Mayo GAA Discussion

Just throwing this out there. I think Conor O'Shea should be given a chance at midfield for Mayo. He's has played consistently well for Breaffy over the years, yet any time I see him play for Mayo, he is thrown into the half forward line. Completely different roles. It was different when we had an abundance of big midfielders to choose from - 2 x O'Sheas, Vaughan, Jason Gibbons, Barry Moran etc. But now we don't. I don't mean to pick on Conor Loftus, but I don't think he is cut out for a midfield role at the top level. Very good forward player on his day alright, but lacks pace and a bit of aggression in the modern game to nail down a forward role. I think if Conor O'Shea was in the middle, with a little more space that a midfielder generally gets that a forward doesn't, he would have more of an influential role. I know it's not our complete saving grace, but every little helps.

Was at the Knockmore match at the weekend, we won handier than I had expected to tbh. The first 15 mins were close enough but Aughamore kicked 3-4 bads wides which would have kept them in it. Knockmore dominated the 2nd quarter, won everything at midfield for 10-15 mins and should have been further ahead than the 9 points they were at HT. The 2nd half was scrappy enough, Knockmore dropped off quite a bit and Aughamore came back into it but never really threatened to get the goal they needed and it was Knockmore who should have had another 2-3 goals on the break. For Knockmore, I though Pearse Ruttledge was very good, got a nice few scores and picked up some a lot of breaking ball. Kieran King was another one who did very well.

No, he played - got a couple of scores and had some nice link play. I believe he had a broken rib in the lead up to the AI which is why he wasn't on the 26

He's an average footballer at best. He came on against Dublin, gave the ball away twice in quick succession, which if the Dubs weren't so poor, could have cost us the game. Got a bit lucky forcing the 45, but that was about it. Any time I've seen him in the past, he's been average and certainly not in the same league as SOS or Parsons both of who are a big loss.

Do you really think Rochford has no "tactical awareness"???

Get lost.

Bypass or bomb it... I'd take either!

As a fellow clubman, I would say no. Some players don't make the step up and Conor hasn't done anything to suggest a starting midfield spot for Mayo.

Rochford got the best out of him as a substitute "middle third" runner imo.

There are plenty of examples of players who have shone at club level but not at county.

Also agree, he tried and it didn't work out, time to move on

I don't think its just population shifts, I think the people in the clubs deserve more credit than that. Yes the population in westport has increased but they have done fantastic work there to get GAA to be the biggest sport in the town now. Westport was always a rugby town from what i remember!

Move Lee up to 14 and be done with it

I think Westport would have been described as more of a soccer town more than anything. Soccer is still very strong and Westport United have also done serious work in the community. Lee's brother Phil opting for soccer is a good example of where the town is at the moment, there's enough of a population and enough good people involved to compete on both fronts tbh. You can certainly see a huge effort has gone in on the GAA front over the last decade or so and they're seeing the rewards now.

As for Breaffy, the increase in population has certainly helped. The national school (approx 430 kids) is one of, if not, the biggest in the County afaik. A small minority of those kids would play for Mitchells which is a weird dynamic it must be said. Fado fado we would struggle to get 15 players over the 2 years for an underage team. I help out with the underage now and there are about 60 kids between U5, U6 and U7. Numbers have certainly helped in our case.

I don't mean to take away from the good work done with other sports,all the new rugby and soccer pitches in Westport are testament to that! The population has definitely helped though.

Breaffy is only a village after all so the population increase probably had a bigger effect there than Westport!

An increase in population will definitely help but I think in Westports case it is a case of them really getting their act together in the club as being the main factor. While Westport's population has risen, it's been a relatively small rise compared to the relative explosion you might have seen in clubs like Breaffy, Parke etc.

Westport's population fell by 0.72% per year 2002-2006 and increased 1.43% per year between 2006-2011 for example.

I think it would be fair to say that Westport was a sleeping giant in terms of GAA for a long time. You could put it a harsher way and say that they didn't make the most of their population for many decades... but are doing so now.

Very good!

I'd go a bit further out the road and say Mayo Gaels are the Rossies. Balla would be my Sligo, with a confidence that is hard to fathom at times 😜

(I'll pray my anonymity is safe)

Breaffy and Garrymore both qualified from Group 4, play each other next to see who tops the group.

Liam Moffatt stepping down as county board chairman. What's going on now!?

Midwest radio just tweeted it. said there will be a statement released later.

https://twitter.com/radiomidwest/status/1445114257759162374?s=19