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

[Lar Naparka]

This implosion under pressure must be a coaching thing, I agree fully with James Horans opinion that lads will always go back to their comfort zone (bad habits) when hard questions are asked and that is what our lads do.

Powerful stuff, OM; now you’re suckin’ diesel!

I’ll go further and say that the quality of posts on this thread is as good as any I’ve ever come across. There is one hell of a lot of loyal and concerned Mayo posters out there.
James Horan is spot on with his analysis. If in doubt, players will always press the panic button and pass the buck on to someone else. James was as cool a man, under pressure or not, that ever wore the green and red.
What he says about players’ reactions when the pressure is on should be listened to.
When the adrenalin is pumping and the crowd is roaring a player has enough to do staying focussed. The thought of making an ass of himself or of being hauled off in full view of his family and friends in front of the whole nation would be enough to buckle the best of them.
Maybe that’s a little bit dramatic to armchair critics like me but not to some young lad out there under match conditions.

Experienced players can stay cool. They keep their nerves and follow a well-rehearsed game plan. Those without firm directions from the sidelines panic and run about like headless chickens.
Galway and later Tyrone were to keep the cool and tried to play out of trouble when Mayo put the pressure on. Both succeeded.

O’Mahony didn’t make panic a keystone of his coaching; it was there long before he took over. But he has done nothing to eradicate it either. Credit is due to the man for organising the backs to cope with Tyrone’s attack. This was a big improvement over the Galway game. Unfortunately, he seemed to run out of creativity from there onwards.
Why was Tom Parsons up front taking pot shots at goal? The likes of Mick O’Dwyer would have hauled him out to his selected position. He played very well indeed whenever he found himself there.
OM makes a valid point also about BJ and Andy dropping back to help out the defence. Who let them fall back time after time?
A manager cannot be expected to make silk purses outa sows’ ears; he can only make best use of what he’s got.  For me, Johnno got the order of things wrong and tried to do things the wrong way around.
Maybe he didn’t have many silk purses to start with but he sure produced a lot of sows’ ears!
At our present rate of progress we could be serious contenders for the Tommy Murphy yet.

[kevmy]

Fair enough that we aren't making the best of the players we have at our disposal and the management has to take some of the blame for that but we shouldn't over-react either. We improved this year - slightly and slowly I'll grant you and not as much as we should have - but we still improved. Last year we got hammered by a very mediocre Galway team and then put in one of the most abject performances I've ever seen from a Mayo team against Derry. This year we lost by a point to an improving Galway team and by a point to Tyrone with our forwards playing badly (but we had fairly good performances from 1-9).

So none of this Tommy Murphy/ we'll end up like Cavan talk, simple fact is we underperformed. We have players and management who are both capable of doing better (I wouldn't see AI's for another couple of years anyway but we can certainly improve). We were not outclassed by Galway or by Tyrone, some poor decisions got us here but decision making can improve. We have the guts of a good young team and they can improve.

I have been a bit disappointed by Johnno and I think he has gone too far with his poor mouth act and dropping Mac at the juncture he did was a mistake. Having said that he is still a good, proven, intercounty manager. I don't think anyone next year could swoop in and do a Micky Moran on this team so incremental improvement is what we're aiming for. Give Johnno another year of team building and then let someone else have another crack if he hasn't made it by then.

[OirthearMhaigheo]

I agree kevmy, Johnno is still the best man for the job  and IMO should see out his 3rd year if he wants to. When I mentioned the coaching issues I didn't mean the current senior team mgt/coaches. They are inheriting lads with bad habits, I really think it is a fundamental thing that has to be looked at and the way our underage teams are being taught. It is very hard to hold a 25 year olds hand in croke park and make him put his toe under the ball when picking it up or asking him to stick his head up and not solo a ball to death but a 14 year old might listen a bit easier. As I said earlier, we have more talent than most and with some new introductions next year we might improve further. Unforunately, the holy grail seems a good distance away at the moment.

[shakermaker]

Long time reader of the board but I thought I'd register to enter my two cents on our latest setback.

Where do you start?

The simple things to start with that any County can take on board to improve/stop leaking points.......

1)  O'Mahony or whoever comes in to replace him has to get rid of this hand passing around your goal mouth.  When under pressure or in danger kick.  That cost us a few points on Saturday and to watch us dig our own graves by doing something as stupid bewildered me.

2)  Never EVER pick up a ball off the ground.  Heaney in the 52nd minute was put through by Billy Joe in acres of space and he picked the ball up straight off the ground.  What happened next?  Tyrone went up the other end and scored.  It would be tolerable if it was the only occasion but we must have done it 4/5 times.  Schoolboy errors which cost us territory which in turn probably cost us points.

The more difficult stuff

3) We need to identify hard men/leaders if any exist.  For too long now we are outmuscled and outfought when the going gets tough.  Tyrone hunted in three's and fought with a ferocity that I envied watching on.  I don't question the players committment but how I wished for a David Brady or K O'Neill out there.  Someone who could whisper into Parson's ear after he missed a couple of points, somebody to inspire the youngest members of the panel.  Who have we got to do that role at this moment in time?

4) We're also too soft as a GAA County - we're not street smart for the likes of Kerry and Tyrone.  They bully us off the ball, waste time e.g. tie their shoe laces to eat up time, moan at the ref etc........all the cynical things that infuriate me as a spectator - yet if we had a 1 point lead in injury time could you see us playing those kind of tricks?  No we'd start hand passing near our own gk.  We also need to develop a winning mentality, be headstrong and confident so when the pressure mounts up we're able to cope and not implode.

5)  Find some players with a bit of height.  For a game that involves hitting high balls into the air our front 3 are a little on the short side.  I'd love to see at least 1 forward with a bit of stature and height up there so that our MF and backs can bomb the ball forward instead of having to hand pass it.  Parsons did a fine job on Saturday and won plenty of ball in the middle of the pitch but wished we moved him up the field a lot sooner.

6)  Call up MAC.  

[RedandGreenSniper]

The issue of coaching is an interesting issue. Certainly we have a problem with a lot of our players unable to pass and kick off their weaker sides. It is an issue that we need to address but how to do so?

When players come into county development/minor/Under 21's there is an assumption that they can do all these things. Often they can't and the county coaches have to waste valuable time teaching them a few basics.

I think some of the onus falls back on the clubs to ensure players from Under 10's up are well versed in the rudiments of the game but there can be problems here too. A lot of trainers aren't terribly great coaches, they are willing but not very able and a club only has limited resources. But if a club coaching officer can oversee these sort of things being worked on then I think we would see a level of progress.

But a lot of the responsibility falls back to the players themselves. I've been involved with underage teams in the last few years (and when a few years before when I was underage meself) and I've ran and participated in drills that work on kick-passing and hand-passing, initially off your good side and then off your bad side.

There tends to be two types of attitudes from players in these drills. One type will just be trying to get through it without slicing the ball in four directions of the pitch and will laugh when he does so. The second will be concentrating, trying to use the right technique and cursing himself when he mis-directs the ball. The second type will be the lad who will be kicking off his bad side in a pre-match kick-around and he'll be the lad that will be able to kick successfully off his bad side when he has to in a match. The first type, if he has to kick off his bad foot in a game, will send a hail mary up in the air.

So I think an awful lot comes back to the attitude of the players. Do they care enough to toil away working on their bad foot when most of their teammates won't do that? But if we can convince enough lads how vital it is, then this might start to change.

If we look at the current Mayo team how many ambidexterous lads have we? Alan Dillon is excellent in this regard. So is Billy Padden. Tom Parsons is reasonably good off his bad side and will get better. Jimmy Nallen and Trevor Mortimer are both very confident hand-passing off either side and their kick-passing isn't bad either. But after that I think we've an awful lot of one footed players and it is very easy to wrap these type of players up.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Welcome shakermaker, good first post

3) We need to identify hard men/leaders if any exist.  For too long now we are outmuscled and outfought when the going gets tough.  Tyrone hunted in three's and fought with a ferocity that I envied watching on.  I don't question the players committment but how I wished for a David Brady or K O'Neill out there.  Someone who could whisper into Parson's ear after he missed a couple of points, somebody to inspire the youngest members of the panel.  Who have we got to do that role at this moment in time?

4

This is a huge problem for us. Brady and O'Neill are massive losses in a motivational sense. McDonald from a point of view of grace under pressure. Jimmy Nallen is probably going to go as well. So too might Heaney and Aidan Higgins. That leaves us very, very short of leaders. I think there can be a distinction between leaders and hard men and I think we're lacking in both. Leaders wise Dillon, McGarrity, Conor Mort, Keith Higgins have to step up to the mark.
In terms of hard men/enforcers, we've been lacking a sufficient amount of these since the likes of Colm McManamon, Ray Dempsey, Noel Connelly et al stepped aside. The only two I think we have at the minute who definitely have their names on starting jerseys for 2009 are the two Trevors - Mortimer and Howley. On the panel Seamus O'Shea is made of the right stuff in this regard but who else is out there?
If we look at the top club teams they have enforcers. Crossmolina have Enda Lavelle, Henry McLoughlin, Mark Leonard; Ballaghaderreen have James Kilcullen; Charlestown have Ginger Tiernan and Aidan Higgins. I'm not sure if any of these that aren't already in are of the required talent. Maybe JOM will unearth some from further down the ranks but I won't hold my breath on this one.

A lot of the same applies to points four and five you make. We need to know how to be able to close out games etc. I'm not sure about tall players though. If we can get a strong ball winner at 14 I'd be happy - Trevor Mortimer imo. But it should be a lot easier to work on the type of balls that NEEDS to go into the full-forward line rather than throwing in tall lads just because lads out the field haven't the brains to work out that high ball on top of Conor Mortimer is about as useful as Trevor Welsh's grasp of GAA players.

[the Deel Rover]

Is o' mahony for real there he is for the past 2 years telling all the mayo fans that our expectations have to be realastic and in 1 sentence he goes and says that he will walk away if there is somone better out there that can win the Ai
For f**k sake less of the Bullshit John  this coming from a man that has won 2 of his six championship games mayo supporters don't expect to win the Ai but we do expect progress and from what i can see its backward steps that we are taking. So if you do stay on for the year stop taking us like fools and concentrate fully on the job in hand.

Found that statemet amazing myself as you said he has been dampning our expectations the past two years and then he comes out with a statement like that. As regards whether he stays or goes well he really has to stay otherwise he will be going against all that he has been preaching for the past two years  saying that he is building for the future   (his 1st mistake imo he should be playing his bext players available and he clearly not been doing this)  I myself am not too optomistic about the next few years for mayo football as a lot of you said we could be loosing the likes of Jimmy , Aidan Higgins and maybe David Heaney next year so its going to be very difficult to find replacements for these lads a lot has been said about the Ai winning under 21 team but to be honest i think that the best of that team are allready in the squad . i was thinking last night that things could have been very different this year if it wasn't for the Fecking Aussies, Injuries, and the management weren't so quick to write of Ciaran Mc imagine a team from midfield up of

                                                             Tom Parsons ----   Ronan Mc Garrity

                                            Pat Harte                     Pearse Hanley                      Alan Dillon

                                           Conor Mortimer                       Ciaran Mc                  Trevor Mortimer
we can only dream                            

[Uladh]

Without having read all of your impressive looking analysis lads, could i offer a very simple solution to your woes?

Stop Tom Parsons from shooting.

[the Deel Rover]

Without having read all of your impressive looking analysis lads, could i offer a very simple solution to your woes?

Stop Tom Parsons from shooting.

In fairness to Tom Uladh it was not like him he is usually fairly accurate he buried us in a club quatrer final last year scoring 3 or 4 points from play. It was his 1st game in Croke Parke and i'm sure his was nervous what i liked about him the last day was at least he had the balls to shoot again even after the earlier misses he hadn't a lot of options inside and he is definatley going to be one of our main players over the next few years

[Davitt Man]

Without having read all of your impressive looking analysis lads, could i offer a very simple solution to your woes?

Stop Tom Parsons from shooting.

Thats bull blaming parsons, the young lad 20yrs of age stepped up this year in his madien c\ship and played very well which cannot be said for his captain McGarrity who has been really poor this year. He will be a future all-star

[Lar Naparka]

You cannot blame all our woes on Tom's poor shooting. There are worse than him around who are expected to have more expertise where it comes to accuracy than a young and largely untried midfielder.
I honestly feel he was the best player in his sector but he would have served the cause better if he had remained there instead of moving up forward. He was over-anxious and inexperienced and was only doing his best. He is a find for the future; make no mistake about that.
But, going back to James Horan's point; players under pressure will not react wisely unless they have very clear instructions. At the same time you had forwards dropping back to the defence to try and get possession.
All concerned were doing their damndest but were only contributing to the genera confusion.
They should have been given a clear game plan, where everyone would know where he should be and what he should be doing.

[stephenite]

Without having read all of your impressive looking analysis lads, could i offer a very simple solution to your woes?

Stop Tom Parsons from shooting.

Thats bull blaming parsons, the young lad 20yrs of age stepped up this year in his madien c\ship and played very well which cannot be said for his captain McGarrity who has been really poor this year. He will be a future all-star

Might be a tad harsh on Ronan there also - thankfully I've never had never had to overcome the rigours of chemotherapy myself but I'd imagine it's not too easy. Perhaps Ronan and management put too much store on his recovery, however I feel Ronan has a hell of a lot to offer Mayo in the future.
Maybe the responsibility of captaincy didn't suit him, I don't know.

However Uladh has a valid point, doesn't matter whether Parson's is 20 or 30, at this level if you can't kick simple points in Croke Park you're in trouble long term, he did good but hardly stands up when compared with McGarrity's maiden year in '04 when Sean Cavanagh robbed either him or William Kirby of an All Star

I feel a lot of it goes back to proper coaching as mentioned earlier, shooting at the wrong time etc.

Personally I think either Ronan or Tom won't prosper until there is a dog in the ilk of DB beside them to do the grunt/defensive/skelping/dirty job.

I wouldn't be blaming either

[Uladh]

Didn't realise parsons was so young. however...

at that level of football there must come a time whenever, having kicked 3 or 4 easy wides, a player must take stock and say to himself "let me get the ball into the scoring forward's hands here".

[the Deel Rover]

[put too much store on his recovery, however I feel Ronan has a hell of a lot to offer Mayo in the future.

However Uladh has a valid point, doesn't matter whether Parson's is 20 or 30, at this level if you can't kick simple points in Croke Park you're in trouble long term, he did good but hardly stands up when compared with McGarrity's maiden year in '04 when Sean Cavanagh robbed either him or William Kirby of an All Star

I feel a lot of it goes back to proper coaching as mentioned earlier, shooting at the wrong time etc.

The thing about parsons is that he is normally well able to take those scores he scored 2 against sligo as for the future i think he will be well able to do a bit of sledging when needs must. he spent last summer in Boston i think before coming back to play for charlestown and he seriously bulked up he is the main man for Charlestown and can only get better.
Valid point about Mc Garrity as weel stephenite as you said last year he was having treatment for cancer so maybe he came back too early for the rigours of intecounty football.

[Maradona]

Almost a week after another dismal end in Croker!
Most of our failings have been well highlighted here....lack of players / lack of stature / lack of forwards / lack of killer instinct / lack of leadership / lack of skill / poor management
All of these in a way are the reasons we fail to achieve. I am loathe to criticize players and management too much because in fairness it is very easy to criticize while sitting on your backside.

In summary my opinion of this season is:
- we really don't have enough raw talent at the moment. I believe this comes in 7-10 year cycles
- same old failings persist
- I have no doubt management have tried their best this season, but I am generally disappointed with whet JOM has brought to the set-up. As I said I don't think we have the talent at present, but I thought at least JOM would bring more fight / level of effort / cuteness into the set up and even if we were loosing, you might feel we were progressing. I clearly feel that none of this has been achieved. Particularly disappointing (esp. after watching the intensity of Monaghan v Kerry on Sunday) that our effort was pedestrian at best. As has often been said before, how much starvation do Mayo need to not have an almighty hunger? Again, I am mindful of being too critical, but there was clearly not enough hunger shown there on Saturday. Indeed I agree it was drummed into us before the match not to expect too much, it was clear among the fans before the match that we would not expect too much, and sure that is what we got! What do we expect?! I have a lot of time for JOM, but this is NOT the attitude to be in during a Championship, re-building or no re-building. I am of the mind, as another poster says here, you should enter EVERY championship expecting to win the title, otherwise forget it.

However, having said all that, and as I said before, I believe the problem in Mayo is a fundamental one and much more deep-rooted. Yes, we all want a quick fix, that is human nature, but until all concerned relaise that a top-down, root & branch analysis of the Mayo football set-up needs to be carried out and proper laid plans put in place to almost GUARANTEE future success, then we will be facing the same disappointment year on year.

I truly believe that our youngsters coming up through the ranks are not being properly coached. I have nephews playing underage in mayo and they will tell you this. They are also playing hurling, and they are getting much more one-to-one skills coaching than in football. One only has to attend underage club and county games to witness that coaching is deficient. Frustrating and sad that you can see all the raw material there but lacking in the coaching and temperament. Sure its no wonder that in fairness, all our best talent over the years have been somewhat flawed.

There is a general tendency I believe to allow the stand-out youngsters progress as if they 'have the talent' whilst the others 'make up the 15 on the team. No player has all the natural talent to make it to the very top, all you have is very good raw-material. Every player should be made perfect what they are good at and improve where they are deficient but also as important, hone their temperament and set-out aspirations and what it means and is expected when playing for their club and county. We also rely too heavily on the stand-out players through the under age teams - a player who is considered average at U-14 or U-16 can be a different specimen altogether at 20. I think this is one of our main issues...if these guys are not also properly coached at an early stage, they will in particular loose interest or initiative and their potential will forever be lost. Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe some of the present Kerry team, particularly up to No.9 were likely what one would consider ordinary 'good' players underage, certainly no better that their Mayo counterparts at that age, however I think a lot of them look like they have been selected based on physique and coached extensively in the basic art of defending and doing the simple things right.

Of course there are good coaches and good coaching going on throughout the county, but unless it is consistent and part of a master plan, then we will never really see the benefits at senior county level, no matter who is manager.

We focus here pretty much on the senior team, but the reality is that our under age teams mirror the deficiencies and under-achievement at senior level - that stands to reason. I believe our U21 team of 06 made great use of what talent they had and showed a great will to win that brought them through to success. However, I honestly believe 1 year later, we had one of the best U21 teams I ever saw, however we failed miserably v Laois in the AI Semi.

Easier said than done, but if we could only get together a collective plan together among all the clubs, under-age county teams, colleges and develop a coaching and development charter that all signed up to with the ultimate goal of success for 'Club Mayo', then I think we would almost guarantee future success. Most frustrating is that something like this was unveiled some 4-5 years ago to great fan-fair, only to be later scrapped. We might be reaping the benefits now if it was committed to. But if there is a will, there will be a way.... please god!