We need new fresh facesl

Not surprised really. Some achievement getting to 4 All Ireland finals in a county that has had so little success for such a long time.. Actually think the team were at the peak of their powers in 2014 when ironically we didn’t make the final at all .Played outstanding when down to 14 men v Kerry in Croker but blew a lead in last few minutes. Then shunted off to Limerick where again we played very well on a day when Aido and Cillian clashed heads and an appalling refereeing performance ( O Reilly I think) saw us come up short in extra time. He definitely raised the standards in the county and also the level of expectations

Horan was great for Mayo....... we did also make finals though in 89,96,97,2004 &2006........Mayo were such a big story at that point that Keith Duggan thought we deserved a book written on us........sometimes I think we seem to have erased all of our history before James Horan in a weird way ......like Mayo football started with him in 2010....and there was nothing there before

He did alot right in his time in charge. Developed the team physically and created an environment where high standards were expected from within the group. Ultimately he fell at the final hurdle on 4 occasions. All of those finals will haunt him im sure. I think tactically he got it wrong in most and arguably all of them..

Imagine James Horan in either a Commercial Director or Director of Football role. He'd be absolutely marvellous. Transformative for the county (again). But I feel he'd have more sense 😉

Yes Anne Marie...totally agree with u, horan as a director of football. A great shout for the commercial/finance director role would be willie ruane of connaught rugby, a mayo man too...would definitely be on the right road with them 2...

A great manager he gave us some memorable days out in fairness was unlucky not to land Sam on a few occasions. Imagine in the future Andy Moran as manager and James on the backroom team but for now we need a fresh voice and new ideas

Maybe sometime in the future, great man to build a team, I would have liked him to be involved in some form, let's see who we get, I'm concerned we will have another 3 years of decline

We are all very wise after the games re changes etc.
If changes work the manager is a genius if not he is a fool.
Horan built a winning mentally in Mayo.
I just hope the fact he talked to the Chairman that he may be involved in the appointment process, who better?

I hope that he is in charge of Mayo Gaa

@to win just once

Don't quite agree with that one. Mayo peaked in 2013 for me in Horan's first stint in charge. They hammered literally everyone other than the Dubs.

In 2014, we only beat Roscommon by a point in Connacht and only beat Cork by a point in the quarters. Horan himself admitted Mayo just couldn't get it going that summer for some reason. Which is a great pity because Kerry were there to be beaten and I have no doubt the Mayo of 2013 wouldn't have needed a trip to Limerick to do it.

The team of 14 shouldn’t have needed a trip to Limerick either. What was it. 5 points up with minutes left. Only a goal could save Kerry and they bring on Donaghy in midfield. He moved into the forwards with only one thing on his mind. It worked. Aido should have followed him and stuck to him, like shit to a blanket. The players shouldn’t have needed Horan to tell them what was required.

I commend James Horan for how he took the Mayo attitude of going to Croke Park hoping to win, to expecting to win..He brought a lot to Mayo and I feel that mentality he built has regressed in Mayo now. However we must also remember the 2014 drawn seni final when the Mayo players were imperious in the second half but the sideline let them down bycompletly implodingo

Horan made us constantly competitive. He brought the standards to a new level, gave us some of the most brilliant summers following Mayo. Brought a level of professionalism we hadn't seen before imo.
All that was missing was the All Ireland. The man got serious flak, a lot of which was unjust.

I actually think he adapted better tactically for his 2nd stint, but we didn't have the same level of player to get it over the line.

I do hope he gets involved at an academy level at least. He is a great coach & could even be a serious operator as the long awaiting commercial manager

Peadar gardiner has resigned as 20s boss .

Connacht reporting that both minor and U20 management teams have stood down. Also nominations don’t have to come through the clubs for senior manager. Maybe a hint at an outsider.

Worse still it will likely be 7 weeks before they have completed the process...First round or 2 of championship will have been done...surely it could be done quicker...

I do hope James is involved in the decision making process. He knows what it takes to be build teams and pick players up from low ebs. I personally think history will reflect very kindly on James, as it should do!

I could see James Horan joining Sligo and doing a good job with them. Meanwhile Stephen Rochford is the clear favourite to become the new Roscommon manager.

I thought Gardiner was gone a few weeks ago :)
Himself and Rochford probably go together for Sligo or Roscommon

In All fairness he did well to bring us close to Sam Maguire but the problem was whenever something went wrong he never reacted during the game or fixed it and with James Horan, Noel Connelly, Pat Holmes and Stephen Rochford that's been our downfall in semi finals and finals draws and replays from 2012-2017.
Tony McEntee and Oisin McConville are All Ireland winners that won Sam Maguire so they need to be brought in and then you need to bringing back Cillian O'Connor, Padraig O'Hora, James Carr, Fionn McDonagh, Conor McStay, Rory Byrne sub Goalkeeper and Michael Plunkett and bring lads in from under 20 and minors under 17 with a direct style of play along with a balance between defence attack and midfield and keeping clean sheets scoring and winning vital possession is what is key to winning Sam Maguire

All sounds handy enough....sure what could go wrong!

@Jordan Kearns

I don't know about O 'Hora can be hit and miss as with Conor McStay .

I would give Adrian Philips more game time next year .

I'd definetly bring up some of the under 20s next year .

I wouldn't bring up guys from minors though let them develop .

Nephin, what you're saying is right there about the 2014 game against Kerry. Donaghy was brought on as a last resort and high balls were lumped into him, he was bound to catch one of them and do damage. O Se would have been the man to mark him. But from a management's point of view. Cafferky was down with cramp several times and signalling to the bench that he wanted to come off and no change was made. That was Horans downfall at times. Anyway that's all in the best now and time to look forward. Good programme on Rte just there called hell for leather. A story about the game of GAA. Some of the insights from the Dublin players about Jim Gavin were interesting, they talked about using military contrasts to the game about being in an ambush and fighting their way out. Even been shown videos of the NASA failed challenger mission and asking the players about speaking up when they know something is wrong at management level. Crazy stuff but it worked. A good piece on John O Mahoney as well and insight from Andy Moran at the end. Worth a watch on RTE player.

Horan would be ideal to lead Mayo GAA. He has all the attributes. It’s a real shame he isn’t at the helm.

A change was required at u20. Don’t think it was a successful stint. 2024 literally couldn’t have been worse and I this year, losing to Louth was a real disappointment.

Are the minor management gone? Overall I think they’ve done a decent job in fairness to them.

On a separate but related topic,

I note the Mayo County Board has apologised to Kevin McStay for the tone of that letter.

Correct and proper.

@Mayonaze: Yeah. Tom & David stepped away from the minor post. They can be real proud of the efforts there and all the word from around the camp was very positive all year.

It'll be interesting to see if they're putting their names in for other positions in the coming weeks or years. Both always came across very well in their media duties.

Dave Johnston,
I totally agree, but Ger could have been on the sideline and if Aidan had done as I suggested, we would have won the game. We may have lacked something on the line, but we definitely did on the pitch too.

No need for an apology from county board I don't know what other way they could have worded it.

Anyway I agree that Horan was one of our best managers. I think he's right in that we need a fresh voice .

Will be interesting to listen to the podcast from the meeting.

Dave
I often wonder would Jim Gavin have won much anywhere else.He had generational players unlimited money and a team that had already won the All Ireland when he took over....
Would he do it in Monaghan or Roscommon I am not so sure....
Mickey Harte created Tyrone from nothing 21 years ago they had no All Irelands ....in 2 weeks ti.e they might have 5....They are the story of the last near 2 decades not Dublin.....Dublin should be successful.
What about McGeeney he did it from nowhere with nothing in a small County .....for me both of those guys far surpass Gavin.....would his NADA video and Military lingo have worked in a lesser County....I
don't think so.
He couldn't fail where he was

Be interesting to see if they bothered to clarify how many times they tried to contact them to go of their own accord, seems several attempts were made in that regard. It’s equal now anyway.
Sounds like the meeting was quiet enough or twitter would be hopping :)
Agree TSU, they put in a decent shift, from what hear they may just want a break for a while.

@Gizmobobs

100% . They did contact them a few tines to go out with dignity on their own without all this drama but they refused .

I think it makes us look even worse them apologising if I'm honest . It's equal now as you say so hopefully that's the end of it !

I still hope Oisin Mconville gets the gig .
Good for once twitter is not trending over us !

Going to the match Sunday should be good craic nearly sold out a French friend coming with us her first gaa match wonder what she will think of us ! Haha

@Clare…just not sure about McConville. I’d be looking at someone like Conleith Gilligan (not that I’d think our Co board even know who he is lol)

@Mayonaze

Yeah that's totally fair enough ! I just really like the idea of an outsider . Him pictured with Cillian has sparked rumours to for sure .

Your right there they probably don't know who is he is ! Ha

@Mayonze, what about Devlin, he’s doing some job.
Likely eyeing senior at home though

Just on the idea of an outside manager.need be careful that we don’t be used as a stepping stone for someone for a job with in their own county.
Look at Louth I’m sure they were very happy with Ger Brennan

Tom Reilly,David Heaney stepped down for the U17s but could step up or into the U20 role now?

On Horan he made Mayo like he said he would "consistently competitive" and took on the gig off the back of championship defeats to Longford,Sligo in his first term and championship KO to Kildare in his 2nd term. Had to build teams with a lot young players into tough,strong, very fit and conditioned to compete in the business end of the year. Didn't win the All Ireland but what he did should never never be underestimated.

Glad that James Horan came out and clarified his position. I think just like a player, a manager has a window of time that they are at their peak. James Horan built a great back-room team to compliment the players and in his first stint, the S&C and professionalism of our lads were off the charts. He wasnt blessed with luck either - we lost Andy Moran in 2012 in the QFs when he was having the season of his life, Cillian O'C was clearly injured for the 2013 final. The 2014 and 2021 seasons are prob the ones James will have the most regrets - we threw both of those All-Irelands away. I'm open minded by who takes over - our last outsider was Mickey Moran in 2006 and he got us to an AIF in his one year in charge. I do fear that an outsider might use us as a stepping stone but on the other hand if they delivered us the holy grail they'd be immortalised forever here.

We spend far too much time and emphasis on harping on about our management.

Harry Houdini wouldn't win the AI with Mayo this year.

You can only win the All Ireland if the team is good enough to begin with. Then of course a good manager can navigate a team that is good enough to go on and win an All Ireland.

Galway did have a team good enough to win last year's AI but their great ex player PJ proved that he isn't near as good a manager as he was a player and they somehow prevented themselves from playing the free flowing positive game that they were well capable of playing. They threw it away, much like we did in 2021.

People keep mentioning, " we need someone in charge who has won it before as a manager or a player ".

We had John O'Mahony who couldn't lead us to glory, but did lead Galway to 2 AI wins in 98 and 01. The same manager as we had but he had a better hand to play with when he was with Galway.

We had Jack O'Shea who had plenty of AI success as a player, but his time in charge was a disappointment.

Is there anyone on this blog who can name a starting 15 from this county and honestly say, yes, that 15 would have a fair chance of winning the All Ireland this year. I don't think so.

We currently have 9 or 10 players who could possibly make up part of what might be an AI contender but we are short in 5 or 6 positions.

We need a midfield and at least 3 new scoring forwards.

Untill we fill out the team it's materless who the new manager is.

We probably need a recruitment team more so than an elite management team. Identify the best new young talent, and best players who might make the grade, be it from senior or intermediate or wherever and get them on the panel and then when we have the firepower worry about the management.

In many respects I would say we have had the best management overall of any county since I would say the late 80's with about 5 different managers having gotten us to countless all Ireland finals.

O'Mahoney, Maughan, Moran, Horan and Rochford.

We didn't have enough top players to challenge this year but when we do we'll be back again.

I honestly wish county board had stuck to their guns and not apolagized . It's actually ridiculous they felt they needed to .

Did absolutely nothing wrong . Intercounty management is ruthless and for once they were ruthless but now we look like eejits sgain to be honest . They thanked them is well like .

Kerry / Dubs or Galway would have no hestitation in getting rid of management the way we did if they where in the same boat . So they can get off their high horse .

This is adding us to the spotlight again they should have just left it . Ugh.

@Aidan

Yeah agree they could use it as a stepping stone but think they would get rid of the club bias which there is alot of .

Not having Horan working in Mayo GAA is a waste of a talented and successful coach.
Horan always stated after his first stint that there was so much other stuff to be done as Mayo manager that there was little time left for coaching.

The County board need sort their own structure out and put Horan in as Director of football/Coaching.
Administrators should do adminstration/logistics and let quality coaches focus on the football/hurling/handball.
Having lads who havent played or coached at a high level stuck in various aspects of elite performance is a recipe for trouble.

Reduce the number of people on the board (do we actually need an Uachturan, insurance officer, 6 chairpersons from other boards, a spare connacht council rep) and introduce a players rep and a director of coaching/refereeing.
Put Horan in that role and have him source a S&C, Psychologist, skills coach and referees coach who work across all county teams and visit clubs to develop coaches across the county.
Given Horans background in Quality assurance and elite football, he would be the perfect man for such a role.
Give him a role of producing a continuous production line of quality coaches and maximising player participation from U10 to U20.
Once such a system was in place, the production of quality players, coaches and referees would be continuous.

Horans has worked on Quality assurance in Coke and Allergen, as well as operating the Mayo seniors at continue high levels.
Just get him in to set up an elite factory production line of coaches and footballers.

The alternative (continuing to allow unqualified "GAA people" dabble in serious performance sport, for which they are unqualified to do) keeps us in the cycle of sporadic success and repeated underperformance.

When Horan first came along he stated that he wanted to remove the BS from Mayo football. He did that with the senior team but it returned en mass after he left.
Time he got to work on removing it from Mayo football at all levels.

The language used in the original statement from the County Board was cack-handed and utterly disrespectful to someone who has served the county at many levels going back decades. It wouldn't have taken them too much trouble to craft a reasonable statement and then there would have been no national outcry but seemingly even that simple job was beyond them. Apologising now isn't a good look either but at least it goes some way towards repairing the completely avoidable damage they caused in the first place.

@Willie joe

Yes that's totally fair enough. I just think it makes us look stupid now but hopefully that's the end of it .

An absolutely excellent post Revellino. Makes so much sense. We continually blame managers for our failings but as you point out we have had a number of very good managers who did great things for Mayo football but unfortunately the team never got over the line,
On the issue of the apology I am sure the Co Board would not have apologised if they felt there was no need to do so. It is common courtesy to apologise to someone if you are disrespectful, deliberately or otherwise. Credit to them for doing that. Now time to put it all to bed and move on. None of our county teams Senior, u 20 , u17 or ladies team have managers at the moment. It’s a massive responsibility and extremely time consuming so maybe we should acknowledge that before we criticise them each time our county does not achieve a result. Best of luck to the Co Board and all who they appoint

Mayonaze

Conleth Gilligan a brilliant shout, a name that seems to be going completely under the radar but has quietly built a brilliant CV. According to many in the know he was the brains of the operation in armagh getting over the line the past year (with Donaghy more of a hype man/cheerleader). Also was coaching Kilcoo in their all Ireland win. Always find him very impressive when I hear him on punditry too, a leftfield choice but a pure coach and analytical mind,exactly what we should be going after.

Unfortunately I don't he has got a big enough celebrity profile, its going to need to be a 'name' to keep people happy

Agree WJ, the wording was far from ideal. But why when given so many opportunities to walk away on their own terms they did not take it is beyond me.

Seems like meeting was rather bland last night with no major excitement, how unlike us.... :)

I cant understand why David Heaney and Tom Reilly are stepping down after one year. I really think they did a good job with the minor team and had them playing lovely football.

Jimbo - Mike says on the pod that it was for personal reasons, which could mean any number of things.

Excellent post from Revellino above. Well worth a read.

Jimbo - they were there 2 years not one.

@Jimbo: The lads were put in place in late '23, winning the Minor Connacht title in '24 before being narrowly pipped this year. That comes after a couple of years coaching those same kids through the academy, so the 2 years at the coal face the culmination of a multi-year investment. 2 to 3 years would be fairly standard at minor level, even when things are going great.

It'll be interesting to see if or when we'll see their names go on tickets for other roles. Both came across incredibly well throughout their time in charge, whether in interviews or just watching the way the games were played.

Revellino, agree with a lot of your sentiments above. but is the management team not the recruitment team? They insisted on playing midfielder types in forwards to compensate for weak midfield, yet we still got largely dominated in the middle third despite this, and to add to our woes were then left with very few natural finishers due to trying to compensate for an area where the compensation did not really work.
Would we have been better selecting some more natural forwards and see how it went given we were not bossing middle with all our midfielders on pitch anyway? at least try to score when did get the ball.

Would you have thought 2.5 years ago Donegal had the players necessary to get as far as they have now?

In relation to us in many respects having the best management in country since the 80s, its hard to look past the managements that Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone in particular and add in Donegal in Armagh to that as being ahead of us on that front. Sport is cruel and it is a results business.

I said it on a few posts awhile ago that I think Conlith would be an excellent fit as a coach for mayo. Would bring a brand new voice to the set up, with plenty of knowledge on what it takes to get over the line.

Something that’s really worth noting, he has achieved coaching success at both club and county, that’s very very hard done. Especially at club level. It shows me that he is very adaptable at working with decent club players who can’t make the cut at county level. That’s why I always say, managers/coaches from club backgrounds should always be considered if they have achieved success. They don’t have the pick or pool of players that a county manager or coach has to work with.

@ Revellino, with a less cautious management, we might have beaten Galway and donegal, which would have brought a connacht title and us topping our group. You can say we don’t have the players but meath had the same players last year and donegal two years ago and they’re miles apart now. While blaming the management constantly is wrong, this management team was going nowhere and should have resigned after the derry defeat.

And just as a sense check for people saying Andy should get the job some day as he is young and full of energy, and brings the great mayo passion and so on so forth. Have a look at what Conor Laverty has done with Down. I think he has done a massive job up there. Personally from a coaching perspective at this current moment I’d rate him higher then Andy.

@revelino.agree with a lot of what you say but we had enough brilliant players in the last decade and still didn't win so a bit of luck along the way also helps and the only reason Dublin ended up being the greatest team of all time is because mayo didn't put them away the times they had Dublin on the ropes most notably 2015 drawn game where during Dublins collapse andy failed to pass to any of the O'connor brothers for a tap in goal and there would have been no 6 in a row. Sorry for veering away from your main point in that post.

@Gizmo and Plunkett.

Regards recruitment. People on here repeatedly ask how in God's name is a manager supposed to get around the county to see all the different players playing. I don't think they should have to.

A player is as good as they are regardless of who is watching them play. A player recruitment system would take that burden of managers chasing from one pitch to the other off them, and give them more time for concentrating on playing systems, tactical planning and the likes.

I think having Michael Murphy back out of retirement has had a big say on Donegal's fortunes. I think he has completely changed the way they play and they are a much better team with him on board. Not sure how long he has hung his boots up for but I'd say at least 2 years. I suppose Mcguinnes deserves credit for luring him back.

Yes Meath have played very well this uear and seem to have some electric players but might still end the year empty handed having lost the Leinster final to Louth.

As regards if we had played less midfield type players in the forwards to compensate for a weak midfield, I think everyone would have loved to see us with 6 natural forwards, but I think we would have been over run at midfield and taken a few trimmings along the way.

@ No Doubt. Yes we did have a brilliant team in those years. I think Dublin's strength over us in those years was their squad depth. They were able to bring on the likes of Mcmanamon, Macaulay, Costello and the likes and several of those games were decided in the final few minutes.

Don't forget the Dublin AI winning streak would probably be longer if it wasn't for Mayo. We did take them out in 21.

Why didn't Kerry or Tyrone end the Dublin streak. Both beaten by Dublin (Kerry twice) in finals by that Dublin 6 in a row streak.

When I was mentioning earlier about the quality of management we've had in the past 40 years I should have also mentioned Holmes, a first national title for us in 32 years.

Thanks Revellino, my point on midfield was despite having so many midfielders we still didn't do hectic there in a lot of games, so not only were we not winning the ball, the ball we won we were done several scoring options when we did get it, but we didn't try and see if going with more natural forwards would serve us better. we went all in on one system.

You are right on it not being possible for a manager to attend every game, but courtesy of Mayo GAA TV life is a lot easier on that front. Plus you have the fact the management team was so large you would get lot of games covered if coaches, selectors etc. utilised for scouting, and given collective training not allowed during club championship that would be the guts of their role then along with tactics development etc.
Between McStay, Rochford, McHale, Mulligan, Buckley, Matthews and the others involved you would get a hell of a lot of games covered. Player selection really needs to come from whoever the management set up is. I am not sure how many Managers would like to take on a role where they come in and are given list of names and be told "here ya go, that's your squad". they would want go out and see for themselves.

Brilliant posts there,Revellino. I think this point in particular needs to be emphasized ..

“ In many respects I would say we have had (among)the best management overall of any county since I would say the late 80’s with about 5 different managers having gotten us to countless all Ireland finals“

…That is so so true. Mayo have over achieved in the face of barely having a full team of proper starters, let alone a deep bench.You are correct about needing better recruiting systems etc and I feel most people on here agree with that.

I think it would be a massive shame if James Horan is not involved at the centre of Mayo football -in any capacity-going forward.

If his decision is based on the county board set up and the fans being too harsh and expecting too much then that’s one thing. But for me,he brought Mayo to the modern game and his intolerance of BS was a tonic.He backed it up too in every way.

His Achilles heel was that his in game management was poor and he didn’t surround himself on the line with experts of the caliber he had in the back room. This could be fixed.

Personally,I thought he was the right man to have another crack at this but I respect his decision.

Whoever is appointed, I’d just ask that we play football the right way and that we take this opportunity to fix all the systems that are awry.

A lot of pushing for an outside manager despite the stats being totally against doing so. In the history of All Ireland finals on John O'Mahoney, Fr. Tom Gillooly and Eugene McGee have managed counties other than their own to win Sam.
IMHO managers with "foreign" counties do so either for money or to impress enough to get their home gig.
Of those three winners McGee of Longford and Gillooly of Westmeath both of whom achieved success with Offaly were never going to win much with their own counties. Johnno did do a second stint with Mayo but without success.
There just isn't evidence that an outside manager obviously not fully immersed in the job would have the drive and ability to take us to the next level. McConville, Giligan, Donaghy McEntee etc are among the names mentioned but do any of you believe it would be the be all and end all for any of them to have Mayo winning the All Ireland?
Go for the best home management team and rest assured they will give it their all.

Player recruitment has been traditionally weak in Mayo. We now have the issue that a current panel is embedded that was selected based on a playing style from 2011 to 2025.
Let's be clear. A defender totally reliant on running the ball with below the required kicking skills cannot be on the panel.
Midfielders need fielding ability.
Forwards who can kick 2pters need an extra plus for their selection.
Players whose fitness shows impact sub need to be used as impact sub only.
We've gone too far down the current path and hence we lack pace, fielding and scoring threat.
We need brave mgmt looking back to guys 6'2" - 6'5" who might still be sub options.
SnC needs to be totally rebuilt. Young players with natural size and strength need different programs with less workload and more power.
If you want to ruin a good young strong footballer, get him to play plenty games and do plenty running.
It's about time we reached for some SnC that worked with a county like Dublin. We've been pretty much in house since 2011.
Our midfielders don't have the leg strength to get off the ground and compete.
In 2021 I took one eye test look at Brian Kennedy and Con Kilpatrick and knew we were in trouble.

Great post JP, that's exactly what needs to be taken on board for the Mayo team/panel, I've been thinking that way for years, James Horan came close with his team but was short 3 or 4 really good impact subs, you got it spot on. Mayo players have to be dogged, ruthless, proper S & C to suit the players, skillful & 6ft +, wear the Jersey with huge pride, it can be done with the right coaches.

JP,

Has Mayo have a full time employed head of athletic development ?