2013 All Ireland Final: Mayo v Dublin

[rodney trotter]

Kevin Nolan and Micky Fitzsimons were probably Dublin's two best backs in 2011. Don't think either of them featured in the championship this year.
Dublin should dominate with the panel they have. Cormac Costello was unlucky with injuries this year and Alan Brogan. More options for next season if they are fully fit and around the panel.

[Jinxy]

We'll make bits of Dublin next year.
BITS OF THEM!

[Bord na Mona man]

Cluxton was under pressure with his early kickouts had Mayo had managed to keep tight on Dublin, he probably would have started taking wilder options as the game progressed. This was a huge systems failure for Mayo that they allowed him easily hit distant targets for most of the rest of the game.

For all the talk of Dublin's superiority and Mayo forwards being poor, there was only a point in it. Suggesting that Dublin forwards can just click and start rattling the twines at some future stage is a bit speculative. Top drawer shooters don't keep hitting the keeper with their shots. Bernard Brogan is sheer class, but had he not shown up today I'm not sure the rest could have pulled them through.

As for the decision to tap over the final free. I wonder will we hear more about this? Did McQuillan indicate there was time to take the point and then go for an equaliser? This happened Offaly against Kildare in 2002. With time nearly up and Offaly weighing up whether to go for goal with a close in free, referee Paddy Russell clarified with the Offaly players that there was sufficient time to go for the equaliser if they took the point. Imagine how amused they were when he blew for full time seconds after the point went over.

Ah you couldn't be anymore begrudging. We won by a lot more then a point. Mayo have no marquee forward. Said it pre-game on Saturday afternoon. And I was right. No team has ever won an All-Ireland with just good forwards. The facts are Dean Rock would be Mayo's marquee forward if he was born in Castlebar.

Enjoy the win (which was fully deserved), but that sort of crowing is ill advised, even in the heat of celebration.
Take out Brogan and Dublin's 5 other started forwards scored 3 points.
Dublin's 2nd best forward today was Eoghan O'Gara and his early introduction turned out to be blessing.
Let's not be mixing up marquees with 4 man tents...

What did Mayo's forwards score from play ? 1-3 and one of them was a back!  Our forwards subs or otherwise scored 2-8. I rest my case.

It's not crowing at all its pointing out the complete inaccuracies in your analysis.

My analysis was that if that there was really such a gulf (Dublin's 2nd sub would hypothetically be Mayo's marquee forward). And let's say there is, then for Dublin to only win by a point is surprising.
Your belief is that "[Dublin] won by a lot more then a point."

Because our forwards were marking the best defensive unit in Ireland.

Their forwards weren't. Now if you can't work that out I give up!

The Sunday Game panellists don't get it either.  Picking Cillian O'Connor on the team of the year, instead of superior footballing wizards like Rock and O'Gara. 

[Jell 0 Biafra]

Commiserations to Mayo.  But I think Mayo and Dublin are the teams to beat over the next 2-3 years.  there is an all-Ireland in this Mayo team.  Hard luck today, but Keep the faith.

[dublin7]

Mayo fans clutching at straws now. Even if McQuillan had played on, Dublin had won that last kickout.

Mayo won't win an all Ireland with that forward line. All through the game they showed lack og conviction/bottle to take on the shot. Mayo's half back line has more scoring power than their forward line. Only for the keeper would have been a bigger margin of victory for Dubs

[Jell 0 Biafra]

Mayo fans clutching at straws now. Even if McQuillan had played on, Dublin had won that last kickout.

Mayo won't win an all Ireland with that forward line. All through the game they showed lack og conviction/bottle to take on the shot. Mayo's half back line has more scoring power than their forward line. Only for the keeper would have been a bigger margin of victory for Dubs

You could maybe wait a few days for this sort of post, no?

[Dirk Diggler]

Whole country is heartbroken. The Dublin GAA crowd are mostly descended from culchies, but it doesn't soften the blow. They are good people, but ........................f**k the Dubs, you broke our hearts again, and with that team you might do it again.

[orangeman]

Not like mild mannered Jim to be giving out about the ref as he defends his players from the cynicism charge.

COLM KEYS – 23 SEPTEMBER 2013

Dublin manager Jim Gavin basked in the glory of a 2-12 to 1-14 victory but still insisted his team had to play a 16th man to claim a second All-Ireland title in three years.

Gavin  said he failed to understand how his team could have a free count of 32-12 against them and insisted that it had been a common trend all season.

He defended the cynicism of some of his players as they resorted to dragging down opponents to kill Mayo momentum, particularly in the last 10 minutes, and insisted it was born out of frustration with referee Joe McQuillan.

"Twelve frees? That's just beyond me. I can't understand that. I really can't. That's one of the very disappointing things. Not only were we playing Mayo but we were playing the referee as well," he claimed.

He refused to accept that his players had just fouled more to establish such an adverse free count and was adamant that any acts of cynicism like Kevin McManamon's 'tackle' on Lee Keegan in the 68th minute as they led by 2-12 to 1-12 were because they were "frustrated."

"We are getting very few frees, particularly from the forward division," he said.

"It's a fight that we have in every game, that opposition players are getting more frees than we are and we work very hard on the art of defending and the technical tackle. An awful lot of work on that. It's disappointing. That's an enormous number of frees to give away in any game," said Gavin.

"They (the players) were frustrated. That free-count is just not acceptable. Anybody here can ask me are Dublin a cynical team and we're not. We play the game with certain values in the squad and we play the game the way we believe it should be played and to have that number (of frees)...

"At the end, that was just Dublin players getting frustrated. For the whole game, there is a double count going against us. All the time. And it's not only today. We probably kept our counsel for most of the games but that has been the trend in all the games."

Information

Mayo players were also unhappy with McQuillan for blowing full time after Stephen Cluxton's final kick-out with manager James Horan and captain Andy Moran claiming the Cavan official had told them there were 30 seconds still left to play. Cillian O'Connor went for a point as a consequence of that apparent information relayed to him, to reduce the deficit to the minimum.

It was their second successive All-Ireland final defeat and inevitably there will be speculation about James Horan's future as manager.

Mayo led by 0-8 to 1-4 at the interval but their goalkeeper Rob Hennelly was forced to make three top-class saves to deny Dublin more goals.

Bernard Brogan was Dublin's scoring hero, bagging 2-3 (2-2 from play) in a war of attrition that left two of their players (Rory O'Carroll and Jonny Cooper) concussed and more limping out of a dressing room that resembled a war zone.

[AZOffaly]

No harm Jim, but that's just bullshit. Dublin deliberately killed the game and any Mayo momentum in the last 10 and 5 minutes particularly. It's not a heinous crime, nor is it unexpected, and I'd love Offaly to be in the position to kill off an All Ireland Final like that, but spare us that they were getting 'frustrated'. If he said they were knackered and doing all they could to stop Mayo, it would be more in his line.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Pious most holy saint Jim Gavin would sicken your hole at times coming out with sanctimonious shite at every available opportunity!   

Well done Dublin (buy lay off the righteous indignation, Management).

[bcarrier]

sanctimonious shite +1

Mud doesnt stick to this ( biting ? , gouging ? , cynical fouling ?) Dublin team though.   

[Applesisapples]

I read Gavin's comments with some amusement. If anyone has cause to be upset with McQuillan it's Mayo. He is a poor and inconsistent referee. Dublin are lucky to have finished with 15 players. It is also quite clear he told O'Connor there was time left. He should look at how the hurling final was reffed in relation to time added on. Mayo should have been allowed one more play, I don't think they'd hvae equalised anyway as the seemed to have lost their way. Dublin were the better team over the 70 minutes, although at times they seemed to prefer cynism over football. They don't need to be cynical they can dominate over the next few years with the players they've got. I don't know what Pat is doing in Croker but he's not turning out refs in his own image. Time to ditch assesment sheets and mjor on common sense.

[Michael Schmeichal]

Regarding the cynical fouling at the end of the match. Mayo did exactly the same to us at for the last 20 minutes of last years semi final. As a Dub I'm not proud of it and would of preferred if we had stayed playing attacking football. However the rules as they currently stand don't penalise it sufficently. Maybe the black card will solve the problem.

Secondly, if McQuillan told COC that there was 30seconds left as Andy Moran claims well COC wasted most of those 30 seconds taking the free. I couldnt believe how long he took over it.

[deiseach]

I hope they had sick bags for the hacks in Croke Park yesterday. I've seen some nauseating stuff from managers in all codes over the years, but Jim Gavin playing the victim takes some beating.

[ballinaman]

Congtats Dublin.

I'm in bits.