Mayo V Kerry semi final

[ballinaman]

Slightly distubing to hear David Brady on Newstalk this evening describing Colm Cooper as a "class piece of ass".

Classic piece of radio. Man DB

[saffronandblue]

Everyone seems to be very happy with the progress that Mayo have made this year and I would be satisfied up to a point with how things have gone.  I am going to throw a few points out there now that are a little more negative just for debates sake.

In 1997 we were beaten by one man, Maurice Fitzgerald whos marker was left unchanged for the game....15 years of giving off about Maughan and now we have a game where we were beaten by the great Gooch who was given a free run until the last 8 minutes when his marker was changed, what were the people on the line looking at??

The kickout policy was a disaster and no change was made at half time.  We were getting cleaned out of it and still our own kick out policy continued right up to the bitter end.

We had a number of subs who were never ever, ever, ever, ever going to see game time yesterday.  I can think of two of my own club men who are some way ahead of some of the listed subs, but management thinks otherwise.

Telling players that it was a fifty fifty call that they would be on the subs list for the game and then informing them by TEXT that they were out, is very poor form, in fact its disgraceful, shame on management for this one.

I wish for Horan to continue as he seems to be able to get the players to work hard, but he must not become a second Maughan, who was too stubborn to make changes or to pick certain players.

[Farrandeelin]

Who? Killer and Howley is it? TBH Killer hasn't done much of note this year. Nor last year either.

[Bomber2312]

Ah come off it, gettin a text message is grand, what do u expect, him to travel down to each lads house and hold them in his arms while he breaks the bad news? This i imagine would have been the policy all year so i dont think we should be complaining just because it we lost. I did question why Gibbons was named, dont know if he was really gonna offer anything, however which players did you think aside from him werent gonna get onto the pitch?
also i would have had feeney off alot earlier, o leary gave the gooch two or three great balls which when he's gettin the ball there he cant be stopped. Didnt think trevor actually did too bad either

[saffronandblue]

Ah come off it, gettin a text message is grand, what do u expect, him to travel down to each lads house and hold them in his arms while he breaks the bad news? This i imagine would have been the policy all year so i dont think we should be complaining just because it we lost. I did question why Gibbons was named, dont know if he was really gonna offer anything, however which players did you think aside from him werent gonna get onto the pitch?

We lost because we are not good enough, thats the simple answer.  Picking up the phone to talk to a player is not driving all around the county.  The following  subs were never going to save the day IMO and in managements opinion.....

17) Alan Feeney - Castlebar Mitchels
18) Dermot Geraghty - Shrule-Glencorrib
19) Chris Barrett - Belmullet
21) James Kilcullen - Ballaghaderreen
23) Jason Gibbons
26) Mark Ronaldson - Shrule-Glencorrib

I might as well have included Keegan and Campbell in this as well.  I believe that Ronaldson was out of the picture some months ago but was brought back for what?? He was never going to be played by Horan for some reason.  I also believe that managment had lost faith in Alan Feeney.  The rest are just not good enough IMO, and in managment opinion I believe.

[moysider]

I mentioned the interview the other evening with Jack O Connor stirring his tea and not a care in the world. As content a man as you could hope to see and it s easy now to see why. He had his homework done. He was happy he had Mayo sussed and as was evident yesterday his team was coming to the boil nicely.
I think it was Darragh O Sé that said that O Connor targets the opposition's strengths. Not their percieved weakness. It makes sense. Strengths win games while weakness only lose games. Jack O Se identified Mayo s strengths as midfield, Dillon and Andy Moran. I d suspect Jack O Connor had come to the same conclusion last few weeks and planned from there.
Our kick outs were targeted and ate alive ( he would have noted the Roscommon won a lot of our kickouts) with the big half back men pushing up for the breaks. With Kevin McLoughlin deeper we were hopelessly hammered and outnumbered there. On their own kickouts they took no chances and went short to the spare man. The ideal, calm dry conditions helped them move from defense to attack. Their kick passing is on the money. If ever we need a squall...... So they monopolised possession from the start. To have a chance yesterday it was Mayo that should have owned the ball.
By pushing his half backs up his 3 markers were left to their own devices. Tom O Sullivan came to terms with Varley after 20 mins and that was a turning point. O Connor trusted his best defender on Andy once he went inside. Good management. Others might have made a switch when Andy was so on his game, but he knew that Marc was the best man for the job - and with Andy doing well he did a good job. O Sé limited the damage as much as anybody could. He stayed on his feet and tried to push Moran wide and onto his weaker foot any time he got possession. We could have done with 2 Andys yesterday as he was needed on breaks as well. The Kerry back three being able to cope was a big factor in Kerry taking control after 20 mins. 5 points without reply was ominous.
  Dillon wasn t givin an inch and not allowed any time to have an influence on the match. So 2 of O Connor's objectives were realised. Midfield possession and Dillons influence. Andy did well on probably the best defender last 10 years. Still 2 from 3 is not bad. With Mayo damaged where they were expecting to have an advantage O Connor would have been confident that they had enough quality in the forwards to get the scores.
Could we have done anything about it? I dunno. Looking at the subs lst at half time there wasn t a lot jumping out. Here we are suffering for the no-show of the last 4 years. Management has done well but you can t go from losing to Longford to beating kerry in an AI semi just like that. While we have good players and shape we just don t have enough depth in quality in the squad yet. Ronan and Peadar have been used to close games out. Not to change a game. We had nobody to make an impact. Ronan for Seamus O Sé was just one midfielder for another. Maybe Ronan could have been brought on earlier and Seamus left on too. We just needed more size in the middle third where we were losing the physical battle. Maybe a James Kilcullen to batter it out with Brosnan or O Mahoney. Looking at it from the Davin end I thought the Kerry corner backs looked too comfortable after 20 mins. Maybe we could have asked them different questions then. I thought we needed Freemans pace inside and I would have thrown in Aidan O Sé for a while too. Anyway it is all acedemic now and in no way a criticism of management. I m sure several possibilities were going through their heads and you go with what you believe is best and they know their players so....
As I said yesterday there is gulf between ourselves and Kerry. I don t think there is much difference in preparation and application anymore. But they are years ahead of us in most resourses like experience, team building, strength and conditioning. These can be rectified with time and hard work. There is also a gulf in skill levels and quality. Simply put they have more better players now. But that doesn t mean that s always going to be the way. They re still in a golden era, and for them a golden era, is a very richly talented place to be.
Anyway there is no point dwelling on Kerry too much. Next year we need to strengthen the panel and get back to the quarters at least. Front door or back door, it doesn t matter. Only by doing that can we build and compete with the best.
We need to find a few players. Too many of our subs yesterday looked like 'injury only' subs. If we are to go to another level I m not sure everybody that started yesterday either are good enough. But we can expect a good improvement from these players for next year. Off the top of my head 2 injured players - Harte and Howley - would have enjoyed yerterday s game. If we can add in 2 or 3 quality players over next couple of years we should be able to crank it up another level.

[nephinman]

Well over 24 hrs on from our defeat, it aint hurting as bad as last night. Both perspective & hope came my way this evening to see a Mayo selector out coaching his clubs underage team.

Thinking about it now I feel we need a good competetive run in of the senior & intermediate championship.

After that we again have to aim to be back in an AI QF or S-final within the next 1 - 2 years. Kerry seem to know that instinctively, cork, tyrone and now the dubs have learned that. A decent team like Monaghan, who to be fair put it up to kerry for @ 2 years have fallen back after not making an positive statement at these latter stages. Heard D Brady saying this evening you learn a lot from S-Final defeats. Hope thats the case.

Look, we were whipped on the scoreboard I have to conceed, but I still cant believe were beaten by 9 points. All credit to the Ross minors & no offence meant but even though they lost by 2-3 points you got the feeling they were whipped.

Anyway we ll move on and watch how 2011 plays out. Time for tea.

Nephinman 

[ballinaman]

Ah come off it, gettin a text message is grand, what do u expect, him to travel down to each lads house and hold them in his arms while he breaks the bad news? This i imagine would have been the policy all year so i dont think we should be complaining just because it we lost. I did question why Gibbons was named, dont know if he was really gonna offer anything, however which players did you think aside from him werent gonna get onto the pitch?

We lost because we are not good enough, thats the simple answer.  Picking up the phone to talk to a player is not driving all around the county.  The following  subs were never going to save the day IMO and in managements opinion.....

17) Alan Feeney - Castlebar Mitchels
18) Dermot Geraghty - Shrule-Glencorrib
19) Chris Barrett - Belmullet
21) James Kilcullen - Ballaghaderreen
23) Jason Gibbons
26) Mark Ronaldson - Shrule-Glencorrib

I might as well have included Keegan and Campbell in this as well.  I believe that Ronaldson was out of the picture some months ago but was brought back for what?? He was never going to be played by Horan for some reason.  I also believe that managment had lost faith in Alan Feeney.  The rest are just not good enough IMO, and in managment opinion I believe.

Thought Keegan held his own when he came on and scored a decent point. With Gardiner injured, thought he did well.

[Bomber2312]

Ah come off it, gettin a text message is grand, what do u expect, him to travel down to each lads house and hold them in his arms while he breaks the bad news? This i imagine would have been the policy all year so i dont think we should be complaining just because it we lost. I did question why Gibbons was named, dont know if he was really gonna offer anything, however which players did you think aside from him werent gonna get onto the pitch?

We lost because we are not good enough, thats the simple answer.  Picking up the phone to talk to a player is not driving all around the county.  The following  subs were never going to save the day IMO and in managements opinion.....

17) Alan Feeney - Castlebar Mitchels
18) Dermot Geraghty - Shrule-Glencorrib
19) Chris Barrett - Belmullet
21) James Kilcullen - Ballaghaderreen
23) Jason Gibbons
26) Mark Ronaldson - Shrule-Glencorrib

I might as well have included Keegan and Campbell in this as well.  I believe that Ronaldson was out of the picture some months ago but was brought back for what?? He was never going to be played by Horan for some reason.  I also believe that managment had lost faith in Alan Feeney.  The rest are just not good enough IMO, and in managment opinion I believe.

So essentially we had no one on the bench that was gonna play a positive role? out of interest who would have been on your bench?

[moysider]

Who? Killer and Howley is it? TBH Killer hasn't done much of note this year. Nor last year either.

Howley would be thereabouts if he wasn t injured so much. Sure he captained the team in a match in spring. They obviously made a decision about the other one for a reason.

[Jinxy]

Where's the lad Kilcoyne these days?
He'd be a big addition to that forward line.

[saffronandblue]

Ah come off it, gettin a text message is grand, what do u expect, him to travel down to each lads house and hold them in his arms while he breaks the bad news? This i imagine would have been the policy all year so i dont think we should be complaining just because it we lost. I did question why Gibbons was named, dont know if he was really gonna offer anything, however which players did you think aside from him werent gonna get onto the pitch?

We lost because we are not good enough, thats the simple answer.  Picking up the phone to talk to a player is not driving all around the county.  The following  subs were never going to save the day IMO and in managements opinion.....

17) Alan Feeney - Castlebar Mitchels
18) Dermot Geraghty - Shrule-Glencorrib
19) Chris Barrett - Belmullet
21) James Kilcullen - Ballaghaderreen
23) Jason Gibbons
26) Mark Ronaldson - Shrule-Glencorrib

I might as well have included Keegan and Campbell in this as well.  I believe that Ronaldson was out of the picture some months ago but was brought back for what?? He was never going to be played by Horan for some reason.  I also believe that managment had lost faith in Alan Feeney.  The rest are just not good enough IMO, and in managment opinion I believe.

So essentially we had no one on the bench that was gonna play a positive role? out of interest who would have been on your bench?

I believe that Moysider has expressed my view of the subs a lot better than I could have done myself.

[moysider]

Where's the lad Kilcoyne these days?
He'd be a big addition to that forward line.

How's that?

[Jinxy]

He's fast and direct.
At least he was last time I saw him.

[Farrandeelin]

Was being the key word there jinxy I'm afraid. He's dropped because he hasn't recaptured his form of 2/3 years ago in my opinion.