Mayo v Roscommon - Connacht SFC Semi-Final, June 20, Venue TBC

[stephenite]

I was told that the decision to go for the blue seats was taken because they don't fade as fast as green or red seats.

While I'm not an expert in seats - that sounds like complete bollocks to me

[the Deel Rover]

I was told that the decision to go for the blue seats was taken because they don't fade as fast as green or red seats.

While I'm not an expert in seats - that sounds like complete bollocks to me

agree with ya stephenite once again a half arsed job by the county board  can't see too many rushing out to buy tickets for that stand imagine if ya got a seat behing one of the pillars you would be well pleased 

[the Deel Rover]

John says: Keep The Faith 
Tuesday, 16 June 2009 


3rd time lucky


John O'Mahony is aware of what needs to be done this summer

Interview
Mike Finnerty

Friday, JUNE 5
AS darkness fell on Garrymore GAA Club ten days ago, John O'Mahony had plenty to mull over as he pointed his car for home.
It was after 10pm when he drove along the quiet boreens that led him back towards Claremorris, thinking about Mayo's four-point defeat to Louth in a challenge match. He thought about the individual displays, the collective attitude, and the injury to David Clarke. He also thought about the performance. Always the performance.
There were two weeks remaining to the Connacht semi-final and he had watched twenty-four players audition for a role against Roscommon. Some tough decisions would have to be made.

Sunday, JUNE 6
THE clock was ticking towards 5am on Sunday morning when John O'Mahony, TD, left the Count Centre in the TF Royal Hotel & Theatre in Castlebar.
By the time the Fine Gael deputy slipped out of the Ruby Room, his party had taken six of the ten seats that were up for grabs in the Claremorris and Swinford electoral area. It had been a long day, but a good one too. Sleep would come easy.

Monday, JUNE 8
WHEN John O'Mahony woke up at home in Tower House, Ballaghaderreen he was 56 years old. Twenty-one years had passed since he first managed a Mayo team in the Connacht senior championship.
Since then, he has led three different counties to five Connacht titles and inspired Galway to two All-Irelands. The years had gone by in a blur; 1989, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2001... It was his birthday, but there was very little time to celebrate.

Wednesday, JUNE 10
It was shortly after 11am when John O'Mahony walked through the door of Buswells Hotel in Dublin, across the road from Dáil Eireann. He was dressed smartly in a navy suit with a red tie and looked every inch the public representative.
But we were here to talk about football. About Mayo. About him. He had to be gone by noon (meetings across the road) so he sipped his coffee and we began...

MF Your schedule is hectic at the moment?
JOM It's a busy time for me but that's not new, that's all factored in and it's part and parcel of life. I came up to Dublin yesterday morning, went down to Castlebar last night for training, and I came back up to Dublin again this morning. I'm here now until Friday. But I'm completely focussed on Saturday week and what that means.

MF Does the travelling and the pace of it all ever leave you drained?
JOM At this time of year, when I was teaching, I was supervising exams. I'd be leaving an exam hall at 5.30pm and heading off to training. It's not like I had my feet up then either...
But it's the same for the players. I have players that leave work in Belmullet at 6pm and head to training. We're all doing the same thing, and part of the discipline is that you can switch from your job to your football.

MF Is it getting any easier to balance the two jobs?
JOM At this time of the year you're into the intrigue and the fine-tuning of the football. The experimentation phase is over, we've had our weekend away, the team has bonded, and lads know what roles they might be playing. Now it's a matter of continually updating that.

MF  Have you had to tailor your management style to reflect the fact that you spend a lot of time in Dublin?
JOM The game has evolved a lot anyway in the sense that a backroom team is now much more extensive and there's a lot more scientific advice involved. You delegate more. I do that because it needs to be done, and also because you need the input of expertise from outside anyway.

MF How has your role as Mayo manager changed since 1989?
JOM The two prime things I am at the minute is coach and man-manager. Some of the actual training of the team is delegated to Jim Kielty, in terms of advice behind the scenes, Mick Brennan, who does some of the training in Dublin, and Kieran Gallagher who does a lot of the training in Mayo. But I would also have taken part of the training session last night, I'm dipping in and out.
Delegating some of the training has allowed me to increase the man-management I can do. For instance, in the last six weeks a lot of the lads have had exams and you have to try and remove as much stress as you can from the players concerned.

MF Would you give players more leeway now than you would have ten years ago?
JOM I think the stress levels in life in general have increased. When I was a student, studying for my BA, I had no exams in second year. That's not the case anymore. You have to take that into account and make sure to explain to the squad what's happening with individual players.
There also has to be a sense of trust among the group.

MF Do you feel you've made progress with Mayo in the last two and a half years?
JOM  I'd be quite pleased with the progress we've made in the sense that we've put our management stamp on things in terms of an ethos; involving not dictating, being decisive while also involving people in decisions, and motivating them from within.

MF Has it been frustrating that the championship results haven't come too?
JOM I knew when I was taking over that it was going to be particularly difficult. A lot of the players had been through four All-Ireland finals, some had been there for ten years, and I wanted to maximise the amount of time any of them could stay, but also knew that some of them just couldn't go on for ever. We knew also that we had young players coming through and they had to be brought in.

MF How disappointing were last year's close defeats against Galway and Tyrone?
JOM They were frustrating and disappointing. There's a slightly different culture in Mayo because of recent history that wouldn't be there in the likes of Galway. I realise there are people out there who say the pressure is on me.

MF Do you feel under pressure?
JOM I suppose at this stage of my career, I'm a realist. I know what needs to be done.

MF Is that to win a Connacht title?
JOM A Connacht title would be fantastic. There was frustration that we didn't achieve that last year. I think that would be a great achievement for this year but I don't think it helps Mayo for everyone to say, 'O'Mahony must get a Connacht title this year or he's gone'.

MF Have you heard that being said?
JOM I've heard that and seen that in the media, but I can't control it, and that's fine. But in some respects, the history of Mayo football in the last number of years would suggest that maybe if it was a different manager, one with less experience, might be gone before now. But does that help Mayo football? It doesn't.

MF Where is that coming from?
JOM  It's not coming from me, and I'm not blaming anyone for it, I'm just acknowledging that it's there. I don't think it's helpful though.
Circumstances have changed a lot since I went into management. There's much more scrutiny and much more competition between media outlets. People have to ask, I suppose, where it's going to end.

MF Has anything you've heard or read after a bad performance or result annoyed or disappointed you?
JOM Well, I don't read as much as I used to. I have people reading the political pages for me, because I don't have time for that either, but I don't have a set-up like that for football.
I've always said over the years that I abhor personal attacks on people, whether it be players or managers. I know I've got them but, maybe when I was starting out, I'd have taken them more personally. Not now.
I always have a fair idea of the agenda behind them. Constructive criticism is not a problem, I respect that. But I don't have spare time to waste thinking too much about the other type of stuff.

MF How do you feel about the view that if we didn't win a Connacht title this year, you'd have to consider your position? Could you lift yourself again for another crack at it?
JOM I've lifted myself now for 25 years.... I'm concentrating on the Roscommon game, just like I concentrate on every single championship game we play. I don't have time to think about what the consequences would be for me, or anybody else. It's not an issue for me at the moment.
I will do as well as I can for a manager. The problem is that people's perceptions change. The reality is that I'm the same manager. Okay, I've evolved and I've learned, but you're the same manager when you win the All-Ireland as you are when you lose the first round.

MF You're a winner, that's why you work with teams. So, how does it feel to not have won more championship matches since you came back?
JOM If you win an All-Ireland, the best way you can keep the perception that people have of you is to retire on the spot. Get out at the top. I had won two senior All-Irelands so I could be perceived for the next twenty years as being a great manager and not put my neck on the line again. Now, when I do, people are saying I'm not doing the business. You can't win!
I look at all the pundits... It's a doddle. You can say one thing at half-time and a totally different thing at the end, because no-one remembers. I did punditry and I enjoyed it. But it's a lot easier than management.

MF Do you know your championship team?
JOM I'd have a fair idea. Certain factors have come into play, like injuries, but I have good back-up and options. We'll also be picking horses-for-courses in certain instances too.

MF Is the 2009 team better than the 2007 one?
JOM I'd be more pleased in the sense that I know more about them now than I did in the beginning.

MF By picking big men in the full-forward line recently, does that mean you've decided to try and play a more direct game this summer?
JOM We'll have to wait and see what tactics to use on a particular day. In some of our recent games we ran at teams too, and we did that well. So we don't want teams to second-guess what we might be doing.
Obviously there's only a few different tactics that you can use and we would like to think that we have the players and the ability to switch tactics in a particular game.

MF Since this season started, has there been a moment or a game when you've felt that the team were starting to realise their potential?
JOM What I felt during the league was that, character wise, we stood up to some difficult situations. The game in Donegal was a prime example. We had a terrible first half and we needed to stand up.

MF I gather your frustration and anger was palpable in the dressing-room at half-time that day...
JOM It was palpable for me and for the squad. Every single one of us in that dressing-room felt that what happened in the first half wasn't acceptable. I'm not going to go into the details but the outcome wasn't acceptable.
Once you accept that there's a problem, then you can look for the solution. Over the years, that's been my theory in life. You should spend more time, 80% to 90%, on the solution. Everybody involved got to the root of the problem and saw what the solution was. Everyone had to play a part; the guys on the field and we also had to make decisive calls.
Half-time in the Galway game was a similar situation.
The prophets of doom suggested that we were going to be relegated from the first division when we had Galway, Dublin and Tyrone left to play. That was the message out there, that was the vibe. But our guys stood up and said, 'No, that's not true. We're going to write our own script.'
That's the challenge now for the Connacht championship. It seems that the players are going to have to stand up and write a different script because of what some people are saying about this being the third year, the manager going, and so on...

MF Have you seen guys growing up this spring?
JOM Absolutely. Since I got involved with a Mayo senior team, the county always had great leaders. TJ Kilgallon, Willie Joe [Padden], Martin Carney, Peter Ford, John Maughan, Colm McManamon, Liam McHale, James Nallen, David Heaney, David Brady, Ciaran McDonald...
Now, what needed to happen was that new leaders needed to emerge to assist the likes of James Nallen and David Heaney who have given great service to Mayo football.
A manager's job is to create an atmosphere where leaders can emerge. You talk to players, give them licence to take that leadership role, get guys to fill the leadership vacuum. It gives me great satisfaction as a manager to see players developing as leaders within a group. It's one of the most satisfying things you'll see as a manager.

MF Aidan O'Shea has exploded onto the inter-county scene. How would you compare bringing him through with the likes of Michael Meehan?
JOM I brought through Michael Meehan as well and they're very similar situations in a lot of ways.
I have no problem playing a guy who's 18 years of age on a Mayo senior team but I think we shouldn't burden him with too much expectation. The media has a huge role to play in that regard.
I would always think of the example of Ryan Giggs who, I think, never did an interview for four or five years after breaking into the Manchester United team. Now he's probably the guy that Alex Ferguson would send out to do interviews.

MF What would be a good summer for you?
JOM  To beat Roscommon would be a good start. You're anxious about every game but I'd be very confident that the players have prepared themselves in an exceptional way. I would have the utmost admiration for every single member of our panel.
We've got the support and the expertise at every level. We've got the maximum commitment from everybody, from the top to the bottom, nothing is spared in terms of energy or time. I wouldn't be part of any set-up where that wouldn't be the case.

MF What is your message to the Mayo supporters?
JOM I felt a real empathy towards them when we walked around the streets around Gaelic Park after the New York match. I met some people I knew, some I didn't, and I have huge admiration for them. They're the supporters that we owe something to. They're the ones I want the team to remember and consider.
I know sometimes people can feel angry and critical, and I know they feel they're doing it for the right reasons... I don't mind, personally, taking any criticism but I would ask people to try and understand what these players have given Mayo football.
I'll put my hand on the bible and say that I have absolutely no worries about the trust that has been built up among the players in the squad. Mayo people need to know that as we head into another championship.

[Barney]

Good interview - the manager defniitely appears to be more comfortable in the role, and hopefully the work put in over 3 years will now be seen by all of us.

As for the wear and tear of blue seats - look at the Cusack Stand - they haven't held their colour. Stephenite you are spot on a pile of b**lix

[stephenite]

As for the wear and tear of blue seats - look at the Cusack Stand - they haven't held their colour. Stephenite you are spot on a pile of b**lix

I'd doubt if that's a reason - and to be honest I'm not that bothered by the colour of the seats, sure, it would've been nice to see a red and green combination with fancy lettering, but if we couldn't afford it, than fair enough, just say we couldn't afford it.

[ludermor]

Cant see why it would have made and difference to the price.
Unless they were getting them off the back of a lorry and they just had to be blue !

[stephenite]

Cant see why it would have made and difference to the price.
Unless they were getting them off the back of a lorry and they just had to be blue !

Fair point

[Turlough O Carolan]

Poignant article from one of the local Mayo papers.

House of Pain

Bu T.J. Kilkelly

A dark cloud gathers over the plain of the yews. Like it does everyday. Dominick Burke has lost the will to get up. To live. But get up from his uncomfortable leaba he must. Because despite the pain and hardships visited upon his people life goes on in Mayo. It always does. And so it must go on for him.

As he drives along the winding coast roads, carefully obeying the "Very Slow" and "Dead Slow" signs painted around each bend, he can't help but feel haunted by the ghosts of the men who took the Emigrant ship to America. How these men must have longed to see their home county again. But never again did they see Bohola or Belmullet.  Dominick Burke knows that awful longing for homeland too, working as he does in Galway five days a week. It is the maudlin songs that keep him going, songs about "far away from the land of the shamrock and heather." For he listens to Midwest Radio on the internet on the sly. His boss - a stony faced Connemara man with a wild beard - does not know. He would get "thick" with him if he did.

Dominick Burke has suffered the pain that is Mayo football more than most. Twenty eight years young and still single, the pain is etched on his weather beaten face. It has grown progressively worse since his sister gave him access to the Irish Times archives for a month. The tears streamed down his face as he read about  a century of stout hearted men and their vainglorious assaults on the great citadel to the East, only to come home empty handed - but twice. And the Irish Times GAA sucked in 1950 and 1951 and so those victories brought little joy.

If there's any consolation it is that he is not alone. He has befriended other Mayo lads on the internet, on the discussion boards and on the blogs. He read last week that Bruce Springsteen too had the soul of a Mayoman, for in his dark lyrics could be gleaned the tortured consciousness of his race, of his fellow county men. Upon reading it, he was compelled to send Bruce an email with just one short phrase: "Bruce, keep the faith." He also sent it to Springsteen's Twitter account, facebook page and by snailmail to: Bruce, Freehold, New Jersey, Born in the USA.

Then there's the ignominy of having to live next to the Rossies. As if God hadn't sent them enough punishment. And all the DJs on Midwest Radio are Rossies too. Oh it's a cruel God, a cruel one who has no love for the Green and Red.

But there's hope. Not much. But there's always hope. A Mayoman could be the next Taoiseach. He'll create employment in the county. A few hundred thousand jobs for Mayo would be nice. Perhaps build another airport or two in the county and fly all the emigrants back home to the land of the shamrock and heather. It's a dark province Connacht, a tough slog to emerge from the West with four other counties to beat, and then take on the rest of Ireland. But a strong leader is all that's required to rouse the faithful.

There's an email in Dominick Burke's inbox. Begob, who could it be he wonders. His face lights up. It is from Bruce.

Oh there is a God, there is.

But that dark cloud arises as he reads: "Delivery Failure".

"Just like Sam," cries Dominick Bruke, "just like fuckin Sam." As the tears well up in his eyes, he can hear yelling in the background. His boss. "Turn off that fuckin Midwest and do some work."

Oh yes, a dark cloud has gathered over the West Coast of Mayo, casting dark shadows from Kilalla to Kilmovee, bringing more pain to the plains of the yews. Dominick Burke cannot go on. But he'll go on.  And never show the white feather whereever he goes.

[mannix]

someday

[Tubberman]

The tears streamed down his face as he read about  a century of stout hearted men and their vainglorious assaults on the great citadel to the East, only to come home empty handed - but twice. And the Irish Times GAA sucked in 1950 and 1951 and so those victories brought little joy.

3 times actually - don't forget 1936. Maybe the Irish Times had a ban on GAA reporting back then... 

[muppet]

The tears streamed down his face as he read about  a century of stout hearted men and their vainglorious assaults on the great citadel to the East, only to come home empty handed - but twice. And the Irish Times GAA sucked in 1950 and 1951 and so those victories brought little joy.

3 times actually - don't forget 1936. Maybe the Irish Times had a ban on GAA reporting back then... 

Actually it could have been 4 times, in 1925 Mayo won the All-Ireland semi-final against Wexford while the other semi-finalists Kerry and Cavan were disqualified. Cup to Mayo then, not quite. Galway demanded to complete their Championship which had stalled due to a row between Sligo and Roscommon and when they beat Mayo they were crowned All-Ireland Champions.

[rossie mad]

Lads i wonder could you help me.
Out in here working in dubai and was wondering could i get to watch the game live on the web or where would be the best spot to watch here?
All suggestions welcome.

[mannix]

if unsure you should stay near the computer and listen to mnwr, safest bet.

[kevmy]

if unsure you should stay near the computer and listen to mnwr, safest bet.

judging by his name he'd probably prefer shannonside

[Rossfan]

With Willie and Donie... I think he'll pick MayoNWR

Good to see ye Mayo ladeens are so full of confidence . Hopefully ye're players will feel the same.
If any of ye Mayoites feel like crossing the county Boundary into Ballagh on Friday night the Ros Supporters Club are having a function there.
Good on them for claiming our town and for giving support and succour to our separated brethern who have to live with being banned from playing for their own County.