Connacht U21 Championship 2010

[Cosmo Kramer]

Couldn't get to the game because of Paddy's day etc. but I would feel that maybe a few questions would have to be asked from a Mayo point of view. Maybe even some of ye on here could provide the answers. So here goes...

If Keane remains as good as he was as a minor, why was he only on the team because of injury, and not picked from the start? Would he be worth a place in the Senior panel this year - we're not exactly overflowing with options in the full back line?

Nally at midfield - surely a case of good player, wrong position?

With quality like O'Shea and Douglas in the forwards, did we really need McLoughlin up there? Would we not have been better served with him in the backs?

What's the story with Jason Gibbons, if he has left the panel, was it purely a personal thing or was there a management issue?


My personal opinion is that the key to under 21 success is getting three years worth of minors together and making the best out of them. Whem we won the All-Ireland in 2006 we included a good few lads who had played minor the year before and mixed them in with more experienced lads like Keith Higgins, Barry Moran and Aiden Kilcoyne. Dempsey seems to have pretty much ignored last years minors, who got to an All-Ireland final. Surely getting a few of them involved could have improved the team, because we knew the 07 minors weren't great and we seemed to be trying to patch things up just by bringing in the 08 lads. We should have brought in a couple of the 09 guys too imo.

I suppose the only bright side is that Galway don't seem to have much coming through, and even though we can expect a resurgent Roscommon in a few years time, Galway will always be our most competitive rival in Connacht, but we seem to have more options for the future than them.

p.s. taking nothing away from the Rossies here, fair play to them yeaterday.

[REDCOL]

Roscommon deserved their victory yesterday, while there is a lot of focus on mcloughlin and nally being played in wrong positions. Nally was the better of our two midfielders (which wasnt difficult), no wonder jason gibbons walked away. Tactically we got it all wrong, at the start of the second half we brought Alan Freeman to Wing forward - Roscommon Number 5 Mc Keague ran riot, they moved mcloughlin to corner forward what was that all about, changed back after 10-15 mins. For the second game running brought on a sub for 15mins and then replaced him. Carolan was doing way better than doherty but taken off again.

Ray talks about individual mistakes costing us all irelands, me thinks he should look in the mirror.

[small white mayoman]

<choke ><choke > well done roscomm.... sorry cant finish it off
donal shine was the difference today he is a prestigious Kicker of the ball not only was the last point worthy of winning any game his free from about 55 metres against the wind was as good as youll see any where.
Hope he f**ks off to oz now or something.
Despite the usual  youll hear from the Fatalistic  mayo boys the lads actually were not that bad today Just beaten by a better more clinical side . As with last years match Ros look to have more players ready for senior straight away , but then again remember last june...
most positive note for mayo was the performance of kevin keane. he look aggressive and assured and a real possible for the senior set up also Aisen Ose looks like hes continuing his rehabilitation

Well done to the rossies on yesterdays win

[magpie seanie]

A day of joy and firsts yesterday. First time to see a Coolera/Strandhill man lead out a Sligo team. First time to see a Sligo team win in Tuam (I think 1994 is the last time and I wasn't there). First time to see Sligo win with Vincent Neary refereeing (I missed the NFL game v. Kilkenny last year and sure that shouldn't count anyway!). First time to see a Galway forward line kick so many bad wides.

Galway were not great which is a cause of concern for the next day. A few holes in our team to be plugged but I expect the team to come on for this game. Was very surprised at Michael Martyn today. He looked like another golden Galway forward on the way through when I saw him at minor but has regressed a bit. That can happen with young players I suppose, wouldn't write him off completely. I saw David Maye a few times last season and was quite worried about his progress but he was super yesterday.

A Connacht final in Markievicz for the second year in a row. This is a good Roscommon team so winning it will be awful hard. We can possibly do it if the workrate and honest endeavour of the players is anything to go by. For now though I'm going to enjoy the feeling of walking out of Tuam Stadium with the head held high yesterday. Going by the roundabout coming out of the ground an ould guy driving by leaned out the window and asked "who won the match?" He was told "Sligo" to which he replied with incredulity "but sure weren't they playing Galway?" (*)

(*) - Galway folk, this is not gloating and I hope its not construed as such. We have got some terrible hidings in Tuam over the years so let me enjoy this one. I've savage respect for Galway football.

[GalwayBayBoy]

A day of joy and firsts yesterday. First time to see a Coolera/Strandhill man lead out a Sligo team. First time to see a Sligo team win in Tuam (I think 1994 is the last time and I wasn't there). First time to see Sligo win with Vincent Neary refereeing (I missed the NFL game v. Kilkenny last year and sure that shouldn't count anyway!). First time to see a Galway forward line kick so many bad wides.

Galway were not great which is a cause of concern for the next day. A few holes in our team to be plugged but I expect the team to come on for this game. Was very surprised at Michael Martyn today. He looked like another golden Galway forward on the way through when I saw him at minor but has regressed a bit. That can happen with young players I suppose, wouldn't write him off completely. I saw David Maye a few times last season and was quite worried about his progress but he was super yesterday.

A Connacht final in Markievicz for the second year in a row. This is a good Roscommon team so winning it will be awful hard. We can possibly do it if the workrate and honest endeavour of the players is anything to go by. For now though I'm going to enjoy the feeling of walking out of Tuam Stadium with the head held high yesterday. Going by the roundabout coming out of the ground an ould guy driving by leaned out the window and asked "who won the match?" He was told "Sligo" to which he replied with incredulity "but sure weren't they playing Galway?" (*)

(*) - Galway folk, this is not gloating and I hope its not construed as such. We have got some terrible hidings in Tuam over the years so let me enjoy this one. I've savage respect for Galway football.

Enjoy the final seanie. Wasn't at the game but heard it on the radio and Galway seemed to kick a mountain of bad wides alright but if you kick so many wides you don't deserve to win games. End of story.

Lot on anger in Galway this morning towards the county board and the underage system in place (or lack of it) at the moment so if one good thing comes from it hopefully it will be a complete revamp of the system. I won't hold my breath though.

[GaillimhIarthair]

A day of joy and firsts yesterday. First time to see a Coolera/Strandhill man lead out a Sligo team. First time to see a Sligo team win in Tuam (I think 1994 is the last time and I wasn't there). First time to see Sligo win with Vincent Neary refereeing (I missed the NFL game v. Kilkenny last year and sure that shouldn't count anyway!). First time to see a Galway forward line kick so many bad wides.

Galway were not great which is a cause of concern for the next day. A few holes in our team to be plugged but I expect the team to come on for this game. Was very surprised at Michael Martyn today. He looked like another golden Galway forward on the way through when I saw him at minor but has regressed a bit. That can happen with young players I suppose, wouldn't write him off completely. I saw David Maye a few times last season and was quite worried about his progress but he was super yesterday.

A Connacht final in Markievicz for the second year in a row. This is a good Roscommon team so winning it will be awful hard. We can possibly do it if the workrate and honest endeavour of the players is anything to go by. For now though I'm going to enjoy the feeling of walking out of Tuam Stadium with the head held high yesterday. Going by the roundabout coming out of the ground an ould guy driving by leaned out the window and asked "who won the match?" He was told "Sligo" to which he replied with incredulity "but sure weren't they playing Galway?" (*)

(*) - Galway folk, this is not gloating and I hope its not construed as such. We have got some terrible hidings in Tuam over the years so let me enjoy this one. I've savage respect for Galway football.

It was a fully merited win by Sligo yesterday and our lads can have no complaints.  With the help of God it might finally get the penny to drop with the powers that be in Galway that a massive overhaul is required of the current underage structures because they have been a shambles for the past few years and the minors of '07 just glossed over that fact.  Yesterday was proof of how far some players have regressed in two and a half years.  It was/is alarming.  It has been a poor start to 2010 for our footballers and unfortunately it is going to get worse before it gets better.

Best of luck to Sligo in the Connacht Final.

[SLIGONIAN]

Thats the third time Sligo have knocked Galway out of the u21 in the last 10yrs. Not a bad statistic. Was wondering who the captain was, so Keelan it is, jees he definitly leads by example.

The Rossies have to be confident, and as I said to Dad they will be delighted to hear Sligo won.

Strangest thing though about these u21s, was the late appointment, and not many rate the manager but yet we beat Galway in Tuam probably being one of the worst prepared teams in the country. This team got together very late so it was a pleasant suprise yday.

[Barney]

Well done Rossie lads.

A sore one to lose - but by all accounts the Mayo lads got what they deserved. 4 in a row was a brilliant achievement and will be the back bone of our team for the next 5/6 years. There are good players on this years team also that will come again - and some of them at u21 level. I didn't see the team play but would have been suprised at some of the positional moves.

The draw opens up nicely for both Roscommon and Sligo now so give it a good go.

Given the games at this level between Ros and Mayo over the last 3 years it looks like the rivalry between us will be renewed big time over the coming years.

[Rossfan]

Given the games at this level between Ros and Mayo over the last 3 years it looks like the rivalry between us will be renewed big time over the coming years.

The rivalry never went away Barney.  ...just that we werent able to compete with ye the last 10 - 15 years and ye were taking no heed of us as a result.
I hear that one of ye're mentors helped get us fired up for the second half 

[diehard]

Ros were more up for this game than Mayo and good luck to them.
Mayo seemed to be strolling and lacked urgency. They only reacted when Ros did something worthwhile. This is often a sign of a  team that has lost the edge or the hunger to win. Unfortunately when Donie Shine kicked that magnificent point Mayo did not have time to react.   
Kevin McLoughlin is a genuinely good player but he was indeed out of it. However he was picked at centre forward and when  Aidan O Shea moved there or thereabouts to support midfield McLoughlin was lost.  He was dispatched to corner forward for a period!  And all I can say to that is sweetmother-a-jazus!

All in all Ray got it wrong on several fronts - and the efforts to put things right on the day had the opposite effect.
I dont like the idea of putting in subs and hauling them out again after ten or twelve minutes.  I personally thought that Carolan was badly treated in both games.

Finally I'm afraid I did not see too many potentially top class senior player in this Mayo side apart from O'Shea.

[Zulu]

Did O'Shea play well? I have serious doubts as to whether he will make it at senior level.

[diehard]

Zulu ......O Shea was very good yesterday.  Without him I think we would have been well beaten.

[Farrandeelin]

He was the only one of the '6' forwards who was any good in my opinion yesterday. Douglas and Freeman seemed to be coming off second best all day.

[Zulu]

That's good to hear as I'd like to see him do well but I just have a feeling he won't have the mobility for senior football, I think his size has helped him underage but I'd have major concerns that his football isn't quite good enough for IC without the advantages of his size.

[rosnarun]

some one asked about keane , he was picked from the start as he was for the semi but had a family bereavement so didnt play .
Was the best back for mayo yesterday and I  expect will move up to senior sooner rather than later.