Might as well move away from the Connacht Final thread.
As Kevin McStay said on Newstalk last night this talk of not being up for the Qualifiers is nonsense. To paraphrase him - have we won several All Irelands that we do not know about? Come Wednesday or Thursday the lads should stop feeling sorry for themselves and dust themselves down and get on with the next game. If they are as near to Galway as Sunday showed then why not give it a lash? To do otherwise is to disrespect the Mayo jersey.
So lads dust ourselves down because this Summer ain't over yet. Stick with the lads, constructive criticism only and sure we may be playing the Tribesmen again in a few weeks.
Our record isn't as bad as we make out in the Qualifiers:
2001 - Round 3 lost to Westmeath
2002 - Lost first round in Connacht and won all three qualifiers. Beaten by Cork in Quarter-Finals.
2003 - Round 3 lost to Fermanagh.
2005 - beat Cavan in Round 3, beaten by Kerry in Qualifier.
2007 - beat Cavan but lost to Derry.
So it is P8 W5 L3. 2 out of 5 times we have reached the Quarters throught the qualifiers.
I think wide-scale changes to the team is not the way to go, just tinkering. We have made out 2008 bed and we may as well sleep in it and see where we land.
As Kevin McStay said on Newstalk last night this talk of not being up for the Qualifiers is nonsense. To paraphrase him - have we won several All Irelands that we do not know about? Come Wednesday or Thursday the lads should stop feeling sorry for themselves and dust themselves down and get on with the next game. If they are as near to Galway as Sunday showed then why not give it a lash? To do otherwise is to disrespect the Mayo jersey.
So lads dust ourselves down because this Summer ain't over yet. Stick with the lads, constructive criticism only and sure we may be playing the Tribesmen again in a few weeks.
Our record isn't as bad as we make out in the Qualifiers:
2001 - Round 3 lost to Westmeath
2002 - Lost first round in Connacht and won all three qualifiers. Beaten by Cork in Quarter-Finals.
2003 - Round 3 lost to Fermanagh.
2005 - beat Cavan in Round 3, beaten by Kerry in Qualifier.
2007 - beat Cavan but lost to Derry.
So it is P8 W5 L3. 2 out of 5 times we have reached the Quarters throught the qualifiers.
I think wide-scale changes to the team is not the way to go, just tinkering. We have made out 2008 bed and we may as well sleep in it and see where we land.