Mayo v Kerry Official Thread

[dodo]

I don't think Donaghy should be disciplined at all, had a shot for a point that went wide. Mayo supporters behind the goal celebrated it overly enthusiastically with some jeering and he just responded with a finger gesture !

He's a sportsman - he should display some discipline.  He's also a role model to many young fans. He should face consequences for such behaviour.

What consequence would you suggest ?
Had a quiet day by his standards. Scored a lovely point in the first half, missed a point at the end that would have made it a lot harder on Mayo to come back as they did.
He is a sportsman and has lit up football since he first came to prominance two years ago. His displays have re-introduced the Bomber type full forward option to many counties and helped to reduce the over reliance on short passing. Because of his high profile his indiscretions will be picked up on quickly. He seems to get plenty of bookings in games and this is the side of his game that needs most attention. A finger to the crowd is a sign of his fustration and I doubt that too many peiople took offence. More of a comic moment for people to scoff at.

[Maguire01]

So if he was a crap player it would be different?
It's not about taking offence - it's about setting an example (the example that players set to young fans).

[blast05]

More of a comic moment for people to scoff at.

I disagree. As has been said, hes a role model, thousands of young kids watching the game and again on TV tonight. Thats not the example we want to set.
Anyway, enough of it, he'll learn  ..... but could someone please take Tommy Lyons aside and give him a bit a slapping  ..... he seemed to be trying to blame Mayo en-masse for drawing the desture out of Donaghy. Michael Lester had to more or less shut him up and say that every county has a few idiots.

[orangeman]

Kieran Donaghy was well out of order today as were the Mayo supporters - but the Mayo supporters won't be getting the grant money for being elite athletes - Donaghy will and should at least be spoken to - he doesn't need suspended but a telling off would suffice.

[sheskin]

Mort served a long suspension a couple of years ago for an identical jesture in a college match. Whats good for the goose .....

[orangeman]

Mort served a long suspension a couple of years ago for an identical jesture in a college match. Whats good for the goose .....


But he shouldn't have and two wrongs .............. etc

[WJP11]

Check out http://mayogaablog.com/ for a Mayoman's take (words and video clips) on yesterday's match at McHale Park.  If you want another Mayoman's view on proceedings, have a look at what my fellow Mayo GAA blogger has to say at: http://nooneshoutedstop.wordpress.com/.

[parkoncrokie]

Decent game and deserved win for Mayo IMO, I thought both Mortimers played well and Conroy was very good at full back. O'Malley at FF kcked some great scores, has trimed down and looks very fit however other than himself and the 2 Mort's I thought the other forwards were fairly poor especially Andy Moran who won a reasonable amount of ball but rarely took the right option.

Thought A Moran worked really hard  off the ball did a lot of running and delivered the pass for the winner

[Main Street]

Great win for Mayo. Just when the rest of the football world expected Kerry to string 20 passes together and hit the winning point  it was Mayo who held their nerve while Kerry wilted and surrendered the possession.

I wouldn't put a blind bit of notice on Donaghy, it was great to see the champions' noses being rubbed into the grass, the fans were up for it in the last 10mins, loudly cheering every Kerry wide and they got to Donaghy. Priceless  

[Mike Sheehy]

I wouldn't put a blind bit of notice on Donaghy, it was great to see the champions' noses being rubbed into the grass, the fans were up for it in the last 10mins, loudly cheering every Kerry wide and they got to Donaghy. Priceless

See you in the summer lads .....

[Main Street]

But what will we see in the Summer, Kerry nerves shot in the last 10 minutes, Donaghy with legs of jelly, Dara O'Sé powerless like a Superman with kryptonite and Sheehan looking up the Gods wondering what happened.

[Mike Sheehy]

That could very well happen but, all in all, I wouldn't be too worried about losing by a point away from home to a team that obviously were very up for the game following the recent history between the sides. I'd be a bit worried about Bryan Sheehan as he may not be as reliable as we thought but, other than that, it was a good experience for the newer members. Throw in for good measure a handy bit of motivation for Kieran Donaghy if Kerry meet Mayo in a summer  and you have a reasonable weekend,  apart from the two points that were lost of course.

[Frank Casey]

[See you in the summer lads .....

See you in Croke Park any time.

Anyway this is from today's www.irishexaminer.ie. There's mention of something being thrown from the crowd to Donaghy resulting in his sporting gesture. While it doesn't excuse it it goes someway to explaining it. Two issues (1) KD needs to keep it together. (2) If something was thrown - shame on the supporters, tis bad enough for  your team to throw in the towel when is matters, there's no excuse to throw it anything else from the sidelines.

And BTW well done Mayo yesterday.

Mayo's fall guy shows spring promise for summer road
By Liam Horan
IF CROAGH PATRICK fell back on its arse, there are people in Mayo would swear it was Austin O'Malley's fault. He's so much of a fall guy that when the Ancient Order of Fall Guys hold their annual social, they leave him off the list. Even fall guys need a fall guy.

Never once over the last five seasons has a Mayo manager really, truly, deeply placed his faith in him. The promise of spring gives way each time to nothing more glorious than the bench-and-tracksuit of summer.

Apparently he's 27 now, time to be getting the message, you'd think.

And yet, he keeps coming back for more — like yesterday, at McHale Park, when his magnificent injury-time point served as a badly-needed mouth-to-mouth job for Mayo's ailing Allianz NFL Division 1 campaign.

After his booming kick went over, Kerry got just one more chance to save the day. Kieran Donaghy snatched wildly at a low-percentage shot out on the right wing. It went wide. Like, who does this Donaghy kid think he is? Austin O'Malley?

One genius among the Mayo crowd hurled something at Donaghy. He missed. Go on, knock yourself out: yep, in Mayo, even the fans can't shoot straight.

Yesterday, Donaghy reacted to the missile by making a provocative gesture towards the crowd, scarcely the cleverest response. It was a frustrating day out for him, overall. Unlike Cork last September, and Mayo the September before that, Mayo actually went to the trouble of devising a tactic that might curb Donaghy's influence.

We're not talking Mensa stuff here, either. No, just the simple ploy of dropping wing-forward Trevor Mortimer back in front of where rookie full-back Kieran Conroy and Donaghy were grappling with one another. The ploy did what it promised on the tin.

Not that the early portents were good for Mayo. From the throw-in, Tomas Ó Sé said to himself he'd send in a high ball to check the wellbeing of the Mayo full-back line. Teacher Tomas needn't be a historian to recall that Mayo don't always pack a top-notch full-back line in their lunchbox.

What do you know, Donaghy knocks it down, Darren O'Sullivan gets bundled over, Bryan Sheehan scores the penalty, there's barely a minute gone, and Mayo fans in the crowd of about 5,000 gulp hard on their Adam's Apple.

Yet inside, five minutes, Mayo were level. Wind-supported Kerry couldn't really shake them off throughout the first half. Conroy and Mortimer made Donaghy sweat for anything he got, and only Darren O'Sullivan caused any panic.

It was level at 1-5 to 0-8 after 29 minutes. Kerry outscored Mayo 0-4 to 0-1 in the remaining minutes of the half, but the three-point interval lead wasn't much money in the bank — and the bank had the look of Northern Rock about it, too.

Mayo wouldn't be ones to spoil Kerry, though, and their first transactions with the breeze at their backs were two wides (Alan Dillon and David Heaney), a refusal-to-shoot (Liam O'Malley), and a wild kick (Trevor Mortimer) that dropped out near the corner flag.

Gradually, they settled into it, though. Kerry could get barely a trickle of ball into Donaghy. Sans Paul Galvin, Kerry were ponderous on the breaks. Mayo's wastage kept Kerry in the game, and, following the return of Darragh Ó Sé in the 49th minute, the visitors were able to forge ahead with two frees from Bryan Sheehan — 0-14 to 1-12.

Mayo might have died then, but didn't. Conor Mortimer must have been relieved when his 67th minute free went over — he had earlier missed two kickable frees, and another from play that could not have been more perfectly set up for a left-footed kicker.

Kerry came sniffing again. Darren O'Sullivan went to ground under the weight of a David Heaney challenge. Referee Michael Hughes signalled a free. Sheehan rambled over: 25 yards out, a bit to the left, a free that Kerry boss Pat O'Shea would later described as "a bread-and-butter one for Bryan".

Amazingly, he pulled it wide, perhaps not helped by Mayo's Peadar Gardiner standing about seven yards in front of him as he kicked it. Then came the O'Malley winner, the Donaghy miss, the William Tell intervention from the bleachers, and the final whistle.

"We conceded 16 points, and it's hard to outscore that," was O'Shea's verdict. But he was "happy to get Darragh back — he's such an important player for us" and it would be a wise Mayo fan who would place this victory in context: no Galvin, Gooch, Declan O'Sullivan, Killian Young, and not much of Darragh.

"We're just happy that our work ethic in training paid off — our morale has never dropped in this league," said Mayo selector Kieran Gallagher.

By the way, fans going home blamed the heavy traffic jams on Austin O'Malley.

Scorers for Mayo: C Mortimer 0-7 (4f), A O'Malley 0-5 (1f), A Dillon 0-2 (2f), J Gill 0-1, A Moran 0-1.

Kerry: B Sheehan 1-5 (1-0 penalty, 5f), D O'Sullivan 0-3, T O Se 0-2, K Donaghy 0-1, E Brosnan 0-1.

MAYO: D Clarke; T Cunniffe, K Conroy, L O'Malley; D Heaney, T Howley, K Higgins; J Gill, R McGarrity; P Gardiner, A Dillon, T Mortimer; C Mortimer, A O'Malley, A Moran.

Subs: C Boyle for L O'Malley (42); T Parsons for J Gill (55); P Harte for A Dillon (67). Blood sub – A Higgins.

KERRY: D Murphy; M Ó Sé, T O'Sullivan, P Reidy; T Ó Sé, T Griffin, A O'Mahony; M Quirke, S Scanlon; D Walsh, E Brosnan, A Maher; Darren O'Sullivan, K Donaghy, B Sheehan.

Subs: D Ó Sé for D Walsh, (49); D Bohane for A Maher, (64); K O'Leary for E Brosnan (68).

Referee: M Hughes (Tyrone).

[Main Street]

I'd be a bit worried about Bryan Sheehan as he may not be as reliable as we thought

I was certainly surprised at that miss because it looked as if he met it exactly the same as the one before. but the way he looked to heavens suggests that his professional pride was dented rather than his confidence.

[Farrandeelin]

My optimism wasn't that blind at all rosnarun!!

It was a nice game to win. Will Conroy be the full-back we all crave? It's hard to know after one good performance, maybe he was 'up for it' against Donaghy and he got his beginner's luck. We shouldn't get too carried away yet about the full-back position. It's not as if Kerry were raining balls in on top of Donagy or anything.

I was impressed with the manner of the way Mayo kept harrying and hassling Kerry around the middle of the field, even though Quirke and Scanlon were winning the midfield battle when it came to the clean catches. It was also heartening (as a Knockmore man) to see Howley having a good game in the no 6 shirt. He didn't do too badly, nor did the other halfbacks when the ball was there to be won the lads did well enough.

Midfield will have to bulk up a bit. I know McGarrity was badly missed there last summer, but he seemed too lean and it's his make up but I think that if any injury happens to the halfbacks we are in trouble in this position once again. Gill was terrible, he should have been taken off earlier, Parsons did well when he came on, he contested every ball that was kicked out. K Higgins had another fine game, for how long he can last as superman in both codes is another thing, but he played well yesterday and he made a difference when moved on Darren O'Sullivan as Liam O'Malley couldn't keep up with the pace of him.

The forwards were good enough again and this time we managed to win with 0-16 instead of ending up on the losing side like we did against Donegal. Austin O'Malley was definitely the motm in everyone's books, I'm sure Barney will even agree! Conor and A Moran worked very hard, what can one do if the backs are pulling and dragging like the 2 Kerry cornerbacks were all day yesterday. I thought Dillon was poor enough, a good lot of mis-hit passes etc.

I also think that Pat Harte is not good enough for intercounty football. He came on again yesterday and he was too slow for some of the balls that went his way.

Overall, Mayo have a lot of work to do. We conceded 1-12, although lots of these were from frees, a lot of which were harsh in my opinion. At least we have a nice settled halfback line. Fullback and Midfield still need some working to do. It's always nice to beat Kerry at any level. Kerry = there to be shot at... Oh and the ref was awful.