Roscommon vs. Mayo - Connacht SFC Semi-final (Dr. Hyde Park, June 8th 2014)

[macdanger2]

We wont be unbackable in the final this year and that will suit us more. Galway/Sligo from todays performance won't know what Mayo they will be facing.

Mayo will be hot favourites in the Connacht final no matter what happens between Galway and Sligo. Bar one team destroying the other and looking fantastic. Which is very unlikely to happen.

Mayo are 1/6 for Connacht at the moment. That'll probably lengthen to 1/4 or 5 if it's Galway we're playing and shorten to 1/7 or 8 if it's Sligo. Crazy odds

[moysider]

Honestly, it's hard to know about yesterday, have we really shook off our league form? It doesn't look to me as if we have, then again, the conditions didn't help. Saying that it wouldn't have helped Roscommon either. I was confident we would get a good performance from the team before the game. We got a win and a performance for around 10 minutes at the end. That was tough on Ros yesterday, but I'm sure the U-21s and the other young ones will learn from it. I also wonder was Evans wrong to leave the U-21s on the bench for that length of time. Thankfully for us he did, but from Ros's own perspective it was mindboggling. I agree with mayoman dan regarding 6 out of his 7 observations. I wouldn't start Andy, he showed yesterday that when the going got tough he was able to step in and lead. Would he be able to do that if he was on from the beginning in a dogfight, I'm not so sure. I would have given Tom Cunniffe man of the match.

PS Rossies, am I the only one who thinks Donie Shine is severely over-rated? Sure, he's a great man from dead-ball situations, but from play, he didn't do much. Certainly not a good number 11.

PPS, my own worries about the half-forwardline seemed to be shared by Horan as the game went on. And to sub 4 of the starting 6 forwards highlights the problems we have up front.

Do we have the luxury of not starting Andy? Or Dillon?
Andy and Dillon with Cillian and McLoughlin are our most effective forwards. Sadly it is now obvious that we don t have the forward resources of Dublin who can leave McManamon, Costello, Mannion and Rock off and still start an effective 6. That game yesterday was almost gone when Andy was sprung. Another day it could be beyond rescue. Why go to the trouble of getting Andy and Dillon right again and leave them sitting on the bench for an hour? If the starting 6 were burning the grass up then yeah great tactic but it doesn t look like that s going to happen any time soon.
I don t think we should be as threadbare as we are up front but unfortunately that is how this aspect of the team has evolved.
4 forwards subbed. 2 starting forwards score from play - and one of those a player a lot of supporters reckon is 'only' a back.

[highorlow]

Honestly, it's hard to know about yesterday, have we really shook off our league form?

We have. Some of the tackling by us yesterday was superb. Even the ref couldn't believe it and started offering Ross frees that didn't exist. This poor judgement by the ref happened on a least 3 occasions in the last ten minutes, I suppose that's to be expected playing away.

That dispossession game wasn't part of the league play. Roscommon were indisciplined in the last ten minutes but that was through sheer pressure we were applying. A few tweaks in the forward line and we are coming good. Our full backs were immense and the goal was not their fault. Our mid-field was a bit below par. Our own discipline was good and I don't think we gave away too many scoreable (valid) frees.

Whealan pointed out a weakness that we carried over from the league and that is leaving a large hole in the defense under our own kick outs. Ross got there goal from through that avenue. Our shooting with the wind in the 1st half was poor, that's only a bit of rust that will be worked on.

[Jinxy]

Like a lot of teams for whom ultra-defensive tactics are not the norm, Roscommon simply were not clinical enough when they got up the other end of the field.
Playing this way seems to take the edge off an attacking players accuracy.
It's as if they over-think every shot at goal as they realise that scoring opportunities are going to be few and far between and tense up as a result.
Chances that would normally be slotted over start to go a foot wide or drop into the keeper's hands.

[rosnarun]

Honestly, it's hard to know about yesterday, have we really shook off our league form?

We have. Some of the tackling by us yesterday was superb. Even the ref couldn't believe it and started offering Ross frees that didn't exist. This poor judgement by the ref happened on a least 3 occasions in the last ten minutes, I suppose that's to be expected playing away.

That dispossession game wasn't part of the league play. Roscommon were indisciplined in the last ten minutes but that was through sheer pressure we were applying. A few tweaks in the forward line and we are coming good. Our full backs were immense and the goal was not their fault. Our mid-field was a bit below par. Our own discipline was good and I don't think we gave away too many scoreable (valid) frees.

Whealan pointed out a weakness that we carried over from the league and that is leaving a large hole in the defense under our own kick outs. Ross got there goal from through that avenue. Our shooting with the wind in the 1st half was poor, that's only a bit of rust that will be worked on.

Ref Seemed to Crack open a different rule book for the second half all right .

My opinion in that it was mayos 10 1st half wide that made yesterday look like a contest and that is the area we should concetrate on improving.  Ross put up a good challange  but must ahve been  encouragedafter getting whipped in the first half to go in just 1 point down.
other than that mayo played OK but its all about the scores .

[moysider]

Honestly, it's hard to know about yesterday, have we really shook off our league form?

We have. Some of the tackling by us yesterday was superb. Even the ref couldn't believe it and started offering Ross frees that didn't exist. This poor judgement by the ref happened on a least 3 occasions in the last ten minutes, I suppose that's to be expected playing away.

That dispossession game wasn't part of the league play. Roscommon were indisciplined in the last ten minutes but that was through sheer pressure we were applying. A few tweaks in the forward line and we are coming good. Our full backs were immense and the goal was not their fault. Our mid-field was a bit below par. Our own discipline was good and I don't think we gave away too many scoreable (valid) frees.

Whealan pointed out a weakness that we carried over from the league and that is leaving a large hole in the defense under our own kick outs. Ross got there goal from through that avenue. Our shooting with the wind in the 1st half was poor, that's only a bit of rust that will be worked on.

I d be inclined to agree but the tweaks could be the tricky bit for me. I didn t see a forward 6 before yesterday's game and I still don t see one without fairly radical changes. Something like.

McLoughlin Cillian Gallagher/Feeney
Dillon Andy Freeman

or

McLoughlin O Se Gall/Feeney
Dillon Andy Cillian

Problem with the above is lack of impact from the bench. Also a shame that Gallagher has fallen out of favour like others before him. Our forward options could be a lot better.

[Shrewdness]

Rosnarun, just to clarify the wides and ref for you. Mayo kicked 13 wides, Ros had 9. The ref awarded Mayo 20 frees, Ros got 19. One yellow card each.

[blast05]

Have seen no comment on Keegans performance yet. I was amazed by it. He done everything at less than half pace. Similar to the Derry game. I trust him though to peak and raise his game from late July on.

No mention either of the conditions .... a very tight pitch that plays even tighter than its size, always bloody windy it seems (moreso given the elevation) and wet - exactly the opposite type of conditions required to play open expansive fast football. Once that thunder shower happened befoer the start i was expecting it to be a flip of the coin type of game. A type of game i'd love to have seen the Dubs having to face away from the sexy open spaces of Croke Park.

Anyway, next days forward line for me.....
McLoughlin Aidan Feeney
Dillon Freeman Sweeney

I just think that Sweeney brings a consistenct pace and energy that we badly need. A more skillful version of David Nestor.
Andy the super-sub.
Have not overly convinced myself of whether Dillon would be effective in the corner. Probably more a case of himself and McLoughlin constantly switching

[macdanger2]

I don't think the half forward line are solely to blame for their poor performance yesterday. The inside forwards weren't showing for the ball early enough and when they were, Roscommon had a lot of men back covering. Cillian and Freeman are the two men we're putting most of our hopes on this year and (Cillian's free excepted) neither stood out yesterday.

It's a bit worrying that we hadn't a change of gameplan to counter the massed defence Roscommon went with – I doubt it'll be the last time we'll come up against that this summer.

[highorlow]

Cillian and Freeman are the two men we're putting most of our hopes on this year and (Cillian's free excepted) neither stood out yesterday.

When proper diagonal ball from Dillion and Andy was starting to go to Cillian he was winning it easily. McL is better delivering ball than receiving it so he should be out in the HFL. A straight swap with Doherty is necessary.

Freeman's positional sense is poor for the last few games now. I think he won 2 frees in the first half but apart from that he wasn't up to standard.

In fairness to them though the Ross backs were very impressive. Did Freeman get injured or something? He didn't participate in the warm up and only came out for the parade?

[Mayo4Sam]

Hennelly clobbered Freeman in the warm up

I dont know if its how freeman isnt making the right runs but he seems content to stand beside his man and back himself to win the ball that comes in. However when the ball in is poor then he has little chance.

[Blowitupref]

Rosnarun, just to clarify the wides and ref for you. Mayo kicked 13 wides, Ros had 9. The ref awarded Mayo 20 frees, Ros got 19. One yellow card each.

most of the wides mayo kicked in the 1st half were aimless passes or shots that drifted out over the line. 7 pointed frees mayo got and few of them looked soft.

[moysider]

Have seen no comment on Keegans performance yet. I was amazed by it. He done everything at less than half pace. Similar to the Derry game. I trust him though to peak and raise his game from late July on.

No mention either of the conditions .... a very tight pitch that plays even tighter than its size, always bloody windy it seems (moreso given the elevation) and wet - exactly the opposite type of conditions required to play open expansive fast football. Once that thunder shower happened befoer the start i was expecting it to be a flip of the coin type of game. A type of game i'd love to have seen the Dubs having to face away from the sexy open spaces of Croke Park.

Anyway, next days forward line for me.....
McLoughlin Aidan Feeney
Dillon Freeman Sweeney

I just think that Sweeney brings a consistenct pace and energy that we badly need. A more skillful version of David Nestor.
Andy the super-sub.
Have not overly convinced myself of whether Dillon would be effective in the corner. Probably more a case of himself and McLoughlin constantly switching

So you re leaving out Cillian and Andy? Arguably our 2 best forwrds yesterday.

[REDCOL]

Bring back Evan Regan, and drop Cillian. We think Horans selections are strange

[Shrewdness]

What Roscommon need to do now is not see yesterday as some kind of moral victory, because it wasn't. It was a missed opportunity, because it's a game that they could have won..Nobody gave them a hope going in to the game. But the management and team had faith in the game plan, because if they didn't, they couldn't have turned in that performance. They need to take the positives from that game and build on them. They need to also take the negatives and learn from them, and move on..Interesting to see John Evans comments after the game when asked why he hadn't started the u-21 players. ''you can't be hanging your coats on young fellas''.