This year may amount to nothing for Mayo but I'm loving the brand of exciting positive football. In all honesty I haven't driven a long distance to see Mayo in some time and stuck to the shorter journeys but we are heading to Letterkenny in 2 weeks and doing an overnight because it's lovely to watch them play now and a far cry from the brain numbing displays of recent times.
Fair play to the new management for making the supporters smile and have a reason to get off our seats again. The craic it seems for now is back!!

Great article. Not sure where the year will bring us but it's so great to see our attacking style of football back and confidence back into the players.
Whatever happens Andy & Colm Boyle have certanily brought back support . More at the match in castlebar in a league match then in the awful Cavan match ? That says it all. Long road ahead but it's great to see the optimism back ( without getting carried away ! ) .

Attacking football is good and well, but you must mind the house.
This time last year we were worried about our defense but they came good in the end.
Getting the mix right is all important.
I love the analogy between a sports supporter and national service.

@Jr
'but you must mind the house'

Absolutely right and I've always thought it. Mind the House at all cost. Every goal we ever conceded was a bad goal. I hated every single one of them.

However maybe just maybe with these new rules we can gamble a bit. 2 goals conceded in years gone by would be a killer. A team could score 3 x 2 pointers in no time at all now to wipe out the 2 goals conceded.

Its a balancing act and we cant be as open as we were in the Galway game but could it be a case that it is almost as important to Mind the Two point Arc as it is to Mind the House?

Cautiously optimistic-as my nephew put it. Someone else prudently reminded us how things started under mcstay and co too, and we shouldn't get overly excited yet. I sort of agree except the problem with the previous regime was refusing to accept the new rules. Not so now, as already witnessed. Give it time though.

The great Dublin team of the 70’s had a poor enough of a defence but bygod could they score. To outscore is to win , but if you can pile on the scoring it puts pressure and less ball time on the opponent. We’ve had enough of the back and over across field play - players need to be in scoring range to score, if they’re not up there then no scores- no matter how good the defence is no scores means no wins. We haven’t the perfect team but who has. Andy has shown he is a good reader of the players and the game and can adapt to suit the challenge. Enjoying the moment.

Are tickets for the mayo Donegal game already sold out?
Had planned on going but with O donnel park being such a small ground and no availability on Ticketmaster I take it that’s out of the question?

The Donegal fans are as football daft as the Mayo ones, that time of the year again. I didn't even think they'd be up for sale yet.

Where do people see Kobe starting with Mayo once hes finished with Gortnor abbey.Its looking like 12 with ROD at 11, but would like to see him tried at 14 as hes brillant in the air and a real goal threat as he showed against Belmullet last year. People can go about age , leaving cert whatever, he was the best footballer in club championship last year and should be a guaranteed starter in the Mayo team.

@That time of year again: At what point in the purchase flow are you hitting that?

I just added 5 Adult tickets and got right up to confirming the final step in the checkout process with no issues on availability.

In a way, might be bitter sweet, to see Kobe, as think he light up our championship, but we will lose him forever later on in year. Like Mullins before him, and Pearce Hanley before that. And 1989 Ger Geraghty was in USA. County like Mayo cant afford losing players like this,

Do lads think Kobe will be playing in the league or is he focusing (correctly) on school at the moment ?

Would love to see him in Tralee in March..

Kobe will probably play under 20 in the early part of the season, dapple with the senior team, do the exams, do the club championship and hit for the sun later..

@WestKerry: Andy has said focusing with the school, so imagine a few weeks away yet.

Gortnor have a Connacht Final on Saturday 14th February in the COE (15:30) (COE also hosting A at 17:30 14th & B on Friday the 13th at 19:00, with D in Bonniconlon on the 14th at 12:00), with potential to be tied up until the All Ireland C Final on the 14th March if they win beyond that - so he'll be hoping he's out of consideration for that trip down to Tralee while he's busy elsewhere.

A few Balla lads that'd be only too happy to try and free him up for you inside the next fortnight though.

Andy mentioned after the Galway game that they would leave him out of squad till Gortnor Abbey were finished but that he was with them at training during the week and with the 20s at the weekend.

Exciting times in mayo. Alot of forward s all of a sudden. Still to come. Lyndon. Irwin. Cillian. Callaghan. And I think not just the county but the whole country wants to see kobe. If we can shore up the defence and improve at midfield we should have a good year. Yes it does concern me too that we are conceding goals. But for the last 3 years we were playing with fear and definitely didn't work

Mayo GAA again appealing for fans to stay off the pitch as they are destroying the surface. Very hard stop hundreds of young kids. Parents need to take control here and cop on a bit.

ah the kids will remember being out on the pitch, seeing their heroes up close. But I'd agree it doesn't need to happen every league game, more suited to champ games but they can be bigger crowds, more risk of young kids getting lost etc

If they are serious about protecting the pitch, the orange mesh, like in croker is what's needed, I'm sure there would not be a problem getting men and women to guard the perimeter, a lot more than the numbers they do have at present...yes some might say it would be difficult to get ppl to volunteer, but surely if they were going to go to the game, why not give free entry to the volunteer..I'm sure enough ppl would volunteer for each and every game

Or you could just have a bit of respect and stay off your own pitch.

It does happen in every county we saw in Tuam after the league final is well. Kind of hard to control little kids who want to see their heroes. But yes agree it comes down to the parents is well. The players also would probably prefer to go in first have a shower & get water etc. A time to meet & greet the players after should be arranged maybe not for league matches but for championship. Was good when Andy arranged it for after the charity game .

Can't be much of a pitch if a few children running around it will cause it damage. Let the future Mayo players/supporters have a bit of fun with their heroes.

True westkerry...probably close on half a million spent on it in the last few years. It is ridiculous going on the pitch after every game. Of course kids should be encouraged and given access to their gaa heroes who they look up to. Save the pitch invasions for when it matters most...by god they would have fierce trouble keeping mayo folk off croker when we do win Sam...clumps of it brought home west too...

I think theres a time and place,

There mustn't be a child in Mayo that hasn't got on the pitch at some stage.

We've just had biblical amounts of rain and its hard enough keeping pitches open.

I know financially Mayo have had challenges so keeping additional costs down that can be avoided should be respected by supporters.

The GAA had no problem allowing Connact play Munster last year in Rugby on that pitch a sport that wouldnt be long destroying a pitch. Let the kids meet their heroes on the pitch it will do feck all harm

I walked accross the pitch from the stand to mchale road and i thought the pitch surface was in great condition for this time of year. I think it is a step too far to ban kids fro meeting the players after the match. Kids really love to meet and have a photo taken with their favourite players. I dont know what the world is coming to.

@Jimbo you remind me of a tale I heard in the pub here in Meath.
A fellow said he played in the Centenary cup final in Croke Park for Meath in 84,he came on as a sub in the last minute.
Another lad responded that he spent more time on the pitch crossing from the Cusack stand to the Hogan stand on his way home.

Seems tickets can be purchased for games agai st Monaghan and all other encounters but not Donegal. Is this one sold out already?

I'm not that long here, I loved that awesome league in McStay's first year,attaching flair, awesome goals, big tree's fallen, picked us up from the hammering by Kerry the year before. Then we go and beat them in their home, happy days, flying. Then the crash back to earth, Cork, Louth(Mickey's comment that we weren't a patch on the Kerry team they played in the same group) great win against Galway, in their home. Great first half performance against the Dubs, but McCarthy wins the throw in, we get battered and I think supporters forget the good stuff and fall back on the previous years failing. My own perspective, the future is not yet written, season is over before you know it. Enjoy the here and now

I wrote something very similar this week for the Mayo News WJ, about how no-one is getting carried away with anything. We are long enough in the tooth now to realise that getting too carried away is an exercise in futility, but at the same time, there is nothing wrong with celebrating a new era and a different style of play. Life is too short to be (a) suffering bad football and (c) not enjoying good football.

I am excited for Letterkenny, because I think it will be a good, solid test for us at this point. I don't expect to come out of there with a win, but it should be a very useful exercise.

Amidst all of this though, I often think about Kevin McStay. Whatever about the frustration and the football over the last couple of years, that is small fry in the greater scheme of things. I still feel he was poorly treated and on a personal level, I really hope he is doing well and is in good health.

I'd say all Gaels everywhere would wish Kevin well and hope he's in good health.
I don't believe Mayo supporters ever fell out with Kevin the man, just with the brand of football he expected our team to play... anyone who remembers Kevin playing will appreciate his efforts for us on the field...
I'd imagine most supporters if they met Kevin at a game would say ''jeez Kevin that was awful shite you had us playing back then''. He'd probably agree and everyone would have a good laugh about it,and that would be that.
I don't think there'd be any hard feelings either way.

We all wish Kevin the very best of health and genuinely wish him well for the future but isnt it wonderful to see the positive attacking football employed by Andy as opposed to the puke football McStay peddled especially in the Cavan game he should have been relieved of his duties after the Cavan game he had lost the dressing room

Well said Anne-Marie. I do hope Kevin is doing well too.

2023 started off so well. We made shite of Kerry & Tyrone at home.. the game in Killarney was fantastic, but things started to unravel after that (bar the Galway game).

So I won't be getting too excited yet! Having said that, I personally feel we massively underperformed the last few years & we need to be targeting a lot more than just settling for a Connacht title. It means nothing apart from the bragging rights. GAA have somehow made provincial wins even more irrelevant than they already were

Provincial wins on the grand scheme are irrelevant now that reams get more than one bite of the cherry, but I tell you what, I sure as hell don't want to see that galway shower win 5 Provincial titles in a row...they are blowing on about it a fair bit, which is hypocritical considering how they made little of mayo doing it a few years back on horans watch. We might not win sam this year, but showing progress of winning connought this year and a semi final appearance would be decent...stopping that lot in their tracks would be a sweet added bonus.

Winners and losers of provincial finals are in the same pot with home advantage for the first qualifier game.
Momentum is important.
Most important thing is to beat Roscommon.

Gortnor have a Connacht Final on Saturday 14th February in the COE (15:30) (COE also hosting A at 17:30 14th & B on Friday the 13th at 19:00, with D in Bonniconlon on the 14th at 12:00),

How is there a game in bonniconlon this time of year, its soft ground at the best of time & has big hill towards one of the goals

Sorry Moyside I meant in terms of the championship progression from provisional finals. Whether you win or lose, you end up in same place, as JR has outlined. On that, I can't understand how you wouldn't reward provincial winners by drawing them against the pot 4 teams.

Absolutely we should be looking to stop Galway. But that should be one of many targets

I think we are in a totally different space from last year, last year we were more defence orientated, little or no interested in 2pts scores, a lot of lateral hand passes, which has crept in to Mayo football over last few years. As a supporter this was the most annoying thing to watch. This year more kick passes, more attempts at 2pts, more 2pts, more goal attempts more goals. However not all rosy in garden, the amount of goal chances we giving up, is a major worry. For example Finnerty chance against us, ball over top and Defence a mile off. Watching the galway game, wasn't impressed with our defending at all, we need to be tighter. This can be fixed, but not sure is it different personal or different attitude.

No great shock the red against McMahon was lifted on appeal.

"Seán Mac Mathúna requested a Hearing, which took place on 5ú Feabhra 2026. An Lár Choiste Éisteachta (Central Hearings Committee) found the Infraction not proven, and so no penalty is imposed."
https://www.gaa.ie/article/chc-press-release-x2947

The style of football that depended less on skill and technique has been virtually eradicated with the new rules. The sides that found the transition from old to new most difficult are probably Mayo (last year) and Dublin (still). Training athletes into the new system will take Dublin several years but we've seen noticeable improvement in Mayo's approach and can expect more. We saw Kerry exploding into life against Armagh in last yrs quarter final. I think the last ball game I watched like it for fielding and skillset was Kerry v Dublin in 2013.
Hopefully we'll see plenty more soon. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

@Rusty Bridges just 2 pots this time.
Provincial finalists in one and the other 8 in the other.

Again not kicking previous management as all 3 of them were great mayo men but all 3 would be shouting all forwards and attacking halfbacks " No high % shot, recycle recycle " and that game was sound 3 or 4 years previous but now flynn , ROD , Carney , Tuohy, Mcbrien, Durkan and Sam are shooting and allowed play as best they can , off the cuff .
The more these lads had to thibk and pace slowed down the confidence drained out of them , let them break tackles run one twos and tap over bar , sounds simple but that's how best we play , hard lines running , support playing have a go .
Andy and Boyle are on the line encouraging this behaviour where as previous managment were way more conservative.

Then the fullforward line are allowed change position and demand early ball, sounds simple but the more off the cuff , the freer football we play the better, running down shot clocks, 2 pointers from static positions are for Clifford and co , were better running hard onto a ball or pop pass and turning and shooting.
And it's a delight to watch , Donegal will be hard and very hard but good lessons will be learnt every day out .

Maybe have a look at the French rugby guys, speed it up further, and you have the opposition chasing shadows.

Im expecting big thing s from mayo this year and it's not based on two league games either. It's based on a few facts. In the club championship 2024 I seen plenty club players scoring from distance yet in those years at inter County level that never happened. I put that down to management. This management team is a breath of fresh air Bourne out by the gate receipts already. If the last management had Clifford. Shane Walsh. Con o callaghan in their team they still wouldn't prevail. Negative football also Sheridan with the 20s probably even worse. I never doubted mayo footballers we are as good as any team. We probably will lose a few league games.. The lads need time to get the players playing to their exciting style. Yes we will concede goals at times but if we're getting two pointers it wouldn't be the end of the world. The fact that Andy played in the forward s definitely helps. Colm will want the half back line attacking and running off the shoulder too. Is there really much difference between horanball and moranball.

I presume we will be without a the UL lads in Donegal.
Sigerson final on Wed in Croke Park,back to limerick,then to Mayo and play in Donegal would be madness

Doubt if they will figure...I think Andy is managing players game time well.
The more I see of Cian McHale the more I think he could turn out to be a real ace for our county team this year. Strange how all of a sudden we are top heavy with knacky citeóg forwards.