Galway v Mayo, Tuam NFL Round VI 29 March 2009

[Cosmo Kramer]

Surprised and delighted with that win. Very impressed with O'Shea at full forward in the second half, particularly given that Hanley is so highly rated. He seemed to want the ball every time and was always out in front of the full back for the pass.

I thought Harte's yellow card actually helped us with Parsons coming on and we really lorded it in midfield in the second half. That said, if Meehan had scored the penalty just before half time, I dont think there would have been a way back for us.

Was my first time in Tuam since Galway moved to Salthill, I had almost forgotton how derelict the stadium there is, hard to believe it was Galways main ground until a few years ago.

Pressure off the last match now and we can maybe try one or two things before the big stuff kicks off. Haven't felt this positive about our seniors in ages, hope its not just a one off performance.

[m@yoman]

not long back up on the eastern seaboard here.....what a game! I must admit at half time I was wondering why I picked a cold wet day in Tuam watching Mayo getting beat around the park instead of a possible day at the races up in Leopardstown looking at some prospects for the new Flat season....

the first half was bad, but in fairness to the lads they played against a fairly strong breeze and a galway team, who with one M.Meehan seemed to be playing very well....apart from once or twice, meehan had the beating of cafferky throughout the first half...ronaldson was back playing his sweeper role....the forwards seemed starved of possession...just as the half-time whistle was about to go, david clarke came out and got man/ball/the lot whilst stopping another galway advance on goal...the resultant penalty was amazingly put wide by Meehan...

as the Mayo lads came out (with Conor Mort by the way!) for the second half, well, the galway lads didnt.......was this a ploy by Sammon to leave us out in the cold p!ssy weather for a while??? it didnt work..before we knew it we had scored 1-1! ronaldson played the ball soccer-esque along the ground and neatly passed it to O'shea...Goal! ((these two could have been useful last night in Croker))

it was nip and tuck then for the rest of the half...PJ missed a free from nearly the corner flag to level it thank god......


a few players who stood out for me.........


* Ger Cafferky - In the first half I thought he was getting cleaned by Meehan...In fairness he kept meehan quiet from around the end of the first half and all through the 2nd (fair enough, glaway couldnt get the ball up near him at times in the 2nd half..)

* Conor Mort - I think the "drop" did him the world of good...he came out in the second half and I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw him make a tackle on a galway back coming out with the ball!!  

* Aidan O'Shea - A complete nuisance to the galway backs...I'd say a few of them thought "what the hell does this 19 year old think he's doing"!! played well and got a few nice points...

* Ronan McGarrity - I thought he was brutal against Dublin Ballina but today he was brilliant...galways midfield were pretty poor but he stood up and was counted...

* Trev Mort - Must get the captaincy role this year.....

* Tom Cunniffe - kept PJ quiet all day...say no more!.


Delighted with the win...a LOT of work to do still though....

[An Fhairche Abu]

He sure did. You could hear him bawling them out of it when I went to the jacks at half time. A few Galway lads were having a good laugh at that stage and who could blame them. Dreadful first half performance again it has to be said. But overall many reasons to be cheerful which I may go into later. After what happened Roscommon again today it looks likely these teams will meet again later in the Summer. Home advantage will mean Galway more likely to emerge winners. However its becoming clearer that at least Johnno now has the material to really put it up to Galway. Meehan and Joyce are special talents but those apart I m begining to believe it may be advantage us. This is the first time in years I saw a Galway full back line flap a bit against us. I felt we had the momentum in the second half to have won comfortably in the end. Thought we were pacier. Galway s midfield tired alarmingly.

I wouldn't get too carried away with this result if I was from Mayo, the fact of the matter is that Mayo should have been dead and buried at half time, if the penalty had gone in a 9 point lead wouldn't have flattered Galway at all really, as there was some bad wides from the almost total Galway domination of the first 35 minutes. A game of two halves I'm sure will be the Mayo lads response!!!

It was a great 2nd half performance from Mayo in fairness but Galway's attitude and application in the first 10 minutes of the second half where Mayo got the scores to win this game was very poor, I think that in other games there has been a definite lull after half time and the Galway team have got away with it by not conceding any goals and doing just enough to keep a decent margin from the opposition, today there was a big swing early on that gave Mayo the chance they took.
As mentioned in moysiders post momentum was the key in the second half and once Mayo got the crucial goal it was always going to be hard for Galway to play their way back to a manageable lead against the conditions. Mayo could have got more than the 1 major in the second half but they took the points when available and it paid off for them in the finish.

Disappointing for Galway that when Mayo brought a more championship pace to the second half we couldn't respond. About 1-3 of Mayo's second half scores were directly from Galway mistakes (from Mayo pressure to be fair) rather than any unbelievable Mayo play.
I wasn't at the Derry game but I would assume that the same issues seen today in the second half around midfield were evident there as well, the lack of mobility is killing us there especially when we won no clean catches at all today. We are always in danger of getting cleaned out there in every match, we don't have a Paul Galvin type player either to compensate. The great ball that the forwards got in the first half dried up almost totally after the break, it's hard to get scores even if you have the clear beating of your man (which Meehan most definitely did of Cafferky) when the ball heading into you is so poor.

The big pluses for Mayo was O'Shea in the FF line as he certainly caused plenty of problems for Galway, any ball he didn't win he certainly didn't let it be cleared easily and also the Mayo players ability to apply the pressure on the Galway players in possession was excellent at times, they did seem much quicker and pacier than the Galway team at times today.
The tactic of leaving Ronaldson back as a sweeper in the 1st half didn't really work for me and it would be interesting to see what kind of game it would have been had Mayo applied the same high pressure game on the Galway HB line and midfield for the full 70 minutes.

McQuillan wasn't great for either team, a bizarre free called against Damien Burke for a fair shoulder at the start of the second half and an equally harsh call on Conroy in front of the stand during the same 35 minutes stood out for me along with the fact that Clarke should have got a yellow without doubt for the penalty incident "tackle" on Conroy. McGarrity should have followed in the second half for late 3rd man tackle on Armstrong (he got two black ticks so I think he should have gone anyway). I wonder did the yellow given to Harte earlier (which was a bonus for Mayo as Parsons played better then him when came on) influence McQuillan's decision's later on in the match? I'd say it did which is very poor referring. Against this I can recall at least 2 soft frees that were pointed by Galway in the second half which were very harsh on Mayo.

Disappointing that we could miss out on the league final due to points difference again this year, the trip to Kerry will be a tough one to get anything out of and Derry might sneak it despite losing last night.

[GalwayBayBoy]

I'm actually wondering now if there's a fitness issue with the team as we are fading badly in so many of these 2nd halves. We got around 12 points ahead of Donegal at one stage in that game and yet they came back within 4 points towards the end until we got a couple of late scores. Nobody thought much of it at the time as long as you still end up winning. Is it a mental issue of relaxing on a big lead or are they actually getting tired in games? Certainly today both Cullinane and Bergin looked dog tired half way through the 2nd half. Sooner or later this switching off after half-time was going to cost them if the opposition managed to get an early goal or two and got a run on them and it happened today. As in most sports once you lose momentum in a game it can be terribly hard to get it back.

I think the result in itself may be no bad thing in the long-term if it stops the players from thinking they can get away with coasting in games but with a league final on offer they probably didn't pick a good day to learn that lesson. Would certainly make Derry favourites now to make it a repeat of last year's league final.

[From the Bunker]

A remark i heard a few weeks ago from a knowledgable Gaa head, was he thought Galway were peaking to early this year. He felt that their performances were too near Championship pace for the time of year and that they were showing too much of their hand to rivals. Not sure if i agree.

[GalwayBayBoy]

A remark i heard a few weeks ago from a knowledgable Gaa head, was he thought Galway were peaking to early this year. He felt that their performances were too near Championship pace for the time of year and that they were showing too much of their hand to rivals. Not sure if i agree.

I think everyone says that about at least one team that is going well in the league every year but you don't hear anybody saying that Kerry are peaking too early despite already being in the league final with 2 games to spare.

Our first halves might be being played at championship pace but our second halves are being played closer to Sunday kickabout pace so maybe by the Summer we might manage to extend ourselves a little more after the break.

[The flame still burns]

Great win today. I've a report on my blog if anyone wants a look. How much of Galway's first half and Mayo's second half was down to their own brilliance or the opposition's terrible play?

http://thereisalightthatnevergoesout.wordpress.com/

[criostlinn]

Well what do you say about that Mayo performance today.

First half just like the week before. No forward wanted to step up and take responsibility. Young O'Shea the only man who wanted to take the fight to Galway.
Midfield absolutely cleaned out. McGarrity and Harte can not play in midfield together. Both need a man with them to do a bit of the donkey work. The backs played decent but with all the possession been lost out the field, they were under a lot of pressure.

Then out they come for the second half like a pack of hounds and got stuck into everything. Like a totally different team. Every man stood up and fought for every ball.
I dont know what happened Galway but they played the second half just like Mayo played the first.

A few points about the players.

Aidan O Shea was absolutely fantastic today. He got something out of every ball that was played into him. Even poor ball he fought hard for and looked a real danger. My man of the match
Peadar Gardiner and Trevor Mortimer had brilliant games especially when the chips were down. 2 points from Gardiner towards the end won the game for us and it really showed some of the forwards what to do when in front of the posts.
McGarrity wasnt at the races in the first half. Made a lot of silly mistakes and seemed incapable of holding onto the ball. He played really well in the second half when Parsons came on.
McLoughlin was very good when he came on and if he keeps playing like this will definitely be a championship starter.
Cunnife done great job on Joyce and is improving as games go on.
The whole full back line looked good, just like the week before.
Alan Dillon can be so frustrating at times. No doubt he has the talent but sometimes the confidence seems to be lacking.
Mark Donaldson is great little battler. Really gets stuck in dispite his size. he is very clever on the ball and kept the head when setting up O'Shea for the goal.

Im still not sure about these new rules. It seems Im not the only one. The ref went mad giving lads black cards in the first half. Every foul was a black card. I taught the idea was to stamp out cynical fouling not black card for every foul. Anyway this stopped in the second half because he didn't seem to want to yellow card anyone (even when they got 2 black cards)
At one stage Padraig Joyce was pulled for a free in the Mayo forward line. It wasnt a dirty tackle but just slighly miss timed. He got a black card for it. Mayo got a free in a scoring position. This isnt cynical fouling so why the black card. In basketball you can commit 5 fouls before you are out of a game. Now in football its 2 (or maybe 3 or maybe more depending on the ref) and your out. Pat Harte got a yellow card for a bad challenge. No argument about this, it was definitely a yellow card. But I dont see how the player having no further part in the game fits the crime.  

[moysider]

Thought Ger Cafferkey did as well as can be reasonably expected on Meehan. Many well seasoned and respected defenders have done a lot worse. Meehan was fed a lot of good ball in the first half. I d be reasonably happy that Caff can keep the damage to managable levels when they meet again. At the other end O Sé gave Hanley enough of it and with Barry Moran in the frame maybe we re getting a forward act that will cause a few headaches of our own for the Galway backs in summer. These were the two aspects of our performance that I was looking out for today and I must say I m happy enough with 3 and 14.

[An Fhairche Abu]

Thought Ger Cafferkey did as well as can be reasonably expected on Meehan. Many well seasoned and respected defenders have done a lot worse. Meehan was fed a lot of good ball in the first half. I d be reasonably happy that Caff can keep the damage to managable levels when they meet again. At the other end O Sé gave Hanley enough of it and with Barry Moran in the frame maybe we re getting a forward act that will cause a few headaches of our own for the Galway backs in summer. These were the two aspects of our performance that I was looking out for today and I must say I m happy enough with 3 and 14.

O'Shea certainly looks a big addition for the FF position proving if you're good enough you're old enough, although he is very young so consistancy of performance might be an issue, he has plenty of time ahead of him to make a big impact for Mayo though.

[moysider]

He sure did. You could hear him bawling them out of it when I went to the jacks at half time. A few Galway lads were having a good laugh at that stage and who could blame them. Dreadful first half performance again it has to be said. But overall many reasons to be cheerful which I may go into later. After what happened Roscommon again today it looks likely these teams will meet again later in the Summer. Home advantage will mean Galway more likely to emerge winners. However its becoming clearer that at least Johnno now has the material to really put it up to Galway. Meehan and Joyce are special talents but those apart I m begining to believe it may be advantage us. This is the first time in years I saw a Galway full back line flap a bit against us. I felt we had the momentum in the second half to have won comfortably in the end. Thought we were pacier. Galway s midfield tired alarmingly.

I wouldn't get too carried away with this result if I was from Mayo, the fact of the matter is that Mayo should have been dead and buried at half time, if the penalty had gone in a 9 point lead wouldn't have flattered Galway at all really, as there was some bad wides from the almost total Galway domination of the first 35 minutes. A game of two halves I'm sure will be the Mayo lads response!!!

It was a great 2nd half performance from Mayo in fairness but Galway's attitude and application in the first 10 minutes of the second half where Mayo got the scores to win this game was very poor, I think that in other games there has been a definite lull after half time and the Galway team have got away with it by not conceding any goals and doing just enough to keep a decent margin from the opposition, today there was a big swing early on that gave Mayo the chance they took.
As mentioned in moysiders post momentum was the key in the second half and once Mayo got the crucial goal it was always going to be hard for Galway to play their way back to a manageable lead against the conditions. Mayo could have got more than the 1 major in the second half but they took the points when available and it paid off for them in the finish.

Disappointing for Galway that when Mayo brought a more championship pace to the second half we couldn't respond. About 1-3 of Mayo's second half scores were directly from Galway mistakes (from Mayo pressure to be fair) rather than any unbelievable Mayo play.
I wasn't at the Derry game but I would assume that the same issues seen today in the second half around midfield were evident there as well, the lack of mobility is killing us there especially when we won no clean catches at all today. We are always in danger of getting cleaned out there in every match, we don't have a Paul Galvin type player either to compensate. The great ball that the forwards got in the first half dried up almost totally after the break, it's hard to get scores even if you have the clear beating of your man (which Meehan most definitely did of Cafferky) when the ball heading into you is so poor.

The big pluses for Mayo was O'Shea in the FF line as he certainly caused plenty of problems for Galway, any ball he didn't win he certainly didn't let it be cleared easily and also the Mayo players ability to apply the pressure on the Galway players in possession was excellent at times, they did seem much quicker and pacier than the Galway team at times today.
The tactic of leaving Ronaldson back as a sweeper in the 1st half didn't really work for me and it would be interesting to see what kind of game it would have been had Mayo applied the same high pressure game on the Galway HB line and midfield for the full 70 minutes.

McQuillan wasn't great for either team, a bizarre free called against Damien Burke for a fair shoulder at the start of the second half and an equally harsh call on Conroy in front of the stand during the same 35 minutes stood out for me along with the fact that Clarke should have got a yellow without doubt for the penalty incident "tackle" on Conroy. McGarrity should have followed in the second half for late 3rd man tackle on Armstrong (he got two black ticks so I think he should have gone anyway). I wonder did the yellow given to Harte earlier (which was a bonus for Mayo as Parsons played better then him when came on) influence McQuillan's decision's later on in the match? I'd say it did which is very poor referring. Against this I can recall at least 2 soft frees that were pointed by Galway in the second half which were very harsh on Mayo.

Disappointing that we could miss out on the league final due to points difference again this year, the trip to Kerry will be a tough one to get anything out of and Derry might sneak it despite losing last night.

I doubt if anybody is getting carried away but we have to acknowledge progress and positives as well and there were some today. Sammon was talking a few weeks ago about closing the gap between Galway and Kerry/Tyrone. Rightly so but after today maybe he ll take an odd glance in the rear view mirror as well.

It s still advantage Galway in Connacht but I d be hopeful now( for the first time in 3 years) that we can take this years championship to Galway. Now the ball is firmly in Johnno s court as to how we shape up. He has a lot of puzzle pieces now. Cafferkey has been as good as could be reasonably hoped for. O Sé will be a handfull. Ronaldson is smart, tough and wants to play. McLoughlin is a readymade IC footballer, even the U21 management did nt seem aware of 1 year ago. Parsons, Harte and McGarrity have yet to start together. Mcgarrity has been criticised but I m convinced if he stays fit he ll have his best summer yet for us. He s driven and is putting a huge effort in. It ll pay off in Summer. With the boost of Higgins and maybe Heaney and Howley later Johnno has plenty to work with.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Yeah Moysider I'd be more confident after today too. After that second half you'd have to be. But how bad were we in the first half? No sort of plan at all apart from Ronaldson deep. Cleaned out at midfield - Harte and McGarrity were woeful. I think, as you say, Harte, McGarrity and Parsons together hasn't been tried yet. Harte at 10 with the other two boys in the middle. Harte was terrible today but we know what he is capable of in fairness. But we still lack the physical presence in the middle.

Today was another step forward for Ger Caff. Liam O'Malley looks better all the time too. Cunniffe was decent too. Gardiner did very well late on but will be fighting for his spot. Ronaldson was superb. Austy can offer more at corner-forward working off a big full-forward than in full-forward himself - he could yet wear number 15 in championship. Barry Moran and Aidan O'Shea are two strong options at full-forward while O'Shea give options out the field too. Trevor was excellent in the second half but his distribution in the first half was poor. Dillon, of course, is nailed on. So we're a lot closer to a starting fifteen for championship I think. Add in Keith Higgins and Kevin McLoughlin, who I hope and expect to start, and we're coming together fairly well.

But that's only part of it. We can't start so slowly as we have been doing and expect to get away with it. I rate McGarrity highly but the slow starts against Dublin and Galway have tied in with him getting cleaned out by his man in the first half, before getting his act together.

[blast05]

Meehan's penalty miss obviously the turning point.

I would have thought Aidan O'Sheas goal was

Haven't felt this positive about our seniors in ages, hope its not just a one off performance.

I certainly woouldn't go that far. At half time today i was feeling as bad as i have felt about the state of Mayo football since the end of the '95 Connacht final

Was my first time in Tuam since Galway moved to Salthill, I had almost forgotton how derelict the stadium there is, hard to believe it was Galways main ground until a few years ago.

Was my first time to since then as well, but to be fair i thought it has acutally improved quite a bit and i preferred the views from the terrace above anything in the 'old' McHale Park unless you had a good seat in the stand


Couple of other Mayo related comments (focusing on th negative !):
Clarke - he really has to work on shorter options on his kickouts. It took 18 minutes and 9 kickouts (of which we only won about 1 or 2) before he tried a different option than hitting a hanging kick into the stiff breeze the direction of which is completely telegrahed by his run up. The one keeper from the past that i think of in terms of how to do it is Martin McNamara of Galway

Cafferkey - great hands, very clever in tackling the ball ..... however, i still get that nagging feeling he is there to be roasted by a really pacey full forward cos he still seems a bit flat footed and ever so slightly slow off the mark.

Andy Moran  .... thought he got a bit of a roasting in the first half and look well out of place at wing back. Picked up in the second.

McGarritty - yes, excellent in the second but when Cullinance had a bit steam, i.e.: during the first half, McG just didn't seem to be able to handle his size  ... getting bumped out of it far too easily when contesting kickouts

Ronaldson - the sweeper thing backfired completely in the first half. If the objective of playing such a role is to stand in front of your full back line and intercept the ball coming in then he got a 0 out of 10. All the while Gareth Bradshaw ran riot in the first half by getting on a sight of ball

Trevor  .....  i see some people are complementing him ... no doubt he bust a gut in the effort but it was painful to watch that EVERY ball he got in and around the number 11 position required 2 or 3 solos while going half pace prior to trying to make a pass. In the number 11 position (and remeber MacD played far deeper than a classic No. 11), soloing the ball is criminal  .... move it on, move it on, even if its not the perfect ball

Aidan O'S  .....  superb and such an exciting prospect. However, i fear he will be something like Joe Sheridan rather than 1 of the best in the country in that he will never have real pace and thus may struggle to win primary ball on a firm sod on a summers day when coming up against Hanley the next time.

Mikey Sweeney .....  if its not a dry summers day with a hard pitch then i don't see what value he can bring to the mix...

[rosnarun]

thats all very well R&GS but

And yes we do have good runners from the half-back line in the form of Gardiner, Tom Cunniffe and Andy (at present). Problem is, with the exception of Andy, the other two lads can't kick the ball to save their lives

isn't someone owed an apology?
I can't understand all the speculation about Gardiner's place he is one of the very few  fixtures on the team and will be for the championship just as he has been for years . there are very few other players id put money on for an exact position. Clarke ,L o'malley Mcgarrity. other than that the number on the back even on the certain starters is up for grabs
My  derided  Optimism last week isn't looking quit so foolish today  .
While most of the problem are still there I loved the fact that they won such a narrrow game and are building that bot of character they seemed to Lack under JOM up to this. even when it was going shite in the 1st half they were working there arses off , ther only reason they didn't go in down by 13 or 14 points
. down sides of today . while meehan was getting a service Cafferkey looked way out of his depth . Clarke Kick outs poor again. AOM looked like one of our better forwards. sweeney completely at sea and never got a sniff.
Was on the pitch after it was very very soft could well explain the high error count on both sides and austins good form. though it does not excuse the number of times yet again Mayo were caught picking the ball of the ground . this is like a virus with them.

[RedandGreenSniper]

  I apologise wholeheartedly Ros! I was the most worried man in Tuam when PG lined up that shot, then the most surprised it went over! But fair play to him, he took on the responsibility when others wouldn't. I do have good time for Gardiner as a player. I don't think he's nailed down for championship though because the half-back line is so competitive. I mean realistic contenders for starting spots are PG, Cunniffe, Moran, Keith Higgins, Howley, Heaney and Vaughan. That's presuming that McLoughlin is used as a corner-back, and not a wing-back, which he could be. Now none of those lads I picked are guaranteed to start except Keith Higgins (and that could be in corner-back). I'm not saying that Gardiner shouldn't start, merely that the amount of options for the half-back line means you can't say he is guaranteed to start.

You're being harsh on Austin. I still think he may have something to offer, but not necesaarrily from the start. But, as I said, he's not out of contention for number 15 either. He's much better working off a big man at full-forward. Much better taking the ball of someone whilst facing goal, rather than winning the ball out in front and having to turn himself.