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

[ildanach]

question for the ros fans, why were there not more castlerea men on the panel as county champions? only Claffey in goal and padraig duignan on the bench. with the exception of henegan who was not available is there nobody else worth a go?

[Rossie11]

Best forward last season in the county championship was Nigel Dineen.. even at 35ish
Thought he would have been worth a shot for a year anyways as a target man for the smaller forwards round him.
Castlerea were poor champions though. Bridgets are far and away the best club in Ross but were caught on the hop

[kevmy]

Pretty much everything said before but I'll give my spin on it anyway.

I was pleased with the Mayo display especially the start. Throughout the league we were guilty of bad start and giving mediocre teams a lead they mightn't have deserved - Donegal, Galway, Derry spring to mind. And we were at it again against NY - they went 4 points up after a few mins. So it was good to see that the lads and the management realised this and burst out of the traps.
Also good to see lads who can get goals in the inside forward line as well Kilcoyne and O'Sé can finish which is something we were missing up there. Barry Moran didn't have a good game and if I had only seen him in this game I'd definitely be calling for him to be dropped. He didn't catch hold of any of the good ball coming in - you can forgive not winning bad ball but 3 handy balls came into him in the 2nd half and they bounced off his chest. However I saw him against Derry in 07 when he was one of about 3 players who played for us that day so I know he can do it. Either way his spot is in jeopardy if Conor starts playing well in training.
Midfield very good. You can say they weren't up against much but I think McGarrity needed to have a good game to help regain some of his form. I think if he do well in midfield in the Connacht Final we should win. And if it's Galway we face they aren't exactly blessed with riches in that department.

Backs didn't get tested at all. Good that Howley and Higgins played full games - they haven't played that much football for us recently and we'll need them later on. Still a half back line with Moran and Gardiner has the potential to be very loose. But at least we have the options this year to change it around there.

All in all it's looking positive. Difficult to tell but I reckon we have the talent and the gameplan to do well this yr. We have now a plan B alongside our plan A of the last few years so thats always good.


A word on Ros. Don't put much blame on the young lads. It generally takes 2-3 yrs to get through a good U21 side to senior - look at Kilcoyne, Cafferkey, B Moran, Howley and O'Malley yesterday all those guys are only settling down properly now after winning a U21 in 06. So by that yardstick it will be 2011 or 2012 before the minors can form a backbone to a serious senior side.

[rrhf]

That Mayo display would beat any team in Ireland this year.  We may well have seen the all ireland champions in Castlebar last saturday evening. 

[longrunsthefox]

That Mayo display would beat any team in Ireland this year.  We may well have seen the all ireland champions in Castlebar last saturday evening. 

Class  We probably didnt even see the connaught champions!

[IolarCoisCuain]

That Mayo display would beat any team in Ireland this year.  We may well have seen the all ireland champions in Castlebar last saturday evening. 

Class  We probably didnt even see the connaught champions!

Nice one Foxy.

[INDIANA]

Pretty much everything said before but I'll give my spin on it anyway.

I was pleased with the Mayo display especially the start. Throughout the league we were guilty of bad start and giving mediocre teams a lead they mightn't have deserved - Donegal, Galway, Derry spring to mind. And we were at it again against NY - they went 4 points up after a few mins. So it was good to see that the lads and the management realised this and burst out of the traps.
Also good to see lads who can get goals in the inside forward line as well Kilcoyne and O'Sé can finish which is something we were missing up there. Barry Moran didn't have a good game and if I had only seen him in this game I'd definitely be calling for him to be dropped. He didn't catch hold of any of the good ball coming in - you can forgive not winning bad ball but 3 handy balls came into him in the 2nd half and they bounced off his chest. However I saw him against Derry in 07 when he was one of about 3 players who played for us that day so I know he can do it. Either way his spot is in jeopardy if Conor starts playing well in training.
Midfield very good. You can say they weren't up against much but I think McGarrity needed to have a good game to help regain some of his form. I think if he do well in midfield in the Connacht Final we should win. And if it's Galway we face they aren't exactly blessed with riches in that department.

Backs didn't get tested at all. Good that Howley and Higgins played full games - they haven't played that much football for us recently and we'll need them later on. Still a half back line with Moran and Gardiner has the potential to be very loose. But at least we have the options this year to change it around there.

All in all it's looking positive. Difficult to tell but I reckon we have the talent and the gameplan to do well this yr. We have now a plan B alongside our plan A of the last few years so thats always good.


A word on Ros. Don't put much blame on the young lads. It generally takes 2-3 yrs to get through a good U21 side to senior - look at Kilcoyne, Cafferkey, B Moran, Howley and O'Malley yesterday all those guys are only settling down properly now after winning a U21 in 06. So by that yardstick it will be 2011 or 2012 before the minors can form a backbone to a serious senior side.

You need a succession of underage teams to produce a good senior side. One won't do it. Ross need another underage team to come through and soon. They got rid of too many of the old guard too soon.Youth policies don't work at adult level- I've seen it at club level and they never work. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of players discarded too soon on the basis of age. I've seen it at club and county level.

[kevmy]

Pretty much everything said before but I'll give my spin on it anyway.

I was pleased with the Mayo display especially the start. Throughout the league we were guilty of bad start and giving mediocre teams a lead they mightn't have deserved - Donegal, Galway, Derry spring to mind. And we were at it again against NY - they went 4 points up after a few mins. So it was good to see that the lads and the management realised this and burst out of the traps.
Also good to see lads who can get goals in the inside forward line as well Kilcoyne and O'Sé can finish which is something we were missing up there. Barry Moran didn't have a good game and if I had only seen him in this game I'd definitely be calling for him to be dropped. He didn't catch hold of any of the good ball coming in - you can forgive not winning bad ball but 3 handy balls came into him in the 2nd half and they bounced off his chest. However I saw him against Derry in 07 when he was one of about 3 players who played for us that day so I know he can do it. Either way his spot is in jeopardy if Conor starts playing well in training.
Midfield very good. You can say they weren't up against much but I think McGarrity needed to have a good game to help regain some of his form. I think if he do well in midfield in the Connacht Final we should win. And if it's Galway we face they aren't exactly blessed with riches in that department.

Backs didn't get tested at all. Good that Howley and Higgins played full games - they haven't played that much football for us recently and we'll need them later on. Still a half back line with Moran and Gardiner has the potential to be very loose. But at least we have the options this year to change it around there.

All in all it's looking positive. Difficult to tell but I reckon we have the talent and the gameplan to do well this yr. We have now a plan B alongside our plan A of the last few years so thats always good.


A word on Ros. Don't put much blame on the young lads. It generally takes 2-3 yrs to get through a good U21 side to senior - look at Kilcoyne, Cafferkey, B Moran, Howley and O'Malley yesterday all those guys are only settling down properly now after winning a U21 in 06. So by that yardstick it will be 2011 or 2012 before the minors can form a backbone to a serious senior side.

You need a succession of underage teams to produce a good senior side. One won't do it. Ross need another underage team to come through and soon. They got rid of too many of the old guard too soon.Youth policies don't work at adult level- I've seen it at club level and they never work. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of players discarded too soon on the basis of age. I've seen it at club and county level.

That's true as well - you generally only get 5 or 6 lads coming through from an underage team. Still Ros would be looking on that minor team to be the backbone added with a couple of players like Kilbride, Cox and Seamie O'Neill and also perhaps a couple of more underage players coming after that minor winning side.

I don't expect Ros to be challenging for Sam in 2011/2012 but I certainly expect them to be given Mayo and Galway a run.

[Zulu]

You need a succession of underage teams to produce a good senior side.

Not necessarily, there is no hard and fast rule here and it depends very much on the circumstances. Kerry for example have constantly added to their senior set up despite having little underage success over the past 10-15 years. The difference there of course is the young players are coming into a set up that has quality already and the younger players aren't expected to lead the way. Roscommons problem isn't the successful minor team but the lack of real quality before them. There isn't 4 or 5 quality older players to give them a platfrom in a game and in fairness to the mangement I don't think they have those players to pick from. Anyway there'll be plenty of teams in the next round that Ros could take so I'd looking to bounce back as quickly as possible if I were a Ros footballer.

[INDIANA]

I'm not sure about that. Roscommon didn't win the connacht u21 championship this year which indicates they probably had 4/5 senior inter county players of the required standard off that minor team. They'd need another one at least to get truely competitive. Preferably at u21 level.

[ross4life]

I'm not sure about that. Roscommon didn't win the connacht u21 championship this year which indicates they probably had 4/5 senior inter county players of the required standard off that minor team. They'd need another one at least to get truely competitive. Preferably at u21 level.

Well if you where at the under 21 final this year i'm sure you know how close the rossies where to winning (Mayo got a goal in 4 mins of injury time to take it into extra time)

[muppet]

I'm not sure about that. Roscommon didn't win the connacht u21 championship this year which indicates they probably had 4/5 senior inter county players of the required standard off that minor team. They'd need another one at least to get truely competitive. Preferably at u21 level.

Well if you where at the under 21 final this year i'm sure you know how close the rossies where to winning (Mayo got a goal in 4 mins of injuring time to take it into extra time)

Interesting concept, injuring time.

[INDIANA]

I'm not sure about that. Roscommon didn't win the connacht u21 championship this year which indicates they probably had 4/5 senior inter county players of the required standard off that minor team. They'd need another one at least to get truely competitive. Preferably at u21 level.

Well if you where at the under 21 final this year i'm sure you know how close the rossies where to winning (Mayo got a goal in 4 mins of injuring time to take it into extra time)

I accept that but the dublin u21 hurling side last season were expected to compete for the all-ireland last year following their minor success and it never happened. We still got 4/5 terrific players off that team- buts thats as well as you'll do off any minor team. Expecting to get 10 players off one team as Roscommon are doing is expecting too much.

[Farrandeelin]

That Mayo display would beat any team in Ireland this year.  We may well have seen the all ireland champions in Castlebar last saturday evening. 

Class  We probably didnt even see the connaught champions!

Nice one Foxy.

True longrunsthefox. Galway are the current Connacht champions and Tyrone are the All-Ireland champions. Mayo have won nothing yet but are in a Connacht final.

[ross4life]

I'm not sure about that. Roscommon didn't win the connacht u21 championship this year which indicates they probably had 4/5 senior inter county players of the required standard off that minor team. They'd need another one at least to get truely competitive. Preferably at u21 level.

Well if you where at the under 21 final this year i'm sure you know how close the rossies where to winning (Mayo got a goal in 4 mins of injuring time to take it into extra time)

I accept that but the dublin u21 hurling side last season were expected to compete for the all-ireland last year following their minor success and it never happened. We still got 4/5 terrific players off that team- buts thats as well as you'll do off any minor team. Expecting to get 10 players off one team as Roscommon are doing is expecting too much.

well our under age success has been good for 4/5 yrs now so more than just 2006! but when you have such a small panel to pick from then theres not much choice other than picking them?

our experience players are our main problem  no leaders & simply not good enough!