Good man WJ. I'm heading out to church. Be thinking of our lads and all travelling to the game.
It would be lovely to see us win this one.
Best of luck, Mayo.
Máigheo abú

First 15 minutes will tell us a lot about how today will go...I've a niggle that on this blog n in general around the county before the Tyrone that everyone's back was against the wall, players and supporters and that there was quite a bit of defiance and thick headedness amongst supporters demanding a performance from the team. The team delivered against Tyrone. What worries me is the past 2 weeks where the mood has taken an upturn and all are talking about how we did this that and the other against Tyrone. Nothing which the team did against Tyrone 2 weeks ago matters a sh ite today. I really hope the supporters and especially the team feel that same siege mentality, that when our backs are to the wall we fight n play like men possessed. If the team stand up today, be aggressive, play front footed ball and back up the Tyrone performance, we should have a great chance. But the mentality of the team and supporters needs to be spot on, if not then we're gone.

Best of luck to our lads and all travelling today.

Best of luck to our guys today .

Still think there's another huge performance in us bigger then v Tyrone .

It will have to be to beat Donegal .

I still think we pull off one of our surprise wins.

That would be a massive achievement for this team and management. Yesterday's result shows anything can happen .

As others said Paddy Durcan being back is a huge boost such a leader and a star player who would walk onto any team .

Safe travels to all Mayo by 3 !

I think it may be back to the 1970's but there is always the unpredictability with Mayo that they might do something special. Safe travels everyone.

We need a big game from ROD . He has two points from play in our last 3 championship games combined. We won’t get near winning if he only kicks a point from play. Rob Finnerty got 1-4 from play yday . We need that from ROD.
Jack Carney needs to contribute a few scores as well.

I’ll go for a draw all the same :D

Agreed Moyside. Mayo played with gusto and like men possessed against Tyrone but they also showed great quality and skill which was equally heartening. Passion alone won't win championship matches at this level. We had a good gameplan and players clicked more into positions, and we used our bench terrifically well. And, for a change, we lorded midfield. Why had that gone wrong before? I don't think any of us know.

By the way, it's great to see Donnacha McHugh and Diarmuid back. I think Mchugh is our best mobile man marker (don't be surprised to see him start). But I think I'd put McBrien on Murphy for today. Might be the right match.

But of course it's all for nought if we lose today. Best of luck to the Mayo team and management. Up Mayo.

Great piece of writing to whet the appetite! Like Clare, I'm tied up with work commitments. Good luck to the lads.

Lovely piece Willie Joe and a great summation of what lies ahead. Let's go buck mad from the start in the Hyde and if we do lose which is a major possibility let's keep the heads on this blog this evening for all concerned

Best of luck to the Mayo team and Management and safe journey to all of us travelling today. Huge thanks to Clare for the tickets very good of you Clare. Finding it hard to call this one the fact that Donegal dont need to win might swing it in our favour but dont be suprised if were all heading to Killarney next weekend for a prelim

Killarney, christ, and the price of hotels this time of year...lol that would be more concerning than actually playing kerry.....

Just read the 1st few lines of O'Rourke and he talking the same shit again about mayo fans need to head to knock for the rosary instead of the Hyde. What an asshole after his performance as the meath manager especially after how they performed without him yesterday. I suppose he's taking the credit there instead of crawling under a rock. It's so condescending and making a fool of the mayo support. By the way I don't need anyone to tell me he's just another analyst or ignore what these people say it's just the arrogance of him to come with this after his own recent failures.

@Ever the optimist

We will be able to go to the quarters :p haha

@Glorydays

Aw no worries at all glad they went to a genuine Mayo supporter enjoy them ! : )

Yeah agree the thoughts of going to Killarney is not a good feeling hotel prices would be mad !

Dead right WJ, If ever there’s a time for the Mayo roar it’s today says me from the Doolin Folk festival, an annual in the calendar. There should be about 15000!of us Mayo’s there roaring them on and I’ll likely be roaring from the pub too in Doolin as I did for the Dublin game last year.
A one point win is enough. Up Mayo.

15 k mayo to an away ground ?? don’t think it’s ever happened, this magical support thing hasn’t been around in years . Be very lucky to get 6/7 k mayo today , rest will be Donegal . I’ll be extremely happy to be wrong . 6 mayo (visible jerseys ) passengers on the train coming from Dublin , 10 years ago that would be 40 plus . Albeit some men seemed to have passed away that used to travel .

Salvation part 2 coming today....they need to start this one like men possessed...time to get jiggy.

Heading for the Hyde soon. Can't wait to hopefully see another big Mayo performance. As long as we turn up, we live in hope then that we ger the rub of the green and are good enough to beat Donegal. Like Sean Burke expect we will be outnumbered by Donegal supporters 2 to 1 today so shout twice as loud as them. Hon Mayo!

Expect 2 or 3 changes before throw in. Paddy and Diarmuid could be starters.

Feeling nervous this morning and I know we can lose. Some great funny posts above. The humour really helps.
I’m fully behind the lads today to pull out one of those defiant, serious, ‘men possessed’ performances that they have deep in their bones. Scrap and do not give in. This is our game! We want it!
The stakes are high but we have this in our hands, as Willie Joe said.
Let’s mind ourselves, put our best foot forward and the road will rise to meet us.
Best wishes everyone. Mayo by 2.

Paddy is already starting ?

Davitt I meant sorry :)

Best of luck to all travelling
Huge free car park on the Longford Road called the Cube building
Suitable for fans coming in from the east of the country

The referee could have a bearing on the game today, it can be seen that the different referees have different styles and interpation and punishment for any breach of the Rules.

Great piece,Willie Joe. Sets the scene beautifully.
haven’t been nervous about a game for years but I’ll be playing all fifteen positions today(like everyone else on the blog)so it’s kind of understandable.The upsets are everywhere in the championship and we could easily have an unexpected winner this year.

The combination of new rules,complicated fixture list and the increased fitness of second division teams has dramatically improved the competition as well as the quality of the games.

Can we unlock the combination of fire and ice that I think we will need to slay Donegal? As I’ve said many times I wouldn’t bet against Rochford and Co.

It’s wild to me that Donegal will have to play a preliminary QF even if they win today. That’s going to be hard for any team to get past no matter what happens today.

Mayo says”no” to the preliminary QF. ‘em just say NO!

The quality of the football could yet be the best in a long time. It’s all good for the game.

Tipping Mayo by 3-4 points

While I think there are 8 possible permutations of results today. We can probably assume Tyrone will beat Cavan . Then we need a win or a draw. A win to go straight to QF ,a draw to finish 3rd but avoid Dublin n Kerry n preliminary QF...Always a silver lining 😀

Sorry that's win group to avoid Dublin kerry for a week at least!

You've captured every Mayo supporter's hopes in that piece WJ.
Mayo's performance against Cavan was what you'd expect from a division 4 team while against Tyrone we looked like a solid division 1 team. I'm hoping it was Rochford taking over that was the main reason for the major improvement. In 2017 he came closest of all to winning the All Ireland against the best team of all time so we shouldn't doubt his ability to have his team fully prepared for big days like today. He was assistant manager in Donegal and here in Mayo so had limited input into team tactics and selection. I'm sure he would like nothing better than getting one over on the men from the hills today. To win today we need one small change from the Tyrone game, take your goal chances, if you're not sure how, just look at the way our minors scored their beautiful goals against Offaly. Instead of going for Hollywood goals like our seniors seem to do all the time and then end up shooting straight at the goalkeeper, our youngsters placed, not blasted, the ball low into the corner and converted nearly every chance. To end I'd like to wish Kevin a quick return to good health.

Hope to see continued improvement and a win for Mayo today.

No doubt - I read that article and I’d advise you to stay away from Brollys which is just as bad.

Donegal don’t really have anything to play for if we are being realistic. Wouldn’t it make sense for them to play a weakened team because if they win and tyrone won they still go to a preliminary quarter final. It could be a lot like the league game. I think mayo will win.

Actually, re the ref, was there or is there not some guideline that faloon who referred the mayo v cavan game could be in charge today? As in, the mayo setup/players have v recent experience of how the ref operates, what he let's go, pulls up on..etc. if it is an advantage to mayo (hopefully so), why would donegal not be up in arms about it? If there is any hint of advantage, mayo should definitely use it as much as possible...but I would have thought the GAA would have had some rule around this

Plunkett - Donegal need to finish 2nd to get a home preliminarily 1/4 final and avoid Dublin and Kerry

@yew_tree unfortunately that is the way the rest of the country is thinking about Mayo football.
Mayo for Sam lingo drives me mad.
Keep out of the limelight and do our talking on the field.

@tonyfreeman, i get that but they’re going to be playing a match next week regardless. If they avoid kerry or dublin would be good for them but also regardless of who they have to play they have to play 3 matches in 3 weeks. It would make sense to prepare for the prelim next week than focus on a match that really does not have that much importance

We are still box office in the eyes of Joe and Colm..It's like a copy and paste with their articles so I don't get too irked ..
Incredibly tense afternoon ahead..

It's squeaky bum time....

P.S. I heard it on good authority that there will be lots of swallows swooping there today. They’re well able to get in and out of a zonal defence. And although they have wings rather than hands or legs, they’re sweep the ball into the net on their slipstream of speed. Up Mayo!

P.P.S. As you can see, I’m a wee bit mithered. Of course swallows have legs just not great ones for picking out a kick pass. Their considerable strength lies elsewhere. Up Mayo!

Beware Mayo fans heading to the match from Westport/Castlebar direction. As you pass through Ballyvary there is a speed van tucked in on the left.

O’Rourke is not a serious analyst and almost never says anything insightful.

What passes for his”humor”is from the same genre as constipated football.He is stale and tired now,passé and rather humorless.He is a cliche.

The kindest thing would be to ignore him.

He is on the lam from baying Meath fans so he creates (or tries to)a diversion by going back to his old schtick-beating up on Mayo.

He’s not just trying to attack Mayo football here but rather he’s attacking our character as fans and supporters of our team.

This always smacks of bullying to me so I kind of see red when anyone tries this shit.His little bandwagon hijack will get torn to shreds here.

But you can see the unease with Andrews and O’Donoghue and now this guy that a well timed Mayo run would engender in these pundits.They still fear Mayo and their utterances and “writings” betray that. It’s kind of amazing!

I met him after the 2017 AIF and his assessment was that Mayo were just not good enough that day. It was harsh but true.He had no problem being brutal and didn’t mention anything positive about our performance.It stuck with me. Even a partisan like David Hickey said afterwards that both teams should be honored for their services to football.

Attacking fans who have done no wrong and have shown their loyalty over many years is a little “off”
just like O’Rourke himself.

I hope we can show our strong support for our team today.

Defiance,always !

We are Mayo

Best of luck today lads. Hope to see yous get through. The Championship is a more dreary place without yous in it. As I said before the Tyrone game, yous are a different animal when labelled underdogs. Leave it all on the pitch. Knockout football now.

Don't forget the current meath manager had great success with Kilmacud Crokes before going to meath, a very astute football man also.
Maybe the older guys as County managers is outdated, football changing and evolving too much for them.
But still how can we forget the 96 loss to meath, i always like to see them beaten.

To o rourkes point about us not being good enough in the 2017 final.we had the second highest conversion rate ever in a final the highest being Dublin in the same game.Alot poorer teams than mayo won all Irelands with alot poorer performances

Up Mayo

It's all about the result today and being in the draw Monday.
But it feels like the performance and a continuation of the intensity, running and bravery is what we all want to see.

A day for faith. Be the best that we can be and trust that it's enough.
I think it will be.

Mayo by 8. I think we will bang in a few goals. Our goals against Tyrone were lucky but we did create, and make a mess of plenty of good chances; I'm backing us to have worked on that since. Donegal are a really good team and this game could go anyway. I'm hoping the lessons from yesterday about Championship Intensity hold, and that Donegal's stroll past Cavan won't have prepared them for what Mayo bring.

Day of the game and I wouldn't be surprised to see Donegal hold Murphy in reserve; if he starts I think I might put Coyne on him. Might bring Callinan in for O'Baoill.

What is weather like in Roscommon
Thanks in advance

Go neiri le foireann Mhuigeo inniu. Is féidir linn!
Safe travelling to all our supporters who are travelling- bigi curamach ar na boithre.
Mhuigeo Abú

O ' Rourke has some cheek after his failure with Meath .

I mean look at Meath now flying with a good manager !

He's click bait like your other eejit is well !

Wouldn't pay any heed to them . They are only trying to stay relevant and we are an easy target !

Worst fears look true already re the crowd , DL Regs everywhere .

I’ve never seen anything like the amount of cars parked heading out the Athlone road. Full house for sure.

Donegal supporters in my usual seat in Hannons. Imposters!!

@Sinead 37

Love that comment the cheek of them haha !

The quality of football in Monaghan v Down game is sensational . 1-15 to 1-14 for Down …at half time.

Hopefully ORourke sticks to the football....he isno harm there .....as long as he stays away from property development!!!! .....where he cost us all millions 😅

All Donegal, Mayo team deserve better from our supporters

Shows what a joke punditry is when lads who couldn’t cut it in management like o rourke can still rob a living doing it.
I suspect our own man will be at the same thing when he finishes with us.

Patton starting and the Donegal sub keeper is their 3rd choice. Need a high ball in on top of Patton early and O’Shea to nail him.

Ah jeez I feel bad I couldn't make it just wasn't possible with work surprised not more mayo ones !

There's plenty Mayo support here... just the Donegal piper is drumming up his supporters...we need to get ourselves one of them Achill pipers on match days.
Anyway,a good Mayo performance will get us all more vocal hopefully.

Found myself a nice pocket with mayo supporters around me who look mouthy and now the imposters are filling in around me. Might have to move.

I'm sure S. Rochford has left no stone unturned in preparing for today's game. With the starting 15 fully tuned in from the outset. And I am expecting a good bounce from the subs introduced. Will be very surprised if Mayo don't win this game today. It's do or die for us but that is not quite the case for Donegal - I think that will be a factor on how the game pans out.

@plunkett. If I'm right a mayo and cavan win would send Donegal out so even though it's unlikely both win Donegal can't take the chance so they have to go for the win.

@Sinead...hold your ground. Just shout louder...yelp even!

Happy father day guys, hope it will be a good one with victory today. Donegal has travel well, stand is already filling up nicely.

There are plenty here from Mayo just three times as many from Donegal.

Outnumbered 2:1 at least

There's a nice breeze.... blowing from right to ;left as we look at it...as all good commentators say.

Declan, sure but if you 3 times as good it would matter.

Why are they saying on the speaker that seating still available in the stand?! Why couldn’t we buy them during the week if they were available?! I’m cross now.

Down are playing some lovely football

If you want something more uplifting to read, theres a lovely piece in the examiner on Martin Carney.
Would it be the most Mayo thing ever to beat Donegal well and Cavan beat Tyrone and we end up playing again next week....
Best of luck to the lads today, won't be easy but give it all and see where the chips fall

@2hops.. i have been saying it for years. Mayo supporters are not organised since st patrick left us rip. We need anew piper or drummer or something to get the supporters going. Hopefully all the mayo supporters hete will roar loudly.

Agreed Jimbo.

Same, Willie Joe. Left Athlone not long after 1 to be nice and early and couldn't believe my eyes. They've travelled in huge numbers! We will just have to shout louder. Come on Mayo.

We need another player driven performance from Mayo. Hopefully we can manage Murphy without having to sacrifice AOS and Hopefully OShea stays on the edge of the square where he is most dangerous. Big games needed from Carney, Flynn and Neary.

Monaghan vs Down is mental

Touhy in for Flynn, McHugh for Thornton.
Conor Reid in the bench instead of Thornton

Cmon mayo. Wide open championship, wide open

Midfield battle is going to be crucial, Mayo has to get stuck in around the middle third, Donegal has good ball winners in that area but Mayo men have to get in quick to collect breaking ball & dirty ball, they just have to play courageous football & tear into Donegal, UP MAYO.

Big day for Bob.

Down were robbed there with the pick up off the ground for the Monaghan goal. Umpire standing three feet away but did nothing to signal it, have always thought that they are the square root of useless and there it is again.

Fantastic game overall though, the new rules have largely been a massive success in my opinion, football is entertaining again. 1-26 on a losing team would have been a pipe dream last year.

Gotta take the scores when they're on, shooting form has gotta be good. OBaoil out.

Fair play to behind the goal. Making great noise

O rourke is from Leitim.moved to meath whe n he was12.

@Sineaid 37

Hope you stood your ground and didn't move !

Great t hear that whatever hapoenes we will go again as usual next year .

Afraid to shoot again.

We aren’t going well.

Our attack just isn't good enough unfortunately

Going very poorly. Can't believe the lack of intensity.

Too many players not showing up today,so far. Donegal are going to make hay with the breeze in the second half!! Back ways football again today.

Can't win anything in midfield and forwards not availing of the wind. Defence keeping us in the the game for now.

Same old story, fear of shooting to get those points.

We’ve turned down two shots in front of the posts and are two points down, very frustrating.

Glaring gap in forward play

Not surprised Bob was taken off. Carney will be next the way he’s going. Two awful passes by him in past 5 mins

What's going on with our forwards, turning over ball and afraid to shoot.

Jack Carney needs to go. So sloppy on the ball

Hard to see us winning this, we’re struggling for scores

We need Aido around the D and outer arc. We're out of ideas when we reach the forty, and Aidan is being snuffed out inside. He's the playmaker we need. Immediately.

I’ve one question, how strong is that breeze?

2nd best by far….only one winner here unless we change it up. Slow ponderous attack back….donegal controlling the game.

Forwards that wont shoot, inability to kick 2 pointers with the wind and the lack of pace and trying to break the line so disappointing

Very bad first half. Zero intensity going forward. Depressing stuff tbh

Donegal well in control .

Ryan O D only one trying .

Jack Carney and Ryan od really killing us at times today both not at their best, Ryan showing signs with nice score at end. Both of them are great players need to show it in second half. I think our defending has been great, Doc and davitt off bench might give kick we need up front. Agree that Aido needs to come out maybe put Carney inside

Donegal are far the better team. Great running off the shoulder. We are well off their level.

Tyrone way ahead of Cavan as I expected.
Mayo substitution unusual unless Touhy was injured.
Very tricky 2nd half to come, goals will be needed I think.

Have ye dog collars on that buzz nearing the arc?.

Chronic stuff to watch. Atmosphere in here is like a burst balloon. Awful way to limp out of a championship.

Donegal are targeting Aidan offensively, running straight down his channel putting him on back foot. He's been ticked and given away foul or two sense so will have to be careful.

Very porous at the back, lucky Donegal didn't get few goals as they waltzed through us a few times.

Still, all to play for.

Ok. It’s HT. We are lucky to be just 3 down. Donegal much slicker in attack and look more solid defensively, but they’re not playing at their best, so we still have a chance.

However, if our defence give them the same kind of space they’ll destroy us 2nd half.

It’s been very disappointing from us. Disjointed and laboured in attack. Our basic skills just not up to a scratch..misplaced passes. Just not good.

We’ll need an Athletic Grounds type 2nd half to have any hope.

I can never understand how players struggle to execute something as basic as a hand pass to a mans chest five yards away. A nervousness about Mayo to begin the match, this gave way to Mayo just not being good enough. Hardly laying a glove on Donegal.

Neary needs to come on for Dawson. I'd bring Boland on for Carney too. 6 points with the wind is absolutely cat.

Cavan every bit as brutal as we all thought. We'd lose to them again today if we were playing them, however. The performance today has been shocking.

Keep the heads, all to play for

Now if Donegal can miss all their 2 pointers in the 2nd half and Neary comes on and draws 10 fouls and a penalty then it's ours for the taking

Breeze, seems to be picking up. Might suit us against the Breeze. As won't get 2 pts now, and we're just have to break the line with hard running. At match seems like only one winner, but come on Mayo. Let at least, make a fight out of it

We're playing far too cautiously — we need to come out firing in the second half, or our summer ends in under an hour. That first half was grim; we looked like the side battling against the wind. Tough watch, to be honest.

We’re a mile off their pace. Lucky to be still with them, yet they’ve made plenty of mistakes too, and Davitt has yet to surface.

Neary on for Dawson at half time as we have nobody beating their man going forward. Donegal on other hand beating us at will. Some players look like they are not trying. Very lucky to be still in it to bad Donegal wides and some poor ref decisions in our favour.

Neary on for O Shea more like , Aidos been dreadful .
Diarmuid on for Dawson

We need Neary, Boland and Irwin on now. No more time wasting chance the forwards now.

Good early start and then same old, same old. Wrong options, poor execution, sloppy passes, giving up lots of turnovers, won't shoot, 3 2 pointers dropped short and Donegal are walking thro'our defence. We're not at the Races and are heading for a big defeat, unless we turn up with a huge improvement in 2nd.half.pull up our socks and at least go down fighting and not with a whimper. That first half has driven me mad.

When are the league fixtures out ?

We are lucky to still be in it
They have so much more pace and so much more direct
We are literally hanging on

I’m warming to Darren McHale
2 points from play again from very limited ball
Carney anonymous
Dawson too but he is young and it’s passing him by a bit
Both need to be taken off at HT.
We are gonna need goals and I don’t know where they will come from.

Again we need more from O Donoghue .

Agree with the lack of invention in our forward play, but it seems unfair to complain about intensity from our lads. Both teams pressing hard, looking for turnovers.

Take disappointing O’Shea and Dawson off - Neary and Diarmuid on.
We’re behind by 3 and now turning into the wind - we can’t afford passengers, and the amount of ball O’Shea wasted in the first half…

Get off the pot or sh*t time now lads. No dropped short shots!

Let’s think like Galway lads yest for the 2 nd half
Hard to watch what’s going onn here in Hyde Pk presently

Carney s on alot of ball , I can't understand why we don't play matty at fullforward , it's him in the forward position who's linked play with ROD for black card .
Let Carney battle away at midfield .
Diamruid and Neary should benefit if they get on , Donegal are unusually open down middle

We lack urgency, turned over easily and inability to score two pointers will haunt us. I expect all guns blazing in second half, we've got it all to do.

We’ve simply no speed , we are so one dimensional, it’s poor . We are almost afraid to impose ourselves, how do sports psychologist , so weak minded .

Not surprised at anything I've seen so far. This is what happens when a very ordinary which Mayo are, comes up against a team who is one of the favourites for the AI.
Not in anyway being critical of our lads but Donegal are a year down the road than where we are right now...

The ten minutes against 14 men and Donegal's poor shooting has kept Mayo in this game so far. It's sink or swim 2nd half for Mayo 2nd half

Carney hasn’t the legs for midfield. Got ran a few times and struggled to keep with runners.

Carney’s done nothing with the ball. Two shocker passes when we had good attacking opportunities m. That’s morale sapping stuff

Donegal getting their scores easier as usually, time the for Neary and Diarmuid to come on and shake thing up. A lot of sub par performance in the first half.
Dawson have been very quiet. Hopefully some of our players can sort out their stud's for the 2nd half. Some Can’t get a grip of the ground slipping and sliding,

Put him edge of square or bench

We need Neary and I’d agree Boland too

Tyrone 9 points up at half time. Even a Mayo win now would more than likely see us finish in the preliminary quarter final draw. Might be no meed for that scenario yet though.

Agreed Sean
We are so one paced

To be fair, this was always a big ask for us.

Maybe I’m in dreamland but I actually expect a much improved Mayo 2nd half.

They just have to go for it

@Dave Johnston It's H2H rules not score difference. Doesn't matter if Tyrone win by 30 points, if we win they will still be below us. Based on the 1st half display though it looks like we'll be watching the rest of the championship from the sofa

Worst game of weekend so far but winners won't care. We are second best but still in it. First ten minutes of 2nd half vital to draw level or get ahead. Huge ask on first half performance though. AOS needs to come to midfield to help us get parity there.

Hanging on by our fingertips here, could get ugly if they get a run of scores on us.

Can we all just take a minute to thank Donegal for deciding to have an absolute howler in front of the posts today. This game should genuinely be well and truly over.

Massive shout out to Reape for that save too.

Passes way over heads, leaving them sitting ducks.

Kamikaze kickout there!

Whatever happens in this game it's absolutely dreadful, more or less played under the old rules.

Brutal miss, straight at Patton.

Donegal are off it. It’s there for us if we are any use

Why are you here , seriously , roar them on ffs tonight

Why on earth have we taken davitt off, he must be injured? Carney needs to be taken off just not his day and ROD needs big last 15

Why was Neary taken off???

Is there any Mayo substitute that can slot into midfield, needed now to replace Ruane.

@Mayonase

190% what was that!!

Frustrating as ever Mayo.

Sickening

Tough to watch

Game over ball burst. Dont blame the management we never showed up against Cavan this one is one the players

Michael Murphy apparently a role model for young kids in GAA.

In fairness a great effort to bring it to level terns, but being honest Donegal we're the better team overall.
This referee let's alot go.

Does anyone know why neary was taken off

Our own fault

That is some kick in the teeth.

In all fairness we probably didn’t deserve a win or maybe a draw but that is so upsetting to see.

Moore and Murphy unbelievable. But McGuinness will be fuming with them.

Tough one to take but fair play to the lads today. Gave it a savage effort.

Just like the last play 12 months. Naive.

Gone backwards by one step each year of this management team. Quarter - Preliminary Quarter - Group stage exits

Will be happy to see the back of this back room team and some of these players.

Will someone show Carney how to put his foot through it when through on goal.

It's on the players, lads.

That ones up there, didnt learn our lesson from dublin last year, in the same ground, absolutey sickening. Fair play gave it everything. Donegal clearly the better team. Still, was there for the taking

On another day we could have lost by 10 - 15 points. We are miles away and that wasn't a great Donegal performance today, thankfully. Great effort from the players as always. God, have they not worked on killing a game at the end. No learning from the Dublin game in the Hyde last year.

Carney was way off it today, bizarre why he wasn’t take off, he cost us hugely in attack today. ROD was way off it also today, he was nowhere near good enough. Wasteful and just not scoring enough. Davitt being taken off and Carney staying on crazy call and towey was not able to get into game at all. Diarmuid should have came on. The naivety at end was crazy just drag him down or anything. Ruane didnt win a kick out all day. Lads have it their all in second half sickening we didn’t get over the line

Absolutely disgusted .

So sad .

Why was Neary taken off unreal

Intensity had both sides very ragged towards end. Brutally unlucky to lose but sport can be cruel. Que Sera Sera...

Davitt had pulled up with his hamstring. He had slowed up completely before mayo ran through on goal.

@eighty five thanks for clearing that up

No complaints on the day. Terrific efforts by Mayo but Donegal just a little better up front. Always got the score when they needed it. AOS colossal again..maybe his last..

We lose a tight game by a point with the last kick of the game...comments 'On another day we could have lost byc10 to 15 points'. Why not make it 30 to 40 points while your at it!

Absolutely gutted

Beaten by the better team, tough year, thanks to everyone involved for their effort. Heard on midwest that Neary was off as a blood sub, but if that's the case he would've reappeared

We played well,just no run of the green,but let no one day that the players have not tried,very onlucky,a lot of young players ,will be better next year,I am sure that the management haters will be out in force

Shocking Cavan performance has come back to haunt us and we have seen how poor Cavan are since. Narrow loss but woeful performance-we are way off the standard needed. Too easy to play against and score against, amongst loads of other shortcomings. Management now need to do the decent thing and resign immediately-they simply hav'nt worked out. We have been put out of our misery. A change is needed and a serious injection of new young blood into the squad for next year.

Ah...shocking end.Some fine efforts but why leave it til 67 mins to bring on Boland?Some management decisions baffling.
Christ its hard to be from Mayo.

Sickening

At least we can call this year over completely.
A few new players and a completely new management team in the next few months is badly needed to freshen things up.
I always knew the new Rules would not suit Mayo, the lack of 2 point scores was always going to be our downfall.

Some great games to come, hard to call the All Ireland winners now.

A disappointing way to bow out of the Championship, but in truth, the season was effectively over after the Cavan game. That said, credit to the players and management for showing some fight and pride to try and turn things around against Tyrone and Today. One positive we can take is that there’s talent in this group and we are good enough to compete with the top sides. It’s likely the end of the road for this Management team.

That performance against Cavan will forever haunt us.

@FhiftyShixty

He’s been awful all year, genuinely can’t remember a good game he’s had.

This is my biggest issue with this Mayo set up. Players who aren’t performing get picked very week. No wonder lads walked away

Gutted - we played well let’s be honest. Just not good enough to get a result. Absolutely gutted as we deserved a result I think

Carried out on their shield but the manner of defeat all too common the last few year under this management

Hard luck on the lads today, the better team won. Donegal much more mobile, incisive, composed and got their scores much easier. Pass the parcel didn't work for us Plenty of opportunities to hit the equaliser but unable to do so. Felt sorry for young Conal Dawson.

Walterwhite,

We were very lucky to be in the game at the end. That was definitely the most inefficient Donegal have been all year. It’s a real shame that we lost it given the circumstances but for me I don’t think we deserved a draw despite having one with 6 seconds left.

Unfortunately we have lost and we are now out of a group that has two Div2 teams in it. It has been a really bad year.

Not sure where the group and management go after this. I think 90% of people know a chance has to happen but our CB don’t have the foresight to make that call.

What can we say that hasn’t been said already? Game group of lads, no question of a lack of heart or work rate.

But we are lacking quality and most of all, speed. We hit two good goal chances right at Patton and it cost us, big time.

Would personally favour a change in management at this stage, three years into the project. Since the league win, we haven’t progressed, in my opinion. The change in the rules probably doesn’t favour us, as we lack shooters from distance, but there’s far too much pass the parcel going on in our forward line anyway.

Even if we had gotten a point today, I wouldn’t have been confident that we would have gone much further. We are an 8-10 team at this point, and are way off All-Ireland levels.

Kudos to the lads and management team for their efforts, see ye next winter.

Have the management told the players that they'll be fined if they try for a 2 pointer? Time after time today just outside the arc unmarked and hand pass it off to someone else. Galway and Armagh were kicking them over for fun yesterday evening. I know we don't have their standard of forwards but surely some player on the team has to be capable of kicking one over.

Agreed Everhopeful. A brave performance overall but there were several lads in the last few minutes who simply looked like they didn't want the ball. Sad to end like this.

Corick,

Just drop the soft talk for once. Demanding higher standards and better performance is not management hate. We lost some brutal games over the last 3 years and have got progressively worse in that time.

I’m sure if it was up to you, you would leave the management in charge for as long as they want regardless of what’s happening on the pitch.

At what stage would you deem performance and style of play is unacceptable? Maybe when we are in Div 4 and can’t get out of a Tailtain group.

Your blind optimism is far more embarrassing then others on here demanding better!!

Corrick would you ever give a rest with your silly nonsense and ridiculous predictions.They gave it everything in second half and unlucky in the end but poor first half like Cavan performance cost us in the end

I feel like we will lose a lot of players over this winter.

Well done, Team and Management, for the year. We came up short. We found a lot of players. We should keep Rochford , he is a great manager

with the wind in our favour in the first half we went back to our negative muck. Against the wind we tried to be positive. I presume management decided the tactics. The management must be changed!!!.

Played well. Died with our boots on. Stupid loss to Cavan put us on the tightrope here. No one to blame but ourselves. We don't have that natural born killers edge needed this year. Where it'll ever come from I don't know.

Ahhh..awful frustrating. Need time to process it all, but there’s no doubt but that we’ve regressed. We were poor against Sligo, Leitrim and Cavan. Really poor that day. It’s that game that has cost us. Donegal and Tyrone have shown us Cavan’s standard. They beat us comfortably in Castlebar. Unforgivable stuff really.

We were always going to bounce back v Tyrone and they were flat that day.

Donegal were well off their best today. In fact, I’d say Donegal supporters will be a little concerned with their form. But they still beat us in game 20 mins out they knew was irrelevant in many respects for them. It was massive for us and we just weren’t good enough. To concede like we did at the end is criminal. No leadership. No cuteness.

Boland should have been on much earlier.I said it earlier. We needed scorers. There are fellas getting game time and I cannot understand why.

Our first half today was awful. We came out fighting. Some credit for that but once the sheer post-match disappointment fades, we’ll see that our performances have just not been anywhere near good enough. I think a change is required. That includes some players.

The season is open. Several teams can win it. We could have if we’d performed better. Not to be. Very sad. It’s another year since ‘51…..

No shame today.
Disappointed to be going out.
Time to take a breather, then get ready for 26.

That was a cruel way to go out, but it will teach our players a tough lesson. People saying we've gone backwards haven't a clue. We were just pipped by one of the best teams in the country. There's a lot to be optimistic about as far as I'm concerned, bring in Beirne next year and a few others.

Pity we didn't foul the guy out the field. I'd be pretty sure who ever would have taken the free would have kicked it out over the line.

@FrostThammer. If the Internet was invented a few decades ago and the mayogaablog was set up. We could just copy and paste that message every year since 1952.

Will Tommy Conroy be back for the London Game

@john + mchale I’d say so, should’ve been just dragged down tripped or anything, but weve proven over last three years closing out games is not our strong point in any way

Another new room in the house of pain. They fought hard today.
I gave up on being happy with moral defeats many years ago. Need to develop more talented footballers. That little bit more class today took Donegal home and they're no world beaters.

Our lads tried and nearly did it. As tight as it always is between these two teams and that’s the real truth. Hate this bigging up the opposition when we lose and downing them when we win. It was a close tight match like I expected and this time they knocked us out. I knew they wouldn’t settle for the draw. We are not as bad as the Cavan day but we had a rotten day. They paid for it but nobody can say they didn’t give it their all since. Hard luck to us. Well done Donegal.
I thought Mayo support quite vocal today and I like our new tribe behind the goals.

Needs to be serious questions asked about Mayo football, just look at the betting for all Ireland, it is wide open, we are out, after a championship where we fell over the line against Leitrim and Sligo, lost to Galway and Cavan, one good performance against Tyrone and then whatever that was today. Not good enough, so many failings and so many questions on and off the field. We can’t ignore the off field issues, or questions if we don’t want to refer to them as issues. They are bound to have an impact on the team.

Where to from here? Are we set up for success? Lots to work on.

Too many one paced players in my view. Game has changed so much towards more explosive athletes.
Management will go for certain and there’s a chance for a clean slate with the new manager.
Need to get Cillian back and start bringing though u20s.
Could also do with a sprint coach for some of these young lads to improve their top line speed and effectiveness.
Players tried their best but we are just not quite good enough or cute enough unfortunately

Here's my bet in tomorrow mornings draw,
It will be the same old Sceal,
Dubs & Kerry will probably be "drawn" to play Cavan & Louth.
The Mayo setup needs an overhaul, new management team and a few players.

Donegal very disappointing. Failed to take that game by the scruff of the neck and bury us.
We deserved a draw for battling second half performance and it's the Cavan game that's come back to bite us. One more competitive game would have stood to us.
We can take some encouragement from the year....

Maybe Donegal were inefficient today for a reason..maybe Mayo defended well...of course the lazy option is 'on another day we would have got hammered'. Championship was lost in the home game against Cavan in what was as abysmal a performance as we've seen in years. What I would be disappointed with today is once again our inability to find a way to win a tight game, our inability to kick or even attempt a 2 pointer and our sheer naivety in losing it at the end which was similar in a way to the drawn game against Dublin last year.
As far as management, it's been three years, we are going backwards not forwards...its time for a change.
Championship is wide open this year...any one of half a dozen teams will fancy their chances.

Two pointer, Dempsey had the Irish sprints coach as part of his team if I recall.

Hard luck to the lads, they gave it their all, but fell short to a better team on the day.
Won't find till 2026, but whoever is in charge next year has a rebuild project on their hands.

Hard to take that losing after the buzzer. I'm disappointed as anyone but fed up hearing about Tyrone not playing well and now Donegal not playing well. If i was a detective I'd be putting the clues together and coming to the conclusion that maybe mayo stopped them both from playing well but messed up v cavan.. Died with boots on but nothing to show at the end.

If that is to be Aido's last game in the green and red, that quick-hand offload that helped set up our goal is a nice little parting gift that perfectly summed him up as a player.

We got most things right today, management included.
Aido couldn't buy a free.

Can we stop retiring Aidan. Consider to what age he can offer 10 mins from the bench?

Don't think Aidan O Shea will go anywhere, in fact I'd bet he'll still be playing some part in 2027.

Sickening defeat for ye, but probably just didn't have enough today, and needless to say to lose at home to Cavan was the one that still should set alarm bells ringing.
Going forward what's the answer?
Who knows...

I thought we were very good just a few too many dropped into the keepers hands.

Jr,
That is some comment.

POTM poll is up. Final one of 2025, sadly.

Unlucky to lose McHugh, Hession and Neary to injury. Bench won it in end for Donegal. Could not understand how DOC left on the line and he looked very frustrated looking on for last 20 mins. We butchered 2 great goal chances so only have ourselves to blame.

@BatetheBlanket In relation to the draw tomorrow. We finished 2nd in our group. So we get one of the teams that finished 3rd at home. The teams that finished 3rd Galway, Louth, Cavan, Down. My understanding is we can't play Galway again until a semi final( if somehow we get there this year ) Leaving our opponents for preliminary quarter, Cavan, Louth, or Down. Kerry get one of the other 3. There's no conspiracy, these rules were set out before the competition started.

Mayo25, I actually think we might gain a few more. And I cannot see Aido going anywhere of his own volition.

Better team won, and even they weren't great - I'd say they'll be worried enough about next weekend. Patton's last kickout was excellent but we were so damn naive. Just like against Dublin last year. Donegal were never going to settle for the draw either, I'd say they had a photo of Kevin McLoughlin pinned up in the dressing room 😉

Hard to take having been so close, but we just don't have the right combination of players and management at the moment, and we've made no real progress in the last three years unfortunately. Coyne, McHale and Dawson (in the second half) showed really well. But again so many of our big players weren't at it.

Let's see what the next few days bring now. And God forgive me but I hope the noisy neighbours don't do the job this year either, it'd just be more than I could take 😂

I admire the optimism of people who say that performance was dying with boots on, the first half we scored what six points with the wind. We did have a decent second half but same old failings, midfield not at the races, lack of pace and who knows what the attacking plan is, county players not taking on shots.

Sorry but Donegal should have been much more than 3 up at the break but their shooting was really off and was in 2nd half too. Mayo did not defend well first half. Mayo didn’t do anything well in the first half. We improved quite a bit in the 2nd half, but frankly, the only way was up. I was in Omagh. Tyrone were off it, especially first half. They improved at HT. We played well that day and deserved the win. We were poor today in comparison. Let’s not kid ourselves that Donegals underperformance was solely down to Mayo. It wasn’t. Especially in the first half. Our second half though was much better and it did impact on Donegal but the naivety at the very end was just unforgivable. We didn’t deserve to progress.

Hill16 will the Dublin game be at home or in Croke Park?

Walterwhite says:
June 15, 2025 at 5:51 pm
We lose a tight game by a point with the last kick of the game…comments ‘On another day we could have lost byc10 to 15 points’. Why not make it 30 to 40 points while your at it!

-----------
True anyone that truly thought that doesn't understand the sport or watched the match with blinkers on

Disappointing but unsurprising finish to season.

Too many average club players in the squad which lacks pace from half back (bar McBrien), no midfield ball winning capability or power to battle and up front, a real lack of quality or any strategy around our attack. This was evident in 1. Lads persistently just shuffling ball 2. Paddy Durcan late into game taking on a shot when clear no one else would and 3 Conal Dawson becoming a go to shooter in a knock out game on his second start for Mayo in championship

Mgt has run its course, the team is not progressing and the stats suggest regression. That might be for another day but it might be the positive outcome from today

Finally one gripe I have is a tackle made by Michael Murphy on McBrien near the end. I thought it was horrendous but no commentary around it.

Young Dawson showed great courage and self-belief. Well done to him.

Anne Marie, Roscommon are out!!

MayoMayo1 Team can designate their home ground. For example Louth used Newbridge. Personally I would prefer Parnell Park. Absolutely love the ground. But my main point stands, it's not a conspiracy. Only mistake I made was I believe Cork finished 3rd not Down.

@Rocco88, that tackle was horrendous, overlooked I'd say because of the dramatic ending but it was pure filth by Murphy.

Good point @tuamstar. Not sure who to shout for now. Hopefully Armagh win it out. If not them then Donegal. Then maybe Cork

Tuamstar says:
June 15, 2025 at 7:06 pm
Anne Marie, Roscommon are out!!

No your lot are the most noisy neighbours as you think with luck on your side that you'll go on to win the AI now. Rossies little to shout about when so poorly managed under the media hype that is Davy Burke.

Very hard to look past Sam going to Ulster. Armagh, Donegal, and Tyrone could be in the mix

Disappointed, but was some effort by team. That what I asked for at half time, to show some fight, and they did that. The referee was kind to us, and that kinda kept us in it. Need another goal, an either poor handling or poor shooting cost us 2 goals. On saying that Donegal butchered a chance for goal or two.
Was a really poor Mayo crowd at match today, and that really disappointing

Murphy has an aura around him. Nobody can say a thing about him unless it's sycophantic praise. He was dirty and arrogant today. But listen, if he played for us, I wouldn't be complaining.

Touché, Tuamstar 😂

Great days lie ahead for mayo .

A very well renowned mayo football man told me that pre 2012 . I won’t drop his name but his words rang true & I believe we are on the same course with the calibre of player waiting in our youthful ranks .

The biggest decision now for all involved in decision making is who we let guide the next era , it’s a massive decision that has to be carefully thought out

Mayotillidie, the Mayo fans travel in droves if there is something to get behind, it’s disappointing that the standard of football has regressed year on year for the last three years. Donegal down to 14 men today with the black card and you’d hardly have known it, cautious sideways rubbish. Cleaned at midfield again today.

Many, many, many strange decisions from our management this year....
Continually naming Thornton at 8 but never playing him?
Dawson being our go to guy in a massive game but we didn't see him all year.
Irwin was one of our better players in the league, scored consistently but sees next to zero mins in the championship.
Akram playing in Carrick.
Brickenden disappearing but emerging for the Connaught final.
Neary in today, was involved in the goal, then subbed off - injury??
There's no doubt the lads gave everything they had today. Undeniably. But 4 or 5 shots dropping short and a butchered goal chance meant it was not to be. Can't help but think if we brought some of todays performance and some of the Tyrone performance into the Cavan game we wouldn't be heading out of the championship.
Failure to get at least 3rd in this group, and failure to get to Croke Park is unacceptable, regardless of the effort, time and commitment put in by everyone. Every other county is doing the same.
I thought we lacked real pace and top end speed today and bar McBrien and Durcan (just back from an ACL!) we were beaten for pace all over the pitch. Questions to be asked of our new S&C team there also.

We're out and we deserve to be. No incisive play. Floundering and slow. No pace. No edge and relying on the famous Mayo mayhem. Not good enough and personally I'm happier to lose today than live in anxious hope.
But it could have been good. Hard luck to our supporters and to the team itself. But we need a serious rattle in management.

Mayomayo1 , our fan base have the best online supporters in world sport but are absolutely pathetic in the white heat of battle for the last number of years .

Sean you could be right but doesn’t feel that way this evening.over the last two years we have staggered to this conclusion.You won’t win many football matches without ball winning midfielders .what was Matt ruane putting his hand up in the air for when we were two points down.in first half enda Hession has a decent shooting opportunity but passes to a player with his back to goal.we simply had to be ahead at halftime with the wind and Donegal a player down for over ten minutes.Donegals first point came from us messing around on the 45 metre line .always desperately disappointing when we go out of the championship but when you look at some of the teams left in it this is particularly galling .Not to make the quarter finals two years running is difficult to justify

MayoMayo 1, lost a tight Connaught final, played terrible against Cavan, well against Tyrone. And very unfortunate not to get draw out off today. I think Mayo supporter one off best in country, but not today.

How many years Sean, where did it go wrong? I understand fully plenty bandwagon when it came to All Irelands etc but there are also plenty who have fallen off down to the football became so hard to watch. I get that a lot of this was the general standard of football was pretty awful to watch the last few years, not just for Mayo but across the country. This year though with the change in rules we stuck to the same old same old and didn’t embrace the new rules. Even last year, look at what Armagh were doing with kick outs with the bunch and break, we didn’t have anything inventive.

All of this, plus cost of living and changing priorities have resulted in people voting with their feet.

Sean Burke - are any of those youthful players midfielders who can win their own ball? Cos without that we are going nowhere. It's been our undoing for years now. You won't win an All Ireland or even make it to the business end without a functioning midfield and we do not have one.

We had broken the line in the first half and instead of kicking it over the bar we recycled it and then took worst option, we had a spell in first half when we should have been only a point or level at half time.
It looked to me that a stat had told them we need a goal to win this as it looked like they were trying to engineer one. We lack scores and pace, we are probably as well off gone, no AI in that them.
Old man said maybe next year back In 2012, he's probably gone now and m beginning to wonder if they will see me out.
Delighted McStay got his chance, but we need to rebuild, we are nearly at the 201o Longford stage again I'm afraid

Home at last but still pissed off. How many shots did we drop short and with the new rules that’s unforgivable. Hit the fecking thing hard enough and if you miss at least you can pressure the kickouts. Did we have the wrong studs in again? Players slipping time after time.
When does the club championship start? Need something to take my mind off that bloody Cavan game.

JoeG, not soon enough!!

Not bad, for "young fellas". And some "auld fellas" ok too.
But same old weaknesses. When you are within 40 yards, if at all possible, shoot for a point. It should be the first thing on a forwards mind, but seems to me its the last!!! If its beyond your capability, then you should not be there.

Not bad, for "young fellas". And some "auld fellas" ok too.
But same old weaknesses.
When you are within 40 yards, if at all possible, shoot for a point.
It should be the first thing on a forwards mind, but seems to me its the last!!!
If its beyond your capability, then you should not be there.

I didn’t think the Mayo crowd were that bad in the end and j thought vocal enough. Parts of the game were so boring esp when Donegal played keep ball.
Oh I’m tired and depressed now.
I was looking forward to maybe the old Mayo Meath rivalry starting again.
I’m getting behind Armagh. Only real deal I see.

Biggest disappointment today for me was the Mayo support. Practically non existent, we were outnumbered 3/1. Players were a credit and kept playing till the very end, despite the lack of support.

I couldn’t give a fiddlers apart from I really hope the shower of hateful people don’t win it , I make no apologies for saying it either . #ABG

For me, I reckon a phone call needs to be made to either
Pat Gilroy / Mickey Harte.

I don’t want to hear Andy’s name, I don’t want to hear Austin O’Malleys name. Don’t get me wrong, serious men but not what we need next.

We need outside winners who will change the culture of Mayo football and provide the correct environment for young players to thrive.

Unfortunately we have a CB who are more worried about “abusive emails” then they are about developing mayo football the right way. And until they are gone, a mixture of Alex Ferguson, John Wooden, Brian Cody and Jim Gavin wouldn’t get us over the line.

Honestly if people do have criticisms of current management, look at the man that (and his amazing sub committee) picked them.

The CB is as much to blame today as any player / manager or coach.

@north mayo was 50/50 support where I was in the terrace

Have to just tip the hat to Donegal today.
They got it done.

@ CDR I was in the stand and looking across it actually looked like 80% Donegal. Also, apart from them lads behind the goal on the town end ( fair play to them) there was no vocal Mayo support when it was needed.

So disappointed. It feels like being bludgeoned. But what can we say? They battled. Michael Murphy won it for Donegal today. He has an X-factor.

I’m disappointed for myself and the fans and disappointed for the players.

Please God something good comes along soon.
It was good to be out on a sunny day in the Hyde with family and Mayo fans.

McHugh had Murphy in his pocket. Murphy got his 1st score from play as soon as McHugh went down. Murphy only came into the game when McHugh went off.

Mickey harte, I don't think so, maybe Micky mouse,
I don't know who we get now,

Murphy is incredible in that last quarter though, enforcer, fielding, blocking ,kicking screamers too.
A pure leader and winner (gets away with absolute murder too tbf)

Shout out to Jack coyne again though.
I've been critical of him in the past but when wj runs his poty poll coyne will be getting my vote.
Blotted out gallen, canavan and finnerty

I also think our defenders were absolutely incredible in the first half. Really brilliant. I feel we tried to contain Donegal.
But we need more scorers.
Did Donegal do a good job shutting us down today?

I agree with both North Mayo and Supermac about Murphy. He came alive after the Mayo goal that he was partly at fault for. Was that when McHugh was off? I felt he was marshalled well earlier in the game.

So McGuinness is upset that they had to stay in an Athlone hotel? He reckons it wouldn’t have happened to anyone else only them. Full on siege mentality, Mickey Harte would be proud of him.

Would people stop going on about the lack of supporters, mayo people react to what they see on the field and with the really high cost of living since Covid and Mayos slow boring build up play is the reason supporters have stopped coming.

I have to agree with North Mayo, re McHugh. He had Murphy well wrapped up. Murphy was not in the game until McHugh went off injured. Hope his injury is not serious. Dawson also looks good. A few more young forwards and two
Midfielders are needed.

Just watching the highlights, to be fair you can't knock the effort, huge work rate, just not as clinical as Donegal and can't break the way they do.
We got caught in cavan game as it came a week after the Galway game and we were flat.
Although I don't think there was an Al in us a lot of team in that draw won't be sorry to see us gone

Funny how people just accept this ridiculous "head to head" rule for deciding groups. Mayo were a 20+ better team than Cavan over the three games yet Cavan go through. It's complete and utter nonsense. No other sport does this to my knowledge.

Load of shite alright @MikeOMatic

One kick of a ball in it... If you feed that into a AI algorithm... All the stats through the game..possession , workrate, turnovers, etc... we shouldn't lose... but we did... And we'll be back.
. And the comments on this page will be just rinse and repeat of the last 10 plus years... Get behind your Team.... What one says negative or otherwise won't make a difference.

Ah come off it lads, everyone knew the head2head rule before the competition, crying about it now as some grave injustice is desperate straw clutching.

We could have gotten through the group if we hadn't, y'know, lost 2 of the 3 games.

You'd swear we had beaten donegal today the way some are talking here

MikeOMatic I fundamentally disagree. We played Cavan in this group and we lost. That’s 100% our fault. Everyone knows the structure of the groups. Just because we went up and bet Tyrone and had a battle today with Donegal does not justify the shite performance we put in against Cavan. Let’s not start complaining about how a group is structured. Let’s demand that we never see a performance like the Cavan game again.

Green&Red, Cavan had 6 weeks to prepare for that game to ambush Mayo. 6 weeks!
Mayo lost that first game.
Tyrone had something like 4 weeks to prepare for the game to ambush Donegal. 4 weeks!
Donegal lost that first game.
Tyrone and Cavan are rewarded now for their ambushes - Tyrone topping the group and going straight into a quarter final, and Cavan progressing in third position after two convincing defeats.
Who feels that Tyrone are justified table toppers (getting catapulted straight into a quarter)? I have my doubts.
I agree with MikeOMatic that there’s little fairness in this head to head system in the groups.
But like the Super 8s, it does throw up randomness and maybe that’s what the GAA wants.

Can’t fault the lads they gave it everything, a grain of rice again the difference. Thought they should have learned after a similar situation with Dublin last year. Next time that Donegal player should be taken clean out of it, to stop play and slow down their attack. We had our chances in the 2nd half and spurned them like we do so often. Tomas O Se 100% right they took their eyes off the ball against Cavan. We should really be still in the mix. Still believe we are a top 5 outfit. We just lack those one or two forwards who you can usually bank on to get scores and get us over the line. Aidan again immense today, but had one too many clumsy loose and lost possessions taking the ball into contact. Is this it for him now, I hope not, he deserves a lot better. Fair play to each of them, no shame in that defeat just an almighty anti climax for us fans, I feel we get past today with three weeks to prepare we’d be huge trouble for any of those remaining sides. Here’s to next year all you can do is keep the faith. Really hope clubs now prioritize and take on board these new rules and develop quality attacking forwards who can attack quickly and score with both feet. Again this year shooting has let us down, we can’t keep doing the same things and the game has changed for the better.