Does anyone know how many times we kicked a timid shot into their goalkeepers arms ?
I`v lost count.

What frustrated me tonight was that there was, yet again, no strategy for turning attacks into scores. We seem to have the idea that hard work will win the game, but are a reactive team, rather than a proactive one.
Dublin had a strategy that they rolled out in the 2nd half, that is, they continually used their goalkeeper to draw away a defender to create shooting space. They did it at least 5 times and got at least 3 scores from it. We didn't pull any similar rabbits from out hat and relied on some really hard work from players like Ryan O'Donoghue to get vital scores.
I know it's the first game in a very different rules environment, but when we needed a bit of ingenuity, the same reactive game appears. 21,000 paid to go to that game, about 5,000 were supporters who had left after the hurling game. That's a really poor crowd for a Dublin home game and although it might have had a half decent mayo contingent, that would have been less if tomorrow's game was not on.
The size of next week's crowd will be interesting, but if Mayo continue to play reactively rather than proactively, conbined with the absolute hollowing out of the Season Ticket package, the excitement that has been missing for some time will be reflected in a continued fall off in Mayo support

New season, new rules but unfortunately still lots of the same on and off the pitch. As so often in the past we gifted the dubs an early goal, fought back manfully , looked like possibly winning the game but lost by a small margin at the end. It’s only January but still similar problems. Reluctant to shoot in second half, got turned over often and allowed Dublin to hit us on the break, dropped a good few short to gift Dublin possession etc etc. Some good performances from our lads, but greater consistency needed as some guys who were quite effective in first half went into their shell in the second. On the blog things are still the same. ( no great harm in that to be honest) but despair early on, praise at half time, blame game at the end. Easy to criticise manager but he must be tearing his hair out at how we lose tight games. For some he is to blame for that but he can’t be blamed from dropping 7 short or hitting wides at crucial times. Sure we have been doing that for as long as I can remember under all sorts of managers. I actually thought it was quite a good game for a cold January night. Both sides seriously under strength. About 6 household names on Dublin team and some of them were their best players. A number of our defenders will be our championship defenders. Ryan fought hard up front and some of the new lads did well in patches. Watched a good bit of Galway v Armagh and thought for a while there were no new rules as it was as turgid as watching them last year. But in fairness to Galway, they got the job done and if winning means everything fair play to them. Back to our game, I reckoned beforehand we could be watching the 2 most likely relegation candidates. I won’t be changing my mind just yet,

Great report Willie Joe. We could have nicked it, but Dublin could have won by six.

Our defending is a joke at times. How many free shots did Dublin get? Bugler on six or seven from play is a shocking indictment.

Were management more interested in rotating players than actually winning? Otherwise why take off Neary and Towey?

I felt very frustrated leaving Cromer I have to say.

Pleasantly surprised by the young lads this evening, thought Irwin was good and if Mattie had of tapped in the goal we would have won it. Very balanced at times. Watched Galway v Armagh and it was a hard watch.
Nil Desperandum is my take away. Think we were missing more than Dublin have left to bring back or anyone else.

Is nobody going to talk about the sitter of a goal that we missed?

First score of the night for Dublin came from the throw in, they won the break, half back up the field and kicks over. In the build up, we have two men running back to cover one man and completely letting their man go, who was going with their half back? From the resulting kick out, Kilkenny wins it pretty much uncontested, its six against eight excluding our keeper, yet they still find themselves with a tap in goal from a couple of yards. The reason why? Players ball watching and assuming a tackle will be made, particularly Mattie and McHugh, instead of sensing danger and blocking the central area by stepping back.

If those two scoring situations and are not worked on we are in trouble. It can’t be that hard to realise a man needs to be in beside the keeper to protect him, then two banks of defenders around each arc. Mayo far to committed to man to man and ridiculous pressing leaving gaps everywhere instead of allowing teams overplay the ball and turning it over. Dublin’s second point a great example of it, McBrien and Coen both chasing over like headless chickens, a few simple handpasses later and a simple point for Dublin. The ball never left a small area, Dublin players just dragged their markers around in circles. We need to have a set defence when required that doesn’t venture outside the 40m arc. Didn’t McStay himself talk about the low percentage of scores outside the arc, why then do we defend on the 45 yard line and allow a simple hand pass over the first line to a player in loads of space? You can be sure the ulster teams won’t be so naive to this. Even Dublin, when Reape joined the attack dropped inside the 40 arc. Block the space, make it difficult, don’t be out chasing shadows in the middle of the pitch.

Similarly if we are losing kick out after kick out as we were in the opening stages we should have a plan to much and at least fight for the break rather than allowing teams freedom to run at us at pace.

When Reape came up we did better at exploiting space, this advantage needs to be worked on. We have the players with ability to shoot from distance, we are just forcing them, or they are choosing, to shoot under pressure. That last pass is missing, or working a bit more space isn’t there. When the ball is moved at pace, either by quick kick passing or movement through the hands we did well. It remains to be seen what our plan is when teams slow us down, or we decide to slow it down. Coen I see still making his runs into the full forward line, I still don’t understand the rationale.

I didn’t mean for this to be so negative, there is plenty to be positive about, Reid and Neary were both very good. We fought back into the match superbly. Plenty faces got game time and we had a nice spread of scorers. The pressure from the front when it came, often led by Ryan forced turn overs and scoring chances for us. It is only January and we have shown we have a team that can compete with a few faces to come back into the fold.

I'm happy enough with that performance, the new guys stood up and got CP game time. Judging by the games today we'll have more than enough to put Galway to bed next week.

Same rubbish.

Good entertainment for first league outing under the new rules, I thought. Enjoyed the solo and go and the increased space up front.

Positives
Starting forwards all scored.
Our best shooters (Boland, Towey, Ryan) were the ones to attempt the two-pointers.
Newer players all had a positive impact at some stage. Also brought more size to the team.
Excellent ability to hold up a man, tackle and win the ball with a small group. This was something that had dropped off in recent years.

Negatives
Patchy performance again. Few did well in the second half.
Bugler scoring 7 points and still seeming to be able to find easy space at the end of the game.
As others have commented, defence lacked structure alarmingly for the goal and when Dublin changed direction quickly.
Lack of quick ball and ideas in attack.
Ryan had little impact overall.
Poor use of subs. Dubs got far more from an ordinary looking bench.

With four ulster teams and Kerry left, next weekend is already looking like a must-win.

New rules are going to take a lot of adjustment. Defenders especially are going to feel vulnerable and I expect that the fear of turnovers will be so great it could even lead to more possession football and lateral passing and that is not something the wise men in the review had intended. Also the inability to give a back pass to the goalie is another obstacle for defenders .Dublin pinned us back a few times in second half and without the out ball to the keeper they turned us over. So judgements bases on one game are unfair. Pre season competitive games would have helped iron out these issues

A few things stood out to me in that game. Firstly no high fielder for long kick outs. These new rules work perfectly for long kickouts when opponents press, especially with the kick Reape has. But not a single man can catch the ball over their head. I like Ruane but he’s been in the panel close to 10 years now and has still not developed the high fielding aspect to his game. Crucial for a midfielder with the new rules. In the attack, still quite weak off the left hand side. Reape made some good inroads down that side in the first half. A great score and pretty much made the goal. As a few have mentioned, no real cutting edge in attack. Yes we can comment on new players and so on, but we haven’t seen a cutting edge to our attack in the entire McStay era. And a note on Dublin, they looked seriously unfit and seemed to have gone through a heavier transition then Mayo have. Brian Howard looked 2 stone overweight. No doubt he will be a different animal in championship but it’s just a worry for me. We won’t play another team that has the same level of squad turnover again this year. Galway, Armagh (who looked poor yday) and Donegal will all bring a far greater level of physicality and size. And if we give David Clifford the same space we gave some Dublin forwards tonight then it will defo be division 2 football next year.

Some good, some bad and kinda what you'd expect from the 1st competitive game of the season. I thought the new faces stood up well and in fact carried the game to Dublin more so than some of the more experienced players. O'Donoghue guilty of some shocking waste in front of goal and Ruane barely featured. Not good enough from either of them, they should be providing leadership and direction in a young team but I felt both were our worst on the night.

2 common failings are still there though.....
1, 50% success rate in front of goal is not going to win you any games at this level, or certainly later in the Summer either.
2, when you start both halfs like we do then you're handing the game to the opposition, we ended up playing it on their terms, chasing. We conceded 1-5 without reply in the opening mins of each half! Handing the Dubs 8 points on the board, plus 5 or 6 bad misses by us, and that's a big swing away from us, and towards them.

Still, disappointed with the loss but encouraged by the new lads. Throw them in next week also and see if they can repeat it.

Hopefully we blood even more players. Midfielders who can catch. I remember ethan henry at minor level looking good and he’s captain of mayo gaels. Wonder is he on the panel. We need leaders so no better place to try than someone who is a captain at senior club level m

Great comments. Have to agree with green and red that Dublin looked as though they'd just started training again, and that Howard appeared to have been bulking up not with chicken and turkey, but burgers. However, I have to say there's lots that I saw that made me think the young lads will improve for it. Either side could be accused of egregious finishing at times, but it's January football after all. Some very difficult games coming up. It'll be tight.

Would tend to agree with you green and red, but despite that they still seemed physically stronger than us, I thought some. Of our defenders got leveraged off the ball rather easily in 50/50 scenarios.

Does anyone know if the Ticketmaster is working for the Cross game?
Trying to buy but not showing a seat/stadium section

Catcol - Is it that you can't find any tickets or there are no specified sections? If it's the former, I had the same problem and could only buy them via my season ticket log-in not my separate general Ticketmaster account. (Don't start me on a Ticketmaster rant...) If it's the latter, it's general admission but I'd it'll only be the Lower Hogan that'll be open today.

I think it’s not allowing me to buy. I went to the Dublin v Derry match a few weeks hence and immediately got a ticket choice. Not going to venture forth without a ticket in this weather

For what it's worth, I would be proposing a rule tweak that the goalkeeper can only receive the ball from a pass that is played either from their own half or from within the opposition 40m arc. Or if that is too difficult to police, that the goalkeeper can't receive a handpass between the 45m line and the 20m line (only kickpass).

I don't think I am going to be able to live through watching teams endlessly soloing outside the 40 waiting for the keeper to leg it up the pitch. And why should a team have to defend 11 v 12 the whole time?

There wasn't a lot of high fetching in the game by either team.
Goalie coming forward increases the number of hand passing.
Could see a change to 4 back including the goalie.
I would like to have seen more of Monaghan
Hessian a great addition

Great crowd in here for Crossmolina.

Kick out stats are the big difference with these new rules. Both Mayo and Dublin had approx 50% to 60% success on their own kick outs, approx. Cluxton would calf if he had stats like that!

Just for the record books Willie Joe I think Ryan O’Donoghue should be credited with 3 points instead of 2.

Thanks for that, Boleyboy - it definitely needs to be corrected for the record books. I’ll do so shortly.

From a sceptic of the new rules I in fact enjoyed it. I thought Mayo players were supporting one another really well getting the ball to a free man when under pressure. Speed and tight man marking is what’s required in this new system I’ve no idea how to handle the outfield goalie - a big change from when the full back did the kick outs, now the goal keeper or “all rounder” is the main man on the team. There is more “go” in the team with a good first half despite the nervous start. Yes we’re lacking players that can kick 2pointers and midfield is struggling with judgement of the high ball in particular but we have the players we have and it’s down to getting the best out of them with the talents they have, structure the game that suits them best and see what happens
Just a few observations of some of the rules- like handing back the ball to your opponent and dissent rules are overboard …we’re not playing basketball and bit of arrogance as well as players letting off some steam - is not a capital offence. The hooter , while it reduces pressure on the ticker takes away the last minute excitement and suspense of tight matches.