It's said that if you keep doing the same thing expecting different results, it's the definition of stupidity.(1)Having no left-footed freetaker sorted since the League Final when one was badly needed.(2) Continuing to take short,Kamikaze kick-outs when the dog in the street knows that strategy is for losers.(3) Continuing to tog & name a Centre-Half Back for such a crucial game, when he has proven gain & again over the last 10 yrs at Senior inter -county level that he is not up to the task and would be better suited to selling 'The last few Choc-ices' in the stand on match day.

Three days after the connacht final and time to reflect on the game..
A management of Mcstay and Rochford one would have to be very disappointed no connacht title under their leadership in three years in charge.
What we are led to believe that the whole management team costs near €100,000 a lot of money with no success so far.
One would have to question there decision making and style of play which hasn't worked
One decision that has cost them more then any other is the goalkeeper position
He was at fault in a lot of important games in the league and in the championship against Sligo and Galway on Sunday with his kicks outs going short against Sligo and Galway that cost us two goals with the goal against Galway was the losing of the game.
There are at least three or four better goalkeepers in the county at this moment in time. But the management team still didn't address the issue which is there job to do.
For me there time is almost up and should step down after this season finishes if we don't win an All-Ireland.
My choice would be Andy Moran he would bring a freshness to the job that is needed and with the talented under 20 forward players especially that we have Andy Moran would get the best out of them in the next year or two.

@the west awake Andy would be a disaster he managed Leitrim to a defeat against New York. Let him get some experience with Monaghan He'd be fine as a selector along with an experienced manager that has actually won an all Ireland. Id have Cora Staunton as a forwards coach she was a gifted forward

Andy Moran did a great job with Leitrim, promotion to division 3, yeah they lost to NY on penalties but you can’t judge him on championship with Leitrim.

I wouldn’t mind seeing McEntee and Andy as coach.

@Joe Andy will make a fine Mayo manager one day but I would like to see him getting a bit more experience first

Also getting in a manager from the outside who has won an All Ireland would be a monumental mistake and would only send us even further back . It has been proven time and again it doesn’t work. Galway tried it when they were trying to quickly get back to the glory days & that was an absolute disaster.

There’s no management vacancy yet so this discussion is more than a little pointless at this stage.

Do you mean McKiernan Joe. It was never going to work at the time because Galway weren’t willing to accept the Northern defensive attitude.

Don't agree Gorydays. We have experience manager in Mcstay and Rochford and look where that has got us. We have played poor football under their leadership that has put us back years. Jim McGuinness was an inexperienced manager when he won the all lreland with Donegal.
It's not about experience it's about knowledge and being a good man manager I believe Andy Moran can be the manager to bring us to our first all lreland since 1951

All this manager talk is disrespectful.

Anyway are we confident of beating Cavan? I am and I hope at last we address some of the issues that have been called out on here all year so far.
Can we finally sort out a kick out strategy?
Start a left footed free taker.
Pick only players who are in form.
And for God’s sake don’t take off the better performing players.
Look over tapes of the last few games and honestly assess each player’s performance because in my view some players are being selected game after game but not performing. If that’s an ongoing theme players that are in form but left out will walk away.
Finally, we don’t want the reputation of fair weather supporters so get out and get to Castlebar for the Cavan game.
Good luck to the Mayo minors on Friday.

There will be a huge crowd in mchale park because it is not on tv. I would expect 15000 of a crowd. Mayo should win it handy enough.

JoeG why would any of those issues be addressed now and not before the game that mcstay admitted had been targeted all year.we don’t appear to have any big ball winning midfielders in the county at the minute but of course that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have developed some form of kickout strategy to attempt to compensate for that weakness.The left footed free taker issue is around for a long time now with Conor Loftus probably being the last reliable one we had

Conor Mortimer I meant there

There is 'no vacancy' in Mayo at the moment, but some posters seem to think there is a 'conclave' going on. A few are touting their own favorite Cardinal's as well. They will be looking skywards for 'white smoke' for another while I'm afraid. A question for the Connacht Council is , why on earth was the minor game that was played the previous Friday evening, not played as a curtain raiser not played on Sunday?

Patrick Sammon I am sure you were an outstanding centre half back in your day and that nobody disrespected you by suggesting that you sell choc ices in the stand. You mention the un named centre half back togging out for Mayo for the last 10 years so Holmes and Connelly, Rochford ,Horan and McStay all got it wrong and you got it right. Probably will be management vacancy in the not too distant future. Need to get your hat ready to throw into the ring. On not getting a left footed free taker in since the league final , that’s criminal as there are hundreds of them out there that could be brought in in the 5 weeks since the league final and “short kick outs are for losers” well then the master of the short (and indeed long ) kick outs, Cluxton was one hell of a loser.

Awful waffle from Stephen Drake on the Conroy Coen match up.Trying to say Conroy hadnt much impact on the game and he didnt do that much bar his 2 pointers! 7 POINTS He kicked.It somes up this management team for me that they had the faith to put Stephen Coen on the best 2 point shooter in the country.

@Leantimes: That's not one for the Connacht Council. That came down from HQ.

As part of the close look at age grades some years back, studies identified that u17s were less able to handle the pressure of those big crowds. Along with further findings that the large crowds having a fairly negative impact on player retention for the u18s that featured in front of them over previous years.

Once medical & psychological advice is steering them away from those double headers, we'll not be seeing a return to them. Very little positive for a whole big pile of negative (20s could in theory be doubled up with far lower impact, but given the sales those games tend to generate it's unlikely they'd take the financial hit of doubling them up).

Unfortunately we could not have McHugh in 2 places at the one time .
He was excellent ok last Sunday.
McBrien went off too early to assess his CHB potential.
Championship starts next Sunday week against Cavan.

Nothing like a bit of healthy debate. On the kickouts front, plenty are struggling to retain possession from what I've seen, including the previously bombproof Dubs. Despite having possibly the tallest midfielder playing the game in o'cofaigh -byrne, they're now coughing up ball like nobody's business. When teams learn to adapt to the rules, they'll prosper, but without basic skills and agility..etc etc.

Great Pod, thought Rob hit the nail on the head when he asked how we are not All Ireland contenders when we ran Galway so close and they are arguably favourites at this stage. Listening to the football Pod, they referenced the upcoming Donegal V Armagh Ulster Final. Both teams were referred to as potential All Ireland winners. Does that mean one of them will no longer be after they lose the UF.
We have the same chance as everyone else in what is one of the most open championships in a decade or more.
There will be plenty of time to talk of new management when the season ends. If somehow Mc Stay managed to lift the holy grail he would get a longer term than Mickey Harte :-)

@SAm og, Coen only went touch tight on Conroy after he kicked his two pointers from play. Coen was not marking him up to that point. Ryan was actually the closest player for the second. From there until he got his point late on he had zero space and a player of Conroys quality is not going to be kept shotless forever. Which makes me think the management did not consider that negating the threat from Conroy was warranted from the start with Galway playing with the gale, which is bizarre. Coen is not the greatest player in history, but if you give him a job, he will do it. He only got the right job with 2 x 2 pointers on the board already.

Boyler, until we win some game of major significance we can't be considered contenders.Beating the likes of Cavan next week won't change that.

Agree completely Sam og, it doesn't matter whether his 7 points are equal to 4 points in old money - we're not using old money any more!! Conroy had the biggest influence on the game. His point in the second half against the wind was something only he could do. And his 2 pointer off his left was superb - exactly why the 2 point arc is a good addition as he probably would have just recycled that ball last year. I am very disappointed in management's lack of a plan for Conroy in the first half when Galway had the wind. Likely was the winning and losing of the game.

Still, McStay and Rochford have to earn their corn now. Mayo are in a great spot to have a go at winning this group. They'll be written off even if they beat Cavan. It'll have been a month since they played Galway by the time they go to Omagh, hopefully Paddy, Eoghan, and Diarmuid are fit for that. And despite what Drake thinks, they are every bit as good as Tyrone. Then they go play the Ulster champs in probably either Longford or Sligo where they will be rank outsiders with nothing to lose. There's so much for Mayo to play for, they just need to have the belief.

@ Gillactico I tend to agree, just thinking back to Armagh last year who had a similar issue with closing tight games.
No expert pundit gave them any chance, and they were being talked about similarly to Louth / Meath's chances in pushing on for SAM this year.
For this reason alone, I do not subscribe to Galway, Kerry, Donegal etc. being dead certs to win this year. We are lacking a great many things in the Mayo setup but the No.1 for me is Belief.

People would want to settle down, we are in our year with new management and a new team
A change of management now would be disastrous, development takes time, We topped our group in the league, we got beaten by a Galway team that is one of the favourites to win the All Ireland, every Manager makes wrong calls. Kerry did that, they got rid of Peter Keane overnight while he was building a team with greed for an All Ireland, brought back Jack O Connor, this is his 4th season I think and no All Ireland, do we hear Kerry people calling for his head, of course not, they know a change of Management upsets everything and that’s the last thing Mayo needs right now. We need more top class forwards, we need improved at midfield and the half back line, we haven’t enough top quality players

I seePadrain OHora is saying he can't understand why we didn't kick ball into OShea.....but when he was on the panelist didn't happen so I would have to ask him why that was.
I have heard Colm Boyle say the same thing and it happened very little when he was playing either.
WillieJoe can we ask Colm that question the next time he is on......it drives me mad when I hear that from ex players because finally time I can't really remember Aidan ever been supplied ball

@Gerry Loftus. I think you’ll find Kerry won it in 22.

Am I the only one that thinks Armagh will beat Donegal?

Can't call it JR, but I think Donegal will shade it. I'd make Armagh slight favs if O'Neill was playing but he's taken French leave by all accounts. Whichever side wins this will take all the stopping.

Gerry Loftus Kerry won the All Ireland in 2022 in Jack's first year. They lost final in 2023 & semi final in 2024. Plenty people in Kerry were calling for Jack's head last year.

Development? What Development is happening under our current management? We're going backwards imo. We have no kickout strategy for 3rd straight year. We are not attacking quickly enough or getting enough shots off. We still leak horrendous goals/goal chances. Is there anything we've improved on in 3 years apart from keeping possession for endless periods?