Well done Mattie. Outstanding contribution yesterday. Derrys best player was also a midfielder. Glass kicked some incredible points also. Thought Ryan o Donahue was excellent also. Himself and Mattie struggled in early part of league but are playing well now. We will need them at their best later in year

That poll fair enough, need Mattie at 2021 level, and more with him. Not pushed about league final

Brilliant performance from Mattie yesterday he was excellent not afraid to go and take his scores when they came his way

Form v Class. Good man Mattie. Well done. Great to see him back to his best.

When Mattie breaks past a player now he finds a pocket of space to shoot. Under the old rules that was much less possible.

Willie Joe, I’m sure you have explained this a hundred times but I’m wondering how does Mattie get 40% and Ryan only gets 20%. I presume we all had Mattie and Ryan in our top three. Does this mean that some people didn’t have Ryan in their top three or does it depend on which player one gives the first tick to? For instance I might have Mattie as my number one but he could be the third box I’d tick? Just curious

Everyone has three votes, Boleyboy, but they are in effect three no.1s. Some obviously spread the love around so, for the most recent vote, more would have included Mattie in their top three than they did Ryan. From memory, 40% is a very high vote and I think everyone knew the likely outcome of this poll before I put it up.

Boleyboy. Great question and how 60% didn't have Mattie in the top 3 and 81% didn't have Ryan in the top 3 makes one wonder. At least voters got the top three right by hook or by crook. What amazes me is every week 30 to 40 votes go to players that had very poor games and this week is no exception. Are posters just trying to wind others up.

Impressed by how willing Ryan was to take shots on. On another day he’d have 2 or 3 additional to an already impressive tally. Marty was Mom but not much in it.

On another note Claremorris lads came up well short against a better team. Opponents no 13 gave a masterclass in playmaking. Dara Byrne a standout we’d expect to play for Mayo and Rio Mortimer would have contributed more if positioned at CHB. They seemed over coached in that despite being several points down for most of the game persisted with zonal marking allowing opponents to eat up the clock. Would have been better off taking more risks. Might be the same outcome but at least they’d bag more scores. Also taking a lot of wrong decisions in attack not finding the man in the best position. For one of those Byrne had a wide open goal if the pass came. Youngsters will always make more mistakes but as the game went on one team was doing more of the right things than the other.

The Player of the Match poll is far from a scientific barometer. To give but one example from the last one, Paul Towey (who came on in injury time and I don't think touched the ball) got almost the same number of votes as David McBrien and more than Jack Carney and a number of others who played most of the game. Not having a go at Paul (who was only brought on at the end) but it's hard to figure any logic from that kind of voting.

@Boleyboy: Possibly worth remembering that while you can vote for up to 3, you don't have to.

Without looking at any numbers I could well imagine a few voters putting Mattie at #1 & not putting a #2 or #3. Could help explain the quite larger gap than you might have expected (context: I did vote for both, but if just picking 1 it would have been Mattie).

I wasn't aware one could go down the ballot. Every day's a school day.

Thank you Willie Joe which just proves my point how 30 voters can vote for players that had poor games every week. Maybe some just do the same players like lotto numbers every week

@ Ever the optimist , very true, I will be checking the next poll with interest, had no idea.

I suppose the votes for players who came on late/hardly touched the ball can be explained by the size of family they have....a bit like your local election candidate....you know he's useless but he's you're local useless so you give him a sympathy vote,just to make him feel better.

Well done to Mattie, he is becoming a real leader in the team! Overall what I really liked in team on Sunday was the way we kept trying to score even when a good few went astray. Some Mayo teams in the past would have lost their nerve at that point and stopped trying when scores didn't work out. Like that lack of fear in this team!

Mattie can score of either foot, as he proved on Sunday, surely makes him worth a try at 11?
Well deserved man of the match accolade, his game is in fine fettle going into championship

Donegal game live on tg4 YouTube along with all the div1
And 2 games not on tv.this is a brilliant addition by tg4??

@Cp: Yeah. That's absolutely fantastic news!

Less an 'addition' by TG4 and more a shift from HQ on their usual caps. The streaming/TV coverage can only show what they have permission for (the argument around only so much screen time is dead and buried with modern streaming options) and the GAA simply don't (or didn't) allow scope for more league games to be covered in recent years (a key reason why Sky walked away), normally.

Hopefully positive signs for the potential of GAA+ going forward from seeing this move.

RTE have an 8 game package split between football (5) & hurling (3), while TG4 have a 20 football game package (including the 4 divisional finals) & another 6 games split between the 2 (didn't keep track on how they used that split - I'd guess 4/2 in favour of football or 3/3).

Seeing these extra 7 games added to TG4's selections is a huge (& massively positive) shift from their norm. Exciting times (especially with plenty of exciting games)

ya saw that too CP - looks like all Division 1 and 2 games are being streamed on youtube on Sunday.

Great if I'm not able to attend. Willie Joe - did you hear this, could any of your media avenues confirm?

If the management could only step up to the plate. We could have a real preview if they would name starting team plus bench by Thursday evening. Don't know how sports media tolerate it.

Re the poll. Most spectators and certainly this blog administrators know the top 5 or 6 after every game so maybe just give an option of those in genuine contention. As for the votes for lads who really had no input they will still garner votes from their club fans.
I was in Croke Park yesterday and rewatched the Hogan final this morning. It really was like watching a professional outfit against amateurs, on the pitch obviously but even on the sideline they're miles ahead. St.Pats have won 6 now and been involved in so many semi finals and finals that the accumulated knowledge put them in a great position. Certainly they were conditioned to a much higher lever than the Colman's lads and it showed. Basically they knew what was needed to win and the Claremorris school were newbies. No disgrace in that.
Finally, not sure who said it but yesterday's game was a great advertisement for the new rules.

Great point InExile.......I hope that shooting courage and determination is a feature of our lads' games from now on......irrespective of a few wides.

Absolutely MartyK, lets hope they keep it up. Winning the kick out or ball back is also a key part of that however. You wont be afraid to shoot and miss if you know you at least have a 50% chance of winning the kick out or turning over the ball and they were good at that as well on Sunday.

Hello All,

Boyle sports Betting is very encouraging for Mayo next Sunday. Ciaran 2.

Some people still whinging about management not naming team or not naming subs or making changes on match day etc. First of all they have every right to do what they wish but more importantly they have to name a starting 15 for programme and other reasons . They might even have a team get together after the starting team is named. They may have injuries, unavailability of players, guys awaiting fitness tests etc The management are closest to the team and know who / what is required . In the Premier League with smaller panels and very high medical expertise they name their match day panel one hour before the game

Agree to win just once i think people are being very dramatic about the subs not being named. It is annoying yes but people calling it a disgrace is a bit over the top in my opinion

I think it is a shame that county managers in general are not more open.
Naming county panels and full team lists should be the norm.
I see there is a proposal to reduce the holiday funding for all Ireland finalists that do not do adequate press appearances before the finals.

It's annoying, but the managers prerogative, even if nothing to be gained by it.
County Board should stop the sales of programmes on environmental grounds of nothing else though on basis they not worth paper they written on.

- Mattie continued his excellent league form and deservedly won MOM.
- We steadied well after a shakey start where Derry cut through our backs with ease
- We really were cruising at 10 points up with 15 mins to go but rallied well again after Derry got their 3 two pointers.
- The workrate of Mattie, Aido and Stephen must be commended.
- Talking to Derry folks at half time and they are seriously worried about what Donegal could do to them in the first round of the championship.
- Such a pity we had not guaranteed Division 1 status last Sunday as it would have allowed us to rest key players this weekend and we could have ran the bench. Now we need to get a point from it.
- Likely we will retain Div 1 status and if we make the final so be it.

Well done Mattie on a fine performance certainly man of the match

Just reading online there the amount of potential outcomes from next Sundays games is crazy, that's assuming that every team is going to go out to win. If either of Dublin or Galway lose and we win we are in a league final?

@Pullhard: Yup.

(Best breakdown I've seen on it: https://www.irishnews.com/gaa/team-by-team-permutations-ahead-of-final-day-in-division-one-MZU4LWTNTVGJXDH3K7KJFZ4ZCI/)