Beatuticul evening for football, perfect. A lively breeze, which will be a factor. Team as per programme.

Mayo kicking wides for fun so far….

Great second quarter from Mayo, 1-8 to 0-9 up at HT. Three two-pointers had Rossies four in front at one stage but 1-4 without reply from Mayo put them three ahead. Goal from John McMonagle, tapped in after Josh Carey hit the bar. Tom Lydon to the fore in the scoring stakes for Mayo.

Lots of handling errors so far. Hopefully it’s just first night nerves. Forwards not moving as well as I thought they would.

Strong comeback from 4 points down. We are moving the ball quicker and better thro' the field, but some poor wides and drops short. Rosie's were killing us with 2 pointers earlier, but we should have a little help from the breeze 2nd. half. Great high fielding Kick-out contests in midfield-like the good old days and definitely one of the best new rules.

John McMonagle looks to be a serious talent. Been consistent for club and county for a few years at this stage. Very tight defender, not afraid of an attack. Be good to see him getting a run in with the senior panel to try and prove his worth

After s slow start we have settled well and look much the better team, once Lydon kicked his first he now has his tail up our full forward line look very dangerous and it's nice having a big unit like Armstrong at midfield. Watching eoin mcgreal in the 4 jersey, does he remind anyone else of keith Higgins? The absolute image in the way he defends and when he takes off with the ball in hand.

Been fairly impressed so far with Mayo. Playing a nice brand of football albeit a bit wasteful up top.

Defence seemed to have got to grips with Rossie forwards and edging the midfield battle.

Would expect us to kick on and win with the help of the breeze in the second half.

Eoin McGreal and Lydon the stand outs so far.

We look the better team , seem to be very comfortable since midway through the half . Expect them to plough on tbh and win handy enough .

Mayo look best team, two things for me so far in game, little or no physical contact so far in game looks like a friendly game and very poor kicking of ball, some players can't get any distance or height in their kicks.

Looking quite assured in fairness to the lads.
Backs struggling under high ball a bit.

And agree culmore, it's a timid affair for championship. If was knock out I'm sure be different.

Impressed with the Mayo fielding in the middle of the park

Mayo should be home and hosed. Our poor shooting keeping Ros in it.

Anyone keeping track on our wide count... I've lost count

Kicking it away to say the least.
Hugh O’Loughlin putting on a clinic of high fielding in the middle.

Brilliant defending and fielding. Great attacking moves too but old failings when shooting for the scores. Should be out the gate.

What is the score now please

Even though our shooting has been poor I thought we where miles the better team and looked really good, full back line very impressive and very dangerous in the forward line and some great fielding in the middle.

Mayo 1-15 Roscommon 0-13 FT

Mayo 1-15 Roscommon 0-13 FT. Solid win, dominated possession for the most part, loads of eye-catching primary ball-winning around the middle. Our shooting wasn't hectic, though - 13 wides, which meant the margin of victory wasn't as wide as it really should have been. Good start to the campaign all the same.

Easily the better team and good win in the end. Dominated possession 2nd. half, but in typical Mayo fashion, were wasteful and messed a load of chances up--left 2/3-5/6 behind us and kept them in the game far too long. At least 3 great goal chances fluffed. We should have been out of sight long before the end.

Good game and good win, fair play to TG4. Hugh O'Loughlin massive with his fielding.

Agree with all above…Mayo by far the most commanding team. Should have won by 10+. Some really bad shooting and defensively very open in first 20 mins.

O’Loughlin impressive. Lydon in the first half.

Good to get the win. Plenty of more in the tank in these boys.

Great coverage by TG4. Brilliant service they give.

Darragh Beirne should have been given the week off after playing the schools final on Monday. Not great that we sent him out to play again within 48 hours.

Agree Mind the House. We have plenty of capable forwards that could have taken his place, namely Senan Guilfoyle who I was surprised didn’t start.

All in all though credit to Mayo. Some really good stuff. McGreal, Gilmore, and McMonagle very good in defence. Our midfield trio caught some great ball and lads coming off the shoulder like Colm McHale and Neary off the bench done well.

Up top we have serious talent and it might not be a bad thing we left so many scores behind us. Lydon and Hurley were good but they still left as many scores behind them as they put over.
Plenty to work on but the future looks bright.

Not a single two pointer for us.

The two pointer is harder for players significantly physically weaker than seniors.

Galway 0-13 Leitrim 1-2 27 mins gone

Galway have scored three 2 pointers so far

Make that four , half time 0-15 to 1-2 in favour of Galway

@Sean Burke: Not sure if it's better or worse for you, but they've 5 so far (O'Connor, Costello x2, Monaghan & Dunne).

Willie Joe, a quick and general question. Would you know the rules on players playing for u20/seniors season?

@Westernfan101: There's a 60-hour lockout between games between both both codes for Senior Championship, with no restriction in place while Senior is still league football.

It was changed in '24, so careful with older versions where it was a weeklong lockout.

(A further restriction where a player must have turned 18 by the 1st of January that year, the one Donegal fell foul of last year with Roarty, but that wouldn't be a major factor if the question stems from our u20 performance tonight. Only Daithí Butler wouldn't meet that requirement)

If it’s good for Galway it’s always worse for me

@ TsuDhoNim cheers

Watching the game i was disappointed with each wide but folks guess what the alternative is (well other than a score) yep that's correct turn around and pass it 25 times and lose possession so let's be careful what we wish for and we're all usually crying to take the shot on. Otherwise enjoyable game with fantastic fielding which was a joy to see. Keep improving and see where it takes them.

@Sean, the breeze ros had 1st half lapsed a bit for us in the 2nd. That being said, our shooting was really bad. The closest anyone came to a 2pointer in the 2nd half was actually roscommon with a free kick that just tailed wide.

We have u20 players who should be well able to kick them but technique was poor this evening. Lots of scuffed, inaccurate efforts

@no doubt- you are spot on there. Be worse if they didn’t take them on. Also, some day the forward line will click. Maybe next Wednesday in Tuam. They look a very well balanced outfit so far against Leitrim.

Why this year is there almost no players on the panel from last years u17 team while in previous seasons and in other counties there is generally 5 or 6 of the best u17s from the previous season?
There’s definitely 2 or 3 of them good enough.

McMonagle is surely in line to come straight into the senior panel once this campaign is over.
Is Diarmuid Duffy injured? He was an intercounty senior this time last year as an u19 player.

The Kick-out is the best new rule change. Just witnessed an exhibition of high fielding-like the good old days-Willie Joe would approve. 2 Mayo mids and O'Loughlin were simply magnificent, with some outstanding fetches. Bodes well for our future, as this will be a huge factor in the new format. Had a walk on the pitch afterwards to get a close up of the players. We have some big units, at last-did'nt see Armstrong, but Howard must be 6-2,at least, O'Loughlin much bigger than I thought and a few other big units.

[Deleted].

Retrocut - not for the first time, I have to pull you up on a comment made about an underage player. It’s not acceptable to post loose comments here about who was/wasn’t asked to join the U20 panel and who did or didn’t take up an invite to do so. I would have thought, after all the discussion on here of late about comments made relating to underage players, that there would be a bit more cop-on about what’s posted but, as I’ve said, it’s not the first time I’ve had to deal with loose remarks you’ve posted. You’ll be heading for moderation if this happens again.

Retrocut,

What you state about diarmaid Duffy is totally inaccurate.

Yes completely inaccurate

Right, I'm now deleting that comment in its entirety. Retrocut - you're going to have to stop these loose comments about underage players or else that'll be it for your posting comments here at all.

Of course we missed a lot of chances but my God that was some exhibition of high fielding from the two midfielders and especially number 5 Hugh o Loughlin. That surely bodes well for the future with the new rules. Don’t know if it’s the rules or a change in tactics, but on watching this game it’s much better than last year.

This new format might be worrying a few former purveyors of ultra defensive football- some of whom- are very vocal at the moment regarding the tweaks.

We did have a lot of wides but it's important to kill the ball under the new format and especially with that midfield we have. Push up to cut off the short ball and we have more than a 50/50 chance of winning the kick out.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/12GTX6Su3GV/
St Pats Maghera High Performance centre
Just how far Mayo schools are behind the best football schools in the Country.Dont think there is any weights equipment in St Colmans college.

Likely true Achill75, but that’s just being built now isn’t it?
Players have plenty of access to gym gear, some of the Mayo clubs have unreal set ups if ya google some of them.