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[But the scoring forwards was the foundation..]

I'm not sure about a progression since 2021. Kevin McStay couldn't get it to work.

They were 12/1

They have 3 scoring forwards. 2 of their marquee players are teenagers. Kobe and Beirne could be as good as Linden and McCartan when they are 26. Hopefully Kobe will be back.

They have an excellent management team. Higgins and Boyle are very impressive. So is Tally.

Like Tyrone 21 but also like Derry 93 or Down 91. They had a team that was ready for Croke Park. They broke the mould. They were good enough to beat Kerry.

Their mindset was spot on. Culmination of years of work Rochford and Horan addressed the Mayo psychology when they were managers.

Andy Moran is a great tactician. He was thinking a few steps ahead. He was fearless.

Keith Higgins diary Irish Examiner


As soon as the medical team dropped off the call Andy set off his stall. We were going after Kerry. No holding back. No backward step. No deviation from our principles.
If anything we were going to ramp up.that stuff even more..

They got the crowd behind them. They had an energy source.

They had the right model.
Performance levels on the biggest day.
It all came together. But the scoring forwards was the foundation..

Work rate to win back possession with relentless high pressing was the foundation.  40 phases of play for Mayo and 28 of these came from Kerry possession.

Mayo,Roscommon and Galway all winning All-Ireland titles in Croke Park the last 7 days the west is awake.

If the charts are still on the go you'd think the Saw Doctors will be at number 1 this week.

The Green and Red of Mayo has shot to the top of the Irish Spotify charts.

Written in 1990 after the band had played a festival on Clare Island, off Mayo.

"It was beautiful weather, a cloudless, warm sunny day," Ollie Jennings, the band's manager, told media. "We started writing a poem on the boat with Gerry Mulholland. Davy put music to it, and we had a song shortly afterwards."

Dingles club run really didnt help them. Paul Geaneys fairytale ended in disaster.

Only on the bench to pick up the cup it appears. A fit Brosnan would have been a better option. Given Geaney's age and injury issues that's him surely done with Kerry now.

Diarmuid O'Connor out proved to big loss and for the strength in depth Kerry meant to have they really struggled to get any impact from their subs introduced.

Main downfall was not focusing on the main strengths of Mayo and trying to curb them.  They had the look of a team that thought midfield will be won and the Clifford's,Sean O'Shea will do the rest.

Mayo gave their game plan away against Louth, and it amazes me that Kerry ignored the clues.  Louth sauntered into tackles and lost the ball continuously in the middle third.  I was sure Kerry would kick it long, but they made the same mistakes Mayo did.

Mayo's other obvious tactic was to go for two pointers and Kerry weren't able to adjust to that on the day.

And their substitutions were a mess - O'Sullivan in for O'Connor (big loss) and shipped off again at halftime?  Geaney on the bench but not used- what was the point of that? 
Introduced Evans too early, needed his legs with 15 to go.  Brought off a midfielder when they needed power around the middle?

All very strange. Jack O'Connor has done it all, but didn't seem a good day yesterday for the Kerry sideline.

It was a poor day at the office by Kerry management. Jack O'Connor said the other day he was no longer the manager but observer nowadays.  As you said Mayo showed their hand against Louth but it doesn't appear much if any observing of that game was done by Kerry at all.

It was a bit of shotgun approach on the subs and it made no sense to start Tom O'Sullivan when he had only 40 minutes of championship football under his belt against Clare back in April.

Getting Paul Geaney onto the match day 26 and David Clifford not wear number 13 was more important things to address.

Dingles club run really didnt help them. Paul Geaneys fairytale ended in disaster.

Only on the bench to pick up the cup it appears. A fit Brosnan would have been a better option. Given Geaney's age and injury issues that's him surely done with Kerry now.

Diarmuid O'Connor out proved to big loss and for the strength in depth Kerry meant to have they really struggled to get any impact from their subs introduced.

Main downfall was not focusing on the main strengths of Mayo and trying to curb them.  They had the look of a team that thought midfield will be won and the Clifford's,Sean O'Shea will do the rest.

I still hope goes to Australia.  Too good an opportunity for him to miss from a personal point of view.

I hope he's not swayed by the emotion of yesterdays win and homecoming etc.

He signed a 2 year Category B Rookie contract this past November. He gets a base salary of €68k for his 2 year contract. If he plays any Senior football matches his contract bumps up to €100k.

If it doesn't work out for him he'll back aged 20 with decent money made and great life experience.

Long wait finally over doesn't matter now but a game/final  Mayo should have could have won more comfortably. Team thar defends best won All-Ireland final and Mayos ability to turn over the ball a key trait throughout this campaign, the work rate and wanting it more the big difference.

A perfect send off for Kobe McDonald after that today he might get homesick in Australia? 

Thinking of forner posters on here who died in recent years, a shame they aren't around to have seen that green and red day.

It be McDonald, not overly starring today but he the YPOFY

They'll be breaking their neck to give it to Kobe

Rayn O'D has to be MOTM and in the running for POTY

I'd be amazed if anyone got POTY ahead of O'Donoghue

O'Donoghue excellent again today,  probably the hardest working player in the game at the moment and covers serious milage around the pitch. I agree MOTM today and could well win POTY also.

Mayo better team after first 15. Kerry cant deal with their high press.

Kerry the better team for the opening 24 minutes and leading 1-6 to 0-3

Mayo the better team in the last 11 minutes of the half and outscoring Kerry 0-7 to 0-2.

McNally has been generous with some of the Mayo tackling on the high press.

Mayo have nothing to lose

Yeah nothing apart from All-Ireland final. Why people still use lines such as that and free shots,bonus territory etc when 70 minutes away from winning All-Ireland I'll never know.

This final reminds me of the 2022 final when the odds was similar,Kerry was just as confident and the lads from the west unsure if they would even be competitive.  It turned out to be a fine margin contest with debatable calls late on getting Kerry over the line.  Ryan O'Donoghue is well capable of matching Shane Walsh final display from 4 years ago. Curb his influence then it will be harder for Beirne,McDonald to have a big influence be interesting to see has Jack O'Connor and co have their homework done.

Former Mayo manager Stephen Rochford said in Irish Times no miracle is needed to beat Kerry just need to get the match ups right to win.

Possible match ups?

David McBrien v Séan O'Shea
Donnacha McHugh v David Clifford
Enda Hession v Paudie Clifford
Sam Callinan v Joe O'Connor

Paul Murphy v Darragh Beirne
Jason Foley v Ryan O'Donoghue
Dylan Casey v Kobe McDonald
Gavin White v Jordan Flynn


Whats scored and conceded on turnovers and shooting efficiency will be key as it has been in the majority of matches under these new rule.   Hurling All-Ireland final was poor for the 2nd year in a row hopefully the same doesn't happen with the football final.

Spain was far too controlled in possession and organised for Argentina. The game needed Spain to be leading at half time in normal time to get Argentina away from their set tactics of playing physical and doing SFA else.

Spain scored from their 20th shot on goal while it took 117 minutes for Argentina to get shot on goal was such a feeble effort, as for Messi 54 touches and none in the box.

Wtf is this?

A copy of the Super Bowl half time show but shorter. I doubt we'll see it at the next World Cup.

Poor final but credit to Limerick a super team. That was some respect given to Sligo woman Caroline Currid their psychologist in the after match speech, their form dipped when she was away it shows a lot of the game is played in the head. 

Ultimately England got as far and did as well as expected in this competition. Needing to beat the defending World Cup champions was a bridge too far.

Main downfall for them last night was scoring too early, Argentina was always going to throw their lot at it and it was the 3rd game in a row that England used what we have we hold tactics.

In the end no matter how many defenders England finished games with they haven't been good enough defensively, the defending for the first Argentina goal to give Enzo Fernández that time and room to shoot was poor the 2nd goal was even worse, Messi left completely unmarked to pick out a cross and Lautaro Martínez able to get in the middle of two six foot plus defenders to head home the winner.

Was said reading back on this thread "only a matter of time before England win a major tournament"  I can't see it unless they discover some top quality defenders in the years ahead, at the moment the best defenders in the Premier League aren't English. Need a lot more from their midfield also, with protecting the defence and retaining possession.  Declan Rice might have the excuse of a long season with Arsenal but he looked fairy average throughout this World Cup.

As for the final given the controlling possession game and how organised Spain are defensively it's probably for the best that Argentina take the lead or you could see similar to the Spain v France match.

That Dublin v Kerry game today wasn't at the standard in quality and entertainment of previous championship meetings such as 2022 semi-final,drawn final in 2019, 2016 semi-final and 2013 All-Ireland semi-final.

Nearly always talking points in Dublin v Kerry matches but was far too many today.  How Cawley and his team of officials continues to get so many high profile games is a mystery.

Celebration police are out in force for what David Clifford did after scoring the games final point. Con O'Callaghan not scoring from play a big surprise and it wasn't like Kerry were great defensively matter of fact if they give up that amount of chances to Kobe McDonald,Ryan O'Donoghue and Darragh Beirne they will be more clinical.