Mayo V Galway - Connacht Final Thread

[fearsiuil]

Now we know the line up for Bothar na Trá

Mionúir:

Mi-úsáidóirí  Caorigh   vs     Maigh eo

Sinsir:

Tachtóirí Scadán          vs     Maigh eo

[Rossfan]

Hard luck to a  gallant Sligo effort but when the crunch came they hadnt enough class in the forward line to choke the herrins.
As for Bóthar na Trá ... Mayo have to be ragin favourites for the Minor/Senior double.
I presume in the usual contempt for things Connacht the TV will cause the minor final to start at noon?

[blast05]

I presume in the usual contempt for things Connacht the TV will cause the minor final to start at noon?

Senior game at 4pm so presumably minor at 2pm

[Mayo Mick]

We will win this by 6 and it might even be 10+ Way too much power, pace and options for the Tribesmen who will do nothing this year. The fact that the game is in Salthill does not matter - we are a better all round team than Galway. We are still 16/1 for the AI - great value . Get on lads and pay for the celebrations.!!!

[mckieran]

We will win this by 6 and it might even be 10+ Way too much power, pace and options for the Tribesmen who will do nothing this year. The fact that the game is in Salthill does not matter - we are a better all round team than Galway. We are still 16/1 for the AI - great value . Get on lads and pay for the celebrations.!!!

I dont think 16/1 represent good value at all. Get on to Betfair and start laying I think.

Mayo may win this but not by 10 points. Only a Mayo person could ahead of themselves like this 

[SLIGONIAN]

Being completely honest - I don't see Galway doing anything this year. I have been at most of our games this year and I just haven't seen any evidence that we'll be in the mix this year.
If we get past Sligo (and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was an upset in Markievicz Park on Sunday) I can't see us troubling Mayo.
True - we have a decent record in Pearse against them but I don't read too much into games in previous years.
Mayo will certainly be very motivated having lost to us for the last 2 years.
I can see our midfield being cleaned out. I reckon McGarrity would completely dominate the midfield as we just don't have any ball consistent ball winners there. Bary Cullinane is the only player we have capable of winning clean possession but he is horrendously inconsistent. He will catch everything one day (ala the FBD final v Ros in Tuam this year) and then the next will be substituted having played poorly.
The other players we have around the middle of the park lack the physique to win primary possession.
Along with this - we just don't have the forwards to support Michael Meehan. It is obvious that every team we play will be working overtime to shut Meehan down. While this may result in extra space for other players to do their stuff - we don't have lads capable of taking advantage of this. If we had then we could have beaten Kerry last year - if even one other forward had stepped up to the plate in the 2nd half of that game it could well have been won.


Cute Galway hoors! If ye get to the final i'm sure that ye will be that poor all right!! maybe your right but when ever have Galway been easy for us in any game down through the years.
Instead we rely on hard working players like Fiachra Breathnach who just aren't good enough to get the necessary scores.
Padraic Joyce doesn't get many scores from play anymore, Nicky is off the panel and Armstrong and Bane blow hot and cold.
That doesn't leave us with much else which is why I believe we won't go far this year.

Bloody accurate post GM, good luck to both teams in the final. Neither galway or sligo reach max potential yday but galway will lift it for final, not sure enough to beat mayo. The hunger must be with mayo, like ye owe them, and ye have better overall team on paper to me so I only see mayo losing this if they dont have a winning belief. Cant see galway sorting midfield before then and mayo should win that area and thats enough platform to take it. Mayo will not let galway off the hook like we did. We had bucket loads of character but just not enough quality on the field in the forwards. Still it was a great effort, not too many teams would comback to level at 8-2 down, and there were more positives than negs but we need to sort out the negs for next day. Walsh spoke well after i thought. Not a bad first yr, still has alot to learn at Sligo before he gets the galway job .

[kevmy]

For me it's simple. If we win midfield against Galway we will win, if we don't win midfield against Galway we don't deserve to be heading for the AI series. Assuming McG, Cafferkey and O'Sé stay fit and well and are in form I'd fancy us.

Enough about this Salthill being a tough place to beat Galway we've only lost there three times recently. In '03 when we were in transition and missed a penalty which could have swung the game, in '05 in one of the worst games of football I had the misfortune to be at and in '07 when we were woeful. The only game of those 3 that I could say we should have won and were the better team at the time was '05. Galway dragged us down to their level that day.

So I'd go in optimistic but not overly so. Galway will have learnt more from their game than we did from ours. They have 3 dangerous forwards that need to be minded and if Hanley plays they have one of the better FB in the business so winning ball won't be as easy as against Ros

[Barney]

I see Munster have gone local and appointed Rory Hickey as ref for their Final.

This worries me greatly and should worry all Connacht gaels - two words - MARTY DUFFY.

Could be a disaster for both teams

[Rossfan]

I presume in the usual contempt for things Connacht the TV will cause the minor final to start at noon?

Senior game at 4pm so presumably minor at 2pm

Thanks be to God. At least I 'll be able to have a lie in and still avoid bloody Claregalway !!!

[muppet]

I see Munster have gone local and appointed Rory Hickey as ref for their Final.

This worries me greatly and should worry all Connacht gaels - two words - MARTY DUFFY.

Could be a disaster for both teams

Ah Barney. I know your pessimism is legendary but to be a disaster for both teams, both would have to lose. Surely even you don't see that happening?

Come to think of it.............Rossies I'm offering 10/1 on both Mayo and Galway losing the Connacht Final. Any takers?

[AbbeySider]

At least Galway had a good test, in fairness Sligo put it up to them although Galway fell asleep for a while during the game.
Mayo didn't even have an opposition during the Roscommon game. The sheepstealers completely rolled over so the game was of no benifit.

Sean Armstrong seems to be the real deal and I would worry about our own full back line against himself and Meehan.
We would be putting Donal Vaughan (mediocre defender at corner back, may lack pace for the corner, better suited to wing back) on Armstrong, with another relative rookie playing fullback in the form of Ger Cafferkey. Keith Higgins will hopefully hold Meehan but we are lacking experience on that line. Liam O Malley could slot in to stay with Armstrong IMO.

If Trevour Howley can hold Joyce we will be doing Ok. I know he wont, he is more of a stopper and sledger rather than a man marker, will Heaney be given his now traditional man marking role against Joyce? Horses for courses.... But I can see whoever is playing at centre back being isolated because Andy Moran and Peadar Gardiner love going forward, leaving lots of space if the attack breaks down and they are not back on time.
Also defensively, Moran and Gardnier are not at their best when on the back foot and actually defending so we could get punished if the Galway half forward line is on form.

We should win midfield, Galway might direct kickouts towards Bergan and away from Heaney/Parsons and McGarity but for the most part we are Ok there. Maybe Harte will drop deep for the Galway kickouts to contest it with Bergan.

Upfront I cant wait to see how Galway are going to deal with the twin towers, Barry Moran and Aidan O Shea.
I thought Galway were not wholly comfortable with high balls against a relatively small Sligo Fullforward line.
They may play a sweeper to play in front of them but who do they leave free, if they sacrifice a forward (most likely) it will give Andy Moran and Gardner license to do damage. 

It will be an interesting game, if Sammon gets the tactics right then Galway have a good chance.
Hopefully Mayo wont be c**k the walk going into it, I don't think we will be.

It will be close, Connaught finals always are, but id say Mayo shaving it by 2...

[myball22]

Galway's half-forward line is poor except for Joyce so I'm sure Moran and Gardiner will be exposed, but will be against greater oppostion.

The plan for Galway at midfield at this stage is to flood the midfield, break ball and hopefully win the majority of the breaks. it won't be pretty but that's the way it goes. If they break anyways close to 50-50, then they have a good chance.

I think the Galway defence may handle the big men better than the small fast guys like Kelly last week. They coped well in last year's Connacht final with the long ball in. It's the small nippy guys they struggle to handle.

I know we can say Galway were tested but they didn't look good. They say the sign of a good team is if they play badly and win. Of course to look at it in another way, if you play badly, it may be you are a bad team. May be an exaggeration but you get my point!!!! 

[GBXII]

Galway's half-forward line is poor except for Joyce so I'm sure Moran and Gardiner will be exposed, but will be against greater oppostion.

The plan for Galway at midfield at this stage is to flood the midfield, break ball and hopefully win the majority of the breaks. it won't be pretty but that's the way it goes. If they break anyways close to 50-50, then they have a good chance.

I think the Galway defence may handle the big men better than the small fast guys like Kelly last week. They coped well in last year's Connacht final with the long ball in. It's the small nippy guys they struggle to handle.

I know we can say Galway were tested but they didn't look good. They say the sign of a good team is if they play badly and win. Of course to look at it in another way, if you play badly, it may be you are a bad team. May be an exaggeration but you get my point!!!! 

Wouldn't agree with that at all now. They lined out with Bane and Bergin (not sure where he'll end up playing though, maybe as a third midfielder) either side of Joyce against Sligo, and they are quality players. Bane might not be great at contributing in general play but the lad can score and will certainly be dangerous if given space, and Bergin we know is quality. They could start Clancy (who would be of say, Andy Morans level) wing forward and put Bane in the corner but either way their half forwards are as good as Mayos considering we have T Mortimer at 11 who is hardly in Joyces league and then Harte and Dillon aren't much better or worse than what Galway have.

That is a worry though about Moran and Gardiner. Both of whom are very fit and energetic, and can take a score, but they are suspect defensively. I think Mayo will just shade midfield, so it should be a tight game overall. Here's hoping our forwards can do the biz...

[mckieran]

It is illogical to say that Galway have a poor half forward line as its impossible to know who will start in positions 10 & 12 the next day. Would a half-forward line of Armstrong P.Joyce Conroy be poor? I think not! And there is a chance that this is how Galway would line up.

However, I suspect we will see Coleman at number 10.

What I think the team will be for CF:

Faherty

Coyne
Hanley
Burke

Bradshaw
Blake
Sice

Cullinane
Bergin

Coleman
Joyce
Conroy

Clancy
Meehan
Armstrong

This is of course assuming everybody is fit. The team I would love to see start is:

Faherty

Coyne
Hanley
Burke

Bradshaw
Blake
Mullahy

Cullinane
Bergin

Conroy
P. Joyce
N. Joyce

Clancy   (Maybe Bane?)
Meehan
Armstrong

[Farrandeelin]

If Galway don't manage to 'rough us up' again like they did the previous few encounters then I thnk we will win. It's time we 'roughed them up', way past time. This will be the telling point for where Mayo are really at. I'm looking forward to it and midfield will be crucial.