Honestly, I've gone beyond being tired of them. Amazing how at no point today did I think they'd actually close out that game. I just knew they wouldn't finish the job. And that's not me being defeatist, it's just seeing the pattern of behaviour over the last couple of years, where they have demonstrated again and again a total lack of composure and presence of mind required to win big games.

I think the current managemnt team has brought us as far as they can. We need a fresh voices in the dressing room and a new plan. The reality is we could well have beaten Galway today although they were without Walsh and Comer. Theres huge spirit and talent in this group I dont think management are capable of getting a winning tune out of them

The key feature of McStay’s tenure is an inability to win tight games and so it happened again today.
Bottom line is with 15 minutes to go we should have seen it out but we kicked 3 bad wides and Reape gave us one of his kick out errors.

Put simply we lacked the composure and quality up front to win the match…Galway found a way and we didn’t.

Last real match of consequence we won was Dublin in 2021..and only 2 Connachts in 10 years.

Look at the way Galway celebrated!

Give McStay his P45 and bring back Horan- at least he’ll give us a bit of steel!

@Glorydars 100% agree.

Blew it !! Yes we missed chances.
I for one are proud of the lads efforts, we never took a backwards step .
Also thought we got our tactics spot on considering we don't have the midfield ball winners Galway have .
This blog is soo negative and pretty obvious by the tone set by yourself WJ.
Thought our lads played brilliantly at times today .
Ref didn't help either

We need Andy Moran as the next manager

Have to agree with the call to take off Davitt Neary. He has the potential to be a great player but a lot to learn at this level. Runs into players and gave away possession too many times. Right call but wrong player brought on as replacement, should have been Boland. Game crying out for some Mayo scores at that stage as we were kicking terrible wides.

@James Fleming, we need him at corner forward.

Sickened by that tbh. Galway better in the end

But we had it in our hands same time

Positives we showed some fight & spirit and mattie ruanne bit better form.

Bring back Horan? Christ.
We need to pull out all the stops to get Tony McEntee. Get Andy in on that ticket for his positivity and positive play.
Those that have tried and failed on umpteen occasions do not deserve another chance.
We've got an excellent crop coming through but that won't matter unless there are some fresh management to bring them on.

Spotlight....Bring back Horan. What a comment, we couldnt wait to get rid of the man in his last tenure, he only played "horanball" and we needed a tacticin. will we ever learn. A revolving door of Mayo managers leaving and returning is not a plan. After this management's time is up. We need to bring a manager from outside the county with experience of winning a senior intercounty title as a manager or at least as a player. When the pressure comes on in the tight games we can't see it through. Today's game, Derry last year, Dublin in the group stages when we were a point up in injury time and a draw would have seen us top the group, it's a constant pattern.

The decisions on the sideline today were crazy.

1) How did Rory Brickenden justify a starting position given he has played next to no football since February?

2) Why was our second highest scorer (McHale) taken off when we needed scores?

3) Why was Davitt Neary taken off, as he was clearly one of our best players on the day?

4) in the home straight why didn’t they look for a bit of experience to come in off the bench with Paddy Durcan? If he was fit to be on the bench he was fit for 10 minutes of game time. He would have lifted the crowd too. Galway took that gamble brining in Peter Cooke.

It’s beyond excusable the decisions that were made today.

This mayo team is way worse off than the team Horan left McStay. Absolutely no composure or structure to our play. No new players (other than Neary) found or developed.

I’d like to think we will be searching for a new manager this summer. The reality is that Horan probably wouldn’t be the worst option but he has already had 2 bites at the cherry.

I personally think we need some club managers that are constantly looking at different players week in week out to find new talent. Names like Heffernin, Dempsey, Deane have to be involved in a new management team, either as manager or selectors. We need a complete rebuild and knowledge of the club game is vital now. Because our current management team have made next to no effort to find new talent.

Btw, I hate to say this but fair play to Galway. Showed real character when needed today. And unfortunately too it’s down to the character of their manager and backroom team. Joyce hates losing and hates mayo even more. He wants to win. And that passion was in his team again today despite all their injuries. Hopefully we can develop that toughness with a fresh voice soon.

Really angry now tonight. I'm sick of us blowing these games that are there to be won. We have no composure and seem to consistently make stupid mistakes.

At 44 minutes we had scored 1-11. How in the name of god we only managed another 4 points in 26 minutes of football with that wind is just beyond belief. We had so many chances as well.

I want to have a go at the management but I just can't tonight - the players blew that. The reality is that this current Mayo team aren't good enough and all, bar a few, come from our weakest decade at underage in living memory. They aren't good enough and its time to move on from them.

Constant talk on here of giving lads chances, well plenty of them got a chance today in that second half and showed what they're capable of

Fair play to Galway though. Must be a great feeling to have some match winners in your team.

Galway are a stronger team than us right now. They had resilience and got stuck in again and again in the second half denying us chances we created. They were scrapping and on top of us aggressively all through the game. Maybe that extra cushion of quality and resilience is what won the game for them when Mayo had created a platform to win.
We had them but they were able to hold out.
It’s dreadfully disappointing. We had a few small errors but they had a tiny bit more in reserve.
This is to say we were warriors. I just wish we could have got that little bit more to have the joy of a win.
On the previous thread, I’m amazed to see some posters taking heart from today’s game. I just felt so disappointed. But because some people are feeling hope, I’ll allow myself to think there might be a little bit of sense somewhere in that.
Davitt Neary is some player. DOC looked good there today. Ryan has nerve. Mattie made a good score. Enda showed some ability there today.
It’s scrappy pickings. Maybe there’s something more there. It’s hard to see it right now but maybe we have some more performances to enjoy yet.

Celebrating like they won the Ireland in our home ground my God..

But honestly not all bad as much as it hurts today ..was never a penalty

I'm just glad our guys showed some fight in the end.

What ifs and what might have been.

Mayo black card on 62 mins level 1-14 each at the time.

Galway scored the free and another point from Conroy soon after to make it 1-16 to 1-14

65 minutes Mayo's best forward O'Donogue with the strong wind at his back had the opportunity to tie up the game, he kicked the ball into Gleeson hands.

66.24 mins Goal chance for Mayo for Hession and saved (did score the 45 to make it a one score game

68.21 Point effort for Mayo to level up the game blocked down by Dylan McHugh

68.47 Galway point on the turnover from that block

After the hooter a two pointer from play effort for unmarked Ruane and kicked wide.

Same old failings time and again...sickened.

Got in a position to win it, no walsh/comer, maher gone off the field. Really good 3rd quarter and drawn level with loads of time to play there should only have been one winner, but from then on lost all sense of composure and quality.

Dependence on ROD as strong as ever and tbf he was my motm today, with good showings from neary,hession and mchale too.

Reape is dropping a costly clanger most games now, the black was all on him not brickenden.

Plenty of heart but when there's so many close defeats it's not unlucky, it's a trend. No composure or quality, especially up front. Where would we be without ROD putting us up on his back, our numbers 13 and 14 failed to kick a score between them. Non scoring forwards won't get you too far in these new rules

Pi$$ed off. Massive opportunity blown

@Dave Johnston- Mcstay won an AI club title with St Brigids ..but he has done nothing for us. Henry Shefflin won plenty as a player..but didn’t pull up any trees with Galway hurlers.

Each to their own opinion but I believe Horan would give us a bit of steel and conviction. Having said that, McEntee would be a good option also.

I’d like to think we could all agree that a new broom is required…as to who it should be is hard to know but suggesting Horan is not that silly in my view.

@Clare - give it a rest.

We'd have gone mad if we won. They've just won 4 Connacht titles in a row for the first time since the 1960s. They brought a huge crowd up and deserve to celebrate it.

We had them and as WJ said, we blew it.

We had the breaks, even some decisions, the wind, and from my perch on the sideline, the crowd. Galway lead wiped out, and it looked like we said, ‘what do we do now’? Bad decision making a lot of the time - the crazy attempt by Aidan to go for a point from a sideline ball, Ryan’s soft free into the keeper’s hands, Enda Hession’s failure to kick when he had a real chance in the first half; execution- Paul Towey’s two bad wides.

Another close game thrown away.
It was there for the taking and we couldn't take it.
The same problems are still there and until we fix them we are going to be close but no cigar every time.

No left footed free taker/scorer - its a twenty year old problem and anyone who is coaching in Mayo needs to teach their forwards how to kick a score with their left foot.

Under the new rules, you need to be scoring over 20 points a game to win and we haven't done that all season.

Also, the dog on the street knew Paul Conroy would've shooting for twos with the wind behind him. How was he given that sort of space? Especially with refs having. Clamped down on steps in the last two weeks. Pressing thean in possession nearly always resulted in an overcarrying free today. Never saw anyone try to tackle Conroy though

Reapes stands over the kick out, waits for the runners to run. Then starts his run up, giving the opposition the chance to cover the he run.
He needs to be sharper as he is killing the team by not being ready

We whittled away the Galway 8 point lead with ease, but it was Galway that dug deepest, against the wind.
Serious problems winning long kickouts and taken two pointers but the old failing of winning games that are there for us. Mental toughness raises its ugly head and that's the sorest points.
Some tasty league games to follow for us. It will be a great achievement to reach quarter finals..
Paddy Durcan looked good in warm up, Eoghan McLaughlin (quad injury) could well be back for later stages. Our season is not over but the candle is all but burned out for the current management.

@unstopable what did I say that was so wrong there?

Not saying anything that everyone else didn't say already sure for feck sake I'd not saying on this blog.

Didn't say they didn't deserve their win did I?!

Much as I can't stand them I've no bother with Galway celebrating as they did.

Our backs as a unit did fine up to Reapes blunder.
Can't blame Brickenden, McHugh had a fine game
Not clinical enough up front, ref should not have given the penalty but was kind to us in the second half.
Galway a fine team.

Small margins but all known in advance, it felt that Galway won the midfield battle. This caused us to go short, got caught and lost Brickenden for the last 10 minutes. This was key. Our lack of scoring forwards was reinforced again, to be fair the players worked hard but just not enough guile.

Tyrone away is the key game, will we take some chances or throw the dice again with the same players, ultimately this is likely to be the management's last year so why not gamble but not sure that this will happen.

We need the u20's forwards fire power. Foward line too passive. McStay bring in these lads and give them game time. We cannot wait for development squads, otherwise you'll be gone come August.

I'm not sure why many people are surprised that Mayo lost today.
I think Mayo did very well, defenders very good in that close in tackling.
A weird game all round.
Galways men around the middle swung it for them in the closing minutes.
I don't see Galway winning the All Ireland this year without a fully fit Walsh and Comer.
The Dubs with their full contingent could beat them in Salthill.
That old failing came home to roost again today, no left footed shooter coming in from the right wing and for a few frees also.
Why on Earth was Durcan listed in the subs and not brought into the game.

Yet again we blew it. To many soft wides and it was harder for Hession to miss than score his goal chance. Goalkeeper is the most important position on a pitch nowadays and how for the life of me Reape is still our keeper I will never know. You are just waiting for him to implode and he never disappoints.

Shit the togs AGAIN when we had overturned a huge deficit, in 10 or 15 minutes. At half time, I feared the worst. 10 mins onto 2nd half, I thought we would win pulling up. Sums up this Mayo team perfectly..

We don't have the composure to kill a game off. We don't have the want to kill a game off. We drop our intensity when we get back in a game, forgetting our only real reason for getting back is by going for it. Management & players are both at fault.

But why of why do we keep making the same mistakes over & over again. You do not kick short to the edge of the arc. No one else does it unless there is no press. The Galway players can intercept the ball before it gets outside the d. We have to wait until it clears the arc. Ridiculous that we did it again when it completely destroyed us in league final.

A blind man would have said you target Conroy. What did we do? Gave him freedom of the park.
Brickendon hadn't played in 3 months or thereabouts. That decision to start him was crazy

Not one comment on O sheas performance?

You'll be waiting a long time Larry David....

He was very poor today, its all well and good turning in motm performances against sligo and the like but ultimately we need to see him impacting games v the top 8 opposition and too often he just doesn't.

He's a great lad and puts in a shift but with these new rules especially your full forward just has to be scoring, a few hand pass assists just won't cut it

As for that sideline attempt from him, jesus wept, you expect better game management and composure from your most seasoned player.

The ref was fine
We beat ourselves
Some inexplicable selections and substitutions didn’t help in a game that was won by one score

I’ve finally given up on McStay

Galway must feel they got out of jail today. Same old indecisive stuttering shit in front of the posts. Neilan was, as someone else said, generous in the second half. There's not much else to be said except Mayo will probably get out of that group, but past a quarter, I'm doubtful.

Just home and i am livid. Not one ball hoofed into the square in the second half with the wind. Rockford now 6 attempts in failure to win connacht.

Substitutions brutal today. Haemorrhaging at midfield, Diarmuid taken off, and selected midfielder, Dylan Thornton, who can win ball is left on the sideline.

O Shea was the best Mayo player today,,, Galway switched his marker three time during the game

Reape should be told by management ''No short kick outs''

Bottom line is we’re too reliant on O Donoghue. Need a couple of u20s now to feed through. Think Mc stay has Brought us as far as he can . Time to freshen up
the whole set up

Id absolutely be bringing in a couple of those mayo u20 inside forwards as soon as their campaign ends, absolutely no reason not to. RoD needs help from somewhere and Towey failed his audition today, Boland is alright but he's not the answer either.

Darragh beirne in particular would be very close to seeing action, with hurley and lydon worthy of being in the squad at least.

Tyrone and donegal happy enough to promote roarty and eoin mcelholm ,if you're good enough you're old enough

Some people on here love to get an old passive aggressive dig in at Aido when we lose. At least he has the ability to bring physicality, win ball, tackle and lay it off...a lot more than some others offered today. If we had 6 scoring forwards we'd have multiple All Irelands at this stage, bit rich laying the blame at his door.

PJ was right with that he said before the match - it all came down to composure under pressure.

We just don't have it and it seems have learned nothing from the Galway, Dublin and Derry matches last year. From the 44th minute onwards, we scored four points...We completely misfired when the game was on the line. Even the Ruane shot at the end was a 1 in 4 chance at best.

Too many bad decisions against a team with match winners.

I don’t believe it was a black card but that was the decisive event at a decisive time in the game.

I'd leave the u-20s where they are till there's a change of management ...this management team would ruin them.

Clare...
I brought my kids out on to the pitch to celebrate, it was a great game and 4 in a row is a great achievement..
You probably want all Galway people to leave straight away and don't celebrate...
Happy out tonight here and a great family day out..

Bringing back Horan? What's that definition of insanity again? Giving Horan another go is equally as bad as giving this management another year.
Everything needs to be done to bring in a manager who has got a team over line.

2 hopa i fully agree with you

should be 2 hops

Jordan Flynn has some tank of energy but he must have one of the worst shot-to-score ratios of any player averaging 2+ shots a game. I know some Galway supporters who even noticed this before today yet we seem oblivious to it. At least 7 wides between him and Towey today alone. That kind of wastefulness gets you nowhere.

@Tuamstar ah here that's not what I said at all.

I'm always glad to see the little ones out on the pitch to celebrate and you were the better team end if the day. .we lost it ourselves but that was never a penalty .

It's sickening to see Galway win 4 in a row on our home pitch I won't deny that . But ye did celebrate like you won all Ireland we probably would have to but also we would have got ah that's our all Ireland.

Course ye can celebrate I never once said I want Galway ones to leave straight away and not celebrate don't put words in my mouth .

@Tuamstar you are dead right to celebrate today with your family as we have done when we won connacht finals in Pearse Stadium and please God we will again if we won today we would have gone mad too so no complaints

@Glorydays they are right to celebrate never said otherwise we would have to . I'm just saying if we did that everyone would say that's our all Ireland ..

Five players scored out of the 19 used and one of the five was our goalkeeper. That is a simply shocking stat.

But sure look lets keep picking tall lads who don't score. And even when we picked tall lads, we still got cleaned around the middle.

I wouldn't even blame Reape for the black card kickout. At that stage we were losing everything around the middle - he was probably thinking that there was no way he could go long again.

No passive aggressive digs at Aido at all..just call it as ya see it..he was terrible tday..lost first 3 balls that went into him..pulled for steps, gave away 2 more and woeful effort at sideline with wind behind him..needs to step up as supermac said there...when it MATTERS

Thought we’d win until the mistake. We had momentum and then it swung. While I agree we had it for the winning some of the moaning here drives me nuts . As for parachuting U20s in, stop the daftness. Only 1 or 2 could thrive without at least league experience. And whoever was the first person to use the phrase “Jesus wept” on here should be banned for giving others the excuse to use it. We have an uphill battle yes, and maybe need new management but at least wait until the bloody season is over first when their contract ends. They’ve still a few games to turn it around as Armagh did last year after a previous problem closing games. We’re not in the group of death and the reality is any team playing a last 12 game the week before a QF has about an 80% chance of losing. So get ourselves right for the next game and try to win it and gain some momentum and support the team. Plenty to improve upon but within a few points of one of the 2/3 favourites.. (they saved a 2 pointer from what looked like behind the crossbar so would’ve been a 1 point deficit to chase for the last kick had that been correctly awarded). That said some of the wides weren’t too hard to score. Pressure points. Supporting the team also means supporting management (not blindly but let’s see if they can deliver now under pressure). Sink or swim. Three games to prove ourselves.

Why don't you call it as you see it against a few others while you are at it Larry?...As for Supermac I've never heard him say one good thing about the man no matter what he does...And if you want to talk about Jesus weeping over frees I suggest he wept more over the two pointer our designated free kick taker kicked short which he should be kicked all day long...

I don't make many comments & I usually make a point of avoiding the blog after a defeat due to the guff spouted by so many here...and the guff has continued after this game. Maybe others will consider this guff, but the only reason we lost that game was a poor kick-out by our keeper which resulted in a black card for Brickenden...the last 10 minutes with 14 men & a handy point for Galway killed us...

It's seems like We will never learn from past and current our mistakes.
Not scoring for 30 ish minutes will Win nothing .
It's very sad for the Many many who have supported Mayo for decades and surely at this stage The Players as well.

Final Whistle pod is up now on Patreon.

Should Mayo have got a 2 pointer the ball was definitely over the bar before the Galway goalie palmed it

Three things I’d like to add:
1. Much improved performance on the whole than what we had seen in the league final and first two rounds of Connacht against real All Ireland contenders. We’re not a million miles away but major time and work needs to be invested in our kickout strategy.
2. Kieran Molloy should be sanctioned retrospectively for throwing Jack Coyne over his shoulder into the hoardings.
3. Reape needs to stop using a kicking tee on kickouts when playing against the breeze. This elevates the ball trajectory and lets the wind have more of an impact which was very evident in the first half. Then he steps up to kick a free into the wind and while it went wide, he had significantly more distance on it at a lower trajectory than his kickout because of no kicking tee.

Mayo though always not out of the game, 8 down at half time was by no means unsurmountable as they proved levelling it up by 50 minute mark. However even when level thats when they lost all composure. Think Reape should have stuck with long kick outs for second half as far as he could send them. Even though we werent winning them ,they werent getting clean possession either. The short one he messed up was the turning point against us. But all considered I for one thought we could have lost by more before throw in Joyce cant be that happy with their performance either

I've no issue with galway or anyone else celebrating a win. Good days in sport should be enjoyed or what's the point. I do have an issue with the double standards though. Mayo won 5 Connacht titles in a row and two league finals in the last few years and the level of vitriol sent our way for a bit of celebrating was a bit much. A lot of this criticism came from the direction of galway. I've long been convinced that we could actually win the All-Ireland and still be told off for celebrating too much.
Neilan was a joke but I knew that a rossie was never going to give us much. Improved a bit in the second half but certainly didn't 'give Mayo everything' as some posters have claimed. The penalty call was ridiculous, the two pointer was over the bar before it was touched, mcbrien taken out, I could go on.
Can't fault Mattie for taking the shot, we'd still be there if he hadn't. Ryan and boland both bottled it from better positions. Towey and Boland offer feck all, how long will we persist with them?
I echo the poster who misses Cillian. It's absolutely ludicrous that he isn't on the team. New rules made for him but he's spent the last two years sitting on the bench watching comparatively poor players starting or being put on ahead of him. He obviously has too much self respect to sign up for a third year of that nonsense. I don't understand why the whole county wasn't up in arms about all the 'opt outs' especially when something similar has been happening with the ladies team. I wonder what the common denominator could be...

Mayo were great hosts and provided a beautiful setting for the 4 in a row. After the game, my young boy was practicing left footed point kicking coming in from the right - just like Rob. Seeing as the weather is so fine, we've decided to camp overnight and sample the native hospitality. As Clare said Mayo is just beautiful this time of year.

To be honest, a vast majority on here predicted we would be bet out the gate. Verdict? Ye were wrong. We had 2 great goal chances 2nd half, 3 or 4 missed shots, especially after the hard graft of reeling them in. We definitely lacked composure, mcbrien was a big loss. We certainly matched galway physically, especially in 2nd half. 10/15 minutes into the second half it was looking like the 1-3 scored in first half wasn't as bad as it looked at half time, galway kept to a point or 2..there are positives to our performance today. Reape really needs to cut out the one or 2 brainfarts per game. Although, the defender certainly didn't help him either. Looking at Galway, yes they are good, well conditioned and further down the development track than mayo. BUT I WILL SAY THIS RIGHT NOW, THERE ISN'T AN ALL-IRELAND IN THEM. This statement isnt begrudgingly stated either. Although for certain, I don't want to see them win it either. I just wasn't impressed with them today. They gave us 3 great goal chances today, we took 1 of them. They aren't as good as the media hype them up to be. A supposed to be an average mayo team who are supposed to be badly managed quite nearly bet them today.

@charlie
as you said this is the time of year that is beautiful in mayo did I ? Don't remember saying that myself ha.

Congrats on the win . You were the better team end of the day .

We made silly mistakes and management made some bad mistakes also.

But glad our guys showed some fight & passion at least .

I would be bringing in Niall Hurley to our bench after the u20s. We can use the usual reasons why not to:
SnC - bench role, he's quicker and stronger than some that featured today
Experience - What even is experience? A valid point if we're an experienced team of forwards that win big games we don't.
Lack of league games - Who cares?
We can't be giving oceans of game time to players that fluff their lines in big games with scores open for them.

Galway have a problem at FB but were smart to change him.
He was a big problem last year against Armagh

I don't think Galway , with or without Walsh and Comer will win it..a final appearance again, perhaps but just can't look past the northies..they will relish getting into croker. Just watching Cora and Whelan on Sunday Game, no one to take the game by the scruff, no composure etc..where does it leave Mcstay now?

Tough tough day. Too many errors when we desperately needed someone to step up. Aido and Flynn had bad days at the office, this was the time we needed 8-8.5 out them and they got lost. I have never been in the Towey brigade, but I did always think he needed a chance. Today he got it, and it doesn’t warrant another. I have seen a few posts but I am airing it out as well…..How Paddy Durcan could be named in the 26 and not be out there for 10 mins is beyond belief???If he was fully fit, it’s a sin. “That” kickout is going to keep me up tonight, and I fear Reape will be picking up the ball from the back of the net on the next one. We needed this one today, and we didn’t make it happen. Still Up Mayo wherever you go though.

Conroy is just quality off both pegs..outstanding baller for 36...Jack Carney..woeful today aswell. Not just o shea. 4 scorers someone said above from 19 players who were used...including keeper....chronic stuff

JP experience is what the management team sold themselves on. So make of it what you will.

I don't see the black card being the killer, it was death by a thousand cuts. The number of turnovers, wild shots not under pressure in second half, balls dropped short, running into traffic, not being able field a ball or read a break etc. Brickenden was naturally rusty and got turned over few times early doors, being out so long that's only natural, was bizarre starting him.

If Durcan and Thornton weren't fit enough to play why have them on the bench?

Frank Irwin I thought would have suited with the wind in second half as a good free taker.

But overall a brave effort by the players they gave it a rattle.

The difference today i feel was Galway
had more firepower up front & the Ref
certainly done Mayo no favours He gave
Galway a penalty for what should have been
a free out ,

I'd say it was 90% likelihood Mayo would win until the black card. It was a huge moment, being down a man is enormous with the new rules. Even then it brought it back to 50/50 in my view, given the wind, and Mayo had enough chances to get ET at least. The Hession goal chance was an absolute sitter.

I understand the logic of wanting to go short when playing with the wind against an opponent with a strong midfield. In that scenario, having as many shots as possible will win you the game, so you maximize possessions by going short and avoid the lottery of the breaking ball. That's the logic and it makes sense, but the execution by the keeper has to be perfect and you have to be certain the pass is definitely on, and it wasn't on to Brickenden.

After watching highlights on SG it just confirms what we thought at the time...what the hell was the logic to taking Mc Hale and Neary off?
It has me stumped . Also the space offered to Conroy to stroke over from outside was criminal...as someone said it wasn't as though we weren't warned. Why wasn't someone assigned to park on his boot at all stages. Mc Hugh would have done that job perfectly imo.

I didn't even see this match so really I've no right to comment. Yet, some things stick out from reports: we got no score from our substitutes.
We wasted the league and early championship matches ignoring the new rules and without attempting 2-pointers.
We need Cillian now, our second highest scorer last year even though he got little time. Why can Jack Carney play on the same team as Aidan, yet it seems Cillian can't. Our second greatest asset is watching from the stand. Please bring him back.

I don't know if you can blame management on this one

When we start to kick stupid wides in final quarter. Paul Towey who I rate, really bad wides, one 20m out, straight in front of goal. Wind at his back. They got an very soft penalty.
I would have some sympathy for reape, if he kick long, we're not good enough to catch it. So no option to kick it short even with the breeze. He land a couple on top of AOS, but could have been 4 galway guys around him.
Hurts, as Mayo man living in Galway. Can we win group, yes, but have to be better shooting when it matters.

ROD made no attempt to take on a shot at the end when we needed a 2pointer. He is our Clifford, the man we need coming off the shoulder taking on that pressure shot. For most of the game he dropped deep, playing a quarterback role, except for after halftime when he went inside, and we had our best spell. He took on a silly 2 point attempt when he was being closed down by 3 galway players, not long after scoring a massive 2pointer when it was on. I feel his decision making has dropped this year. He is still scoring massively and we really need him, but from play, he has been doing headless things. Is it just me thay sees it because i don't see anyone else mentioning it ? I know we would be lost without him.

@mayotillidie - I think management have to take blame. Like last season we can’t win the winnable games

If Ryan’s two pointer wasn’t downgraded to a one pointer (which it shouldn’t have been) I think we could of brought it to extra time and come out on top because it’s very different setting up a one pointer then a two pointer.But there’s no point dwelling on the past what’s done is done, the media will probably give the Ulster champ and Tyrone the upper hand against us but no doubt the underdog tag suits us , hope morale isn’t to low in the camp after that because the talent is there we just have to learn to close out tight games , Armagh have had the same struggle the last few years with games they should of won going to penalties etc and once they overcame that look where they ended up. All hope is not lost!

[Deleted].

Fair play to Matthew Ruane for having the balls to go for that last kick no one else showed their hand for it

We definitely blew it, its hard coming back to the same old ding dong. We were told for months that this was the game Mayo were aiming for, and yet we couldn't cut it. That was a Galway team in the second half (without Comer and Walsh) at 6s and 7s and the opportunity was there to push on for the nestor. Bad wides, no composure. We can say we don't have the forwards, but fuck me they were kickable scores. They are good footballers, but its such disjointed outfit. They failed at landing Connacht, management needed that win today.

Travelling Wilbury - take a hike, like a good lad. If you think I'm going to take that kind of gip from you on a day like this you have another thing coming.

I'd echo that Girls Aloud. Give me Ruane any day taking it on instead of others passing the buck. Far too many are unwilling to take the responsibility

RODs 2 pointer downgraded to 1 point, I thought AOS could have got a free in last 5 mins but not making excuses, and we're still in the race.
Going up to Tyrone will be the decider as to whether we go to qf prelims or qfs. I'm worried about the strength of our bench..

Thoughts on the match stats?

Galway scored 1-17 (15 scores from 23 shots)
Mayo scored 1-15 (14 scores from 26 shots)
Galway kick outs won/Lost 14/8
Mayo kick outs won/lost 10/11
Turnovers Mayo 19 Galway 16

I agree with posters, fair play to Ruane for backing himself. The seasons not over...

It just feels like we lack belief, it’s crazy how we were two point up against Galway going into injury time last year & lost , they year level with the wind & lose . It was actually a decent performance overall but just again like last year for whatever reason in the current set up , we were found wanting coming down the home stretch & that wasn’t an issue in the past.

Yes fair play to Ruane he backed himself to have a go but it didnt work out on another day it might have gone over give me that anyday over endless recycling and lateral passing. Lookit we go again i hope the lads are having a few pints tonight and relaxing at the end of the day nobody died we'll get over it. Im disapointed for McStay that he didnt win a connacht if he gets a 4th year id like to see him change his 2 selectors fresh voices are needed

In fairness no issue with Galway celebrating 4 in a row but if it us after losing a very winnable All Ireland final we would hear about it. Galway have done us one or the other for few years but not by much and imo they won't win the All Ireland as there is probably three better teams than them.

@mayoforliam

We got the balance of the decisions in the second half, let's be realistic. The two pointer free Ryan dropped into the goalkeepers hands was an appaling call. Few of the Galway backs got pinged harshly also on turnovers

Level with 15 left, nobody to blame but ourselves. I feel bad for poor Towey who's always willing to try shots and with the wind it was absolutely the right call to bring him in, it just didn't happen

DOC didn't look himself, somewhat understandably I suppose. There's a player there in Neary

First of all congrats to Galway on their win, they had the composure down the stretch when we lost ours completely. In saying that I honestly thought we were going to win up until the black card which was a massive turning point. One thing I would like to ask management is what on earth is their strategy (if any!) for our kick outs in general? We were crucified on our own kick outs all afternoon and I know they weren't too hectic in the league games either! My only conclusion/guess is that we seem to have a lack of proper ball winners/fielders of a high ball consistently other than Aiden O'Shea! What we'd give nowadays for a Wilie Joe Padden, TJ Kilgallon, Liam McHale or David Brady!! I know the Championship isn't over by a long shot just yet, but I fear it will peter out to the same conclusion as it has in the last 2 or 3 years................hope I'm wrong though!! PS Who do we play next is it Tyrone away, then Cavan at home and then the Ulster losers at a neutral venue?

Mayo lost that game more than Galway winning it. So many chances it’s very frustrating.
Mayo can complain about the penalty, and Gleeson touch on the 2 pointer (very poor by the umpires) but Mayo should have won it regardless of them decisions.
Reape kickouts were poor all day, into the wind he was letting them hang up in the air which is perfect for the opposition to attack, some kickouts were landing just about on the 45, there was a strong wind but that is bad striking of the ball by him. And the short kickout for the black card, was never on but again he has been doing these lately getting caught on the short kickouts and needs to sort out his decision making.
The defence were ok, poor fist half very loose marking. But where did the Brickenden selection come from, its harsh to say but he isnt strong or aggressive enough and thought they had realised this since he hasnt played since the league game against Galway. While the kickout was poor from Reape, Brickenden should not have got himslef the black card, there was no need and with new rules its a game changer. Coen is still very limited would prefer someone else there. McBrien was a big loss.
I might have said it during the league, but if Mayo are to do well then Flynn, Ruane and Carney need to play well and I would say all 3 were poor today.
All the talk about Towey but he did not back it up today, very disappointing.
D O Connor going off at half time was also a big loss, not sure was it cause he on a yellow or from the ankle injury, but he is a leader and was needed in the second half.
Surprised when Neary went off, he is raw but dangerous.
Thornton plays last 2 games, good in the air and doesnt get any game time today, Irwin plays all league and gets no game time today.
Not blaming management fully for todays result but I have lost alot of faith in them, I thought they could build on last year, should have won connacht last year, should have beat Dublin and should have beat Derry, but today was exact same s***e again.

There has been a lot said about the game today but at the end of the day we didn't manage the game on and off the pitch. We had no leadership to see out the game even though we had chances to win the game.
I have spoken earlier in the league campaign about our goalkeeper. His short kick out was unforgivable when we had the wind and the game level going in to the last few minutes. We lost a player to a black card and going a point down from the mistake of the goalkeeper.we have two or three better goalkeepers in the county. it is down to the management team that this hasn't been addressed for me this management team time is up time for a change in 2026 Andy Moran would be my choice he would bring a freshness to the job.

People on here trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. No Walsh or Comer gave us a real opportunity but lost any belief we had after black card. Still had gilt edged chances that were butchered. Open goal chance a joke shot on the narrow side. Low and hard to keeper's left was wide open. The team management are beyond comment. Have gone backwards now for 3 years. DURCAN?!
A win today was the minimum and maximum rolled into one for year 3. Can't see myself wasting money going to group games win lose or draw.

I don't see the logic in calling for U20s to be brought in. That's basically throwing in the towel. It's too big a step up at this stage in the season. They should be properly blooded in the league.

Today was desperately disappointing but some perspective is needed here. A Connacht Title is not, and should never be the be-all end-all of Mayo's season. In the old days a provincial title got you to a quarter-final. These days, win or lose it gets you into exactly the same phase of the championship. The league is more important from a Sam perspective. We played poorly but still could have won it. At least there are areas to improve on. Whether we have the personnel or not to execute on delivering those improvements is another story. We have the opportunity to go through the gears against Cavan, Tyrone and a potential massive championship game against Armagh or Donegal. The season is far from done yet. Let's at least wait until we're out before sticking the knives in.

I don't know why Rory was started instead of Sam. Sam's form hasn't been brilliant but at least he has game-time under his belt. Rory was visibly rusty today. No fault for the black card however. The kick-out was atrocious. Did not even clear the 40-yard arc. Yes we were losing the midfield battle but at least you have a chance with the breeze. That lack of game-intelligence won't cut it at this level. Was disappointing also to see Paul Conroy in acres of space in the first half, and especially for his first two-pointer. Did we forget what happened in February in the same venue? Certainly needed to use our fifth substitute and yes, McHale and Neary should have stayed on ahead of the other forwards who weren't posing any attacking threat.

The rule around the two-pointer reduced to one after a touch is ridiculous and should be removed. It's too hard for umpires and referees to call it accurately. Why does the GAA make things so difficult for its officials with all these little edge-cases and gotchas. It's impossible. Penalty was soft also. Ruane barely tapped him on the shoulder. I had a good view of it in the stand and no-one around me could tell what the foul was.

Despite all that, it was still there for the taking. To make any inroads into the championship this summer we need big improvements in tackling, aggression, ball-handling, forward play, shooting. We're not scoring enough to beat the stronger teams. Unfortunately we just haven't seen enough consistency this summer to be at all confident. The warning signs were there in the league final a few weeks ago.

James O'Donoghue on the Football Pod made a couple of comments about Quality after the league final. One point was about time on the ball. We got blocked down 5 times in the second half...his view was that getting blocked down is the biggest indication of a lack of quality.

He's dead right by the way.

I think the biggest indication of how far off it we are is that Kerry, Tyrone, Armagh and Donegal would all have beaten Galway today.

Extremely disappointed tonight. Thought the 8 point deficit was just about manageable at half time and felt sure we would win with 15 minutes to go, but Galway deserve credit for how they dug it out. It comes from experience and winning close games things we are lacking in at the moment. I don’t let my disappointment lead to giving out about players and management. If you win the subs we’re great. If you lose they were bad. Bringing on a shooter in Towey at half time made perfect sense. He just did not play well. Bringing on another good man for a score in Boland also made sense. Unfortunately he got no shot off. Though I was raging at the short kick out that led to the black card, there was logic to what Reape was doing as Galway had got on top at midfield. The usual blaming of McStay and Rochford is tiresome. The team was extremely well prepared and gave everything. We missed two one on one goal chances, conceded an extremely soft penalty and Ryan’s free should have been a 2 pointer. All of those key moments are down to human error either from officials or our players. Look at the blog here after we played Leitrim. We were going to lose by 10 plus, we weren’t going to be competitive etc etc. We played well today in a really good game. We lacked the composure and experience to see it out. Today was a good advertisement for football but the loss taints everything. If we had won a poor game we would be crowing. I don’t blame Galway one bit for celebrating. They have a good team and brought a big support and 4 in a row is a good achievement. It’s extremely disappointing tonight and I would reckon there’s no way back for us now, but venting about players who gave their best and management whom I am sure also gave their best isn’t going to help anyone. We have no divine right to win anything and have to earn our successes. At the moment Galway are that bit better than us and even had we won today I would still have expected Galway to do better than us in the All Ireland series.

On the leaving out of a few Leah players plus Thornton I’ve no issue. The league is for trying things out, championship needs battle hardened lads. Ok poor performances from some bigger players but they will come good again because of the experience.

Wrong side of an epic battle yet again.
Proud of the effort from every man in green and red as they gave it a savage effort.
Perspective is a word that some posters have mentioned and yet it is somewhat hard to excavate perspective from the most recent result. Understandable, to a point.
I agree with WJ, we blew a great chance at an upset, and that’s what it would have been, let’s not delude ourselves.
We played great stuff for 20 mins today against a team that has been 10 + years in the making (probably longer or since the day we monstered them in Salthill anyway - my estimate) and we are still in the mix despite our obvious limitations which need no further repetition on here.
3 or 4 more games this year are welcome in my book.
Gutted to not win the Nestor today tbh.
Two other observations;
1. Off the ball obstruction (blocking a support runner) is becoming far too prevalent and is not something officials are trained to detect
2. The ‘touch’ to turn a2pt shot into 1 is beyond ludicrous. Imagine if Bundee Aki took two defenders over the line with him, touched the ball down and was only awarded 3 pts because the defenders were touching the ball (but not preventing the score)

People calling for the U20s to be thrown in is complete and utter madness and reeks of desperation. They do not have the strength and conditioning nor the experience at this time for competitive Ireland senior football, they would be eaten alive by the likes of Armagh or Tyrone, and what use exactly would that be for their development. Some people need to give their heads a wobble, I swear.

If Neary was left on when we were on top Mayo win it!

A lot of the talk will be of Reape, but watching it back, but those Towey misses were truly criminal. And I don't know what people expect management to do about stuff like that.

Also, until Flynn, Carney and Ruane actually start playing like proper midfielders, we will struggle in every serious match. You will never control a game without an imposing midfield.

I think the idea of calling in the likes of Hurley or Beirne is not as crazy as people are making out. To me eye, based on club form last year, they are already as good inside forwards as we have available in the county. If I was a club corner back would I be more nervous marking a Kevin Quinn, Paul Towey or the two aforementioned lads? Galway’s Matthew Thompson is u21 this year while I believe Colm Costello, the current Galway u20 captain was on the bench yesterday . It might seem a desperate move but are we not desperate for forwards? After the U20 championship, ! I’d personally bring them in, put them into the squad and see if they are good enough to be options for match day.

On midfield, Ruane at 29 is a lost cause in terms of being a ball winning midfielder. Carney is frustrating. Lacks real power despite having a good pair of hands and Flynn needs to get back to ball winning basics and cut out the wild shooting. I find Flynn has a tendency to balloon efforts when there’s pressure applied but yesterday I don’t even know if that was the case. Midfield is the biggest issue not just today but over the next 5 years. There is no Tom Parsons or Seamie OShea coming through there, the lads there are the best of what’s available

Overall as i said yesterday you could not fault the lads for effort

A fatal error, inept forwards and the oldest Galway player put paid to Mayo.

I'm deflated. Feel like my belief in Mayo has all but dissolved. They try hard but you just know they can't get over the line.
We're becoming the Leinster of Gaelic Football...

Finally got a chance to see the penalty decision properly. Sweet Jesus, that was an utter travesty. We still should have won it but ...

Was never a penalty !

Still disappointed. Though that was the best performance from our guys that I've seen in what seems like a long time . They gave it their all in fairness. Pity Durcan didn't get any game time .

Agree 100% To Win Just Once. The substitutions made sense both in terms of the performance of the players taken off and what you would expect from the players brought on, based on past performances. It just did not work out for them on the day. The team gave it 100% and the reason we lost was down to some really bad wides in the last 15 minutes. We need to dust ourselves down and learn from this and go again.

Did Ruane not pull his arm back as he was about to shoot?

@Larry david think so but that's not a penalty either it's a free at best.

Larry David, the arm was put in, contact had minimal impact but hand in and gives the ref decision to make.

Clare, this is the thing, a free offense inside the box is a penalty.

@Gizmobobs ah right Ok : /

Still feel deflated but our guys showed true fight in them we are not as far off as some people think .

They gave it their all so can't fault them on that they wore the green & red with pride and never gave up .

It's sickening now for sure but we have to dust ourselves down and go again .

Ya, keegan was saying it was soft, which it was but you have to get a tackle right especially there, gives the ref a decision as you said above..Rod made a great tackle which he got a point out off in 2 half along wing too..also a perfect tackle if you saw it was seanie o shea on the Clare keeper yday..resulting in a point too. Hard done at speed , Ruane had to do something I suppose.

On Ruane, he can be so good at times especially coming onto ball a d kicking a score but winning primary possession..it's frustrating, I counted 5 or 6 times D'Arcy, Tierney, conroy and maybe Kelly won easy enough catches from mayo kickouts..I don't think i have saw him make a clean catch in long long time..9 times out of 10 you'll get a free after fielding, it's really gives the crowd something to shout about and let's opposition know you're ready to contest

Again Clare i like the optimistic outlook, but I just don't know how far off we are, do you mean as in winning an All Ireland?

The management team seems to make strange selection calls and it all seems very reactive. People have mentioned Brickendon already but Frank Irwin was another who seemed to be coming along nicely until suddenly discarded.

Players need to be given a run of games to get comfortable in the highest pressure situations. The bits and pieces given to Towey and Boland in the league didn’t prep them for today.

@Larry David no i don't mean the all Ireland wd won't win that that this year even I know that.

But u wanted at least the guys to give some kind of performance and they did that yesterday .

It's amazing how most of the comments before the game were looking for mayo to have a right go at galway and in truth that's what they got.
Any decision on the management team should be left until the championship is over and people calling for the managers head lack the education .it's time for cool heads from supporters as we face in to the next 3 games against cavan ,Tyrone and most likely donegal. For what it's worth galways passage is a lot harder.

Alot of positives can be taken from yesterday. Great commitment & desire shown by all the players. More than held their own against a very good Galway team.

Mistakes always happen in a game. That's sport. So i wouldn't be getting too excited and down because of a shot going wide or a shot blocked or one bad kick out etc etc. We were right in it and on the edge of our seats until the last ball was kicked. What more could we ask for from a game of football!! At least we didn't leave the ground saying 'never again'(will go to a match).

The big picture and main issue I see is how will management get a 'bounce' from the subs put on. We have 3 hard group matches now to face into with possibly a fourth awaiting. Many on the blog are saying management were taking off our best players and is madness. The flip side is that we somehow need to manage and preserve the key players. We don't want to be going into a preliminary qtr final with 15 players flogged to death and subs sitting up in the stand completely bewildered with what management are doing.

When we look at Dublin in the past, there always seemed to up their performance with the intoduction of subs(Costello in an all-ireland final springs to mind). Why cannot Mayo do this? I think this is the big challenge for our management team - get a response from the subs introduced. It's crucial.

Does the Goalkeeper have to take all the kickouts or can someone else do that for him? It was suggested to me that that this is the case.I feel no confidence in this side of things, and I think on more than one occasion the ball went straight into a Galway players hands.

Julia,Someone else can take kickouts but then you are down a man out the field.
He makes me nervous when he goes short TBH, we should have just went to pick the ball up and gave away free, black card was at the worst possible time.
That been said we had enough chances to win it, I don't think this mangermet team will get us over the line, although it was there for them and they didn't take it, not sure we can blame mangermet for that bar selection, the reality is we don't have enough natural forwards and we are lacking in midfield, if we can't fix midfield then we are doomed for this year

If Galway are all Ireland contenders, what does that make us? this is the second year we should have beaten Galway, penalty probably cost us the game.
We e need to regroup and top are group, I can still see us getting to a final,

@Ahh not again

depends on what Mayo do in the group stages. IMO need to top the group to be considered a contender and avoid the three matches in consecutive weeks against a rested Quarter finalists.

On the penalty while soft, any pull of the arm or shoulder does be given as a free if seen by the ref. Not scoring for 27 minutes in the 1st half was more costly in truth. Black card not taking goal chances 2nd half came back to bite also.

Mayomagic I would also add that we had Galway on the rack with 20 mins to go, but retreated into our shell. Similar to last year against them & eerily similar to Derry. There is a fundamental issue that we can't close it out or drive it home. Armagh had this issue. But managed to finally get it right on the biggest day of all.

All in all, we showed we are a bit off. But not far off if we get some things right.

Outside of O Donaghue our two best player's , McHale and O Connor were taken off, makes no sense at all , shades of Rochford taking off Boyle and Higgins a few years in every game, are they blind on the line or know nothing about football Hope they asked to come off because of injury .

Reading this blog you would think we got hammered by Galway yesterday ,,us Mayo folk really do from highs to lows so fast ….there was only a kick of the ball in it yesterday …. Yes we are all gutted losing to Galway …but last week it was a case of how much we would get hammered by… let’s try and keep some perspective .. in my view the players put in some shift yesterday and almost got over the line , with some better shot selection , some luck and despite Galway having dominance in the middle third we almost caused an upset. Yes we could do with some more forwards and more consistency in midfield , but we are not far away…This Galway side is strong and will contest for silverware later in the summer. Let’s keep positive and not be so negative all . We have plenty to look forward to going forward.

Thats true Rusty Bridges.

A case of a fear of losing takes over the desire to win?

We blew it all right. Blew it on the line. Took off neary and mchale when both were causing damage. Started brickenden. Never kicked a ball all year. This is some management team we have. The day of reckoning is not far away. The team plays with zero confidence. I did warn the horan haters to be careful what they wished for. To be beaten by galway and no comer. No Walsh. All these players that Kevin talked up in the league... none of them appeared.

Brickenden was fine yesterday.
Reape took a risk with the game a draw.

Jr did Galway's first 2pt not come off him? He done well for a fella that hadn't played in so long, but it's hard to develop confidence in a panel when lads get parachuted in, and lads who aren't fit enough to play are in the match squad ahead of you.

Brickenden lost a ball in the first half after we had started really well and from then on for 20 minutes galway racked up a heep of scores. They gained momentum. Ruane was poor yesterday also flynns shooting. Reape is now making a blunder pretty often.