Mayo Season Review 2008 - O'Mahony Confirmed for Another Year

[rosnarun]

Not a club man that got lucky either. Success at club level largely down to being lucky enough to have the best players at a given time, and luck should have no part in becoming a county manager.

thats being ver harsh on tommy Jordan
at least it was sligo that fell for it this time
I still think hed make a better fist of it than the blueShirt . at least he would bee intersted and not only oingit because of the terrinle pressure put on him to tke the job

[spectator]

For one thing, he won All Irelands alright but not with his own county.

To be fair to Johnno he came to prominence when he managed Mayo to All-Ireland U-21 success back in 1983, against Derry, after a replay in Irvinestown. Not a senior title granted, but a much celebrated All-Ireland for Mayo nonetheless ...

I was there that day along with a busload from Ballagh and cheered on the green and red, as we also had Rossie-at-heart Durks and Mayo-at-heart Pat Towey  on the starting 15. 

Afterwards, following a successful negotiation of the border somewhere around Swanlinbar - I never heard the Ballagh 'Mayos' so silent before or since -  the convoy eventually made it back to The Square in Ballagh for a short stop before proceeding on to Mayo proper, Johnno being manager and all.

There was a local aul fella, a fanatical Rossie who was partial to a dropeen o' the cratur ...  to say he'd drink liqour out of a dirty welly'd be to put too fine a point on it but anyhow, before too long a bottle was produced and the cup filled. One of the local GAA club officials, a fanatical Mayo follower, made a beeline for mo dhuine and grandly proferred the cup with the mischevious words "Great Day for Mayo".

As normally that'd be akin to an incitement to war, everyone held their breath for a few seconds before, beady eyes fixed on the contents of the cup, the genial reply of "Great Day for Ballagh!" came back as half the Clarke Cup worth of the finest Paddy rapidly disappeared down yer man's throat.

Thus was Johnno's homecoming after leading Mayo to All-Ireland U-21 success in ' 83. God only knows what a senior win would be like

[rosnarun]

To be fair to Johnno he came to prominence when he managed Mayo to All-Ireland U-21 success back in 1983, against Derry, after a replay in Irvinestown. Not a senior title granted, but a much celebrated All-Ireland for Mayo nonetheless ...

Jeez forgot that
that puts him right up there with Pat holmes.
A ballghaderren man there was no need to explain  with such blind faith the only other place you could have been from was Kilmovee

[Lar Naparka]

To be fair to Johnno he came to prominence when he managed Mayo to All-Ireland U-21 success back in 1983, against Derry, after a replay in Irvinestown. Not a senior title granted, but a much celebrated All-Ireland for Mayo nonetheless ...

I never thought of the '83 success either. It's a harsh reality than if the vast majority of Mayo people were asked about it, you'd be met with a blank stare.
Mayo supporters will remember the '89 final appearance or will have been told about it at the very least.   
All will certainly know about JOM bringing All Irelands to Galway, not once but twice. Galway had been waiting quite a long time as well; over 30 years since the three in a row side had delivered their last one. I'd safely say John's name will be long remembered and his legacy will be cherished there.
In our county, his Galway exploits will only add to the pressure on him.
I 'd go back a few years more than Moysider; for me polite people would stick the word, 'mature' in front of the 'middle-aged' tag. I am about the same age as Enda so if you'd regard him as 'mature,' you might say the same about me!
(Is Kenny a mature anything? I wouldn't bet too much on it!)
I'm also fed up of false dawns, three year stints and managers winding up at loggerheads with the county board. I accept what some posters point say about us giving Galway and Tyrone close runs;  on paper we came close both times but to entertain any serious hopes of ever going further, we'd need to have put both out of sight long before the end of the game.
As things stand, even if JOM stays on, he will have strained relations with the board and be under continual pressure from the supporters. If he hasn't much to show for the last two years, what can he hope to achieve when he's under pressure from all sides and his final year is ticking away?
It's been one hell of along, fruitless wait for me (and for Enda too, I'd bet!) and I don't see much light at the end of my particular tunnel.
Maybe, just maybe, next year will be very different.

[RedandGreenSniper]

He should be because his legacy is at stake here.

That's being overly dramatic, imo. At the latter end of a 25 year span managing IC teams at various levels, Johnno's legacy is well formed at this stage. A late failure to make Mayo competitive in the All-Ireland race, at a time when they're in transition, will be further mitigated when considering his time consuming political responsibilities, imo.

I don't think I'm being overly dramatic. Every team he has been with he has made progress with. Won the All-Ireland Under 21 with Mayo in 83, brought the seniors to the final in 89, Leitrim's Connacht title in 94, Galway's All-Irelands in 98 and 01. Add in club success with St Brigid's in Roscommon and with Ballaghaderreen in 2006. The point has been made by posters that a lot of these teams were set up for JOM to do well with (not something I'd necessarily agree with).

Taking this three year Mayo term was the first time he took a team with no really bright future ahead of them. Failure to make progress with them next year will mean that his last management stint wasn't a success and he'll change from being up there with Micko in terms of continuous success with every team to a man who was shown up for not being able to make a good go of things when things weren't set up ideally for him. It will be a case of 'JOM was a very good manager but . . . '. Prior to this term he only ranked behind Mick O'Dwyer in terms of best managers of the last 30 years in a lot of people's estimations.

[the Deel Rover]

I don't think I'm being overly dramatic. Every team he has been with he has made progress with. Won the All-Ireland Under 21 with Mayo in 83, brought the seniors to the final in 89, Leitrim's Connacht title in 94, Galway's All-Irelands in 98 and 01. Add in club success with St Brigid's in Roscommon and with Ballaghaderreen in 2006. The point has been made by posters that a lot of these teams were set up for JOM to do well with (not something I'd necessarily agree with).

Taking this three year Mayo term was the first time he took a team with no really bright future ahead of them. Failure to make progress with them next year will mean that his last management stint wasn't a success and he'll change from being up there with Micko in terms of continuous success with every team to a man who was shown up for not being able to make a good go of things when things weren't set up ideally for him. It will be a case of 'JOM was a very good manager but . . . '. Prior to this term he only ranked behind Mick O'Dwyer in terms of best managers of the last 30 years in a lot of people's estimations.

What success did ballaghadreen have R&Gs ? 

[Rossfan]

I was there that day along with a busload from Ballagh and cheered on the green and red,

Names and addresses please .....

[spectator]

Fair enough R&GS.

I was there that day along with a busload from Ballagh and cheered on the green and red,

Names and addresses please .....

Yeah, we were all on good terms in Ballagh back then with little rancour - it was after all a good five years before you-know-what 

[joemamas]

Maybe it's time to rethink the critisism of O Mahoney after today's events

[Terry Tate]

Ya and it just shows what a quality player Peadar is. He kept Dooher in his pocket and today he was man of the match

[joemamas]

Big differance was it appears that Mayo got it right tactically, man marked Tyrones forwards, (most of them anyway), also broke even (won) at midfield.

[the Deel Rover]

Maybe it's time to rethink the criticism of O Mahoney after today's events

not particularly we still lost to Tyrone , and maybe just maybe if o'mahony handled things a Little differently we might have won not lost  2 championship  matches this year 

[Farrandeelin]

Maybe we're not as bad as we think though. Still agree with Deel Rover and we could be in a semi if things were handled differently. If is a big word at times though...

[Lar Naparka]

Maybe we're not as bad as we think though. Still agree with Deel Rover and we could be in a semi if things were handled differently. If is a big word at times though...

I couldn't agree more.
My gripe with O'Mahony all along has been that he wasn't making best use of what he had. All you could ask of any manager is that he'd settle on a side at some stage of the year and make changes only as needed to give his players a chance of developing an understanding between them.
They would need to have some sort of tactical blueprint or game plan and have options to adapt their approach if this was needed.
If the players genuinely don't have enough talent to go far, the manager can't be blamed. But he can be if fails to make best use of what he has.
'If' is a big word, sure enough.
I doubt we would have beaten Tyrone if they played as well as they did today.
That is something we will never know.

[ildanach]

jom got the tactics right with tyrone. pillar didn't. if we had been playing the dubs today we could have won had they played that poorly. However ifs dont win all irelands. But we are obviously not as bad as some have said over the last few weeks