All-Ireland Football Final Maigh Eo vs Baile Átha Cliath

realweirdo

I don't think Mayo can blame anyone but themselves for the defeat.

Forwards were awful today and you can't win an AI without half decent forwards.

While it's unfair to single out players, some players need to take a good hard look at their performance. Dillon is not up to AI final standard and always goes missing. His performance was simply not good enough. McLoughlin was poor, his decision making was terrible. In general Mayo forwards weren't great, only Moran showed up. Mayo goalie and defence was immense, Hennelly has to be a certainty for an All Star.

Also think Horan has taken the team as far as he can, he just doesn't have what it takes for AI finals. It was clear many of the forwards were useless from about the 30th minute and yet he was too slow to do anything. I take it Freeman was injured because he was about the only one who made a promising start. Barry Moran should have been used as a target man at full forward and Seamus O'Shea was doing ok and should have been left on.

As usual a lot of Mayo players shown up on AI final day. It would be better to start again with several players from this years minor team next year and weed out those players from the senior team who go missing on AI final day, no matter how great they are in the Connacht Championship or in AI Semis. Otherwise they are just wasting Mayo supporters time and money.

Mayo could have easily won this game as Dublin to be fair were no great shakes either, Brogan aside.

I'm originally from Mayo by the way in case people think I'm taking potshots.

I just thought it was a very underwhelming Mayo performance today and Mayo fans deserve better than this.

Slattsy

Draw

Are people still voting??
Dublin winning the poll now

Amprodude

Draw

You can automatically assume that Mayo wont ever win on All Ireland Final day. I cant think of any other team who have lost as many All Ireland Finals as Mayo.

davidfitz22

Draw

Jesus, get over it. Dublin won, end of. There are a lot of people out there just wanted to see dublin lose. We (donegal) got hate all year now it defaults to the "hate the dubs" attitude this country shows every year.

kupus

Draw

Amprodude wrote: »

You can automatically assume that Mayo wont ever win on All Ireland Final day. I cant think of any other team who have lost as many All Ireland Finals as Mayo.

believe it or not, dublin have lost more

aveytare

realweirdo wrote: »

Also think Horan has taken the team as far as he can, he just doesn't have what it takes for AI finals. It was clear many of the forwards were useless from about the 30th minute and yet he was too slow to do anything.

What can he do, it's not as if the players he brought on played brilliantly either.

blowitupref

Draw

Well done to the Dubs and hard luck to Mayo.

Wasn't a great final Mayo probably played their best football in the 1st half but failed to make it count on the scoreboard when the Dubs stepped it up in the 2nd half they never looked like losing and probably should have won by more. Dublin should add a few more All Irelands to the last two won its hard to know with Mayo it won't be easy to recover from yet another knockout blow.

happyoutscan

Dublin

bcmf wrote: »

Oh I got your point.
But Humble works both ways.
For example when I was I at the Semi final and the 'Mayo takes Hill 16' thing when Mayo won (and Dublin bottled it!) there was very little 'humbleness' shown by Mayo supporters then when they gave me the winker sign when there were kids around.

As I said humble works both ways.

That's fair enough, but every county has its percentage of clowns! Anyway, congrats on the win, ye deserved it.

Amprodude

Draw

kupus wrote: »

believe it or not, dublin have lost more

Think Kerry have lost the most.

realweirdo

aveytare wrote: »

What can he do, it's not as if the players he brought on played brilliantly either.

The previous players I mentioned were poor from the off...they seem to lack the big game mentality on AI final day. They should have been hauled off early. Mayo had no target man once Freeman went off, only a lot of smallish forwards who struggled. A goal behind with minutes remaining, that's the time to go direct. Dublin on the other hand had a target man in Brogan who won a lot of ball and fed others. The fact Cillian O'Connor went for a point rather than a goal with one of the last kicks of the game was farcical, the usual farce from Mayo in these games. He was looking around to Horan for advice and surely Horan had the cop to tell him time was nearly up and go for goal. There were lots and lots of other things like this, bad decisions, bad tactics, bad selections, and so on.

I'll be honest, I thought Dublin were very poor, and were there for the taking, if Mayo had bothered to show up. It's not sour grapes, I'm happy for Dublin, but as a Mayo supporter, there needs to be a cold hard analysis done of where Mayo went wrong. And Horan has to take his share of blame, no question about it. He's taken this team as far as he can go and it's time for a change. I'd love to see Kevin McStay given the job.

The_Kew_Tour

Draw

Mayo blew it. They only needed to step up half a gear and they have won that.

Well done Dublin.

joe swanson

As a neutral, the behaviour of the dublin players completely downgraded their acheivement.
Absolutely disgusting play and the ref really should have grown a pair and shown at least a red.

Im sure the dublin fans that wont see another gaa game until the next final wont be ashamed of their teams gamesmanship though. But no surprise either.

davidfitz22

Draw

sargito wrote: »

Mayo were so below par it was shocking. A great shame to see the fouls and general dirty play by the dubs. They have shown themselves over the past few years to be above the "Pillar" bull of the past , and are light years from the Whelan thuggery of the past. BUt Mayo left his one behind. Tha fact that the Dubs had to resort to puke football was sad though. Mayo have the better football team and I hope that they can go one better next year, this team deserves it.

Bitter, bitter, bitter.

sargito

davidfitz22 wrote: »

Bitter, bitter, bitter.

I am. I miss good football. Today could have been a great match between to great footballing teams. But cynicism won out. it was a shame.

ThunbergsAreGo

Dublin

sargito wrote: »

Mayo were so below par it was shocking. A great shame to see the fouls and general dirty play by the dubs. They have shown themselves over the past few years to be above the "Pillar" bull of the past , and are light years from the Whelan thuggery of the past. BUt Mayo left his one behind. Tha fact that the Dubs had to resort to puke football was sad though. Mayo have the better football team and I hope that they can go one better next year, this team deserves it.

Hilarious, last year's semi final says hello

manofwisdom

Draw

Amprodude wrote: »

You can automatically assume that Mayo wont ever win on All Ireland Final day. I cant think of any other team who have lost as many All Ireland Finals as Mayo.

Finals in a row you mean? as Kerry (21) Cork (17) Dublin,Galway (13) are still ahead of Mayo in final defeats. Mayo will win when they develop better forwards and for example they won minor All Ireland because of their forwards.

Poor enough final i didn't think neither side played well or was allowed to. Of the forwards on show Brogan stood out by a mile. The best side won the All Ireland no doubt about it and well done to Dublin.

dirtyden

Better team won. Fair play to Brogan he really pulled out a performance when it counted.

Hard not to feel for Mayo. They just did not perform at all from midfield forward. The old failing of desperately poor decision making, well indecision really up front. The weight of all those lost finals and the expectation this year that they could finally break through must have had an impact. None of their forwards really took hold of the game. I felt it was obvious they needed a target man in full forward and Barry Moran could have been brought in earlier or maybe even stick one of the osheas in full forward just to provide some steel and ball winning.

realweirdo

sargito wrote: »

I am. I miss good football. Today could have been a great match between to great footballing teams. But cynicism won out. it was a shame.

It was one of the poorest finals in living memory, let's not make any bones about it. Dublin were poor, Mayo were worse. I wonder what the wide count was and how it compared to other years. At times it looked like both sides were afraid of winning. Mayo should have been 8 points up at half time with all their chances. Neither team can take any credit from the game, except for one or two individuals on both teams.

Hidalgo

Dublin's ability too cut through the centre was something Mayo couldn't deal with and something they weren't able to do at the other end.

Mayo's decision making at times in the 2nd half let them down, Conroy shooting from an impossible angle, Dillon trying to land a pass into Moran that even Gooch couldn't have managed.

In the 2nd half when a Dublin player had the ball around the 45 he more often than not had a runner coming from deep to pass the ball to, Mayo didn't provide these runners often enough, at times when they did the option wasn't taken.

I was surprised that Barry Moran was't thrown in at FF and try high ball in, esp against a full back line that has struggle at times in the air.

Stoner

Draw

Just back from the game, I see we have the usual ghost accounts with 150 posts driving a trolling agenda.

Delighted with the win. Though MDMA won it for Dublin. Both teams had some terrible wides.
Hard luck Mayo terrible margin to loose by.

Thought both teams had their homework done on the other.

Slattsy

Draw

An off day from Dublin today, only winning by one :mad:

For all the folk saying Mayo had an off day.... do you really think thats as good as Dublin are????? lol
Each Dub defender left Croker 14 stone heavier, they had the Mayo forwards in their pockets all day.
Both teams had an off day, to an extent, as can happen in finals, it was 20oc out there and fatigue played a big part.

As for the moan bags talking about the cynical side of the mighty Dubs in the last 5 minutes... is that all you have on us? Try harder lads.

And FWIW, watch the last 20 minutes of the semi final last year, exactly what Mayo did!!
PAYPACK IS A SONOVA BITCH - OUCH

realweirdo

Stoner wrote: »

Just back from the game, I see we have the usual ghost accounts with 150 posts driving a trolling agenda.

Delighted with the win. Though MDMA won it for Dublin. Both teams had some terrible wides.
Hard luck Mayo terrible margin to loose by.

Thought both teams had their homework done on the other.

Not sure if the 150 posts thing is directed at me?

As a Mayo fan I do think I am entitled to an opinion. Unlike others I don't claim Dublin were cynical and am not going to blame refs, linesmen, umpires, Hawkeye or curses. Dublin deserved to win, no question.

I'd prefer as a Mayo supporter to analyse where Mayo went wrong. I have seen a repetition of old failings with the Mayo side and there seems to be no serious effort to address them.

Aside from that, well done Dublin.

ethical

Dublin

Lot of negative stuff on here! The Dublin team deserved to win.Both teams can take credit for the gentlemanly way they greeted the subs for both sides.Yes ,Maybe Dublin got a little bit rough near the end but they were hanging on.Both sides will look back on this game and will note that they both played way better over the season.How Mayo left Alan Dillon on for so long was unbelievable. O'Conor should have gone for goal with the last free,if he missed the goal Mayo would have lost in any case so taking a point did not make sense.Fair play to both sides for trying to play football.

Dots1982

Draw

Should there be a seperate thread for anyone who wants to be constructive and positive about the game?

The amount of nonsense from people on this thread from people who haven't a clue about football.

realweirdo

Dots1982 wrote: »

Should there be a seperate thread for anyone who wants to be constructive and positive about the game?

The amount of nonsense from people on this thread from people who haven't a clue about football.

So what were the positives of the game?

mickmackey1

ethical wrote: »

O'Conor should have gone for goal with the last free,if he missed the goal Mayo would have lost in any case so taking a point did not make sense.

Apparently they were told on the sideline there would be 30/40 seconds extra added on, like in the hurling

Dots1982

Draw

realweirdo wrote: »

So what were the positives of the game?

The physicality was the main one, the timing of the hard hits the Dublin defence put in on the Mayo forwards was beyond anything I've ever witnessed.

People who don't understand the game don't recognise the skill this takes to execute.

The_Kew_Tour

Draw

I have felt for Mayo in the past, but not today.

They blew a chance to make themselves legends today..
Nobody is going to hand you a AI you have to earn it. They will get the usual "They will be back" and good will on SG and so on, but honestly they are chokers of the highest extreme.

They even had most of the Hill today, Dublin were below Par, they even got a Goal to bring them right into it and yet they still blew it.

Slattsy

Draw

realweirdo wrote: »

So what were the positives of the game?

Donegal weren't in it.

Dirty Dingus McGee

realweirdo wrote: »

So what were the positives of the game?

It was a closely intensely fought game played at a great pace and the result was unsure right up to the end of the game, the first half flew by I thought.It wasn't a classic and there were mistakes and a few too many wides but finals are always nervous occasions and you expect a few uncharacteristic mistakes from players in finals.I remember Bernard Brogan missing a free from 14 yards in the 2011 final.Bernard Brogan gave one of the great All Ireland final performances as did Lee Keegan for Mayo.

Stoner

Draw

realweirdo wrote: »

Not sure if the 150 posts thing is directed at me?

As a Mayo fan I do think I am entitled to an opinion. Unlike others I don't claim Dublin were cynical and am not going to blame refs, linesmen, umpires, Hawkeye or curses. Dublin deserved to win, no question.

I'd prefer as a Mayo supporter to analyse where Mayo went wrong. I have seen a repetition of old failings with the Mayo side and there seems to be no serious effort to address them.

Aside from that, well done Dublin.

It's was not. Hard luck today, see you next year I'm sure.

The_Honeybadger

Dots1982 wrote: »

Should there be a seperate thread for anyone who wants to be constructive and positive about the game?

The amount of nonsense from people on this thread from people who haven't a clue about football.

What a stupid arrogant post. Everybody is entitled to an opinion, even people that don't know as much as you.

Sir montygom

Better buzz watching "up for the match" than the match ...

Amprodude

Draw

Dont ever want to see Mayo in a final again. No heart and are bottlers to the highest degree. They didnt even look like they wanted it today. A total disgrace to their supporters.

Rasheed

Draw

I didn't notice the Dubs being awfully dirty. Yes it was a tough physical game but I've seen dirtier.

Was really looking forward to a entertaining game, it wasn't a patch on Dublin/ Kerry or Mayo/ Donegal.

The Mayo wides were shocking. The Hail Mary shots going in in the first half that hadn't a notion of going over were shocking.

MfMan

Bit harsh saying that Horan has taken the Mayo team as far as he can. He's brought them close enough to the brink of victory in both finals - just a small bit extra might see them over the finishing line. Changing managers now might put them further back such that they mightn't make up the ground again with this team, something that would be very foolish indeed. That said, thought Horan erred tactically in moving Higgins back in the second half, he made a lot of the play for Mayo up front in the first half. Also, they took off the wrong O'Shea.

joe swanson

Apparantly you have to have 10000 posts and be a pundit on the sunday game to be allowed post 'an opinion' here.

john mayo 10

Amprodude wrote: »

Dont ever want to see Mayo in a final again. No heart and are bottlers to the highest degree. They didnt even look like they wanted it today. A total disgrace to their supporters.

gob****e is what u are .come back when u know how it feels

The_Kew_Tour

Draw

Being Honest while Dublin have had their share of dirty players in the past this bunch aint like that.

Mayo are too soft.

MfMan

Amprodude wrote: »

Dont ever want to see Mayo in a final again. No heart and are bottlers to the highest degree. They didnt even look like they wanted it today. A total disgrace to their supporters.

Dry up. They never went on strike like your lot. Your own footballers squandered plenty of All Irelands too.

realweirdo

MfMan wrote: »

Bit harsh saying that Horan has taken the Mayo team as far as he can. He's brought them close enough to the brink of victory in both finals - just a small bit extra might see them over the finishing line. Changing managers now might put them further back such that they mightn't make up the ground again with this team, something that would be very foolish indeed. That said, thought Horan erred tactically in moving Higgins back in the second half, he made a lot of the play for Mayo up front in the first half. Also, they took off the wrong O'Shea.

Well going on the post match interview it looks like he's considering his own position so he probably feels the same. I don't entirely blame him for today, and again its not sour grapes, I'm glad Dublin won as they mostly play a brand of football which is attractive. I just see similarities with Maughan in Horan, great manager up to AI Final day, has them fit, strong, etc, but come final day, they look like rabbits in headlights, clueless tactics and selection, players left on when they should be taken off, bad switches, substitutions made too late, all of which were a feature of Maughans time too. You either have it at this level or you don't and Horan just doesn't seem to have that extra bit needed I am afraid to say. We could reach the next ten AI finals and it would be the same.

I know some supporters like the day out and its an excuse for a p*ss up and all that, and some of the players seem to buy into that. But a lot of Mayo supporters want a bit more than that. It's harsh I know, but you have to be harsh at this level and ruthless as well. And Horan lacks the ruthless touch to win AIs. Just my opinion.

Amprodude

Draw

john mayo 10 wrote: »

gob****e is what u are .come back when u know how it feels

What do you want me to say? Mayo were so unlucky last 2 years? Hurt of last year should have been motivotion in itself. Mayo were good enough to beat Dublin but didnt when it mattered.

Amprodude

Draw

MfMan wrote: »

Dry up. They never went on strike like your lot. Your own footballers squandered plenty of All Irelands too.

Yeah but we won 3 All Irelands in 24 years as bad as we were. Thats the same as Dublin. Kerry have won 6 in that time.

robbiezero

What happened that Mayo's game plan seemed to completely change today?
Not being at the match I am wondering what the story was, had Dublin really done their home work on them.

Throughout the championship Mayo's strength has been their driving forward at pace from defence, drawing men, offloading to other forwards or taking the score themselves. Apart from a couple of bursts from Lee Keegan, this was not a feature today at all. Donal Vaughan was hardly in the game as an attacking force whatsoever. They seemed to hang back in defence and kick long ball (badly) into slow forwards who were eaten alive by the Dublin backs.

Neeson

Draw

As someone said too much daft shooting and sides. I think last year Donegal had only a handful of wides. They were damn sure they had a great chance of getting the score if they went for it. Wasn't the conversion rate for both teams nearly 1 out of every 2 shots? Poor match.

What's the story with the hawkeye decision? Haven't seen much about it. Thought there would be uproar.

Dots1982

Draw

realweirdo wrote: »

come final day, they look like rabbits in headlights, clueless tactics and selection, players left on when they should be taken off, bad switches, substitutions made too late,

God with that much incompetence in your manager it was amazing you got within 1 point of Dublin

robbiezero

realweirdo wrote: »

Well going on the post match interview it looks like he's considering his own position so he probably feels the same. I don't entirely blame him for today, and again its not sour grapes, I'm glad Dublin won as they mostly play a brand of football which is attractive. I just see similarities with Maughan in Horan, great manager up to AI Final day, has them fit, strong, etc, but come final day, they look like rabbits in headlights, clueless tactics and selection, players left on when they should be taken off, bad switches, substitutions made too late, all of which were a feature of Maughans time too. You either have it at this level or you don't and Horan just doesn't seem to have that extra bit needed I am afraid to say. We could reach the next ten AI finals and it would be the same.

I know some supporters like the day out and its an excuse for a p*ss up and all that, and some of the players seem to buy into that. But a lot of Mayo supporters want a bit more than that. It's harsh I know, but you have to be harsh at this level and ruthless as well. And Horan lacks the ruthless touch to win AIs. Just my opinion.

Just as a matter of interest who could he have brought on to change the game today?
He got Conroy on early enough, did Carolan come on too? People saying Barry Moran to full forward, but this tactic is old hat at this stage and teams are well able to deal with it. Dublin had no bother with Donaghy in the semi-final and ball kicked in high was a waste.

A big difference today was all Dublins subs made a good contribution and they were able to take off non-performing players. Mayo left on Dillon and McLoughlin, O Connor etc who were at nothing. Had they any further options on the bench?

Will I Amnt

To all the "neutrals" banging on about Mayo blowing it and how poor they were, where was your county today?
It was a poor game and Dublin were unquestionably the better side and should have won it more comfortably but don't be having a go at Mayo for not beating the best team in the country all season. Whinging at another county's team because they couldn't stop the team you didn't want to win is pathetic.

celt262

Neeson wrote: »

What's the story with the hawkeye decision? Haven't seen much about it. Thought there would be uproar.

What was wrong with it?

Rasheed

Draw

Neeson wrote: »

What's the story with the hawkeye decision? Haven't seen much about it. Thought there would be uproar.

Was that Mayo's first wide?