Mayo GAA Discussion

Yeah I've been critical of McDonagh, but I thought he was very good yesterday. A lot of the time, he was playing sweeper, or blocking the space in front of full back line, whatever you want to call it.

Actually saw a Galway player eyeing up the pass inside, but saw McDonagh and had to pass backwards instead. I'd say his role is the unglamorous hard work.

He does a massive shift of the dirty work every week but has been right on the verge of the glamorous stuff a couple of times this year too. Games where he could have had 1-2 or 1-3 more on the scoreboard with a tiny bit more composure or touch more luck on the day. Very fine margins. Looking forward to the game where it finally falls in place for him. He's earned it.

Hopefully someone on the coaching team working on the final execution with Fionn and Eoghan in particular. If we can get those two with their powerful direct running getting on the end of the finish or providing that killer final ball for others it could make a real difference to the year.

No point O’Shea playing 14 in April Mcstay knows this. In the big semi final or whatever. If O’Shea waits inside. He only only needs a few good balls to cause wreck.

At the game & watched it back on TV but I'd very much doubt the 'knowing more' end of things.

He played a deeper role than most of his games this year alright. Galway don't leave much space to kick it inside (the first 15 minutes you can see how many times Durcan, Flynn or DOC were looking for space inside and having to recycle instead, despite a lot of movement inside which was being well tracked - Ironically enough Aido himself probably the only one executing good kicks early in the game as he found Ryan with a couple of lovely kicks to put him in behind or earn a mark or two despite the heavy pressure) so I'd imagine the goal was leaving him in and around 11 or midfield at others was aiming to get him more ball and influence the game while leaving more space inside for Carr and ROD to try and exploit. He did his end of things there incredibly well, sadly Galway defence did a solid job on stopping goal chances for the other lads (Carr with the one big chance rattling Gleeson's dome with his left in the second half).

He was a magnet for free kicks as they were completely unable to stop him legally (and the issues they've made of complaining about the refs performance seems to have brought a highlight on their questionable tackling techniques that could go on to bite them later in the year as other refs will be more inclined to notice it given Cawley correctly did), laid off some lovely passes the odd time he wasn't fouled and did a fantastic job on the press or defensively all game.

Wasn't quite at the level that Reape and Coyne hit for MOTM kind of thing but that was mostly a question of how often we were able to feed him where he barely put a foot wrong the whole game.

I think it can actually be distilled down to 1 win in a knockout game 21+ years

They beat Kerry in the opening group stages QF in 2018, but that was not a knockout game.

They beat Armagh on penalties in 2022, but technically that was a draw.

So their only win in that sort of environment was the SF win v Derry in 2022.

Hard to argue with that but Galway football has been largely in the doldrums between '01 up until PJ took over. There was a period there, apart from an occasional sporadic flicker, when a few seasons went by when they didn't play there at all. Simple fact of the matter is if you're good enough up there, you will win.

But c'mon, Mayo calling *our* record in CP 'interesting' for the past 20 years...????!!!!

Probably a similar enough team for next Sunday. If I was McStay I'd drop Ruane, theres only so long he can keep underperforming, a kick up the hole might do him no harm. Flynn/Carney to the middle and McHale in the half forward line

That's simply not true. The standout forward for the past 3 years has been O'Donoghue.

You could also make an argument for Conroy as he was nominated for two All-Stars in that time.

McHale has never performed close to those levels at county level irrespective of what he has done for his club.

Not a scoring thing for me re Ruane. He's loose in possession, runs into traffic far too often and is too easily turned over for a man of his size and athleticism. I don't think he imposes himself on games enough anymore. Maybe it's a form thing or maybe most teams have his number now, I don't know.

I get that you'd favour your own clubman but both of the above statements are a bit of a stretch, certainly the one about Ruane. Matty has been outstanding in a number of games and the expectations and standards he is held to are higher than most.

I think Maher fairly had his number yesterday. He was probably Galway's best performer on the day overall.

22 different clubs represented there I think, great spread

Football is all about opinions and everybody has got one but you (rightly) wont be taken seriously when you say Darren McHale has been the best Mayo forward over the last 3 years.I think you also might be forgetting he was injured for a lot of that time.A good squad player and I hope he kicks on and is in a position to make the 26 regularly.

Further adding to the notion that you're not coming across as somebody with a good understanding of football is you'd like to drop Mattie Ruane.

Maybe have a bit of a think before posting and people might interact you more positively with you.

No worries,

Any time you want to talk nonsense I'll happily point it out👍

A lot of recent criticisms (focused on Mattie and Fionn currently but at times seems to be including Jordan and Jack) seem to be focused on one aspect of play. Offence. Even more so it seems hyper focused on ball in hand skill execution and ball in hand decision making only. That's a pretty small part of the overall game and wouldn't be the sole priority (or even top 3 priorities) when selecting those players for those roles. Sure, it's very important. But so are lots of other things.

Looking at a few more aspects of their game all have been pretty great this year (I'll agree with Mattie having more to offer, he can hit the levels Diarmuid has been, but hoping for more and criticising what he has given are very different things). Sure they've all had games where they'll be kicking themselves for snatching at a shot or giving a sloppy turnover but all have been a huge part of giving us the platform to perform game after game. A platform that has really allowed for others on any given day to shine.

If you look at the job any of the lads are doing in Defence (once we're all back and in shape how are we managing to stop teams), Defence Transition (how we manage to get back into shape after something like losing a turnover or a team breaking a press), Offence Transition (how we get forward when we manage to turn the ball over on others) and Offence (how we manage to breakdown a set defence against us)... about 75%-85% of that workload is off the ball. Being in the right place at the right time to either prevent a ball coming in to an attacker on defence or pulling a defender out of position so another player can benefit from the space on offence (something Fionn and Mattie very seldom get praised for but frequently excel at).

Tackling is still huge, fielding important, kick and hand passing very important and taking scores always going to be vital but so much of our current setup is depending on what the 14 lads off the ball are doing for the 1 on it to get all that stuff right. And the lads often being criticised are doing an awful lot of the 'other' hard work very well. We've still a lot of work to do on stopping so many runs down the middle getting through... 5 goal chances coughed up to Galway is 5 too many... but when you break those down to the causes it's not any of the lads mentioned repeatedly or even commonly at fault this year (Maher one Mattie should have done better along with Ryan letting Kelly away a bit easily in the buildup; Heaney one Loftus had to do better in the footrace and put Heaney under more pressure [not necessarily having to win it]; Tierney one Paddy had tracked him brilliantly - give the defenders a thumbs up on that one with it a half chance at best after a very unfortunate turnover on Diarmuid coming into contact with Mattie supporting him; Comer one of the worst chances defensively... Loftus completely out of position and jogging exhausted looking towards the ball rather than busting a gut to cover inside [wouldn't have gotten there in time but you'd hope he'd be trying], Paddy ending up heading for canal after missing a push on Comer... fair play to Diarmuid busting a gut to narrow the goal and Reape covering the near post to stop what should have been buried; Cooke's one had multiple lads falling asleep from a mark assuming they'd point it. Eoghan McLoughlin, Bob Tuohy and Conor Loftus would be at the front of the list getting an earful from me on that one but you could easily pick out 4 or 5 others equally deserving of it. Team failure on combination of physical/mental fatigue on that one).

The five from 8 to 12 have some of the toughest jobs in the two transition phases, while being vital to both offence and defence too, and the energy and exertion they put in is going to cause some mistakes over the course of 70 minutes. Not every player is going to match the stamina needed for those roles the way we're playing them and those that can aren't always going to offer the same pace/physicality/fielding/defensive strengths/offensive strengths as the lads out there. Swapping any one of the lads for Darren McHale, Bob Tuohy, Frank Irwin, Tommy Conroy, Cillian O'Conner, Aidan O'Shea (personally I want him in at 14 99.9% but he can still offer a lot at 11 or 10 as needed), Bryan Walsh, Kevin McLoughlin or playing lads like Enda or Eoghan out of position are all going to offer a variety of pros and cons with very few cases where one player is simply 'better' than another. There will be times when we'd certainly look to change things up. However judging the lads predominantly on the one attacking aspect of the game, that a more attacking alternative could likely do (slightly) better, while ignoring all the other areas of the game we're likely to suffer feels very myopic.

(Said as a huge Darren McHale fan. Love his style of play, vision, distribution and eye for goal. Could be a key ingredient for us this year unlocking tricky defences. I'd disagree on him not being a great option off the bench though [his ability to pick out the right pass at the right time against a tired defence being run at is amazing coming on late in a game].

Wouldn't expect to see him starting in MacHale Park this week or Salthill if we're there in the Semi. Certainly not in place of Mattie. That said, could easily get a nice run off the bench and between the Connacht Final and Round Robin games if he stays fit could be a vital part of the team this year)

You over state the level of talent it takes to do the 'hard work' part of those roles. Don't get me wrong, you've got to be seriously fit and highly motivated to do it but much of that comes down how well the management team have set the team up and explained the roles well enough to the players involved. You underestimate the ball skills and decision-making which is what ultimately separate's the champions from the rest. Fionn is not Mayo inter-county standard when it comes to decision-making and ball-skills but Jordan and Jack Carney are. Wing forward is probably Mayo's weakest position. You have Bob Touhy as next in line, maybe Darren McHale if he stays fit long enough, and that's it really. Kevin Mc and Jason D are past it to play for any prolonged period in that role. Boland was unbelievably dropped from the panel and Oisin Mc pulled out I believe - so depth is lacking in that position.

He's been very good at club level for Knockmore although I'm obviously biased there - good in front of goal, fast hands and very secure in possession. Whether he can carry that through to county level remains to be seen

I think it's telling that McStay has brought him on anytime in both of the last two matches when he's been fit and I think if he could get a run of a couple of games without injury, he could make a difference for us - he offers a socring threat from HF that we didn't have the last few years (Flynn & Carney have improved on that front this year). It would be great if he could push McDonagh for that HF spot as I think we'll need more options there later in the summer.

Someone hasn't really done their homework. He only made his full Mayo debut in the championship in June 2021 - less than 2 years ago. He only played less than one half of football in the crunch matches that year - Dublin and Tyrone. And I don't recall seeing much of him in last years championship. I know he was probably injured, but being out on account of injury does not qualify a player to be the best Mayo forward over a period of time.

Anyway, sounds like he has good potential. Would be great if he can get going.

When I spotted it on TG4 I was thinking surely it's Darren... But then the Irish Times had it as Darryl as well and I just took it that we all had it wrong 😬

It's Tom Lydon I think will be interesting to see how he gets on.

I really hope he proves you right Green&Red. Whatever it takes to get us over the line!!! He shows great enthusiasm anyway. He was in front of me when he took up position after coming on in the Monaghan match, and he was itching to get straight into the game. Full of enthusiasm. Was very hard on himself when he was making the few mistakes then. I nearly had to block the kids ears to drown out the cursing !!!!!!!🤐