Sam Maguire 2024 Group 2 - Dublin, Mayo, Roscommon, Cavan

[Armagh18]

Derry away from home, down to 14 men early and missing a good few starters etc. Mad to think that we could beat them next week which would be their third championship defeat of the year but they could still make an all ireland final.

[tonto1888]

Ulster not as strong as it has been hyped up to be. Both Derry and Cavan put to the sword, and believe me both Galway and Mayo are no great shakes.

Not saying Ulster is as strong as it is hyped up to be but using Cavan is not te best way to make that point

[Itchy]

It was always going to come down to the game with Roscommon, for Cavan, and that hasn't and won't change, but the hope was we'd arrive there without too many scars and some confidence remaining. Who knows now what to expect from them on any given day? We're hideously inconsistent, often within games never mind from one to another, very mentally fragile and too content with moral victories, as shown by leaving a win behind us versus Tyrone. Any small degree of momentum from that is now in shreds. Mayo might not turn out to even be all that good, that's the scary thing, with Dublin waiting to annihilate us in second gear at Breffni - a game supporters will now understandably stay away from in droves? You try not to lapse into too much negativity and I know we've a new manager etc. but with all the gurus and back room geniuses we have, how in the hell did Cavan go out and turn in a dreadful display like that?

Cavan do not have scoring forwards. They had one in Paddy Lynch and he is gone now. The rest remaining are Div3 standard forwards. We then try to set up to run hard from deep but in the case of Mayo and get scrores from midfield and half back, that is where Mayos strengths also lie so we were never going to out run them in that department. I was expecting to be well beaten. Most disappointing for me was the poor show on our own kick outs, even with the wind. That was unforgivable.

Cavan can put it up to a lot of teams but Mayo, Dublin, Kerry - big physical athletic teams, we will not compete with them. Most worrying for us is the total lack of quality coming through at underage (if you go by our results). One win for our U20s this year v Antrim (who were dire) and 2 wins for our Minors against Antrim and Fermanagh. When the Cillian Clarkes, Padraig Faulkners, Gerry Smiths hand up their boots we will be back slumming it in Div 3.

[cavanmaniac]

It was always going to come down to the game with Roscommon, for Cavan, and that hasn't and won't change, but the hope was we'd arrive there without too many scars and some confidence remaining. Who knows now what to expect from them on any given day? We're hideously inconsistent, often within games never mind from one to another, very mentally fragile and too content with moral victories, as shown by leaving a win behind us versus Tyrone. Any small degree of momentum from that is now in shreds. Mayo might not turn out to even be all that good, that's the scary thing, with Dublin waiting to annihilate us in second gear at Breffni - a game supporters will now understandably stay away from in droves? You try not to lapse into too much negativity and I know we've a new manager etc. but with all the gurus and back room geniuses we have, how in the hell did Cavan go out and turn in a dreadful display like that?

Cavan can put it up to a lot of teams but Mayo, Dublin, Kerry - big physical athletic teams, we will not compete with them. Most worrying for us is the total lack of quality coming through at underage (if you go by our results). One win for our U20s this year v Antrim (who were dire) and 2 wins for our Minors against Antrim and Fermanagh. When the Cillian Clarkes, Padraig Faulkners, Gerry Smiths hand up their boots we will be back slumming it in Div 3.

I hope you're wrong but couldn't make a convincing case right now. Underage has gone to shite altogether but isn't helped by honorary/name recognition appointments like Larry at U20, who anyone could see from his club management efforts would bring little bar an outdated, infuriating blanket defence and the usual robotic over-thinking. He'll be still there next year, I presume? If Damien Donohoe did reasonably well there the years before, why not leave him at it? Or at least make a considered choice instead of just lazily going for the ex-county legend.

Minors fared marginally better this year but as always the good news of a very commendable display against Tyrone is tainted by the age-old failing of not being able to take the win that was there to be taken, and losing composure when victory beckoned. It doesn't happen with such regularity to other counties; these moral victories all speak to ingrained mental fragility in our players but at least Seanie Smith seemed to be aware of as much in his post match comments - the first step to fixing a problem being awareness it exists and all that, which is not something you see a lot of acknowledgement of from other county board figures.

[Blowitupref]

Mayo have confirmed captain Paddy Durcan has suffered a cruciate ligament injury, ruling him out for the remainder of the year.

[JoG2]

Mayo have confirmed captain Paddy Durcan has suffered a cruciate ligament injury, ruling him out for the remainder of the year.

Brutal.. A long road back

[Cunny Funt]

Awful news for Paddy Durcan hopefully a full recovery for him.  If one to name the top 15 to 20 players in the country at the moment arguably only two Mayo players (Paddy Durcan and Ryan O'Donoghue ) would be in the conversation.

 

[Armagh18]

Sorry to read that, big fan of his and a massive blow to Mayo. Wishing him a full and speedy recovery.