved from last year. And Connacht medals don't mean anything to me anymore. The one I want to win is an All-Ireland.
We did okay in the league and we could have beaten Galway and Tyrone. But we didn't. I don't know to be honest if Tyrone won that game or we lost it. I think we lost it.
We had a game-plan that we stuck to for 40 minutes and then we got dragged back, defending our own goal, and ended up with one forward. You can't do that.

MF In hindsight, would Ciaran McDonald have made a difference?
AM Talent-wise, I don't think there's any question about Ciaran Mac's ability. But the 29 lads that were there wanted to be there, really wanted to play for Mayo. It's hard to know...
I think, if he was playing against Tyrone, we probably would have won. But we had got to the stage where we were being over-reliant on Ciaran McDonald and it wasn't working.

MF What would he have brought against Tyrone?
CM He can lay ball all day long. The supply was coming against Tyrone but in fits and starts.
AM But the problem is when MacD gets shut down.

MF What about people that say Mayo are not good enough?
AM No way. We lost so many this season by a point or two. The Galway games, the Kerry game, Derry, Tyrone... Psychologically, we have to get stronger. Next year I'm going to be 25 and it's time for me now to step up.
It's unfair to pick out the likes of Alan Dillon and Conor Mortimer because these are the guys that are doing it consistently for us. It's the likes of myself that have to grow up and perform. Mayo has to be number one next year for me, not Sigerson, not club. Mayo.

MF How would you assess your own performance in 2008?
AM Personally, I'm bitterly disappointed with my championship performances. I didn't look after myself well enough earlier in the year to perform during the summer. I think I've actually done too much over the last couple of years, I've over-trained a bit. I have to re-assess things now for next year.
We're all in it for one reason; to win an All-Ireland. Playing third-level league games and Sigerson weekends doesn't help you realise that goal because you just can't keep peaking. Championship has to be your peak performance but my peak performance happened in March. That's ridiculous. And it's nobody's fault except my own.
CM Mentally and physically I was fine. I was happy with the Sligo and Tyrone games, and I felt I was middlin' against Galway. We only played three championship games.
There's not an awful lot of scoring, 'kick the ball over the bar' forwards in Mayo. You have your workers and your tacklers, and my job is to score. At the end of the day that's what I'm good at. My tackling and my right foot aren't great, but I'll score. I thought I was okay against Tyrone when I got ball. Any ball I got, I won a free or kicked a score.

MF Have you thought much about the Tyrone game since?
AM I've had nightmares about it. I felt as bad as I ever have in my life after that game. I didn't know where to go or what to do. A lot of people make a lot of effort to go and see us and I don't think it's fair on them. I don't think it's fair on Alan [Dillon] and Conor having to kick all the scores every day, and on James Nallen to come back near the end of his career and having to do the business for somebody else.
I just wasn't physically able to play the role I was asked to play. I had done too much work earlier in the year and I wasn't able to cover the ground.
CM I was disappointed but I think, after the years of losing, the hurt doesn't be as bad, especially after the Galway game. Being from Shrule, losing that was like losing an All-Ireland final. Still, walking out of Croke Park, knowing that you should be there the following weekend, is hard to take.
If we had kept playing in low balls against Tyrone, we would have won frees and we would have won the game. A team is like a machine. If one cog isn't working there'll be a problem along the line.

MF What needs to be done to move things on for 2009?
AM The management sat down last year and decided that they were going to build. I think we've definitely got better. Okay, we lost games but look at the way we lost. In 2004 and 2006, against Kerry, as soon as lost went behind we threw in the towel. That didn't happen this year.
We have young fellas like Keith Higgins, leaders and winners, coming through. But psychologically we have to get stronger. You don't lose six or seven games by a point if you're mentally strong. Maybe if you win one of them, the tide will turn.

MF Do the players think that John O'Mahony is the man to manage Mayo next year?
AM Absolutely, there's no doubt at all. I think coming down on the train there the last day – there was about 12 or 13 of us on the train – and I think there was a general consensus ... I don't usually talk about it because I'd be a bit closer to him [John O'Mahony] than most other guys ... but there was a general consensus. There's no doubt about it, they all wanted him to stay.
And I think the way it's working, we could have got to an All-Ireland final again this year, but what good would it have done this? We could have got beaten by 20 points again.
I think what we're trying to work towards here is, and this is the way I'd feel about it, that when we get there the next time, that we're ready for it. That we're not going there and we're coming out with our tails between our legs again. The next time that we get there, that we're ready for it and we're going to win. That'd be my way of [thinking]. I think that's the way a lot of the guys feel, and that's the way the management feel.
But the big disappointment this year is that I actually thought we were ready for it this year. I actually thought when we met in the McWilliam [Park] Hotel, right here, the day after the Galway game, I thought this was going to be the year, because of the way the boys were talking. And we trained awful well in the two weeks prior. The boys in general, there was a great buzz at training, and it was good. We just didn't perform. The thing about it is, there's absolutely no need to panic. We had great times under Mickey [Moran] – in Mickey's year we got there, and we still got flaked.
CM We're the only county that have [had] four managers within five years. There's something going wrong somewhere. There has to be something wrong. Once you go out over that line, it's 15 guys – or 20 guys, because there's five guys coming in. They're the guys who are going to win the game or lose the game. It's nothing to do with the manager or the selectors or whoever else is there.

MF Would you change anything about this year if you could?
CM We should have won the Connacht final. We didn't because we weren't good enough on the day. We always seem to start sluggishly against Galway...
AM I thought we were going okay until Trevor [Mortimer] went off injured.
CM Galway have quality forwards and once a few them got loose, they were going to score.

MF Tell me about the late free you [Conor] took against Galway?
CM The problem is that nobody else will take it, you're not going to see anybody running over to take it.
AM The way the wind was blowing, from that side of the field, it suited a left-footed kicker. I actually called Conor and told him to go out and take it.
CM I didn't really think of drilling it for a score at the time. I didn't think it was the last kick of the game. I just bounced the ball and kicked it. I'd kicked points from there before and some days they go over and some days they don't. I haven't lost sleep over it.

MF Can you see how people think you don't care about playing for Mayo?
CM I can't really. I do all the training, I enjoy it, and my life revolves around playing football.

MF Some people would feel that Mayo will win nothing with you on the team. That you're not a team player. What would you say to them?
CM They'll win nothing without me either.
AM I agree with Conor. Saying we'll win nothing with him on the team? We'll score about six points.
I think it's unfair on Conor and Alan Dillon. I've been scoring freely for my club and for my college for the last couple of years but then when I go into county football, I'm just not doing it. That's my responsibility.
Ninety per cent of our supporters are the best in the country but there are 10% who would say that about Conor. But they're the 10% that don't know their football and who you won't see at a league game.

MF Do you think the criticism you get is fair?
CM It doesn't bother me. What do people expect? Since I started playing with Mayo I've been the top scorer every year. I'm in and around the end of most moves.

MF When was the last time you felt alive on a football field?
CM In The Tyrone match when we went a few points ahead. Everyone was buzzing around, everyone was in the zone. We were playing to our potential.
AM The last time I felt that I could go out and dominate a game was the second half of the Galway game. I felt that I was going to win every ball. It's a good place to be but I haven't been there for Mayo for a while now.
CM The ball has to be kicked in. If ten balls are kicked in, you'll win five, and you'll get some scores. You look at the top guys, Cooper, McDonnell, these fellas, they'll lose four or five balls in every game but if you keep giving them good ball, they'll score.

MF John O'Mahony has made it clear that he doesn't want any hype or expectation around this Mayo team. What do you think of that?
AM I don't normally disagree with Johnno but I think Mayo need the hype. I think we are the best team in Ireland but we still have to prove that. I think we've been patient for two years. I think within our group we need to think we're the best team in Ireland. And we need to prove it. We are so positive behind closed doors it's unreal but maybe it's part of our psyche that we need a bit of hype too.
CM I thought there was a little bit of a buzz here and there this year but you only get hype if you deserve it. I'd say bar Kerry, to a certain degree, we're as good as any team out there. A bit of confidence is really all we're missing.

MF Have you thought about next year?
CM Of course. I don't enjoy the winter training but I don't mind the league, at least you're playing games.
I'm getting older now too and there a lot more things in my life. I'm finishing college next year and I have to get a job, make ends meet.
But if we improve 10% on this year we'll win Connacht next year. The best way to go is through the front-door and I don't see why we shouldn't.
Personally, I've been doing the same thing for seven or eight years for Mayo now and I don't see any need to change. It doesn't bother me what people think. I train all year around and that's why I'm on the team. I'm not there for the sake of it.
AM The first thing I need to do is get away from it for a while. But if I get the chance to play for Mayo next year, it's a big year for me. I need to prove that I'm good enough to be at that level. In 2009 I hope to prove that I am.




Thats the whole interview with Conor and Andy. Hmmmmmmm.

[IolarCoisCuain]

Thats the whole interview with Conor and Andy. Hmmmmmmm.

It seems to me that Conor is of the opinion that he's doing just fine, thanks - couldn't tell ya about those other dumb useless hoors. 

He's a hard man to love, Conor.

[moysider]

You may well have something there my avian friend. Here s an editorial from the 'Western' while I was away. I ll give Laffey 1 thing. He does nt sit on the fence although he has been more vicious in the past than in this editorial. Of course his opinion is no better than the rest of us , just more people see it , thats all. I ve just a few issues with it which I highlight.



Time for some Mayo soul-searching
By: James Laffey

AND so the long winter of recrimination has officially begun. Mayo are out of the championship after a wholly uninspiring summer that saw them beat only Sligo, who were themselves dumped out of the Tommy Murphy Cup by the footballing giants that are London. Now that's a statistic to make any man want to reach for a stiff whiskey.

Tyrone were sympathetic executioners last Saturday week in Croke Park. They put us out of our misery in a gentle, kindly manner with their manager Mickey Harte even suggesting that we deserved a draw. Technically he was probably right but on every other level he was wrong. Even when they were in the lead in the latter stages of the first half, Mayo never really looked like winners. Our play was too disjointed and laboured to ever carry the sort of threat that one would associate with a winning team. Mayo were going nowhere fast and that was fairly obvious from the opening quarter hour when we failed to shoot a single point from open play. That is just one of a whole host of damning statistics to emerge from a game in which Mayo played as poorly as they have done at any stage in the last 25 years.

There are few, if any, positives to be taken from our dismal championship exit. The elegant fielding of Tom Parsons was probably the only Mayo highlight in 70 minutes of scrappy, incoherent football that did not augur well for Tyrone's chances of defeating the Dubs next Saturday.

But the progress of Mickey Harte's charges will not be of any great interest to Mayo supporters who simply want to see their own house put in order.

Most of the focus has now fallen on Mayo boss John O'Mahony, whose dual role as a TD and football manager has placed an inordinate amount of pressure on his shoulders. Once seen as a Mayo messiah, O'Mahony's stock has fallen as rapidly as the ISEQ index and he is now under more pressure than at any other stage in his long managerial career. Two victories - over Cavan and Sligo - is a poor return for the first two years of his second coming. The fact that he has singularly failed to blood any new talent - with the honourable exception of Tom Parsons - is also a damning indictment of his two-year tenure. The vast majority of the team that started on Saturday had a role to play in the All-Ireland campaign of 2006 when Mickey Moran managed Mayo to probably our greatest day in Croke Park since 1951 by beating Dublin in an unforgettable semi-final. Incredibly, Moran got the bullet from a County Board that believed O'Mahony would deliver an All-Ireland title within a three-year time frame. The latter's abject failure in the first two years poses a really interesting question for the County Board when it sits down in a few weeks: if the exacting standards on which Moran was judged are applied to O'Mahony, they have no choice but to make him walk the plank.

But changing manager in midstream is not really the solution to the malaise that is affecting Mayo football at the moment. O'Mahony does not have the quality play-ers to win an All-Ireland and one only has to look at the limited bench that was at his disposal against Tyrone to realise the dearth of football talent that exists in Mayo in 2008.

When John Maughan steered Mayo to an All-Ireland Final in 1996, with a team that was probably the best the county has produced since 1951 - he was able to leave Pat Fallon, Kevin O'Neill, Gary Ruane and Peter Butler on the bench and still bring Mayo to within a single kick of victory. In the same year Ciaran McDonald was in America, Kevin Staunton and Padraig Brogan were in exile and Ronan Golding was missing in action. That's a serious amount of talent to be deemed surplus to requirements but that's the way it was back then. We were spoilt for choice. John O'Mahony does not find himself in a similar position. He has to make do with play-ers who are clearly out of their depth at intercounty level. Less than a handful of the team that started the Connacht Final would get within an ass's roar of claiming a place on the 1996 side. Harsh? Perhaps, but it is an indisputable fact.



Her are my gripes, although I agree with the overall message.

Red issue one. We ve played worse a few times in the past25 years.

Red issue two. There was enough quality to beat Tyrone. Our bench was on the field because the initial championship team was flawed and the subbed lads v galway were out of the race.

Red issue three.  Pure revisionism. Not sure it was the best we produced since 51 - the opposition was probably the poorest I recall in an AI and AI semi. We still did nt win. 2  things.

We came from nowhere. And rather than have a great team, Maughan cobbled together a team of old hands, Finnerty, Flanagan and fellas nobody ever really heard of before, Madden, Connelly, Horan and a young gunslinger or two like Brady as well as the usual suspects like Cahill, McHale Etc. They came from Div. 3 and were only recognised as a good team after the fact by most people.

If, if ,if we had the Butlers, O Neills , Heffernans, McDonald, O Neill, Brogan, Fallon, Ruane on board we might have won 1 or 2. They were not surplus. Only Maughan and those lads can explain why it did nt happen.

Interestingly this online version of Laffey s article has been edited severley from the printed edition.In the origional  he was tough on torso tattoos and basically player ego and commitment and why James Nallen still carries the can for manicured pussies [my adjective and noun] at 34. Why was that taken out of the electronic editio? Surely nobody could possibly identify to whom he was referring?  Were there calls to the desk threatening diplomatic breakdown like there was to a rival publication following a harmless enough colour piece before Connacht final? And they complained about Big Brother in China during Olympics.

[IolarCoisCuain]

I don't know James Laffey or anything about him, but I get a bad feeling about that piece, and some of the other football stuff he's written in general.

I would worry that Laffey is using football as a free shot to do a bit of pulpit thumping to show what a tough guy he is because he knows he's never going to have to back up what he says. He sounds like a man full of piss and vinegar in this - can anyone recall anything he had to write about the Shell to Sea campaign, or a recent upsurge in anti-social behaviour in some Mayo towns, or how the recession is hitting the west? Something that might actually cost him something?

I can't either.

Here's a phrase that bothers me.

... the All-Ireland campaign of 2006 when Mickey Moran managed Mayo to probably our greatest day in Croke Park since 1951 by beating Dublin in an unforgettable semi-final.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I'd struggle to put that win over Dublin in my own top three Croke Park Mayo performances in my time alone, and that doesn't even stretch back to 1951. For what it's worth, I'd go:

1. Mayo v Kerry, 1996.
2. Mayo v Tryone, 2004.
3. Mayo v Dublin, 1985.

Anyone that's picking out that game against Dublin two years ago, which Dublin lost rather than Mayo won, would make me wonder if he's a bit innocent. But I guess we're all entitled to our opinions.

Laffey doesn't nail his colours to the mast as much as he lets on either. How many times does he use the word "probably" in the piece? Four times in 740 words. Once every 185. That's a lot of probablys. Probably.

As for censorship, it's not today or yesterday that raised its ugly head. I don't know about any of the rest of you, but I used to really enjoy reading Anthony Finnerty in the Mayo News around 2000/2001. Then he got mixed up in a long running dispute with Seán Feeny and that was bloody that for Fat Larry. 

[Lar Naparka]

I think Laffey is trying to re-write history to a large degree with this article.
Quite possibly, I may have been critical of John O'Mahony from time to time but I don't think that speaking through your anal orifice is on when you use history to back up your assertions.
The result against Tyrone was a case of bad beating bad; not even bad beating worse.
O'Mahony could just as easily have been the one to utter the required platitudes after the game.
It's unduly condescending to say Tyrone were 'sympathetic' or treated us in 'a gentle, easy manner.' They won by the skin of their teeth and by the ability of their manager to react quickly to what was going on during the game. We were absolutely cat on the day but Tyrone did not have the luxury of handling us gently or offering sympathy to us either.

That is just one of a whole host of damning statistics to emerge from a game in which Mayo played as poorly as they have done at any stage in the last 25 years.

Laffey is not too hot on the oul' adding and taking away either, is he?
What about the '92 semi against Cork, under Jack O'Shea?
You could add in the '94 Connacht final, not to mention the finals of 2004 and 2006.
Maybe, he has chosen to overlook Salthill '07?
Mayo were still in it against Tyrone right up to the final whistle, not like the other games I'm referring to.

When John Maughan steered Mayo to an All-Ireland Final in 1996, with a team that was probably the best the county has produced since 1951 - he was able to leave Pat Fallon, Kevin O'Neill, Gary Ruane and Peter Butler on the bench and still bring Mayo to within a single kick of victory........ We were spoilt for choice.

Knockmore supporters might take issue with this assertion. There's a valid point of view that say we mightn't have been so spoilt for choice if Maughan has considered the players from Knockmore more objectively.
The omission of Pat Fallon caused as much stink as any decision that has been made by O'Mahony since he came back. The absence of O'Neil and Peter Butler were other major talking points and Maughan's full forward trio didn't perform with distinction in either of the '96 finals. That was my considered opinion and it was certainly shared by all Mayo fans I came in contact with.

Less than a handful of the team that started the Connacht Final would get within an ass's roar of claiming a place on the 1996 side. Harsh? Perhaps, but it is an indisputable fact.

What about David Clarke or Keith Higgins?
Nallen and Heaney would retain their places and Aiden Higgins  would stake a strong claim as well.What about Alan Dillon and Conor Mortimer? Mortimer gets a lot of stick but he does score consistently and any one at all could make  a better fist of things than the entire FF line. I'd fit Peadar Gardiner in somewhere.
I know that not all of them, including a fit Trevor Mortimer, might make the cut. But not to be within an ass's roar?
I don't agree; unless Laffey was thinking of an asseen with laryngitis!

My point here is that if anyone wants to blame O'Mahony it s easy to do so without subjective comparisons with John Maughan's era.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Good post Lar, I think we all agree on JOM's shortcomings this year, some would have stronger views than others. But that editorial was OTT. Mayo's performance against Tyrone among the worst performances of the last 25 years?! Two games last year were worse (Derry and Galway), Kerry in 06 and 04, Galway in 05, Fermanagh in 03, Cork in 02, Westmeath in 01, Sligo in 00, Cork in 99, Kerry in 97, Leitrim in 94, Cork in '93, Donegal in '92 were all much, much worse. I know he uses the word 'among' to give himself some latitude but I've listed fourteen championship games there and my memory only stretches back (barely) to 1989. Very ill-advised comment

[stephenite]

Hey RGS or Bod Mor - ye heading to watch Hanley tomorrow night at the SCG - he's listed on the interchange for the Lions so we'll get to see how's he coping.

Care to assist in kidnapping him and posting him back to the 'oul sod, any of ye are up for it?

[Bod Mor]

Thats right, It's on in Moore park. I might go, if I do I'll have my Mayo jersey on and at the end we'll run onto the pitch, throw an oul cloth bag over his head and FedEx him back home.

The last time I went to watch the swans against Geelong two weeks ago, they were terrible but it would be worth going to see how Hanley is progressing anyway.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Might tip along alright with my backpack to see if we can fit the buck into it. But don't let Leigh Matthews catch us - I don't think any of us could cope with a haymaker like he threw in this video (watch the top of the video)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r81_FLjfNOg     

[Lar Naparka]

I am really hesitant about resurrecting this thread at this stage; it certainly has been an interesting discussion and one would think that all that has to be said has been well and truly aired. It's time to move on.....

However, if anyone goes back to Barney's opening post you will find that a few points he brought up still remain unanswered and they are central to the matter in hand. I'm not referring to the comments posted on this thread but to the fact that we are all assuming that John O'Mahony is going to remain on as Mayo manager.
Is he?
When I read Barney's quote from Setanta, I felt O'Mahony was not a happy camper.

Feeney's reply confirmed this, at least for me.

Since then a whole lot of time has passed and there is still no overt move from either party; James Waldron has moved from merely saying that there is no move from anyone on the board against the manager to stating that the board supports him.
The players seem to be willing to work with him again next year.
If you were to take the views expressed on this board, it could be fair to say that the majority of followers want to see him continue on.
There is still no move from O'Mahony and the board has not gone beyond saying that the job is still his if he wants it.
Kevin  McStay

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4827&Itemid=39 SR (second part of the article) sums it up,
To use a phrase originally coined by Tommy Lyons (the pundit rather than the selector) this is 'arse-boxing' of a pretty rare vintage.
Sean Rice goes much further and I think he has covered all aspects of the matter pretty well.
http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4827&Itemid=39

Are we all too hasty in assuming that O'Mahony intends to carry on?

[Barney]

MAYO manager John O'Mahony confirmed last night that he will be staying on for the third year of his three-year term and will lead Mayo into the 2009 season.
Speaking at a monthly Mayo GAA Board meeting in Castlebar, O'Mahony told club delegates that he "needed to take stock" after the All-Ireland Qualifier defeat to Tyrone. However, he informed Mayo GAA officials last Friday evening that he intended to remain on as Mayo manager.
"I feel we've made progress," he told the assembled delegates. "I said when I took the job that it'd be a challenging job...We're trying to get a real team ethic where everybody works for everybody else. Some players have bought into that more than others, some have fallen along the way...The thing about it is that everybody shares in the success. I felt after the Tyrone match that everybody needed to take stock. I would die happy if I could bring the success we all crave."
After he had finished addressing the delegates, the Mayo manager took questions from the floor on a range of issues and topics, ranging from the closed season to the central positions on the senior team.
Mayo Oifigeach na Gaeilge, Piaras Ó Raghallaigh, suggested that many delegates would have been 'disappointed' with Mayo's progress over the last two seasons.
"Anyone with that view might not have been listening when I took over the team," replied O'Mahony. "I said I had no magic wand. We'd been in four All-Ireland finals without success and what we're looking to do is build a platform to get back to that stage again.
"We have to hold the nerve. I was frustrated not to push on [this year]. I was disappointed. And when you don't have a Connacht title to show for the work, maybe that's a fair comment... If anybody feels they can do a better job...
"I didn't promise in 2006 that I'd have an All-Ireland in 2007 or 2008. We all want success...I'm not naïve enough to say that if we'd beaten Tyrone we'd be in the All-Ireland final now. But I would feel that we had enough ball in the fifteen minutes after half-time to win that game. We got no breaks, refereeing or otherwise, but we had the winning of the game in our own hands."
Following this response, a number of delegates suggested that O'Mahony be given an additional three-year term so that he could continue to build a Mayo team for the future.
The Mayo boss was given a round of applause as he left the meeting.

[the Deel Rover]

MAYO manager John O'Mahony confirmed last night that he will be staying on for the third year of his three-year term and will lead Mayo into the 2009 season.
Speaking at a monthly Mayo GAA Board meeting in Castlebar, O'Mahony told club delegates that he "needed to take stock" after the All-Ireland Qualifier defeat to Tyrone. However, he informed Mayo GAA officials last Friday evening that he intended to remain on as Mayo manager.
"I feel we've made progress," he told the assembled delegates. "I said when I took the job that it'd be a challenging job...We're trying to get a real team ethic where everybody works for everybody else. Some players have bought into that more than others, some have fallen along the way...The thing about it is that everybody shares in the success. I felt after the Tyrone match that everybody needed to take stock. I would die happy if I could bring the success we all crave."
After he had finished addressing the delegates, the Mayo manager took questions from the floor on a range of issues and topics, ranging from the closed season to the central positions on the senior team.
Mayo Oifigeach na Gaeilge, Piaras Ó Raghallaigh, suggested that many delegates would have been 'disappointed' with Mayo's progress over the last two seasons.
"Anyone with that view might not have been listening when I took over the team," replied O'Mahony. "I said I had no magic wand. We'd been in four All-Ireland finals without success and what we're looking to do is build a platform to get back to that stage again.
"We have to hold the nerve. I was frustrated not to push on [this year]. I was disappointed. And when you don't have a Connacht title to show for the work, maybe that's a fair comment... If anybody feels they can do a better job...
"I didn't promise in 2006 that I'd have an All-Ireland in 2007 or 2008. We all want success...I'm not naïve enough to say that if we'd beaten Tyrone we'd be in the All-Ireland final now. But I would feel that we had enough ball in the fifteen minutes after half-time to win that game. We got no breaks, refereeing or otherwise, but we had the winning of the game in our own hands."
Following this response, a number of delegates suggested that O'Mahony be given an additional three-year term so that he could continue to build a Mayo team for the future.
The Mayo boss was given a round of applause as he left the meeting.

Is he having a sly dig at Mc D with this comment?

[Barney]

I think this dissection of every little thing that is said just causes too much controversy.

I know the manager is a politician and careful with his words but it is very difficult to consider every single word used, the context within a sentence etc.