Hard to think of a better venue for this one. We've got a solid record there, and with everything on the line, it's essentially a knockout game for us. Our manager knows the opposition inside out, and if we can get the win, it could set the tone for a great summer. Hopefully, we pack the place with green and red.

Can't see the Donegal ones being happy with that

Serious result for us. Now to get the results itself

When do tickets go on sale??

Delighted with the Hyde !

I'd say it could be near a sell out to .

Need a really big call for supporters to get out and behind the team for this one .

I think it’s 12 wins in the Hyde and 7 Connacht titles since 1985 .

Well that’s great in fairness. Our favourite venue I think. Have a decent record there A bit of a trek from Donegal but I am sure they will bring a good support. as they are going really well at moment and the Donegal public have great faith in Jimmy and deservedly so. We have a good enough record against them. Only big days we lost to them I think were AI final in 2012 and a very poor AI semi in 1992 when they went on to win their first All Ireland. Think we have beat them 3 times in championship since that defeat in 2012 but all to play for on Sunday week. Reckon we will have to look after ourselves because I can’t see Cavan doing us any favours and beat Tyrone

Super news for Mayo, haven't lost in Hyde Park for 24 years and only lost once to Donegal once in 12 league and championship games. A draw in this match is a enough to send both into the knock out stages.

Ideal
Now let’s pack it out with Green and Red !!!

A draw may be good enough but Donegal would top the group on points difference as head to head surely goes out the window if all 4 on 3 points.. or else Tyrone would top the group if they justify favourites tag vs Cavan or Cavan would top it if they pull off an upset. So winning the group is extremely important to break the logjam issue. Only teams I can recall beating better fancied opponents in QF after playing an extra game are Galway and Monaghan the last 2 years. Before that almost never. Almost always the group winners benefit from the extra week. So forget about a draw, our team needs to go for the jugular.
Hyde a good venue, may be worth a point to Mayo with shorter travel for players and fans alike.

Its going to be a massive occasion in the Hyde. A couple of weeks gives the likes of Diarmuid or even Tommy Conroy a chance of being involved. It will need to be another level up from the Tyrone performance in terms of energy and application. Lets fill the place and get behind the lads. Up Mayo

It’s official! It has landed in my GAA synced calendar - so I don’t even have to note it down.

Worth a couple of points. Reminds me of the Kerryman in The Palace after the draw against Kerry in ‘14. The news had come through that Limerick was the replay venue. I choked, that’s completely in Kerry’s favour, I said. It is, it is he responded gleefully.

I think capacity of hyde park about 25000. It will be sold out. Tickets may be only for sale through the clubs.

Hyde pitch always seems to suit mayo . It’s big enough too

Forget about draw, game has to be won, so it's flat out attack from start to finish, no back or side passes all going forward at full speed and a win is possible.

Will they allow full capacity though...cut back numbers in McHale for that game a few years back...h+s or some such bunya at the time.

Of all the teams in the championship so far armagh looks the most polished. O Neill back a massive plus. So to mayo.. we have to die on the pitch for victory. It's as simple as that. Drive the ball. Ask the question. Good ball or bad ball like the Tyrone match. Bad ball in got us a goal. Win and we are in a quarter final barring cavan beating Tyrone and i don't see that happening. Pressure is on donegal too. I would not fancy us in breffni but in the Hyde we have no excuses. It's ok saying rochy this and rochy that but the players have to stand up now and make it two swallow s. Then we can talk about a different conversation. So let's go mayo. Go for it.

I love it Craggy - I think it can easily be two swallows this summer. They are all over Mayo and Roscommon at this very moment of the year. We have two of them here on the blog at least - and I notice a few more on the team. They're well able to take on Donegal.

This is what it's all about.
A do or die championship battle.
If Mayo play to their strengths there we'll able for anyone.

@jimbo I'd expect a similar size crowd to Mayo v Dublin in the Hyde last year which was 16,870

Carney in the full forward line is a big thumbs up for me. Horan always had him in there. He's been tryed elsewhere but has not really worked. The mark suits him too. We must embrace the new rules and make them work in our favour. Carney is a good target man. My confidence is growing. Swallow s Swallow s Swallow s

From rte - Monaghan v Down and Donegal v Mayo will both be live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. The GAA's subscription service GAA+ will show Galway v Armagh and Dublin v Derry.

Donegal comment here...the Hyde totally favourable to Mayo

Hyde is a fair venue in that it's excellent playing surface with same dimensions as Croke Park. Also a train service from Mayo.
I think McGuinness will be satisfied enough.

It won't be a sell out

It’s a rare thing for me to have much positive to say about Roscommon but they have done a great job on the Hyde and it’s a great venue for matches now.
It also helps that it’s almost half distance, while marginally closer to where I live now in Dublin and where I grew up and call home. So it’s an easier venue for me than pretty much any of the other Connacht venues.

They were as well to fix it for McHale park

That’s good news on the Hyde as I really thought we would be going a bit further afield. The current capacity is 25,000 so unlikely to be a sell out - would expect somewhere in the region of 18,000. Not sure about its neutral status though, I have relatives in Dunfanaghy and they are looking at a seven hour round trip!
It should be a right cracker of a game. I’m hoping we get something like the 2019 3rd round qualifier in McHale Park, which was one of best games of football I’ve seen Mayo play and the atmosphere was incredible that day.

A fair bit of whinging from Donegal supporters about the Hyde as venue.For a team that is Ulster champions and seen as favourites for the All Ireland they seem to be bit worried about Mayo in the Hyde.

Donegal shouldn't be to worried if Paddy Power is anything to go by.

Donegal 4/11 and Mayo 11/4

Handicap Betting.

Donegal - 3 are 5/6 and Mayo + 3 even money.

We will have to upset the apple cart again in 2 weeks.

Where exactly else did Donegal want to have this game? Strandhill?!

McGuinness will use a Connacht venue as fuel to circle the Donegal wagons. Not sure we’ll see more than the crowd that was at Dublin last year. Venue aside, let’s not lose sight of the fact that Mayo need to put in a big display to win. Lose in 2wks, regardless of the performance and it’s a very bad season. It’s clear as day that there was far, far too much emphasis and mental energy wasted on the Connacht championship (saying it for months that in the greater scheme of things it’s meaningless in terms of All Ireland ambitions - in the current structure certainly). Any Mayo side that’s prioritising the Nestor Cup hadn’t got much ambition. I’ve said it many times, Mayo should ALWAYS target Sam. Some years we’ll have players with greater potential etc but it’s the job of management and players to come up with a strategy to win an All Ireland.

We desperately need a result against Dgal but if we get that, then we should be aiming to go much further. One things for sure, this All Ireland is fairly wide open.

Galway saved last wknd…could be a turning point for them.I still think they have arguably the deepest squad.

Ah isn't it great for the Hyde and the locals to have one sold out game for the year, they will be delighted to see some decent football there too...

You're right there @ Revillino. We are up against it again. Enda McGearty who fairly has his finger on the pulse says we have averaged 0.6 two pointers per game since intro of new rules and it lags miserably behind most of the bigger teams. Most are up on 2 or 3 two pointers per game. It's like being 4 points behind before every throw in from now on because it's all big guns we're facing anymore.
Maybe bombs in on top of Aido are needed more to help us start hitting the onion bag because long range points seem to be far from
overall agenda

You can run but you can't Hyde. This is the one. Bring it on.
Besta luck Mayo

Wouldn't be getting excited about the venue,

Mayo should have won there last year against the Dubs and ended up drawing a game they had won.

Focus on the performance and consistency and putting 2 back to back performances together which i don't think has happened in 2025.

The pitch is the pitch.

Its convenient for the supporters but nothing more.

Exactly WestKerry, Mayo need a 70 minute performance with off the charts intensity and perfect tactics to nullify Donegals multiple threats. Nothing else will do. And venue will matter very little if mayo aren’t up to the pitch of the game and setting the tone come throw in. They can do it but Donegal are in the top 3 of competitors for Sam with Armagh and Kerry in my opinion.

I agree with you West Kerry we badly need to put two good performances back to back. It will be a tall order but you never know with Mayo

Totally agree, the pitch doesn't really count. We need a courageous performance like Omagh, no silly mistakes and get a few match-ups right and just go for it.

@Pullhard.

You would have to say there are disadvantages to not having a fair rate of 2 point conversions.

Of course there is the obvious one, that it amounts to 2 points.

Donegal know they don't have to place too much emphasis on protecting the arc because we haven't been a threat from our outside shooting. they can clutter up the area closer in to goal with defenders so I see that as one major hurdle we have to deal with.

Of course we will have to come out to the arc to try and nullify their 2 point threat which opens up space for them inside.

If we don't take on and convert at least a few 2 pointers it means that we will have to make our gains in other areas.

One might be to ensure we turn them over at a much higher level than they can turn us over, that won't be easy.

We will need to come out better than 50 - 50 in the midfield battle winning kick outs and we will definitely have to clean up most of the breaking and dirty ball around the midfield.

I hope we don't see any short kick out attempts. We have suffered enough already this year from that strategy.

Hopefully and I'm sure the management will have Donegal's most dangerous players identified and have come up with a way to nullify them.

Its 15 against 15 so I don't see why we cannot give them a good rattle. We have many fine players ourselves and hopefully we will be in sync in 2 weeks. We have had a lot of different player combinations and positional switches throughout the year so hopefully we have a settled team, more comfortable playing with each other the next day - with of course a couple of surprises thrown in.

I thought O’Shea spent far too much time out on the 40 and not enough time loitering around the small square last Sat. Donegal will absolutely love to see him out there. Threat nullified

It really is hard to believe there's so much to play for in the last round where there are usually dead rubber games. In our group each team if their winning need a certain team to win the other game in order to finish top and if they are losing they want the other team to win to keep them in the championship. Crazy stuff. It's mad ted.

@Revellino well said your posts allways give me a little smile !

I don't think anyone is getting excited the venue .

We all know we have a huge task in front of us .

We know we need to put in another huge back to back performance we know all of this it's obvious . We also know we have not seen consistency in 2025 is well .

People are glad of the venue as hopefully it will get us more support there that's it .

Venue doesn't matter a dam....it only best suits us mayo supporters...let's forget about it and focus on maximising our performance, nullifying donegal and hammer into them from the first minute. It's up to supporters to support our team with every ounce we got and let's see where it takes us. As the d'unbelievables would say, let every blow be a fu ckin funeral...

Mcguiness didnt want Croke Park and the Hyde was the only other viable option.He will be happy enough and its closer to Dunfanaghy than croke park is.I would say its irrelevant to the players just a bit handier for us travelling.Feels like we have one shot at saving our season.Its a must win game for us anything else is prolonging the inevitable.Donegal 3 point favourites so expected to win by 4 seems similar to Tyrone game and very few expected a result last saturday.

It's amazing that a lot of posters think the Hyde is no advantage to Mayo but if it was in Clones we would be up in arms. So let's face it we have no excuse for not getting a result so I'll take a draw and move on to the next match. If we don't get a result we simply are not good enough.

Donal Gallagher, not at all. We’re much better in The Hyde than in McHale park. The Armagh man is looking after us for being good boys.

New pod up on Patreon - Rob and Mike with Colm Boyle and Billy Joe Padden chatting about the Tyrone result.

Mayonaze, Aidans strength is not and never has been around the square, though he did help create the peno. He's instrumental around the D and 2-point arc, either central or left or right. He's playmaking to great effect there and this must be how we use him. It's working much better than his old number 11 role circa 10 years ago where far too often he'd plough with ball in hand and get turned over. He is far more a team player now, and not the sole focus. That said, he is still very much a key player for us.

Wouldn’t blame Donegal folk for being annoyed about The Hyde. Imagine the moaning here if it was fixed for Breffni or Clones. But the goalposts are the same width as most other grounds and the crossbar is the same height. It is advantageous to us re travel and familiarity but if Donegal are as good as they are made out to be they should be capable of beating us anywhere. And as someone said earlier Jimmy will use it to his advantage. Would be disappointing if we were outnumbered but if attendance in Omagh is anything to go by that may well be the case. I know it was a Saturday night and our form was poor but even the Tyrone people were surprised at the poor turnout saying they had seen bigger Mayo support at league games up there.

Never mind the Kerry man. Of course The Hyde is an advantage to us. Good hunting ground. Worth a few points to us esp if we don’t go for the 2 pointers!
Secondly since when did Donegal become superstars?! Nothing much proven to back it up yet. Bit like our neighbours. We normally have Donegal’s number so I’m not listening to them being bigged up to the degree that’s starting to happen. They are not Dublin of 5 years ago. Back to what Mayo do when we are afraid of being too cocky to think we might beat them in case we don’t. Feck that. We will beat them if we want to enough.

Donegal had some bad wides against Galway last year in the last quarter and the same against Tyrone.
Same in the Ulster final but stuck in for extra time.
This will be a real championship game and we have an advantage in that no one even our own understand our game plan on best team.

@Sinead37

So well said your absolutely spot on there!

Pointless debate now about the venue as it was when the GAA told us that Limerick was halfway between Kerry and Mayo. It's the Hyde now and let's hope the Green and Red Jekyll and Hyde are more the murderous Mr. Hyde in the Hyde than the gentle Dr. Jekyll.

I'm hearing Tommy C is ' very close ' .

It'll be a tremendously tight affair with neither side wanting to go for broke early on. I'm expecting cagey, ponderous football from McGuiness initially. With so much on the line it could end going to the wire. Would've backed Donegal hands down up until Tyrone's victory in their stronghold... who knows what to expect?...my head still says they'll have too much with their range of scorers but, they've stumbled under pressure before, so it's anyone's game.

Im llooking forward to seeing who will mark Michael Murphy. If he can be contained, Donegal are beatable. He is an amazing player and is the work horse and leader for Donegal.

Also hearing positive noises in South Mayo about Tommy’s return …….

Well I live in Deep South Mayo and heard the complete opposite.

Are the tickets on general sale?

Wouldn’t be surprised if Rochford stuck O Shea on Murphy. Wouldn’t be the first time he’s done it

Anyone questioning what Aidan brought to the party in Omagh would do well to listen to what the lads had to say in the latest pod. They quoted a few stats on Aidan - 45 possessions, had a hand in 1-7 of our scores (two for fouls on him when he was "loitering around the small square"!) and popped off the final pass to ROD for two goal chances. I'm not sure that comprises threat nullified.

Aidan o Shea came on against Donegal in league game in 2017 when Murphy was controlling the game.Murphy moved into full forward and Aidan followed him .There is great photo out there of Aidan catching the ball clean over Murphy’s head

That reminds me that Aidan was a right busybody and nuisance in that Mayo v Dublin game last year too in the Hyde. He was everywhere around the Dublin arc.

Jr, this made me howl:

“ This will be a real championship game and we have an advantage in that no one even our own understand our game plan on best team.”

On the topic of Aidan, I happened to listen to the Indo podcast for the first time yesterday and they had Pat Spillane and Philly McMahon on it.
Philly is so bitter he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge that Aidan had a good game.
He said he didn't stand out, and if they put him (McMahon himself) in full forward, he'd have won as much ball.
Spillane and the host (don't know who it was, not Joe Molloy) listed out what O'Shea contributed and tried several times to get McMahon to acknowledge it, but no, he's too thick to admit it.
That's the standard of analysis you're getting from the Indo!

@Swallow swoops.

You say it made you howl.

A howling swallow. That's a scary thought. I'm afraid to go and look out at the swallows this morning in case they are up on the wire howling down at me. Could you imagine. 10 or 12 swallows howling away to their hearts content. Jaysus. I won't sleep for the next week.

Revellino, this again made me how… erm jitter, scoot about, swirl, zoom in through small spaces, backwards flip, nosedive and swoop straight up again.
That’s the swallow equivalent of hoots of laughter.

Stick o shea on Murphy...tell him to follow him to the Jack's if he has to, just to nullify him....neither man were ever built for speed...more for comfort...

Brick might get the Murphy role .
Donegal will be hot favourites and so they should.
They have serious pace and a very strong bench.
I was at the Tyrone match and the work rate and intensity was excellent.
If we could bottle the supporters that made the trip noise and enthusiasm and multiply it for the Hyde, it would honestly help the lads so much .
Really really tough game against many people's favourites for the all Ireland so let's get behind the lads

If fit would McHugh not be a good option for Murphy. He's done good jobs on Clifford and Enda Smith before and Murphy coming out the field wouldn't bother McHugh.

@Still Dreamin: He would, if fit.

I'd expect:
McHugh > McBrien > Brick > Coen/Durcan in that order would be the preferences depending on who's fit and how they decide to go about some of the other matchups (e.g. Langan playing puck for them in recent games so another good matchup for either Donnacha or David).

Ryan McHugh the other challenging man-marking one to pick. Kelly will be towards the top of the list given his attributes and the performance he put in during the league. But 4 or 5 other lads you could make a strong case for picking up that job.

As mentioned above, Aidan had 45 possessions and was involved in 1-7 against Tyrone, yet some are now suggesting putting him back to follow around and mark Murphy. Let him stay forward and play his natural game—let Donegal figure out how to deal with Aidan O’Shea. We have plenty of strong, physical defenders well able to handle Murphy.

Murphy will have to be managed but I would be concerned with the switch off in the back line twice in second half were we were marking space and nobody went to defend, there was confusion on who was picking up who, if we do this in a tight game we could have an early year.

"Mayo 1-14 Donegal 1-10: Majestic Mayo defeat Donegal with awesome performance of grit and guile" Headline after 2014 quarter final on this blog. Hopefully see something similar on sunday week.

Mchugh is a no brainer for Murphy if fit imho . He won’t get much change outta Donnacha Mchugh if he’s on it

@mayotillidie - it wasnt 2014 anyway - Donegal got to the final that year.

A lot is being made of Donegal - but Tyrone showed that if you can stop Murphy and not allow Donegal hit you on the break, then you are in business, especially without Patten in goal.

DONEGAL:
G. Mulreany; v C Reape - Advantage Mayo
F. Roarty, v R O Donoghue - No advantage
B. McCole, v Aiden O Shea - Advantage Mayo
P. Mogan; v J Carney - Advantage Donegal
R. McHugh, v B Tuohy - Advantage Donegal
E. B. Gallagher, v D McHale - Advantage Donegal
C. McColgan; v C Dawson - No Advantage
H. McFadden, v M Ruane - Advantage Mayo
M. Langan; v D McBrien - Advantage Donegal
C. Moore, v P Durcan - Advantage Mayo
C. Thompson, v S Coen - No Advantage
S. O’Donnell; v R Brickenden - Advantage Donegal
P. McBrearty, v E Hession - Advantage Mayo
M. Murphy, v D McHugh - No Advantage
C. O’Donnell. v J Coyne - Advantage Mayo

Subs:
O. Gallen, v S Morahan - No Advantage
D. Ó Baoill, v S callinan - Advantage Donegal
A. Doherty, v D Neary - Advantage Mayo
S. McMenamin, v D Flynn - No advantage
J. Brennan v F Kelly - Advantage Donegal

Not much between them depending on how the tactics go really
THey will be happy to let Mayo bring the ball forward slowly, Donegal defending zonally with two banks of 8, watching Mayo waddle forward with Hession holding the ball over his head.
One Mayo lad hesitates in a slow attack - Donegal pounce and flood forward with runners - just as they did to Cavan.
Historically, to beat a McGuiness team, you had to let the game go to s#!t and not get caught on the break (like Kerry in 2014 final).
I Would love to see Mayo sit back and hit Donegal on the break with runners and/or kick passess. If Mayo play a high press v Donegal and get turned over a few times - it could get messy.

Regarding who’ll mark Murphy, plan Bs have served Mayo poorly in the past. Play our best fullback in position and so on with other positions.

WJ, I listened to the pod..and I was behind the goal we fired into in both halves in Omagh. In my opinion, Aidan would be far more effective closer to goal especially against tougher opposition except in circumstances where we are losing midfield, which wasn’t happening v Tyrone. The stat of having a hand in a score. How is that calculated? If a player is involved in the play that ultimately leads to a score then does that count?

On possession count…a fella could touch a ball tinned of times throughout a game and have little influence. Now to be clear, I’m not saying Aidan had no influence. I never said that. Like many he had a solid workman like display, but my point in possession count is that it’s not an accurate yardstick for performance level or influence on a match. In fact, it’s arguably a statistic that has crept into the Mayo game too much in that it can counter risk and if I’m right, the lads ok recent pods have said that Mayo need to take more risk.

In my opinion, quick ball into Aidan in the full forward area would be very productive for Mayo. He may have 50% of possession versus Aidan further out the field but we benefit far more. That’s ultimately the point I’m making.

My use of the word ‘loitering’ (around the square), was obviously wrong.

Hanging around the square but with purpose.