I like that, " the onion sack". Hoping for a Mayo win in this encounter...not from a standpoint of arrogance, mind, but from a position of neediness. Mayo like playing Kerry and a win is badly required considering the remaining games. Perhaps, Donegal won't be trying too hard, but needing a win to survive in that fixture is not ideal. 3 games remaining and several sides trying to avoid the noose.

what changes would people make for Saturday – I would start O Shea and Jack Carney, maybe even Sam callinan too?

Hopefully Sam is getting the freshness back.

Any word on injuries /unavailability – Conroy, Paddy D, Conor Loftus, D O’ Connor ?

I think the point away in armagh will definitely end up being a point gained.
Tyrone have a dog of a run in and derry are very likely going to be already down by the time we play them so that should be a win as they won't have anything play for weeks out from ulster championship

Even if we lose this weekend we should be fine

I think Billy Joe said this on the pod recently but Mayo are in dire need of a ball-playing centre half back. McBrien is much better at 3 than at 6 and he never kicks the ball anyway. I would try Eoin O'Donoghue at 6, he is a lovely kick-passer and could really improve our scoring rate further forward. Bring Morahan in at corner back to mark Paul Geaney. Mayo have way too many runners in their team. Hession, McHugh McBrien, McLaughlin, Coen, Ruane, Neary.

Try Ryan at 11 as well, he's better further out the pitch and is also a good kick-passer. We need to see Ryan at 11, Aidan at 14, and Towey in the corner to see how all three link up. They could work very well together.

Hope to win, but be happy with an continued upward curve on the scoring front. Be worried if we go back into the sideways and backway stuff seen to many times this year. Can see the reason for this against wind, but still need to keep scoreboard ticking over. Good example of this was Donegal vs Galway game, Donegal never moved the scoreboard at all in first half. Be good to see more off Reid and Neary, as think they making fair claim for starting positions come championship. Done a review on playing time of players, thru the first 4 rounds of league, and seems that back rarely get subbed off, in comparison to forwards, and midfielders.

Even the Galway Match, where backs, taking a tanking, all subs were forwards and Mattie Ruane. Seems strange to me, or are we lacking backs at quality for division 1 on bench

@GBXI: Hession & Ruane would be two of the best kickers on the panel too (only Durcan, RO'D or Aido that'd be clearly ahead of either on attempts or %completed), it's just with our tactics in recent years we seldom get to see it nearly often enough.

I'm not sure if you could ever have too many runners. Bringing in Durcan and Conroy to join the ones mentioned would only help us, imho. Hard to beat a strong running game. Whether you're using it for pacey direct transitions through the hands, aggressive line breaking in pods of 2 or 3 or for supporting even more direct kicking to the lads ahead with strike runners off the shoulder. Nothing helps a kicking game like some strong runners and nothing helps a running game like some accurate long kicks, they keep the defenders honest in either scenario.

There's no downside to having that pace or athletic ability, as long as the other skills are at a high enough standard. And despite all the abuse some get on basic skills like solos at pace or shooting, all of those runners are offering a huge amount to the team in various areas of the game (there isn't a player in the country over the moon to see Eoghan Mc standing beside them at throw-in).

@Supermac: "... derry are very likely going to be already down by the time we play them"

There's no way for that to happen yet. After this coming weekend's games there's at least 4 points still on offer for everyone in the last 2 games. And at most they'd have 1 team on 4 and two on 5 ahead of them.

Worst case for Derry would be Tyrone beating Galway, us beating (or drawing with, either way they'd end up with one of us on 4 and one on 5) Kerry & Armagh beating Dublin while they lose to Donegal:

Mayo/Kerry 5pt
Mayo/Kerry 4pt
Tyrone 4pt
Derry 1pt

They'd still be in a position to catch a team on 5 in that scenario, nevermind matching the teams on 4 (and very unlikely all 3 games would pan out in that manner), with it possible for multiple teams to finish on the same points so head to head might not be in play.

That said, there's some very interesting scenarios still on the table there:
"Sim no. 1 in my model has Mayo getting relegated on 7 points & -7 pts difference.
Sim no. 2257 has Mayo making the final on 7 points and -5 points difference."
https://x.com/StatsAndSolos/status/1893778822522089628

Oshea a big loss for Kerry

If Derry beat us and both ourselves and Derry lose our other two games - then Mayo and Derry would both be on three points but Derry would be ahead of us on the head to head.

Remaining fixtures

Derry- Donegal, Mayo, Armagh
Tyrone - Galway, Donegal, Dublin

Think and hope we should be ok - We need to put down a marker at home v Kerry.
Need to have a tactical plan in place to try and stop Clifford

Predicted Team for Kerry:

Reape
E O'Donoghue McHugh Hession
Coen McBrien E McLaughlin
Ruane Carney
Neary McHale Flynn
Towey O'Shea R O'Donoghue

I think we'll go for it from the start and hope we have enough to see it out down the straight.

@Tsu, I'm a big fan of a running game - it gets an undeserved hard time by gaelic fans imo. Ours is an athletic field sport. However, we lack any foot passers in the half back line (Durcan has a lovely mix of the two and will be a huge addition when he's back). Same in midfield. Disagree completely on Ruane, his first instinct is always to run and running is his thing. But compare to Paul Conroy who mixes it really well. The new rules encourage kicking and I'd like to see us try it on Saturday against a Kerry defense that isn't that hot and a day that likely won't be windy.

@FrostTheHamker good team be a tough one no doubt with the cliffords.

Though our 2nd half v Armagh and Neary great goal would have given the guys confidence back.. And there will be more of a hone crowd after the Armagh game to I'd say.

Mayo by 3!

Let's all go to the game and bring the roar back .. the noise and colour is gone out of us . We need Sam back .. the Clifford effect will bring a bigger crowd anyway ..
Maigheo Abu

Hard to know what way mgmt will see it. The phrase 'controlling' the game is being used a lot so it seems as if mgmt are trying to keep it tight first half and then finish with strongest team...
Galway did that in the Con final last year and it worked.
The threats are glaring this week. The two Clifford's... I'd put McL on Paidi and let him track him. I'd ask Joe Brolly what to do about David then because he seems to know it all this weather, fair play...

I see the WANs on the Kerry forum are calling out our support as poor but once the best in the country . Mad the way things are picked up on , some of them saying mcstay era not having the same buzz as Horan and Rochford eras . I suppose they are right in a way but it’s very hard to warm to that slow lateral play we are at most of the time , it creates such a dull effect in the crowd . The feeling this week is the support want to see that drive we witnessed from n second half in Armagh . Every county has an identity a style that is traditional to their county imo , Galway have that silky forward thing , we have that heavy metal organised chaos that drives the adrenaline in the support to roar , it’s just the Mayo way again imho that is , it suits us , if we lose so be it but we will be tackling ferociously, hands , feet kickin , slappin, non stop running , stands shaking , flags flying , yahooon ,
Etc etc , I suppose what I’m saying is let’s bring the thunder back .

@Sean Burke god really that is ridiculously rich coming from them that we are 'apparently the worst fans'..

EVERY county has good & bad fans.

Yeah even if we loose just so long as we show that same kind of fight we did 2nd half and heart I will happy hope it's packed with green & red!

@GBXI: You're welcome to say you'd like him to kick way more, I think we all would, but he's second only to Paddy at line breaking mid/long kicks for us last year (normalised to kicks/game given Paddy's injury... & only Brick in the same ballpark as those 2).

Aido & Ryan would have higher success rates but both were even further limited in the number of times they get to attempt it given how often they're deep inside or looking up to set blankets. Hopefully we might see them able to get at it even more this year with that bit of extra space around.

I'd imagine the frustrations there are far more on a team-wide tactical reluctance to kick rather on the individual named. If we're going to fault Mattie there, the rest of the panel will end up slated for their numbers in comparison.

And so say all of us, Seán!

@Tsu, I don't know what data you are using, and this is not a pick on Mattie post, because he is crucial to Mayo especially his scores from play but what I want to see is quick, first time kick passes from between the Mayo 45' line and the half way line into the opposition half ala John Daly from Galway. I imagine the old data is skewed by the old rules and blanket defenses making kicking overly risky but the space is there now especially off the new long kick-out. We need good movement from our forwards as well to take advantage of this.

@Clare - why do you think any iota of criticism so seriously. Who honestly cares what the Kerry supporters think of our support?

In any event, our support is way down and has been consistently down since the Tyrone final. The proof is in the numbers. So while I don't care what they are saying, they are right.

I'm not so sure if frantically man marking DC is the way to go for this game. Yes our very best on him for the last 6/7 minutes of the game but otherwise focus first and foremost on continuing with the strong defensive unit approach. DC is good for about 6 scores per league game regardless of the approach.

Kerry are at times so masterful at the game but even at this early stage in the year it looks they will always look to DC or SOS for their 2 pointers. Our gradual approach towards the 2 pointers (same with Dublin, Galway and soon enough Armagh) is to build it across 6 players currently Ryan, Mattie, Irwin, Davitt, Fergie and Flynn. And already that seems to be the golden ticket to win under these new rules in Croker.

What a difference 35 minutes can make, all of a sudden there's a big buzz in the county.
Kerry were bang average at the weekend and definitely beatable. With not far off a championship team they haven't looked convincing.
Mcbrien kept Clifford quiet down in Killarney in championship and he'd be the man I elect to put on him. Case to be made for Donnacha McHugh but I would opt for Enda Hession on Paudie and put Donnacha on Sean O'Se of he plays, and diarmuid o Connor if he doesn't.
We actually match up quite well with them in my opinion.

Mayo support has dropped considerably in recent times. It could never have kept going the way it was.

@unstopable I don't care or take it seriously never said I do?! They can say what they like.

The pods keep coming! New show just up on Patreon - Mike and Rob with Colm Boyle and the one and only Peter Canavan talking Mayo, new playing rules and more.

Funnily enough we had a Clare from Mayo on the Kerry forum not so long ago.

Unfortunately she had to be removed by admin.

I don't think it's that much of an insult to say the Mayo numbers have dropped that's fairly understandable, condensed season, cost, heartbreak all play a part.

The hard-core will always be there as i was in Pomeroy on Sunday.

Hard to know how Sat will go,

It's our 5th game in a row and the 3rd away with 3 very long journeys.

Nothing easy in Castlebar and we got a trimming there 2 years ago.

@west kerry to be honest that could have been any clare? I don't go on any other forum.

So don't come on hear accusing me of that when it wasn't even me for gods sake!!

There are other ones called clare you know for gods sake pretty childish to start accusations that are not even true.

Very very similar writing style we will leave it at that.

Clare - if you read WestKerry's comment you'll see he didn't accuse you of anything at all. When I saw his comment I wondered how long it would take to get a rise out of you - two minutes was the answer and then you posted two comments in as many minutes. You could do with calming down a bit and, perhaps, not posting comments as much.

West Kerry - the other interesting thing about that match two years ago was the crowd size. There were 15,000 there that night. We could well be looking at a crowd half that size the next day, though the fact it's not on TV might bump the number up a bit.

@willie Joe fair enough apolagies for the double comments but think that was out of order for him to say. But fine.

The new rules definitely lend themselves to extensive use of the kick-pass, but Mayo, so far, have made very little use of it. Does'nt matter how many exponents of it that we have, if we don't use it as a tactic. To make best use of it requires good kick-passers in defence, with centre-half a pivotal position in this respect. I would love to see one of our best kick-passers, Brickenden, tried at CH, and he could also chip in with some 2 pointers, as he has the ability. And put McBrien back to his best position at FB.

Interesting article in today's Irish Times by Seán Moran, quoting Paul Earley on the new rules who reckons the roving 'keeper is the reason that the number of handpasses has hardly budged under the new rules. He's in favour of restricting goalies' movement on the field. Hear, hear! https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/02/25/restricting-goalkeepers-would-help-address-excessive-handpassing-says-paul-earley/

Think we’ll see about 10,000 there on Saturday with it not being on tv.weather will be a factor too.hopefully a nice calm day

In previous years Kerry would have used this tie to assess where they are at in their season. The reverse is true now. It should give mayo management valuable feedback as to how championship ready we are. In particular, how the newbies are faring.
I expect Kerry to be a lot more ruthless in attack than Armagh. It may be a game they may feel like letting loose. I would be concerned about a nievity around our defending.
2 points up with 4 mins to go and we managed a draw, nothing to get excited about there.
But we did score a goal and we don't see that very often....

Consistent we can watch a junior club game on Clubber isint it amazing that a game between two big rivals isint being shown anywhere.

Unfortunately I won't make it as 4 weekends in a row means a 5th would land me in the divorce courts.

I'd imagine we will see more changes due to Jack giving some lads a break so who knows who'll line out for us.

The one match up I would expect is a new player called Damien Bourke to pick up ODonoghue.
Tom Sullivan ( injured) has struggled on Ryan particularly his strength.
Bourke has been our best new player this year and is teak tough.
Ryan would be the right rest for him.

Jordan Flynn v Diarmuid OConnor will also be intriguing.

Typo above should read its unbelievable we can watch a club game on clubber.

@Willue Joe apolagies for getting annoyed earlier will also try not to post to much is well.

Paul Earley waffling on about goal keepers contributing to the number of hand passes. As I have explained ad nauseam here if the FRC and all their so called experts want to limit handpassing it could be done in one simple move but they obviously don't want to address it.
We'll see what they do next.

@WestKerry: Is Gavin expected to be back in contention for this one? We've tended to use Jordan to tag him with an eye on the defensive side of things, but that might be an interesting job to give to young Davitt. It'd be some battle of pace between them.

The big questions for us will be if Sean O'Shea is back from the knee niggle (sounds like he could have made the 15 last week if needed but safer to give him the rest - so you'd expect him this week) and if Paudie might be one of those rested. Personally, I'll be hoping both start. Always a joy to watch players with that talent.

Young Bourke has been flying it so far this year, seems to have made a huge leap forward from the few minutes last year. It wouldn't be a shock if he put in a solid performance here either.

Kerry are goaling a lot more. They must have as many goals as 2 pointers in the league thus far.
The 3/3 eases congestion around the box and gives Clifford, Geaney and O'Shea a smidgen more space and time to exploit it.
Clifford's hat trick against Tyrone are scores you probably don't get against the blanket.

Yes I'd expect Gavin White back for this one alright.

Seanie i think was more rested than anything last weekend.

Jack gets a pile of criticism down here but I thinks he's done the right thing those season with the breaks he's given lads.

White got an awful roasting in the club semi final.

@sticks what is your proposal to reduce the handpassing?

Well it was absolutely ridiculous putting him on a man marking job in my opinion that's not his game and it wasn't exactly an unknown player he was marking one of the best in the game.

@JR yeah true..

@Sticks yeah would like to know how to reduce handpassing to.. That's a hard one!

@West Kerry you are right,a real menace going forward.
I felt for him in the final against Dublin.

Looking forward to this one.
What a difference one half of football can make to your outlook.
I'd like to see McBrien on Clifford.
Jack Carney and Flynn at midfield with Mattie in the hf line.
Hopefully Eoin O donoghue Davitt Neary and Frank Irwin give a good account of themselves and put themselves in contention for championship.
There's a good panel coming together

No doubt and Clare
As I've said before I wouldn't allow any back passing either by hand or foot except in the attacking 40 metre arc and the ball can't be passed back outside that arc either. My initial idea was not to allow any back passing but it was pointed out to me if a forward got the ball on the attacking end line they would need an out. Perhaps 40 is too much so it could be reduced to 20. I know people will say they can still move it sideways but players will soon run out of room. It should be easy to ref it also. They can ref no forward passing in rugby.

@Sticks for the Reek. As you rightly say, for all the welcome efforts by the FRC to bring in rule changes to improve the game, they completely ignored the biggest problem, which is ruining the gsme_they did nothing about the handpass. A few have asked for your solution. Colm Boyle reminded us recently that a 5 handpass limit was trialled in 2019,which was predictably chaotic and quickly abandoned. Quite a few have suggested a limit of 3 handpasses, which I feel is also unworkable for players and officials. But the handpass needs to be restricted or, my personal preference, banned, which is probably unlikely to happen. My suggestion is simple, easy for the players to follow and easy for the officials to monitor. I would not allow two successive handpasses-you cannot give a handpass after receiving one. Simple and effective, I believe.

@Sticks for reeks good option there for all the lateral handpassing.

I remember being at an FBD league game in Tuam when the hand pass rule was trialed.
It was pure carnage for everyone players , referees and supporters.

@sticks for the reek. Ya i could see potential there it could be worth a try but limiting the pass (unless possibly not hand passing after receiving one as stated above) would be unworkable I'd imagine i reckon players and refs have enough to do without counting handpasses.

@Sticks for the Reek: "It should be easy to ref it also. They can ref no forward passing in rugby."

All of rugby is structured around that line & monitoring if players are offside, where as nothing in Gaelic football is built around it. It would be messy & subjective deciding if a pass went sideways or forward. Whole it would cause a massive boost in turnovers, it would also heavily favour defending sides (overly so) & I can't say we'd see more enjoyable game in my mind.

(IIRC they trialed the far less severe can't pass back behind the halfway line rule in recent pre-season sandbox games & quickly abandoned that one)

I'd imagine the intent there is to simply focus on teams being more direct (rather than really caring about the mechanics hand-pass itself)?

If so, a shot clock seems an easier officiated & more positively impactful means to try & reach that end. Not overly keen on it myself, I'd like to see managers given more freedom to be creative (including the odd negative or boring tactics at times if they feel it's best - every sport needs a bad guy), but I think there would be more pros & less cons (for officials, players, managers & fans) to an "always forward" system.

On any "must kick after x hand-passes" I'm less sure. Though having watched a previous trial of it I'd be hesitant about us going back down that road, it never looked good & took so much freedom & flow from the game.

Folks bemoan the boring lateral hand-passing plays, but I'm not so sure replacing them with enforced kicked boring lateral plays is really the solution we're after here. It would lower control & slow possession a little, but not nearly as impactful as encouraging the right conditions for more direct ball and allowing the real skills of the game to shine (a quick look at Clifford, Walsh or Jones over the last few weeks suggests we might be on the right path there).

Personally, though hugely subjective as all these things are, I'd much prefer to see them tackle the real elephant in the room & biggest issue in the game - the complete lack of a defined tackle (the currently written one isn't refereed at all as it's written, thankfully) - rather than introducing arbitrary limits on passes.

That said, these are all moot points of discussion until 2030 (or another version of the recently failed Motion 7 passes at Congress). They're all far too extreme to be introduced at this point in the season so from here we'll just be seeing tweaks or fixes (or deletions) to the existing changes.

Can limit handpasses but players will still just kick laterally across the pitch because a lot the time, there is no pressure being put on by the defending team. It's a chicken & egg situation. Personally I'd have liked a no backpass rule once you enter the oppositions half (or something along those lines).

But at the end of the day, the reason the game is in such need of tweaks is the coaching. If the coaches changed their approach, there would be no issue. Players do not want to play the boring methodical lateral nonsense we've been accustomed to for the last few years

Limit the keeper to the 40m arc, the game can be man on man then. These keepers are mostly outfield players that can stand between the posts and not out and out shot stoppers. Time to get Clarkie out of retirement

On another note, a new championship structure for 2026 onwards absolutely sailed through last weekend, perhaps under the radar. And according to Colm Keys, this new structure is in for the foreseeable

Sticks,
I have been making that point for a number of years myself. Simply eliminate the back pass backwards by hand or foot. Except for a player inside the attacking 21 yard line. Look it is great that the new rules are being tried and most are good but the backwards and lateral passing will continue unabated and it takes an awful lot of new rules to make the game more entertaining whereas it would have been great if that one simply rule had been trialled before all others to assess its impact.
I went back to watch a club county semi final from the late 90's recently and I did not notice one backwards pass expect from a few breaking balls on the kick-outs. That 60 minute game was at a great pace, up and down the whole time. The score board was not perfection with a fair few wides but the volume of kick passing was great and it made for fantastic one on one contests all other the field most especially inside the 45's.
We'll enjoy these new rules and kudos to the efforts of those who brought them about. But the hundreds and hundreds of back passes per half will always leave the game a pale imitation of the hurling game when it comes to the spectator experience.

A lot of good suggestions on here but most are in agreement that too much hand passing is killing the game which the FRC despite all the media hype has not addressed. And I agree a lot is down to coaching. How many sideline kicks go backwards. When I played the brain only kicked into forward gear where now it's slammed into reverse or neutral.

I remember watching an All Ireland u20 semi final or final, can’t remember which between Kildare and Sligo a couple of years ago. Kildare were awarded a free and the ref moved it up 13 mtrs for dissent and the Kildare lad strolled up, turned around and kicked it back 30 mtrs. It looked so ridiculous.

Would like a win at weekend, but not critical that we win. Like to see improvement in kickout / retained, and hopefully score 20+ points. If Kerry win, after that, I live with that. Two away games after this, Derry and Donegal. Sure Derry will be well motivated for that match, as could bring us back into conversation of going back to Division 2. Tyrone have to play Galway, Donegal and Dublin. Derry have to play Donegal, Mayo and Armagh.
And Mayo have Kerry, Derry and Donegal. All the teams in relegation have to play Donegal, be interesting to see if they keep the hand brake up, like they they did in Salthill.

Lee Keegan thinks the three up rule will remain even with black/red cards in effect. As it stands, the team down a player don't suffer at all.
I'd hope he's right in his prediction.

There will be a strong wind in Castlebar again on Saturday - making it a game of two halves as is the way this league

For me, I still think we are pick players out of position, which will continue to lose us games. Dublin and Armagh were there for the taking and we are not winning due to small errors - selection being one of them

Mayo match up well with a few adjustments - Kerry are scoring a lot of goals - so we will need our best man markers in the full back line - and lots of running at wing back.
Reape
2. E O’Donoghue v Dylan Geaney
3. McBrien v Paul Geaney
4. McHugh v David Clifford
5. Coen v Ruairi Murphy
6. E McLaughlin v Paudie Clifford
7. E Hession v Darragh Lyne
8. Ruane v Joe O’Connor
9. Carney v Diarmuid O Connor
10. Neary v Brian O Beaglaoich
11. Flynn v Mike Breen
12. Reid v Graham O Sullivan
13. Towey v Dylan Casey
14. F Irwin v Jason Foley
15. R O’Donoghue v Damien Bourke

Subs:
Jack Coyne v C Geaney
Sean Marahan v Barry Dan O’Sullivan
Fergal Boland v Michael Burns
A O Shea v Paul Murphy
Darren McHale v T O’Sullivan

@Tirawleybaron: Mind me asking where you spotted the strong winds?

Anywhere I looked, we have a nasty band of rain passing over the country early Saturday morning, but the weather in general and wind looks pretty nice for the game. The early throw-in managing to keep the game right in the middle of the expected lull there.

I'm worried now I've missed something.

Light winds for Saturday afternoon is what I'm seeing in the forecast!

@TsuDhoNim
Saw it on the metcheck website - but I see now its changed back to light winds and the gusty winds are on Friday.
You would want to check it everyday this time of year.

Light winds = no 2 pointers for Mayo though and no lead to chase.
This Mayo team only gets going when they fall behind by more than 3 points. if they have a lead or are within touching distance, its boring over and back stuff.
Here's hoping Kerry get a couple of early goals and Mayo have to come out and play.

Are you heading to the game on Saturday Willie Joe ?

I am, indeed, Mayoman51.

One thing I will say Willie Joe is that after all these rounds of the league, still too early to call Champo winner!