Mayo GAA Discussion

He was clearly responding to another poster.

McBrien's goal was well taken and a great strong run for the 1-2. Kelly and Daly were caught here. Not sure if Kelly injury was a reason.

That goal is up there for goal of the year alongside McLaughlin's aganst Kerry.

Was off yesterday so hoovered up a lot of podcasts. The Stephen O’Meara one is very good on tactics, put a lot of the good stuff down to Kevin McL, his ability to find pockets of space and draw in extra players.

Some serious balls shown by the management team, the bit the bullet on Loftus, not an easy thing to do when hes played all but one game this year at 6. The also dropped a massive name in Ruane, to me it looked like he was fairly petulant on the sideline as a result, McHale was down at one stage coaxing him. He didn’t exactly make a strong case for inclusion when he came on. Having said that I’m not sure Croke park or the dubs will suit Kevin McL or Jason Doc.

I was happy enough at half time, thought we were very patient with the ball, ran down the clock well, three awful misses kinda counteracted Galways misses. I felt we should have kicked on when three points up but watching it back you get more of a sense that Galway are a good team and we contained them to a large extend. The end of game management was brilliant, I know the crowd were going daft when we were going backwards but we were ahead, Galway had to do something. We put ourselves under pressure by Eoghan McLaughlin coughing up a turnover when he should have moved the ball. The last score we had came from 2 minutes of keep ball and then moving it when Galway got sloppy. It was brilliant to see.

Paddy Durcan would have been my MOTM, he was fantastic, the speed he went after Tierney in the first half stopped a goal, even the skill to not dive in and just put on the pressure was unreal to see. Coen, Diarmuid, Conroy, Flynn and McBrien were all excellent as well. Even though Reape got cleaned out at kickouts, and I don’t think he was helped, he didn’t lose the head, he had three go to Galway before chipping that one out to Hession on 69 minutes, great composure. Think Carney will be lucky to keep his spot, he was fairly anonymous yesterday, similar to the Louth game, I suppose you have to remember hes a novice, all these games will add to his experience but I’d be starting someone else the next day

Hard to know where the dubs are, one Div 1 opponent all year but they are still the dubs. 50-50 really, we have so many weaknesses, glaring weaknesses but I don’t think theres a team left that could have put in the 20 minutes we put in after HT on Sunday

"Kelly,he just had to play,such is his influence "

You're making my point for me.PJ has repeatedly played injured players,the fact that are are key players doesn't change that.Mayo would like to have played Cillian for the last 18 months but he was injured,you do understand this concept yes?

Walsh wasn't taken off as soon as possible in the Connaught final in 2021.He made an ill judged attempt to start something with O Hora and got a very bad injury out of it.This was in the first half,he was given and injection at ht and played a good bit of the 2nd half.

Maybe I watch more Galway football than you after all.

As has been mentioned this is the Mayo thread,I won't be responding to you on here again.If you like take it over to the main thread and you can embarrass yourself there instead.

Didn't want to go all in on him straight after the match but he nearly cost us it at times. He gave away a very soft free and ran into 3 Galway players coughing up possession at a vital stage, all in the space of a few minutes.

To his credit though, he was in the right spot to cover for Reape late on.

I wouldn't have him finishing big games, he's too likely to be a liability. His strengths are there for all to see, but they're not on the footballing side of things.

He gets himself into great positions though, do you just accept that he can't solo the ball?

The turnover towards the end put us under real pressure when we didn't need to be

Didn't seem to be a foul in real time there anyway. I could see the couple of Galway fellas homing in on him, and I thought "oh fu@k". He just didn't seem to have the composure to get rid of it on time.

But I think he should start against Dublin. Need that pace up the wing.

Ya, I had a great view of it. They didnt foul him to be fair. He was probably unlucky with the steps call in truth, you see lads get away with more steps than that. It was probably just the awkward look of it. He is very raw. He gets caught the wrong side for a lot of tackles and then fouls. The one early in the first half was a bad one as we had the guy surrounded. He has a good type of cynicism about him though that we are probably short on in general. A couple of those fouls were deliberate also and its about time we caught up on that front.

He will definitely feature against dublin.

Who picks up Ocallaghan is the one for me. Not sure who will match him up. Mcbrien maybe?

Not sure he has the power to mach up with ocallaghan just yet. Might suit mannion better. It will be interesting to see how they go about it.

Have a look at it from this angle and see what do you think happened? Whether Kelly should have been there or not is entirely irrelevant.

well MF man i think its fair to say ye got the moral victory. Hope ye go out an celebrate it. unfortunately the mayo players are in no position for celebrating as they are out again this Sunday, but fair play to galway, they can put their feet up now and enjoy themselves. we have another few days to enjoy, it might be over this weekend..

but we've dealt galway the biggest blessing they could have ever got. PJ should leave of his own volition now, and ye can actually develop talent. I would admit that there is definitely more to the galway team than they show, but it wont be PJ that brings it out.

You're actually wrong about his football skills - they are at least solid. He can solo the ball running at pace, his hand-passing off either side is solid, he's a decent kicker of the ball but obviously decides to run it more often. It's decision-making he needs to tidy up. Overall, it's obvious as day why he plays so much, he also scores quite regularly as well as having an ability to make turn-overs I would say that are second only to AOS. He has the courage of his convictions to take on players and go for scores.

On the opposite side you have players like Coen and Carney who don't make many mistakes but actually contribute so little to the team.

I taught Eoghan had a nightmare of a game last sunday ,he was turned over at least twice that led to galway scores ,he gave away soft frees .He overcarried the ball for his goal but only for him clearing off the line he repaid the faith the selectors had in keeping him on .Don't think he is good enough to start

Ah come one, Coen is very lucky to start. He's so slow and it's not like he's such a good man-maker that we can say, "oh great - he'll do a good job on Con next weekend". His fielding is not that good or he would start midfield regularly and Mayo wouldn't have such trouble with catching clean ball - in fairness to Coen he can't make himself 3 inches taller. But did you see his lack of footwork for the kick-out Reape sent him in the first half? He drops the ball and then pulls down Conroy after - I think Walsh scored the subsequent free. I think managers keep picking him out of an abundance of safety more than anything else.

Carney just doesn't impose himself on games. Maybe this will come with experience but I've seen nearly all Mayo games since he broke through and despite natural talent he doesn't affect the game much, if at all. Again, he is lucky that we don't have many options at half-forward. I won't start a Fergal Boland debate here!

People just remember what they want to remember. Look at the games more closely and you will see all the positive turnovers Eoghan has, his involvement in other players' scores. Look at his scoring rate (it's high relative to the few games he has played). Yes, he needs to be more clever in his tackling and a bit more thoughtful on front of goal but he can be the difference in Mayo beating a team like Dublin - it's highly unlikely Coen or Carney will be that difference. I think McStay and Rochford see him as an automatic starter, once fit, and especially in Croke Park.

I doubt we’ll ever agree on Coen going by what you’ve written but given he’s captained Minor, Under 21 and Sigerson teams to all Ireland success (and is the only player to have done so as Captain for all 3 competitions) clearly got some thing a lot of people won’t see or credit him for.

maybe if he was more inspiring. Got it.

He’s not a prolific scorer and because he stays back to mind the house he won’t have that many assists either but he does the man marking and the turnovers. Not sure why that gets overlooked.

Sorry, but you are miles off here.

Mclaughlin is probably the luckiest of the three. He is rash in the tackle and gets wrong side often. He is very inconsistent in front of goal yet persists with not offloading to the shooters. He is yet to learn to play to his strengths and is a very raw footballer in general. He has good traits also but he is the most likely of the three to make a daft decision. He will learn but it will take time.

Coen is a team man and very dedicated to the role. He is composed and safe in possession and fills in gaps at the back with the relish that most go up shooting at the posts with. He is a good aggressive tackler, is very mobile and makes good decisions. He is your didi hamann type player and anyone who has had a guy like that in the team knows he makes you an awful lot harder to break down. He might not excite like a mclaughlin can, but he wont cost you a fraction of the scores mclaughlin will either. He actually had a good game for the most part against galway, not sure why people are on his case.

Carney is also very composed, hugely mobile, can score, picks good passes, keeps posession well and is a great option in the air. He is well placed to hurt dublin next day out. He was under pressure against galway because they are massive in the air in that area and were killing us on the breaks - not really his fault to be fair.

What is intangible about it? He spots holes and free men and covers them before they become a problem. He organises defensively, ie recognising mismatches with opponents and fixing them - anyone who seen his role in handling peter cooke at the weekend will have seen this in action.

He is proactive when protecting his fullback line and does so intelligently. You talk about turnovers, but you dont get that his positioning has probably led to that turnover by squeezing the gap the ball can be played into. These things are not intangibles, they are just things that some people cant see - there is a difference.

Marking-wise, he matches up with a very wide range of opponents, which again is a hugely useful tool to have. But again, some people arent really aware of the importance of stuff like that. Im not trying to be smart, it is just a reality. Those types of players never get much credit from the masses but they are a huge part of the efficiency of the team, hence why so many managers pick him, or why jose mourinho and alex ferguson were vying it out for the likes of a jon obi mikel.

Carney was simply drowned out against those two teams - both of whom are huge around the middle, pack his area with bodies and pack the back also. Diarmuid oconnor was poor in those specific areas also in the galway game truth be told. Conroy maher and cooke are serious ball winners while tierney and comer are massive also. It was a big ask for anyone.

But looking at his skillset, he is a guy that could hurt Cluxton's kickouts, as he tends to go for individuals on the run. Carney has great mobility and could definitely steal a few. Who would you play instead of him out of interest?

Im not interested in my defender scoring a point when he is letting in 2 scoring chances at the other end to do it, that would be my own personal view of it. What is the net result there? -0.01? It is a team game at the end of the day. We have good scoring forwards these days, the defenders should be giving them the ball to shoot. Id be more interested in their free count, their turnover count and their attitude towards the protection of their own goals

But McLaughlin does both, his athleticism allows for it. Last week he didn't score but got forward so many times to help his forwards (team game after all) but also made a number of turnovers. Who was he marking - Heaney? who didn't score. As I said, he can tidy up on his tackling but being aggressive is important - Chris Barrett was like this at the beginning.