Mayo GAA Discussion

Absolutely. No harm for us to bask in the glow for a few days all the same.

I think he can do a job on similar big static players, people like Donaghy in 2017, Tommy Walsh and maybe David Moran at a push. But put him on a fast player and he's screwed, not only is he a passenger, he might as well not be playing.

The modern game is about not kicking the ball away in hopeful hail mary passes to a full forward and also about starting your defence from the full forward line and O'Shea isn't good at that. If playing I'd put him on Tommy Walsh as he's bound to be an outlet for Kerry.

That was ruled out in the Mayo News article I read today.

@Loafing Oaf I hope VAR never comes into GAA. We have hawk eye and that is enough. VAR and TMO in Rugby both missed big incidents in recent Euro and Lions tours. Our issue in GAA is the rules and how they are applied. We have inconsistency at nearly all our games. If we had consistency we could put up with the rules.

@yop I think most fans who attend GAA are decent. Have a chat about where you are from shake hands at the end and wish a safe trip home. Im a postman in Dublin (north Dublin to be precise) and am getting serious stick this week from Mayo people. Thats how it should be. I like nothing better than going down the country staying over night a few songs, where would ya get it. At end of day every county has an element of gobs**tes following them but never let them get in the way of what the GAA is all about.

@MayoAreMagic Thats a very fair and measured post. Re the Small tackle. I felt at the time and on early replay it was not a foul. Both went 100% but McLoughlin was wide open. Initial Contact was on shoulder and force of impact caused Smalls shoulder (Physics) to go up and hit McLoughlins jaw. I dont think it was malicious.

The issue here is though as has been pointed out in various forums why was the game not immediately stopped. The linesman was a few feet away and as ref followed ball they are wired so no reason why he couldn't get game stopped. Player welfare is vital at every level of our games be that a coach shouting at kids or an adult player getting injured who possibly has a mortgage or family to look after. The smallest of GAA players today are so strong and powerful in comparison to 10 - 15years ago the rules need to be looked at to clean up the tackle. I see it at club games where lads are bulked up and so strong. It is a nightmare for referees. I think he got Byrne call right and D.O'Cs right. Rough play. McCarthys I only say a bad copy of and yes it was a card.

I and every genuine Dublin GAA person wishes Eoghan McLoughlin a speedy recovery. I would dearly love to see him play in the final.

At work Monday morning the first arguments started at 5.30am but unanimous verdict was best team won. Dublin had no energy and more importantly no natural pace, while the Mayo lads were flying. Horan got every call spot on especially taking off A. O'Se. The players responded perfectly. Would he be a better impact sub? The 2 H's got huge credit Hennelly and Hession. I thought Hession was really good and Hennelly>>>> what can you say.

Best of luck to you all.

That’s a terrible shame if that is the case. An outstanding servant for us over the years. A true workhorse of a player.

This is not true. i can only remember himself and seamus, excellent kick passers, but when it comes to slotting it over the bar, they have a mental block. more often than not, it goes wide.

I'm only talking about Aido here and his shot/score ratio.I don't have the exact stats but anecdotally from my own memory.He doesn't miss much,a lot of that is down to him not taking low percentage shots,the stats would show he's very accurate.

Some people are confusing not being prolific ( which is isnt) with not being accurate which simply isn't true.Two bad misses on Sat has added to that false narrative.

I should also add that i don't recall many attempts at kicking points in those games either! There is one that stands out in one of the 16 or 17 finals where he attempted and missed at a crucial time, but to be fair to him I don't think there was anything else on at the same time!

More often than not it goes wide you say?

I would like to see the stats that says Aido misses 50% or more of attempted scores.Im afraid I have to call bullsh1t on that.

Will it be etickets for the final?

How will the pod system work. Will it be all pods of 2.

Any info on how the hurling tickets were distributed?

That's fair, I checked back on the Blog for 2017 our of interest:

1 point against Derry

1 point against Clare

3 points against Cork

2 against Roscommon in the replay

That makes up the seven, By any chance do you know what games the misses were in? So i take your point in fairness, when he kicks he scores more than he misses!

Well done to Mayo on the win and best of luck in final. Well deserved and held their nerve in extra time. O'Hora, Keegan, Ruane were brilliant. Aidan O'Shea taken off was the game changer as mayo reverted to their running and fully pressed Dublin. Tommy Conroy and Ryan O'Donoghue stepped up and kicked vital scores. As ye know well no medals for winning semi finals so make sure ye push on and win the final. Still a lot to improve on which is great going into a final.

Didn’t he do the other leg before as well :(

Regardless of AOS limitations when it comes to kicking points, that mark was a tap over, i just can't get my head around how an experienced inter county player could miss it. Im not trying to have a go at him, far from it but its bewildering

He is a left footer. Always has been.

You said "Aido has let the county down in every big game for years"

When I pointed out he has performed against every team in the big games except Dublin you then backtracked to say you that's what you meant.

You're right about one thing......You are confused.

I was just thinking the very same thing. Donegal 2013, Kerry 2014 (both game) and 2017, Tyrone 2016 are just a few that were excellent performances from Aido.

I think there's a very peculiar narrative that goes around outside of the county with Aido, majority of it is dung, to quote Oisin McConville. There's nonsense about him having some sort of obsession with media interviews. Ger Brennan came out with the same shite on the GAA hour a while back and Parkinson pulled him up on it and asked him for specifics, stating that Parkinson had been asking Aido to come on the Podcast since 2016 and Aido declined every time - Brennan then started spoofing and proceeded to talk about Conor Mortimer (who hasn't played for Mayo since 2012).

Malachy Clerkin had a great article after the Galway game on Aidan O’Shea in particular and how much **** that is thrown at him on social media and often times by pundits/former players. Clerkin also called out some folk on Twitter about this (link to thread and article https://twitter.com/malachyclerkin/status/1419546750503858176?s=21) and highlighted misconceptions about Aidan’s media presence. He engaged with a few of the usual trolls, no surprise where the most of them were from, highlighting that Fenton and Kilkenny had easily done more media than Aidan, and you'll see a number of the troll posts then deleted, knowing then that they were talking through their hole I suppose.

I've seen a number of ex players, most from the same county, all at the same craic and all having a sly dig. I suppose it's a way for them to try to stay relevant. There's a load of Dog and army sites that are just the absolute dregs of social media that feed all of this too. It's curious really, and again, most of it all from one county. You'd wonder why they would bother. I mean if he was that poor a player, why go to the effort?. And if your Team has truly deserved their success, then why spend the time trying to wind up opposition players or their fans?.

The funniest thing is now you have a number of these lads who have been quite happy to see Aido being vilified throughout the years getting awfully pious because of some of the reaction to the incident between Small and McLoughlin on Saturday, moaning about the impact on Small's "mental health" and wellbeing. Case in point Paul Flynn who in takes a bizarre stance on it in my view given he was as former head of the GPA n the Second Captains podcast. He trots on about how the attention on the incident is all very mean and unfair before being comprehensively schooled by Oisin McConville. I've only managed to get 4 minutes of that but it's a remarkable exchange. It's well worth a listen.

Where were all these experts on mental health and wellbeing when their own colleagues and county men were at exactly that with Aido (and a number of other Mayo players - Hennelly, Cillian, Keegan) over the years?. Why were they not calling that out then?. Didn't suit them then I suppose.

I mean not everyone has to like Aido as a footballer or even as a person, but the number of times the line has been crossed over the years and now all of a sudden it's an area of concern, when it's one of their own on the receiving end, it's quite hypocritical really.

Now we know the reason for the retake!

Anyone else think the lights in Croke Park are not as bright as they should be?