All Ireland senior football final 2012 Donegal v Mayo

[An Gaeilgoir]

Just to follow on from Farrandeelin, this it the toughest defeat to take for me personally and i think it will be a while to come back from this one, as this was supposed to be the best prepared Mayo team ever, and for the first 20 mins, some of our players were so nervous that this weight of expectation will only grow year on year.

In my line of work, we have a system called "lessons learned", have Mayo never carried out this? to be chasing a lost cause again after 20 mins. seems to tell me the lessons of the past have not been learned. We can make all the excuses in the world, but the fact remained that after twenty minutes we were 7 points down..

Coming into this game, all i heard from people was "Cynical" Mayo, where was it yesterday for the first 10 mins. even?

I also thought that some one or two of our "senior" men hid a little yesterday, the bad start bringing up all the old ghosts again. maybe all of the above is a bit harsh, i dont know...........

We have some positives, to hear Aidan o Shea talk on that Radio one cringe fest with Brian Mc Carthy and wee Daniel after the game should be an inspiration to all Mayo people and i have no doubt that in years to come he will be mentioned in the same breath as Sean Flanagan.......... a great, brave piece of a young fellow.

Finally, well done to MWRs Angelina mc Hugh, for her post match analysis on RTE radio also, she cut the legs out from Brian regarding Mayos high -confidence coming into the game and talk of the "curse" and put some of the other "commentators" in the shade. Mighty stuff.

Great credit must go to James Horan and his team for bringing us to this level in 2 years, but the weight of history weighs heavy on our shoulders.

The clouds are low and grey today in Mayo, roll on the FBD in Jan.

Ar Aghaidh linn!

[J OGorman]

Donegal were well worth their win for being more economical with their chances. Goes without saying that a crazy opening to the game killed it for Mayo, but they looked the better footballing team for long spells after that. Donegal's famed third quarter never materialised, and it was actually the last 10 minutes that won the game for them in the end. If Mayo had have had Andy Moran on the field there really could have been an upset - a team can't find an all-Ireland without their star player.

McGuinness' tactics, commitment and inspiration throughout the season were absolutely fantastic, but his stunt at the end was outrageous there. Every journalist in the room should have followed Declan Bogue out.

What happened mucker??

Kicked Declan Bogue out of the post-match presser. Awful behaviour.

is it but? mcguinness is adamant bogue made stuff up to sell copy. as manager he has a responsibility to protect his players. journalists have a responsibility also, cant have it both ways. take your oil

He didn't though. And why kick Cassidy out?

Cassidy must be feeling sore today. His crime was breaking Jim's omerta. None of the details were particularly groundbreaking or insightful.

That's the thing. It was quite mundane. Cross Jimmy and you're going down and anyone belonging to you.

Correct Shane.

In any other job the manager would have gone for his treatment of Cassidy. 

Cassidy only said what everyone else knew.

Back home after the game and very disappointed in the poor effort by Mayo.  They were so nervous and mentally ill prepared that all of their ball handling skills were very poor.  When they came to terms with their nerves thay could hold their own.  Management of Mayo may have come some way but has a long way to go to prepare a team for a final particularly a Mayo team with such a weight of expectation on such occasions.

BTW Donegal supporters were pathetic with their booing and jeering of the Mayo freetakers.

Main danger for other teams is that Donegal build an aurora of being unbeatable, they are still a team playing one or two up front and everyone in defence.  A better referee would have given Donegal a bit of bother with many more yellow cards.

Anyone notice that Lacey was a lot quieter when he shipped a heavy tackle shoulder to shoulder but no ball present.  Too many have stood off him all year and last year and made him look better than he is.

oki doki..tell us, how would you mentally prepare a team for (all bar 3 I think) their 1st AIF?

[omagh_gael]

Well done Donegal. Very good first and last quarters, not so much in between. Best team in 2012, no doubt. But at the same stage (probably for the first time this summer), they looked beatable on Sunday.

Overall I thought Mayo had more players who played below par. Great opportunity lost for them. But they are a dead cert for the quarters next year, so they should be able to give it a good rattle again.

What does Jimmy McG do for a living ? Just curious, have not seen it mentioned anywhere

Nothing.

Plus I heard that 11 of the Donegal team don't have jobs (perhaps there's a lot of students among that number)

Does Jim not own some sort of consultancy business in Letterkenny?

[imtommygunn]

I would say he's fairly successful. He has some sort of consultancy business.

McGuinness has all the attributes of someone who'd be very successful in anything he does I suspect. The organisation,drive etc etc to get Donegal from where they were to where they are now is quite remarkable. Without him Donegal would have been nowhere near. With Kernan / Harte their teams were on the verge and needed that push pver the line - these guys in Donegal weren't even close.

[Capt Pat]

Donegal deserved the win on yesterdays form and throughout the year they cave been impressive. Murphys opening goal was superb. Maybe Cafferky should have been marking him but after that Keane seemed to do ok on him. I also thought it waa a free to O' Connor at the other end and certainly not a free out I think that the ref gave? Anyway it was a poor decision that caused a four point turnaround in the game and there proved to be no way back for Mayo.

Mayo were in fact the better team for the rest of the game and if O Shea hadn't slipped before kicking the ball for that late goal chance we could be looking at a replay.

[Capt Pat]

O Shea and O'Connor are 20 & 21 and can play better than they showed yesterday. There is at least half a dozen more years at the top for them. Their minors have been pretty good for the last few years without winning an all Ireland of course. Mayos minors should have been in the all Ireland this year too giving the Dubs a much better challenge than that mediocre Meath outfit.

Of course they also have players like Moran and Mortimer that could return. Horan seems to be the man to get them to take the final step in the next year or two but knowing Mayo they will probably find a way to mess it up.

Kerry and Tyrone seem to be gone and the main contenders in the next 3 or 4 years seem to be Cork, Dublin, Donegal and Mayo.

[screenexile]

It was alluded to on the Sunday Game last night. Murphy has tended to play out the field all year with only brief journeys up to Full Forward.
Horan obviously put Keane on Murphy to do a job on him out the field as he was clearly no match for him under a high ball.

What Mayo should have done was let Cafferkey mark Murphy when he came into the danger zone. Alas the damage was done before this was sorted. It's a pretty minor lapse in concentration from the management and 8 times out of 10 it would have been rectified before a goal came off it but these things tend to get magnified in an AIF.

I think Mayo heads are very down on themselves. This was not like previous defeats. After 11 minutes I thought it was going to be but they fought back impressively and although Donegal had them at arms length I think with a few lads back like Moran etc. Mayo will be a tough nut to crack over the next few years. They're virtually guaranteed an All Ireland Quarter Final place next year and anything can happen from then.

[camanchero]

great occasion. Donegal the best team this year. Mayo can be proud of their young squad this season.
Thought the ref was trying to keep Mayo in it, some poor decisions/decisions not given and so on.
Think there needs to be two refs on a pitch. Hard to spot the off the ball stuff or some of the actual fouls/incidents up close and the pace of the game means a single ref cannot keep up with this.
Think that it will be interesting to see if Donegal can maintain the hunger and drive to win a second in a row. Dublin, Cork will be there or thereabouts again next year with Kerry, Tyrone, Mayo and maybe a couple of others potentially capable of at least making the final.

Def think that McGuinness caught Horan out by keeping Murphy on the square from the start.
It gave Donegal the cushion that made the game comfortable enough. They never got going which Mayo can take a lot of credit for. Mayo are young, but there is no guarantee they can get back to the same stage next year given the other teams that will be back in the mix.

While delighted for Donegal, I feel sympathy for my many Mayo friends and football pals from down the years. Its another tough blow to take - but thats football!

[Rossfan]

Mayo .... They're virtually guaranteed an All Ireland Quarter Final next year.

That's fightin talk me boy.
If there's a drop of red blood left in Ros , Galway or Sligo it needs to be shed ( metaphoricall of course) to prevent that happening.

[Bingo]

Overall Donegal were the best team in the championship and yesterday was no different but they didn't reach the heights that they did in earlier games. They didn't have to. The start they got was immense and it was clear that they targetted this and had goals on their mind. I don't think Mayo were caught cold, rather they got caught out by Donegals tactics.

Once Mayo settled they played some very good football, particularly when they didn't have the ball, if that makes sense. Rarely have donegal turned over so much ball.

Second half it was clear that Donegal retreated back and the instruction was clear - no goals. Some suggesting that the famed Donegal 3rd quarter blitz/attack never materialised but I don't think they even considered it.

Mayo played into their hands and tried to launch high balls into FF line for last ten, never looked like remotely troubling Donegal. They never really looked at the late Mayo goal chance last night, a cuter forward in possession at that stage, could have bought himself a penalty with the trailing legs of the diving donegal challenge, to avoid them he actually was off balance for the chance and had a forest of bodies to beat. Fair play to his honesty, a goal at that stage would have left a point in it with a few minutes remaining. Despite been marginally in the Donegal corner, I was urging it to go in.

Finally, I think the days of the pitch invasion should be consigned to history. Was great yesterday watching the Donegal players enjoy themselves and soak up the atmosphere. Great shots of Jimmys kids playing ball and players able to pick out family in the crowd, particularly the McHughs. I stayed for the lot of it and it was great I thought and the crowd seemed to enjoy it as much. If their had off been a pitch invasion, after Murphy read out his novel, it would have been largely all over.

[Hardy]

Yes - the whole presentation and celebration occasion was great yesterday. How anyone could think it would have been enhanced by a stampede of yahooing fans hijacking the players' celebration is beyond me.

Just one thing - can we have done with the captain's speech nonsense? It's not fair to expect our footballers to be orators. Windbag speeches these days are generally limited to political rallies and the like, but for this exception. It's a throwback to a time when speechmaking was central to any public celebration. Does anybody actually enjoy the captain's speech? We do celebrating better nowadays. The boring, interminable, Barry McGuigan-scale thanking marathon, followed by the cringe-inducing hip-hipping and the predictable sequence - "but there's one man ... " and then, "but most of all, youse, the supporters ..." just sucks the atmosphere out of a spontaneous, joyous occasion. We've got rid of sitting on the Hill-16 wall and the stand roof, bishop-kissing, pitch invasions, spilling over onto the sideline in the last five minutes and the scoreboard that was actually made of numbered boards. And all for the better. Why does this particular anachronism persist?

[rrhf]

Agh ffs.  Could we not just get rid of Meath instead. 

[Hardy]

You've tried often enough and failed spectacularly on every occasion.

[seafoid]

Agh ffs.  Could we not just get rid of Meath instead.

Banty was the Manchurian Candidate but the mission is crocked now. Back to the drawing board. 

[Hardy]

 

Banty's not gone a wet week and already we're in Croke Park on AIF day.