It the same match day panel as the league final. What did Eoin o Donoghue do wrong for not making it. Is he injured or just not making it.

Thumbs up to McStay for naming the full panel. Whether it's a cynical exercise or a genuine change in policy, we will find out on Sunday. Hopefully McStay realises that there are sports journalists out their who have to preview matches for GAA fans throughout the country.
Glad to see Davitt Neary starting, as I'm sure there was disappointment in the Neary household last weekend when he was named on the official program as a starter.
Agree with wj re kickout strategy, Sligo strong at midfield.
Also hope the old rules coaching manual is in the recycling bin, players are given the freedom to express themselves and we get a player driven performance.

Just hope for once they play a few balls into OShea and Irwin in full forward line.

Not trying to be a wind-up here, but I really do not understand the anger that comes with managers changing their teams on match day from the one named earlier in the week. The problem is forcing the submission of a team during the week, not that there's changes. Whether or not you think the actual team being named a few days out has any competitive impact doesn't really matter, the prevalence of changes to teams on the day of games shows that GAA managers overwhelmingly believe there is some advantage in keeping the team close to their chest as possible, and they're going to do that regardless of a requirement to submit "a team" earlier in the week. We should acknowledge this is their prerogative and move with the times, rather than forcing the naming of sham teams and then getting annoyed when there's changes.

I think that the teams being announced on the day adds a bit of spice and keeps intrigue going right up until the match, it generates discussion and excitement. Will the rumoured surprises materialise? Will the injured star man be called out when the team is announced on the PA? There's no promotional benefit to the midweek team announcements as they stand.

The most successful and popular sport in the world has team announcements one hour before kick off and it does them no harm at all, and there's no suggestion in that sphere (or the many other sports where teams are named shortly before the start) that teams not being announced days before is somehow disrespectful to supporters, because quite simply it isn't, supporters don't have an entitlement to have the team lists X days in advance of the game.

The sooner the GAA acknowledges this and moves to squad numbers and programmes that have squad lists, the better. Getting annoyed at changes to names teams is just ignoring reality.

To have an informed debate on an upcoming game. We need the panel of players lining out. It's a bond between management players and supporters( not to mention media, it would be wise to keep them onside. It also devalues the official programme.
But everyone's entitled to their opinion.
Player discipline is something which needs to be kept in check on Sunday. But we need to see the team embracing the new rules and taking full advantage of the opportunities to entertain

Can changes be made to the 26 before the game? If so, I'd be shocked if that's the 26.

Full panels for championship games have to be released on the Friday, or the GAA will do it for you. That's a directive from Croke Park. There could still be changes beforehand, but it's nice to have the info at least

@ontheditch... straight to landfill with the old manual... just to be sure it doesn't reappear in some other guise in the future.

@GBXI: 4 additional stand-by players would have been submitted on Thursday morning (before 9am) along with the official 26 to go into programmes & be released to the public on Friday (give teams Thursday evening sessions to potentially announce the side internally). In the event of injury or bereavement, one of those 4 can replace a member of the 26.

We're screwed now, they know our full panel!

Vote of confidence I see. I'm in a negative mood, but, I hope, the championship will lift our boat.

No doubt there will be a few changes to the starting team as is the norm with Mayo over the last 15 or so years.

Just out of interest do any of ye know if extended panel members are available to play club league this weekend? Some really exciting games at club level this weekend. Ballina v Breaffy the stand out. Would have to back the county champions especially with Breaffy down O’Shea and Ruane. Great to have the club stuff back!!

Totally agree with you FourtyFive. Can't understand why some people continue to expend energy getting worked up about the team announcements.

Somebody mentioned soccer in the comments.
Perhaps squad numbers could be announced for the year (like in soccer) and these pen pics appear in programmes.
Announcement of team could then be done late. If that applied to all teams, it could work. Otherwise, team announcements are nonsense.

Is it really a good idea to have three players (thornton, coggins and akram) who have no experience at championship level and haven’t played a minute in the league on the bench. We seem to have such a small squad this year. I can’t understand managements thought process on it.

@Fourty five

There is an absolutely negligible level of advantage to doing this dummy team facade that Mayo insist with (along with Dublin).

Look at Galway's post for the panel vs New York. Not only do they name the full panel, they name the four standby players. For anyone who isnt aware, these standby players are the potential replacement players allowed to fill in if one of the named 26 are replaced. Only these players can replace people named in the 26.

Notably, they then also name the full extended panel. Shane Walsh is notably named on the extended panel, which means we know that he isnt in the Standby list, so he wont play in New York.

Mayo could easily name the standby list, but choose not to. Its a prerogative chosen by the Mayo management to show disdain for anyone who bothers to spend the four euro it costs to buy a program.

I refuse to believe that Mayo consistently get 2-4 injuries every Friday night at training that causes them to need to make all of these adjustments to the matchday squad. Its every week and it clearly doesnt give us any great edge.

Kerry dont mess about with this nonsense. Galway dont, Armagh dont. These teams have fared much better than us in recent years - maybe we could learn a thing or two from them.

Rant over from me.

I’d presume players not on the 26 will be released to clubs for tomorrow evening.they did last year so I presume this year no different

4 changes from last years Connaught final team ,3 in forwards.

I doubt if 4 standby players will be released to clubs but we don't know who they are. Fair play to Galway and to On The Fence for the info.
We are limited to discussion on the team but at least we can give opinions on what we would like Mayo to do tactically. And I think most posters are hoping to see exquisite long kick passing into our ff line, whoever they are.
I'm looking forward to Neary, if he starts, it is his first championship match, exciting day for himself and his family

A.N. Other was a great one on the programmes back in the day

Same sound byte as 2wks ago but still take it as good..

https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2025/04/04/two-key-mayo-gaa-stars-on-verge-of-returning-to-action-at-perfect-time/

The biggest impact of naming a dummy squad, for whatever reason, is the Match programme can be thrown in the bin. I would religiously buy them before a match, now your better checking Twitter for the actual team. Someone is losing money.
Hup Maigheo and fingers crossed Tommy C and P. Durcan is on the 4 replacements. ( Wishful thinking I know)

@OnTheFence, okay, but your view on whether or not there is a negligible competitive advantage is neither here nor there. The relevant factor is that McStay and many other managers clearly think there is some real advantage, and they act accordingly, which means requiring a team to be named midweek which can be changed before throw-in is a pointless exercise.

You say changing the named team shows disdain for anyone who bothers to spend the four euro it costs to buy a programme. What do you think the Mayo manager should prioritize, what he feels is the approach that puts his team in the best competitive position or adherence to a team sheet published days before the match because of the perception of disdain. I would certainly hope our manager would do whatever he thinks gives us the best chance of winning rather than being bound by the possibility of some minor annoyance to supporters because the programme isn't 100% accurate. Think of it another way, if there was some fan favourite player who the manager feels isn't up to a starting role anymore, should he do what he thinks is best for the team and not play him or bow to what the supporters want because he doesn't want there to be a perceived slight against them.

The practice of late changes to the named team has been commonplace for over 10 years. If a supporter thinks the value of a programme is completely diminished by changes to the printed team, they've had long enough to grasp that changes should be expected and happen almost every game, it's up to the supporters after that to decide if they think it's worth buying a programme.

Wasn’t it Michael Meehan that was the 16th man in the parade before the 2003 Connacht final.i haven’t bought a match program for years.strange discussion really

When we get the full panel , people are moaning about the stand by players not been named , come on boys n girls .

Has it been announced where the Connacht final will be this year??

It will be in Castlebar if we’re in it

@Mayo25: It's dependent on who qualifies for it.

If we were to make it and avoiding any major shocks, we'd be due a home tie in MacHale Park against either Galway or Roscommon.

Sean Burke, we will

Hard to believe since our 5 in a row that we have only won 2 Connacht titles in 9 years and only appeared in 3 finals

It's sobering alright, 1985. What's even more shocking is that more than ten years have passed since we last contested a Connacht final in Castlebar. The 2014 final - in an era when we used to beat Galway for fun - was the last one we played on home soil. Very changed times now.

It's crap that we haven't won a connacht in a few years.

Good to see reape not to badly injured but weather he will actually play is another thing.

I agree we should have given other goalies game time .

Philips was decent when he came on .

Won in castlebar then in 13 v London , was a gap then I think without going through the archives back to 06 (mort scored a free and Donnellan missed to equalise) then there’s a gap again if memory is correct maybe as far back as 96 , 97&99 was tuam (brilliant days oh my ) lost to them in 98 in castlebar Mac scored two hit the bar with another (wasn’t even a cf actually)

Anyway my point is there’s often a gap in lifting Nestor in castlebar . Another thing that amazes me how people don’t savour such moments .

Sean Burke, I'd blame the GAA for the apathy towards the Connacht and other provincial titles (bar maybe Ulster). Connacht finals used be end of the road territory, lose and it's the end of the road for that road. You can lose 3 times now I'm championship and still be in the mixing pot to win out.

We beat Roscommon in 2004 final as well

Yeah that’s possibly true gizz but probably a few factors that contribute to it , knockout element is gone a while and them days will never return , the jeopardy meant it was electrifying , we got very used to winning during the 5iar time and it became almost a nuisance that wasn’t even necessary by 16&17 . I’m a nostalgic fool/ hopeless romantic or whatever label ya choose but damn I miss them days of when it meant everything , crikey the occasion was magnificent. The first one I witnessed us win was in 85 (The Hyde )when today’s manager was a nippy corner forwards as they’d say then .

All that said Galway went wild last year in salthil when they piped us .

@Sean Burke yeah your right there. Would be great to win it in Castlebar in a packed house but of course we to get there first . I'd say there will be a big enough crowd at the game Sunday well hopefully a better atmosphere then at the final last weekend!

@Gizmobobs yeah thats true to the GAA is at fault for that .

Shairoze Akram, Dylan Thornton, Niall Coggins on bench, did anyone of them play a minute of league.

2-4 to 1-4 to Ros in this evening's U17 match 16 mins. Good fightback from 2-3 to 0-0 down after 8 minutes.

The 2006 Connacht final was won by a late Conor Mortimer free from a right angle at the Bavin Factory end…there was over 35,000 at the game (old stand days).

I laughed when they said MacHale Park was packed for the rugby game…it was not. You could see empty pockets. Health and safety reduced it to approx 27-28,000. That said I don’t think we will ever see Connacht finals again with 35k….

Ros 2-8 Mayo 2-5 HT. Ros had the wind in the first half, knocked over a few nice 2-pointers but shot six wides. Conor Hession 2-2 for Mayo.

Sounds like a top quality game.Not at the match or unable to watch it till later, how strong is the wind?

Fair play wj you're on top of everything. Any standouts, Holmes, O Cinsealla 2 big hopes in westport camp

WJ ...your probably more of a kick out strategist than me but if your mid fielders are getting cleaned like against Kerry and opposition pushing up on our kick outs .
What do you do ?
Stand in Reapes boots and options might be limited

Darragh Flanagan and Conor Hession (2-2) our standout players in the first half.

I'm not there so I can't comment on what the wind is like but Roscommon made decent use of it in the first half.

First three points of the second half for Roscommon, 2-11 to 2-5. Bit of a hill to climb for our lads now.

@ yew tree, full houses were probably the Galway glory years and tv coverage is so good theses days.
That said if we had a Ciaran McDonald on our team that would go toe to toe with Walsh, you'd want to be there.
Potential exciting players are Davitt Neary(hope he doesn't find himself on the bench by Sunday) and Eoghan McLaughlin (he's not starting or is he?)
@ 2 hops. I meant to get back to you. Yes straight to landfill would be appropriate, considering it rubbish. I'm sure we would be pardoned any disrespect to the environment.
Funny thing, the 2 players mentioned above are two that escaped instructions from the coaching fraternity

@ wj. Not the start we needed.. keep the updates coming, all not lost yet

Rossies sound like they are flying in fairness they usually always have good under age teams.

Maybe wishful thinking of me hoping for a packed house in McHale park if we do get there !

We haven't got going at all since the break. Midway through the half with the wind and we've just scored our first point since half-time. 2-12 to 2-6 now.

We're goosed now, Curran has just scored a brilliant solo goal for Ros. 3-13 to 2-6 now, no way back from this.

Minors getting a tanking , some very skilful Rosie players on show

Thanks wj. As they sa in Béal Feirste, sin sin.

This is turning into a proper paddling, another goal for Ros. 2-6 to 0-1 to Ros since half-time. 4-14 to 2-6 now, 51 mins.

Super goal by Dara Flanagan. Too little, too late but a great score all the same. 4-14 to 3-6 now, 55 mins.

FT 4-15 to 3-9, a late 2-pointer (our only one of the game) from Adam Kelly brought the margin back down to single figures.

These game swings happen at under age . It just means mayo have to at least beat Sligo to get to a semi final. After that anything can happen

Tonight's game just goes to show this age group is so unpredictable. I was quietly confident after last week but the young Rossies fully deserved the result tonight. Hard to justify increasing the stream cost from 10 to 12 euro in my humble opinion.

@My Ball. Reape should kick into empty spaces having sent signals only team mates knows. Thats what Cluxton does so well. Most schools/colleges kids also do this.
WJ. thanks for the platform space-Sean.

Money grabbing

It’s ridiculous the price of live streams . I won’t be purchasing anymore as much as I’d want to watch all county games but fook that , it’s a piss taker at that price

Better to throw a few euro each way in the grand national. Ridiculous for underage. There's no season ticket for theses games, is it mayo gaa making the money?

Connacht GAA

Well beaten no question Rossies up and coming .

Hard on our young ones but they will come again .

Agree the price going up like that ridiculous especially for underage as others have said.

12 euro isn't too bad, nearly pay that for 2 pints. You'd pay more to get into club games..jesus christ cribbing about 12 euro

I suspect there will be a few trolls incoming for Sunday

There could well be, 1985, but they'll meet the usual welcoming party! We have our own home-grown trolls too, of course, and they can be worse than any incoming ones.

Yes, there has been a lot of negativity and abrasiveness in the comments recently. It must be tough to police it all.
Give offenders a good lengthy ban!

Shocking that we haven’t seen the Sligo team and panel named yet. What do they think they’re at. We supporters have a right to know everything. Why has McStay named his entire panel giving away all those secrets. Not good enough at all at all

Sligo’s team was up on RTE last night - Sligo: Daniel Lyons; Evan Lyons, Eddie McGuinnes, Paul McNamara; Brian Cox, Nathan Mullen, Luke Towey; Canice Mulligan, Paddy O’Connor; Ross Doherty, David Quinn, Alan Reilly; Alan McLoughlin, Niall Murphy, Pat Spillane.

Darragh Cummins not named to start, apparently he has a quad injury. They have pace in half-back line and a strong looking full-forward line. Donnacha McHugh for Niall Murphy me thinks.

@ young fella. Only 2 coolera players and Cian Lally an absentee?

@ Ontheditch Club championship means very little when it comes to Sligo county teams. There were only 1 or 2 Tourlestrane players on the team for years while they dominated the county championship. But I’d agree Lally would seem to be worth his place. Don’t be surprised to see changes made to the selected 15, just like our own team.

All we need now is for Sligo to win tomorrow and that would surely put the cat amongst the pigeons, and let no-one think that couldn't happen.
Sligo will be well up for this one, they have some very good forward that will test our dodgy defences to the limit.
Our midfield was completely swamped last Sunday and the forwards were back to the usual slow build-up with very few kick passes going into the full forward line, and that's not to mention our kickout strategy where we don't seem to have any.
Only hope we were holding something back for tomorrow!!!

Thanks young fella for the update. Sligo very much under the radar, but it's great to have them back as a force in connacht.
I expect a bounce back reaction from the Mayo players. They took the wrap for last week's performance, tho McStay/ Rochford didn't escape the wrath of the media/GAA public either.
Just hope we get a completely different performance from Mayo, one that embraces the new rules and reaps reward from long kick passing in particular

For all the talk about how bad we were in the league final, we could have easily won it. If we didn’t concede that goal which was an unforced error and rod got the 2 pointer we would’ve been in the game. It was clear that kerry wanted it more. Wouldn’t read too much into the league final, felt more like a challenge game where mayo showed glimpses of greatness. I expect a statement win over sligo. Shouldn’t be underestimating them but we should still win.

If we didn’t concede a goal at the start of the 2006 2012 and 2017 finals we might have won as well

We didn't play that badly but can you ever say we looked like winning. Got down to 3 points and then couldn't turn the screw. Missed two easy scores.

Mcentee said couple yrs ago there's a good panel there in sligo and he will work away with them..the rule changes will even it up slightly, still you'd think mayo will beat them well or they'll have no business going any further. Spillane good rangy midfielder and if he plays well could cause problems. The thing is now, and I suppose it's always been there but now more evident. If you have 6 forwards who can score from 30 or 40 yards which inter county players should be able do, you are halfway there..and maybe 3 or 4 who can kick 2 pointers comfortably. Can we say in mayo we have that? I've my doubts. Rod, certainly yes, but one swallow doesn't make a summer. That's the problem, but we'll see.

Larry good point.. as well as ROD, we have lads who can score from range like Towey, Boland, McHale but we are "leaning" towards a midfielder heavy team. And their strengths are not really scoring (Flynn & Carney can hit them, but not guaranteed every day they go out). So I'd would propose that we have shooters, but we are not using them

I agree Rusty..would you also think over the last 10 yrs or so the skill and shooting has almost been coached out of them due to defensive style..it seemed the shooting suffered and the running and 14 behind the ball stuff was the reason...these development squads and the like, which personally I think are a shambles.

That could be said for a lot of county sides Larry. Spillane's famous "puke football" comment comes to mind, an emphasis on athleticism and endurance to the detriment of the basics. We'll see how Tally fares against one of its masterminds today in Donegal. Thankfully, the FRC might've put it to bed.

Thats what I'm saying optimist yeah, I think football in general suffered these last 10 or 12 yrs due to also what spillane would say as 'bluffers and spoofers infiltrating the game'. God knows it was awful stuff..some great mayo/dublin/kerry tussles from 2011 to 2017 but far and few between. Honestly the day you saw donegals full forward line in their full back line was the day it should have been stopped..10 yrs of it then, anyways..youre right with gavin and the frc finally sorting it, we hope..should lead to better spectacles.

Forgot to order the game on season ticket. Anything I can do now to get it added back as not showing online anymore

I can't speak for the development squads, but the coaching of our attacking play has been deplorable imo

@ Fourty Five

The practice of making changes to the squad has been around for years yes, and Horan was guilty of doing often, but every once in a while he would play the team he named. McStay/Rochford have this obsession with making 4-5 changes every day, including taking 2/3 lads off the named panel and replacing them.

If there was this great advantage to doing this, week after week, then what is it? Is there any example from the past 10-15 years of this craic being the difference maker between winning and losing? Lads tog out for the warmup an hour before the game, so there's nowhere to hide a fella who isnt named on the programme.

As for the programmes, I, like many others here, often purchased a programme for a keepsake and to follow along with who is playing/who scored what. You look around the stands at a game and there are dozens if not hundreds of people doing the same thing. At the moment, the programme isnt worth bothering with. The PA system in McHale Park is hard to hear on a good day, so spare a thought for people who are hard of hearing and havent a clue whats going on when they announce the subs.

Yes I can check Twitter/X for the changes, but plenty of people who support Mayo dont have social media, especially the elderly, so they're shit out of luck there. Fans have stopped coming to the games, and people wonder why?

If we play Galway, they know exactly who we have and they know them to look at. They'll plan for X Y and Z, so these dummy teams wont phase them. Same story with any serious intercounty team. This facade benefits nobody and hinders the fans.

That 'fan favourite player' example is moving the goalposts. We already saw last year that Cillian O'Connor had to make way as a sub, much to the dismay of the Mayo supporters. I'm sure McStay knew he would get loads of flack for doing this, but he did it anyway. Naming the 26 players that will feature on the day isnt too much to ask, is it? Then start 19 instead of 12, 22 instead of 14, whatever, but this craic of replacing Flynn with Dawson and starting Thornton in his place (and doing this every week!), its all over the place (nothing against any of those lads named obviously, just using an example from yesterday).